This is the coolest product I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a very inexpensive plastic bag that is basically a disposable toilet. Here’s the genius part:
Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces.
While that might not be so interesting to you if you’re living in the developed world, for the 40% of the population living in developing countries without access to toilets this could be life-changing.
Six sources of heat you probably didn’t know you had can help with your electric bill and maybe even help you burn less wood (if you’re fortunate enough to have a wood-burning stove).
Step 3 is clever:
Run your dishwasher during the early evening (rather than after everyone has gone to bed). Some heat will escape while the dishes are being washed, and if you open the dishwasher door after the dishes have been washed, you’ll have another source of heat and moisture.
The device is called the Counter-Rotating-Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator or the CR5 for short. I think we’ll stick to that shorter title for now. This method of forced-photosynthesis was initially designed for creating cheap abundant hydrogen fuel.
This type of CO2 recycling could take trapped carbon waste from power plants and then returned for production, instead of releasing it to the air. Though, the resulting syngas does just burn right back into CO2–not exactly ideal.
A year ago Amazon announced Frustration Free Packaging; no more impossible-to-open-without-slicing-your-hand-open blister packs or pain-in-the-ass steel wire ties.
Now they’re stepping it up with a certification, encouraging manufacturers to follow suit. Amen to that, Amazon.
It was only a matter of time before augmented reality apps started showing up on the iTunes app store. Nearest Tube from acrossair displays information on London Tube station locations over a live view from the camera. Check out the video:
Augmented reality is old news in academic circles, but a new application called Layar may well the tipping point, bringing really useful information to the mobile-device-carrying masses.
The app uses a mobile device’s built-in camera, magentometer, GPS, and data connection to determine where the user is at and what they are looking at. Then it gathers relevant geographic information and displays it over the camera image. Just watch the video.
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