Here is a little item I found wandering around and thought it was unique.

The Spanish town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet has placed more than 450 solar
panels on top of mausoleums at its cemetery to generate power, it emerged
yesterday. The crowded, working-class town outside Barcelona decided that
flat, open, sun-drenched land was so scarce that the graveyard was the only
viable spot to site the panels, which provide enough electricity to power 60
homes. They rest on mausoleums holding five layers of coffins. The idea was
a tough sell, said Antoni Fogue, a city council member. But town hall and
cemetery officials waged a campaign to explain the project and the panels
were erected at a low angle, to be as unobtrusive as possible.”This
installation is compatible with respect for the deceased and for the families
of the deceased,” Fogue said.

Necessity is the mother of invention OR don’t just lay there, make yourself
useful!

Give this a try…. Internet Marketing Crash Course

For you futurists, geeks and of course, you greenies……… look at this!

Supercomputers Break Petaflop Barrier, Transforming Science By Betsy Mason
A new crop of supercomputers is breaking down the petaflop speed barrier, pushing
high-performance computing into a new realm that could change science more profoundl
than at any time since Galileo, leading researchers say.

When the Top 500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers was announced at the
international supercomputing conference in Austin, Texas, on Monday, IBM had barely
managed to cling to the top spot, fending off a challenge from Cray. But both competitors
broke petaflop speeds, performing 1.105 and 1.059 quadrillion floating-point calculations
per second, the first two computers to do so.

These computers aren’t just faster than those they pushed further down the list, they<!–more–>
will enable a new class of science that wasn’t possible before. As recently described in
Wired magazine, these massive number crunchers will push simulation to the forefront of
science.

Scientists will be able to run new and vastly more accurate models of complex phenomena:
Climate models will have dramatically higher resolution and accuracy, new materials for
efficient energy transmission will be developed and simulations of scramjet engines will
reach a new level of complexity.

“The scientific method has changed for the first time since Galileo invented the
telescope (in 1609),” said computer scientist Mark Seager of Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory.

Supercomputing has made huge advances over the last decade or so, gradually packing on
the ability to handle more and more data points in increasingly complex ways. It has
enabled scientists to test theories, design experiments and predict outcomes as never
before. But now, the new class of petaflop-scale machines is poised to bring about major
qualitative changes in the way science is done.

“The new capability allows you to do fundamentally new physics and tackle new problems,”
said Thomas Zacharia, who heads up computer science at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
Tennessee, home of the second place Cray XT5 Jaguar supercomputer. “And it will
accelerate the transition from basic research to applied technology.”

Breaking the petaflop barrier, a feat that seemed astronomical just two years ago, won’t
just allow faster computations. These computers will enable entirely new types of science
that couldn’t have been done before. This new generation of petascale machines will move
scientific simulation beyond just supporting the two main branches of science, theory and
experimentation, and into the foreground. Instead of just hypotheses being tested with
experiments and observations, large-scale extrapolation and prediction of things we can’t
observe or that would be impractical for an experiment, will become central to many
scientific endeavors.

“It’s getting to the point where simulation is actually the third branch of science,”
Seager said. “We say that nature is always the arbiter of truth, but it turns out our
ability to observe nature is fundamentally limited.”

Source: Wired Science

This gives me goosebumps at just the thought of the potential!

Austrailia is working on a desalination plant due to the water shortage they are
experiencing.

Perth, Western Australia, is considered the most remote city on the planet. And
one thing they are running out of, like much of drought declared Australia, is
fresh drinking water.

They are currently working on a plan to cut the amount of energy it takes to
run it. They have considered using the wind. There is a new alternative that is
being looked at by inventor Alan Burns. He teamed up with Seapower Pacific
(Carnegie) who have invested $10 million to get his idea on the market. His
invention is called CETO.

How Does CETO Work?
Matter Network has as good a description as any of how CETO works:

Long columns — multiple individual submerged units — are anchored to the
sea floor, and sway in unison with the motion of passing waves. The columns drive
pumps, which in turn pressurize seawater that is delivered on-shore through a
pipeline on the ocean floor. Each 125-unit Ceto farm can make enough power for
15,000 households.

The CETO wave power converter is the first unit to be fully-submerged and to
produce high pressure seawater from the power of waves.

By delivering high pressure seawater ashore, the technology allows either zero-
emission electricity to be produced (similar to hydroelectricity) or zero-emission
freshwater (utilising standard reverse osmosis desalination technology). It also
means that there is no need for undersea grids or high voltage transmission nor
costly marine qualified plants.

CETO units are fully submerged and permanently anchored to the sea floor meaning
that there is no visual impact as the units are out of sight. This also assists
in making them safe from the extreme forces that can be present during storms.
They are self-tuning to tide, sea state and wave pattern, making them able to
perform in a wide variety of wave heights and in any direction. CETO units are
manufactured from steel, rubber and hypalon materials, all proven for over 20
years in a marine-environment.

The CETOs are relatively simple to manufacture and transport. An independent
technology assessment says the concept has significant potential and more trials
are now underway with commercial units planned for 2009.

Way to go! Now this is way cool!

Paint the interior wall of your home and insulate at the same time. What is it?
It is an additive that you add to either interior or exterior paint and roll it
on creating an invisible layer of insulation. This process was invented by NASA.

It keeps warm air out in the summer and the warmth outside in the winter. It
adds a 50% increase to the reflective R value of a house. In the long run, it
can save you money on your energy consumption.

All you do is add some powder in with your regular paint, stir it up really
well and just paint whatever surface you are working on. If you add the powder
to the top coat of the paint, it will lighten it up one shade and take it from
a gloss to a semi-gloss. However, you can put it in the primer coat and there
will be no effect.

The secret is microscopic ceramic spheres filled with air. When the paint dries,
they form a barrier that insulates your home so you will use less heat.

Most homeowners have seen a 20% reduction in their energy bills. Now that is
reason enough to paint the whole interior/exterior with this additive.

So,if you are looking to reduce your energy bills, give this a try!

Afsaneh Rabiei, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at
North Carolina State University, has invented a space-age material so light and
strong that it could revolutionize everything from vehicle bumpers to armor to
biomedical devices.  A brand new material that can save energy and lives.

“Basically, it is a new material for all sorts of safety devices,” said Rabiei
Her invention isn’t the first metal foam, but she says it’s the strongest. The main weakness of
existing metal foams is the varying sizes of their cells – tiny pockets
of space inside the material. Instead, Rabiei used cells of standard sizes and
combined them with a metallic matrix to support the cell walls.

The National Science Foundation awarded her a CAREER award in 2003, and her goal
with the funding was to develop a light, strong material that could be used saving
lives and energy in the aerospace, medical, automotive and other industries

After five years of work – with a group of her students – she has the results.
With a car going approx. 28 mph, her metal foam absorbs the impact which
feels like an impact at 5 mph. Probably not for the folks inside the car but
the end result is what the experiment showed.

The steel of a bumper is 3 times heavier than the steel foam.  The automotive
industry should take a hard look at this invention.  Not only does it improve
safety but gas mileage as well due to the lightness of steel foam.

Rabiei sees plenty of uses for her invention, including in airplanes, boats, and structures that
need impact protection with maintaining low weight. It’s this high strength-to-density ratio -
defining a material that’s both strong and light – that
makes Rabiei’s foam unique.

Do you hear a standing ovation from me?  This kind of news is exciting!

*  Congratulations, Professor Rabiei!

Back 0n May 2nd I wrote a blog called Air Car #2, about a guy (Angelo Di Pietro)
in Australia that invented an engine that runs on compressed air, the rotary
piston engine so light you can literally hold it in your hands. Well, I finally
found their site. Below is an excerpt. But, while I’ve got your attention, be
sure to tune in for tomorrow’s blog because there is going to be some exciting
news on the first air car I wrote about.

The Di Pietro Motor (Rotary Air Engine)

Motor speed and torque are simply controlled by throttling the amount or pressure of
air into the motor. The Di Pietro motor gives instant torque at zero RPM and can be
precisely controlled to give soft start and acceleration control.

Angelo Di Pietro Director of R & D said:

“There is no other motor as good as ours, years of research and analysing other motors
around the world gave me the confidence and obligation to say so. Obligation in the
sense that people have been waiting for ages in relation to efficiency in order to
take care of our environmental situation.

100% more efficiency than our competitor is a very serious claim and should not be
confused with some kind of publicity stunt were the interest is purely to try and make
money out of some ridiculous claim.

The invention has a long list of important improvements over other motors.
The concept has the capability to change the method we use for transportation, apart
from the benefits of energy saving in stationary applications.

* We have verification of its performance
* We have patents issued
* It has outstanding efficiency
* It has constant high torque
* It has low parts count
* It has low number of moving parts
* It is compact and light
* It has virtually no friction
* It has virtually no vibration
* It has smooth speed control characteristics
* Only 1 PSI of pressure is needed to overcame the friction

THAT’S CORRECT ONLY 1 PSI !!

I have written Angelo several times without a response back but maybe you will have
some luck…. here is his website. http://www.engineair.com.au

give it a try!

This is a definition of “Necessity is the mother of invention”

With gasoline prices continuing to soar and no apparent relief in the future, one
Texas man has come up with his own solution. He built his own electric car. It
has a travel range of 35 miles and uses no gasoline. Gordon Cooper, wanted to
economize, so he converted a 1992 Ford compact to electricity.

Now he’s whats called a “shade tree mechanic”!

He says, “As fuel has continuously gone up, it seems like every week, it’s real
economical especially now,”. It runs on twelve, twelve volt spiral cell batteries
and takes six to eight hours to charge at a cost of approximately $1.

He also says, “I can get anywhere from 50 to 70 miles an hour, I just put it in
overdrive and go. I think the car operates at least the same, or better than it did
with the four cylinder gas engine that was in it.” Cooper converted a truck to
electricity, and was so successful he sold it, and started on the Ford car.

“I go down the road and I see $3.69 for regular gas, yeah we don’t need to stop there
we can just keep going, I just pass the gas station up and wave.” Cooper says the
conversion process costs around $5,000 to $7,000. This seems to be
the going price for conversion, there’s got to be a cheaper way.

I’m gathering data on the the steps to convert combustion engine cars to alternative
fuels like this one and will pass it on in later blogs. Also the cheapest way or
ways possible. In other words, “the best bang for your buck”.

For those of us going green, this is a win-win proposition. Good for the planet,
good for your check book, and good for sticking it to big oil, all rolled into one!

Stay tuned!!

About 2 months ago, a storage tank in a tiny West Texas Refinery blew up.
Thank God, nobody was killed. It made the news, maybe only here in Texas.
By the next morning, everyone around here was jokingly taking bets on how
quick the big oil companies would use that as an excuse to jack the gas
prices up.

TWO DAYS! I am not yanking your chain here people! Within two days, the
national news was reporting the price of gas was going up because of that
very refinery incident.

I hate being patronized. Especially, with stupid lies.

“The Sheik of Mogley Dobley and the CEO of Got Rocks Oil, got run over
by a UFO today, so the price of gas is going up again. Suck it up,
you lowly masses, and take whatever we tell you because we got you by
the short hairs and you cannot do anything about it. Hardy har har!!!!”

The average price of gas is around $3.50/gallon now and half of the country’s
wages is $10.00 or under per hour. At that rate, most of the blue
collar workers cannot or soon will not be able to afford to go to work.
This SUCKS! But, guess what folks. It’s always darkest before the dawn.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. No truer words were
ever spoken.

Because all through out history, you back people up against the wall until their
intellect, ingenuity, and common sense, comes out swinging. Good will always
come of it.

Who knows when, but sooner or later some bright young car mechanic is going to
pop up with a 50 cent pill that you drop in the gas tank, fill it up with tap
water and drive 500 miles. The only emission is clean water vapor. Well, maybe
you will have to change a belt or hose or fuse or something.

So what are you going to do then Exxon, Shell, BP, Mobil and OPEC?

I suppose I should thank you (Big Oil) for forcing us green. But I am not. Because
all of you could have had more compassion and concern for your planet and
its people 40 or 50 years ago. We could have been walking this green path together.
Just think where we would be now.

But, nooooo! Big Oil is too busy turning our blue sky smutty gray and wringing every
last penny out of our pockets!

Now hear this, Fat Cats! We WILL save our planet and we WILL figure out a way or
ways to release your crushing grip on our lives. And you WILL rue the day you
pee-peed on our post toasties!

I’ll stop ranting now….
just wanted let know…
why we’re….

FORCED GREEN
—— —–

I’ve been watching this show lately on the Science Channel
called Invention Nation. These 3 guys are on a road trip
around the whole country in a green commuter bus converted
to run on used vegetable oil. I wonder if the exhaust has
that french fry smell? … ok, Im sorry.

Anyway, these guys run around visiting ordinary people
making their ingenious dreams and ideas a reality.
All green..all great..all steps in the right direction.

Completely off the grid homes in New Mexico made from used
tires and recycled scrap.

A man who converts gas powered cars and trucks to electric
power.

Two young women in New York who is tapping into the free
energy created by revolving doors.

A company in Colorado developing cheaper, more efficient
solar cells.

And on and on..

Just in this country!

I’d like to see these boys jump in a vegetable oil
converted jet, take off around the world and see
what everybody else is doing. Because this is
exactly what it’s going to take. Face it, We’re all not
going to wake up in the morning and suddenly be living
in a Star Trek utopia, Scotty.

Its going to be be one diverse step at at time. By one
ordinary enlightened person at a time. Scattered all over
this planet, there are more of us than we imagined, everyday
people, going green, inventing, creating, sharing ideas. All
with a common goal:

Protecting the ONLY home we’ve got. Because as for as living
conditions are concerned, the rest of the neighborhood sucks,
especially for us humans. I don’t think most of the animals
would be too crazy about it either.