Monthly Archives: April 2009
One man’s pirate is another man’s hero
No, this is not about the conviction of the Pirate Bay founders. It is about some disturbing news voiced by the Independent. What are the origins of the Somalian pirates? According to the Independent the destruction of the Somali environment … Continue reading
Improved mistake
As long as we keep our eyes open for the unexpected we tend to learn more from “failed” experiments than expected. Take penicilline for example. Researchers at Penn State University have kept their eyes open. “We were studying making hydrogen … Continue reading
Cylon Pylons
Some things never change, or will they? I never gave the shape of electricity pylons any thought, so this appealing design did surprise me. Arphenotype designed the pylons or a competition to envisage a new power transmission network in Iceland. … Continue reading
Honda FCX Clarity wins 2009 World Green Car Award
World Car of the Year has announced that te winner of the 2009 World Green Car Award is the Honda FCX Clarity. Jurors felt that “The FCX clarity is an utterly real, hydrogen-fuelled luxury sedan that provides the amenities people … Continue reading
1 billion downloads
Apple has almost reached one billion downloads from its App Store and celebrated this by opening a web page showing a count down. If one realizes that only last January the score was at half a billion, a quick calculation … Continue reading
Is enough hydrogen being produced?
In a world where hydrogen still is seen by many as a potential solution for our energy needs of the future it’s interesting to see how much hydrogen is currently available. Currently the world uses about 12000 Megaton Oil Equivalent … Continue reading
Import wood or electricity?
Biomass has a large potential as a renewable source of energy. A lot of research is done on the gasification of wood, such as the biomass-to-Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) reactor of ECN in the Netherlands. Gasification of wood is an … Continue reading
Flashy
Papervision 3D is an open source real time 3 D engine for Flash. All geeks will understand ofcourse what it means but for mere mortals ? You can get a feel for it over here and here. Nice effects, amazing … Continue reading
Not so smart grids
The online Wall Street Journal warns us of the downside of connected systems. They may be smart but at the same time more vulnerable to attacks. Apparently the U.S.grid has already been snooped by online spyware from Chinese and Russian … Continue reading