ThePete.Com / Colbert: Clean Water Curing 50% of Diseases

Colbert: Clean Water Curing 50% of Diseases

by ThePete 5:48 pm 2008-04-02

This clip comes from the March 20, 2008 episode of Comedy Central’s "The Colbert Report" and features guest Dean Kamen and his latest invention–a water purifier that can clean virtually *any* type of water with none of the standard filters or parts associated with the expensive/cumbersome water purifiers currently available. According to a March 31, 2008 article at Wired.com (here: http://blog.wired.com/…-save.html ):

The Slingshot is a water purifier which uses vapor compression distillation to pull water out of anything remotely wet. It does this using just 2% of the power of alternatives, and can supply 1,000 liters of fresh water a day from nothing more than ditchwater and piss.

The article goes on to say that the device gets it’s power from a generator that can run on anything that burns, including cow dung.

And to think most of the news has been worried about Obama’s pastor, or Hillary lying about being under sniper-fire with Sinbad.

Meanwhile, Dean Kamen has unveiled a device that could save millions of lives–possibly hundreds of millions of lives around the world.

When I first saw this story on "Colbert" it literally brought tears to my eyes, thinking of all the good it could do. I wonder what other stories like this the media is effectively burying.
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by ThePete 5:48 pm 2008-04-02 TheTech.ThePete.Com | Tags Green Tech, water purification, water wars | $ |

Power Your House by Flushing!

by ThePete 12:23 pm 2008-03-12

The above screencap comes from a March 6, 2008 post at Engadget.com (see the whole thing here: http://www.engadget.com/…you-flush/ ) and it reports on this cool new gadget that uses the power gravity and your toilet water to create electricity for your house.

As someone who fully believes the age of cheap oil is over with, this is one way (of many) we can reduce our use of fossil fuels. After all, there won’t be just one replacement for oil, but many. Finding new ways to use some of the already-existing alternative energy sources is a great thing and the Benkatine Turbine from Leviathan Energy (official website: http://leviathanenergy.com/ ) does exactly that.

Now, there won’t be much pooptricity (as one green blog called it: http://www.inhabitat.com/…ur-toilet/ ) created by this little guy, but every little bit counts in a world where a barrel of oil will run you $110. If enough people start using these the environment would benefit, too.

And just think about how good it’ll feel to give a crap for the environment. LITERALLY!
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by ThePete 12:23 pm 2008-03-12 TheTech.ThePete.Com | Tags alt en, alternative energy, Benkatine Turbine, Green Tech, Leviathan Energy | $ |

LINTOP 2: Linux Computer the Size of a Paperback

by ThePete 12:42 pm 2008-02-21

Wow, this thing is pretty sweet–see it up there? That little black box that’s mounted on the back of that LCD monitor? Yeah, that’s a computer.

Now, I’m not second-guessing my purchase of an XO or anything, but you have to admit, a Linux PC you can fit into your jacket pocket is pretty damn cool. Predictably, specs aren’t that impressive on this little guy, it’s got an 800 Mhz processor, 512MB of RAM (expandable to 1 gig), 1GB SSD (no hard drive), a standard VGA output (yikes!) and four USB ports. The thing also pulls about 8 watts of power, unlike your average laptop which pulls closer to 80 (the XO pulls about 6, I’ve read).

You get all that for just $415 plus shipping–not bad, but there are a few things you need to think about. For starters, there’s no battery supply. This one’s for the wall. Of course, you could easily drop another hundred-ish on a Tekkeon MyPower battery pack (http://www.amazon.com/…42-0253201 mypower&x=0&y=0 ), but then what about a monitor? You’d need to grab some sort of portable monitor that also could pull power from the Tekkeon or maybe buy a second Tekkeon to power the monitor?

By then, though, you’re pulling a LOT more than just 8 watts and you’re spending a lot more than $415 plus shipping. :(

Of course, it’s ideal if you don’t need it to be portable, have an extra monitor laying around, and need a tiny-PC without a lot of processor power behind it.

Read more about it in an Engadget post from today: http://www.engadget.com/…r-desktop/

Or, check out it’s home page at Lintop.com : http://www.linutop.com/…p2.en.html

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by ThePete 12:42 pm 2008-02-21 TheTech.ThePete.Com | Tags Green Tech, Lintop, Linux, Portable Computing | $ |

Will the High Cost of Oil and Low Value of the Dollar Effect Gadgets?

by ThePete 6:09 am 2007-10-30

If you’ve been paying attention to the news at all, you’ve probably heard about how expensive the cost of a barrel of oil has gotten–topping $94 as I type this. Another thing you may have learned about on the news (though it is less likely) is that the US dollar is at it’s weakest in a very, very long time. In fact, a quick check of the exchange rates (again, as I type this) at XE.com shows that the USD is still trailing the Canadian dollar by about five cents. Not a lot, but we’re still weaker than the Canadian dollar!

So, what does this mean for gadgets? It could mean nothing, but then again, gadgets do contain a lot of plastic, which is a petroleum product and gadgets do cost money to buy. What this may mean eventually for us is more expensive gadgets. In fact, it’s a little surprising that we haven’t seen at least small price jumps in the years since oil began it’s astronomical rise and the dollar’s long fall. However, there are certain physical laws when it comes to money and they can’t be ignored forever.

Here’s how price jumps will work when they come (and they will):

More…

by ThePete 6:09 am 2007-10-30 TheTech.ThePete.Com | Tags gadgets, Green Tech, money, oil, plastic, the circle of life | $ |