Coffee grinds as a robotic gripper

A great idea, to use coffee grounds in a latex bag with a vacuum pump to grip objects!

White roofs do help

It seems so obvious that I'm surprised that a law has not been passed forcing all flat roof buildings to be painted white. But aside from that, I con't understand why people don't paint their house's roof white just to take down the heat in the summer. Here is CICESE the roofs were all white, but this last year they repainted all of them red.. which makes no sense and was a very uninformed move.

Well, there is not good data from simulations stating the obvious.. white roofs are a good idea; Computer modeling indicates white roofs may be a good idea.

Osmotic power

Using osmosis to provide a pressure difference, and then this pressure to drive a turbine; a great idea using a microscopic principal.

There is now a company, Statkraft, making a prototype system.

The speaking panio

Very cool

Barrelponics- Aquaculture and Hydroponics

A Green Trust post on barrelponics, similar but much better designed to something I was planning at the bakery. The idea is to combine a fish tank and hydroponics system; called aquaponics. The fish clean and make nutrient rich the water that then is used by the plants. The plants clean and airiate the water for the fish. Barrelponics is a small version of this idea. I really like it, and hopefully when we get some land, I'll try making one of these.

Freewheel energy storage in buses

Gizmag has a good post on bolt-on flywheel system for city buses claiming to reduce energy consumption by 30%. I've recently read about flywheel systems for electrical energy storage and have also been talking to some local scientists about similar systems that were installed in Mexico's UNAM university as a electrical backup system back in the 70-80's. These systems seem like a good idea, tying to increase efficiency which is usually less expensive then energy generation, and in the case of flywheels, in a compact case.

Electronic Hitch Hiking

Called open-carpooling, the idea is to find ways to locate drives willing to give a lift to other people. I think this is a great idea, altho it does bring up concern of crazies.. but I guess having a passengers credit history etc should help.. The best thing, is that this is to use existing infrastructure, with just an added communications system (that most likely could function as a phone app); devolped by the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems

via Gizmag