Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Jan 19

Biofuels hit hard criticism when they were competing with human crops, but things might change…..

People are starting to look at waste materials and invasive plants as potential sources of biofuel - rather than using what could have been food for humans.

With the world population soaring and food shortages the world over - it was time to move biofuels forward so to utilise a more sustainable and non-competitive source - and 2 such examples have recently been publicised.

Bracken:
This plant grows virtually everywhere.  Whether it’s in open fields, heathlands, moorlands and mountains.  It is also a worldwide genera and has the widest distribution of any other fern.

Nobody likes it growing on their land (apart from National Parks) as it is very dominant in the landscape and nothing really eats it either (as it is carcinogenic) - so it just spreads across a landscape stealing the light from any other young or low-lying plants.  And a it won’t let grass grow beneath it - the mountains sides and valleys can’t be used for grazing as there is nothing for the sheep or cattle to eat and farmers pay a lot of money to get it cut and removed from their land every year as it is.

It turns the land into a very green wasteland in terms of human needs - and at one time the British Government had an eradication program in place to deal with it’s excessive growth!

However, it is actually because it grows itself very well, and grows back every year - even if cut back when fully grown, it seems like the perfect crop to start working on for sustainable fuels.

The only problem is of course that it usually grows in places that are not easy to get to with modern farm machinery.

Old Yeast:
We all know that there is always going to be whisky in Scotland - so what can we do with all the natural waste materials?

As with the bracken - waste materials from whisky plants costs a lot of money to dispose of - so why not find a way to either use that waste, or find a way to sell it as a product.

Distillery waste (yeasty materials) will be fed into an anaerobic digester to create methane gas - a biogas.  The idea is that if all the distilleries in the area do this - they could power themselves without the need to draw on other energy sources from elsewhere. 

I know it isn’t going to power homes and other businesses - or the whole country, but if these large commercial buildings can fully power themselves using their own waste products, then less energy will have to be created from other sources and shipped or piped to them.

The Future:
Can you imagine if warehouses could generate their own energy from all the waste cardboard they get through, or supermarkets could create biogas from all the food they throw away being bio-digested. 

Even huge offices and sky-scrapers could be creating biogas from all the waste created by their workers - basically, they would be powering themselves!

New technologies are allowing smaller scale operations which were just not viable in the past - they just were not cost effective before we understood how our waste was affecting the environment.  But now companies have to be more environmentally responsible and to also pay to process and dispose of their own waste - they are starting to think about spending that money on alternative services - green services.

And, there must still be plenty of waste products that could be used for fuel or energy - just waiting to be discovered.  Certain things are always going to be needed by people - so why not use the left-overs constructively?

posted by admin on Dec 13

Just like the UNESCO Heritage Sites are saved for future generations - now the Tango will live on too!

Since 2001 the United Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have been recognizing living traditions that cannot always be held or preserved physically such as dancing and certain rituals as worth preserving for the future. 

These intangible heritages are vital for family groups across the world. The knowledge of these acts is passed down from family to family; father to son and mother to daughter.

They represent a part of the community, a part of their lifestyle that just cannot be simply copied by others - it needs to be felt. And how can someone know what to feel, if they have not learnt from someone who already knows.

What Else Is Worth Saving?
Such things already on the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) include China’s Dragon Boat Festival, Lace Making in Croatia and the Indonesian Batik.  There are many other virtually unheard of traditions, festivals, musical and dance related events from around the world that are vitally important to those countries, and those communities, no matter how large or small they are.

The UNESCO listings offer documents, photographic slideshows and video footage of all these events in action, to show readers why it is so important to preserve.  And it’s not just the actions that make them unique, it’s the history, the meaning and the passion that brings them alive they are literally embodied by the participants.

What Can You Do?
So, what UNESCO hopes to do, is to make sure that they work with communities and countries to ensure that maximum participation is encouraged to ensure that these traditions are learnt for generations to come.  They need to keep an interest in these cultures - not just for the people themselves, but for visitors from across the world to enjoy.

What better way to learn the Tango than from an Argentinian Dancer actually living in Argentina?

posted by admin on May 23

Would You Spend $155,000 to keep your dog forever?

Well, news has it that an American couple did just that!  5 years ago, they decided that they loved on of their pets so much, that they were willing to pay to have it’s DNA cryogenically frozen so that when the technology had improved enough - that they could get their little bundle of joy to walk again!

And the technology was improved last year - and so now they have a little puppy which is exactly the same genetically as their first one!  It was the first single-birth commercially cloned puppy in the world.

But why stop there?

There are plans afoot to clone animals that have been dead for some time - and in the case of the woolly mammoth - 40,000 years of it!

Cases in Japan recently have allowed scientists to clone mice that have been ‘dead for 16 years’ - so why not other extinct animals?

San Diego zoo have been busy with cloning - but with live animals.  They are not just cloning something normal like a sheep from a sheep - a la Dolly from the UK, they are cloning an endangered animal and crossing the species barrier by allowing the eggs to develop inside a bog standard domestic cow!

They basically made it possible for 2 south-east Asian oxes (Banteng) to be born through a cow mum.  Therefore paving the way for an elephant to give birth to a baby mammoth!

The Mammoth Task:
In December 2008, 70% of the mammoth genome was published from frozen specimens which had ‘fallen out’ of the permafrost in remote parts of Russia.  Obviously there is still 30% missing - but expert say that this won’t take long to overcome.

Basically, experts are claiming that the cloning of a mammoth will happen - it is just a matter of when!  The technology exists to re-create long dead animals - someone just needs to foot the bill.

They have several ways to clone the mammoth (or Tasmanian Tiger, or Dodo, etc..) and all depend on the getting the frozen cells to replicate and grow inside another animals womb.

They don’t actually need any sperm or mammoth eggs to perform this cloning (although that is a viable option) as they can electrically or chemically stimulate any cell into dividing sexually - so one dead mammoth can offer them goodness knows how many attempts at this!  All they need is the DNA - and this is found in every (non-sexual) cell of every living animal.  It’s just not always 100% there in long dead ones!

And Then?
Obviously, they need an animal from a similar taxonomic group and of a similar size, but everything else is a bit of guess work!

They also have no real idea of what they will need to don once the animal is born - as they have no ‘real’ mammoth breast milk to use - in-fact no idea at all about what it should contain - other than basing it on it’s only realistically useful relative - the elephant.

Another potential ethical issue at this point would be that there is only one - or a very small group, and possibly they are all the exact same animal genetically.  Needless to say, this won’t create a viable ‘herd’ or ‘flock’ of clones.  They would be just ’something to look at’.

We are also going to be bringing them back into a world that they no longer live in!  Yes, it is possible that humans were the main reason for their decline and extinction in the first place - but how do we know that they will survive in a new and changing world when we get them back?

Some people don’t even want beavers to be re-introduced into their neighbourhoods - so who is going to want a few giant hairy elephants roaming about their woods?

And are we not in a recession, with environmental issues all around us and medicine in desperate needs of funds?  Children starving, wildlife made extinct and forests being destroyed?

Would spending a fortune on raising the mammoth be a wise choice right now?

posted by admin on Dec 4

To be honest, I am a bit fed up with wandering around stores for Christmas looking for gifts for people I know, but who never seem to really appreciate their gifts.  I almost end up buying them something that they either specifically told me to buy (great surprise) or getting vouchers.

But my ideas are changing.

If they aren’t going to really love my gifts - and it is estimated that over 50 million UK pounds worth of Christmas gifts are thrown away each year (!!!!!!!!!!!) then I am going to buy them something I want, or something that cannot be discarded - something that will make a difference.

And I don’t care if that difference is to someone else entirely - even someone I don’t know, or someone on a completely different continent infact!

What Gifts Are They?
Well, they are the gift of wildlife sponsorship, domestic animals such as a goat, pencils for 100 children, training teachers for schools, etc.  They are not the non-convincing offers of buying a tree in a rain-forest that you can’t verify - these are serious gifts that will really make a difference with companies that are known world wide 

Now these types of gifts have been around for a while, but they were always a bit dull sounding or were very expensive - but times are changing and there is a lot more to choose from and at more reasonable prices.

Why These?
Well, there are many benefits to these gifts, and not just to the cause they are supporting.

1) These gifts are good for the environment - they will be supporting communities around the world who are ‘in charge’ of wildlife or environmental areas that should be preserved and cared for.

2) They cannot be thrown away and wasted.  The money you spend on these gifts will instantly go to work on your chosen cause whether your friends or family like it or not!

3) There is no wrapping involved, so less sticky tape, shiny non-recyclable wrapping paper and bows, etc are required, therefore even less waste and less time and energy spent on the whole thing.

4) They are totally different - a talking point.  Get others to think about the causes that interest you across the globe, and maybe get your charity or cause more support.

5) They really will make a difference - a positive one.  Rather than just lining big high street retail stores pockets with your reasonably impulsive purchases of gifts and wrapping, create a safe, healthy environment for people and animals in another country.

6) Feel good about yourself and the moeny you have invested.

Below are a few websites to get your search started.   There is still time to get these to your friends before last post! 

www.goodgifts.org- supporting African schools
www.worldlandtrust.org- protecting rain-forests
www.presentaid.com - supporting farmers worldwide
www.oxfamunwrapped.com - everything you could imagine

Alternatively, think of your favourite charity and just visit their site - I’m sure they are offering something as a gift.

posted by admin on May 9

This new list was recently compiled by over 100 million Internet votes as the world wondered whether we should compile our own, modern version of the Great Wonders Of The Ancient World, of which only the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt is still in existence.

The public loved the idea and voted for themselves and below is the new list, containing a spread of architectural wonders of today. Of course these places have necessarily been made in modern times and only 2 have been created in the past 500 years, some as old as 500BC! Nothing modern there!!!

However, these places are wonders of the world we live in that people of today are still amazed at after all this time; special places that people will travel across the whole world to see just once.

Chitchen Itza - Quintana Roo State - Mexico
This quite large Toltec/Mayan site is famous for it’s square-based pyramid temple in the centre - el Castillo. It represents the calender in Mayan times and has steep steps on each facing. It has a smaller pyramid inside as well that you can climb if you aren’t claustrophobic and don’t mind getting really, really, hot! Famously, the outer steps of this temple show a moving snake during the equinoxes.

This site also many other structures, carvings and columns, as well as the largest known ball court - the sport of the ‘day’ - where the winners were apparently decapitated!

Christ The Redeemer Statue - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Watching over Rio de Janeiro is a giant statue of Christ (Cristo Redentor) which can be seen from everywhere in the city, and at night He appears to float in the darkness.

A relatively modern structure, Christ the Redeemer is nearly 40 metres tall and weighs around 700 tonnes and is seemingly impossibly perched on top of a 710 metre high mountain peak.

Machu Picchu - Near Cuzco - Peru
This amazing city, perched on top of a 2430m high mountain peak in the Andes has fascinated millions. Even before it was discovered in 1911, people were looking out for the mysterious ‘Lost City of the Incas’ and after it’s recent clearance (and modern transport links) around 1000 people a day will visit in high season, most coming the traditional (and the best) way - along the 4 day Inca Trail.

Petra - Arabah - Jordan
Another world awaits you at Petra - literally ‘rock’ in ancient Greek. Here you will find a whole city carved into the solid rock of a natural gorge in the middle of a desert waste-land.

Giant carved building fronts cover each side of the rock faces, including columns and other roman features, intricately marking buildings with important events of the time, rising 100’s of feet into the air above you in the red rock.

The Taj Mahal - Agra - India
Built as a mausoleum by Mughal Emporer Shah Jalnan for his lost wife, work on this amazing complex of structures was completed around 1648. It is considered the finest example of mughal architecture in the world today, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.

This white marble structure combines Persian, Turkish, Indian and Islamic style, and the famous view from the Charbagh (the Garden of Paradise) is something everyone wants in their own photographic collection, and it has an average of 2-4 million visitors every year to prove it!! Apparently though, only 5 things are allowed to be taken into the temple with visitors, everything else must remain outside…….

The Colosseum - Rome - Italy
This iconic symbol of Imperial Rome is a joy to explore! With 2 underground levels, secret tunnels and an 83 metre long arena - not to mention the beauty of the outside details, the sculptures and the history.

Built between 70 and 80AD it was the largest amphitheatre ever built by the Romans, holding an estimated 50,000 spectators watching gladiator contests, executions, animal fights and peaceful dramas. Apparently gravediggers were banned from entry, but slaves were more than welcome!

The Great Wall Of China - many locations across China
For nearly 1500 years, various emperors of China have been building or extending their own part of the wall - or as currently - simply renovating it. Covering an estimated 4000 miles of the countries northern and western border with Inner Mongolia, this wall is not visible from the moon, as was once claimed (it’s too thin apparently, and the same colour as the surrounding mountains).

The most visited areas are just north of Beijing where extensive works have maintained huge sections for tourism. Up to 1 million men were employed to guard this wall against invaders at it’s peak, but it is estimated that around triple that number died in it’s making.

How many have you been to see???