Day: March 15, 2015

Combine tiny house living with hybrid transportation

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Torquay landscaper James Lawler has given himself room to move — on the back of his Toyota Prius…Made primarily using scraps scavenged from the tip, the miniature house set Mr Lawler back $150 and took just over a week to complete.

The abode sports a tin roof with a chimney, a stained-glass window and a letter box displaying the car’s registration plate.

“There’s a lot of boring camper vans out there. I thought this would be a little bit more quaint and Australiana with a rusted tin roof,” Mr Lawler said…

…Mr Lawler said the extension had served its intended purpose well.

It provided a stylish place to sleep at the Meredith Music Festival in Victoria earlier this month while his fellow campers were forced to rough it in tents.

“It’s quite well insulated in there. It’s more comfortable than a tent,” he said.

After completing the 100km round trip to the festival, Mr Lawler was fined by local police.

He disputes the vehicle is unroadworthy but said his “quirky little caravan” was worth the minor upset.

I especially like the load straps holding the tiny house onto his Prius. 🙂

Meanwhile…

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“…meanwhile…” is a short film created during the “Porgrave” shooting, the latest film by Sandro Bocci, that will be released in late 2015. Bocci adds…

This is an infinitesimal part of the wonderful world in which we live and of which we should take better care. A trip through a different perspective that would encourage reflection on the consequences of our actions on each scale of space and time. Enjoy the vision…

Delightful underwater timelapse photography.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

One step closer to artificial photosynthesis

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Caltech scientists, inspired by a chemical process found in leaves, have developed an electrically conductive film that could help pave the way for devices capable of harnessing sunlight to split water into hydrogen fuel.

When applied to semiconducting materials such as silicon, the nickel oxide film prevents rust buildup and facilitates an important chemical process in the solar-driven production of fuels such as methane or hydrogen…

The development could help lead to safe, efficient artificial photosynthetic systems — also called solar-fuel generators or “artificial leaves” — that replicate the natural process of photosynthesis that plants use to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into oxygen and fuel in the form of carbohydrates, or sugars…

The team has shown that its nickel oxide film is compatible with many different kinds of semiconductor materials, including silicon, indium phosphide, and cadmium telluride. When applied to photoanodes, the nickel oxide film far exceeded the performance of other similar films—including one that Lewis’s group created just last year. That film was more complicated…

Lewis cautions that scientists are still a long way off from developing a commercial product that can convert sunlight into fuel. Other components of the system, such as the photocathode, will also need to be perfected.

Still, it’s a helluva big step. There is no more economical power source than the sun available to this planet and populations – once we figure out how to transform it more and more affordably into electricity.

NYC coppers edited Wikipedia pages trying to hide police brutality

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A new report from Capital New York claims thousands of edits to Wikipedia articles related to police brutality can be traced to the NYPD headquarters.

“Computer users identified by Capital as working on the NYPD headquarters’ network have edited and attempted to delete Wikipedia entries for several well-known victims of police altercations, including entries for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo,” the report says. “Capital identified 85 NYPD addresses that have edited Wikipedia.”

The report claims the NYPD edits also applied to pages referencing the department’s stop-and-frisk policy and certain political leaders. The edits appear to have been occurring for the past 10 years.

“Garner raised both his arms in the air” was changed to “Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke,” the report claims. “Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them,” was also added to a page referencing Eric Garner’s death at one point.

All of the edits appear to be an attempt to minimize the controversy related to police killings and to improve the image of people connected to the police department.

At street level, corrupt cops are more disgusting than corrupt politicians. Protect and serve is not supposed to mean “protect bad cops – and serve your political bosses”. Yet – in New York City, Chicago, Ferguson, Confederate states beholden to racism essential to their ideology – it feels like no honest cop is ever allowed to stay honest.

Cops with computers are apparently as willing to lie about history, cover-up their bigotry with lies, as any Texas school board.