Safety lapses by pipeline company Enbridge and “weak regulation” by the U.S. are to blame for the 2010 Michigan oil spill, the NTSB said.
From Gizmodo: Hungary’s Red Sludge Disaster Zone Still Looks Apocalyptic Two Years Later
In 2010, a lake of caustic, poison mud from an aluminum manufacturing operation spilled out and destroyed a nearby town, along with much of the native life. Humans were killed and burned, property destroyed. And it still looks like Mars. More »
from Gizmodo
From Engadget: Apple pulls out of EPEAT green registration, may not be able to sell computers to federal agencies
Apple has withdrawn all its laptop and desktop computers from the EPEAT environmental rating system, including older MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. According to iFixit, who recently tore down a MacBook Pro and its retina screen, that’s likely related to a design direction favoring smaller, lighter notebooks and longer battery life. Doing so required them to glue the cells to the aluminum shell, making it impossible to recycle the case and other parts — iFixit couldn’t pull the batteries out without spilling the (highly toxic) battery guts all over. Cupertino’s decision means that many federal agencies might not be able to buy those products, since 95 percent of its electronics purchasing must conform to the EPEAT standard. On top of that, many educational institutions that require the certification would also need to opt out of Mac purchases, as well as large corporations like HSBC and Ford. Currently, iPhones and iPads are exempt from that certification, but considering recent ads from Apple specifically touting its conformance to EPEAT, the company might have some ‘splaining to do.
[Image credit: iFixit]
from Engadget
From Autoblog: Official: BMW ActiveHybrid 3 is an efficient use of 340 hp
Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Performance, BMW, Luxury
We’ve learned to expect that hybrid vehicles will produce lower emissions and fuel-consumption scores than their standard gasoline-burning siblings. What we generally don’t expect, however, is for that same hybrid to be quicker to 60 than its turbocharged brother or for it to make more overall horsepower.
Such is the case with the BMW ActiveHybrid 3, which offers up 340 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque from its 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline six and electric motor combination – useful gains from the 300 hp and 300 lb-ft in the 335i. Those added ponies allow the Hybrid 3 to hit 62 miles per hour in just 5.3 seconds, a .2-second improvement, according to the automaker, over the thirstier 335i.
BMW says the Hybrid 3 can travel up to 2.5 miles on electricity alone at speeds of up to 46 miles per hour, though not at the same time, of course, and fuel efficiency of about 40 miles per gallon on the EU test cycle. Expect the U.S. EPA figure to vary from that figure.
A lithium ion battery pack resides in the trunk, and it’s made up of 96 individual cells with a rated output of 675 Wh. Power is sent to the rear wheels from the dual drivetrain through an eight-speed automatic gearbox that shares its outer casing with the 55-hp electric motor. Naturally, there’s a rather prominent badge on the C-pillar displaying the car’s fuel-saving credentials, as you can see in our image gallery above.
Full details can be found in the press release below, but there’s still no word on when we can expect to see the ActiveHybrid 3 in the States or what it may cost if and when it arrives.
from Autoblog
From Discover Magazine: Compressed Air Is Great for Powering Workshops. Can It Help Power the World? | 80beats
Despite increasing worry about what our energy consumption is doing to the planet, we’re also increasingly tied to power-hungry electronic devices. To keep reliable, renewable energy flowing, some suggest, we must give the power grid a makeover. And one method that could change it is a breath of fresh air. Danielle Fong and her company, LightSail Energy, want to store renewable energy in tanks of compressed air. Because wind and solar can be unpredictable energy sources, the ability to save any surplus for a windless or cloudy day makes them more reliable.
Caleb Garling has written about Fong’s unusual method of storing power for Wired’s World’s Most Wired feature.
In a way, Fong is going back to the future. Compressed air tanks have been used to store energy as far back as the late 19th century. They were installed in cities across the globe, from Paris to Birmingham, England to Buenos Aires. Germany has been using the technology for the past 30 years, and a power company in Alabama opened a facility in 1991. The idea is a simple one: If you have a power source — whether it’s gas or …
from Discover Magazine
From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: The World’s First LED Lightbulb You Can Control With a Smartphone
Insteon Bulb Insteon
There will come a time when our homes are completely automated, just like in several horror movies in which a house slowly murders its unsuspecting occupant. The Insteon is a pretty good step towards that inevitable murder–it’s the first LED lightbulb that you can control with a smartphone app.
Lots of LED bulbs have some kind of remote triggering–I’ve been using the GiiNii speaker-in-a-bulb lately, which can be controlled with a little remote–but this is the first we’ve seen to have a smartphone app. It assigns each bulb in your house a unique IP address, so you can trigger each one independently with an app (compatible with iOS and Android). And for the system to really be worth the cost, you’ll want to outfit your whole house in these things. The bulbs cost $30 each (which is not too bad; LED bulbs last for decades and even the current best LED bulb on the market runs $25), but the real cost is the $100 Insteon SmartLinc Controller you’ll need to buy if you want to hook up devices like smartphones.
[Insteon via SmartPlanet]
from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now
From Ars Technica: Hospitals can save money just sorting their trash
A report recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests that hospitals could save considerable sums of money by adopting a handful of common sense measures to reduce waste. The report asserts that 50 to 85 percent of regular waste is incorrectly disposed of as biohazard waste, which is estimated to cost eight times more to process. This alone can result in a hospital spending tens of thousands of dollars per year in unnecessary costs.
Operating rooms are responsible for between a fifth and a third of a hospital’s waste while consuming a much smaller proportion of a hospital’s budget. It’s on the operating room that Yoan Kagoma MD and co-authors from University of Western Ontario’s medical school have fixed their gaze. Using 65 prior studies, the team has come up with a series of money-saving waste management recommendations for hospitals and health care institutions.
The single most effective cost-saving measure a hospital can adopt is to ensure that its waste is properly segregated, the report claims. Biohazard waste costs an estimated $963 per ton to process compared to the $121 per ton for regular waste. At most, biohazard waste should make up 15 percent of a hospital’s waste. But the report claims that, due to a simple “lack of awareness” among hospital staff, between 50-85 percent of the remaining non-hazardous waste is disposed of in the same costly manner (though it should be noted this finding is based on a paper published in 1996). By properly segregating waste in its operating rooms, the University of Pittsburgh’s Magee-Womens Hospital saved more than $89,000 in 2010.
from Ars Technica