Bioluminescent Lamp Glows With The Power Of Hamster Cells

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/03/bioluminescent-lamp-glows-with-the-power-of-hamster-cells/



Who needs a lamp to be classy when it can be fucking horrifying? That’s what the “Half Life” lamp is, because it glows thanks to living, genetically altered hamster cells that have been enriched with firefly genes. Holy shit.

Hamster-Powered Night Light With Custom Low-RPM Alternator

http://www.otherpower.com/hamster.html

Flexible Sheets Capture Energy from Movement

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24428/?a=f

Researchers at Princeton University have created a flexible material that harvests record amounts of energy when stressed. The researchers say the material could be incorporated into the soles of shoes to power portable electronics, or even placed on a heart patient's lungs to recharge a pacemaker as he breathes.

Hamsters in jackets harnessed for energy

Scientists have managed to harness the energy-producing power of hamsters by fitting them with tiny detector jackets.

It would take 1,000 hamsters to generate enough energy to power a mobile phone

Dr Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia University's Nano Research Group developed the flexible jackets, which are fitted with wires plugged into a nanogenerator that produces energy when they are bent and stretched.

"We believe that this is the first demonstration of a live animal producing current with nano-generators," she told The Sun.
Dr Wang added that the technology could be ready to be fitted into clothes within five years. It would capture energy produced not only when humans are active, but also from smaller movements such as when people are sat at computers.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/4731679/Hamsters-in-jackets-harnessed-for-energy.html

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/03/10/2511998.htm

http://gizmodo.com/122858/go+go-hamster-power

UN body to look at meat and climate link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8583308.stm


"Smarter animal farming, not less farming, will equal less heat," he told delegates to the American Chemical Society (ACS) meeting in San Francisco.
"Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries."
Leading figures in the climate change establishment, such as Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman Rajendra Pachauri and Lord (Nicholas) Stern, have also quoted the 18% figure as a reason why people should consider eating less meat.
Apples and pears
The 2006 report - Livestock's Long Shadow, published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - reached the figure by totting up all greenhouse-gas emissions associated with meat production from farm to table, including fertiliser production, land clearance, methane emissions from the animals' digestion, and vehicle use on farms.

The majority of the meat-related emissions come from land clearance and from methane emissions associated with the animals' digestion.
Other academics have also argued that meat is a necessary source of protein in some societies with small food resources, and that in the drylands of East Africa or around the Arctic where crop plants cannot survive, a meat-based diet is the only option.
Dr Mitloehner contends that in developed societies such as the US - where transport emissions account for about 26% of the national total, compared with 3% for pig- and cattle-rearing - meat is the wrong target in efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Internet is biggest threat to endangered species, say conservationists

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/21/endangered-species-internet-threat


The internet has emerged as one of the greatest threats to rare species, fuelling the illegal wildlife trade and making it easier to buy everything from live lion cubs to wine made from tiger bones, conservationists said today.

The internet's impact was made clear at the meeting of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Delegates voted overwhelmingly today to ban the trade of the Kaiser's spotted newt, which the World Wildlife Fund says has been devastated by internet trade.

German Architect Wants to Build World's Largest Artificial Mountain

The artificial mountain known as "The Berg" would provide a tourist landmark and skiing for Berlin

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-11/german-architect-wants-build-worlds-largest-artificial-mountain

If you're not sold on the awe-inspiring grandeur of this mountain, we'll let the "Berg manifesto" speak for itself -- and throw in some smack talk about other German cities in the bargain.

Hamburg, as stiff as fat, turns green with envy, rich and once proud Munich starts to feel ashamed of its distant Alp-panorama and planners of the Middle-East, experienced in taking the spell off any kind of architectural utopia immediately design authentic copies of the iconic Berlin-Mountain.
Perhaps something was lost in the translation there. Either way, we're looking forward to the next Bond movie where 007 rallies the neighborhood associations and fights a morass of city zoning laws to stop ... "The Berg."

Why everything you've been told about evolution is wrong

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/19/evolution-darwin-natural-selection-genes-wrong

What if Darwin's theory of natural selection is inaccurate? What if the way you live now affects the life expectancy of your descendants? Evolutionary thinking is having a revolution . . .

Epigenetics suggests your lifestyle could affect the lifespan of your grandchildren

What does "nature" even mean if you can nurture the nature of your descendants?

Birds nesting in building

Invisible University Library
Wynne Leung
Francesco Matteo Belfiore
University of Greenwich London UK

http://www.presidentsmedals.com/Project_Details.aspx?id=2187&dop=True&year=2008

Chinese zoo closed amid tiger starvation investigation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/17/chinese-zoo-tiger

Shenyang zoo has been closed after the deaths of 11 Siberian tigers and allegations of supplying the illegal tiger-bone trade

scandal-plagued Chinese zoo has been shut down after the starvation of 11 Siberian tigers and allegations that it has been illegally supplying brewers of tiger-bone tonics.

The authorities have launched an investigation into the Shenyang Forest Wildlife zoo, a semi-private operation that slashed rations for its animals after running into financial difficulties.

They will also examine the structural problems facing the country's massive captive-breeding business, in which – the Guardian has discovered – more than 1,000 other tigers are at risk of malnourishment. The Shenyang zoo, which is partly owned by local government, came into the spotlight after 11 Siberian tigers starved to death in the space of six months. It emerged that the keepers were feeding the animals cheap cuts of chicken because the zoo was short of money.

England's threatened species by region

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2010/mar/11/england-lost-threatened-species

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/11/extinct-species-england

More than two animals and plants a year are becoming extinct in England and hundreds more are severely threatened, a report published today reveals.

Natural England, the government's agency responsible for the countryside, said the biggest national study of threats to biodiversity found nearly 500 species that had died out in England, all but a dozen in the last two centuries.

Winners and losers

Going: Species facing "severe" threats in England
Red squirrel
Northern bluefin tuna
Natterjack toad
Common skate
Alpine foxtail
Kittiwake
Grey plover
Shrill carder bumblebee

Recovering: Recent conservation success stories
Pole cat
Large blue butterfly
Red kite
Ladybird spider
Pink meadowcap
Sand lizard
Pool frog
Bittern

Creative Grooming Contest

http://www.pinkcoyote.net/creativegrooming.html

Merciful pets paradise

http://www.hindu.com/yw/2006/04/21/stories/2006042100470300.htm

LE CORBUSIER BINDS BOOK IN DEAD PET DOG

http://www.gravestmor.com/wp/archives/2006/01/11/le-corbusier-binds-book-in-dead-pet-dog/

This from the recently published book Le Corbusier: Architect of Books:

“He did bind one of his favourite books, Don Quixote, allegedly in leather made from the hide of one of his dogs, “Pinceau”, but the macabre bizzareness of such an act goes beyond the conventional fetishism of of lovers of fine books.”

Superefficient Frankencrops Could Put a Real Dent in Greenhouse Gas Emissions Read More http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-06/ff_he

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-06/ff_heresies_06genetic?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))&utm_content=Google+Reader

Keeping 6 billion people fed boosts global warming more than all the world's cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes put together. Agriculture accounts for almost 14 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. One response is to eat fewer of the two- and four-legged greenhouse gas factories known as animals. Before you send back that T-bone, though, call in the bioengineers.

farming: Farmer set to produce Kobe beef in the North

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7997/is_2007_Sept_4/ai_n38616302/?tag=content;col1

IN his self-styled quest for the best, organic livestock farmer Steve Ramshaw has imported embryos of rare Wagyu cattle from Canada to produce the highly sought-after Kobe beef, probably the most expensive in the world.

Steve, of Monkridge Hill Farm, near Otterburn, will be one of the first farmers in the UK to produce the beef, which he hopes to start selling late next year through his meat marketing business, Northumbrian Quality Meats, to top restaurants, speciality food shops and his butcher's shop within the Fenwick food hall in Newcastle.

Share Hair With the Animals

http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2009/05/share_hair_with.html

A true environmentalist forms a symbiotic relationship with the other animals with whom humans share this Spaceship Earth. Hair can help reinforce reciprocal bonds.

Pet hair should not be discarded, but used to make environmentally friendly clothing:

Utilizing your pet's hair to make clothing, may seem a little bit odd, but it's a great way to get homegrown, green materials for a eco-friendly fur coat or sweater. Fur doesn't have to be murder. …
Pet Yarn Chic will spin your pet's hair into yarn for knitting.
You can buy a book about knitting with dog hair.
You can even learn how to gather pet hair, spin it into yarn and knit with it.
The finished products aren't that pretty, but they sure are functional and look quite warm.
You can share your own hair with the animal world…

…by leaving it out for the birds. This sounds crazy, but birds will build nests with your hair. …

NASA Tries Hair-Raising Idea

http://ipp.nasa.gov/innovation/Innovation64/hair.htm

RESEARCHERS AT NASA'S MARSHALL SPACE Flight Center in Huntsville are testing an Alabama hairdresser's hair-raising technique of using human hair to soak up oil spills. This could lead to a number of applications, including reducing landfill waste, saving costs in oil spill cleanups and recovering spilled oil for fuel.