Amazing partnership bringing mattresses to displaced Haitians
With so much relief effort currently focused on Haiti, a unique partnership has come together to bring specially designed “transitional” mattresses called the “WorldBed” to the people there.
U.S. mattress manufacturer Anatomic Global announced that they’ve partnered with five key suppliers – FXI Foamex Innovations, UPS, Deslee Textiles USA, Royal Packaging and the Brookwood Companies – and that the first 500 mattresses shipped from Southern California this past weekend expected to arrive in Haiti later this week. Thousands more will be shipped each week until a goal of supplying some 200,000 mattresses is reached.
The “World Bed” has been designed as a cot-sized foam mattress that can be quickly shipped in volume to any area in need, anywhere [...]
New kit will help keep pharmaceuticals out of our water
On March 10, 2008, MSNBC’s website read:
“Pharmaceuticals lurking in U.S. drinking water … AP probe found traces of meds in water supplies of 41 million Americans”
More stories have since revealed how extensive the problem’s become. The real ramifications of prescription drugs in the water we drink hasn’t been fully determined but this news is certainly enough to scare the heck out of most of us.
Leave it to the ingenuity of a pharmacist and an engineer to come up with a viable solution.
Chemical engineer John Heaton and pharmacist Brian Deryck have formed start-up company RXDisposal Solutions LLC in Uniontown, Ohio. Its pharmaceutical disposal system turns discarded drugs into an insoluble solid mass that Heaton says will prevent chemical leaching into groundwater supplies.
Wastewater facilities have no way of [...]
No wonder the environment is losing
There’s been much lamenting across the media about the apparent failure of the Copenhagen Summit last month. Yet in reading today’s headlines, it really couldn’t have ended any other way.
Take for instance the following:
“European Manufacturers Rally Against 30% Reduction in GHG Emissions”
“FirstEnergy Asks to Exceed Mercury Limits in Wastewater Discharges”
And then there’s yesterday’s headline:
“Alaska senator moves to bar EPA rules on greenhouse gas emissions“
With so much pressure and financial backing coming from so many directions, how could the Summit’s outcome been otherwise?
Balance this against continued evidence that climate change is indeed speeding along, with the Arctic northwest passage now being tussled over for a variety of development projects – from laying underwater telecommunications cable to prospective oil [...]
With climate change comes … lilypads?
Even conservative estimates suggest that by the year 2100 many low-lying islands and nations around the globe will be under at least a foot of water. With those kind of rising sea levels, where will those displaced folks live?
Belgian architect Vincent Callabaut has come up with an intriguing solution. His amphibious city - aptly named Lilypad – will be a car-free, clean energy paradise that can support 50,000 people with no additional external supplies. Wind and solar power will provide renewable energy, and suspended rooftop gardens will be for food production. This would be the most efficient, advanced, self-contained community ever dreamed of.
Since the lilypad floats, it can be placed in any lake or on any ocean body, towed where needed. Each [...]
“How green are you?” – the latest couples debate?
According to a recent New York Times article, therapists are reporting an increase in bickering between couples and family members about how green they’re willing to become.Food in particular – whether it’s buying or eating habits – seems to be an emotionally charged issue. It seems that for some, battle lines are being drawn and judgement passed over how much someone does or doesn’t do.
A great deal of political correctness seems to have become wrapped around how green we are. But political correctness isn’t the point, not really. Isn’t it more about becoming aware of one’s actions and their impact on both our personal and global environment?
Each person taking whatever steps they [...]
Spongy Glass – an environmental and technological breakthrough
Cleaning up pollutants and spills in waterways is no easy feat. A new discovery by Dr. Paul Edmiston called “Osorb” may well be the breakthrough that makes the difference.
Called spongy glass, as this new material swells up to eight times its dry weight, it soaks up liquids, binding with gasoline, chlorinated solvents and pollutants. Since it won’t bind to water, it can easily clean water and make it pollution free. This unique glass can also be reused hundreds of times.
Absorbent Materials, the company Edmiston founded. will market the product. According to Stephen Spoonamore, Absorbent’s CEO, “this technology may revolutionize Water/Environmental Remediation, BTEX recovery.”
It’s currently undergroing testing in the U.S.. This is definitely a product with wide-reaching [...]
A proven, eco-friendly way to kill the H1N1 virus
Use water to kill the H1N1 virus?
Sounds ludicrous, but recent lab tests confirm that the new ionator EXP™ and ionator HOM™ by Activeion Cleaning Solutions LLC does the job.
These simple hand-held devices ionize plain tap water, activating and convert it into a powerful dirt-removing and bacteria-killing product. Tests show that these devices kill the H1N1 influenza A virus in six seconds. They also effectively sanitize non-porous hard-surfaces.
I tested an earlier version of this amazing device and wrote about it last year.
Former EPA Administrator Dr. Stephen L. Johnson, who’s now an advisor to Activeion, says “testing concludes the ionator EXP™ and the ionator HOM™ provide for complete inactivation of the Pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus, when used as directed.”
Forbes Magazine [...]
Solar panels to be micro-sized in the near future
The products including some sort of solar charger continues to grow – from backpacks to clothing. Now the technology is progressing so that we may soon see solar cells that are thinner than human hair!
Sandia National Laboratories have been developing glitter-sized photovoltaic cells made from crystalline silicon that are fabricated using microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques. Measuring around 14 to 20 micrometers thick and 0.25 to 1 millimeter across, these cells are expected to be cheaper and more efficient that current solar cells.
Sandia’s lead investigator Greg Nielson said these cells would be wrapped around unusual shapes for building-integrated solar, tents and possibly clothing. The latter would allow consumers to walk around and charge up simultaneously. Hunters, hikers [...]
Green Gadgets for your home
This is a guest post by Danielle Brycz from Verde Lifestyles, an online eco-friendly home décor store.
When I think of green technology for the home, my mind jumps to energy saving devices and appliances. But there’s so much more!
Most of the products we use have eco-friendly alternatives. Take your daily routine. You wake up, hit your alarm clock, turn on your bedside lamp. Then you shower with a low-flow showerhead, blow-dry your hair, eat breakfast, and are out the door with your backpack or briefcase.
Besides conserving water and turning off your lights when not using them, did you consider greener options the last time you made a purchase? It’s just [...]
Website helps schools (and teachers) help kids
In this economy, everyone’s belt tightening. Education’s been squeezed to a choking point, with teachers getting creative to find resources for students.
In 2007, teachers’ out-of-pocket expenses totaled $1,7 billion a year. Nationally, the the average teacher spends around $500 out of pocket annually. An American Federation of Teachers survey found that out of 4,618 teachers, first-year teachers personally spent about $700 for students’ school supplies.
Any other employee in a company doesn’t do that, says Jerry Hall, Executive Director of iLoveSchools.com, which matches teachers, schools and school districts with individual, group and corporate donors.
They’re the only national website that handles new, used & in-kind stuff, he says. “In-kind” means anything a [...]