Bake Hard "Boiled" Eggs Using Muffin Tins [Food Hacks]

Why Worms In the Toilet Might Be a Good Idea

Why Worms In the Toilet Might Be a Good Idea:
derekmead writes "Billions worldwide still don't have access to proper sanitation, and those that do still require a ton of water and electricity to keep waste flowing. A French company is offering one solution: Use turd-eating worms to compost waste right at the source. Ecosphere Technologies has developed an outhouse that, rather than relying on chemicals like a port-a-john, relies on about a pound of red wiggler worms. A new installation in Quebec uses imported worms, placed inside of a mixture of dung and straw underneath to toilet, to devour feces delivered to them by a conveyor belt system. (When someone uses the toilet, pee filters through sand to wash away, while a pedal allows the user to transport their poo to the worm space.) The whole system uses no water or electricity, and a series of passive vents allegedly keeps the toilet smelling great. The company claims it can be used 10,000 times without servicing, which is far better than what a port-a-potty can boast, although with a current price tag of $40k for the worm system, port-a-potties are still a lot cheaper."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Humanity is Doomed: Cooperative Quadrocopter Ball Throwing and Catching [Video]

Humanity is Doomed: Cooperative Quadrocopter Ball Throwing and Catching [Video]:


I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I, For One, Welcome Our New Quadrotor Overlords.

This video shows three quadrocopters cooperatively tossing and catching a ball with the aid of an elastic net.
To toss the ball, the quadrocopters accelerate rapidly outward to stretch the net tight between them and launch the ball up. Notice in the video that the quadrocopters are then pulled forcefully inward by the tension in the elastic net, and must rapidly stabilize in order to avoid a collision. Once recovered, the quadrotors cooperatively position the net below the ball in order to catch it.

[RobinRitz87]
No related posts.

WTF: Belly Dancing Female Wookiee Backed by a Klingon Band [Video]

WTF: Belly Dancing Female Wookiee Backed by a Klingon Band [Video]:


WTF defined!

Performed at the Viaduct Theatre in Chicago as part of Raks Geek: Geek + Bellydance + Fire.

Let the Wookiee dance! :)
[Via Neatorama]
No related posts.

How Much Energy a Smartphone Uses in a Year (And What it Means for Your Budget) [Energy]

The Death Of The Great American Automotive Bench Seat

The Death Of The Great American Automotive Bench Seat:

(Yo Spiff)

Many of my earliest memories are sitting three or four abreast in the front seat of the family’s powder blue Chevy Nova. Years later, I remember packing friends onto the bench seats of my ’71 Malibu (a lovely hand-painted pickle green) for hours of terrorizing the streets of suburban Philadelphia. So it’s with a tear in my eye that I hear today about the disappearance of this American icon.
From the Detroit News:

The current Chevy Impala will be the last passenger car in production in North America to feature three-across-the-front seating. General Motors Co. has no plans to continue the seating arrangement when the 2014 model begins rolling off the assembly line next year.

GM’s director of design, who apparently doesn’t like the idea of a half-dozen petulant teens crammed into a steel, gasoline and rubber death trap, says that customers actually want their precious, new-fangled bucket seats and the handy-dandy center consoles for their quaint little coffees and bottled waters. He probably also thinks you shouldn’t have to spend 3-5 minutes each morning trying to fish the seatbelt buckle out from the cushions of the bench seat. Picky, picky, picky.
Chrysler hasn’t had a front bench seat since 2004, while up until last year the bench seats were still available in Ford Crown Victorias, Lincoln Town Cars, and the Mercury Grand Marquis — all cars associated with a slightly older-skewing demographic.
And even though it was still an option on Impalas, GM says that only 1-10 buyers chose to pay an extra $195 for the option.
While the gradual shift from sailboats-on-wheels to smaller cars was a big factor in the switch to bucket seats, GM says it may someday return to the bench seat for very small cars where it might make more spatial sense to have one shared seat rather than two singles.
In the meantime, I’m going to go sit on the couch, pop in an old KRS-1 cassette and pretend I’m cruising up and down the strip in Quakertown because there is nothing else to do on a Friday night.
Automakers kick bench seats to curb [Detroit News]