MetaFilter posts tagged with Power

"Why not put the girls to work?"

weston — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:00:12 -0800

The Solar Bra really doesn't make sense if your undergarments are going to stay under. Adrienne So examines the kinetic angle. Or, maybe this is as simple as breathing.

KABOOM!

Weebot — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:06:11 -0800

Jonathan Golob at Dear Science.org has a series of posts up about nuclear power. Topics include: The physics behind nuclear power, the inner workings of a reactor, nuclear radiation, nuclear waste, the disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and the future of nuclear power. Also in a truncated podcast form. Bonus links: Jonathan Golob's columns at The Stranger. And his Top 5 Nuclear Weapons.

The Arrival of Energy Positive Buildings

rongorongo — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:06:26 -0800

A positive energy building is one that produces more power than it consumes (yes they have been around for a while). The Masdar Headquarters in Abu Dhabi – due for completion in 2010 claims that it will be the first to do this on a substantial scale (mainly thanks to use of solar energy). David Fisher's spectacular “Dynamic Architecture” building in Dubai will aim to achieve the same goal using wind. Scaling up on the ambition stakes France has pledged all of its new housing will fit into this category by 2020.

"For starters, I can drive that loader."

Guy_Inamonkeysuit — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:06:36 -0800

You know you want one. It's closer to being a reality than ever before. But how close exactly is that? Maybe closer than we think. The Japanese have been working exo-skeletons for years... and so have the boffins at Berkeley. Robert Heinlein talked about them in Starship Troopers (not the movie). Extant versions are not free standing but seem to be of great assistance to the physically impaired, such as people with ALS. Or to marauding penguins...

Biocrude

caddis — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:04:40 -0800

Pond scum saves the planet? In the beginning, there were algae, but there was no oil. Then, from algae came oil. Now, the algae are still there, but oil is fast depleting. In future, there will be no oil, but there will still be algae. ^ Power your ride with pond scum. In some iterations you don't even need light. (we have talked about this before and the fact that CO2 powers the algae production is not insignificant) More details here.

The Wind Over the Waves

thatwhichfalls — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:24:17 -0800

Is offshore wind power the renewable energy of the future? Herman Schellstede is no stranger to the Gulf Coast. The son of an engineer who helped build the first offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, Schellstede has spent the past 40 years designing offshore oil platforms, drilling rigs and pipelines. But now he’s using his expertise in marine engineering to build a different kind of offshore structure: a wind farm

Cities of God

hadjiboy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:22:37 -0800

Slum (youtube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Dwellers (mp3): how the other billion lives.

Old Boys, Old News

GrammarMoses — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:15:04 -0800

MeFi's celebration of the Ivy League continues with "The Facebook of Wall Street's Future," a New York Times map of social and professional connections in the tradition of They Rule (previously on Metafilter here, here , here and here). For those who might have trouble accessing the NYT site, I've also uploaded the graphic here.

Ballistic Jaw Propulsion of Trap-Jaw Ants

dhammond — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:57:21 -0800

The trap-jaw ant, best known for its powerful jaws which hold the land speed record for movement at 145 miles per hour, is brilliantly captured in a short film shot at 100,000 frames per second. [via]

The Imperial Presidency

homunculus — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:21:01 -0800

Candidates on executive power: a full spectrum. Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work on presidential signing statements, surveyed the major 2008 presidential candidates about their views on the limits of executive power. [BugMeNot, via Huffington Post.] It doesn't looks like Savage bothered to ask Gravel or Kucinich, but the former's view can be summed up as "power to the people."