Miracles You’ll See In The Next Fifty Years (Feb, 1950)
Some more up-to-date predictions:
science,
invention,
space travel,
colonisation,
immortality,
water
shortage,
flooding,
nanotech,
techno-apocalypse,
extinction,
mental health,
smart machines,
robots, mind uploading,
AI,
Asia,
economics,
demographics,
goverance,
cities.
What is your prediction?
posted by MetaMonkey
on Oct 5, 2006 -
54 comments
"It's filthy. It's toxic. But it's water. And as we know in California, people are fighting over it." It's North America’s most polluted river, made up of 70% waste material and raw sewage. The
New River, which starts in Mexicali, Mexico, flows past homes in the California border town of Calexico and winds up in the Salton Sea. The river contains a
nightmare stew of about 100 biological contaminants, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, and pesticides including: DDT, PCB, selenium, uranium, arsenic and mercury. The scary part? It's enough water for about 300,000 homes. Filthy or not, that’s real water. So L.A.’s Metropolitan Water District has
filed a claim on New River water.
posted by thisisdrew
on Jul 6, 2006 -
38 comments
Bottled water for dogs. For the malnourished or dehydrated pooch. I might be mistaken, but isn't this in Revelations as one of the portents of the apocalypse?
posted by howfar
on May 2, 2006 -
28 comments
Eighty years ago,
William Mulholland completed his final project:
the St. Francis Dam, which converted San Francisquito Canyon--about 5 miles northeast of what is now
Santa Clarita, California--into a 38,000 acre-foot reservoir for Los Angeles/Owens River aqueduct water.
You're probably familiar with
Mulholland's name --he designed and built the
Los Angeles Aqueduct and the beginning of the
system with which Los Angeles is supplied water from the Central Valley--and as a gesture of gratitude, the city named
its most scenic highway in his honor. Mulholland, the
California Water Wars, the aqueduct, and the dam were also referenced and alluded to extensively in Roman Polanski's
Chinatown.
But
the man who helped build an immense metropolis by bringing water to the desert has only a
small fountain as a memorial to his legacy.
Three minutes before midnight, on March 12, 1928...
posted by fandango_matt
on Mar 13, 2006 -
20 comments
"
[Vitek] Boden had waged a three-month war against the Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system of Maroochy Water Services in Australia beginning in January 2000, which saw millions of gallons of sewage spill into waterways, hotel grounds and canals around the Sunshine Coast suburb." A 2002
Washington Post story on possible al-Qaeda attacks also mentions the Boden case: "Specialists in cyber-terrorism have studied Boden's case because it is the only one known in which someone used a digital control system deliberately to cause harm."
posted by russilwvong
on Feb 16, 2006 -
3 comments
Smithsonian's latest exhibit includes catastrophic leaks that are damaging
priceless treasures. Many items have been destroyed beyond repair and the problem seems to be getting worse. Will certain history be wiped out for good because officials lacked foresight?
posted by Guerilla
on Aug 25, 2005 -
17 comments
The Hidden Messages in Water? Masaru Emoto claims that water has the ability "to absorb, hold, and even retransmit human feelings and emotions. Using high-speed photography, he found that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward it. Music, visual images, words written on paper, and photographs also have an impact on the crystal structure." The theory may be
suspect, but the
photos are beautiful.
posted by taz
on May 11, 2005 -
115 comments
rainwater harvesting As posted on
metaefficient Aaron up in the northeast has his own home based business producing
rain harvesting barrels
It seems like an idea we all should consider doing.
A rain barrel is a rainwater harvesting system that is connected to a down spout tube from a house or building. We make quality rain barrels that collect, store and divert rooftop runoff during a rain shower.
posted by halekon
on Feb 11, 2005 -
22 comments
Denial Of Water Water supplies to Tall Afar, Samarra and Fallujah have been cut off during US attacks in the past two months, affecting up to 750,000 civilians. This appears to form part of a deliberate US policy of denying water to the residents of cities under attack. If so, it has been adopted without a public debate, and without consulting Coalition partners. It is a serious breach of international humanitarian law, and is deepening Iraqi opposition to the United States, other Coalition members, and the Iraqi interim government.
posted by Postroad
on Nov 17, 2004 -
31 comments
A Loon. Sometimes when you open your mind too far, your brain falls out.
WATER:Flowforms, Vortex and- Implosion in Water was my entry point, having foolishly searched for "laminar water flow" whilst thinking about a fishpond project.
posted by five fresh fish
on Sep 5, 2004 -
20 comments
Prozac Found in Britain's Drinking Water. Norman Baker, environment spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said it looked "like a case of hidden mass medication upon the unsuspecting public."
Or possibly something less alarming, like the recycled leftovers from the public waste... either way, very disturbing.
posted by Espoo2
on Aug 8, 2004 -
54 comments
Jesus Boots perfected! NYT: In the last 150 years, Americans have patented about 100 water-walking inventions. The first, in 1858, was by H. R. Rowlands, who lived in Boston, not far from where Mr. Rosen resides, in Newton, Mass. Most of the subsequent patents, Mr. Rosen said, are iterations of that same idea. "Unfortunately," Mr. Rosen observed, "none of them actually work."
posted by skallas
on Aug 3, 2004 -
13 comments
The ultimate renewable energy resource - kids. Unlike
Monsters inc, who harness the energy of screams, the
Playpump (also discussed
here) harnesses kids having fun to provide clean water.
If they have to cart water, the
Q-drum (also discussed
here) is a very simple way to make this chore easier. In this complicated world, the best ideas are still the simple ones.
via A Whole Lotta Nothing
posted by dg
on May 27, 2004 -
7 comments
This company has released a device which claims to provide water "anytime, anywhere"
(No Goodies jokes,please) - from the humidity in the air. With two other companies selling these machines in Australia and prices ranging from AUD1,000 to AUD2,300, is this a viable
solution to the massive water
shortages around the world, or just something else to talk about around the water cooler?
posted by dg
on Mar 19, 2004 -
18 comments
A precious, limited resource. 10 African countries want more water from the Nile. The Nile just doesn't have enough to satisfy their wants and needs. Can there be a solution to this problem short of war?
posted by kablam
on Mar 12, 2004 -
24 comments
