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Ladies and Gentlemen Allow Me to Introduce the Cat Car 614

Kelmar writes "CNN is running a story about how a German inventor has found a way to power a car using dead cats. Yes you read that right. According to the inventor he can produce the biodiesel fuel at the cost of about $0.30 (US) per liter. Needless to say many animal rights activists are upset by this development, and some are saying that it is illegal to use animals for this purpose in Germany."
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Ladies and Gentlemen Allow Me to Introduce the Cat Car

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  • Inventor misquoted? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:06AM (#13564781)
    A spokesman for Bild told Reuters the story was meant to show that cat remains could "in theory" be used to make fuel with Koch's patented method.

    http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-09-14T160628Z_01_ MAR457954_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-GERMANY-CATS.XML [reuters.co.uk]
  • by matt4077 ( 581118 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:09AM (#13564794) Homepage
    This was a story by BILD, the world's largest tabloid newspaper. It is nicely rebuked at Bildblog.de [bildblog.de] which is a meta-blog following BILD and exposing it's errors, bias and lies. The company ("Alphakat" [alphakat.de]) simply develops a method to process waste as a kind of Bio-Diesel.
  • by Knome_fan ( 898727 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:14AM (#13564818)
    This doesn't come as a surprise for anyone living in Germany.

    The Bild is Germanys largest tabloid and is well known for not always reporting overly accurate, to put it mildly.

    That said, this guy seems to be making quite some waves here in Germany. At least I remember seeing him on TV lately, talking about his invention.

    And if his claims are true, this really could prove to be a very useful invention, especially with the recent develpements in oil prices.
  • by wlvdc ( 842653 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:16AM (#13564837) Homepage Journal
    The Alphakat website [alphakat.de] states (in german) that the messages distributed by the media about Dr. Christian Koch (Koch is german for 'cook') processing dead cats into diesel are false and unfounded. And that legal action is being taken against those who made these allegations...
  • by thecampbeln ( 457432 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:19AM (#13564848) Homepage
    "It's an alternative fuel [yahoo.com] that is friendly for the environment. But it's complete nonsense to suggest dead cats. I've never used cats and would never think of that. At most the odd toad may have jumped in."
  • Hoax (Score:5, Informative)

    by slashflood ( 697891 ) <flow@NoSPaM.howflow.com> on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:20AM (#13564853) Homepage Journal
    That's just a hoax of our famous 'newspaper' called Bild. If you can read German, visit the Bildblog [bildblog.de], a blog dedicated to debunk all of Bilds hoaxes. In the meantime, Dr. Christian Koch put a note [alphakat.de] on his website, declining that he is using dead cats to produce fuel.
  • by lga ( 172042 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:22AM (#13564865) Journal
    You are thinking of Changing World Technologies [changingworldtech.com]. They built their first plant next to a chicken farm so that they can run it on dead chicken leftovers.
  • YHBTBB (Score:3, Informative)

    by 3.5 stripes ( 578410 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:22AM (#13564866)
    you have been trolled by BILD.

  • by stirz ( 839003 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:24AM (#13564873)
    Taken (and translated) from http://alphakat.de/ [alphakat.de] :

    "IMPORTANT INFORMATION

    The claim spreaded by German media that Dr. Christian Koch is producing Diesel fuel from dead cats is entirely wrong and are entirey unrealistic.

    Legal steps have already been taken to counter these claims."

    This is ridiculous... Koch's firm simply introduced methods to produce Diesel fuel from waste oil, plastic waste, old plants, sewage sludge, ordinary household garbage and cadavers (which *surprise* could also be run-over cats!).

    Tsss... tabloids...
  • by tr_x_data ( 686765 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:37AM (#13564912) Homepage
    Yes right. And the mother of all watchblogs already has their article on it, too: http://www.bildblog.de/?p=791 [bildblog.de] (german language) ;) David
  • BILD lügt (Score:5, Informative)

    by ph1l0r ( 900728 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:48AM (#13564951)
    This news is simply no news. Its a story entirely made up by the biggest german tabloid called Bild. Everyone in Germany with a little education knows that Bild lies in every second line. It's sad to see that even CNN and Reuters fall for stories made up by Bild. I have been in the States for six months and i do have to say that i was amused by the "news" being broadcasted first which soon shifted for me to feel sorry for you guys over there. Unfortunatly there seem too few people having a critical approach to what the news tell them and who inform themselves from really different sources. This is a link to a german blog by journalists that monitor Bild covering the "cat-fuel" article: http://www.bildblog.de/?p=791 [bildblog.de] It's german, don't know if babelfish etc will be able to translate it properly.
  • by GrahamCox ( 741991 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:59AM (#13564992) Homepage
    Sigh.

    Siting = choosing the location of something.
    Citing = quoting a reference. I think this is what the original poster was getting at.
    Sighting = seeing something.
  • by DoktorTomoe ( 643004 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @07:00AM (#13565000)

    You, sir, are a sentimental idiot.

    Be informed that Germany is more than Hitler, the girl that dumped you (= Hitlerish) and crazy engineers that are said to kill small furry things for fuel (= Hitlerish).

    Even if Dr. Koch happens to use actual animal bodies for fuel, would you mind if it were bugs, or spiders? Do you know that in Germany it is the law to get your pet dogs'/ cats'body to a "Tierkörperverwertungsanstalt" (roughly translated "Animal corpses processing facility"), where its body is grind up to "Tiermehl" ("Animal wheat") that used to be fed to farm animals before BSE? Now it is burnt for electricity. Yes. that is electricity out of little kitty! BTW, this law is to protect people from diseases of too many corpses laying around.

    What would be the problem in not processing animal cadavers to electricity, but to fuel? Facing energy costs that would feel near to insane to you US guys (we are paying 1,50 per litre for fuel), I greatly appreciate using alternative fuel systems. And the cat population tends to grow! No energy problems for the next few centuries.

    BTW: Actually Dr. Koch uses garbage for fuel. The claim he used cats is made by a german tabliod that is probably funded by our fellow oil companies. Wrecking ones inventions for profit by false claims that outrage the public idiot is quite common in ye ol'de europe.

    This message was typed for your convinience right in the ex-Third Reich.

  • by ArsenneLupin ( 766289 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @07:05AM (#13565022)
    Oh, and the company's name ("Alphakat") is not derived from the word Katze (cat) but rather from Katalysator (catalizer). Indeed, the company used catalyzers to transform organic matter (all kinds of organic matter, rather than just the specific farfetched example cited) into fuel.
  • It's fake... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15, 2005 @07:07AM (#13565034)
    by Beryl
    Look like a tabloid? It is.
    http://www.bildblog.de/wp-content/koch1.jpg [bildblog.de]
    http://www.bildblog.de/wp-content/katzenbenzin2.jp g [bildblog.de]
    (images provided by Bild Blog, explained lower)

    And the news is 100% fake with all involved now sueing BILD.

    http://bildblog.de/ [bildblog.de]
    Scroll down and read "Von Katzen und dummen Menschen" (Of Kats and Dumb People)
    (You'll need to learn/know German or use Babelfish)

    The blogers are two journalists that investigate BILD.

    BILD reported bullshit and everyone else just sucks it up as pathetic the fucktards* they are, the dude even has on webpage that's it completely false and he's suing them for all the shit they're causing from years-old research that has nothing to do wiith what he said.

    *Caring only for the shock-effect and not caring about reality, or any annoying thing like that.

    http://www.alphakat.de/index.html [alphakat.de]

    ""WICHTIGE MITTEILUNG !

    Die im Moment in den deutschen Medien verbreiteten Meldungen Dr. Christian Koch würde Katzenkadaver zu Diesel verarbeiten sind absolut falsch und entbehren jeden Bezug zur Realität.
    Juristische Maßnahmen gegen diese Behauptungen wurden bereits unternommen."

    "Important Notice!

    The news currently being spread by certain a German News Agency concerning me using cat cadavers to produce Diesel is utterly wrong and have nothing to do with reality. I have taken legal steps against these accusations."

    BILD also completely made up the "cited animal rights activists", and the people in question are enraged - and say they don't care how cadavers are treated as the only care about living animals. Duh.

    Bild's also the paper that has titles like MANNER SIND JETZT PORTU-GEIL!!! (Men are now Portu-HORNY!!!" and are plastered with tits every day but Sunday, where they play "innocent Christian"... If you trust them, or even CNN who are about as neutral as Condoleeza Rice, as your only news source...

    We do have human shit powered power plants, though...

  • by andygood ( 244363 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @07:12AM (#13565052)
    it sounds like...

    This was news a year or so ago. 'Changing World Technologies' I think?! Can't be bothered looking for a link... ;-) Try Mr. Google!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15, 2005 @09:06AM (#13565601)
    You gotta love how they advertise their leaded petrol (do they even have the right to sell that ?) : "a bit of lead never hurt anyone".

    Oh sure, unless you consider something highly toxic as hazardous (don't get me started on their "Super Leaded"...)
  • Re:Response to Troll (Score:2, Informative)

    by Threni ( 635302 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @09:14AM (#13565642)
    They were all addressed on his webpage ages ago. Do keep up.

    > I do not endorse the site linked above, or guarantee in any way the accuracy of
    > the material presented there.

    For good reason - it's inaccurate.
  • by CrazyTalk ( 662055 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @09:15AM (#13565645)
    yep, as a well-known cat hater amongst my peers, I received the book for a birthday present in 1982.
  • Re:Funerals? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kozz ( 7764 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @10:18AM (#13566157)
    IANAScientist, but ...

    20 gallons from a 250lb carcass/cadaver? That sounds like an incredibly high number. I think you'd be really lucky to get five.

    Seriously, if you were to "liquefy" remains immediately upon death, pour them into jugs, I don't think you could get 20 gallons. Now if you're talking about cooking to render out the oils and fats, you'd better cut out at least 70% of the non-bio-diesel product.

    (If the poster's goal was to be funny, it was lost on other moderators and myself. If it was to be "interesting", I think the poster hasn't thought this through very much. )
  • Come on (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zebra_X ( 13249 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @10:54AM (#13566469)
    Did the moderator even read the first line of the article - "Inventor denies dead cat fuel story".

    The post is completely inaccurate.
  • Wrong (Score:2, Informative)

    by chrisnewbie ( 708349 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @11:29AM (#13566851)
    IT reads that the guy denied using cats but uses trash, plactics and other waste product,,no way it said cats,,it was a rumor.

    We are more close to Back to the future than we think.
    I have enough baby diaper full of crap to power a shuttle
  • Least Harm Principle (Score:2, Informative)

    by Jackboot ( 791190 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @12:19PM (#13567320)

    I wonder if the animal rights activists that are objecting to this possibility of making biodiesel from dead cats are really considering the relatvie costs in animals harmed in the production of feline diesel and petrodiesel. Perhaps the toal number of animals harmed in the production of petrodiesel (from pulling crude from a well, shipping that crude, refining, shipping the refined fuel, all the way to combustion) is greater than the production of biodiesel from a (already) dead cat.

    This paper (http://www.courses.rochester.edu/nobis/animals/Da vis-LeastHarm.htm [rochester.edu]) for instance argues that people who choose a vegan diet out of concern for the welfare of animals actually do more harm by taking their nutrients from foliage harvested via machinery that if they just ate the cows that harvested if for them.

  • by Mike McCune ( 18136 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @12:20PM (#13567331) Homepage
    Details on the KDV 500 mentioned in the article are here [globalfinest.com] . No mentions of cats, though.
  • by Ophion ( 58479 ) on Thursday September 15, 2005 @01:21PM (#13567955)
    is "Inventor denies dead cat fuel story." Unless it was recently changed, that is a fairly clear indicator that the Slashdot story was purposely disingenuous.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15, 2005 @06:57PM (#13571260)
    "But Koch, 55, said there was no truth to stories published in Bild newspaper on Tuesday and Wednesday that suggested he used dead cats as part of the mix for his organic diesel fuel."

    How lazy do you have to be to not notice that the second paragraph in the article contradicts the writeup about it?

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