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Comment Re:Waste (Score 1) 488

by syncmaster955 (#33644932) Attached to: Airbus Planning Transparent Planes

who wants to fly on an airline which is so scared of their planes crashing that they fit parachutes to them?

Who wants to drive a car whose manufacturer is so scared of the car crashing that they fit it with seat belts, airbags, anti-lock brakes, laminated glass, etc.? I would gladly pay extra fees to be in the parachute plane (hell, catching them deploy in the transparent plane would be a YouTube hit!).

Comment Re:No, we can't recommend anything (Score 1) 557

by syncmaster955 (#29612893) Attached to: Choosing a Personal Printer For the Long Haul
It's not that the printers don't last, it's that they are sold as a loss leader.
When your 3-year-old printer runs out of ink, you see that the new one with additional features (wireless, LCD display, etc.) goes for not much more than buying a new one.
A quick search shows that to replace the ink cartridges for my current printer is about $50, the new similar model is $60 or the fancy one with fax, network, document feeder, etc. for $80.
I don't agree that the ability to buy toner/ink would be a big issue -- there's a lot of $ in toner and ink sales. Take the HP Deskjet 500c (1991) -- ink is still for sale on the HP website.
Earth

Rival Green Groups Bid To Snatch .eco Domain 223

Posted by Soulskill from the it's-always-about-the-green dept.
Peace Corps Library writes "BBC reports that two rival environmental groups are lining up supporters to try to take control of the new .eco domain aimed at green groups. In March, former US vice president Al Gore backed a bid by the California group Dot Eco to operate the .eco TLD, but now a Canadian environmental group known as Big Room has launched a competing bid to manage it. 'We're two different applicants with two different business ideas. Ours is to sell domain names to raise funds for organizations who can effect change,' says Minor Childers, co-founder of Dot Eco. The group has already entered into contracts with its supporters — such as the Sierra Club and the Alliance for Climate Protection — to give away 57% of its profits from sales. Big Room also plans to generate money from the sale of .eco domain names to fund sustainability projects around the world, however, the consortium, which includes WWF International and Green Cross International — founded in 1993 by former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, also believes that .eco could be used as a labeling system to endorse companies with green credentials. Despite having differences about a model for .eco, both groups will 'definitely have to sit down' together at some point, says Childers. 'We could be one of the biggest contributors to environmental causes anywhere in the world.'"
Math

March 14th Officially Becomes National Pi Day 321

Posted by Soulskill from the pi-in-the-sky-legislation dept.
whitefox writes "The scoop from CNet is that 'The US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution introduced two days earlier that designates March 14, 2009 (3/14, get it?) as National Pi Day. It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and "engage them about the study of mathematics."' The resolution is available online. I doubt it'll ever become a national holiday, but the Pi string in the article is pretty cool in a nerdy sort of way."
Image

Oslo Buses to Run on Sewage 68

Posted by samzenpus from the stinking-tailpipes dept.
Mike writes "Rather than let their sewage go to waste, the city of Oslo recently announced that it plans to cut carbon emissions by converting 80 public buses to run on biomethane generated from raw sewage. The city plans to adapt two sewage plans with the technology this September, and the new biogas buses will be quieter and will cut 44 tones of C02 per bus per year."
Earth

The Illuminati Project Pushes For Dark Skies In 2009 315

Posted by timothy from the daddy-what-were-light-bulbs? dept.
An anonymous reader writes "2009 is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations of Venus, Saturn and Jupiter published in Sidereus Nuncius ('Starry Messenger'). To improve scientific literacy, the NOAO and NASA are promoting dark-sky initiatives in 2009 to draw attention to the problem of light pollution which obscures nearly all night sky colors and objects except for the moon and a few bright stars and planets. Project Illuminati is a Flickr project by James Cann to showcase the beauty of light pollution to raise awareness and educate fellow Earthmates to lower energy consumption and become more curious about our place in the universe."

Comment Re:AirPod (Score 1) 173

by syncmaster955 (#25697923) Attached to: Compressed-Air Car Nears Trial
Agreed, but why is it being touted as a zero-emissions solution? I have been through this debate with friends who say "I take the subway, it doesn't pollute" -- well where I live a lot of our electric supply is from coal plants, so their argument ends there (I take public transit for the majority of my travels as well). I think zero-emission at the "tailpipe" ideas are great, but people need to understand where the energy is coming from.

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