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Garbage-powered garbage truck now making its way across merry England
The Brits get all the cool stuff -- Queen Elizabeth II, The Sex Pistols... and now a rubbish truck that runs on rubbish (sort of). That's right: up in Huddersfield they've just unleashed a modded three-and-a-half ton Smith Edison Ford Transit garbage truck that tools around, picking up garbage, hauls it to a nearby Energy from Waste power station and recycling center which then burns the 'bage to make electricity for the next day's route. The garbage also produces about 10 megawatts of excess electricity per day which is dumped into the grid for added fun. The truck's got a top speed of about 50 miles per hour, and is apparently so quiet that the locals fear it could be dangerous to unsuspecting pedestrians. Maybe they could slap a speaker on there and pump some Oasis as a warning? Just a thought.
Plasma Plant turns your old junk into electricity, which can then be used to create more junk
The transmutation of garbage into energy is a particularly modern form of alchemy. We've seen it done on a smaller scale in the past, but now a company called Geoplasma is assembling the country's first plasma refuse plant in St. Lucie County, Florida. Scheduled to go online by 2011, the plant will process 1,500 tons of garbage a day, adding 60 megawatts to the power grid -- enough energy to power 50,000 homes. The plant works by vaporizing refuse with a 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit stream of plasma. The organic components (food, fluids, paper) create a pressurized gas that is then used to turn a turbine, while any inorganic refuse (metals) that may be present condenses, later to be collected for industrial uses. But will it power a Flux Capacitor?[Via Inhabitat]
London's new bomb-proof trash cans will survive the apocalypse, keep you updated on stock prices
London will be the first city to test out new bomb-proof garbage cans, which are also going to multitask as recycling bins with LCDs that stream travel info and news. Security concerns (AKA fear of terrorists dropping bombs in them) have kept rubbish bins out of subway stations and many of the city's streets since the mid-80's, causing frustration among citizens, not to mention what amounts to forced littering. The new cans, developed by British company Media Metrica, weigh one ton each, and were tested in the lifeless deserts of New Mexico for five years to ensure they are completely, totally indestructible, can absorb heat from explosives, prevent shrapnel spread, and extinguish "fireballs." Eh. Put 'em in New York City -- someone will surely figure out how to utterly destroy them in 24 hours or less.
Army generators turn garbage into energy, energy into freedom
Leave it to the Army to start putting garbage to good use. According to reports, a base in Baghdad known as Camp Victory has been getting some of its electricity from generators that turn waste products into sweet, succulent fuel. The device, dubbed the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery (or TGER, for short) can take food slop, plastic, paper, styrofoam, annoying kids, moist towelettes, or smaller, non-functioning versions of itself and mash them down to synthetic gas and hydrous ethanol. Of course the concept isn't without its shortcomings, as it pumps a hefty load of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -- but for a place that's short of fuel and high on trash, it's a dream come true.[Via Wired; Image courtesy US Army]
Rock Band Weekly: Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer and Garbage
We were going to start this post off with something about how half-Japanese girls do it to us every time, but considering many people never listened to Weezer's sophomore album Pinkerton, or the song El Scorcho, we were a little afraid of being called racists ('cause that's always fun). And yes, Rock Band Weekly is normally a Monday post, but because of the President's Day holiday, where we give thanks and praise to The Master, the DLC announcement came from Harmonix a bit early.Individual Songs Sex Type Thing - Stone Temple Pilots (160 MS points/ $2) El Scorcho - Weezer (160 MS points/ $2) Why Do You Love Me - Garbage (160 MS Points / $2) Videos for this week's Rock Band DLC can be found after the break. And make sure to check out what STP's Scott Weiland looked like before heroin. Just remember, these songs will be available next Tuesday for the Xbox 360 and Thursday for the PS3.
Anti-masterpiece theater presents: Postal
Critically bashed, critic-bashing and chronically inept filmmaker, Uwe Boll, has once again edited together a sequence of disparate and decidedly amateurish sequences into something loosely resembling a movie. No doubt risking some sort of infection, the folks at 1UP have embedded a NSFW and NSFH (Not Safe for Humanity) trailer of his latest videogame adaptation, Postal, into one of their pages. They're certainly a brave lot.Powered by Z-grade star power and disturbing nudity, the trailer boldly declares the film's intention to be the most disgusting and most offensive piece of celluloid known to man.So, just the usual Boll film then.[Thanks, Jonah]Watch -- Postal Trailers (yes, plural)
