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Posts Tagged “

Oil

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transportation

Gasoline Grows On Trees

Apparently scientists (and some of our readers, surely) have known that we can grow oil for years, and not in the grow-corn-make-oil kind of way. The Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii can be tapped (ala maple syrup) for a natural diesel fuel that requires only simple filtering before being poured into a truck. (This picture is of the tree's cells.) The catch? The diesel only has a shelf-life of about 3 months.

So how many trees would it take to match the oil output of, say, Saudi Arabia? Check our stats after the jump.

More »

9:50 AM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By Mark Wilson
55,025 views, 103 comments

Latest by jaramiewright: I think the best be in the long run is matter antimatter annihilation. Think about it a pure conversion of more »

business time

Spaceship Fragrance Oil Warmer (Appropriate for Flash Gordon's Bedroom)

You finally brought that man/woman of your dreams back to your space den, and you're trying to seal the deal. May I suggest using this $15 Spaceship Fragrance Oil Warmer, the geekiest love aid we've ever seen. Imported from far off galaxies and recommended by captains by the name of Kirk, Gordon, Solo and Zapp Brannigan, I'm not sure how you could go wrong except if you tipped it over and caused a chemical fire in deep space and your airlocks all blew out before you finished your business time. [product page via Nerd Approved]

1:30 PM on Fri Mar 7 2008
By Benny Goldman
4,572 views, 27 comments

Latest by BongoFury: This thing has Zapp Brannigan written all over it. Perfect for wooing green alien slavechicks! more »

clean up

OSP Robot Is Human Sized Roomba For Oil Spills

Designer Ji-hoon Kim has come up with an ingenuous idea for cleaning up oil spills. Using various features such as boom control modules, solar panels, oil protection boom, communication modules, boom connectors, and propulsion modules the OSP robots work together to surround an oil spill site with an inflatable barrier. Once the site has been contained the cleaning crews can easily remove the oil from the water. If saving the planet wasn't cool enough, an OSP robot is actually the size of a grown human and a group of bots can easily be deployed via helicopter or boat. The only thing we can think of to make these bots better is a speaker that would play their slogan as they work, DEPLOY - UNITE - SIEGE. [Yanko Design]

4:10 PM on Tue Mar 4 2008
By Christopher Mascari
3,331 views, 22 comments

Latest by Knirfie: thats a lot of boom. more »

gross

Hippies Using Human Hair to Soak Up Oil Spills


If you've given more than a second glance to your greasy IT guy's matted, oily hair—or just don't wash your own that often, you might pick up that our hair holds onto oil like gas'll hit $100/gallon tomorrow. Gross, yeah, but apparently useful! Some hippies are taking mats made of human hair to mop up oil on SF beaches, which are then packed with oil-eating shrooms that turn the pads into compost for lovely landscaping. See, Exxon helps the environment! [Pop Sci]

7:00 PM on Wed Nov 14 2007
By Matt Buchanan
2,317 views, 18 comments

Latest by aj8321: $100/gallon ? A more realistic number would be $100/barrel. 1 barrel= 42 gallons more »