Miscellaneous
World’s largest fashion retailer bans cruel angora wool
The human race is cruel: Angora wool is made by ripping the fur out of live rabbits. A recent investigation by animal rights group PETA found that standards and conditions, as well as the means for producing Chinese angora wool—where 90 percent of angora is made—is cruel to animals. Now Read More...
Job market at its strongest since 2000
The federal government released their January jobs report detailing the current state of the US job market, and the findings are quite optimistic. Right now the job market is accelerating at a pace not seen for 15 years. Additionally the size of the US labor force increased an impressive 703,000 in Read More...
Trains get more sustainable
Under the right conditions, trains can be the most sustainable form of transportation. Now there’s a new kind of rail tie that makes trains even more sustainable. The company is making the rail is called Greenrail and their railroad tie is more durable than current concrete ties, by upwards of 30 Read More...
Dubai’s municipal vehicles will run on 100% biodiesel
Dubai will soon be the first municipality in the world to run all of its vehicles—buses included—on cleaner biodiesel. Biodiesel is made from reused cooking oil and pollutes 84 percent less than conventional fossil diesel. All biodiesel used in Dubai’s vehicles will be sourced from inside the Read More...
Octopus inspired underwater vehicle
In order to reach top speeds under water most creatures, and vehicles, are sleek and streamlined—except cephalopods. Octopus and other cephalopods get up to top speed with their rigid outer bodies by quickly shooting out ingested water. Now engineers have taken the same idea and applied it to Read More...
Robotic lasers take out brain tumors with precision
One of the hardest parts of removing brain a tumor is taking out the right amount of matter. You don’t want to take out too much brain matter, because ever piece is vital, but if you don’t take out enough of the tumor, then you risk having it grow back. Scientists have recently developed a way Read More...
Apple will build giant solar powered facility
Apple has plans to spend $2 billion building a giant, completely solar powered data center which will act as the hub for it’s global network of data centers. The facility will be built in Arizona and should employ some 600 engineers to complete the project. The 1.3 million square foot center will Read More...
Energizer announces recycled batteries
Batteries are made of nasty chemicals that are horrible for the environment. Even if you recycle them, they aren’t reused as batteries—until now. Energizer has announced a new battery called the EcoAdvanced. The EcoAdvanced is made partially from old, used batteries. Energizer takes the used Read More...
Movable trailer produces wind and solar energy at disaster sites
After a flood or an earthquake the difference between life and death is often no more than a few minutes. Power is usually knocked out in a disaster area, and getting it up and running means more lives can be saved faster. Now a company that creates power-generating trailers has developed one Read More...
Do squats for a free train ticket
A couple years ago Mexico usurped the US and is now the most obese nation on the planet. With that, the government raised taxes on sodas, but now they have a more creative approach to getting their citizens to exercise. Mexican officials are installing motion sensitive machines in various train Read More...