Images of liberals as vegetarian, multi-grain-bread-loving hippies and conservatives as fried-chicken-idolizing McDonald's lovers are more than just stereotypes--they're based on real trends, according to Hunch's new "How Food Preferences Vary by Ideology" report.
The decision-making site, masterminded by Flickr's Caterina Fake, gathered information for the report from two sets of data: the 25 million "Teach Hunch About You" questions that have been answered to date (i.e. "Do you like snowcones?" or "Are you superstitious?") and correlations between Hunch's questions about political ideology and food preference.
Hunch's results range from the unsurprising to the just plain weird (conservatives prefer iceberg lettuce while liberals favor arugula). But in a nutshell, the report can be summarized as follows: Conservatives like meat, comfort foods, cheeseburgers, deep dish pizza, and wooden, country-style kitchens. Liberals are vegetarian brie-lovers who enjoy wine, international food, and sleek, stainless steel-style kitchens.
The world may never know why liberals like Samoa Girl Scout cookies more than conservatives, but many of these trends can be explained by regional differences. For example, liberals heavily populate the coasts, where international food is extremely popular. And fried chicken is beloved by the more conservative South.
Of course, some things cross political lines. Liberals and conservatives are split on whether cilantro is gross, and few non-vegetarian respondents could turn down a good hot dog.
All the major automakers (with the glaring exception of Chrysler) are racing to bring plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) to market, and with good reason. The cars decrease our reliance on ever-dwindling supplies of petroleum while also cutting tailpipe emissions. But the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) in the U.K. warns that PHEVs might actually speed up climate change if we're not careful.
According to a new report from the ETA, PHEVs can result in higher CO2 emissions and oil consumption if coal continues to be a major source of electricity for the power grid. The ETA claims, in fact, that under the current EU emissions trading system, PHEVs will definitely increase emissions. The U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) agrees--in a report last year, the organization also found that emissions will increase unless we lessen our reliance on coal.
Not everyone agrees. The Electric Drive Transport Association, which obviously has a vested interest in the adoption of PHEVs, assures us that "Even with today's mix of grid electricity sources, which is dominated
by coal, the use of grid power instead of petroleum is a net benefit
for the environment. As grid-power becomes even cleaner over time, the
greenhouse gas reduction and other air quality benefits of plug-in
vehicles will be even greater."
It's a valid point, and automakers would be unwise to halt their PHEV production programs now. And the ETA also makes some good recommendations for how governments can stop PHEVs from increasing emissions: tighten long-term CO2 standards for vehicles, increase fuel taxes, and don't shy away from regular, non-plug in hybrids.
Is the next big trend in fashion going to be geek chic? We recently saw computer-generated jewelry from Nervous System and data-driven jewelry from Plot Shop. Now Cute Circuit has introduced the LED Galaxy Dress--a blindingly bright piece of clothing that's decked out with 24,000 full-color LEDs.
Lest you think the presence of thousands of 2x2 millimeter lights isn't attention-getting enough, Cute Circuit has also hand-applied 4,000 Swarovski crystals to glitter up the dress when the LEDs go out. The dress sucks up surprisingly little energy. A few iPod batteries can keep the LEDs going for up to an hour--just enough time to make a big impression at a party (and raise awareness of the power of LED bulbs).
The prototype dress is currently on permanent display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, but don't be surprised if similar designs from Cute Circuit end up on next season's runway.
The U.S health-care debate may be centered around money, but researchers at the University of Chicago recently published a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association looking at a different kind of cost: the carbon footprint of our massive health care system. Unsurprisingly, health care has a doozy of a footprint--it's responsible for 8% of all CO2 emissions in the country.
So where is all that CO2 coming from? Mostly hospitals, which have complex ventilation and temperature control systems along with energy-intensive lighting and equipment. The pharmaceutical industry is the second biggest CO2 spewer thanks to energy-heavy research, manufacturing, and transportation.
As a fix, the U of Chicago researchers recommend that hospitals implement recycling programs and buy from greener suppliers (obviously?). We might also suggest that larger hospitals look into carbon accounting software.
Incidentally, the public vs. private health care quandary has little to do with the industry's carbon footprint. Britain's National Health Service is the country's biggest public sector contributor of CO2, and it's responsible for a quarter of the country's CO2 emissions. Perhaps the next big health care debate, then, will be about how to minimize environmental impact while maintaining quality customer care and pharmaceutical programs.
Last year, I had the chance to check out a number of green building materials in Ford's vehicle pipeline. Some of these materials have yet to see the light of day--Indian grass molding compounds, anyone?--but Ford has finally brought wheat straw-reinforced plastic to market, in the 2010 Ford Flex's third-row storage bins.
It's a bigger deal than you'd think. The natural fiber-based plastic, which contains 20% wheat straw bio-filler, cuts down on Ford's petroleum usage by 20,000 pounds each year, reduces CO2 emissions by 30,000 pounds each year, and represents an innovative use for the waste byproduct of wheat. Now that wheat straw plastic has proven to work in the Flex's storage bins, Ford may bring the material to center console bins and trays, door panels, and armrest liners. That means even more of the 30 million metric tons of wheat straw waste that are tossed by the wayside in the Flex's production hometown of Ontario will get a second life.
Ford isn't the only car company to explore alternate uses for recycled and bio-based materials. Last year, 9% of all materials made out of high-density polyethylene (milk cartons, laundry detergent bottles, etc.) were used in U.S.-based automotive parts. Up to 10% of all plastics in GM cars are made of recycled content, and Toyota plans to make 60% of its interior vehicle parts out of plant-based materials in the next year. So if it's successful, Ford's bet on wheat straw means your next vehicle--whatever the brand--might contain a whole lot more wheat.
Forget the Iron Curtain--we'll all be living behind solar curtains if Konarka Technologies has its way. The organic solar cell company has teamed up with Arch Aluminum and Glass to test out so-called "solar curtains," or walls of solar panels integrated into buildings. The curtains, which are made out of Konarka's plastic solar film and encased in glass, are certainly attractive. But do they make sense?
Konarka's pilot project will take place at an Arch office building in Tamarac, Florida, where the south and east-facing walls will be covered in solar cells. The cells are expected to generate 1.5 kW of power for the facility, but panels of Konarka's plastic cells only have 3% efficiency (compared to 22% for ultra-efficient silicon cells). Add in the high costs of installation, electrical wiring, and maintenance, and the solar curtains hardly seem worth it.
That's not to say we should give up on building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) forever. Konarka claims that it has produced cells in its lab that get up to 6.4% efficiency. These cells could one day be commercialized. Konarka and Arch will find out potential manufacturing and installation costs for the solar curtains once the pilot project is over, but for now, we should probably remain content with rooftop solar.
It seems impossible, but biofuel startup Joule Biotechnologies claims that it has successfully produced fuel out of thin air--sort of. The company's mysterious engineered microbes require just sunlight and CO2 to squirt out ethanol, diesel, or other hydrocarbons.
Joule's Helioculture process uses photosynthetic microbes placed in a non-freshwater solution. The organisms capture sunlight and produce "Joule liquid energy," which is similar to biofuel but isn't derived from biomass.
Unlike similar algae fuel solutions, Joule's process doesn't require feedstock or fresh water and can be conducted on non-arable land. The process also produces a whopping 20,000 gallons per acre, compared to 400 gallons per acre for corn ethanol. According to Joule, this is all possible because of the discovery of genes inside its proprietary microbes that allow for the direct synthesis of alkane and olfin molecules--the chemicals involved in the composition of diesel fuel. From there, it's easy to generate ethanol and other types of fuel.
Sound too good to be true? Some people think so, but Joule claims that it has already generated fuel using its process in the lab. Next up: testing out the process in a pilot plant by 2011. At the very least, we don't expect Joule to run out of money any time soon--the startup was founded by Flagship Ventures CEO Noubar Afeyan, and it has raised an undisclosed amount of money from the firm.
After the pain, the worst part of breaking a leg or ankle is the helplessness of having to hobble around on crutches. But what if you could trade in crutches for your very own prosthetic leg--without cutting off a real one? That's what FWD Mobility's Freedom Leg, an "off-loading prosthetic," allows users to do.
The Freedom Leg, designed from ultra lightweight composite materials, weighs just 2.6 pounds. (It's only slightly less cool than these casts.) The device straps to the thigh, and users simply walk normally to transfer the weight of everything from the knee down to the uninjured upper leg. The advantage of the Leg over crutches is twofold: it allows users to use both hands, and it keeps the upper leg muscles from withering.
FWD Mobility's Freedom Leg isn't yet available, but it is expected to cost $350 when it is released. A hefty sum, but isn't it worth it to have the freedom of mobility?
The world's first solar-sail-powered spacecraft, Cosmos 1, met its demise in 2005 when it fell into the ocean before ever reaching orbit. But dreams of solar sails propelling spaceships haven't died, and Carl Sagan's Planetary Society is gearing up to launch the LightSail-1 solar sail craft by the end of 2010.
Solar-sail technology has long been theorized to be one of the keys to long-term interstellar flight. Sails are theoretically propelled by the pressure of photons (light) pushing against them. Initially, the pressure moves the sails slowly, but the constant push eventually propels the sails to high speeds.
LightSail-1 won't go on a high-speed journey through the Milky Way, however. The bread box-sized device will pop out of a rocket, unfurl its four sails to an area of about 340 square feet, and drift in space for a few days while the Planetary Society tests its ability to be accelerated and be controlled.
The $1.8-million, privately-funded journey is the first in a series of three planned LightSail missions. LightSail 2 will carry scientific instruments and float in space for a few months, and LightSail 3 is expected to prove that solar sails can provide an early warning station for geomagnetic storms that disturb satellite technology.
Solar sails probably won't propel us, Star Trek-style, to far-off galaxies--it would take 100 years for a solar sail-powered ship to reach another star system--but they might just be our best hope for space travel in a resource-constrained world.
For those of us who don't yet have smart meters, smart electrical sockets might be the next best thing. Sure, power-monitoring plugs are nothing new, and devices like the Ted 5000 and AlertMe already let customers attach hardware to traditional power meters to monitor energy and control appliances. But Zerofootprint's TalkingPlug, set to begin trials next week, combines the monitoring capabilities of other smart plug devices like the Kill-a-Watt with the control capabilities of power meter-rigged devices.
The device, which fits on top of existing electrical sockets, come with an RFID chip, a microprocessor, and wireless networking capabilities. Like traditional smart plugs, the TalkingPlug offers up detailed information on how much energy an electrical socket is using. But the device goes one step further by allowing users to program plugged-in appliances to turn on and off at certain times. A laptop, for example, could be set to turn on at 7 p.m. and shut off at midnight every day.
The TalkingPlug also adds a social component to energy use. Each set of plugs creates a mesh network that sends energy information to Zerofootprint, where it is analyzed and relayed back to the user for comparison against other TalkingPlug users.
When compared to hardware-based solutions like the Ted 5000 (a $200 device), the TalkingPlug isn't exactly economical--at an estimated $50 a pop, it could get expensive trying to outfit an entire home with smart plugs. But If the plug is ever mass-produced, Zerofootprint claims the price could drop. By that time, however, we might all be using smart grid-aware appliances.
