A better way

In thinking about the antiquated technology we're presently using on the oil in the Gulf I think it's beyond time to rethink and redesign oil spill tech. With spills getting ever larger and the means based in tech that's 40+ years old the time is overdue. Here's just a few ideas that come to mind that would move us forward.


This is a frame press. It's used to separate water from wastes by forcing it through membranes or filters. This is actually a small version. They can be as big as the size of a small house and can process quite a bit of liquids with filters as big as 50 sq. ft. With BP using massive quantities of dispersants there now is no choice but to use different methods. We know that when oil is treated as BP did then the oil becomes heavier than water making the usual separation methods ineffective. All of Kevin Costner's good work gone down the drain. Had they attacked this problem like a military operation from the beginning there would have been less problems but that would be hindsight and there's no time for that now. At present we can only deal with all the mistakes made and learn to deal with it.


The 'A Whaler' was a good idea had it been readily available from the get go and dispersants not been used. But let's take some old technology twist it around a bit and see if we can't come up with better ideas. With some modifications I think the giant skimmer ship might be promising. I'd retrofit it with six large booms that could be extended out 40 or 50 feet off the port and starboard sides of the ship. At the end of each boom would be a floating collection box with a sweep and vacuum. A camera mounted at the end of each would help find the ribbons of oil. A couple of snorkels with camera could suck up a good bit of the undersea plumes.

I'm sure there are plenty of other good ideas out there just waiting to be perfected.

I'm glad to see this

Tesla Motors is getting a large government loan to start building it's electric cars. I think that's a good thing and will be the next generation for the auto industry. There are a few bugs to be worked out in making these cars. Mainly the way the batteries are produced. The raw materials come from Canada and are shipped to China then the finished batteries are sent to Japan. Why not just make them in Canada for transporting the finished product to the U.S.? I think that will be the wave of the future. Cars rather than being built with parts being shipped around the world will be built regionally thereby saving shipping costs. That sure would add to the labor force locally. The beauty of the electric car is that it has far fewer parts to wear out than a gas model and it runs (from what I hear) as well at the end of it's life as it did at the beginning. Then of course there's the issue of renewable energy to run those types of car.

I had been thinking about buying a Prius before the economy tanked.

Here's a few thoughts

Just thinking about how to get out of the current economic mess. We have three major auto companies on the ropes. The lay offs facing this industry looks as bad as the steel mills of the late 70s and into the 80s. We are to the point of importing massive quantities of oil each year thereby sending billions over seas. This oil will not last forever and it's destroying our environment. We are sitting on one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world far bigger than the oil in the middle east. To change from using gasoline to natural gas would be fairly cheap in terms of converting cars and changing distribution. That would create quite a few jobs in building new models converting old gas burners as well as natural gas production. This would be a temporary bridge to renewable technology and with fuel cell technology could lower green house gases in the process. If we can convince other countries to buy efficient well made cars that run on natural gas from us then we can easily sell the natural gas to them and have hundreds of billion coming back into this country. If the natural gas production and sales could be nationalized it would provide an income to finance healthcare, education and rather than build McMansions like Dubai that nobody could afford we could lower or eliminate taxes for everyone. Imagine having no national debt. This would give us the much needed time to develop other renewable energy technologies. This could cost in the hundreds of billion dollars but considering the pay back would be worth it. We just threw 700 billion down a black hole and we probably won't see a nickel back from that bail out.

Just when you thought you'd seen it all

Watching one of those futuristic programs on the science channel came across "Claytronics". It's hard to really discribe this research for a new technology. It is defined as programable matter. The best example I can think of would be the movie Terminator where solid robots can morph into any size or shaped object one could imagine. Well folks the whiz kids at Carnegie Mellon University are working on just that 'cantoms' nono material with computer built in that can take and change shape to any desired form.
I can only imagine what this new technology will do for the psyche of future generations. On the positive side are benefits in medicine, housing, energy, and a host of dangerous jobs that need non human replacments. On the negative side are the new weapons that could be created in a moments notice and like the Terminator would be unstoppable.
Claytronics


If you want to see some other interesting bits of the future:

Future tech