Kacie Kinzer designed small cardboard robots with smiling faces that will move only forward and left them running around New York City. The question: would passers-by help the cute little Tweenbots get to their destination?
*
These guys had to repossess a Prius from somewhere between Camelot and Middle Earth. Is that any way to treat a princess?
Try No Dig Gardening for Your Backyard Vegetables. Treehugger has an overview with links to other resources. (via Boing Boing Gadgets)
*
Top 10 Ridiculously Common Science Myths. Of course, YOU already know the truth about these, don’t you?
*
LED clock made from an old hard drive. Groovy colors in recycled geeky goodness!
*
Food stamps and child nutrition programs are expected to cost up to $900 million more this year because of increased ethanol use. Diverting the corn crop away from food affects the price of corn, corn syrup, corn starch, animal feed (and therefore meat) plus other crops that are displaced to grow more corn.
*
The ways people dealt with summer heat before air conditioning also helped us get to know our neighbors. They don’t build homes like that much anymore.
Comments (8)
Comment
- subscribe /
- give a gift /
- terms of service /
- about /
- contact us /
- write for us /
- ad info /
- subscriber services /
- press /
- privacy policy /
- rss /
© 2012 Mental Floss Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mental Floss is a registered trademark owned by Felix Dennis. mentalfloss.com is a trademark owned by Felix Dennis.
Disclaimer: All submissions made to mental_floss become the property of Mental Floss Inc and may be used without further permission by the submitter and without compensation to the submitter. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not submit anything to mental_floss.
Poor ethanol. One of the only serious attempts made to reduce the use of gas, and it ends up being the bad guy. 10 to 15 % of the rise in food prices? Last I checked, that doesn’t make it the main part of the problem. Someone made a story out of it on NPR or in Time or something, and now everyone thinks that it is fact. To focus so disproportionately on ethanol for the rise in food prices is demented.
Besides, do any of these experts take into account what higher corn prices mean for farmers and their families? It’s not like most of them are rolling in the dough–can you blame them for taking advantage of something that actually pays them decently for their crop? Of course, most of the people crapping on ethanol as the next great evil live in cities and probably don’t even realize that there *are* farmers in the U.S. or have any ideas of what their lives are like. Another example of passionate and idealistic theory taking the world by storm without necessarily grounding itself in reality (or at least considering the whole picture).
posted by kate on 4-13-2009 at 10:49 am
Another thing I heard about air conditioning architecture is that plantation homes in the South were build with the wrap-around porches for cool walks around the house.
And that the front and back doors of the home were built parallel so that if opened, both doors could be a breezeway.
Kinda neat how they figured out ways to beat the heat. Even in hoop skirts.
posted by Tracie on 4-13-2009 at 10:50 am
Tracie, since that article was published, I bought a Victorian home with a wraparound porch. It’s 104 years old. I am in heaven (and in debt)!
posted by Miss Cellania on 4-13-2009 at 10:53 am
The federal government’s subsidization of ethanol through different energy bills gave rise to the current debate over the efficiency of ethanol production. In an unsubsidized economy, the market pricing system for ethanol consumption and the capital goods essential in its production will soon be evidence of if ethanol production corroborates an efficient and viable investment. Thus, the continual requirement for an ethanol subsidy suggests that the latter criteria are not met in ethanol production.
If ethanol production were indeed profitable it wouldn’t need subsidization because consumers would pay for ethanol-enhanced fuel at a price that would supply a reasonable rate of return to producers. This in turn means that the manufacturers of capital goods crucial to ethanol production would also be given a rate of return on their investment that would permit them to profitably resume producing capital goods essential to ethanol production.
posted by Maggie Penn on 4-13-2009 at 11:54 am
I always thought people exploded in space.
I’m sure it’s still not a pleasant way to die.
posted by Kung Pow HausFrau on 4-13-2009 at 12:25 pm
If you went to the science myth list, and then from there you checked out the food myth. I have to debunk one of their myth explanations. Most decaf coffee of decent quality is decaffeinated by the swiss water process. Not that crazy chemical process.
posted by Steve-O on 4-13-2009 at 7:57 pm
I totally saw the Operation Repo episode with the Prius!! It was hilarious how everyone stayed in character!! Love that show I suggest everyone to saw it. It’s so intense and everyone gets into a fight on every episode!! I’m watching it right now!
:o)
posted by Lindsey on 4-13-2009 at 10:54 pm
There’s a new Tweenbots video where an animated Ferret gently guides a Tweenbot to safety. Look it up on youtube.
posted by Tory on 4-14-2009 at 8:33 am