Pedro Assunção » environment

Trekking goodness

Pedro Assunção — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:27:50 +0000

Trekking, what a great way to spend time with friends, enjoy the wilderness, and exercise, all at the same time. I just came back from the hardest one so far. It was 2 days of very real mountain climbing (we managed to move about 1.1km vertically, for a grand total of 30km on the entire trip). Suffice to say I was exhausted when it ended and that yesterday’s dinner was the best meal of my life

I’m in the process of uploading the video of the trip and will share it as the conversion process finishes on vimeo.com.

Peace all

Lighter naval ships made of aluminum foam

Pedro Assunção — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:40:06 +0000

I can’t believe this is so hard to find on Google. Someone sent me a documentary video (in Portuguese – unfortunately – but, if you understand German, the creators of this idea speak in their native language) and i can find hardly any references to this online.

It’s basically about using a special aluminum powder that, when heated, transforms into a foam that is – check it out – lighter than water. Yes, imagine ships 30% lighter, that can carry many many more tons of materials. Less trips = less pollution = win/win

Here’s a link to a 1998 paper about this.

I wonder if this technology is already in use in today’s ships and, if not, why?

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Zen garden

Pedro Assunção — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:52:47 +0000

My mother just offered me a mini zen garden. How cool is that?

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Most amazing picture of diver and a whale

Pedro Assunção — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:10:29 +0000

I can’t resist sharing this because it’s simply one of the best pictures i have seen. This is one of those times when i really feel how so damn small and insignificant we are compared to the rest of nature. Incredible!

High five, dude!!

You can see more pictures in the original article.

New cockroach species found in New York

Pedro Assunção — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:05:18 +0000

It seems a new type of cockroach might have been discovered in a new york apartment. Mutation, very-shy-hidden-for-ages-type, I have no idea but, according to the article:

“[Closely-related] species don’t differ [by] more than one percent, [while] this cockroach is four percent different, (…) This suggests it is a new species of cockroach.”

So there you have it. If it’s indeed a case of mutation (think pollution) I wonder how long until we start growing extra limbs…

Mars produces Methane, and so do I

Pedro Assunção — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:00:58 +0000

Turns out that the methane that was found on Mars is not a product of meteor strikes, scientists have found, which means Mars actually produces methane.

My question is: Where are the green aliens that fart all day to produce it?

NOTE: After careful investigation, I found the following: “According to Dr. James L. A. Roth, the author of Gastrointestinal Gas (Ch. 17 in Gastroenterology, v. 4, 1976) most people (2/3 of adults) pass farts that contain no methane. If both parents are methane producers, their children have a 95% chance of being producers as well.”. Go figure.

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Can we finally get rid of oil?

Pedro Assunção — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:36:30 +0000

The other day I watched a movie entitled “the age of stupid“. Long story short, it shows the point of view of someone who, around 2055, survived a human species near eradication and built a tower with all the digital records of mankind and a bunch of other stuff too, like frozen animals, art pieces, etc. Just imagine a Noah’s arc on steroids – except for the fact that it’s not an arc, it’s a tower.

Anyways, he basically spends the entire movie preaching about our inability to be smart about the environment and supporting his words with snippets of TV news (actual footage from our times) about the environment, what oil companies are doing in developing countries, what we do with our cars and our planes, and so forth. This made me realize that I’m probably not doing enough for the environment and should start doing something about that fact.

In any case, today I just read about a new breakthrough in solar energy harnessing. Scientists made a discovery that allows a new type of solar panel to be 6x more efficient than traditional zync panels (the ones typically used today in solar power installations). It can even work underground! Can we ditch oil once we figure out how to replace plastics, now?