The booms look like big hair sausages--not too pretty, but they work. Thousands of tiny scales on the suce of hair make it a natural sponge for oil. The best thing is that the booms are reusable after the oil is squeezed out.
Still plenty to see at Macworld 2012The Macworld expo is not what it once was, but you wouldnt know it from the excitement from both vendors and Mac ithful who attended this years show.
Technically Incorrect
Cutting Edge
Intel pays $120M for RealNetworks video patents, softwareIntel buys more video clout with foundational patents and next-generation encoding software. Video is spreading to every sort of gadget, and its a market with abundant patent challenges.
Cutting Edge
Tim HornyakCrave freelancer Tim Hornyak is the author of Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots. He has been writing about Japanese culture and technology for a decade. Tim is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive.E-mail Tim.
.mad_center text-align:center .mad_center div, .mad_center table, .mad_center iframe, .mad_center a img margin-left: auto; margin- auto
HP 2311x review: A great monitor? Or simply a cheap one?The HP 2311x includes the connection option trifecta and a low price, but is it any good?
Its encouraging people to make their own hair booms (see the video below). The manucturing process isnt automated, and it takes about 2 minutes to thoroughly stuff a nylon with hair, according to Matter of Trust.
The notion of deploying hair to soak up oil spills isnt new. Hairdresser Phil McCrory, who helps Matter of Trust, was inspired to use hair stockings against oil after watching coverage of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. In 1995, he received a patent for his idea. A Nashville-based company calledWorld Response Groupproduces hair mats from his invention--see a video featuring NASA testing ithere.
Hair, fur, pantyhose deployed to fight oil spill_ toilet plunger,Some 400,000 pounds of hair and fur are heading toward the Gulf Coast, where locals are set to gather for Boom-B-Qs. Residents in Alabama and Florida are collecting cut hair and stuffing it into pantyhose to make oil-absorbing hair booms.
In 2009, studies by the University of the Philippines showed the environmental and economic effects of the slick were still being felt three years after the tanker went down; indeed, Prince William Soundhas yet to recoverfrom the Valdez spill. Lets hope locals on the Gulf can deploy as many hair booms as possible to mitigate the disaster on their front door.
San Francisco-based nonprofit groupMatter of Trusthas been receiving hundreds of tons of hair and fur donations from barber shops, groomers, and salons throughout the U.S., as well as Canada, Europe, and Brazil.
Digital Media
Edison tops Jobs as worlds greatesttoilet plunger innovatorThe inventor of the light bulb and phonograph was named the greatest innovator of all time among 52 percent of the young people polled, surpassing the late Apple leader at 24 percent.
In 2006, prison inmates in the Philippines were among those who donated hair (as well as chicken feathers) to help mop up asevere spillfrom a tanker that sank off the central Philippine island of Guimaras.
Apparently, 4-inch PVC piping and toilet plungers are the best means to get the hair or fur into the stocking legs. The hosiery is bundled together into a sturdy mesh casing to increase absorbency.
Facebook denies Anonymous claims of takedownA Twitter feed from an Anonymous account claims it caused Facebook problems, with some intermittent outage. Facebook says it was nothing of the sort.
The group has received a pledge of 37,500 pairs of pantyhose from hosiery marketerHanesbrands, which is giving another 12,500 pairs to theSunshine and Shores Foundationin Florida. The foundation plans to make 1 million hair booms over the next three weeks, according to areportin the South Florida Business Journal.
North Korean government labels cell phone users as war criminalsNorth Korea is one of the most closed-off countries in the world, and now its government is trying to limit information flow even more by threatening to punish cell phone users.
Want better EV range? Hitch it to a fuel cellStartup Oorja Protonics has developed a methanol fuel cell to give battery-powered forklifts a lift and its planning to apply the same hybrid approach in fleet vehicles.
Weve seenrobots being deployedto help stop the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and now workers have lowered a hugecontainment domeover the gusher. But environmental groups and local residents are helping out with a much lower-tech solution--using hair, pet fur, and pantyhose to clean up the mess.
Flower power: Ford interiors made of tropical plantThe door bolsters inside Fords latest Escape SUV will be made with a tropical plant called kenaf, offsetting 300 pounds of oil-based reins per year. The SUV will be 85 percent recyclable.
Apple
Cutting Edge
The name says it all. Crave is our blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. If you would like to contact Crave with a tip or comment, please write to:[email protected]
Deep Tech
Crave
