Solar Powered Camels

Good Morning All! As I was stumbling around this morning I came across an article at one of my favorite blogs, "Be The Change" This site is full of ways that the whole world can change for the better by using renewable energy sources, living green, and conserving what precious resources that are still left. I suggest you, my readers, check it out for it really deserves to be "The best of the web!"





Some of Kenya’s camels are carrying the solar-powered mini fridges on their backs as part of a test project that uses camels as mobile health clinics. It is hoped that the eco-friendly transport system will provide a cheap, reliable way of getting much-needed medicines and vaccines to rural communities in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The Nomadic Communities Trust has been using camels as mobile health clinics in isolated areas with few roadways in Kenya, but up to now has been unable to deliver medicines and vaccines that require refrigeration. In 2005, Nomadic Communities Trust partnered with California’s Art Center College of Design’s Designmatters and Princeton’s Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM) to create a lightweight and durable solar-powered refrigerator that can be strapped to camels’ backs in order to transport chilled medicines and vaccines.

The mini fridge is housed in a bamboo saddle that is lightweight and durable enough for camels to easily carry it across miles of rough terrain. The solar panels can also be used by the mobile clinics for lighting and refrigeration in the field.

Designmatters‘ executive director, Mariana Amatullo, said the project was designed with a budget of only a few thousand dollars and the device was tested on the Bronx Zoo's camels to save money.

The fridges are currently being tested on camels in Kenya and Ethiopia, but Amatullo says the system could be used by any rural communities with access to camels. If the project gets enough funding, it will be implemented in 2010.



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Top Trivia Learned From Sweet & Sour Sauce

Author: Kasan Groupe

3. Albert Einstein never learned how to drive a car. You would think that a super genius like this wouldn’t even need to drive a car; that he could simply use his uncanny brain powers to make himself levitate down the road. I would think that he didn’t have time to learn how to drive because he was mastering atomic theory and thinking up ways to be smarter than the average bear. Of course, had he taken the time to learn how to drive, he probably would have just picked it up in about 10 seconds and been able to beat every race driver ever because he would have used his awesome theory of relativity, or something, to make his car faster than all the others. Who knows. All I know is that I learned this from a packet of sweet and sour sauce.

2. The parking meter was invented in North Dakota. Who would have thought that the parking meter would be invented in a state that has approximately three residents? Maybe there was only one parking spot and the other party got so riled up by one of the other two people using it all the time that they came up with a way to keep them out by making them pay to be in that spot for only a certain amount of time. And considering that it was North Dakota, I’m fairly certain that the only reason that one of these dudes parked illegally outside of some store for too long was to run in and get themselves some new truck accessories.

1. New Jersey and Oregon are the only two states where it is illegal to pump your own gas. Now this one is just plain stupid. Either that or all of the residents in these respective states are that dumb. Maybe the mob controls all the gas stations in New Jersey and wants to keep their friends from being unemployed. And in Oregon, I have to assume that all of the tree huggers there don’t know how to pump gas, or don’t want to, cause it might endanger Mother Earth in some way. Well boo-hoo Oregonians, get over yourself. Just tell yourself that the earth likes it when you fuel your hybrid cars with her and go plant some more trees to try in vain to save her.

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Top Trivia Learned From Sweet & Sour Sauce

Is The World Getting Odder?

Author: Knight Pierce Hirst

Oddity #1: As of 2009 there are more new fragrances released yearly than there were in the 1970's and 1980's combined - at least 500 a year. In 2008 celebrity scents made up 10% of fragrance sales - more than 3 million bottles. It seems perfume is the best way to sell celebrity. The perfume houses don't pay for what's in the bottles. Fragrance manufacturers develop scents for free and share the profits with the perfume houses. Also, having celebrities' names on the bottles saves millions of advertising dollars. Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, 50 Cent - celebrities are profitably "scentimental".

Oddity #2: In 2009 the ball was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The curator explained that the Ball had just gotten in because the Toy Hall of Fame didn't come into existence until 1998 and because only 2 or 3 toys are inducted a year. Both the Atari 2600 Game System and the Nintendo Game Boy were already in. So were the Cardboard Box and the Stick. Obviously, those who decide which toys are inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame hadn't been keeping their eyes on the ball.

Oddity #3: On November 1, 2009 family and friends identified the body of 59-year-old Ademir Jorge Goncalves, a bricklayer in southern Brazil, who had died in a car crash. The funeral took place the following day, the Day of the Dead, a holiday when Latin Americans pray for family and friends who have died and remember them with gifts. When Goncalves attended his own funeral, shocked relatives tried to jump out of windows in the funeral home. Although Goncalves wasn't dead, he'd been dead the night before - dead drunk in a bar near the crash site.

Oddity #4: On November 11, 2009 Forbes magazine ranked Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman 41st on its list of the world's most powerful people. That ranking put him ahead of Russian President Medvedev (43), Oprah Winfrey (45), Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu (46) and U.S. Chief Justice Roberts (49). Guzman isn't a world leader, a religious leader or a humanitarian. He's a reputed, Mexican drug lord, head of the Sinaloa Cartel, with a $5 million reward on his head. Over the past 8 years Guzman has shipped between $6 billion and $19 billion in cocaine to the U.S. The world's 41st most powerful person is a drug dealer addicted to power.

About the Author:

Knight Pierce Hirst has written for television, newspapers and greeting cards. Now she writes a 400-word blog three times a week. KNIGHT WATCH, a second look at what makes life interesting, takes only seconds to read at http://knightwatch.typepad.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Is The World Getting Odder?