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This printer gives me hope that one day I might own a cute printer  

Printers are ugly. Big time ugly. They also haven't changed much over time. It's not like we went from a cuddly soft printer to a more industrial one — they've always looked cold and unlovable. A man named Ludwig Rensch envisioned a new kind of printer that challenges old standards. Take that, old printers. His design experiment, Paper, is a copier, scanner, and printer that looks like a thing I would willfully put in my house. Check it out in the photos below and the video above.

Paper

Paper

This isn't the first time someone has attempted to make a pretty printer. In 2013 there was the Little Printer, which was definitely high up on the cute scale but no longer exists. Samsung also created t...

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Cities can decouple pollution from growth  
This piece is co-authored by Bettina Kamuk, Global Market Director, Ramboll Energy

From July 10 decision makers from all over the world gather at the World Cities Summit in Singapore. Waste-to-energy plants and other smart approaches can help them save money while at the same time create a more sustainable environment.



On the small Copenhagen island Amager where I work in Ramboll Headquarters, we are helping to build a spectacular plant. On the outside, the Copenhill waste-to-energy facility has climbing walls and ski slopes. Inside it raises the bar for resource optimisation with an energy efficiency of 107% and high potential for recycling and recovery.

On a somewhat bigger Island, Pulau Ujung where the majority of Singapore's citizens live, we are helping to build another plant that is spectacular in other ways: It will be the world's largest of its kind, and integrated with an adjacent water reclamation plant to fully exploit the synergies between waste and wastewater treatment.

Waste-to-energy-plants like these are one of the solutions to the global growth challenge, as identified by NGOs such as the World Wildlife Fund: A paradox at this point in history is that cities are requiring so many resources yet producing so little - aside from a lot of waste.


Waste-to-energy generates renewable energy to a city and recovers metals from bottom ash. The technology is therefore one of the hot topics on the World Cities Summit 2016 in Singapore. The summit will explore how cities can better govern and build resilience through policy, technology and social innovations.

One way for cities to succeed and attract new citizens is to coordinate better between political administrations and combine with for example innovative water technology. According to a Harvard University Study, the use of trees, plants and open spaces - so called green infrastructure - can not only reduce floods and water pollution but also provide many benefits for public health, local communities, and the environment.

If combined with canals and other waterways - so-called blue-green infrastructure - the benefits are even larger, as cities such as Singapore and Greater Copenhagen have learned. However, the first thing to ensure if cities want their inhabitants to thrive is to decouple pollution from growth - and thereby making it possible to reduce air and water pollution while enabling growth. It can be done not only in the Western world, but also in for example Middle Eastern cities such as Jeddah and Indian cities such as Udaipur.

Experience has shown that you get the best results if your approach is trans-disciplinary - and if your long term planning integrates green energy, climate adaptation and other necessary sustainable steps early in the construction of building or infrastructure.

If cities manage to adapt this holistic approach, they will be able to save money and at the same time reduce inconvenience and create a more sustainable environment. Just like Copenhagen and Singapore are doing it with the two future waste-to-energy plants.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Frogs that can take the heat expected to fare better in a changing world  
Amphibians that tolerate higher temperatures are likely to fare better in a world affected by climate change, disease and habitat loss, according to two recent studies.  
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Marine heatwave triggers dramatic ecosystem transition  
Rapid warming off the western coast of Australia has transformed large stretches of kelp forests into tropical and subtropical marine ecosystems, a new study reports.  
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What An Hour Of Emotion Makes Visible  

Kim was an accomplished doctor with plenty of friends. But a few pulses from an electromagnet to her brain at age 54 made her reconsider how she sees herself — and the world.

 
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Dishonesty is aggressively punished in the world of paper wasps  

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Is honesty really the best policy? Isn't it more beneficial to cheat, if you can get away with it? A study from the insect world provides a new perspective on honest communication by showing that paper wasps that send dishonest signals are aggressively punished, and the drubbing can have long-term impacts. Pictured here, two female paper wasps are fighting. In laboratory experiments, bouts between rival females were videotaped and aggression was scored based on the number of mounts, bites, grapples and stings observed.

Image credit: Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Tibbetts

 
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A sharper focus for plasmonic lasers  

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In the past decade, researchers have attempted to miniaturize photonic technologies for dense integration onto tiny semiconductor chips. To that end, they are seeking to develop even smaller nanolasers, of which plasmonic lasers are the tiniest. Researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to induce plasmonic lasers to emit a narrow beam of light by adapting a technique called distributed feedback. This unique ability of plasmonic lasers makes them attractive for potential applications in integrated (on-chip) optics, for transporting large swathes of data on-chip and between neighboring chips, and for ultrafast digital information processing.

Image credit: Sushil Kumar

 
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Idiot brings gun-shaped iPhone to airport  

If only his dad had been firing blanks

Pic Cops at Stansted airport in Essex, UK, couldn't believe their eyes when a passenger turned up for a flight with what looked like a gun in his bag.…

 
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The London Eye  

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The London Eye from Westminster Bridge

 
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The London Eye  

Rory Llowarch posted a photo:

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge

 
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The London Eye  

Rory Llowarch posted a photo:

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge

 
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The London Eye  

Rory Llowarch posted a photo:

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge

 
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The London Eye  

Rory Llowarch posted a photo:

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge

 
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The London Eye  

Rory Llowarch posted a photo:

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge

 
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The London Eye  

Rory Llowarch posted a photo:

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge

 
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The World (6) @ Gallions Reach 08-07-16  

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The World (4) @ Gallions Reach 08-07-16  

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The World (10) @ Gallions Reach 08-07-16  

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The World (7) @ Gallions Reach 08-07-16  

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The World (11) @ Gallions Reach 08-07-16  

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The World (13) @ Gallions Reach 08-07-16  

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r0B0t: All they need to know is this is the coolest thing they'll see all year  
This robot stingray is powered by genetically engineered rat heart cells. It has an elastomer body and a stiff gold skeleton. Rat heart cells are grown in a specific pattern on the underside, and are activated by pulses of light -- allowing the robot to be remote controlled as it navigates through a liquid with suspended nutrients that keep the cells alive. More details from Science. Even Popular Mechanics doesn't need to do much sensationalizing to this story. 
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r0B0t: The heartbreaking saga of Mighty No. 9 - Destructoid  

Destructoid

The heartbreaking saga of Mighty No. 9 Destructoid So how about we see what resident decommissioned fighting robot Tony Ponce has to dig up about the story of Beck. ~Strider]. This is an article I was never sure I would write. I've gone back and forth over past last year and half, itching to put my ...

 
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How To Heal The Planet - Become A Conscious Consumer  

I often wonder what it would be like to live in the perfect environmental world - a world where people were conscious enough always to say excuse me, please and thank you. A world where people were transparent and didn't try to cheat you or lie for their betterment. A world where trust was a value that was honored, not a quality easily disregarded. A world where we acted consciously to protect our air, rivers, oceans, and wildlife in order to ensure a promising future for our children.

Imagine There're No Toxins
It's hard to imagine how carefree I would feel if I didn't have to worry about toxins seeping into our skin and poisoning our bodies. If I didn't worry that the air we breathe might be damaging our lungs or whether there was lead or mercury in the water we drink. If I didn't have to worry about fish being overfished until there were none left or worry about whether everyone had access to organic and healthy foods.

It's all hard to imagine. But I can. I can envision an incomprehensibly beautiful life without this kind of daily worry.

My Perfect World
In my perfect world, the injustices of the social anxiety being created by climate change and overpopulation that is creating the fissure splitting our world apart would vanish. A need for "Food Justice" would not exist. Healthcare expenses would drop dramatically as a benefit of a healthier and cleaner diet. In my perfect world, the social anxiety surrounding the damage we are doing to our planet - an anxiety that few want to talk about - would not exist.

But it's not enough to just imagine. Steps have to be taken.

The Trillion-Dollar Question
Who can stop this rising social anxiety around climate change that is decimating our civilization? Who can change this? Who can make my vision of an environmentally perfect world real?

Is it our next President? Is it Congress? Is it Google? Do we need to call in The Terminator? Or is it you and me?

The answer is all of the above. No one person or entity alone can right all the wrongs. But together, as part of a small but growing group of Conscious Consumers (CC) like myself, positive and effective change is possible.

It's about making choices to change habits within a society that sees disposable options as convenient and a good thing and "now" as being more important than a future.

Please don't misunderstand my use of "now." I wholeheartedly believe in being present and living in the moment. But that does not preclude being conscious as to how our actions affect the future of our planet and the health and lives of our children.

How To Become A Conscious Consumer
Think twice before you buy something you don't need. When you buy something new, give away something older to someone who needs it more than you do. Stop before you eat past feeling full. It will allow more food to be given to someone who needs it. Pause before you get in the car by yourself to do just one errand. Carpool when possible. Clustering people and errands will save gas. Read labels. Support eco-friendly companies like those listed on my Greenopia website.

Every little action lightens your carbon footprint and is a step forward towards saving the world for future generations. The side benefit - at least for me - is that it feels good when I am consciously contributing to making a difference in the world.

The Not Impossible Mission
It might seem impossible to save our out of control planet. It might seem like there is no hope and we've gone too far. Or that there is nothing you can personally do to change the direction we're headed. But even in Mission Impossible, when Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt chooses to accept, he alters the course of events.

Beyond Politics And Religion
Whatever your religion, your political persuasion or your spiritual practices are, consciousness is at the core of all of them as is doing good deeds and the idea of paying it forward. You may deny climate change, but you can't deny yourself and others the desire to live a life of health and wellness.

Being a Conscious Consumer is part of being a good citizen of the world. Are you ready to join me? Please visit Greenopia and sign up and join our community and start creating your own green utopia. Your commitment can help alter the course of climate change.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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