Science
Moisture Vaporators Spotted In Buenos Aires
Posted by Jack Loftus at 8:00 AM on August 18, 2008
The Buenos Aires government would have done the late Owen Lars proud with their newly installed US$5 million Intelligent Monitoring Towers. Designed to collect information about the city's air and noise quality, we can easily see these 42 towers being at home collecting moisture on a dusty planet in a certain binary star system far, far away. The towers measure cobalt, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, benzene and humidity (just like on Tatooine!).
When the program is fully functional by the end of 2008, city officials expect to have a complete map of the environmental quality of the city. They'll use that info to influence bus routes and improve overall quality of life for citizens. No word yet on whether that will require any power converters from Tosche Station. [Treehugger]

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
gregory schmidt
Posted September 14, 2008 11:40 AM
I am proud to say... Here they are, one of the first Consumer "moisture vaporators" available in the United States.
Pure, Clean drinking water.. from air !! Just plug it in and it works, up to several gallons per day based upon the relative humidity near the machine... and as Your Pure drinking water is generated, this machine will also filter and dehumidify the air.
Please do take a look, two models available Now, Today.
Yes, we take CC and can lease...
bless the maker !!
logruszed
Posted 8:31 AM 18/8/08
So C3PO speaks Spanish?
or
I saw some of these on my way to Tashi station to pick up some power converters.
logruszed
GiltProto
Posted 8:16 AM 18/8/08
They measure COBALT? I am so not ever going to that city.
GiltProto
Neverkilled: [light corner bending]
Posted 8:48 AM 18/8/08
can it measure how chared someones skeleton is?
Neverkilled: [light corner bending]
mushroom73
Posted 8:47 AM 18/8/08
Hmmmmmm.....me thinks there will be an imperial attack in South America any day now.
mushroom73
Tim Faulkner
Posted 8:45 AM 18/8/08
It'll probably work better if they space them apart a bit further.
(Yes, I read that this is a temporary staging area.)
Tim Faulkner
Eltigro
Posted 9:15 AM 18/8/08
@logruszed: C3PO has been programed to recognize and speak millions of languages.
I'm guessing that the picture is of the sampling stations before they are set up at various locations around the city? If this is their final installed location, they aren't going to get much inf from around the city. And if it isn't their final location, why have them all set up out in the open? Was this during a test of their transmitters or sensors? Just seems odd to me.
Eltigro
Julien321
Posted 9:14 AM 18/8/08
"...their newly installed $5 million Intelligent Monitoring Towers..."
Why are they all installed at the same spot? Do they need that many in each spot for redundancy?
Julien321
Parker. A
Posted 10:26 AM 18/8/08
They look oddly menacing. Could this be the beginnings of a clone army?
Parker. A
El Tejon
Posted 11:11 AM 18/8/08
Would be welcome on Arrakis too.
El Tejon
victorj
Posted 11:06 AM 18/8/08
I live in argentina, beautiful country...but there are a lot of other stuff to spend 5m on...like getting rid of the street bumps...getting rid of muggers and criminals...and the list goes on and on.
One more reason to get the fuck out of here and move to the states...at least...they have codes there.
victorj
KarinDiscoGirl
Posted 11:40 AM 18/8/08
@logruszed: Dude, I laughed my ass on at that one. Thank you for making my night.
KarinDiscoGirl
BigPanda
Posted 11:39 AM 18/8/08
As an addendum, you had me thinking that the Brazilians had developed something to extract moisture from the atmosphere, not measure it.
Not bad, but not as good as their greatest invention; Brazilian women in bikinis.
BigPanda
BigPanda
Posted 11:38 AM 18/8/08
Jeez giz, I'd think that your Star Wars researchers would be doing a better job. At least for something referenced from the original trilogy.
Moisture Vaporators were used to extract what little moisture was present in the arid atmosphere of Tatooine so they could grow their crops and eek out a meager yet sustainable existence.
I'll let this one pass. Next time I'll have the Hutts feed you to the Sarlacc!
BigPanda
smartboydan is actually a fairly arrogant screen name, now that
Posted 3:33 PM 18/8/08
Alright, real quick. I love Star Wars as much as the next guy. However, Vaporization is not the opposite of Evaporation, so "Moisture Vaporator" is a bit of a misnomer. Just putting that out there. Please don't disemvowel me.
smartboydan is actually a fairly arrogant screen name, now that I think about it
SigmundTheSeaMonster
Posted 10:54 PM 18/8/08
Damn womprats...
SigmundTheSeaMonster
VideoVampire
Posted 12:15 AM 19/8/08
Hey, this ones got a bad motivator, what are you trying to push on us?
VideoVampire
tastybytes
Posted 12:02 AM 19/8/08
now if we can only find a droid who understands their binary language.. we would even settle for one who might have started out programming binary load lifters.. similar to these vaporators in most respects..
tastybytes
supernovax
Posted 12:47 AM 19/8/08
Davis Instruments must love that contract. Looks like they sold quite a few of their weather stations for the project...
supernovax
Jones Foyer
Posted 3:34 AM 19/8/08
They just got a bunch of these in at the Toshi Station last week. 2 for 1 sale or buy a power convertor, get one free.
Jones Foyer
Iggy
Posted 3:50 AM 19/8/08
@victorj: That's exactly why I moved to the States =)
Yeah BA is nice, but I can't live there ever again. And I agree, if you're gonna spend 5 mil on something over there, freaking air quality meters wouldn't be my first choice either. There's probably some scam going on there....but that's just me.
Iggy
Jeff_was_here
Posted 6:40 AM 19/8/08
I'm in BA now and come here about 3-4 times a year given it's my wife's home town.
Last week I asked my family out here if they need smog checks. Outside of BA, they require a car inspection 1x per year, which supposedly includes some kind of pollution check. I've heard this check is not required in the city. wtf? Makes no sense. Many of the buses spit out black smelly crap all day as if they are never maintained. They have plenty of older Diesel cars too without the pollution projection. BA needs to implement smog checks with higher standards and get the old diesels off the road...simple.
Outside of the pollution when a bus drives by, it's a perfect spot to live and vacation. Crimes are in pocket areas as in any city. My favorite feature are the hundreds of unique coffee shops (no chains) with net access to get out the house and stay connected.
Jeff_was_here
DataScream
Posted 8:50 AM 19/8/08
great, now I need a droid that can speak Botchi. With any luck I'll just be gunned down by precise troopers wearing silly hats.
DataScream
sharkilepsy
Posted 1:34 PM 19/8/08
Tatooine? Don't you mean Arrakis? George Lucas is such a hack!
sharkilepsy
SalisburyHummingbird
Posted 2:52 AM 19/8/08
I'm from Argentina, and I can tell you that Buenos Aires is a pretty clean city and the mayor is a hell of a mayor, he really take care for the city. The main problem in BsAs are the big buses, when the drivers step on the gas and a big, big cloud of smoke get out from the exhaust pipe.
SalisburyHummingbird
qeku
Posted 4:43 PM 18/8/08
@BigPanda: hi, i´m from Argentina.. Buenos Aires is the capital city of Argentina not Brazil! and i like argeninean girls better. :P
@victorj:i´ll write this in english even we both are from argentina. Getting rid of muggers is a social problem that has to be attacked with social and coordinated measures with the federal government, and federal police..
This kind of air studies may seem silly in a city with other priorities, but truth to be told, they have to be done periodically if we don´t want to end up as mexico city covered by pollution. pollution that one day, will affect you, muggers, rich and poor equally, and then, health would be in the balance..
qeku