Gizmodo Australia » poo

Buses in Oslo to Get Poop Power

Adam Frucci — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Next time you hop on a bus in Oslo, it might not run on regular gas. Instead, it may be running on methane fermented from human waste. Awesome?

Apparently, a year’s worth of human excrement is equal to a measly 2.1 gallons of diesel, but when you collect an entire city’s worth of crap, you get a decent amount of fuel. The poop of 250,000 people is enough to operate 80 buses for 99,750km each, which is no small thing. So in Norway, they’re going to start collecting it and running public transportation on it. Because hey, why not? [Slate via Technabob]

Giant Inflatable Turd Terrorises Swiss Town

Sean Fallon — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Flash! An inflatable catastrophe second only to the Hindenburg disaster has occurred in Bern Switzerland at the Paul Klee Centre art museum. A house-sized inflatable turd designed by American artist Paul McCarthy broke free from its moorings in high winds after the security system designed to deflate the installation failed.

Townspeople fled in terror as the work entitled “Complex Shit” cut a swath of destruction that included downed power lines and a broken window at a children’s home. At this point we can confirm that there were no poop related injuries, but it is a scene that the townspeople (and this reporter) will not soon forget. They will be forced to relive it every time they drop a deuce. Oh, the humanity! [Guardian Image via Mitchieville]

Toilet Paper Puzzle Makes Pooping Even More Frustrating

Adam Frucci — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:45:00 +0000

Nothing says hilarity like forcing the more dim-witted of your friends to endure skidmarks and dingleberries by putting a puzzle on your toilet paper roll. Boy, you sure are a jokester! You really have an eye for when puzzles and trickery are appropriate and for when they clearly aren’t! A toast, to you! [Product Page via NerdApproved]

Scientists Create Bacteria That Poops Out Petrol

Nick Broughall — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:40:23 +0000

If Hollywood has taught us anything at all, it’s that playing around with DNA leads to disaster. Wonderful, entertaining disaster. In the real world, things aren’t so clear cut, but the prospect of creating super-bugs that will either turn humans into zombies or just kill us outright hasn’t stopped some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs from LS9 from creating a bacteria that essentially just shits crude oil.

The bacteria start out as either industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli. They then have a little bit of DNA-grade surgery done to them, before being fed “feedstock” which is essentially any substance that can be broken down to sugars, like wheat, corn or woodchips. The bacteria have a mad party where they eat and drink too much, then spend the following day on a single-cell organism-sized toilet where they poop out crude oil, which is collected by people in white suits and sold for $150 a barrel. Or something like that, anyway.

The biggest problem with the whole setup (aside from the possibility of
creating super-smart bugs that prefer the taste of human flesh to
woodchips) is that the company behind the whole setup, LS9, doesn’t
know if they can mass produce the fuel. At the moment, the most they
can do is the equivalent of a barrel a week from a setup that takes up
40 square feet. To make enough for America’s gluttony for petrol, you’d
need an area as large as Chicago to be producing it.

It’s still a ray of hope for everybody with a pain in their back pocket
every time they stop at a bowser, though, so hopefully this will
develop enough to help the fuel crisis, and not kill us all in the
process.

[Times Online – Thanks Crowyourboat*!)

This Renewable Energy is Bullshit

Adam Frucci — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:07:14 +0000

On Tuesday, California energy company PG&E started generating energy from a rather unusual source: cow manure. Yes, cow poop emits methane as it decomposes. And while usually that’s a bad thing, with methane being a potent greenhouse gas and all, it can be captured and turned into a renewable source of energy.

So that’s just what PG&E is doing, using manure to power up to 1,200 homes in California. It’s all part of new regulations in the state that are to require utility companies to have 20% of their energy coming from renewable sources by 2010. With a figure that high, they need to look outside the standard solar and wind sources.

So how exactly do you turn cow crap into energy? How’s a 10-metre-deep pit full of the stuff sound? Get ready to appreciate your desk job a little bit more:

To tap the renewable gas from cow manure, the Vintage Dairy farm first flushes manure into a large, octagonal pit, where it becomes about 99 percent water. It is then pumped into a covered lagoon, first passing through a screen that filters out large solids that eventually become the cows’ bedding.

The covered lagoon, or “digester,” is the size of nearly five football fields and about 33 feet deep. It is lined with plastic to protect the ground water and the cover, made of high density polyethylene, is held down at the edges by concrete. The digester’s cover was sunken into the lagoon on Tuesday, but officials said it would be taut and raised in a few days as the gas collects underneath it.

Weights on top of the digester channel the gas to the small facility where it is “scrubbed” of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. The end product is “close to 99 percent pure methane” according to BioEnergy Chief Operating Officer Thomas Hintz.

Saving the environment ain’t pretty, my friends. [Reuters via New Launches]

Energy Generating Turbine Toilet: Poop Saves the Planet

Sean Fallon — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:11 +0000

If the Benkatine Turbine by Leviathan Energy finds its way into homes, your bowel movements can help generate free electricity. Using the same technology found in other hydroelectric devices, the Benkatine turbine uses the water that passes through the pipes in your home to produce power. According to the company, that means you could make use of the water flowing from any number of sources—including your gutter drains. It is a simple idea, but simple ideas are often the most useful. Plus, you pass off your excessive drinking and overeating as your little way of helping the environment. [Wired via Inhabitat via DVICE]

Thirty-Foot Trebuchet Fires Chicken Poop at Potential Thieves

Addy Dugdale — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:15:23 +0000

A businessman in the UK has come up with a novel way to deal with potential thieves: firing chickenshit at them from a 30-foot catapult. Joe Watson-Webb, a retired showman, had the iron trebuchet left over from his days as a showman, and gets his avian ammo from the farm next door. Local cops have said that they will prosecute Watson-Webb if he uses the catapult to defend his property against arsonists and robbers—but what would they think about the other weapon he has up his sleeve? Watson-Webb is also the proud owner of a 20-foot-long cannon, out of which he used to fire his wife!

He’s modded it to shoot rubber-tipped railway sleepers at criminals. And in spite of the police’s stance, the 70-year-old is standing firm. “I’m not out to kill anyone or even hurt them,” he says. “I just want to keep yobs off my land.”
Signs up at the entrance to Watson-Webb’s flooring business warn of the fate that will befall anyone who attempts to get onto the Nottinghamshire property. SmartPoo, it seems, is no laughing matter. “This is a serious issue. People all over Britain are sick and tired of feeling like prisoners in their own homes and seeing yobs get away with it.”
After trying just about every security product on the market—fencing, motion-sensor lights and CCTV cameras—the 70-year-old is unrepentant, and has pooh-poohed the attitude of the law. “Maybe the police think I’m joking, but the only people laughing are the criminals. That’s why I fully intend to take the law into my own hands.” [Daily Mail]