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You wouldn’t think that arts and crafts required so much energy, but creating pottery and glass sculptures takes up a lot of energy. That’s why some green minded folks in North Carolina have devised a way to utilize gas from a landfill in their craft making endeavors.
Many crafters have discovered greener ways to create their wares: reused and/or upcycled materials, for instance, have become very popular among the crafty set. But if your medium is something like glass or ceramics, heavy energy use is just a part of the process: it takes a lot of heat to melt glass for blowing or to fire up a kiln. A craft incubator program in North Carolina, the EnergyXchange, has figured out a way to lower the footprint of these artistic endeavors: landfill gas.
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Yan Fortin, the webmaster at Geeks Are Sexy, has been working on a secret project for the past nine months and today unveiled …his new clone! No, we can’t leave it at that, because his mama deserves credit as well. Here’s the little storm trooper coming home in that big helmet he’s going to grow into. Congratulations from your friends at Neatorama! Link
Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the aftermath of powerful collision between two asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. They estimate the speed of the impact at “15,000 kilometers per hour — five times the speed of a rifle bullet — and liberated energy in excess of a nuclear bomb.”
What Hubble saw indicates that P/2010 A2 is unlike any object ever seen before. At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet. Close inspection, however, shows a 140-meter nucleus offset from the tail center, very unusual structure near the nucleus, and no discernable gas in the tail.
Link Photo: NASA/ESA/D. Jewitt (UCLA)
Residents of Axedale, Australia called authorities when they smelled what they believed to be a gas leak. Firefighters responded to the home and found a 120 kilogram pet pig, which they believe to be the source of the gas.
“She got very excited when two trucks and 15 firies turned up and she squealed and farted and squealed and farted,” said fire chief Peter Harkins.
“I haven’t heard too many pigs fart but I would describe it as very full-on.”
Mr Harkins said the family had done the right thing by calling 000 to report a suspected gas leak: “It’s all bottled gas up here and a leaking cylinder could pose a major fire risk.
“It was because we took it so seriously that 15 volunteers still managed to attend the call out at 10.30 on Tuesday night.”
The pig’s owners are embarrassed over the incident and refused to let the pig be photographed. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: AAP)
Xenon {wiki} is the heaviest non-radioactive noble gas. It affects your voice like sulphur hexafluoride (previously at Neatorama) and can get you high like nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Don’t try this at home; just watch these guys breathe it. Link (embedded YouTube clip)
It is hard to resist a Florida joke here but really, it is a wonderful state … for the most part. What is truly amazing is not that dozens of children were tazered in the same state, nor that it was all on the same day, nor that some of them were also tear gassed. No, what is amazing is that this was done almost entirely with parental consent – and on take-your-child-to-work day no less.
Children held hands so that 50,000 volts could pass through their fingers. Other children were exposed to tear gas.
A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns during simultaneous Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day events gone wrong at three state prisons last month. One was a warden’s daughter.
None of the children required medical attention or were notably harmed, McNeil said. He said the victims, who ranged in age from 5 to 17, were all children of prison officials. In nearly every case, the guards who administered the “electronic immobilization devices” had permission from parents or grandparents.
Here in pittsburgh we’ve had buses that run on natural gas for a while now …. BUT these ones out in Oslo run on a different type of ‘Natural Gas’, the taco-bell type … Kinda gross but really cool way to power a vehicle, like in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
It is available for free in huge quantities, is not owned by Saudi Arabia and it contributes minimally towards climate change. The latest green fuel might seem like the dream answer to climate crisis, but until recently raw sewage has been seen as a waste disposal problem rather than a power source. Now Norway’s capital city is proving that its citizens can contribute to the city’s green credentials without even realising it.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by JKirchartz.
Goodwin is making a name for himself -- and his company, H-Line Conversions -- by turning gas-guzzling behemoths like Hummers, Cadillac Escalades, Jeeps and other big American cars into clean-power machines.
The first thing he does is remove the old inefficient engine -- even if it's a brand new vehicle -- and replace it with a diesel engine that can run on biodiesel.
"It's the transformation of what I call old technology to new technology," Goodwin says.
From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by 
Barry Bernard loves gas. He has a series of videos in which he blows things up with a secret mixture of gasses. This picture is from the video in which he blows up a friend’s bed. You’ll find more of them at YouTube. Link -via the Presurfer
