Daily Archives: January 8, 2015

Watch Bill Gates sip 'delicious drinking water' that used to be human feces

Posted: January 8, 2015 at 3:43 am

The richest man in the world is putting his money where his mouth is and he's even willing to taste the results.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently performed a taste-test of drinking water produced by a special machine that purifies sewage for human consumption. The Gates-funded device is called the OmniProcessor, and it uses boilers, steam power and a filtration process to ingest human feces and output clean drinking water, electricity and a small amount of ash waste.

Gates documented a first-hand taste test of the OmniProcessor water on his blog on Monday.

"I watched the piles of feces go up the conveyor belt and drop into a large bin," he wrote in the post. "They made their way through the machine, getting boiled and treated. A few minutes later I took a long taste of the end result: a glass of delicious drinking water.

"The water tasted as good as any I've had out of a bottle," he said.

The OmniProcessor is designed by Janicki Bioenergy and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in an ongoing effort to improve sanitation in developing countries. Gates says the OmniProcessor is designed to be an affordable, easy-to-maintain method of human waste disposal in countries that lack the infrastructure to put toilets into widespread use.

Gates' blog post includes a video of him inspecting the OmniProcessor device in November. The video features Gates alongside Janicki Bioenergy CEO Peter Janicki, who explains how the OmniProcessor works.

"The OmniProcessor turns sewer sludge which is kind of nasty into clean drinking water, electricity and ash, which is pathogen-free," Janicki says in the video.

The OmniProcessor carries feces up a conveyor belt and through a series of dryers, which boil off the liquid water contents as vapour. The dried waste is carried to a furnace, where it's burned to produce steam that drives an energy-producing generator. At the same time, the water vapour is sent through a cleaning system that turns it back into clean, drinkable water.

Janicki says entrepreneurs who use the OmniProcessor will be paid for the sewage they take in, and for the water and electricity they output.

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Astronomers Have Discovered Eight Potentially Habitable Planets

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Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

Astronomers have announced that they have discovered eight more planets that likely exist in temperature ranges where life could exist.

The astronomers began their research path by examining candidates for planets that had been identified by NASAs Kepler mission. The candidates were analyzed using a supercomputer running algorithms at NASAs Ames facility.

After exploring the statistical likelihood of the planets existence, the team followed up with months of observations using a variety of different methods. The planets are distant enough, however, that their habitabiliy is still only a likelihood, not a certainty.

We dont know for sure whether any of the planets in our sample are truly habitable, researcher David Kipping said in a statement. All we can say is that theyre promising candidates.

The two most potentially Earth-like planets of the group of eight are Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b, both of which circle red dwarf stars are are respectively 70% and 97% likely to be in the habitable temperature zones of their respective stars. However, it should be noted that there are serious issues regarding the potential habitability of planets circling red dwarf stars, so confirmation will require significantly more study.

In addition to nearly doubling the potential number of habitable planets, this latest discovery also helps astronomers in a different milestone. NASA announced this week that the Kepler mission has helped astronomers verify the discovery of over 1,000 planets outside of our solar system. The mission has also uncovered over 4,000 planetary candidates.

Each result from the planet-hunting Kepler missions treasure trove of data takes us another step closer to answering the question of whether we are alone in the Universe, NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld said in a press release. The Kepler team and its science community continue to produce impressive results with the data from this venerable explorer.

The researchers findings will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

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Futurist Author Predicted Police State – Video

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Futurist Author Predicted Police State

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Part of historic Futurist facade could survive extensive Lime Street regeneration

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Part of the historic Futurist Cinema facade is likely to be kept as part of extensive regeneration plans for Lime Street, Liverpool council chiefs insist.

In response to online images of how the street could look following its expected facelift, the authority sought to reassure campaigners it hoped to retain elements of the site in design plans.

The news comes after pictures appeared on the website of developers Neptune alongside a description stating that student accommodation and a hotel were planned as part of the regeneration scheme.

The images of a future Lime Street are thought to be concept ideas rather than finalised designs, but do reveal a glimpse at the thought process behind the scheme.

The pictures suggest the two pubs at either end of the development - The Crown and The Vines - will remain, but show a dramatic change in between, with student homes, shops and a hotel among possible new structures.

The images also point to the loss of the historic cinema facades of The Futurist and The Scala, though a short row of shops next to The Crown appear to survive and the project does include plans to refurbish the former ABC Cinema with the creation of a new auditoria and venue with associated restaurants.

Accompanying the Lime Street images on Neptunes website is a short summary, explaining the development.

It said: This major regeneration initiative is being undertaken on behalf of Regeneration Liverpool and involves the clearance of a series of run down buildings in this important city centre street and the development of a high quality scheme with retail hotel and student accommodation.

However, the council has now dismissed the images as merely illustrative and said a consultation would take place over any official proposals.

A spokesman said: The regeneration plans for Lime Street are still a work in progress and published images are merely illustrative. The city council and the developers are in fact looking to integrate a section of the existing Futurist Cinema facade into the design of any future development.

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Intel's Futurist Says His Job Dwells In Storytelling, Not Prediction

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Contributed By:

Allison Frost

OPB | Jan. 7, 2015 12:30 p.m. | Updated: Jan. 7, 2015 2:23 p.m.

Brian DavidJohnson

Intel

Brian David Johnson has nothing if not an usual job. Hes Intels futurist. At first glance, many people might think he traffics in predictions. But Johnson says not so. He describes what he does asfuturecasting.

His job is to imagine what life might be like in 10 or 15 years and to imagine the kind of technology that might fit into that. Johnson says a big part of his job is talking to people, finding out whatstories theyre thinking about and getting them to realize that the future theyre creating is a function of thosestories.

Heres Brian David Johnson giving a TEDx talk about some of these ideas in2013:

What would you like to ask Brian David Johnson about thefuture?

Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust

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2015: The Future Is Here and It Requires Unlearning

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Boston, MA (PRWEB) January 08, 2015

The future is here. Now. And global futurist Jack Uldrich is telling people how they can live into it in the most effective ways. As a best selling author and highly regarded keynote speaker, Uldrich brings to light the advantages of being creative and using the powers of individual imagination by sharing insights on the concept of unlearning.

"In the near future, the greatest change will be the accelerating rate of change itself," says Uldrich. "And that is going to require quite a bit of unlearning for a lot of people,"

Uldrich's keynotes include topics like "Foresight 20/20" helping organizations navigate the decade ahead with an in-depth exploration of ten technological trends that will transform the world of 2020; "The Big AHA" that focuses on future-proofing through the principles of Awareness, Humility and Action, and "Business as Unusual" which prepares companies for an uncertain and unpredictable future.

"How can we prepare for this uncertainty?" asks Uldrich,"The answer is that you and your organization must think and act in unorthodox ways."

Staring on January 16th Uldrich will travel the US for the following eight engagements:

JAN 13: Informatica Corporation National Sales Meeting in Las Vegas, NV

JAN 20: Institutional Investor -- Montage Deer Valley in Park City, UT

JAN 21: Signal Hill Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV

JAN 22: Vision Council of America in Palm Beach Gardens, FL

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