Hybrid Trains

And now, a Hybrid Train!Enormous energy can be saved by behemoth commuter trains by operating in this fashion.
Japan has created the world's first environmentally friendly diesel-electric hybrid train,for commercial use,that gets recharged by energy created from braking at curves and when entering stations.While a brake is applied, the motor is used as a generator, which recharges the storage battery. The train will be put into service by a Japanese railway company next month.

The new technology helps reduce emissions of NOx and particulate matter by up to 60%, compared to conventional trains.
It cuts fuel consumption by up to 20%, and as idling can be automatically stopped, there is less noise.

Hybrid trains known as Green Goats are already in use as locomotives in yard switching operations in the US by Union Pacific Company.

Green Burial

Green burial? Makes you think, doesnt it?
I came across this article in yahoo pages and the news set me thinking.

Yes, arent we, with our burials increasing our carbon footprint on this earth?
The most modern way of disposing of bodies now in advanced countries is through cremation ( though it has long been practised in places like India for millenias). However, cremation in the west is burning of the deceased alongwith the casket which eats up a lot of fossil fuel and spews out enough gases and smoke to increase the carbon content of the atmosphere.

For those preferring a green burial,instead of a traditional one, the new alternative, that they can make a choice about is the eco-friendly burials where the dead will be buried in an area of land inside a bio-degradable coffin, made from pine wood or even cardboard, and having no metal attachments like handles and plaques and no polish,veneer and plastic. One can also opt for a tree to be planted overground after being laid to rest in the soil.This can preserve our environment and wildlife and be an inspiring wooded area in contrast to precious real estate being eaten up by rows and rows of characterless headstones, many of them crumbling and broken, many others unkempt and all of them squashed into a faceless cemetery or an overcrowded graveyard.

A green burial is also less expensive considering that you dont have to use all that crafted or detailed casket with its cloth linings and the expense involved in the making of a gravestone and gravelining and the use of formaldehyde to delay decomposition. With a green burial, both casket and body will decompose within 6 to 10 months.

You could be also opt for being cremated and buried at sea. Companies offering Sea Burial will help you organize a beautiful, peaceful service in idyllic surroundings.For the not-so sqeamish ones, there is also the choice of excarnation (literally means removal of flesh)which is practised by Zoroastrians (a persian religious sect) who are known as parsis in India who leave their dead on towers where vultures come and feast on the body!

New Gen replacements for batteries?

A viable alternative is being made available for our traditional batteries which have never progressed beyond the basic protoype developed during the 19th century. This new technology called Ultracapacitor can replace all our electrochemical batteries and is known to outperform even the lithium-ion batteries which are in use today at half the cost and charge time.
Capacitors store energy as an electric field between two conductors and provide quick and massive bursts of instant energy when voltage is applied to it, in endless cycles,unlike traditional batteries which generate energy by means of chemical reaction.
A Texas startup called EEStor claim that their battery-ultracapacitors will replace electrochemical battery in most devices like hybrid electric cars, laptops and cell phones. They will definitely be one of the things we require for reducing our energy consumption and carbon emissions from fossil fuel operated vehicles.