Here's What's Awesome: Plants That Blog, CO2 As Fuel

Let's just make this short and sweet: weekend + great links + Word of Mouth = Here's What's Awesome. Pretty simple, and pretty fun, at that.

Listen To the Flower People's RSS Feed
Midori-san is a plant at a Japanese internet cafe that happens to keep a blog. Well, sort of - sensors attached to the plant measure light levels, temperature, etc. and the data gets fed through a computer algorithm that generates blog posts ("It's really bright today"). Sounds simple, but sometimes simple is enough, as Midori-san is building a pretty solid following in Japan. [Presurfer]

CO2 Saves Us From Itself?
Most efforts at lowering our output of carbon dioxide are aimed at alternative fuels that don't create CO2 when used. But the alternative to these alternatives is recapturing the carbon byproducts from fossil fuels and recycling them back into fuels. Until now that process required too much energy to make it feasible, but a startup called Carbon Sciences says it's figured out a way. The potential is huge - one process makes more fuel and lowers carbon emissions - but I don't think it will stop chicken power from going forward. At least not right away.
[Wired]

Continuing Our Carbon Theme
A tech-heavy friend of mine once yelled "PAPER IS DEAD" in between clicks of his Palm Pilot, but I don't think he knew about "buckypaper," the carbon-based nanotechnology super-paper that researchers say could be 500 times stronger (and ten times lighter) than steel. You'll want to read the article to get a handle on how unusual this stuff is, but I'll start you off by saying it's named after the one-of-a-kind futurist and inventor Buckminster Fuller, and that scientists in Florida have found a less cost-prohibitive way to make buckypaper. They call it a potential "game-changer," especially for the aerospace industry. Is it? We may find out soon. [Physorg]

What's more awesome than Here's What's Awesome? Weekend + great links + Word of Mouth + your awesome links in the comment field. So have at it like the page was a large supply of carbon dioxide and you were a chemical procedure aimed at taking CO2 out of the air and back into the gas tank.

(Photo by keltickelton)