Designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau have created
a clock that is powered by "eating" bugs. The clock traps insects on flypaper stretched across a roller system and then drops them into a vat of bacteria. The insects are then "digested" and the ensuing chemical reaction is transformed into power that keeps the rollers moving and the LCD clock working. The two offer another version that is powered by mice and an even cooler machine that picks insect fuel from spiderwebs with the help of a robotic arm and a video camera.
Bugs? (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I won't be buying a first generation one of these, it's bound to have a tonne of bugs.
Hopefully later generations will have more. My question is, how many bugs will it take to run that thing? I don't know how much power you'd get per bug, but I wouldn't be surprised if it really needed a ton of bugs to keep that thing up for a while.
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Re:Bugs? (Score:5, Interesting)
Oil on plastic works as fly-paper. Once the fly touches the oil, it cannot fly. It starts to squirm until a wing touches, then it ain't going anywhere. Soapy water works too.
A neighbor attached a 10 inch glass disk to an old style computer box fan, and it turned about 15 RPM. He positioned the disk so that it dipped into a half plastic milk carton of vegetable oil. A lamp was positioned to shine on the glass. On the first night, the tank was completely full of bugs (mostly moths), and it looked like mud.
What I want to know, is the details of the digester, what is the reaction that produces electricity. How do I make that part?
Parent
Re:Bugs? (Score:5, Funny)
We haven't figured that part out yet.
But we do know it was us that scorched the sky or something to that effect.
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Yes... but a scraper that scrapes bugs off the flypaper would also scrape the glue off the fly paper, rendering it pretty useless, right?
That's why your scraper uses an edge made of pure anti-protons. Absolutely pure!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ip_aEku38 [youtube.com]
Isn't it WONDERFUL...
Re:Bugs? (Score:5, Funny)
Not only that, if this catches on, it'll just be a matter of time before we start running out of bugs in the US and have to start relying on foriegn sources of bugs.
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have an order (Score:3, Funny)
Could i please have house alarm from same company please?
Cool For now. (Score:5, Funny)
Until people start hacking these and needs more power. Then starts going for human flesh.
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I, for one, welcome our new clock overlords.
Re:Cool For now. (Score:5, Funny)
"I had to OC my clock, so I added a butterfly trap to get extra energy."
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Re:Cool For now. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Cool For now. (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Cool For now. (Score:4, Funny)
"At the tone, the time will be 11:13am. BEEP."
"At the sound of your blood curdling screams and unheralded pleas for mercy, the time will be 11:14am."
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It's one small step from a bug... (Score:3, Funny)
Prayer for Vista? (Score:3, Funny)
Applications (Score:2)
Does this have any practical applications, or is it just neat?
Re:Applications (Score:5, Informative)
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The piratical application involves man sized recepticals and a sign that "Get off my lawn! Trespassers will used to tell time!"
Re:Applications (Score:4, Funny)
No, the piratical application involves ship-sized receptacles, cutlasses, and ropes to fetch fuel.
Parent
Oh sure... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I so wanted to spend a mod point on this, since I have them to give away....
However, you joke of pedestrians, what about a more "realistic" road kill or still funny but more likely to be "true" cat and dog catcher?
Hmmm (Score:3, Interesting)
Ethical Treatment of Flies (Score:5, Funny)
Nice to see that PETA [petacatalog.org] is already all over this.
These bloodthirsty, gut-wrenching robots, designed by UK-based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau thrive on killing and liquidizing flies and mice, whilst serving the purpose of⦠well, not much at all really.
They even have their own vision [petacatalog.org] of insect disposal.
I wonder if they target antibacterial soap and penicillin next...
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Damn it first link should be this one [engadget.com].
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fuck it. [peta.org.uk]
Re:Ethical Treatment of Flies (Score:4, Funny)
The universe is hostile, so impersonal; devour to survive, so it is, so it's always been.
The more PETA irritates me, the more I want to hang dead animals by their necks outside their headquarters at night. And I'm starting to feel encouraged to hang not-quite-dead things that are still wriggling... I used to really like animals....
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Re:Ethical Treatment of Flies (Score:5, Insightful)
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One of the most profound insights into the nature of human existence was the Milgram Experiment [wikipedia.org]. Basically, most people don't have an internal moral compass: they don't have any inherent aversion to inflicting pain, suffering, and death on others.
Wrong. Even though the participants in the Milgram experiment complied, they all raised questions about it. Clearly they recognized it as wrong - the findings only say that we, as a species, will submit to authority, NOT that we lack a moral compass.
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I personally think Maddox's ideas for stopping Peta are the way forward. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sponsor [thebestpag...iverse.net]
Wow. (Score:5, Informative)
How about linking to the actual source (Score:5, Informative)
Instead of linking to a blog that talks about another blog that refers to and links to the original story, why not just link to the original source to save us from 5 click throughs and give the original authors credit as well?
Original story: Domestic robots with a taste for flesh [newscientist.com]
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Because slashdot is a website that is powered by these clicks. Each time you click on a hyperlink your mouse generates 1 joule of energy that gets faxed to the slashdot server farm using the technology patented by Dilbert.
Prior art (Score:2)
Druuge ships, Star Control II.
Thinking more on this- (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No problem. Separate the power generation component from the clock mechanism and put it outside with the cows!
more direct link (Score:2, Informative)
always a catch (Score:5, Informative)
I figured it was too good to be true:
Although, for now, the robots rely on mains power [newscientist.com], Auger believes they could become truly self-sufficient.
I like technology-as-art projects, but it'd be much cooler if these things actually *were* powered by bug juice--that is, more like bug powered 75% of the time, with a battery backup or a solar panel (or both) for those days when all the flies have already been eaten--rather than just being combination clock-and-bug-zappers. I'd be interested to see their average power production vs. power consumption.
Needs mobility (Score:4, Informative)
Now if the digestion can be made efficient enough, and if it can catch enough food to store enough surplus energy, maybe it could be made to breed!
Larger version needed (Score:3, Funny)
Democrat school playground. Fewer moronic bad-science laws.
And for the alarm... (Score:4, Funny)
And for the alarm, the clock says
"help me! help me! help me!"
In summary (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:umm...why??? (Score:5, Funny)
The power generated might be enough to run one headlight. But what would really be interesting is capturing some of the speed energy to help charge the battery. But with using wind.
I'll do you one better. Attach a sail to the car so that almost all of the "speed" energy is harvested. Fans harvesting electricity from the "wind" generated by the engine propelling the car is less efficient than the engine just making the electricity.
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Won't work.
Well, it would work, but you'd always lose in the overall equation. By putting something in line to capture the "speed energy", you are forced to put more power out to make the speed.
blah, blah, blah, energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only change states, blah, blah, blah.
To expand on the idea, you could put a giant windmill on top of a car that could produce enough electricity to drive with. Unfortunately, it would take mo