This is the future of subwoofers. Part fan, part speaker. Introducing Eminent Technology’s Model 17. Don’t be fooled by the simple name. This thing is so powerful it can move a door half and inch between 1 and 5 Hz! If you ask me, that’s a lot of bumpin power. Most subwoofers can’t accurately reproduce sound below 10 Hz. It’s estimated that humans can hear as low as 16-20 Hz, so this thing is made to reproduce that feeling you get when a jet flies by, a train rolls down the track, or when something explodes and goes BOOM!

The blades move like a conventional fan, but the pitch is controlled by its input. So imagine using a fan in your house on a really hot day. If you’re not careful, you’ll send papers flying. Now you’ll have to use paperweights just watching TV! This thing is so powerful, it uses your whole floor as a resonator!

It all seems too good to be true doesn’t it? Well, don’t get your hopes up. With prices starting at $12,900, you’d be hard pressed to even hear one any time soon. In fact, it would probably be cheaper to make your own. I’m sure when the patent is up on this (patent pending), we’ll see a lot more of these things with prices that actually make sense. Eminent Technology makes other more conventional speakers, and at their prices, they better be damn good. In my experience, I’ve noticed that the lesser known speaker companies (who aren’t located in China) make really good sounding speakers. Anyway, go to their website for more info.

As some of you may know, I’ve always been intrigued by alternative energy. Whether it be solar, thermal, chemical, whatever, it’s always cool to do stuff clean and cheap. Recently I learned about biomass to liquid (BTL). It’s the ability to change biomass, which is basically any carbon lifeform, into usable fuels. If you can burn it in a bonfire, you should be able to fuel your car with it right? The concept is simple, but the process is pretty complicated, which means expensive for an emerging technology. It involves turning the biomass into charcoal and gas, then going a little further and turning those into other gases. In the completed process, 60% of the result can be used directly as diesel fuel, while the rest can be used as gasoline and kerosene. For those of you who didn’t know, diesel cars can get up to mid 60 MPGs with no problem. The problem with us Americans is that we’re kinda stupid. Diesel engines have been around time, but everyone is moving toward hybrids. Diesels are a lot more efficient than gasoline engines, and can also run on a broader range of fuels, such as cooking oil (peanut, corn, rapeseed, soybean, etc). Many American cars have diesel counterparts in Europe, and it’s a shame that we don’t have the same option.

Let me start out with the benefits first. BTL is CO2 neutral, which means when you burn the fuel, it only releases carbon dioxide into the environment that already existed. When we use conventional crude oil from the ground, we’re releasing more CO2 into the environment that isn’t naturally there. What does this mean for us? Well, less global warming, which is a freakin plus. Also, BTL releases virtually no sulfur into the environment, the stuff acid rain is made of. Of course, the big kicker is that we’ll rely less on the middle east for our fuel, and we’ll never run out, because farmers are always growin stuff! Oh dang!

But wait, there’s more! We can turn garbage, wood, straw, corn, and sewage-sludge into gas and diesel! Yes, that’s right – garbage. Remember Back To The Future 2? I guess the professor wasn’t all too off there. BTL isn’t exactly a new technology, but it’s emerging again thanks to Volkswagen and DaimlerChrysler, who formed the company Choren. Choren has developed a patented gasification process, and I’m sure you’ll hear more about them in the future. I’ve read a few things on BTL, but have found this page to be the most informative. If Choren was publicly traded, I’d be all over their stock.

Anyway, this is just one of those things I’m interested in. I’m not trying to push it or anything, but hopefully some other people might be interested. Yep, because I’m a hippy who doesn’t smoke weed.