Concrete Tents! Wow. Up in a day.

This is really cool.

Make a concrete Tent, a BIG tent over a few hours time.

Concrete Tent: http://www.concretecanvas.co.uk/index.html

It uses a concrete canvas technology. Simply put it in position -- in this case inflate the tent. And then moisten the canvas. Let it dry and you have a hardened shelter. Put sand around it, and you have a hardened bunker.

Pretty cool.

Look at the video with ~1.5m facebook <likes>...

Winner of a whole bunch of innovation awards including a couple awards from insurance companies and:

• 2011 Most Innovative Product, MIP Expert's Choice
• 2005 World Changing Idea Award, Saatchi & Saatchi
• Material Connection's 2011 Material of the Year Award

The video says that it lasts 10 years or more. Seems like painting it would give it a really long life.

Lots and lots of uses. Ditches, Slope/landslide protection, etc.

There is a 2007 patent application on the material/canvas: 20100233417.

Issuu - bbiinternational - Ethanol Producer Magazine ... Biomass... Etc.

Issuu - bbiinternational - Documents:

Check out issues of Ethanol Producer Magazine... And other Biomass, biodiesel, biomass, biofuel rags. (Reading these online is surprising smooth once you get the swing of it.)

Great info in this month's edition of Ethanol Producer. Because of the trade-off between burning our food (corn) and eating it, the use of corn-ethanol as a fuel is critical. It's especially critical during times of drought. It takes a lot of water to grow corn, and it takes a lot of water to process ethanol.

Ethanol is down, corn-based ethanol is down, exports are down, etc.

But what's interesting is the field tests (pun intended) of new corn crops that are more drought tolerant.

If you haven't yet ventured off into this genre of magazines, you will find it very interesting and surprisingly relevant. Relevant, if you drive, if you eat food, if you have interests in the economy. . .

Make no doubt about it, the drought is gonna impact us all in food, fuel and more, for at least the next couple years. What we have just learned this year about droughts will be useful for the rest of the world, too, in seasons to come.

Hang on for the bumpy ride.

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