Something Postive in the news for a change...

Sorry, that's Discover Magazine, not the Discovery channel

That could be a tremendous boon to the US economy (and the rest of the world, too!) if it proves to work as economically as they claim it does. Definitely a company (and technology) to watch.

sounds cool

I love the line:

"175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water."

Reminds me of Dune. Now we can solve the homeless problem too!!! But won't our evil overlords crush this idea and file it with antigravity, world peace, and the engine that burns water?

( I'm just messing with ya, D. It is a really cool thing. )

this isn't a joke?

Sounds good to me. Let's see how far this will go.

Sounds to good to be true. Lets hope it does work.

I read that article also. It really does sound amazing and an answer to the trash problems.

That's incredible, I laughed the whole time I read the story....
If this is legitimate, it shows an awful lot of promise.

Hum, although if it's true, it's amazing, it still will not solve the pollution issue caused by fossil fuel. I'm afraid that if such a technology does break through it will only make matters worse as oil will become forever available, efforts to find an alternative propulsion source for vehicles will stop or slow down.

paxx - dealing with waste is probably as big (or bigger) a problem as pollution from fossil fuels. This technology would not only solve the waste issue (even toxic waste) but make recycling a reality. (I love the bag of ground up appliances)

It sounds like the plants would also reduce the need for a lot of energy production (it uses the natural gas it creates to make heat for the process) thus reducing pollution from energy production. Oil will always be a necessary resource to make plastics and various other uses even if we find a viable alternative for automobiles.

I saw another article I'm trying to locate (should've saved the link). It says someone found the original plans for the "200MPG carberator". It turns out that story was true. An inventor did create such a thing and was bought out by an oil company but he left a copy of the design which was recently discovered.

The only thing about the rendering plant article that bothers me is the company's advisor is James Woolsey. I have a feeling this technology isn't going to be rolled out to the world in any affordable way. The obvious humanitarian benefits of this will probably be ignored in favor of privatized profits.

hmmmm... I was trying to get rid of oil. Now this machine comes around.

I dont like to be political, but that and other technology that does the same stuff has been around for 35 yrs

it has? so why aren't we using it yet?

Its kinda like the benevolent aliens with the how to serve man book

...........cook book

Now when a machine like that comes out that can render a 175 pound man into 175 pounds of food, THEN worry...

Soylent Green is people!!!

you know, this does sound like Dune.

So if someone misteriously 'dies', he can be turing into oil?

Freaky.

Did you know:

That electicity is the largest economic entity on the planet? 10 times larger than oil?

Who ever produces electiciy holds the power.

Isn't that how they make all that pork sausage?

I think it was in a movie called "The Ballad of Wotan Rchychevsky".

And there's "Delicatessen" too...

Joe - it's actually the phone company that runs the world... that was disclosed in a movie called "Our Man Flint".

hehe - "Who ever produces electiciy holds the power" pun intentional I assume?

joetheblow : "So if someone misteriously 'dies', he can be turing into oil? "

Sure, except the organs they harvest to ensure the rich oppress people far into their golden years...

Save the world, become an oil donor

What will really crack you up is, for the last 60 some odd years we have been able to turn hydrogen into gas and electric. The last inventor of the converter to change hydrogen into a powder form then convert it into gas and electric was arrested by our government and all his equipment was taken this happened every time he came up with and build a new and better design. Now our government owns the patent on it and is getting ready to sell to the utility companies. The utility companies will rent us the tank to hold the powder form and rent the converters to us.

cheap oil is good but it spurs usage and increases in the resultant pollution.