Natural Resource Meltdown Dwarfs Banking Meltdown As World Wide Danger

A new paper released today by the World Wildlife Fund titled the Living Planet Report 2008 indicates that the world is headed towards a natural resource crisis which will dwarf the credit crisis as a danger to future prosperity.

The paper cites reckless over-consumption by what it terms as ecological resource debtor nations. The definition of an ecologicical debtor nation is one "where national consumption has outstripped their country’s biological capacity." The report puts world wide over-consumption at a third higher than the earth's carrying capacity while biological diversity continues to decline at an alarming rate (Any rate of decline is alarming in my book). Also mentioned was the number of countries who are slipping into permanent or seasonal water emergencies.

“The world is currently struggling with the consequences of over-valuing its financial assets, but a more fundamental crisis looms ahead – an ecological credit crunch caused by under-valuing the environmental assets that are the basis of all life and prosperity,” said WWF International Director-General James Leape, in the foreword to the new report. “Most of us are propping up our current lifestyles, and our economic growth, by drawing - and increasingly overdrawing - on the ecological capital of other parts of the world,” Leape said.

Not surprisingly, the United States was in the top three nations with the biggest ecologicical footprints. The Living Planet Report also included water footprint measurements for the first time which illustrates how products we consume here, have very large water footprints in third world countries. A WWF press release adds..

...for example, the production of a cotton T-shirt requires 765 gallons of water. On average, each person consumes 327,177 gallons (about half an Olympic swimming pool) of water a year, but this varies from 654,354 gallons per person a year (USA) to 163,325 gallons per capita annually (Yemen). Approximately 50 countries are currently facing moderate or severe water stress and the number of people suffering from year-round or seasonal water shortages is expected to increase as a result of climate change

In a BBC interview with WWF President David Norman said at our present state of consumption, by 2050 we will need two planets to keep up.

This report is just one more dire warning that the world as we know it is rapidly approaching a point where serious consequences will start to be felt by us all. WWF's Director General Leape sums it up well.

“These Living Planet measures serve as clear and robust signposts to what needs to be done. If humanity has the will, it has the way to live within the means of the planet, but we must recognize that the ecological credit crunch will require even bolder action that that now being mustered for the financial crisis.”

The Living Planet Report 2008 can be down loaded at http://www.panda.org/index.cfm

Cas Haley - Walking on the Moon

A friend just recently introduced me to Cas Haley. I don't know much about him, and can't tell exactly if he's on his own, or has simply changed the name of his band, Woodbelly. Cas has a cheerful approach to his music and this rendetion of Sting's Walking on the Moon is simple and fun.

New Solar Energy Material Overcomes Major Obstacles

Affordable solar power gets closer and closer.

Researchers at Ohio State University have developed a hybrid material which overcomes two obstacles that solar energy researchers have been trying to solve. A material which absorbs all wavelengths of energy in sunlight, i.e. the entire rainbow of colors, and which increased the effeciency of electricity production by producing electrons in two different states.

The Ohio State team was assisted by researchers at Taiwan University to develop and synthesize the new material. A story on the new development by Science Daily has more.

This new material is the first that can absorb all the energy contained in visible light at once.

The material generates electricity just like other solar cell materials do: light energizes the atoms of the material, and some of the electrons in those atoms are knocked loose.

Ideally, the electrons flow out of the device as electrical current, but this is where most solar cells run into trouble. The electrons only stay loose for a tiny fraction of a second before they sink back into the atoms from which they came. The electrons must be captured during the short time they are free, and this task, called charge separation, is difficult.

In the new hybrid material, electrons remain free much longer than ever before.

While this new technology is still years from commercial application and development, I find that innovations like this strengthen the likelihood of solar generated electricity reaching parity in price with other forms of electricity generation in just a few more years.

The Water Footprint Network

What is your water footprint?

In a world where fresh water may well become a scarcer and scarcer commodity, this is going to be a real question.

If you take the time to find out, what you will learn about how much water it takes to produce some products will astound you. Well, OK, maybe not, but it sure astounded me.

In order to make this type of information more available, and to establish some standards in how water usage is determined, a group of six global partners including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and UNESCO, the University of Twente in The Netherlands have established the Water Footprint Network.

According to the ScienceDaily's online report, the water footprint was developed by UT professor Arjen Hoekstra, who heads the Twente Water Center, to give insight into the water consumption of individuals, corporations and countries.

The new network will promote sustainable, fair and efficient use of water on a global scale.

The ‘water footprint’ measures the amount of water that a country, company or individual uses each year. This includes the water needed to produce goods: the water withdrawn from surface as well as ground water and soil water.

For a simple cup of coffee, for example, an average of 140 litres of water is needed, 2,700 litres for a cotton shirt, 16,000 for a kilo of beef. Taking all this into account on a global scale, we get a water footprint of 7,500 billion cubic metres a year. Per individual this is an average of 1,250 cubic meters a year.

The Water Footprint Network website has an easy to use individual water footprint calculator. Other information you will find is a fairly concise definition of Corporate water footprints, including the example below, of how, where, and what kinds of water are used in the average manufacturing or agricultural processes.

The water footprint of a business - that is its 'corporate water footprint' - refers to the total volume of fresh water that is used directly and indirectly to run and support the business. It consists of two components:

the operational water footprint, i.e. the direct water use by the business in its own operations,
the supply-chain water footprint, i.e. the water use in the business’s supply chain.

Many businesses have a supply-chain water footprint that is much larger than the operational water footprint. This is particularly the case when a company does not have agricultural activity itself but is partly based on the intake of agricultural products (crop products, meat, milk, eggs, leather, cotton, wood/paper).

We live in a world of great interconnected complexity. Unraveling questions of how much water we use, takes a lot more than just checking the water bill. Finding ways to lessen our impact on our local enviroments, and to make sure we aren't just exporting our water usage elsewhere is a task we all have to share in.

A tool like the Water Footprint Network is going to be invaluable, in helping individuals like me find ways to cut my impact, and in helping national and international organizations work together to identify the best points in the worldwide economic system to make changes which will protect fresh water supplies all across the globe.

Trio Mocoto

Trio Mocoto is a group which always strikes my fancy.

I first stumbled upon Trio Mocoto about 10 years ago. After hearing Stan Getz's smooth brazilian sounds, songs like Desifinado or the Girl from Impanema, I went looking for more. This is one of the groups I found in that search and I've loved the creativity of Trio Mocoto ever since.

This set showcases the creative imagination these guys brought to thier music, and answered for me a long standing question as to the nature of the strange squeeking percussion sound in many Brazilian songs. While this isn't the smooth, laid back music I initially went searching for, the vibrant energy of this set is a lot of fun.

The Plug In Revolution...When is it really coming?

Steve Bennen over at the Washington Monthly has some interesting comments on a story on the electrification of transportation by Jeffery Leonard, who is CEO of the Global Enviroment Fund. Steve's point about energy policy, especially as it relates to alternatives, finally coming to the front of the national debate with both candidates giving it lip service is heartening.

But, Steve also highlighted a portion of Leonard's article which said that despite the good news of alternative energy policy getting attention on the national stage there is some bad news...

The bad news is that none of the current energy plans being debated in Washington or presented by the presidential campaigns adds up to sound long-term policy for dealing with the energy challenges facing the U.S. Most of the supposed grand solutions turn out to be half-baked schemes that pander to voters and vested interests. John McCain argues for more drilling in America. Barack Obama favors more subsidies for ethanol. Oilman T. Boone Pickens advocates retooling cars to run on compressed natural gas. These and many other big energy plans have at least one thing in common: they involve a multiyear, massive-spending, government initiative that will set America on the path toward displacing foreign oil with some kind of domestically produced liquid fuel. That may seem like a sensible idea, but in fact it merely postpones, and therefore makes more costly and wrenching, the energy transition that I -- and many other industry leaders I talk with -- believe will save America.

In the film The Graduate, Walter Brooks famously gives Dustin Hoffman a one-word piece of career advice: "Plastics." At the risk of sounding similarly glib, let me nevertheless suggest a one-word answer to our multifaceted energy problems: electrification. The basic idea is very simple. Over the next few decades, government policies should advance the aim of replacing oil and most other liquid fuels with electricity. It should also ensure that the way we generate electricity gets steadily greener and more efficient. Since about three-quarters of our oil goes into our cars, this means favoring policies that will encourage phasing out the internal combustion engine in favor of the electric engine -- a direction in which many automakers are already headed. Electrification as a rallying cry for American energy policy isn't perfect, but in my view it's the best and perhaps only way to get us to a clean and secure energy future.

More bad news for plug in transportation comes from Popular Mechanics recent article where they note Toyota representatives trying to put a damper on expectations for the plug in technology coming down the pike.

Toyota confirmed that its plug-in Prius is scheduled to go on sale as a 2010 model with an EV-only range of about 10 miles after testing on li-ion models begins with North American fleets in about a year. But amid conversations that favored compressed natural gas (CNG) as a more economical liquid fuel than ethanol and biodiesel, company executives and other alternative-energy experts made a concerted effort to bat back some of the excitement that PHEVs would dominate the market right away.

I notice that while Toyota want's to lower expectations of PHEV's dominating the market right away, they don't suggest that plug in's won't be the end game relative to personal and public transportation. I think that as consumers and voters, we need to put pressure on our representatives to make substantive debate on the electrification of transportation a priority in the next Congress and the next administration, regardless of who ends up being our next President.

Wind Blade Manufacturer Polymarin Composites To Build Wind Turbine Blades In Arkansas

Wind Power is on the rise in central Arkansas! Little Rock, AR is quickly becoming a wind power mecca. Polymarin Composites USA announced that it is opening a wind blade manufacturing unit at a closed Levi’s distribution center in south Little Rock, and expect to be producing wind blades at full capacity within four years. The plant is expected to produce blades as long as 250 feet long.

Polymarin Composites will be joined at the new facility by Wind Water Technology, which is a supplier for the wind blade manufacturer. The Little Rock facility will be Polymarin’s first plant in the United States. As many as 800 people will be employed between the two companies when the facility gets up to full production.

Polymarin, based in the netherlands is owned by Energya. Energya produces DirectWind 900 kW and 750 kW turbines which were selected in the wind power category of the 2008 Guardian/Library House CleanTech 100.

Little Rock is also home to LM Glasfiber which is presently operating in a temporary facility. LM Glasfiber is spending $150 million on a manufacturing facility at the Port of Little Rock, and according to Forbes will eventually employ 1,000 workers.

Glasfiber, which has teamed up with German company REpower Systems to develop wind turbine blades, claims the distinction of building the world’s longest wind turbine blades.

With the rise in windpower capacity taking off, Little Rock will be churning out wind turbine blades across the country. That will be helped by a little add on to the $700 billion dollar bail out bill just passed by Congress, which gives a tax break on wind generated power. I hope that this leads to more growth in sustainable industries in our neighborhood.

Eating Locally Is A Choice To Act Sustainably

When I was young, produce was pretty much seasonal. We didn't get watermelons or strawberries in the winter. Or very good tomatoes for that matter. Now we eat grapes from Chile and Oranges from South Africa and tomatoes from all over the world, year round.

This complexity in our food delivery system is both a boon and a bane. The carbon foot print of a south african orange, is likely greater than the carbon foot print of a florida, texas or california orange. If the goal is reducing our individual carbon foot print, then let's face it...we're going to have to accept that some foods will be out of season.

There are a lot of great reasons why people should eat locally. Much, but not all of the time it can be done at a lower carbon foot print, simply because the food doesn't have to be shipped thousands of miles to get to your table. My favorite reason, is that it's likely to taste better.

In my neck of the woods, a local group called Conway Locally Grown which coordinates with local farms to bring a good collection of fresh, high quality foods, both produce and locally produced meats and milk, monthly by subscription.

This market is coordinating with local farmers to provide Conway with the freshest and highest quality fruits, vegetables, eggs, poultry, beef, pork, lamb, and dairy. All of the producers farm using strict standards that ensure clean, safe, humanely produced foods. The market will also coordinate with local craftsman to offer Conway locally produced artisanal crafts. All products sold at Conway Locally Grown are produced within 150 miles.

There are several networks that can help you find access to locally grown foods in your area.

Locally Grown Markets - www.locallygrown.net

Local Harvest - www.localharvest.org

Of course, you can visit your local farmers market, but be aware, that not all the produce you find at a farmers market may actually be locally produced.

The Great Schlep

An organized mass migration of jewish grandchildren to Florida began today, in an attempt to influence older jewish voters to vote for Obama. According to the BBC, the initiative, called The Great Schelp, was organized by Ari Wallach and Mic Moore.

Got Bubbies living in Florida? (That's a Yiddish term for grandmothers.) Or any other crucial swing state for that matter?

If so, you are qualified for this particular voyage - an organised effort to visit your Jewish grandparents and persuade them to vote for Barack Obama.

"Twelve per cent of the Jewish community is still undecided," Great Schlep co-founder Ari Wallach told BBC News. "That's a few hundred thousand people and they tend to cluster in swing states."

There are 600,000 jewish retiree's living in southern Florida. They will have a big impact on the outcome of the race in Florida, and as it has in the past, the outcome of the national election. Sen. Joe Lieberman has been campaigning for John McCain among the jewish communities of Florida for the past several months, seeking to gain votes among these older voters.

The organizers of the Great Schlep are inviting young jewish people to visit or call thier grandparents over the Columbus day weekend, starting today, and talking to them about Barack Obama. The Great Schlep website has downloadable talking points and information to help answer questions in the discussion.

The Great Schlep picked Sarah Silverman to deliver thier pitch. Silverman does an irreverently good job. The polished and competent execution of the campaign is characteristic of the whole Obama campaign. The intelligence of the concept is another example of paradigm changing, outside the box thinking that I think is representative of the competence the Obama campaign has shown since early on. It will be interesting to see if there is a measurable impact on the polls over the next week.

McCain reaffirming my faith in his honor....sort of.

I've had a pretty hard time the past few months holding onto the long standing respect I generally had for John McCain. I have to tell the truth, I've liked him for a long time.

And because of that, as I was with Hillary Clinton during the primaries, I have been very disappointed with the strategies employed by his campaign, because they stood in stark contrast with my image of the individual. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he ever was the best choice we had for President, now, or when he ran last in 2000. But, I've never felt for McCain, either the visceral unease nor the sense of impending doom that G. W. Bush provoked.

What caused me the biggest concern was the really out of control anger and hatred that was starting to be the main theme of his campaign stops and the over the top negative advertising his campaign as turned to, which seemed to cultivate that hatred and racial animosity. Indeed the ACORN ad he released today, seems to me to promote a sense of racial animosity and scapegoating which I think is really unhealthy for our country. UPDATE:the ad was pulled because of copyright claims by FOX

But...today in Lakeville, MN, McCain, at times visibly angry, seemed to try to take control of his campaign back from the crazies his campaign has been empowering. In a report filed by Time's Ana Marie Cox (who started the Wonkette blog) McCain has started to push back against the worst rhetoric of his supporters.

He acknowledges the "energy" people have been showing at rallies, and how glad he is that people are excited. But, he says, "I respect Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." People booed at the mention of his name. McCain, visibly angry, stopped them: "I want EVERYONE to be respectful, and lets make sure we are."

The very next questioner tried to push back on this request, noting that he needed to "tell the American the TRUTH about Barack Obama" -- a not very subtle way, I think, to ask John McCain to NOT tell the truth about Barack Obama. McCain told her there's a "difference between record and rhetoric, and I plan to talk about his record, respectfully... I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity, I just mean it has to be respectful."

And then later, again, someone dangled a great big piece of low-hanging fruit in front of McCain: "I'm scared to bring up my child in a world where Barack Obama is president."

McCain replies, "Well, I don't want him to be president, either. I wouldn't be running if I did. But," and he pauses for emphasis, "you don't have to be scared to have him be President of the United States." A round of boos.

And he snaps back: "Well, obviously I think I'd be better. "
Of course, this is kind of the best of both world: Crazy base-world gets to bring up Ayers and whatever else, really, and he gets to say, "Be respectful." But I think he means it.

UPDATE: Indeed, he just snatched the microphone out the hands of a woman who began her question with, "I'm scared of Barack Obama... he's an Arab terrorist..."
"No, no ma'am," he interrupted. "He's a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements."

I'd have to say, that right now, I'm feeling a little sorry for John McCain. I can easily understand his frustration to be losing the election, but it occurs to me, that considering the way McCain is flaming out, and the mounting rage and frustration of his supporters, the last thing McCain wants is to be remembered as representing the last gasp of overt bigotry, ignorance and racial hatred in a historic race for President,featuring the first candidate of color of any major party. It certainly has to be causing him pause, having it make the news that the Secret Service is opening investigations of what people say about Obama at his campaign rallies.

For my part, his actions today restored a little bit of the respect I have had for him. No one wants to lose, and fighting to win is exactly what we should have in a President...but it's my hope that John McCain is more willing to lose an election, than he is his honor, for no one in America will be made better by John losing both.

"A relentlessly negative, breathtakingly dishonest, anger-driven campaign"

This is what John McCain's once vaunted political brand has been reduced to. The once proud maverick brand is fast becoming a joke. A liar. A fraud. An opportunist with anger management issues.

More dangerous, his campaign has sunk to the level of fomenting anger and hatred as it's chosen road to electoral victory. He is unleashing the unhinged right.

At McCain's anti-Obama diatribe in New Mexico yesterday, McCain asked the question "Who is the real Barack Obama?" The answer yelled from the crowd..."A terrorist".



Also yesterday, as Palin slimed Obama with their renewed Ayer's attacks, another member of the crowd yelled out "Kill him!"

At the same Florida event, Republicans shouted abuse at journalists, hurling obscenities. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

Today you have the Palin promoting the lie that Obama is criticizing the troops in Afghanistan, prompting chants of treason from the crowd.

Add to that the Pennsylvania Republican Party's announcement yesterday, that Obama is a "terrorists best friend"...and you start to get an idea of just where the Republican party is taking American politics. It is a party mired in desperation, deliberately stoking the fires of hate and fear, and using disgusting lies to argue that Obama is literally dangerous.

This is dangerous territory. It is creating an environment where angry right-wing activists feel free to use racial slurs against journalists, and shout assassination requests at political rallies.

It is not the act of a Maverick...it's not the act of someone who loves their country.

It is the act of a party willing to divide the republic with destructive acts to stay in power. It is the act of a politician willing to do and say anything to win an election.

Steve Benen at The Political Animal calls for McCain and Palin to pull thier supporters back from the brink.

That said, McCain/Palin have reached a point where they have to decide whether whipping right-wing activists into a frenzy, based solely on lies, is the responsible way to seek national office. The Republican candidates are not literally calling for violence against their political rivals, but they're nevertheless standing by, saying nothing, while their supporters are shouting words like "kill," "terrorist," and "treason" at their rallies.

And given that this rage-filled hatred is in direct response to the McCain/Palin campaign lying to their supporters, now would be the ideal time for these candidates to take a look in the mirror and consider the consequences of a relentlessly negative, breathtakingly dishonest, anger-driven campaign.

It really makes my head spin...

Natural State Expo 2008 - Green Home Show

The Arkansas Sustainability Network (ASN) is hosting the Natural State Expo 2008 Green Home Show at the State House Convention Center this weekend, Oct. 11th, 2008. Admission is free.

This is the third annual Natural State Expo organized by the ASN. The first Expo was organizied in 2006, and featured participants ranging from eco-friendly insulation and tankless hot water heaters, to community gardens and small farmers, to electric-hybrid vehicles and bicycle advocacy organizations.

The Green Home Show participants page shows over 60 different participants. The Expo website says that the goal of the show is to help people explore the variety of choices available in the marketplace to make their homes more sustainable, and to promote safe sustainable habits in our homes and our daily lives.

The Green Home Show features the interactive Green Home - a walkthrough, open-walled display showcasing green building and remodeling supplies; natural product alternatives for every room; and simple everyday actions families can take to green their home. The event also includes exhibitor booths, youth activities, a marketplace, and a green playhouse competition for kids.

The Arkansas Sustainability Network is located at 209 S. Victory Ave. Little Rock, AR. Thier phone number is 501-372-6996. This Expo sounds like a great place to learn more about resources available to people wanting to learn more about how we can all contribute to living a sustainable lifestyle.

SNL Biden-Palin VP Debate

I've been watching SNL off and on since the 70's. These Palin skits by Tina Fey are some of the best skits that have ever aired. The Rawstory has links to videos of the first two Palin skits by Fey.



As I said a couple of posts ago...we just can't allow a "know nothing" on climate change, like Sarah Palin, to inhabit the White House, just as we have had to endure for the past eight years.

Google's Clean Energy 2030

It is my opinion that moving our society's primary energy technologies away from carbon is one of the most urgent actions we need to take in reacting to carbon driven climate change. Solutions for transportation, solutions for households, solutions for industry and commerce.

The Google Blog released an analysis of the challanges presented by creating and deploying new energy technologies and found them to be surmountable and greatly reducing our carbon energy usage. The analysis was led by Dr. Jeffery Greenblatt, Phd, Google's Climate and Energy Technology Manager.

Right now the U.S. has a very real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy. We are developing the technologies and know-how to accomplish this. We can build whole new industries and create millions of new jobs. We can reduce energy costs, both at the gas pump and at home. We can improve our national security. And we can put a big dent in climate change. With strong leadership we could be moving forward on an aggressive but realistic timeline and an approach that balances costs with real economic gains.

Google's answer is a three front initiative.

The first, reducing demand by doing more with less. Going after what Google calls "the low hanging fruit". Developing and adopting energy efficient technologies and individual practices using less.

The second, develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal. Wind, solar thermal and advanced geothermal. Google makes the call for massive funding of R&D efforts in these technologies, along with incentives like tax credit's to promote the swiftest adoption of new sources. Also raised, is the importance of putting the real cost of carbon into it's price through the use of carbon cap and trade or a carbon tax.

The third, electrify transportation and re-invent the electric grid. Battery technology is getting very close for the practical production of electric power plants for transportation. Google has a fleet of converted Toyota Prius and Ford Escape plug-in conversions. The converted Prius plug-ins get 90+ MPG. Google calls for a smart grid.

However, to successfully put millions of plug-in cars on the road and fuel them with green electricity, we need a smart grid that manages when we charge and how we're billed. A smart grid could also provide for the two-way flow of electricity, as well as large-scale integration of intermittent solar and wind energy. Much of the technology in our current electrical grid was developed in the 60s and is wasteful and not very smart. We are partnering with GE to help accelerate the development of the smart grid and support building new transmission lines to harness our nation's vast renewable energy resources.

I don't know if 2030 is soon enough, but we have little choice but to make these three initiatives an urgent priority. In order to do that, we must elect candidates who share these goals. While McCain and Palin have given lip service to developing greener energy technologies, I just don't think they have a real comittment to cutting carbon emissions, except as it serves the nuclear power industry (and I think they are a part of the solution) and the "clean coal" industry. The Obama campaign has a much more convincing comittment to developing clean energy, and an understanding that development of those industries is an intergal part of building an infrastructure for the future.

Sarah Palin - A "Know Nothing" in the Climate Debate

Sarah Palin is a know nothing. We can't afford another "know nothing" White House.

I don't make that charge lightly. I make it because she, like Bush and others on the right who have made a practice of expressing skepticism about human driven climate change, equivicates her answers by making note of the "controversy" surrounding the question of human activity as a driving force and brushing off it's importance as a cause for the climate change.

Paul Krugman recently defined Know Nothingism this way:

Know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.

Palin's evasive answers about her views on climate change show that it is unlikely that she could ever provide the kind of nuanced and urgent leadership that our climate situation demands. She comes from that group of people, for whom ignorance is not only not a problem, it's positively a virtue.

With the challenges of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels that we face, and climate becoming more and more unpredictable, we just can't afford even four more years of inaction and kowtowing to the carbon based energy industries. And that is, for a fact, what we will get if Sarah Palin ever has a hand in what happens in the White House.

Carbon Nanotubes - Transparent and Stronger than Steel

Talk about science fiction, a breakthrough in a commercially viable production method of carbon nanotube sheets was announced by a partnership of the NanoTech Institute of the University of Texas at Dallas and an outfit named CSIRO. The carbon nanotube sheets have uses as diverse as clothing to artificial muscles to electrical conductors.

The Physorg.com story on the announcement in the journal Science, mentioned a variety of uses for the carbon nanotube sheets.

Carbon nanotube materials have a number of potential applications in, for example: organic light emitting displays, low-noise electronic sensors, artificial muscles, conducting appliqués and broad-band polarized light sources that can be switched on in one ten-thousandth of a second.

"...Transparent sheets that are stronger than steel sheets of the same weight."

The Physorg.com story talked about a sheet production method and also a twisted yarn fabrication technology which could be easily commercialized.

I have to say, I'm a little bit intrigued. Artificial muscles for an artificial skin/super suit? Now that's something I've been looking for.