h a l f b a k e r yCogito, ergo sumthin'
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This is a bit of a chaotic idea, due to the above fact.
A peripheral which plugs into the USB and power socket of a laptop, consisting of a receptacle in the form of a waterproof prepaid jiffy bag for urine, a water wheel and two electrodes. The urine helps to recharge the laptop by activating the
water wheel and generating electricity from the electrolytes in the urine. I know this is possible because it's been done but i don't know the details. While the peripheral is activated (by the urination session), it launches a stripped-down browser which goes to a website where little snippets of information, such as cartoons or short articles such as are read while on the toilet, are posted. Later on, when the laptop is being properly charged, excess energy is used to boil the urine, creating a concentrated solid rich in nitrogen and phosphates. Once the receptacle is full, it is detached and mailed to an address where the urine is processed to make useful products, which are then sold and the proceeds are used to keep the website running.
The reason this idea is called "Go ask Alice" is that in my dream, this was both the euphemism used for going to the toilet in this way and the name of the website on which these snippets are posted. In fact, a website with this name already exists, which was unknown to me and i think is a pity.
So, when you need the toilet, you take your laptop with you and tell people you're about to "go ask Alice."
Jefferson Airplane, "Surrealistic Pillow"
http://jeffersonairplane.com/surreal.html
Needs Realplayer (tm) to listen. Track 10, "White Rabbit", is where I first heard the phrase "Go ask Alice". [DrBob, Nov 28 2007]
Pee-powered battery
http://news.nationa...urinebattery_2.html
For laptops too, it seems. [nineteenthly, Nov 28 2007]
[link]
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I'm sure this is brilliant and workable (I'm assuming that you know what you're talking about) but it's also full-on icky. |
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Alice? Alice!?
Who the F*@% is Alice? |
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To be honest, i'm pretty sure you couldn't get enough energy out of urine to power a laptop unless you peed on it from an enormous height, in mechanical terms, but in chemical terms i don't know. I don't think this works as a business model either. |
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Having Googled, it seems that the developers of urine-powered batteries do expect them to be used in laptops eventually (see link). |
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I like how there's enough excess energy (apparently after having charged the laptop battery) to boil the urine itself. I think you'd have to be drinking battery acid to get that kind of return on investment. |
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Also, what's the point of connecting to the Internet? Just launch a text file that reads "I know what you're doing". |
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If you feel compelled to give the user something to do while doing what they do, have the laptop analyze the urine for...whatever ("Hey, that must have been some good pot you had last night. It's not doing the baby any good though.") |
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The energy to boil the urine would come by recharging from the mains. I suppose it's possible it could come from the urine itself, but i doubt it. |
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I think something like a laptop with no moving parts or backlight and a static LCD would consume less electrical power and maybe be more feasible. As for boiling, maybe if there was a sort of fractal element in the envelope, it would be more efficient. Maybe if you drank enough orange juice or coffee? |
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There are toilets which analyse urine. Yes, i like that idea, [phoenix]. |
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It seems my subconscious mind has yet to come to terms with the second law of thermodynamics. |
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This must have been a dream. What the hzell is a "waterproof prepaid jiffy bag for urine"? Prepaid, like you buy it up front? As opposed to what? Getting billed in the mail? "Frank, you didn't pay the jiffy bag bill - how much did you pee this month, anyway?" |
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[globaltourniquet]: C|N>K! |
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I would hate to be in the same area as a bag of boiling urine. Talk about the stench... |
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Maybe it could be freeze-dried with a refrigeration system. Then it wouldn't smell. |
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You must have been weirded out when you awoke. |
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