Italy will sell Islands, castles and palaces

The new Italian Government, led by Matteo Renzi, will alienate a good portion of its real estate and natural heritage â€" from the island of Poveglia (View gallery), of which we have already talked in Green Savers, until a castle on the border with Slovenia.

The aim is to allocate the money raised from these sales to reduce its public debt, which amounted to 130 percent of GDP. According to El Pais, the Italian Government is unaware of the magnitude of its heritage, but it is estimated that he is among the €218 billion, according to a recent report by the Ministry of economy and finance in the country, and the €400 billion, as various private organizations.

Despite having 634 thousand buildings, which occupy a total of 300 million square meters, the Italian State spends $ 1000 million a year to rent offices and offices for officials.

Renzi's plan â€" which had already been put into practice by the new Prime Minister at the time of their passage by the House of Florence-provides for the disposal of empty buildings, neighbourhoods semi-abandonados or other infrastructure that are not being used â€" including castles, palaces and abandoned Islands, as Poveglia, which can be leased for 99 years.

Until then, however, Renzi has no other remedy that continue to sell State-owned companies, for which looks for a recipe between eight and € 10 billion in the short term.

Remember the photos of the island of Poveglia, considered the most haunted of Italy â€" maybe that's why the Italian Government the ponders to divest.

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Toyota has already begun to replace robots by humans

Carmakers have long embraced automation and replaced humans for robots. However, Toyota is taking a step back and replace the machines by people in some factories in Japan.

Toyota's decision is an unconventional choice for a Japanese company. The Japan has by far the largest number of industrial robots of any country. Is only surpassed by South Korea with regard to the ratio of robots for humans.

This new Japanese manufacturer's strategy is based on two aspects. First, Toyota wants to make sure that their workers perceive the work they are doing rather than just do get machinery and parts do not have utility when they malfunctioned. Second, the brand wants to develop ways to increase the quality of the Assembly process and make it more efficient in the long run. Automation assumes that the enterprise has many average workers and few artisans and masters.

Since Toyota has implemented this strategy in 100 factories, the waste of material on the production line has decreased 10% and the Assembly process has become shorter. Improvements were also recorded in the process of cutting of parts and reducing the cost of assembling the chassis.

"We can't just depend on machines that repeat the same task over and over again," said project director Mitsuru Kawai, quoted by Quartz. "To be master of the machines it is necessary to have the knowledge and tools to teach the machines", asserts.

Foto: epSos.de/Creative Commons

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The nine lives of Lions

If they say that cats have seven or nine lives, depending on the culture that says, so the Lions will have more. That's the whole idea of photographer Nina Sundén, who spent hundreds of hours photographing them and who claims to have seen it all: "I've seen them break bones, being cut in half and, a few days later, walking around like it was nothing," wrote Nina in your blog.

Last week, says Nina, she received the news that one of the lionesses of Bila Shaka, in Kenya, was attacked by a Buffalo, with lesions that speak for themselves (see image gallery).

Siena, so called the lioness, was cut on his back leg, and when we see the photos, it seems a miracle that she had survived. However, when the handlers found and contacted the veterinarians of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the future of Siena came out again.

The giant wound was cleaned and treated for 30 minutes, with Siena to sleep, and the two Italian veterinary, Francesca and Matteo, say she must regain 100%. See pictures and learn more of the work of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust here.

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Global warming will change the beer flavor

Much of what we have for granted today will be in the medium term, as the climate change on knock and are changing the way we have become accustomed to certain products. One of them is the beer, whose flavor will never be the same.

Who says is the PhD student Peter Gous, who is worried about the effects of climate on production of beer and, therefore, decided to investigate this link at the University of Queensland, Australia.

The study was published in the Journal of Cereal Science and tested as the lack of water can affect the quality of the grains of barley. Gous believes that the starch in the barley grains grown with little water is different from starch from grains of barley well watered. Barley that grows with little water has a kind of hydric stress, what changes the structure of the starch.

From this discovery, Gous raised the hypothesis that, in the future, it will be more difficult to consume a quality beer. That's because climate change will make droughts more frequent and more severe in all the world. This can affect the quality of grains, such as barley used in beer.

This means that consumers will have to pay more for a beer with the same quality of today. "If you ask any Brewer, the starch quality and fermentation affect the taste of beer," explained Gous the Brisbane Times. "Rather than pay €3,6 ($ 11) for a beer, for example, will pay € 10 to €14 ($ 33 to $ 44)," he concluded.

And the reader is willing to pay that amount for a beer?

Foto: edans/Creative Commons

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Molecules can store solar energy indefinitely

Solar power walks with great strides for the MIT scientist: microscopic and Harvard University found a way to store solar energy in molecules that can be used to heat homes, water or for cooking.

These molecules can store the heat forever and be used indefinitely, not emitting greenhouse gases. Although the investigation is still at the beginning, the laboratory tests have demonstrated the feasibility of the phenomenon, called photoswitching.

"There are molecules, known as photoswitching, can take on two different forms, as if they had a hinge in the Middle", explained researchers in a press release published in the journal Nature Chemistry. "Expose them to light allows them to absorb the energy and change from one configuration to the other, who then stays stable over a long period of time".

To release this energy, simply expose the molecules to a small amount of light, heat, or electricity, and then switch to the other way. "In fact, they behave as loadable batteries: take the energy from the Sun, store it indefinitely and then release it in the request", explained the Nature Chemitry.

According to The Atlantic, this technology could be used in countries where people still use wood for cooking, which creates dangerous levels of air pollution inside the House, leads to deforestation and contributes to climate change.

"To Cook, simply leave the unit in the Sun during the day," said Timothy Kucharsk, leader of the investigation. Another one of the versions of the appliance can be used to heat buildings. Kucharski said that the MIT and Harvard are now investigating molecule that can absorb more than the energy of the Sun, so that they can be more easily used.

Foto: Moyan_Brenn (back soon, sorry for not commenting)/Creative Commons

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London opens first coffee for cats

It's called Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium. And as the name indicates, the space is a place for cats-cats coffee, more specifically.

This cafe where cats are the hosts opened in February and is the first cat Cafe in London, in Shoreditch. However, the fashion of cafés of cats is not new â€" in Japan, where it is sourced, these establishments are common and in 2012 and 2013 opened cat cafes in Vienna, Paris and Madrid.

The idea of the Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium is simple: cats â€" that were adopted in an institution â€" roam freely through space and customers can interact with the animals while they eat or drink. Additionally, the cat lovers who do not have conditions to have its own cat can help take care of the cats of this coffee or help in animal nutrition.

A visit to space costs €6,20-amount that helps pay health care and feeding of animals â€" and is limited to a maximum of two hours. Children under eight years can not enter the room once, as shown in the website, "cats are afraid of the children". It is also not allowed to take photographs inside with flash.

Despite the prohibitions, the coffee is already quite popular among Londoners, referring to Atlantic Cities, and has bookings until June. Second, Anna Kogan, owner of space, the intention is to adopt more cats in the future, but required the prior approval of the Board of London. Currently the Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium has 11 cats.

Shoreditch should have briefly also a café for dogs, the Happiness of Hounds.

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Global warming is making the smaller salamanders

For many centuries were considered immune to fire but, after all, the heat is affecting the size of the salamanders. A new study has revealed that the wild salamanders of North America are getting smaller as their natural habitat is becoming hotter and drier, forcing a greater expenditure of energy to survive in this climate more austere.

Researchers at the University of Maryland concluded that the salamanders of the Appalachian mountains are almost one tenth smaller than its predecessors of the mid-twentieth century. The difference in sizes is sharper in the Appalachian South and the smaller highs â€" places where the data indicate that temperatures have risen more and more land dried up.

Previous studies indicated that some animals would get smaller as a result of global warming and this new study reinforces this assumption. According to Karen Lips, one of the main authors of the study, this is one of the larger and faster mutation rates ever recorded in any animal ". "We don't know exactly how and why that is happening, but our data clearly indicate that there is a correlation with climate change," said Lips.

There is also a simulation study that shows that the modern salamanders are so active as their ancestors were. However, to maintain this rate of activity, the contemporary animals need spend more 8% 7% of energy. To get this extra power, the salamanders must make choices. May have to spend more time looking for more food or resting in cooler locations than looking for potential partners.

Foto: GGL1/Creative Commons

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