Here's What's Awesome: Chicken Power, New Old-School Video Games

Welcome to Awesomeville! I'm Brady, your guide, and on behalf of Mayor Prescott and the city council, we bid you welcome with some links to enjoy while we wait for news on Hurricane Ike.

Alternative energy, or Muppet Show sketch?
There's no shortage of new ideas on creating energy from cleaner, more renewable resources, but here's one you might not have been expecting: Chicken power is coming to The Netherlands! "Last week Dutch agriculture minister Gerda Verburg announced a groundbreaking development for the field as she unveiled the world’s largest biomass power plant to run exclusively on poultry manure. The plant will convert a third of the nation’s chicken waste into energy while running at a capacity of 36.5 megawatts - enough to power 90,000 homes!" [Inhabitat]

Metal Gear 4: coming to your Intellivision
Most gamers appreciate the exciting innovations that have come with more powerful video game systems: cinematic sequences, more complex storylines and realistic character movements. But they also have a soft spot for the old school games, even if the original Frogger is barely more than a green square who bleeps his way across a pretty boxy highway. A new game trend is to bring new and old together into what's called a "demake" - a new game that's redesigned for play on an old system. The Independent Gaming Source recently held a demakes contest, with several dozen of today's popular games reimagined for the Atari 2600 and other past systems. Step forward into the past. [Wired]

Better To Burn Out Than To Flame Away
A little red landmine-looking device that puts out fires and keeps victims and firefighters out of harm's way? Meet the FIT-5 (FIT stands for "Fire Interruption Technology"). In short, it's a fire grenade - pull the ripcord, throw it toward the fire and watch the "wispy cloud of potassium carbonate" control or even extinguish the flames. It's considered a big step forward for keeping firefighters safe - because it can go where they can't - and it can save hundreds of gallons of water per fire. [Scientific American]

Now it's your turn. Share your own awesome links in the comments.

(Photo by mrhappy)