Girl found alive under corpses of slain family in France

No one should give up on anything but should keep going. Not until one's number is up.

In the case of life and death, there's this famous Malay quote: 'Berpantang maut sebelum ajal'. That's exactly what happened to a 4-year-old girl when her family members (including her father, mother and grandmother) were brutally killed in a close range shooting. It happened at a popular camping site near Chevaline, France.



Viewed from air, beautiful Chevaline is very popular among campers. Photo: The Sun, UK


Girl, 4, found alive after shooting in French Alps
France, September 6, 2012

AFP - A four-year-old girl miraculously survived a shooting in the French Alps that left four people dead by curling up under the bullet-riddled corpses of her mother and grandmother, officials said Thursday.

The little girl spent eight hours concealed on the back seat of her family's car following a mysterious and brutal gun attack which also left her elder sister seriously injured and killed a passer-by.

Her father, who was found dead in the driver's seat, was identified Thursday as Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old born in Baghdad but resident in Claygate, Surrey in the southeast of England.

The fourth man who died is believed to be a local who happened to be cycling past the scene of the crime.

The girl's elder sister, who was found shot next to the car, was in a serious but stable condition in hospital after being flown by helicopter to the nearby city of Grenoble where she was visited Thursday by a British consular official.

Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, said the four-year-old had emerged unscathed.

"She stayed, curled up under the bodies for eight hours and didn't move in all that time," he said.

The first police to arrive on the scene did not spot the girl and, with the car being left untouched and the area sealed off pending the arrival of forensic experts, she was left to endure a traumatic ordeal until she was finally discovered around midnight.

"It was only once we had access to the scene of the crime that we found her," Maillaud said. "The little girl spoke English. She heard noises, shouts but she can't tell us any more than that. She is only four years old.

"She is being looked after and we are doing everything we possibly can to care for her."



Gendarmes block access to the killing site on Wednesday, Sept 5, 2012. Photo by The Straits Times


You can read the rest of the story at France 24 International News.

Sewage-treating bacteria may generate electricity

You've heard of bio-fuel (biogas) harvested from the sewage treatment process. This biogas is then used as fuel to help turn the turbines and produce electricity.


                   A sewage treatment facility in Malaysia. Photo by Hitachi PT


New science of electro-microbiology

What is relatively new to us is the fact that certain microbes can generate electrical current outside their own cells. What this means is that, we can bypass combustion and the expensive turbines to generate electricity. We just need to find way/s to harvest energy from microbes outer cells.

Scientists likened the process to the movie The Matrix where humans are hooked up to machines to provide electricity. In this case, microbes would be connected to devices to generate electrical current.

Major obstacle - for now - is the high cost of making such devices, and on how to improve their efficiency, and power capacity capacity of the devices.

Interesting! And in a long run, this should be the cheaper, better option.

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Read the full article on Using sewage-treating bacteria in electricity-generation.

LONDON (Reuters, August 9, 2012) - Microbes used to treat human waste might also generate enough electricity to power whole sewage plants, scientists hope.

The technology is based on the relatively new science of electro-microbiology that is finding uses for the discovery that certain microbes can generate an electrical current outside their own cells. In the context of sewage treatment, they would purify waste water by consuming the organic matter in it and use that energy to generate a current that can be harvested and stored.

Co-author of the research, published in the U.S. journal Science, Bruce Logan of Pennsylvania State University, compared the process he is developing to the movie The Matrix, where hfumans are hooked up to machines to provide electrical power.

"In our article we describe a process which is somewhat like that but what we do is use certain micro-organisms which can be connected to devices to generate an electrical current that can be used to generate power," Logan said.

An estimated 3 percent of the electricity generated in the United States is used to run waste water treatment plants and at least 5 percent goes into the whole water infrastructure, said Logan, adding: "That's clearly not sustainable."

Logan says the technique, still in its infancy, has sparked interest from companies including Siemens and General Electric, as well as a number of small startup firms. There are some major hurdles, including the high cost of making the devices needed and improving their efficiency and power capacity.

"Right now it's a bit expensive," Logan said.

"What we really need to do is get the cost of the materials down and start putting the technology out into practice and that takes other things than just science and engineering. It takes political will and funding."

The same technique could see microbes used to generate biofuels, hydrogen gas, methane and other valuable chemicals from the cheap and abundant product of our trips to the bathroom, say Logan and fellow researcher Korneel Rabaey from the University of Ghent in Belgium.

Source: Reuters

Malaysia’s first green library

Not too long ago, I wrote about Sabah's first ever Green Building in the form of Sabah Art Gallery Conservation Centre in Luyang Kota Kinabalu. Of course there's another one, the IEM Centre at KKIP but I'm unsure if the engineers' building has been completed yet.

The new library in Tanjung Aru will be the first Green Library in Malaysia when completed and made available to the public in 3 year's time.

"Itu dia!" (That's it), says Deputy Chief Minister, Yahya Hussin as Wong Vui Ying, director of Sabah Library nodded in agreement. Together with him are Azizah Dun, Welfare Minister and Jainab Ayid, an Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Resource Development and IT. Photo by: Ille Tugimin


Green library gets support from private sector

It is Malaysia’s first green library. But half of the RM40million ($12.9mil) of the cost of the Kota Kinabalu regional library has come from a private company, the Lahad Datu Water Supply Sendirian Berhad. It is also the first such building funded by the private sector, according to Deputy Chief Minister Yahya Hussin who launched it at a groundbreaking ceremony in Tanjung Aru on Tuesday, September 4, 2012.

“This is a very good cooperation between the private sector and the government,” he said. The library is expected to be ready by 2015.

Like the Sabah art gallery, the library will turn to solar energy, harvest rain water and use materials that will not add to carbon dioxide emission to keep global warming in check.

Steven Tan, managing director of Lahad Datu Water Supply Sendirian Berhad, says the funding is part of his company’s corporate social responsibility. - via Insight Sabah


TheGreenMechanics' two cents:

It's really good that we are waking up to realise the need to conserve energy and save the environment. This is the common practice for many architects and building designers in West Malaysia. I should make the trip to Tanjung Aru and take a look at this building soon.

But the real deal is Singapore with its achievement of more than 1,000 green building as at the beginning of this year.