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Coke Teams Up with Segway Inventor to Roll Out Clean Water Project
Scientific American ^ | September 25, 2012 | Martinne Geller

Posted on 09/27/2012 9:48:56 PM PDT by neverdem

Coca-Cola Co plans to deliver and operate water purification systems in rural parts of the developing world, working with the inventor of the Segway transportation device in a project that will also help further Coke's sustainability targets.

Coca-Cola Co plans to deliver and operate water purification systems in rural parts of the developing world, working with the inventor of the Segway transportation device in a project that will also help further Coke's sustainability targets.

The world's largest soft drink maker said on Tuesday that it is teaming up with American inventor Dean Kamen to roll out his new invention, called the Slingshot, to bring clean water to areas where it is limited.

Kamen, whose organization is called Deka R&D, has made many inventions in the medical device field but is best-known for his Segway personal transporter. He also worked with Coke on its Freestyle fountain dispenser.

Kamen expects to deliver 30 Slingshot machines to Coke by the end of 2012. Next year, Coke will place machines in rural areas of South Africa, Mexico and Paraguay, in places like schools, health clinics and community centers.

By 2014, the distribution should widen to include thousands of units, and later to extend to India, the Middle East and Asia.

"For us to partner with Deka and embark on a project with huge societal implications gives me huge excitement," Coke Chief Executive Muhtar Kent told Reuters. "And it fits perfectly with..."

--snip--

The Slingshot uses a vapor compression distillation system that runs on very low levels of electricity. Through boiling and evaporation, the system can clean and purify anything from ocean water to raw sewage, Kamen and Coke said. One Slingshot unit can purify up to 300,000 liters of water a year, or enough daily drinking water for about 300 people, Kamen said...

(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: cocacola; health; slingshot; waterpurification

1 posted on 09/27/2012 9:49:06 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

but, but....he didn’t build that!!!! (sarc)


2 posted on 09/27/2012 9:58:49 PM PDT by Kolath
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To: neverdem
The Slingshot uses a vapor compression distillation system that runs on very low levels of electricity. Through boiling and evaporation, the system can clean and purify anything from ocean water to raw sewage,

Raw sewage eh....try a poop-mobile...

lots of miles on a gallon of poop...


3 posted on 09/27/2012 10:09:23 PM PDT by spokeshave (The only people better off today than 4 years ago are the Prisoners at Guantanamo.)
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To: neverdem

The Segway may the flashy, trashy, geek-tastic, commercial flop that everybody knows Dean Kamen for, but the man is the greatest inventor of our time (in my opinion). He is the Edison of this age.


4 posted on 09/27/2012 10:09:24 PM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BAL1OK/)
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To: neverdem

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2012/09/25/coca-cola-deka-team-on-clean-water.html


5 posted on 09/27/2012 10:25:39 PM PDT by A. Morgan (Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.")
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To: neverdem

http://www.rainharvest.co.za/2012/09/clean-water-project-coke-segway-inventor-team-up/


6 posted on 09/27/2012 10:26:23 PM PDT by A. Morgan (Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.")
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To: neverdem

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/articles/coke-gets-behind-water-purification-system-developing-nations


7 posted on 09/27/2012 10:27:11 PM PDT by A. Morgan (Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.")
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius
And, Dean Kamen is a huge promoter of STEM education through the FIRST Robotics Competition.
8 posted on 09/27/2012 10:45:29 PM PDT by DigitalVideoDude (It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit. -Ronald Reagan)
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To: neverdem

I would like to see them bring down the cost of a solar, water producing machine, for getting water from desert air.

Right now the electric units are over 1200 dollars.


9 posted on 09/27/2012 11:01:26 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: A. Morgan

Thanks for the links. You can combine them in one comment.


10 posted on 09/28/2012 12:35:11 AM PDT by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
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To: neverdem

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/articles/coke-gets-behind-water-purification-system-developing-nations

http://www.rainharvest.co.za/2012/09/clean-water-project-coke-segway-inventor-team-up/

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2012/09/25/coca-cola-deka-team-on-clean-water.html


11 posted on 09/28/2012 1:56:05 AM PDT by A. Morgan (Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.")
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius

The Segway saw much more limited use than Kamen expected, but it is a great device in some applications. My kids went to a college prep school in an urban area and the security people had one. They could cover the area very quickly. Been using it for years.


12 posted on 09/28/2012 2:49:35 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: neverdem

Somehow, teaming up with the Segway inventor, hardly seems to me as having much of a chance for success.


13 posted on 09/28/2012 6:58:43 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: Right Wing Assault

i work at the Mall of America, the cops used to ride on Segways until they got too many complaints about running over people


14 posted on 09/28/2012 7:43:25 AM PDT by Docbarleypop
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To: neverdem

Segways, lava lamps, hula hoops. who remembers them?


15 posted on 09/28/2012 8:46:10 AM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Monarchy is the one system of government where power is exercised for the good of all - Aristotle)
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To: norwaypinesavage

He’s done a couple other things:

The First Portable Drug Infusion Pump
Invented by Dean Kamen, 1973

Dean Kamen, president and owner of DEKA Research & Development Corp. in Manchester, N.H., is an inventor, an entrepreneur, and an advocate for science and technology. He invented the first wearable infusion pump while he was a physics major at WPI in the early 1970s. The device found immediate applications in chemotherapy, neonatology and endocrinology, and led to the development of the first insulin pump for diabetics. His pumps give diabetics and other patients whose lives depend on frequent doses of medication a greater degree of freedom. They also enable terminally ill patients to receive pain-killing medication in their homes.

He founded Autosyringe Inc. to make the pumps and ran it, for a time, from the basement of his parents’ home on Long Island. Eventually, he found that managing the business took so much of his time that he was unable to attend classes, and he left WPI before receiving a degree (WPI awarded him an honorary doctorate in engineering in 1992). Eventually, he sold the company to Baxter International Corp. and founded DEKA to continue to develop his ideas for new medical technology. Recent projects have included the HomeChoice dialysis machine, developed for Baxter (it was named Medical Product of the Year by Design News in 1993), and the IBOT Transporter, a revolutionary stair-climbing wheelchair developed for Johnson & Johnson.

Kamen has received the Engineer of the Year Award from Design News magazine, the Hoover Medal (presented by five major engineering societies), and the Heinz Award in Technology. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Most recently, he received the National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest award for technological achievement.

He is also the founder of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the way Americans view science and technology. FIRST holds an annual competition in which robots designed and built by high school teams with corporate or university partnership compete in events modeled after sports competitions. The program is designed to get young people excited about science and technology.


16 posted on 09/28/2012 2:09:10 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: Docbarleypop
running over people

They can go pretty quick and they're quiet so they would be good to sneak up on people.

17 posted on 09/28/2012 3:33:11 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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