Slashdot Mirror
Waterproof Books
Ant sent in a bit about new Water proof books. From the article "The new dunkable books are made not from trees, but from plastic resins and inorganic fibers. Melcher Media, a New York-based publisher, is promoting books that are manufactured using a technology it calls "Durabooks." The books' pages don't absorb water, and they stretch instead of tearing. Other companies make waterproof books with standard wood-based paper that is heavily laminated in the printing process."
Cutting down trees is bad for the environment and all, but trees can be replanted. Wouldn't plastic resins and inorganic fibers be worse?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Let me guess... they'll next be applying this to make magazines more resistant to various bodily fluids!
There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those that understand binary and those that do not.
What this can do to Porn Mags!!!
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
You also see many older books decomposing. And that is truly a sad sight.
What would be a good idea for this is to implement it in library copies of books only. Just the ability for the paper to stretch rather than tear would save many copies from the "Friends of the library" bins.
"If you masturbate in the bathtub, that's part of the idea -- even though it doesn't say it in the promotional material," Mohanraj said. "If you get distracted, it's not so bad to drop the book in the bathtub."
This product should do well on slashdot. Thinkgeek, how about it?
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
I can see these being used for cookbooks; you can get some that are water/stain/food resistant, but a book made of this stuff would be better.
I print, therefore I am.
- can be produced from cheap (although toxic), non oil-related chemicals
- can (sometimes) be utterly destroyed to basic molecules by a simple (again) chemical spray
- can, often, be reusable.
Crude Oil...
- should have been digged for the start in profit for electricity based motor, and hydrogen cells
- pollutes (No ? Really?)
- Is a boon on some VERY lucrative business that thinks nothing of bribes, destruction or political instabilities to achieve their goals (no direct attacks, they ALL do it), while electricity can be produced almost anywhere on the planet today using green sources.
Plastics, as you know them today, are mostly polymers.
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Thats why the farmers almanac has a hole in the corner, to put it on a string in the outhouse.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Why is it that I feel I am the only person that cringes whenever a new plastic product is released? Bear with me here: I'm not a vegetarian, I don't belong to any save-the-whatever clubs (tho maybe I should), and I drink from my share of plastic coke bottles; but I try to recycle them, recycle my shopping bags, etc.
BUT I realize that some day, all this plastic will catch up with us. Take these new Saran (?) cutting sheets. Use them, then just throw them away. I HATE that phrase. It's morally repugnant to me. Use, then RECYCLE!!!! Anybody who can take pride in using something, then "throw[ing] it away" is really, really ignorant. Would you feel right about using something, then throwing it in a pile in your back yard, pretending you'll never have to deal with it? Every time you throw away something made of plastic or metal or anything else non-biodegradable, you are demonstrating your ignorance. I do it, you do it, we all do it sometimes. Asking for a total change is unreasonable and unrealistic. But trying to recycle more and more is the way to go. And new plastic products are inexcusable that are explicitly suggested to just be thrown away, and reprehensible.
is to make a book that can be recycled indefinitely, unlike paper, which can only make it one or two times through the recycling process. See the Slashdot review of the book that started this idea: Cradle to Cradle.
"It remains to be seen if the human brain is powerful enough to solve the problems it has created." Dr. Richard Wallace
I think it's pretty pointless for regular books and all. Also the porn use is just sad, if you can't direct things sufficiently well to avoid that, then well I'm sorry for you.
They just need to get better.
When I was a little kid I thought about this (when you're a little kid and have to take baths because you're not big enough to use the shower? right.) Why not make a waterproof book, so you can read in the tub?
But seriously. Books are not on their way out, by any means. I know tablet PC's and PDAs are improving so that maybe someday everyone will curl up with a good book electronically, but not everyone wants to do that. The feel of a book, the texture of the paper, its portability and durability is just something that not a lot of people can match with an electronic text source. Argue as you will--portable electronic devices are just not that widespread yet.
I read a fascinating book by Neal Gershenfeld, "When Things Start to Think". It's about not just making cool new technology--it's about making that technology more accessible, less daunting, making computers serve you instead of you serving computers. He proposed an interesting idea--why not make an actual book computer? People are familiar with the book's interface. Those who have problems reading text on a monitor would have no difficulty with the familiar ink-on-paper interface.
Picture this: start with a durable cover of some sort, maybe tough molded plastic (with LEDs. I like LEDs.) Insert inside this cover enough pages of membrane to make it heft and feel like a book. This membrane is textured to look and feel like paper, and is almost as thin, but it's not paper. Think "really thin electronically controlled Magna-doodle."
Particles (like toner particles) can be controlled with electromagnets to form text on the "pages." You could download entire copies of classics and have the "book" display them--just like a normal book. And you wouldn't even need some 1200 pages to read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy--you could have maybe only 50 pages, and have the text "cycle" so that once you're done with the first 50 pages, the next 50 appear on the same pages.
You could even edit the text as you see it with a pen or keyboard interface. For in-the-dark perusal the pages could be backlit or another lighting source could be part of the book.
I think this is a fabulously cool idea. Say what you will about electronic text--the book isn't going anywhere soon, and why not augment it with the power we already have?
Just my $0.02 USD.
Angry IT woman in big clompy boots. And talking lint!.
Manuals may be obsolete. I would never exchange the feel of touching paper when reading a novel with the eye strain of staring at a screen for litterally days.
Bah, I hope you're not really on the X-Box dev team.
Vanderbilt University Library's rare books collection used to have a copy of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 printed on asbestos . I don't know if they still have it as they probably threw it away in the current asbestos hysteria. It was there in 1977 anyway.
Not to mention books for toddlers who haven't yet learned that books are to be cherished, not torn up for the neat noise ripping paper makes.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
About 7 months ago I did a book review for Slashdot of Cradle to Cradle by McDonough and Braungart. I believe it was the first commercially released book in this format by Melcher. (First sentence of the book: "This book is not a tree.")
I've had a number of experiences with this stuff over the years. Really cool stuff, but it doesn't act the way one thinks it should.
One can't use pencils to write on it, it needs to be carved into from a pen. This means that inkjet printers do not work with this. It is made entirely of plastic, so photocopying/laser printing is impossible.
The material is actually wicked strong, very high tensile strength and very ductile, but it is not impossible to tear. When it is torn, one can see multiple layers of material. The top layer is somewhat like a white powder, more of a matting that is anti-gloss that is used to repel the water. The next layer down is a glossy plastic. This is where the writing is adhered to, as well this layer is very thin. The final layer is a thick layer of plastic, used to make this paper very hard to tear and waterproof.
A few interesting uses of this paper, if written on and covered in water, then let to dry on something the ink will bleed onto the other item. This allows photocoping of items onto objects around the house. This is not a good thing at most times, when the book is drying out, it had better not be touching anything or the other pages because the pages could swap ink.
Kids love this stuff. They don't care what is on the paper, if you give them a sheet they will play with is for hours on end. (And if you have ever tried to keep a kid entertained for more than 8 minutes, yoou know how great this is) They love to get it wet, and see it dry in seconds. They like to try and tear it, since their fingers are not strong enough or smart enough to try a small tear and build on it, they just bend the plastic.
This stuff is great, but does has its drawbacks. It is an awful lot like paper, but is hard to print on using normal printing techinques. Doesn't fold well, and is quite expensive. The ink tends to bleed if not stored properly, and due to the nature of the paper people love to try and break it either by soaking it or by tearing it. A few good points on the paper: very strong, waterproof, great entertainment, and one can't discount the wow factor of being able to dunk paper under water.
Seeing as we've sold about two of these per month in the last couple of years, I'd hardly call this a revolution in publishing. Really, it just seems like another gimmick.
With all the hoopla over e-books and print-on-demand books, both of which are better and more innovative ideas than the aqua book, they represent a small fraction of what people actually buy. I happen to prefer computer books in the electronic format, such as the O'Reilly bookshelves, but I'm in the distinct minority. Most people have a definite preference for the dead tree version, and thats something I don't see changing for a long time.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
but you can't feed it throught a laser printer or copier or it will melt on the hot roller.
Did you learn this how I think you learned it?
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
The problem is that the process is typically much more expensive than making regular paper. Also, I haven't used this new stuff, but the old techniques produce very thick stock. The kind I use is actually made from tightly weaved textiles and laminates. This makes it okay for a 40 page technical notebook, but somewhat unweildy for larger volumes. You won't see anyone making "flood-proof" books on a large scale any time soon. They would be awfully heavy, bulky, and expensive. It would honestly just be cheaper to buy a second copy after the first one is destroyed.
V
.. my first thought was for "field guides" for the natural sciences. I have had a life long interest in wildcrafting and survival/preparedness issues, and durable waterproof books would be a *really good thing* for those subjects. Paper based books are too wussy and delicate for field use, and the semi-waterproof alternatives are very $pendy right now.
How do you print on this stuff? Printing on a core sheet and then laminating or coating it has been used for decades, and that's no problem. Printing on the surface of plastic is hard. Most plastic containers have paper labels. Come up with a high-speed, good-quality process for printing on plastics and the packaging industry will rush to your door.
"I can think of several uses to this kind of technology. Cookbooks for one always get things spilled on them."
Yeah, I can't wait for Maxim to use this technology either.
"Derp de derp."