Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ladies and Gentlemen Allow Me to Introduce the Cat Car

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the who-needs-mr.-fusion dept.

Kelmar writes "CNN is running a story about how a German inventor has found a way to power a car using dead cats. Yes you read that right. According to the inventor he can produce the biodiesel fuel at the cost of about $0.30 (US) per liter. Needless to say many animal rights activists are upset by this development, and some are saying that it is illegal to use animals for this purpose in Germany."

7 of 614 comments (clear)

  1. Inventor misquoted? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    A spokesman for Bild told Reuters the story was meant to show that cat remains could "in theory" be used to make fuel with Koch's patented method.

    http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-09-14T160628Z_01_ MAR457954_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-GERMANY-CATS.XML

    1. Re:Inventor misquoted? by Knome_fan · · Score: 5, Informative

      This doesn't come as a surprise for anyone living in Germany.

      The Bild is Germanys largest tabloid and is well known for not always reporting overly accurate, to put it mildly.

      That said, this guy seems to be making quite some waves here in Germany. At least I remember seeing him on TV lately, talking about his invention.

      And if his claims are true, this really could prove to be a very useful invention, especially with the recent develpements in oil prices.

  2. and cnn falls for it, too by matt4077 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This was a story by BILD, the world's largest tabloid newspaper. It is nicely rebuked at Bildblog.de which is a meta-blog following BILD and exposing it's errors, bias and lies. The company ("Alphakat") simply develops a method to process waste as a kind of Bio-Diesel.

    --
    Fleur de Sel
    1. Re:and cnn falls for it, too by stirz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Taken (and translated) from http://alphakat.de/ :

      "IMPORTANT INFORMATION

      The claim spreaded by German media that Dr. Christian Koch is producing Diesel fuel from dead cats is entirely wrong and are entirey unrealistic.

      Legal steps have already been taken to counter these claims."

      This is ridiculous... Koch's firm simply introduced methods to produce Diesel fuel from waste oil, plastic waste, old plants, sewage sludge, ordinary household garbage and cadavers (which *surprise* could also be run-over cats!).

      Tsss... tabloids...

    2. Re:and cnn falls for it, too by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Oh, and the company's name ("Alphakat") is not derived from the word Katze (cat) but rather from Katalysator (catalizer). Indeed, the company used catalyzers to transform organic matter (all kinds of organic matter, rather than just the specific farfetched example cited) into fuel.

  3. BILD lügt by ph1l0r · · Score: 5, Informative

    This news is simply no news. Its a story entirely made up by the biggest german tabloid called Bild. Everyone in Germany with a little education knows that Bild lies in every second line. It's sad to see that even CNN and Reuters fall for stories made up by Bild. I have been in the States for six months and i do have to say that i was amused by the "news" being broadcasted first which soon shifted for me to feel sorry for you guys over there. Unfortunatly there seem too few people having a critical approach to what the news tell them and who inform themselves from really different sources. This is a link to a german blog by journalists that monitor Bild covering the "cat-fuel" article: http://www.bildblog.de/?p=791 It's german, don't know if babelfish etc will be able to translate it properly.

  4. Come on by Zebra_X · · Score: 5, Informative

    Did the moderator even read the first line of the article - "Inventor denies dead cat fuel story".

    The post is completely inaccurate.