That's nothing. Washington, DC politicians have been "unprinting" documents for decades.
Fortunately, some of us still retain copies...
Posted on 03/17/2012 3:48:22 PM PDT by U-238
British researchers say they've developed a laser process that can "uncopy" toner ink from paper as an alternative to traditional recycling.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge say the process involves short laser pulses to erase words and images by heating the printed material to the point that it vaporizes.
The technique works with commonly used papers and toner inks and is more eco-friendly than recycling, they said.
"When you fire the laser, it hits the thin toner layer and heats it up until the point that you vaporize it," researcher David Leal-Ayala told the BBC.
"Toner is mostly composed of carbon and a plastic polymer. It's the polymer in the toner that is vaporized."
Tests carried out on the resulting "unprinted" paper suggested it had not sustained significant damage and was "comparable to blank unlasered paper," the researchers said.
Reusing rather than recycling paper would be good for the environment, they said.
"When you recycle paper you use a lot of resources," Leal-Ayala said.
"You use electricity, water and chemicals, and to be honest when you print something the only reason that you don't re-use the paper is because there is print on it.
"The paper is still in good condition and there is no point in going through all the heavy industrial process if the paper is still perfectly fine."
(Excerpt) Read more at spacedaily.com ...
That's nothing. Washington, DC politicians have been "unprinting" documents for decades.
Fortunately, some of us still retain copies...
When do we start?
If this process were done in economically significant volume, dealing with the vaporized polymer binder would be an issue (at least in the building where the process was performed).
Simply performing the ablation in a suitably oxygen-enriched environment would dispose of the polymer (and carbon pigment) -- and provide a smidgen of that good old carbon dioxide that green plants need to thrive.
And, as I said previously, don't give me any "AGW" BS. The feedback has been empirically shown to be negative. (The warmists' computer models -- which all use positive feedback -- are junk...)
You are welcome. It was necessary to lay everything out on the table for you to see.
Thanks Hegemony Cricket. I remember a show, Cronkite did it, called “The 21st Century” — one segment showed a typewriter (whatever that is) which used a laser to erase mistakes, a capability which was used “on the go”, since we didn’t have such cushy computer equipment and the like back then.
The laser used to be dubbed, “the solution in search of a problem”. Imagine. :’)
You just need to buy carbon offsets from Al Gore each time you vaporize polymers and heat up the earth and the negative effect is erased.
But there is security devices in checks such as watermarks.
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That is why I said “buy a cashiers check” ,,, otherwise you can just print them up on any laser printer at home..
How to tell if a cashier’s check is counterfeit
http://www.happynews.com/living/money/financial-frauds-tell.htm
Not nearly as cool as the vaporizing story he told me. Bummer.
I’d let it go at vaporizing ,, close enough ..
You've picked the wrong guy. I'm a complete skeptic on AGW. What I was trying to do was turn the "greens" arguments against themselves. They can't be both worried about AGW and in favor of recycling paper.
Good to learn that! I'm with you!!
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