Anyway, here’s the April 2008 list of interesting articles.

Design

• PREFAB FRIDAY- PLUS HOUSE in Sweden

Energy

• Harnessing river whirlpools puts energy on tap (subscribtion required)
• Ontario Scores 400 Megawatts of Solar Power

Heh… that’s about it I’m afraid.

Bet before you leave, please take the time to visit the FUND THIS PRODUCT- Lifestraw Family water filters for Mumbai site. Read about it, think about it and perhaps… donate?
These products are very similar to the ones in the Swedish Army survival kits and they work excellent for single users. The nice thing about this version is that it is capable of cleaning water for a family, not only a solitary user.

Bye bye for now.

So, the March 2008 dump och Eco-related articles for you pleasure after the jump.

Fashion

• SUSTAINABLE STYLE- Plastic Fantastic ‘Melissa Shoes’

Energy

• GE Announces Printable OLED Breakthrough
• Learn How To Make Biodiesel On YouTube
• Mmmmm, Beer … and Energy
• GREEN CELL Universal Battery Sold in Vending Machines
• Nanomaterial turns radiation directly into electricity
• BBC NEWS  UK  Education  See-saw to power African schools
• Tiny Pill-Sized Plasma Bulb is Brighter Than Streetlight
• The World’s First OLED Lamp  EcoGeek

Gadgets

• USBCELL AA Batteries Can be Charged through USB!
• LINC Lifestyle Phone Takes E-waste Out of the Equation

Vehicles

• A Biodiesel Prius- VW To Release 69.9 MPG Diesel Hybrid (We Thought)
• Super Cute Electric Zero Emissions THINK car
• The Best and Greenest from the Geneva Motor Show
• Lighting GT – First UK’s Electric Sportscar for 2008
• Volvo Planning Plug-In Hybrid for Sweden

Design

• Death Star Lunar Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan
• Whale Power- More Efficienct Fan Blades Mimic Humpback Fins
• MILE HIGH ULTIMA TOWER- Vertical eco city works like a tree

And, of course, the “Misc” links i am having some trouble deciding where they belong:

• Advice for Parents-to-Be
• Shop Green Online with thepurplebook
• Huddler The Finest Green Shopping Community So Far  EcoGeek

I think that’s about it for March-08.

Expect no more than a somewhat categorized list of links.

So, what do we have this month then?

One new-found site that does an awesome job of summarizing the eco blogosphere and that I recommend is GreenOptions.com.

Our neighbors to the east, Russia, seems to be on the eco-friendly-really-tall-building pills with their Gazprom Tower and Russia Tower. Both very tall and in some way considered green.

We also have some rain-power and some advances in solar-power and a promising attempt to copy photosynthesis while at it. And of course a boat powered by the very waves it’s riding.

Also, don’t forget about Earth Hour at March 29th.

More links after the jump.

Energy

• New Clothes Dryer Could Save Billions
• Rain Power
• Solar Bubbles
• Solar cell speeds hydrogen production
• World’s Largest Solar Power Plant Coming to Arizona

Science

• New JAXA Technology Captures Solar Energy in Space

Gadgets

• Nokia ‘Remade’ Concept

Vehicles

• Honda Re-Captures Lost Heat
• Prairie grass revives hope for biofuels
• Air-Powered Cars in America by 2010…
• The Suntory Mermaid II Wave-Powered Boat

Fashion

• What the Heli?

Design

• Brio54

And finally some stuff I’m having trouble categorizing:

• Foster’s Masdar Carbon Neutral City
• Gazprom Tower; Tallest & Greenest
• Russia Tower; World’s largest naturally ventilated building
• GreenOptions.com

Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a low-risk, transformational concept, called Green Freedom™, for large-scale production of carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water.
Currently, the principal market for the Green Freedom production concept is fuel for vehicles and aircraft.

Our concept enhances U.S. energy and material security by reducing dependence on imported oil. Initial system and economic analyses indicate that the prices of Green Freedom commodities would be either comparable to the current market or competitive with those of other carbon-neutral, alternative technologies currently being considered

The above quotes come from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) website describing Green Freedom™, a concept for transforming carbon dioxide into fuel. The idea is to be able to make a capable of replacing the current fuel in vehicles and aircraft without need for mechanical modifications.

Unlike other bio-fuel production, this concept uses already existing power plants and does not need large tracts of land or farming resources for production.

If this all works out the way it is planned… well. That’s not for me to say. But it sure would be nice to actually take carbon dioxide from the air and make fuel out of it.

references:

http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/12554

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/02/18/los-alamos-laboratory-gets-fuel-from-air/

In an attempt to have malls, offices and other public buildings consume less energy–or at least reduce the need to import energy from the external power grid, saving the money and the environment–they had the revolutionary idea to use the revolving doors as generators. Their “Revolution Door“is quite simply a generator, Powered By the People–Oh my god, it’s full of puns–as they push it around.

Used wisely, meaning wherever possible, and wired into the buildings power grid, anyone passing through will generate some electricity that will be directly fed to the building itself. Every revolution will generate a current, however small, that will directly reduce the amount of power needed from external, expensive and potentially harmful, sources.

You can’t have a Revolution unless it’s powered by the people.

references:

Inhabitat.com – Generate Energy with Fluxxlab’s ‘Revolution’ Revolving Door

http://www.fluxxlab.com/projects/

Until last week I just kinda threw them away or, if they still are usable, give them away to some kind of charity. But the worn out clothes has still gone into the regular trash.
That is going to change. The last time I went to the recycling-station I noticed that there was a “new” dumper for just textiles.
After a little bit of a googling I also found this link from Inhabitat: Inhabitat » RECYCLED BLUE JEAN INSULATION by Bonded Logic

So now the the unusable clothes becomes good stuff too.

Most people know about Toyota and their efforts to make greener cars. Most notably the Prius, but now also most of the new Lexuses.

What at least I was unaware of was that they also have a department for “Non-Automotive; Biotechnology & Afforestation” and what caught my eyes the most here was their rooftop greening. Basically, simplified ways to add a garden to your rooftop.

Everyone should have one.

I like graffiti. I like the way it can spice up those boring concrete walls in tunnels and similar. Nicely executed it can even make a building look nicer and some people actually provide walls for graffiti.
One problem, though, is the fact that graffiti tends to be illegal and many people don’t like it. Especially those people owning the wall/buildning graffitied upon and they often pay big bucks to clean the walls on regular intervals.

But what about cleaning the wall for them? Just… not the entire wall.
In our world of industry there is a depressing amount of dirty walls on public places but no one really notices since they are so evenly dirty. This has made a few people think a little on the subject of graffiti. Regular graffiti is executed by adding paint to a wall, thus creating art. But if you expose the real color through the layers of dirt, by cleaning brushing it off, you can also make patterns and art. A sort of reversed graffiti.

A growing number of street artists has begun doing this. Working with hoses, brushes and scrubs to create patterns and art in the dirt. A nice, eco-friendly, and creative way to make art.

Read more on: http://inhabitat.com/2007/01/11/reverse-graffiti/

del.icio.us tags: ReverseGrafitti, art, graffiti, eco-friendly

When i bought my latest pair of jeans I was actually wondering about what brands and models would be/could be considered “green”. Here is an answer and a collection of brands that manufacture sustainable jeans. Toss these together with a pair of worn|Again and a nice, friendly, shirt (tips? anyone?) and I will be fit and happy for a while.

I presume that it will be tough to find these brands somewhere around here (Falun, Sweden) though, and I still feel a little cautious about buying clothing online.

They too, as Terra Plana does, focus on producing footwear made from recycled and environment-friendly materials.
Just think about it. Why buy shoes with NEW material when you can make perfectly fine, and decent looking, ones using 99% recycled materials?

While at it; check out Anti Apacthy for more tips.