We all know that water is incredibly important. As important as oil is today, as big a motivation for war, landgrabbing, and political intrigue, water will be tomorrow.It is said that by the year 2050, some 4 billion people will be facing severe water shortages. That’s half the world’s projected population. The world’s population is increasing, but the amount of fresh water is decreasing.
Anupam Mishra has made the study of water his life’s work. Below is a talk he gave at TEDIndia about the ancient art of water harvesting. Fascinating, and incredibly important work…
John Wayland, also known as Plasma Boy, took a 1972 Datsun 1200 coupe and transformed it into the White Zombie, an electric car that blows away anything street legal in a drag race. Thrilling. Watch the video below.
Thanks to cousin Allen for this one: Nissan has developed an iPhone app whose sole purpose is to communicate with its upcoming Prius competitor. The Nissan electric car is supposed to be announced tomorrow, August 1st.
The app allows you to do things like track your battery level. More usefully, on a scorching day, you can ask the car to start gradually cooling the car a few minutes before you get into it. Obviously, this lets you avoid roasting your hooha when you slide into your car, but this approach also prevents a sudden drain on the battery if you turned the AC on high.
This web site is dedicated to developing Central Park into an international airport. Crazy, right? I just can’t get my head around this. Especially after 9/11. This is the single largest undeveloped tract of land in New York City. Home to much wildlife. A refuge, an environmental oasis in the middle of the city that never sleeps.
So who’s behind this craziness? Trump? Some faceless development corporation? Um, no, it’s an environmental group. Yes, you heard me right. This pitch here is to reduce carbon emissions of single passenger vehicles making the drive from New York out to one of the three major airports that serve the New York City area.
Read the about page. Crazy, but not without merit.
Reynolds Foil, Inc. is the maker of fine packaged aluminum foil, known to the masses as Reynolds Wrap. They recently released a version of their flagship product that is made from 100% recycled aluminum. A GREAT idea!!!
I’ve not found this in my local grocery yet, but I suspect the price will be a bit higher. Don’t care. Huge benefit to all of us. As long as the price is within a stones through of the equivalent non-recycled foil, I’m in.
The vast majority of deaths — 99 percent — are in developing countries which are estimated to have contributed less than one percent of the world’s total carbon emissions.
There’s just so much we can do. Go into Google and type “Save the planet”. Lots of suggestions. The three easiest? Walk/Bike/Run when you can, eat locally grown foods, and recycle everything.
This image shows the Presidio (extreme north side of San Francisco) with overlays showing streams, important buildings, trails, etc. Hover over an icon and a tooltip appears identifying it. Take the map to where you live and zoom in. Bet you find something you’ve never noticed before. Cool, right?
I found this article very interesting. In a nutshell, utility companies pay high power consumers money to cut power use when demand on the power grid passes a certain threshold. I love the idea.
So why don’t we net-savvy users organize ourselves in a similar way. Via Twitter, email, etc., start a notification service organized on a regional basis to ask folks to cut demand on notice. Any payment can be donated to a charity, used for R&D, perhaps go towards a regional fuel fund. Attention my Google friends, perhaps this can be a Google idea?
I am a whole foods fan. The food type, not the grocery chain, though they’re fine. I like eating apples, carrots, things that are consumed in much the same form as they arrived. I also am a fan of locally grown produce. Better ecological footprint, don’t need to consume as much fossil fuel to get the food from way over there to way over here.
But I also do like a nice burger.
So this is cool. A new burger chain, born in the Pacific Northwest, called Burgerville. Locally grown ingredients, terrific choices that your kids will love. Healthy choices. Seasonal menu changes based on ingredient availability.
This image shows the containers used to house our nation’s nuclear waste. Obviously, this particular container is a work in progress, but the worker inside it gives you a sense of its ultimate size.
The problem is, this container is designed to last for 100 years. That might seem like plenty of time, but the fact that the waste being stored in these containers will be fatal to humans for 10,000 years, and the fact that these containers are being buried near streams and rivers, even near the ocean, tells me we’ve got real cause for alarm.
This image comes from this article in Wired Magazine. The article makes the point that we should be spending some of the bailout money creating research jobs to help find a solution to this problem. In the scheme of things, 100 years will pass in the blink of an eye and our children’s children will be faced with a problem that they can’t get near enough to solve.
