JULY 13th, 2010
One of the great things about technology is that it constantly forces us to change the way we think about reacting with our environment. Intel are designing a motion sensor remote control that will be able to detect the user by the movements that they make. So in the future when children want to watch films their parents have deemed unsuitable, instead of trawling through relatives birthdays to guess a passkey, they will have to try and ape their parents remote control techniques. Nothing ever really changes, it just occasionally gets updated for a new generation.
Source: PSFK
MAY 17th, 2010
House-hunting? you could do worse then check out an Earthship. Made from earth, old tires and recycled drinks cans, the earth ship also contains cisterns that can collect and filter up to 6000 gallons of rainwater. Water is then used for drinking or washing and cleaning and after that is diverted into the garden to feed the plants, and after that is used to flush the toilet, phew! By incorporating solar panels and a wind generator the annual utility bill is estimated to be kept down to around $150 (£103). For more information about this amazing habitat check out homeqn.
Source: homeqn
APRIL 29th, 2010
London wind has been idly blowing about not pulling it’s weight since Londinium was founded back in Roman times. Not any more. In a some-would-say ironic turn of events, wind is being used to manufacture wind repelling neck material, or scarves to the layman. Designer Merel Karhof has created a wind powered machine that constantly knits a scarf giving a handy visualisation of the powers and applications of urban wind power. Every now and then, the wool is ‘harvested’ and turned into individual scarves.
Source: PSFK
APRIL 8th, 2010
Changing our lifestyles to combat global warming is hard. Inbuilt obsolescence and cheap disposable items have become such a core part of our lifestyles that it takes time and persistence to change our mindset. Unless that is, we can come up with an easy fix.
With a depressing inevitability scientists all over the world have been working on just that. Harebrained schemes include: inducing volcano explosions, harnessing the power of tornadoes, radioactive light bulbs, and infecting cows with kangaroo bacteria in order to reduce methane emissions. It seems that simply changing our lifestyles doesn’t do it for these scientists. For a round up of these and more dubious green schemes check out webecoist.
source: webecoist
APRIL 7th, 2010
Deep in semi-rural Wisconsin, a mysterious figure known as Dr Evermor has created what must be the finest “steampunk scupture” ever made. Dr Evermor’s Forevertron is an absolutely monstrous sculpture made entirely from scrap metal. Some of the objects lucky enough to have found their way into the sculpture include an original 1880’s Edison dynamo and a decontamination chamber used in the Apollo project. The sculpture is too vast to be contained in one solitary photo, fortunately a selection of photo’s and more information can be found here.
Source: Worldchanging
MARCH 31st, 2010
Spanish illuminists reclaimed the streets for an night in Brooklyn with their installation Literature versus traffic. The artists spent 2 days combining some 800 books with lights, before taking to a Brooklyn street in the early hours and laying them on the road. As you can see above, the results were ethereal and provoking. The artists hope their piece will be the first of many battles to be won against traffic. For more pictures from this and other installations, check out their website at luzinterruptus.com
MARCH 31st, 2010
Older people may be able to fend off the dreaded care home with robotic help in the future. Scientists from the University of the West of England have been testing a robot based system of caring in the UK and the Netherlands. The projects consists of a wearable health status monitor, a health reporting alarm and meal and drink reminders. These are linked to a robotic platform that will help people to stay in touch with relatives, create voice activated shopping lists, and lose convincingly at Bridge. Admittedly I made up the Bridge part, but all told the future looks brighter for independent living.
Source: phenomica
SEPTEMBER 15th, 2009
It might be the greatest challenge facing humanity but getting people to engage with climate change has long proved difficult. Two of the main obstacles preventing people from relating to greenhouse gas emissions are the abstract nature of the term ‘carbon footprint’ and the fact that greenhouse gasses are invisible. The Carbon Quilt is an interactive tool, endorsed by top scientists, that aims to create a visual language to help communication.
The tool converts statistics such as: “every day we pump 80 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere” into more meaningful amounts such as: “at the rate we emit Carbon Dioxide it would take four seconds to fill the UN building seven times”. The Carbon Quilt also personalises the CO2 emissions by being applicable to any scale, from continental emissions to those of a single light bulb.
Try it out and find out more at carbonquilt.org
Source: Green Thing Blog
