The IBS 2009 in Las Vegas will bring along with many fresh ideas, some cool new blueprints for future buildings that will steal the spotlight in the coming years. But one tradition of the congregation that will once again be looked at closely for more reasons than one is the New American Home for 2009 that Microsoft and a few other select tech companies were involved in designing.

Though this year’s building was expected to be less lavish and more economic than previous versions because of the slowdown seen by the global economy and the real estate sector it’s just as grand as always, and has a plus. It introduces a whole new energy efficient concept.

Spread over 8,721 square feet in size, the home is a net zero-energy design – anything but a modest enterprise, that features nothing less than 56 solar panels that are responsible to generate all the energy it needs on a daily basis. Other than that, the house also uses ICFs, LED lighting, tankless water heaters, Energy Star appliances, airtight building construction and energy efficient windows.

• 55% whole house energy savings compared to benchmark (w/o solar)
• 77% whole house energy savings compared to benchmark (w/ solar)
• Total utility costs are ~$2,500 per year (electrical & natural gas)
• There’s a 10.64 kW solar pv system made of 56 solar panels

The New American Home seems to be like a blueprint for the future homes; grand and green. It’s one of the most amazing designs I’ve seen in a while and calling it a “dream home” just doesn’t do justice. Check out the gallery after the break.

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It is one thing to go to bed after having a glass or two of the fine French wine that comes from the famous French chateau, but it is altogether a different experience to sleep in a wine cask that once stored this intoxicating drink. The De Vrouwe van Stavoren Hotel in Netherlands has converted four of the giant old wine casks into four simple yet stunning rooms that are spacious enough to house a couple.

The rooms look spacious for a simple hotel room and have all the basic facilities that you expect to find in a simple hotel room.

Crafted from the salvaged wine casks, spacious and with all the basic facilities that you expect to find in a simple hotel room, this must be a great experience no matter if you love French wines or not. For the holiday season each of these wooden wonders will cost you from €74 to €119 a night, but off-season you can get a deal for as little as €18 a night!

Apart from a great example of recycle and reuse, the De Vrouwe van Stavoren hotel also manages to add some extra flavor to your trip to the Netherlands! [via Treehugger]

Solar energy is hailed as the savior of mankind from the impending doom of global warming and along with hydrogen powered fuel cells, it’s solar energy that is expected to cater our energy needs in the centuries to come.

Many European countries and states like California have a very aggressive solar energy program and are riding high on the golden wings of solar power. But how safe is this path in the long term? How much damage does solar energy cause to the planet? Surely, solar energy is all green a d 100% planet-friendly, right? Well, WRONG, say the experts following it closely.

A report released by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition warns the solar industry that it could face an e-waste problem head on and is risking “repeating the mistakes made by the microelectronics industry.”

According to the SVTC, there is plenty of toxic waste that is being released by solar industry, which is going unnoticed under the radar. We are so happy about the clean results that we “neglect” to see the underlying danger. Silicon tetrachloride, for example, is a by-product that makes land unsuitable for growing crops. For each ton of polysilicon produced by the solar industry for its solar panels, four tons of silicon tetrachloride is generated! Imagine …

Surely this report will not slow down the wave of solar energy that is just starting to spread across the globe, but SVTC advises to take note and tone down on the toxicity of the products used and to use high quality chemicals despite them being a tad bit more costly. Also recommended are ‘Takeback Programs’ where manufacturers are supposed to take back their products when they are done. However, this looks unlikely with the long lifespan of the panels and the change in technologies by that time.

While there is no need to sound the alarm bells yet (or is it?), it is important to realize and understand that solar energy is not as clean as it made out to be.

What do you guys think?

Image courtesy of clownfish

Automobile industry has taken plenty of slack over the decades about how it has been spewing tons of pollutants into the atmosphere causing air quality to gone down to deplorable levels. For that reason most of the manufacturers embraced the ‘green way’. And designers started drawing so here’s an amazing concept car, dubbed Green Apple.

Designed by Julien Sarremejean and unveiled at the Local Motors competition it’s a NYC-centric car, that features an accessible battery pack, an air intake system that can revolutionize the way we drive cars today and a space-conscious design that makes it perfect for big city life. Unlike traditional air intake systems this one sucks air in and twirl a set of small windmills that purify air.

Green Apple is a new concept that could change the whole perception of a zero-emissions car. If you can purify the same amount of air that comes out of the exhausts, then it relatively means you are causing no pollution at all. If ever built, such a futuristic idea (both tech and design) is a sure hit, so there shouldn’t be any reasons why it cannot be the blueprint for future eco-friendly vehicles. No? [via Inhabitat]

A glaciologist (who knew there were such people) says sea levels will rise at varying rates around the world because of a quirk of the earth’s gravity linked to global warming.” I am not too sure how gravity is linked to global warming, but….

“Everyone thinks sea level rises the same around the world,” David Vaughan, a leading glaciologist, said at the Rothera Base on the Antarctic Peninsula. “But it doesn’t”.

The, um, ‘expert’ days sea rises could vary by tens of centimeters from region to region, provided seas gain by an average of one meter by 2100 along with temperature rises. Translation – temps must rise AND seas must rise on average one meter by 2100, THEN, there MIGHT be a variation. In other words, he doesn’t know, he is just guessing.

Vaughn says that big ice sheets on Antarctica and on Greenland have a gravitational pull that lifts the seas around them. This means that water levels around Antarctica are higher than if the frozen continent were an open ocean. Huh?!

When the ice thaws Antarctica gets smaller and its gravitational tug diminishes. In some places around the continent Vaughn says the level of the Southern Ocean might even drop even though there is a flood of fresh water into the oceans.

The paradox is seas will rise least where thawing ice pours into them and most further away from where the ice is melting.

Vaughan said, “Ice lost from Antarctica has a bigger impact on European sea level rise than ice lost from the European Alps.”

Try this – put some ice cubes into a glass of water and mark the level of the water. Then wait for a few hours for the ice to melt and go back and check the water level. Come back and tell me the difference.

Mitsui & Co. of Japan has a service called Car Sharing Japan Co. From this spring the service will introduce electric vehicles. What an idea! What better than sharing a car? How about sharing an electric car?

Members share the use of vehicles.

The service is called careco and will be launched this Thursday. There will be nine bases in and around Tokyo’s Shibuya. (Why anybody would want to drive a car in Tokyo is beyond me, considering the availability of the public transportation.) Anyway, the fleet will be made up of the Prius hybrid, the iQ ultracompact, and the Vitz subcompact, all of which are made by Toyota Motor Corp. Also in the fleet will be Honda Motor Co.’s Fit subcompact. The lineup will gradually grow, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.’s wants its Plug-In Stella vehicle included by spring.

There are four levels of fees that are managed by a broker. Members will be able to reserve cars and unlock vehicles.

Japan’s space agency will send a global warming monitoring satellite into space this week.

The satellite will monitor greenhouse gases and help in the fight against climate change. There’s a chance of success for the first half of the mission; the second half is a non starter.

The satellite will orbit the Earth every two hours and collect new climate data every three days.

The greenhouse satellite is called the Go-Sat and JAXA says it will be able to detect infrared signals absorbed by greenhouse gases.

The satellite also has sensors that can observe carbon dioxide and methane distribution.

The satellite will orbit for five years. First data is expected for scientists by April or May.

The satellite is expected to provide info for UN climate officials who hope to have a new emission treaty by December 2009.

Uh Oh!

President Obama is expected to grant a waiver that will allow California to enforce their own greenhouse-gas emission standards. Yeah, I live in California. Good for me, right?

“That would completely change the landscape for vehicle regulation and obligate automakers to produce cars that are far more efficient than those called for under current federal standards,” the Los Angeles Times noted.

The move is aimed at the cars that are believed to create about a one-fourth of U.S. carbon emissions. The operative word in that sentence is ‘believe’ – they really don’t know.

“This is an essential piece of the nation’s environmental strategy,” says the president of the Coalition for Clean Air, said.

I wonder how much he gets paid to say that.

California’s Air Resources Board will implement and enforce the regulation.

“Environmentalists and state regulators have demanded that they be allowed to enforce their own greenhouse-gas emission standards on autos, saying the rules are key to combating global warming.”

Um, facts, please!

Until now the Bush administration has refused saying only the federal government can set car emission rules.

Automakers are calling it a nightmare scenario. They argue that compliance would create regulatory headaches and a technology burden that comes to $1,000-$5,000 more for each vehicle.

Asking carmakers to comply with California’s rules would be tantamount to forcing a cancer patient to “finish chemo and then go run the Boston Marathon,” General Motors Corp. spokesman said. “Right now, we’re just trying to make it through the current situation.”

Does anybody feel sorry for GM or any of the Big Three?

There’s a plant in Japan that will nod at its caretaker, offering encouragement and listening when nobody else will.

It’s called the Pekoppa. As it sprouts from a pot, it flutters its two leaves and bends at its stem as if reacting to someone who is nearby and speaking to it.

How cool is that? There are some 50,000 of the species. The plant is a great communication tool for the young and old. No matter how much you grumble, feel unloved, want to eat worms, the plant is there. Yeah, we have heard that plants respond to affection and attention.

Now we know, eh?

Pekoppa means nodding leaf in Japanese. It is pronounced Pe like in pet, cop pah.

The plant can be purchased for about $26. A flower version is also available.

You see, Pekoppa is a toy, made by Sega Toy Co.

The toys have thin metal wires that respond and move flexibly like muscles when they sense sound.

Now, can Japan make them produce photosynthesis, too?

“Smile, I am going to eat you.”

This Lemon Shark was the subject in a photo that won the Oceans division of the international Nature’s Best Photography 2008 Windland Smith Rice Awards.

The photographer was Bruce Yates.

Of course, Bruce wasn’t around to collect the award for the photo because he became dinner for the shark. (Kidding). But, we don wonder why the shark is smiling so, don’t we?

Which leads me to ask, do animals have emotions?

This pic was taken on the surface at sunset and was selected from among 20,000 photos to be the winner.

The lemon shark is found mainly in the tropical parts of the Atlantic coasts of North and South America and in the Pacific Islands of Polynesia – French Polynesia – Tahiti, the Cook Islands, and Tonga. They can grow as long as 12 feet but are usually around 8-10 feet. (3meters).

Lemon sharks don’t mind living in captivity, unlike white sharks which refuse food when you lock them up.

There have been 22 lemon shark attacks in the past 400 some years resulting in no deaths.