Looking at the new M-112, a compact economical car that recently participated in the Shell Eco Marathon 2008 in France, I’m pretty sure there are big chances it will be an inspiration for cars we’re going to drive in 5 - 10 years. Large cities will get even more crowded and I don’t even want to think what those traffic jams will be like unless, of course, we build suspended cities or develop flying cars.

Designed by Ignacio Garcia, the M-112 is a real concept car not just a prototype. Elegantly tiny and packing an ecological engine under the hood (really has one?) I’m pretty certain the one seater futuristic go-kart will turn heads when you make a trip to the city center.

I wonder if it’s expensive, because I’d definitely want to drive one.

via Novate (translated)

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe free for our updates via RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and please do come back!

Broadstar Wind Systems has designed what is supposed to the be next generation wind turbine. Based on principles first established by the French aeronautical engineer Georges Jean Marie Darrieus who invented a wind turbine capable of operating from any direction and under adverse weather conditions, the AeroCam is capable of generating power virtually anywhere.

Though it looks a lot like a water wheel because of the horizontal axis with multiple blades, rest assured that it’s really capable of delivering energy.

Probably the most interesting feature of the AeroCam wind turbine is the fact that it has the ability to automatically and interactively adjust the pitch or angle of attack of the blades that will rotate it. Much like a bird which is changing the shape of its wing when it flies.

“It all adds up to a solution that delivers more power and more choice of location, with a lower total cost of acquisition and ownership and a faster payback period. The AeroCam has the potential to equip almost every local community, business and government building with its own renewable energy power station and it can supplement existing turbines,” said Stephen Else, president of the company.

The price is $250,000 for a 250kW AeroCam wind turbine which is $1 per watt if we do the math. It’s the lowest in the industry.

Now you understand why oil business men are switching to wind?

via Energy Daily

My wife needs one of these things from Strapya and Tokyo Coil Engineering. The companies have come up with a plan to prevent missing phone calls. A solar-charged cell phone strap.

The strap weighs just 40g (1 oz) and is just 12.5cm (5 in) long. Yet it can store up to 40 minutes of call time once fully charged.

Just one problem … it takes 6-10 hours to charge in perfect weather conditions.

The solution…let the strap hang out of your pocket or bag and walk around outside all day. Or, you can just plug the dang thing in every night to keep it charged.

Price - Y1,995 ($20)

source

I can think of a couple of hundred reasons to drive a car instead of walk, bike, or inline skate.

Pollution, smution…

In Madrid, Spain, protesters stripped down and rode naked on bicycles to protest against the expansion of automobile use instead of riding a bike.

I’m only seeing the backside in these pix, but from what I do see, I am not that interested in what’s up front.

But, then again, I’d like to get a talking to from some of these protesters.

In the meantime, I am somewhat inclined to keep driving depending on who might ride naked to try and stop me.

Claudia Escobar is an eccentric Chilean fashion designer or at least that’s what she is demonstrating here with her new creation.

It’s swim wear and clothing made from discarded bits of Scottish salmon skin.

Her Lycra-trimmed, ultra-mini salmon-skin bikini are durable and elastic (how else?). They are also now part of a luxury clothing line and go for £250 (~ $495).

Smells fishy? Who cares?

Though it’s a very green solution we’re not sure how many women will buy this salmon-skin bikini for the summer of `08.

If you’re the “lucky” guy to undress someone who wears one, we’d definitely like to hear from you. What’s it like, how did you react in front of your mermaid?

Claudia Escobar recently returned from a trip to pick up wool from sheep in the Scottish islands. Dare we imagine what her next bikini will look like?

You might also enjoy:

Man Feeds Tiger, No News. Tiger Feeds On Man, News

“House” Made From Umbrellas

Eco-Funerals, Are You Green Enough?

Osaka’s Sharp Corp has a new residential solar cell panel (polycrystaline) that Sharp says has the highest solar-to-electric conversion rate to date. The new environmentally friendly product is called SunVista and will be released on Jun 18th. The addition of a third main electrode instead of the conventional two is the difference.

Sharp’s conversion rate will be 14.4% compared to the until now best 13.7% of Kyocera.Panels will retail for about $460-990. And Sharp wants to sell 17,000 of them each month!

Let’s see, what’s 17,000 x $600-700?

source

In the do it yourself category we have Ma Yanjun, a farmer in Mizhi county, Shaanxi province in China, that managed to build a solar water heating system using empty beer bottles. The reason he did it, was to allow his 73-year old mother to take a warm bath every day.

Since there was no warm water in the area and he couldn’t afford paying the big bucks for a hi-tech solar panel, Ma had to be innovative and instead of photovoltaic panels he used dozens of beer bottles. He finished work in 2006 and ever since, he attracted the envy of 20 other local farmers, which needed his help and skills.

We don’t care who emptied those beer bottles and want to congratulate Ma for his achievement.

After completing their $6 million capital raise the Australian company, BioPower Systems, is working hard on testing what could be the undersea equivalent of a wind farm that will turn wave energy into clean, eco-friendly, renewable electricity. Using a lightweight design in harmony with the ecosystem, the bioWAVE and bioSTREAM devices will reside beneath the water surface, moving and swaying in tune with the ocean’s forces.

The concept looks great, but I wonder who’s going to do the cleaning after a couple of months of staying underwater. Would it affect the whole process of creating energy? Probably, buy I trust these guys with coming up with a solution.

Here’s a video on NationalGeographing where they test the whole concept.

Though they have their reasons, I can’t figure out why they’ve built such a big umbrella “house”. The project uses modified umbrellas and was put up by Kengo Kuma who did it for the Milan Triennale Museum of design.

The umbrellas are zipped together along their outer edges to form the modular shape you can see in the pictures, and each of them have two extra flaps hanging from the central segment which are used for different compositions. The Umbrella House has a kitchen area, a sleeping mat if you need a power nap and should be great for on-campus gatherings, don’t you think?

via DesignBoom

Not sure what you will think but the pre-historic family we all know, The Flintstones, got arrested in Brussels, Belgium, while driving towards the European Parliament building.

It wasn’t Fred or Wilma to get the penalty, but six Greenpeace activists dressed as cavemen driving the “Flintstone car”, that protested on the influence of the auto industry on proposals to curb carbon dioxide emissions from car. This week the European Parliament will start debating on the legislation that forces down CO2 emissions from cars, with fines on manufacturers that fail to comply.

“Our activists and their zero-emission vehicle are raising the alarm about the influence this dinosaur industry exercises over EU climate policy,” said Greenpeace transport campaigner, Melanie Francis.

Not sure about you but I remember the pedal powered ‘Flintstone car’ driver that got his traffic ticket dismissed, so I hope nothing happens to these six well-intended cavemen.