Last week in San Francisco I got to see another car of the future, always in the future that is. Part of Nissan’s Green Program the FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle) is not only eco-friendly, but also looks pretty good. Right? Meanwhile you can read more about Nissan’s Green Program 2010 and some of their Environmental Activities.

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There is a Penguin Gay couple in Harbin, China.

The two penguins are trying to steal eggs from straight birds so that they can become ‘fathers.’ Other birds in the zoo have noticed the deception and are ostracizing the gay twosome. The gay couple placed stones at the feet of parents to try to hide the eggs they stole.

The zookeepers now have to separate the gay guys from the rest of the group to avoid disrupting the community. Does all this sound vaguely familiar? They say “It’s not discrimination. We have to fence them separately, otherwise the whole group will be disturbed during hatching time.”

Tell that to the birds when they start passing around a proposition with the number 8 on it.

Source: Telegraph

Captain Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace and helm of the world’s most active marine non-profit organization, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is a modern day pirate. Oh yes, you’re reading it right. He’s a pirate trying to prevent Japanese ships from killing whales off the coast of Antarctica and so far, together with its crew they spared more than 300.

Most of the encounters were recorded and Animal Planet decided to air them in a new seven-part, hour-long weekly series starting Friday, November 7. After only three episodes, Whale Wars turned out to be the best performing Friday primetime telecast in the last five years with people showing real interest.

Where can you watch Whale Wars?

If you’re like me and missed the first episodes, don’t worry. You can watch Captain Paul Watson and his crew of 34, battling sea sickness, a helicopter accident, a dangerous encounter with a Japanese whaling boat and a hostage situation, on Animal Planet. There are four episodes at the moment and I’m looking forward for the next one. Meanwhile you can watch Animal Planet on YouTube.

Juan Herrera, Cristhian Vargas, Ibeth Jaramillo, Angelica Fernandez, and Pablo Dorado are Colombian fashion designers who know as much about fashion as I reckon any other fashion designer does. It looks good on stage but where you going to wear the things? These folks are different, however, because their fashion is all about bio-themed creations.

Cat of nine tails made into a skirt, ivy for stockings, leaves for covering things up, flowers for adornment, bamboo sheaves for I don’t know. Isn’t it possible that some people are trying too hard to capitalize on the eco-friendly trend.

And the problem is still the same - where you going to wear the things?

Images by Sina

There is a good reason why I can’t feel for this woman.

Sometimes, Russian people want to prove they’re tough. One way of doing it is chaining bears to guard their homes, instead of dogs. Not that chaining dogs (or any other animals) is a good thing, but what she does - is SO WRONG. How can people be happy with a bear in their backyard? No more imagination for creating toys and we need to find something that breathes to entertain?

Can anyone come up with a good reason for all these? There’s something wrong about that!!!

[EnglishRussia via Zoso]

The Windspire vertical wind turbine by Mariah Power is a noiseless way of powering your own home for cheap in a sustainable way. Using wind power to spin, this 29.5-foot-tall vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) it outputs 1.2 kW, will cost you some $5,000 and is able to provide 25-30% of the power needed in a typical house. Looking quite attractive it also packs a Wi-Fi transmitter so that you can monitor it online using your own computer. Count the 30% government rebate to the whole thing and you’ll end up with quite a deal.

Meanwhile Mariah Power is working on a larger 3 kW Windspire that - they say - will supply most of your house needs. - via Dvice

There was a Hummer trying to do the eco-friendly dance in San Francisco last week. The best the H2 could do was say it runs off of E85 Ethanol. Does that count? The price - $63K. My advice to Hummer. Give it up.

Other than being some of the largest mammals in the seas, whales area also known for their “voices”. Call it the whale song, it’s true that the whales may sing to court mates but not only. The biggest Romeo of them all, is the humpback whale which is known to produce repetitious sounds at varying frequencies. That’s a whale song.

So exactly, why do whales sing?

To Find Juliette. Researchers think that the male humpback whales sing to impress their mates. It’s like a beautiful underwater serenade, that we humans call flirting. Usually, only male humpbacks learn to sing because they’re the ones going after the “ladies” - who expect to get found (kind of like humans, right?). And whale singers put the best on the table.

As a communication tool. Even though it’s assumed to have an important role in mate selection, the singing is not just to establish identity and dominance before mating. Recent studies concluded that whales use singing more like a general communication tool to keep communities together. And a good example is when migrating. Singing helps navigate new locales and keeps the group together. Scientists also call it echolocation. It’s the biological sonar of most whales.

Imagine yourself underwater, trying to say something to a fellow diver. Unless you have a microphone, you’ll definitely need to make some noise, right?

Now that you know why whales sing, think twice about whaling. It could be Romeo …

Original images courtesy of gwoodford and Peat Bakke

Daimler’s F-Cell Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle was parked at the 2008 SF Auto Show this week when I attended. Other than Toyota’s Fuel Cell car, well half of it, this was as close as I had come to the car of the future. Meaning the hydrogen fuel cell car will always be in the future.

Based on an extended version of the current Daimler A-Class chassis, the F-CELL has a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cell that powers the vehicle and sports 72kW (97hp). Of course there’s also an electric motor that outputs 65kW (87 hp) an drives the front wheels. With two onboard hydrogen fuel tanks pressurized at 350 bar (5000 psi) Daimler’s F-CELL goes for 177 km (111 miles) and reaches a top speed of 140 kph (87 mph).

Nothing but water vapors for emissions and unlimited resource in hydrogen. All we need is the infrastructure to support refueling and orders to justify mass production to the point of bring the price per unit.

The cars ARE ready and they don’t look bad at all.

I saw the 100 MPG Toyota Prius - Plug-in Hybrid Conversion in SF. What can I say? It’s a Toyota. It’s a Prius. It’s a hybrid. It goes a long long way on at tank of gas. Our local cheap gas stand is selling at $1.99/gal. One hundred miles for $2.00.

My first car was a 1960 VW Beetle. It got about 20 mpg or so and I paid about 30 cents for a gallon of gas. If my math is right, then my VW Bug in 1972 went about as far on $2 as this Toyota does 36 years later. And we wonder why Toyota is making money hand over fist while GM and Ford and Chrysler have their hands out.