Photo via the New Republic It's a widely held notion that politicians have long been in the pocket of Big Oil. And there's good reason for that perception: oil companies' huge campaign donations, vast lobbying power, and close ties to politicians have ensured that their taxes remain low , that hidden subsidies are around to provide extra funding, and that they receive preferential treatment in US energy policy. But there could be a new, ... View original post here: The Next Big Oil: Big Smart Grid?
So there really isn't anything that deep to this image. It's just a (more or less) life-sized blue whale eye. And on the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society site you can educate yourself/be mesmerized/ waste some time for a while staring at it while the entire life-sized animal scrolls across your browser window. Believe me, it's way cooler than you might think:... Read more from the original source: Ever See a Blue Whale Life-Sized on Your Computer? Now You Can
published November 28, 2010 and has No Comments
When it comes to thwarting bike thieves , even the best bike-locks can't guarantee your cycle won't get jacked. But here's a simple idea -- instead of chaining up your ride to an object at ground level, imagine if you had a lock that could hoist it high overhead, safely out of reach from would-be robbers. Well, that's exactly ...
Read more...published November 25, 2010 and has No Comments
Dirty Rags at Elisava Design School. Image Credit: Vicente Zambrano What can you do with 1.285 bright green used uniforms? This was the brief the design students at Elisava school in Barcelona received by Urbaser , a local waste collection and urban cleaning company. Not only were they asked to design useful products for the company's employees out of ...
Read more...published November 25, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: modern tribe Chanukah, the Jewish holiday , comes early this year, so there are some frantic shoppers out there already. Here is a little guide to some green and special presents, just in time for the first night of the holiday which takes place on the first of December. There are many charities doing wonderful things. Just £10 ...
Read more...published November 24, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit Platform 21 Fast Company contributor and industrial designer Ravi Sawhney writes an important essay on designing for repairability. Once again, it is an example of learning from the past to prepare for the future. It seems so simple: Spend a little more money to purchase products that are designed and built to last through years of use, ...
Read more...published November 23, 2010 and has No Comments
Source: City of Providence, Rhode Island The City of Providence is staging a limited design competition to select the designer for the Providence River Pedestrian Bridge that will replace the old Interstate 195 Bridge that spans the Providence River. The bridge will create a new connection for pedestrians and bicyclists from the Fox Point and College Hill neighborhoods to ...
Read more...published November 18, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: functionalfate Palermo Is this the world's most famous chair? It is certainly the most ubiquitous; spotted everywhere from front porches to cafes to garbage dumps to beaches across the world. It's not known who designed it but it has a name: the Monobloc, it has a website , a book and it has just had its own exhibition ...
Read more...published November 8, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit: Takahumi Yamada When you live in small spaces, you don't necessarily want to have a lot of furniture. Now you can get rid of the coffee table by Daisuke Motogi's Lost in Sofa; it is designed so that you can stick things right into it. You will always have coffee money too, digging among the cushions. ... ...
Read more...published November 6, 2010 and has No Comments
Photos: Bureau Spectacular Transformer spaces never cease to amaze with their ability to morph and adapt to the user's needs of the moment. Jimenez Lai of Bureau Spectacular offers another take on the genre with this intriguing residential loft addition; though it's not a true transformer space, it's envisioned as a "briefcase house", ie. a house within a house ...
Read more...published November 4, 2010 and has No Comments
Inspired by Japanese Kimonos, the coat racks by the German company Noi are sculpture-like structures made from minimum amount of materials. The different wooden objects are all sticks; no need for screws, glue or other fasteners to hold them up. They come totally flat-pack and can be easily dismantled at any time.... Read the full story on TreeHugger Read ...
Read more...published November 3, 2010 and has No Comments
Photos via Guillaume Lehoux Spiders are one of nature's most capable engineers , crafting their delicate webs with uncanny precision, making it seem so effortless -- but when they get high on drugs, boy is it a different story. Once, in order to test the effects of psychoactive substances on ... Read the full story on TreeHugger Read the ...
Read more...
This hand operated gramophone is as simple as it gets. Original post: Minimalist Gramophone Makes Playing Music Super Simple
Contrary to previously held notions of how whale songs are shared between neighboring populations, a surprising study finds that whales living the same ocean basin are singing different songs. Read the original post: Study: Humpback Whales Living in Same Ocean ...
