hobbit home update

A while back I shared a few hobbit-style homes people had built, but my favorite so far has to be the Low-Impact Woodland Home that Simon Dale and his family built in Wales:
Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to [...]

Electric Buzz

Yep, that’s me looking all farmer-like last winter sitting on Barefoot’s electric ATV prototype named “Alice.” My crew and I have had the luck of being able to test this Barefoot Motors prototype; which basically means driving it all over our vineyards and trying to break it. And we did — except all [...]

Colliding Over The Hadron Decision

Hmmm, let’s see, some dudes in Hawaii are apparently VERY pessimistic. I mean really, just one little poofy black hole. What’s the worst that could happen? (But they are strangely optimistic when it comes to the justice system; I mean, really, Hawaii has international super powers?)
But, I on the other hand, tend [...]

Dolphin Rescues Whales

Heard about this from my mom. Sort of a follow-up to Deb’s last post

Green Roofs: An Introduction with Pretty Pictures

Make that drool-inducing gorgeous photos of places I’d love to see in person. EcoGeek (now added to my regular feeds) has a fun piece on green roofs. Not just solar tiles or recycled materials, though; these roofs are actually green, with grass and other plants.
It’s not just for hobbits anymore. The logic of green roofs [...]

How walkable is your neighborhood?

Just found out about a site called Walk Score today. It uses Google Maps data to calculate a walkability score for any address based on how close it is to services like grocery stores, restaurants, schools, etc. For instance, my house got a “walker’s paradise” 91 (out of 100), while my work got only a [...]

A Greener Apple

Steve Jobs released a statement today (A Greener Apple) that thoughtfully and simply summarizes progress Apple has made in improving the environmental footprint of its products.  The letter covers everything from plans to phase out toxic chemicals to electronic waste recycling, and each step sounds more reasonable than the last.
I would post excerpts here, but [...]

news roundup

I read news from a bunch of different sources each day, including Google News, Reddit, and a whole host of blog feeds. Some items are worth commenting on here, but often I just want to say “hey, read this one” instead of finding something specific to comment on.
So, I’m going to try a new [...]

TGV gets even faster (and maybe comes to California)

Oh, can we please order about a dozen of these?
A French high-speed train, with a souped-up engine and wheels, breaks the world speed record near Grigny, eastern France, Tuesday, April 3, 2007, reaching 574.8 kph (357.2 mph). The black and chrome train with three double-decker cars, named the V150, bettered the previous record of 515.3 [...]

And You (I) Thought They’d Never Be Able To …

image and story courtesy Springwise
SilverJet recently announced they have crossed from the dark side into the neutral side… CO2 neutral, that is. And being the first airline to do so gets the official wooden nickel from me. I never thought the airline industry would come close to getting CO2 neutral.
Heck, if they can [...]