Either way its a good read over at gamasutra. Read it here.

Removing the ultra light box from its paper slip, the container is a simple molded carton stamped with the product name. Simple enough. No excess use of material, no fancy glossy paper, all recyclable material to be environmentally friendly.

The Kindle 2 has a nice and simple keyboard, with pleasing “round button” tactile quality that didn’t exist in on the first keyboard. It also comes without the awkward shape of the first Kindle, finished in back with a sleek brushed metal.

And finally after removing the Amazon Kindle, one would then begin to reap the benefits of the ebook reader with its beautiful free web access… an attractive quality for even those who don’t do the ebook thing.

[Image from http://xkcd.com/548/]

The Kindle 2 can be found at Amazon here.

More bullet buddies can be found on the artist’s own website at http://www.rachelpfeffer.com/bullets.html and on Etsy.

[ Images from http://www.rachelpfeffer.com/bullets.html ]

CNN’s article,  “Solar sails could turn super-yachts green”, points out how Solar Sailor, an energy company based in Sydney, is working towards creating fin-like solar “sails” for large boats, acting as a sail but also as a large, energy-generating solar panel, minimizing fuel consumption.

Though not the greatest looking things in the world, the environmental benefits of a large solar-powered watercraft, ships, and shipping vessels are enormous.

A recent airing of Man-Made, on the National Geographic Channel, about the engineering that went into building the Queen Mary 2 (http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/man-made/3548/Overview#tab-Overview) pointed out the massive amounts of energy needed to not only put the ship into motion, but to keep everything on board functional. Maybe a future Queen Mary 3 could benefit from some solar power?

The CNN article can be found at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SPORT/11/04/solar.sails/index.html

[Images from CNN and Solar Sailor]

Photos: http://nymag.com/fashion/fashionshows/2009/spring/main/europe/womenrunway/adidas/

More information can be found in this article by The Canadian Press: http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jR22KXmQwL_daQUyV3Q9yjN5Zu6g

Amazing I thought to myself, what a great idea to turn something from junk to Design Motif. Although their website and their ordering information may be a little hard to use and somewhat inconvienent, for any lover of Modern Art and/or Bikes be it motorcycle or bicycle, these pieces are a must have. The look turns out to be so modern and edgy.

A really great aspect of this business is the fact that they recycle the materials instead of throwing them on the scrap heap. It is a great way to really rethink and reuse our everyday items. It definitely makes me wonder about other material goods I may throw away and what other uses I could just have for them.

So in conclusion, if you want to turn your bike into a rocking chair, check out Bikefurniture.com.

Now you must be thinking.  Fred, what the hell are you going on about?  Has all of your unnatural McDonald’s gone to your head?  I assure you it has not.  Fist and foremost, let me give you the rundown on how I came across this miraculous device.  My girlfriend dropped me a link to this thing called TreeHugger.  Now I was thinking: Has she finally gone over the eco-loving edge? But as it turned out.  She hadn’t.  TreeHugger was in fact an on point and intellectual blog about environmental stability and sustainability and how to make our lives more ‘Green’.  Below is a short quip from TreeHugger about who they are and what they do:

TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, we strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information. At TreeHugger we know that variety is the spice of life, so you can find all you need to go green in our up to the minute blog, weekly and daily newsletters, weekly video segments, weekly radio show and our user-generated blog, Hugg. We also extend our expertise to companies looking for a little green guidance. Past clients include Domino, Sundance Channel and House & Garden.

Well I have to say, with a pagerank of 8; it’s pretty obvious they’re setting the bar for Green Blogs and they’ve got something good going for themselves.  Now what had my attention from the get-go was something affectionately named “The ShitBox” created by Richard Whatron.  Below is a description by him of the box:

“lightweight portable cardboard toilet, made specifically for outdoor use. The concept is simple the box pops up from its convenient 14” flat pack to a rigid reusable box, you pop in a degradable poo bag, do you business, seal and dispose of (responsibly of course!), and off you go.”

A recent National Geographic special on the new buildings for the Olympic Games brought attention to the Water Cube’s unique characteristics: from new building materials to energy efficiency. Since the recent rise in environmental awareness, it seems China’s goal was give this year’s Olympics a “green” boost, evident also in their opening ceremony’s global warming commentary.

In summary, the Water Cube’s outer structure is composed of a super strong plastic material called ETFE (or Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, which is a mouthful). Though it’s been used before, this is the first time so much ETFE has been used as one of the primary building materials (along with a maze of steel bars) for such a large building. Aside from the material allowing the “bubble wrap” aesthetic to be possible, a building of primarily ETFE has several plus sides: it is lightweight, flexible (helpful during earthquakes), can be easily repaired, super strong, puts out it’s own fires, and creates a greenhouse effect for the building, heating it naturally during the winter, minimizing energy costs.

Of course the other side of the heat-trapping capabilities is the overheating during the summer, which would obviously balance out the energy saved. As a solution, the ETFE on the Water Cube is covered in a pattern of opaque, reflective dots. The dots reflect sunlight, while still allowing a large amount of light into the building, thus easing the worry of too much heat during the summer months

Different weight dots control whether more or less heat enters through the plastic, and as each bubble was “manufactured”, and inflated separately, bubbles of different dot weight could be strategically placed in certain locations.

The building is also designed to collect and use rainwater. However, despite all these wonderful “green” qualities, one still can’t be certain whether or not the building fulfills all of it’s promises to the degree at which it is being advertised, much like any other green product or design. Supposing we give the Water Cube the benefit of the doubt, let’s hope that China and other nations continue to pursue these environmentally friendly ideas.

Images from:

http://en.beijing2008.cn/46/39/WaterCube.shtml

and

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-510787/The-Watercube–face-Beijing-Olympics-been-built-last.html

Quick Facts:

• The Media Wall will provide the city of Beijing with its first venue dedicated to digital media art
• Features largest color LED display in the world.
• First photovoltaic system with glass curtain
• Greenpix behaves like an organic system, absorbing solar energy during the day and then generating light from the same power that evening

Completely aside the fact that there is no such thing as ‘zero energy’; the GreenPIX wall comes close enough to have earned its title. The wall is a sustainable design project close to where the Olympic games are being held tomorrow. Below is a short description as given by the design group about the wall:

“GreenPix is a groundbreaking project applying sustainable and digital media technology to the curtain wall of Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympic Games. Featuring the largest color LED display worldwide and the first photovoltaic system integrated into a glass curtain wall in China, the building performs as a self-sufficient organic system, harvesting solar energy by day and using it to illuminate the screen after dark, mirroring a day’s climatic cycle

The Media Wall will provide the city of Beijing with its first venue dedicated to digital media art, while offering the most radical example of sustainable technology applied to an entire building’s envelope to date. The building will open to the public on June 24, 2008, with a specially commissioned program of video installations and live performances by artists from China, Europe and the US.”