Did London Go Green for the Olympics?

London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics partly for the promise of making the games green. From what I can tell they have accomplished most of it.

When making room for the venues, they demolished buildings, recycled most of the materials, cleaned up the soils, re-invigorated the Lea River, and many other actions. Some of the wood utilized was not painted as it will be reused after the Olympics. That is a pretty good stab at greening the games. (more…)

Want your own Segway for under a 100 dollars?

This is an electric scooter made with a used car battery (junk yard $20) and two electric car heater fan motors (junk yard $10). Wheels, brakes and steering components were taken from kids bikes bought at Salvation Army for $5 each. Throttle response is a PWM from ebay ($50). Yep, entire project was under $100.

Then there is the drill bike!  Pretty nice looking and unique bike. (more…)

A Green Search Engine That Can!

Have you ever thought of using a search engine for items you need for around the house, instead of paying full price at a box store, look at this site? Imagine the savings you could get during these tough economic times.

ecofreek.com is a search engine that searches the web for free and ‘for swap/trade’ items people no longer need or want from over 45+ major sources, providing the most diverse and accurate results anywhere in the world.

Also included are items for trade like books, sports equipment, antiques, automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, CDs/DVDs, computers, property, seeds/gardening supplies, and lots more (including pets looking for new homes).  They also encourage people to exchange and re-use items though their search engine and also ‘places to give things away’ section. Feel free to recommend them new resources as well, they have a section to link to other environmental/green sites. Search engines also help you in getting you traffic.

The have over 10,000 libraries worldwide for free and swappable items being given away by people who no longer need them. Are you game to try it out? Please let me know how you fared.

I hope you enjoy your experience at their site and they welcome any and all feedback.

Search engine … as the green future unfolds.

How Many Gadgets Do You Have?

I am sure that if you sat down and counted all of the gadgets you have in your home today, you would be amazed.  So listed below is the latest facts on how gadgets affect your lives.

1,400: The dollar amount the average American household spends on new electronics annually.

20-40: Number of gadgets the average American keeps on stand by, that suck up energy even when turned off. Televisions, computers, electric toothbrushes, phones, radios are more all use up energy and money when they aren’t even in use. (more…)

The EVOLUTE™ has world leading water efficiency, using less than 1 liter of water, whereas a conventional toilet uses approximately 6-12 liters per flush.

Recently, Australian inventors Tom Trainor and Mark Hutton came up with a product that they claim uses up to 90% less water than a regular toilet. The EVOLUTE is still in the development phase, and is not expected to be available to the public until 2012.

Not a bad idea, eh? I think these guys will be very successful!

…. as the green future unfolds.

I was working at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas when the first shuttle lifted off.

NASA

Now, 30 years later, the shuttle has come to its end of life in the NASA Space Program. It does not seem like its been 3 decades , 135 flights and of course, many deliveries to the International Space Station.

The spaceship and the two other surviving shuttles will become museum pieces, like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules and the Wright brothers’ flying machine before them. NASA astronauts, a dwindling breed, will have to hitch rides to the space station aboard Russian Soyuz capsules for at least three to five years.

National Geographic

Shuttles launched the Hubble Space Telescope and fixed its blurry vision; built the space station, the world’s largest orbiting structure; and opened the final frontier to women, minorities, schoolteachers, even a prince. The first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, became the oldest person ever in space, thanks to the shuttle. He was 77 at the time; he turned 90 this week.

Atlantis will go on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex in 2013. Space shuttle Discovery is headed for a Smithsonian Institution hangar in Virginia. And Endeavour is bound for the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

NASA has new marching orders for space exploration and I look forward to seeing their progress. In the meantime, BRAVO for the work accomplished thus far!

…. as the green future unfolds.

NASA / Kathryn Hansen.

During the spring and summer melt, the sea ice atop the Arctic Ocean (shown here in this photo from July 12, 2011) begins to melt; the liquid water collects in depressions on the surface, pressing down on them and making them deeper until they become melt ponds. These freshwater ponds stay separated from the salty sea below and around it until cracks in the ice let the two mix.

Scientists who are part of NASA’s ICESCAPE mission (Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment) are studying these melt ponds and the surrounding water and ice to see how changes in the Arctic impact the ocean’s chemical and biological makeup.

That is a really cool landscape, don”t you agree?

… as the green future unfolds.