Kayakas!

Minka houses are Japan’s equivalent of our log cabins.

Forbes On-Line reports that: “Selling your old phone, once you upgrade to a fancier model, can be like handing over your diaries.”

Photo credit: The Clean Air Partnership .

Hot on the heels (well, relatively) of the Washington State University”s announcement of its new organic agriculture major, papers around the Sunshine State announced today that the University of Florida is following suit with its own program in organic farming:

Ecorazzi: Even More Celebs Trading Up For Conflict-Free Diamonds by Michael d”Estries. “Meat and diamonds are very similar. Both are desired and enjoyed and both are widely misunderstood in terms of how they’re produced, where they come from, and at what expense. Do you think people would feel a little different if they visited a meat factory? How about a diamond mine or the people working in them? It’s a tough call to make when ‘ignorance is bliss’ is the motto of today’s modern society.”

People Tree: Bombolulu Workshops, Kenya by Safia Minney

One of our very early posts was on the enviro benefits of Green Roofs. And we’ve been singing their praise ever since, touching on various benefits, such as spreading out the temperature differentials encountered by roofs. But if you have some deep seating aversion to growing grasses and strawberries on your upstairs, you might alternatively be curious about Texcote. It claims to be 10 times thicker than normal paint, and to be infused with a special reflective pigment. Now your house, or commercial premises, unlike a Stealth bomber, may not need to reduce its radar signature, but reducing roof temps by 40°F is a practical application of the technology. Apparently the US govt think such energy reduction possibilities might have merit, so are said to be researching just what the savings could be. And the stuff is robust, in some instances not needing a repaint for 40 years. Yet for all this heavy-dutyness, it is said to have a low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. Texcote was cited in a list of significant green architectural products in recent time, but alas we’ve misplaced the reference. ::Texcote.

(A reminder that entries for our Umbrella Inside-Out Design Comp close on 1 Sept 06.) We like Andy Wanna’s thinking. As with most successful product design, he came at the issue from a personal perspective. Umbrellas invariably blow-out, and bend their metal stays. It annoyed him. So he set out to overcome these fundamental design flaws. And at least conceptually, he seems to have got a result. The Lotus 23 brolly (called after its inspirational namesake, and his age at time of design) is similar to Crocs (see recent discussion), in that it is not inherently green — it uses ABS plastic, Tyvek and Teflon — but by other criteria,

[This is a guest post by Hank Green. -Ed] Though controversy has surrounded drilling on the north slope of Alaska for decades, and even more so since oil companies have faced problems with aging infrastructure, the Bush Administration is preparing to open a new, unexploited section of Alaska to oil exploration.

The area in question, a series of lakes and wetlands in the north-east corner of Alaska”s National Petroleum Reserve, is known as the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area.

“Racecar” and “fuel-efficiency” aren”t two things that we normally associate together, but two Italian companies, N.Technology and Tatuus, are aiming to change that. They”ve teamed up to produce a hybrid-drive single-seat Formula car. Sure, saving gas and going fast are cool (especially in combination), but we”re most excited that the idea that going green can make cars faster has made it to that level, and that highly competitive and creative engineers will be helping develop hybrid technology. N.Technology”s Andrea Fiorani reports that the first season for the formula will be the 2007 season. ::Gizmag via ::Jalopnik

General Motors” Chevrolet brand is teaming up with MTV for a night of biofuel awareness and ethanol promotion. As the “official vehicle” of tomorrow night”s Video Music Awards (VMAs), Chevrolet will provide a customized fleet of 60 E85 (85% ethanol) compatible SUVs to transport talent to the Awards telecast at Radio City Music Hall. Chevrolet has also designed a multiplatform program centered around the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards to include the branded fleet, in-program content (Chevy will present the pre-show “Top of the Rock” concert and provide the “Chevy Fly-Cam” with aerial shots of red carpet arrivals) and on-line/off-line advertising. The show will be available to a potential viewing audience of more than 1.3 billion people via MTV’s global network of 50 channels reaching 481.5 million households around the world as well as through syndication, essentially galvanizing GM”s stance on alternative fuels and reduction of foreign oil dependence through ethanol use. While we tend to disagree that ethanol is a viable fuel for the future, it beats the gas-guzzling inefficiency that has become the carmaker”s trademark. Will the MTV viewership stand up and take notice? We”ll have to watch: tune in to MTV tomorrow night to check it out. ::Paddock Talk via ::AutoblogGreen

A British engineering firm has put together a high-performance hybrid version of BMW”s Mini Cooper. The PML Mini QED has a top speed of 150 mph, a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds. The car uses a small gasoline engine with four 160 horsepower electric motors on each wheel. The car has been designed to run for four hours of combined urban/extra urban driving, powered only by a battery and bank of ultra capacitors. The QED supports an all-electric range of 200-250 miles and has a total range of about 932 miles (1,500 km). For longer journeys at higher speeds, a small conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) is used to re-charge the battery. In this hybrid mode, fuel economies of up to 80mpg can be achieved.