Milan's Vertical Forest
Wednesday, 12 October 2011 GreenMuze Staff Milan’s Vertical Forest from Stefan Boeri Architects. The Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) will be the greenest building in Milan when completed, which is one of Europe’s most polluted cities. Designed by Stefan Boeri Architects, as part of their BioMilano vision to incorporate 60 abandoned farms into a greenbelt surrounding the city. The Bosco Verticale building has a green façade planted with dense forest systems to provide a building microclimate and to filter out polluting dust particles. The living bio-canopy also absorbs CO2, oxygenates the air, moderates extreme temperatures and lowers noise pollution, providing aesthetic beauty and lowering living costs. Each apartment balcony will have trees (900 plantings are planned for the two buildings) that will provide shade in the summer and drop their leaves in winter to allow in winter sunlight. Visit: Via Inhabitat
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72 A grade 3x6 solar cell kit for DIY solar panel
DIY solar cells are the cheapest way to generate electricity from the sun for small projects. Building panels from solar cells is highly educational - both electrically and mechanically - and provides days of fun in the sun for those of us who like to build for the sheer pleasure of it. They are also versatile, as you can customise your voltage/current to suit your needs in a way that is impossible with pre-assembled panels. PV cells have a rated lifetime of +20 years if they are maintained and housed correctly. KnowYourPlanet have sold over 1 million solar cells to date, so you can trust us to supply solar cells which work and are sourced from trusted manufacturers in Europe. We recommend that you mount the cells effectively to ensure a long lifetime, low corrosion and cracking. If you are looking for bigger installations please don't hesitate to contact us, we also have a wide range of solar panels, inverters, batteries and much more available at very competitive prices. Features
Brilliant SUNplace table beams solar energy on a cast iron cooking surface | Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building
The Sunplace is a concept piece created by an Italian and Singaporan brings together the couple’s diverse perspectives to create a practical and inspiring BBQ tool for social gatherings. Solar-powered cooking devices are typically pretty simple; there aren’t a lot of steps needed to convert sunbeams into cook-worthy energy, just a little concentration. In the Sunplace, an adjustable fresnel lens heats the cast iron cooking surface, concentrating the sun’s energy and directing it where it needs to go. Related: SunOven provides solar kitchens for developing countries The Sunplace table is a new-fangled green gadget, but that’s not its only purpose. + Lanzavecchia & Wai Via Fast Company Images via Angelo Becci for Lanzavecchia & Wai
Anonymous Publishes Romney TAX Returns
Late last night, the mysterious group of hackers known as Anonymous successfully hacked the main database for the Internal Revenue Service. The group appeared to have a singular target- Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Romney has been criticized by both parties for his failure to produce more than one past tax return. The Anonymous attack successfully retrieved 25-years worth of Romney’s tax returns and published them without permission on major websites throughout the Internet. Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul stated last week that “there has been no year in which Romney paid zero taxes”. In addition to his wild nights, Romney also deducted health related expenses. While the 2008 tax return only gives us a brief glimpse into the life of Mitt Romney, it is unlikely that the other 24 years would have given us his complete financial picture. Check out more from Orbson Rice: Romney: New Yahoo! The Walking Red: The Truth About Florida’s “Zombie” Attack
Gardening for Life - Discovering New Ways To Feed The World
Films For Action Presents: The Top 100 Documentaries Inspiring the Shift to a Sustainable Paradigm
By Films For Action / filmsforaction.org Film offers us a powerful tool to shift awareness and inspire action. By hosting community film screenings and sharing them online, they offer a method to break our dependence on the mainstream media and become the media ourselves. We don't need to wait for anyone or anything. Just imagine what could become possible if an entire city had seen just one of the documentaries below. Creating a better world really does start with an informed citizenry, and there's lots of subject matter to cover. Our society needs a new story to belong to. But most of all, we need to see the promise of the alternatives - we need to be able to imagine new exciting ways that people could live, better than anything that the old paradigm could ever dream of providing. And all of this knowledge and introspection, dreaming, questioning, and discovery is essential for a cultural transformation that addresses root causes. So take this library of films and use it.
Solar panel roads 'could solve energy crisis'
Asphalt roads and car parks would be torn up and replaced with glass solar cell panels capable of generating enough power to support local communities, under the scheme. A US firm is currently working on a prototype panel that could be embedded into existing roads, having won a $100,000 grant from the US Department of Transportation. The panels would also be covered with a mosaic of small lights, which could be illuminated to provide road markings and warning messages to drivers. They could also be embedded with heaters to keep the road clear by melting snow and ice. With each 12 ft by 12 ft panel capable of producing 7.6 kilowatt hours of power each day, the company Solar Roadways calculates that resurfacing the entire US interstate highway network would meet the country's energy needs three times over. A four-lane, one-mile stretch of road made from the panels could generate enough power for 500 homes, it claims.
