Road train technology can drive your car for you - tech - 18 January 2011 Video: Road train drives your car for you Letting drivers read a book, surf the net or possibly even have a snooze while behind the wheel may not sound like the best way to improve road safety. Yet that's precisely the aim of an automatic driving system that has just been road-tested for the first time in Sweden. By linking cars together into road trains or "platoons" to form semi-autonomous convoys under the control of a professional lead driver, the hope is that average road speeds can be reduced, improving fuel consumption and cutting congestion. In a test performed late last month, Volvo, one of the partners of the Safe Road Trains for the Environment (SARTRE) Project, showed that a single car could join a platoon, be "enslaved" by a lead truck, and then exit safely. Platooning is not a new idea, says Tom Robinson of engineering firm Ricardo UK in Cambridge, the co-ordinator of the project, which is funded by €6.4 million of European Commission money. Your sensors are mine now
Speed Camera Lottery puts fun in sustainability and green marketing Last week was an eyeopener for me. I attended the Sustainable Brands 2011 Conference in Monterey, CA, and like I tweeted from the event: It is the TED of sustainability. Many of the top brands and ad agencies in sustainability and green marketing presented alongside individual innovators and disruptive thinkers. Each was available for one-on-one discussions following plenaries and workshops, and each gladly shared their story about transformative innovation, especially as it relates to cause and green marketing. Kevin Richardson had a particularly intriguing story, and one that for me reflected the spirit of SB11. Kevin won VW’s Fun Theory competition with an ingenious game that rewards drivers for obeying the speed limit. Kevin used the same approach to storytelling he relies on as a senior producer for MTV’s Nickelodeon Kids & Family Games to create “Speed Camera Lottery.” “Each of us is the protagonist in our own life. A fun way to change behavior
Appropriate Technology The argument of mass production versus distributed production at this stage of the game, in my opinion, is a false dichotomy. Personally, and ideologically, I lean towards distributed production, but I do not think that this has to be at … Continue reading After reading what Lucas has been brilliantly putting out over the past 48 hours or so, the picture becomes clearer…we’re getting closer. If anyone needs a quick catch-up, the real edge of the sword is the reprap machine. As per … Continue reading If it’s true that what we are doing, while it may help many of us mitigate the chain reaction effects of collapse, might be too little, too late, then we need to really think hard about what will change that … Continue reading As a movement, we have arrived. Since 2005 I have been a strong advocate for the development of open source appropriate technology (OSAT). A provocative title, indeed, but the reality is a bit more practical.
AVE - English Atmospheric Vortex Engine Mechanical energy is produced when heat is carried upward by convection in the atmosphere. A process for producing an artificial vortex and concentrating mechanical energy where it can be captured is proposed. The existence of dust devils proves that low intensity solar radiation can produce concentrated mechanical energy. It should be possible to control a naturally occurring process. The Atmospheric Vortex Engine (AVE) is a process for capturing the energy produced when heat is carried upward by convection in the atmosphere. A vortex engine consists of a cylindrical wall open at the top and with tangential air entries around the base. The Atmospheric Vortex Engine has the same thermodynamic basis as the solar chimney. The average upward convective heat flux at the bottom atmosphere is 150 W/m2, one sixth of this heat could be converted to work while it is carried upward by convection.
Harvest Boon Villa Welpeloo in Enschede, the Netherlands, doesn't look like a recycled building. Its austere lines and spacious interior have nothing of the junkyard aesthetic about them. Yet despite appearances, it's reused to the bones. To accomplish this, architects Jan Jongert and Jeroen Bergsma of 2012Architects reversed the typical order of the design process—first house, then materials—and instead began by scouting the local area for items to recycle. Villa Welpeloo was the architects' first house, designed for clients Tjibbe Knol and Ingrid Blans. The architects came to the idea of superuse architecture when they were student at Delft University of Technology. So when they received the commission for Villa Welpeloo (Jongert and Blans have been friends since Jongert was eight), step one was to create a "harvest map," an inventory of possible suppliers from within a nine-mile radius of the building site. Their resourcefulness paid off.
Yurts Cause Controversy in France Photo: yourtes The nomads in Outer Mongolia created yurts out of necessity, now many people in France are living in them as part of an alternate lifestyle decision. But the French government has come up with a new crime bill that will enable it to crack down on Roma (gypsy) camps. The French government, starting with the President, has started raiding Roma camps and expelling them. Here's where the trouble starts: many yurt dwellers are afraid that this legislation will be used against them. Photo: yourte In the south and southeast of France hundreds of people have bought or built their own yurts and they are part of growing movement of those who want to scale down their life style and their consumption. Sounds familiar to TreeHugger readers. However the proliferation of yurts is becoming a local planning issue in some villages. In protest against the new crime bill they have held demonstrations in provincial cities which have ended up in clashes with the police.
Top Ten Most Nutritious Vegetables and How to Grow Them in Your Garden A perfectly ripe, juicy tomato, still warm from the sun. Sweet carrots, pulled from the garden minutes (or even seconds!) before they're eaten. Growing your own vegetables is one of those activities that balances practicality and indulgence. In addition to the convenience of having the fixings for a salad or light supper right outside your door (or on your windowsill), when you grow your own vegetables, you're getting the most nutritional bang for your buck as well. Vegetables start losing nutrients as soon as they're harvested, and quality diminishes as sugars are turned into starches. Broccoli is high in calcium, iron, and magnesium, as well as vitamins A, B6, and C. How to grow broccoliGrow broccoli in containers: One broccoli plant per pot, pots should be 12 to 16 inches deep.What to watch out for: Cabbage worm. 2. There is nothing like peas grown right in your own garden — the tender sweetness of a snap pea just plucked from the vine is unlike anything you can buy in at a store.
How to Compost Indoors (Video) Image credit: Praxxtube From NatureMill's high-tech indoor composter, to building your own worm bin, there are plenty of options for the would-be composter who doesn't have a yard, or who would just like to keep composting through the winter. The video below gives a very basic, cheap methodology for building your own compost bin. OK, so the thin mint joke is kinda goofy, but this is a classic example of just how easy composting can be. Using little more than some leaves, some coffee grounds, some dirt and some water, Praxxtube shows us how to make smell-free, almost mess-free compost in a plastic bucket. Anyone tried this at home? More on Composting at HomeBuild Your Own Worm Bin (Video)Compost Conundrum: Backyard Bin, Can-O-Worms or Indoor Composter?
Engineers Hone Clean-Energy Stoves For The World hide captionThis stove at Aprovecho's lab in Cottage Grove, Ore., has a basic "rocket stove" design built from a 55-gallon oil drum. Its insulated "combustion chamber" is precisely engineered to extract energy from wood. Martin Kaste/NPR This stove at Aprovecho's lab in Cottage Grove, Ore., has a basic "rocket stove" design built from a 55-gallon oil drum. Its insulated "combustion chamber" is precisely engineered to extract energy from wood. Almost half the world still cooks its food with solid fuels, such as wood and charcoal. The results are deforestation and black carbon, which contributes to global warming. In war zones, the daily hunt for firewood can present families with terrible dilemmas, says Veronique Barbelet of the World Food Programme. "You hear women in northern Uganda and places like that telling you, 'My choice is between going out there and collecting firewood and being raped, or for my husband to go out and get killed, and I would rather go and get raped,' " she says.