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OK — so, right now this is just a big idea, not an approved plan. But a French consulting company released an infographic detailing its hopes to cloak the Eiffel Tower in plant life, enabling it to serve as the ultimate symbol of France’s dedication to sustainability.
Will birds build nests in the tower? Will it turn golden in the autumn and then shed its leaves in the winter like a real tree? Good questions, good questions.
Island Power: El Hierro and Renewable Energy
by Ben Bowlin | July 21, 2011
Often called “The Meridian Island,” El Hierro is the smallest of the Canary Islands. It’s a haven for diving enthusiasts, and it may soon become the first island powered entirely by renewable energy. At a first glance, this might not seem like a big deal. After all, El Hierro is only about 107 square miles [...]
In honor of Wired’s “I See Rock People: Mimetoliths of the World” gallery, I decided to see grass people today — specifically, the grass man below, who appears to be shoulder-deep in lawn. Doesn’t he look like he’s coming up for air after taking a dip in the ground?
Imagine that men and women are automobiles parked next to each other in a garage. The male car (painted blue, naturally) is a full-sized sedan that gets, oh, 15 miles to the gallon. The gal-mobile is a VW Bug with an imitation flower sitting cheerily in the built-in vase compact car that chugs along at 25 miles to the gallon. Which car gobbles up more gas and emits more carbon? The bigger man-sedan.
Alternate History at Dragon*Con: Steampunk Goes DIY
by Sarah Dowdey | September 9, 2010
Dragon*Con’s been in Atlanta for nearly 25 years, but this year’s Con was my first. Along with Chris and Jonathan from TechStuff and Tracy from the FanStuff blog, Katie and I spoke at a panel this weekend, answering all sorts of questions about what it takes to make a podcast at HowStuffWorks.com.
The conversation obviously skewed modern — how to effectively use the Web for research, tips on digital note-compiling software, using social media to connect with listeners. But after our talk was over, Katie and I went back 150 years or so, or forward, depending on how you look at it.
The other night, when I thought, “I wanna be a Canadian,” it was because of the red mittens. Every time a Canadian Olympic athlete waves at the crowd, those little white maple leaves on their mittens wink at me. Every time. Very flirtatious, those mittens.
Because I have a crush on Canada’s mittens, I pretty much think everything about Canada is cute as buttons right now, including the following:
As the only child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I was born into a world of privilege and danger. Learn more about the tumultuous life of Elizabeth I before she became the Queen of England in this episode.
On Stuff Mom Never Told You, Molly and I recently podcasted about surprising things that you can recycle. We covered athletic shoes, cell phones, blue jeans, prom dresses and so on. But a kindly listener let us know that we’d missed out on one intriguing item: bras. A growing number of charitable organizations, including Bosom Buddy Recycling Programs in Arizona, accept gently used bras to redistribute to low-income women. Across the pond, BCR Global Textiles also collects used bras and distributes them to developing countries.
That listener email got me thinking about what else men and women can do with their unmentionables once they’re done with them. Surely there’s a green option out there for disposing of our skivvies.
Let’s put this puppy to bed, shall we? Coming in at the number one spot, eclipsing all others, ladies and gentlemen — I give you switchgrass.
Switchgrass is a warm season grass, nothing more than a prairie weed. But just because it has the word grass in it, don’t think it’s anything like the fescue growing in your back yard. A full season of growth for switchgrass can top out at ten feet high with tough, thick stems.
Turns out, this stuff is a miracle worker when it comes to producing biofuel. A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences states that switchgrass can produce 500 percent more renewable energy than the energy required to be grown and processed.
On today’s list of top biofuels, we have jatropha. I bet dollars to donuts that most of you haven’t heard of this one, and I hadn’t either until I started to dig in and do some research. Here’s the skinny on jatropha curcas:
- It’s a shrub that can grow most anywhere
- It’s highly drought resistant
- Doesn’t compete with food crops
- Its seeds are about 35 percent oil
- Originated in Central America, now grown in Asia
- Oil can be burned in a standard diesel engine
- Generates topsoil and stalls erosion
- One bush can live up to 50 years
It also produces four times as much oil per hectare as soybean and a whopping ten times as much as corn. So what’s the problem? Well, it’s poisonous to both man and cattle and as if now, it needs to be harvested by hand, making it very labor intensive.
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