A New Spin On Revolving Doors
You probably come across revolving doors almost on a daily basis, but I bet this is the first one you’ve ever heard of that can actually harness kinetic energy. In the Natuurcafé La Port coffee shop in the Netherlands, a special revolving door was built that could harness the kinetic energy generated by the people passing through it. The door is equipped with an energy generator that produces the power stored in a set of supercapacitators. People passing through could clearly see the mechanism through the transparent glass on the ceiling.
1 comment December 17, 2008
Like, Totally Shredded, Dude!
Meiko Shokai, which has a large market share of shredder machines in Japan, wants its customers to do more with those shredded paper. At the recently held Eco Products 2008, it introduced its Paper Recycler, a chemical-free equipment to recycle used paper without leaving the office.
1 comment December 16, 2008
Get the LED Out!
A research team at Boston University is developing a whole new way to use LEDs for more than just energy-efficient lighting. They’re creating Smart Lighting, which would enable wireless communication through visibile light.
Ditching radio frequency, the prototype from BU uses light instead to connect. Each light would essentially be a Wi-Fi hotspot with 1 to 10 megabits per second networking speeds. Data transmission would be done over existing electrical wiring.
“Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires,” said BU Engineering Professor Thomas Little.
Imagine that.
2 comments October 10, 2008
Bikes Up!
While high oil prices and an economic recession are hitting carmakers hard, bicycle makers are selling more than ever. “Giant Manufacturing, the world’s largest bicycle-maker, sold a record 460,000 units last month and is heading for its best year ever.”
Demand is so high in certain places that there are even shortages. For example, it happened it New York City earlier this year, and in Taiwan, people pay deposits before the bikes are even off the assembly line.
1 comment October 9, 2008
Cycling to Work Just Got Less Taxing
Some of the hidden pork in the Bailout Bill have been written about for their silliness, like the Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children, others are not very green, like the Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility , which costs a cool hundred mil to give a fast tax break to the motor sports industry. However there is one particular one that TreeHuggers should love: Sec. 211. Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters
it allows for a “qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement” for “reasonable expenses incurred by the employee during such calendar year for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment”- your bike expenses, up to 20 bucks a month, can be covered by your boss as a benefit tax free. Full copy below fold.
1 comment October 8, 2008
