Starting this weekend, a five-block stretch along Broadway in NYC will be a pedestrian-only zone. From Newsday:
One of two new no-car zones created along Broadway by Mayor Michael Bloomberg (the other promenade will stretch from 33rd to 35th streets on Broadway at Herald Square, near Macy’s), the usually clogged stretch from 42nd Street north to 47th became a place for tourists and locals alike to meander along the sun-drenched avenue without having to worry about racing cabs and irate drivers trying to navigate congestion.
Making these tourist-heavey areas car-fee will not just make the area safer and friendlier, but it will also hopefully entice some people to walk when they would have normally called a cab or driven themselves.
German designer Lars Behrendt’s treeless “tree house” tower known as the Lotto Turm is a trip down a memory lane of sorts. The tower employs 55 shipping containers stacked in a seemingly whimsical, childhood block-buidling style that creates the fun, treehouse feeling for residential and office spaces. There is a courtyard and a shipping-container swimming pool, too. The work is proposed for construction in the center of Stuttgart, Germany.
We get a lot of email here at Green Options Media. A good portion of it is pretty wacky/funny/uninformed. Until now, I’ve just written off the seconds I spend reading them as time wasted.
No more. Today, I begin publishing some of the more interesting emails we get. Today’s winner (sic):
I am sick of environmentalist who claim global warming without proof. I don’t care about green options that cost money. You are duping people for money and your own self basement. You should be ashamed of yourself.
I’m not sure what “self-basement” is, but I’m pretty sure it’s NSFW. So, I’m going to concentrate on locating proof of global warming. Anyone else have guesses on what this obviously very upset message could be hoping to elicit in response?
Near the southern end of the Okinawa chain of islands, you’ll find Japan’s largest coral reef - and it is dying. Reports shows that up to 90 percent of the coral may already be gone, so scientists are now testing “transplant” methods in the Sekisei Lagoon Reef to hopefully save the country’s other coral reefs.
“We have been replanting forests for 4,000 years, but we are only just now learning how to revive a coral reef,” said Mineo Okamoto, a marine biologist at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, who has led development of the palm-size ceramic discs. “We finally have the technology.”
With their process, divers drill holes underwater to “plant” ceramic disks, which have surfaces where new coral can take hold. Experts say the process will take decades.
Organically of course. Michelle Obama and local school children broke ground this morning on the first full size vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt maintained a Victory Garden during World War II.
The First Lady plans to use organic farming methods, grow 55 different plants and include a beehive. The harvest will be served in White House meals and given to local soup kitchens.
Conservation issues often involve conflicts between humans and other animals. In Sumatra, tigers are losing habitat to illegal loggers and palm oil plantations, which often have illicit support from local officials. A recent spate of tiger attacks shows that the tigers have nowhere left to go in the wild. In fact, there are only several hundred Sumatran tigers left in the wild. However, the attacks have only reinforced the local’s belief that every remaining tiger should be shot.
These space-age-looking glasses soak up rays while protecting users’ eyes from them. The solar juice they collect can be used to power iPods and similar gadgets while out at the beach, the ballpark and a thousand other places, more or less.
The dye solar cell is described by the designers of the SIG as “cheap organic dye [used with] nano technology [providing] cheap but high energy efficiency.” Inexpensive, light, and visible-ray penetrable. The lens turns sunlight rays, (rays that would otherwise harm the eye,) into electrical energy.
As an owner and cross-country driver of a classic Volkswagen camper bus, I’m excited to see this futuristic design. The new generation of VW road fun includes solar power, Internet and other high-tech niceties.
TrendLand shows four colors for the Volkswagen Verdier, and says a camper bus could be bought for $69,000, with the top-line model going for $129,000.
Seal brains, penguin eggs, and other fresh foods aren’t on the menu anymore at Antarctica’s research base.
While researchers there once supplemented their diets with fresh wildlife, today they rely on twice-a-year shipments of canned, frozen, and dried foods. From Reuters:
The 1959 Antarctic Treaty sets aside the continent as a nature reserve devoted to peace and science and bases have over the years stopped eating fresh wildlife. Seals were shot at Rothera for dog food until 1994 when dogs were banned from Antarctica to protect the environment.
The base, which can house up to 100 people at once, makes sure that meat and other proteins are still available, even if seal brains and other arctic delicacies are not.
Although plastics have become safer, most used to create items like toys and appliances still aren’t biodegradable and may cause health risks. Could liquid wood replace plastics in the future?
Norbert Eisenreich, a senior researcher and deputy of directors at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal, Germany, said his team of scientists have come up with a substance that could replace plastic: Arboform — basically, liquid wood.
This wood-based product can be mixed with other substances to create a strong, non-toxic alternative to petroleum plastic products.
