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Houses!
You missed houses!

Umm 1 - 2 ? You don't move the poo very far you build a small power plant where the cows are ... it is called a methane digester. An engine burns the methane and produces electricity and heat which is used to keep the input material at the right temp to keep the microbes that produce the methane happy. Excess heat can be used to heep the ranchers house warm. After being processed the spent "fuel" is used as fertelizer. More power can be produced if you put the cows on treadmills. http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/04/19/cows-on-treadmills-could-produce-six-percent-of-the-worlds-power/ All this reminds me of mad max ... who rules bater town? Master blaster!

China To Connect Its High Speed Rail All The Way To Europe

http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/15/china-to-connect-its-high-speed-rail-all-the-way-to-europe/

It seems to me like a true global leadership. Not fighting with illiterate mountain tribes for years, or burning oil wells, but connecting people. Building trade, trust, and prosperity.

I want such a high speed rail in Eurasia. It would be very convenient to me. It is too expensive and scary to fly all the time.

What the h... we want more from China? They want to connect to us, do not they?

But shallow politicians still think in colonial terms: destabilize a land, grab its riches, and runaway with it.

Since TFS didn’t:

we've seen printers that can create entire buildings out of stone, delicious meals out of simple ingredients

References: 3-D Printer Creates Entire Buildings From Solid Rock, MIT’s Digital Food Printer Creates Nutritious Meals

Since TFS didn’t:

we've seen printers that can create entire buildings out of stone, delicious meals out of simple ingredients

References: 3-D Printer Creates Entire Buildings From Solid Rock, MIT’s Digital Food Printer Creates Nutritious Meals

Shouldn't RepRap work with that plastic alternative from (current) trees?
First thing i could find related
Plastic alternative from trees

If it could, cheap (ish) 3D printing could be a couple decades away.

Why would you link to a StumbleUpon frame rather than the actual FA!

http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/17/solar-powered-augmented-contact-lenses-cover-your-eye-with-100s-of-leds/

This was mentioned on /. a good while ago: someone already thought of that. :)

Prototype solar road panel

Mind, this is (of course) just a prototype. But as all truly innovative technologies it is both absolutely awe-inspiring and very unlikely to be marketed before some big greedy power company comes along and snaps it up.

A man can dream, though.

Well, how about thisone? http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/03/18/transportation-tuesday-8923-miles-per-gallon/
Makes that CalPoly car look like the traditional US gas guzzler, not?

Not to mention on the very same page as TFA there is a link to a French car that got 8923 miles per gallon. But this team managed to get a front page story for their car. Kudos to them and their superior story submission skills.

I think the reason is because diesels are perceived as being "heavier" and "more expensive". So the real problem is in the marketing. VW has made at least one concept car using this combination.

You vastly underestimate them. In addition to their US and Australian projects they are also not building one in Namibia .

The Namibian project is more ambitious as it will be used also to grow food in the hot and windy conditions under their greenhouse.

Of course I know the standard responses...I'm not a climate scientist so what do I know anything, Nature is "Dr. Jones Peer Reviewed", everyone else is paid by Exxon, blah blah blah.

Unlike the CRU emails, which show hardly anything suspicious at all, there is irrefutable and conclusive evidence for a massive public relations campaign run be Exxon and co.

That is, of course, irrelevant to you, right?? Not even worth thinking about. Suppress those thoughts you don't like!

Fact is that this issue is now beyond science and is being fought in the public forum.

That's right, and now the science of shaping public opinion is being used. And there is evidence. Irrefutable. That those very effective, scientifically derived techniques, are being employed to empower joe-average into thinking that they have some insight into things that they know hardly anything about.

You think that doesn't apply to you? You're so smart, read "Climate Cover-Up", and then try and explain even the most basic straight-forward elements to one of your skeptic colleagues.

You will discover a wall of projection -- which is invisible to you at the moment.

Do not confuse the gas prices being the way they are because of what have done compared to what the gas prices are because of what the economy is and what the gas companies think we can afford.
A study has been done by the likes more intelligent then me, that have calculated the holding tanks capacity for storing the fuel the saudis have, and how much is actually coming out of there....

If we were all to just stop gasing for a week, and I mean all of north america, their biggest client....they would such an overstock that they ...the scientist, using today's business models, and current situational response by a business that would face the same type of problem, and they say
that the companies would have no choice but to slash the gas prices in half. If we held on for one more week again, they would go bankrupt....I wish I had their links to put up, but I have seen this
on more then one sight, I will try to find it and link it.

The gas companies are the worst oversellers...controlling the medias to make you think we are running out of oil, pushing gas prices even further up....we have no oil shortage trust me...for one thing they have even figured out how to turn plastics into reusable oil, this I can't wait to see go public ( Here )!

We have the newly found oil flats in the arctic, we have tons of oil in canada which is a little more expensive to get then regular oil, (oil sands) but in the end, if we need to its there.

In Europe I think they are outright banning incandescents shortly. Then what? You can't just have no light in all those places you just said were inappropriate.

Well, I just checked, yes the ban went into effect last month (this is a pro-ban link)

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/01/europes-incandescent-light-bulb-ban-begins-today/

Merchants are allowed to close out remaining incandescent lightbulb inventory and that's it.

I therefore predicteth a robust and lucrative underground black market economy with incandescents in euro-peon-land, just because CFLs don't cut the mustard quite good enough yet for all applications, as you pointed out some examples thereof, and others have noted that they find them severely lacking for this or that reason.

Well, you want ketchup or mayo on that sammich? Whoops, sorry we *only* have ketchup, by law....

I just don't like the CFLs, the ones I have tried anyway. I'm down to one in the wellhouse and that's it, I removed the ones I had installed throughout the house, thinking I was being a good boy and all, and went back to cheap incandescents that are suitable for purpose. I found the CFLs won't light up a room from the ceiling, looks like twilight to me and defeats the whole purpose of having an overhead light, I can't use them for reading, the color and intensity are way off sitting next to a normal table lamp with one of those things in there, and for close work, forget it, I have to throw on a headlamp anyway then so what's the point?

    I will hold out for cheaper/better LEDs instead,(I already have some portable battery operated ones I use now, mostly during the frequent power outages here in colonialized and exploited third world rural merika, and like them a lot, and they are just bargain basement el cheapo ten buck chinese camping lamps and they work just great, same batts for a few years now) and in the meantime, conserve energy in other areas /me thinks about a rainy day nap right now ;)

Sorry I can't find a better link, but you don't really need a lava tube for settlement, it just makes it cheaper and easier. You're still going to need an inflatable habitat or similar (honestly, what else makes sense?) to sit in the tube.

Someone already did that.

They need to change the rules on these efficiency challenges. This vehicle and this vehicle are completely impractical.

The rules need to be:
1)Must carry more than one occupant in a seated position.
2)Must maintain an average speed of at least 30 mph.

They need to change the rules on these efficiency challenges. This vehicle and this vehicle are completely impractical.

The rules need to be:
1)Must carry more than one occupant in a seated position.
2)Must maintain an average speed of at least 30 mph.

No no, the inside dimensions are *much* larger than the outside dimensions. Look at this picture: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/07/07/sahimo-hydrogen-vehicle-travels-568-kilometers-on-1-liter-of-fuel/sahimo8/, they ALL fit in!

Like this? http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/03/18/transportation-tuesday-8923-miles-per-gallon/

That's amazing that even where water must be pumped by children on a merry-go-round, there is a big billboard with an advertisement. Sickening.

Here's a much more interesting and useful DIY project.

I know, at first it looked like a curious idea...After looking at the pictures, I thought WTF? That's not furniture, that's like grass wrapped around a log.

All interesting points, but there's always the example of Havana, Cuba, where 70% of the food eaten in that city was actually grown in that city. That's got to be an attainable goal here as well. As for heating and air conditioning, we've got a lot to learn from the buildings built before the industrial craze, and plenty of new ideas as well. Check it out. I have the privilege of spending my days in a LEED Platinum building, and let me tell you, this green building thing is going to take off when people realize how comfortable they can be.

I actually made some shelves with a friend that resemble tetris blocks. Like these only not ridiculously expensive.

Regardless of the idea, I loved the 1950's style "World of Tomorow" style rendering they did. Take that you kids and your fancy CAD packages and 3D modeling.

I would say that 70,000 homes is pretty large scale, and the energy is completely free.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/02/25/world%E2%80%99s-largest-solar-power-plant-coming-to-arizona-in-2011/

The entire midwest is ideal for Solar. Death Valley? Thousands of acres sitting empty. Who'd want to live there? Solar...

Just because something hasn't been done doesn't mean that it can't be or shouldn't be.

This is old news, there are a BUNCH of Chinese made cell phones being sold on infomercials in China with solar charging capabilities. They've been selling these for years....Here's a nicer looking example I quickly found just searching...not a fair representation of the lot because there are quite a few very repulsive looking ones.

How good are they? I'm not sure as I've never used one but as far as I can tell from the ultra-cheesy infomercials, these phones are light years ahead of what the big cellphone makers are offering (heavy sarcasm). In fact, one ad I've seen mentioned 1 month standby time plus solar charging = no need for conventional wall charger!

Actually, for kicks please read the link I just posted, there's a claim of purporting 40 minutes of talk time when charged by candlelight!

For an example of how outlandish their infomercials are, check out this miracle vaginal cream. Contains English voice-over. I love China!

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/samsungblueearth2.jpg

I don't get it. How are you saving trees with this phone? Has Samsung employed a gang of vigilante loggers to cut them down if you do not walk a certain distance per day using the phone as a pedometer in "Eco walk" mode? Has there been a new scientific discovery that CO2 may in fact kill trees, negating the previous data that it is neutral or possibly even beneficial toward plant growth?

On the other end, we have energy generating roads.

Nice conspiracy theory you have there. As a liberal, I'm always happy to hear that there is a well-organized liberal machine out there trying to corrupt our way of life. It's so comforting, since the alternative is that we're a wildly divergent group of individuals who can't put on our collective pants without arguing endlessly about it, let alone form a conspiracy.

Defensive much? He didn't say there is a well-organized liberal machine, he didn't even say the word "liberal"!

Take another look at his post, ignore the jabs if you must. That is the only thing anything is going to happen. But look at this about about the proposed, largest solar power plant in the world:

The Arizona solar power plant has been named Solana, which means "a sunny place" in Spanish, and will be located 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near Gila Bend, and cover 1,900 acres. The capacity of the power plant has been projected at 280 megawatts -- a capacity which could power 70,000 homes and create 1,500 jobs.

It's an awesome development, one that I approve of highly, even despite the fact that it will take energy subsidies for this plant to be built at all.

And currently the world's largest wind farm, according to Wikipedia has a peak capacity of 735.5 megawatts.

In comparison, the largest nuclear power plant, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashiwazaki-Kariwa_Nuclear_Power_Plant, has a capacity of 8212 megawatts.

This is just from googling and using Wikipedia. Just looking at the numbers, to get an idea of what is possible with the different sources of energy, if we're really talking about helping as many people as possible without imposing on them a restricted lifestyle, we can't take nuclear power off of the table.

> Prohibitive? Try "implemented". http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/04/10/mojave-desert-solar-power-fields/

Prohibitive doesn't mean impossible. Notice that this thing cost billions of dollars, and they had to stick it in a desert.

Not exactly the most practical solution.

Prohibitive? Try "implemented". http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/04/10/mojave-desert-solar-power-fields/

...is found in the article, in this image.

Seen this really beautiful solar tower yet? Here's the best picture I could find of it in operation.

That's still not really cheap, and it wont replace all gas/oil/cole/nuclear plants... but imho it's another nice step into the right direction :)

And the next thing you know, you'll be growing your own lawn chairs or sprouting trees in your parking space.

Actually, both of those projects can be done in a shorter time frame, but are probably better for the beginning of spring, rather than the end of summer. (Although the latter will be done again 9/19/08 in San Francsico).

*with apologies to websites in case of slashdotting.

The giant company has read the writing on the wall.
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/07/01/mercedes-to-kick-fossil-fuels-by-2015/

This was not a standard fluorescent bulb. The gas inside the capsule radiated visible light directly (no phosphor coating), and it was BRIGHT. It took me a few minutes but I finally found an article about it here

Yay gasoline! It's killing us all. It's called progress.

Of course, those who know hisrory are privileged to repeat it. Sail is back!

I'll go fishing...

I have utmost respect for the OLPC and it's superior screen design when it comes to power consumption and daylight readability. If you haven't heard Mary Lou Jepsen speak on the subject, here is presentation she gave the other day.
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/02/20/mary-lou-jepsen-at-greener-gadgets/

FWIW, I was contrasting the battery life of the Eee PC against it's current version and other readily available low-cost notebooks, not the XO or Classmate (which likely is comparable to the Eee). I could have been more clear. The 3.5 hours the 4G and 8G models get is much better than what I get on either of my notebooks. That is primarily due to the small screen requiring less power, and the solid state "disk" not needing to spin like a conventional drive. A 9 inch screen based on the same technology would draw more power, and would drain the battery quicker.

Coal gets more subsidies than we of nuclear power do, not to mention "clean energy" initiatives.

Nuclear Subsidies "Myth"

We of nuclear power turn a profit just fine, thank you.

As for new plants - yeah, the capital costs are rather expensive but given the otherwise extremely low cost per kilowatt-hour they're still very much worth it over the 40-year-plus life of the plant (40 years is the initial license of the plant I currently work at - we've applied for an additional 20 year license extension). Capital investments, yes, put also capital returns. If this weren't true, why would so many places be applying to build new plants?

While we're on the topic of capital investments, I'll note this new solar CSP plant they want to build in Arizona. It's noted here that this will cost somewhere in the 4 billion range and generate 280 megawatts, with a ground footprint of 1900 acres. Compare this to my plants, which generates nearly 2,000 megawatts with a ground footprint of maybe 20 acres. Also, this plant (as stated in the article) depends completely on the renewal of the clean energy tax credit.

Call me prejudiced, but I'll stick to nuclear thanks.

A monochrome LCD screeen powered by rabid red ants?

Actually, gee gosh, it's a power usage meter of some sort.

Considering the prize money, it would be folks who probably don't have the engineering, scientific or marketing savy necessary to succeed in the real world. Most folks around here could probably come up with a couple cool concepts.

I have one: reduce plastic in packaging. Another one: install motion sensors in office floor at key location and connect them to the lights in grids after 7pm; instant savings for everyone. Plus some cool effects as you work late and go to the washroom, lights just turn on ahead of you.

Nice story. Here's some people doing this in real life.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/04/13/lot-ek-shipping-container-house/

Want to build a high tech house? Don't use wood. What the hell is it with people building homes out of wood anyway??? Wood rots, burns, gets eaten by insects and ants, etc etc...

Build this on a steel reinforced concrete foundation:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/05/02/touring-the-pa nel-house/
Bonus points if you shock-isolate the house from the foundation.

Install solar panels on the roof, and wind power in the back yard.

Don't run too many cables (except for power). Use wireless. It is only going to get better/faster.

Home automation rocks too. Just don't use X-10. I have an X-10 system. It sucks ass. Try to build your own around WiFi or Bluetooth so you can control the house from a PDA or cell phone. Bonus points if you incorporate voice activation.

Next time a big one hits, just move all your stuff to the top floor in case of flooding, and ride it out.

My interest isn't as much in having normal appliances that talk to each other, although that could be cool (for instance, a dishwasher and washing machine that know not to turn on when the shower is in use.. that would be pretty cool), but rather appliances that are just more accurate. I dream of the day that I won't have to posess bank-burglar safe-cracker finger dexterity to get my shower to the exact temperature I desire, but rather I can just dial in a digital thermostat to 102.5F or whatever suits me. Some fixtures are making headway in this direction.. these Hansa faucets with LEDs that tint the water red or blue (for cold or hot) have been available for a while, although they don't come cheap.. they're at least a step in the right direction, since I think most of us have occasionally stuck our hands under scalding water by accident [presuming it was instead on "cold" mode].

flash stick stick: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripherals/usb-fla sh-stick-stick-152473.php

http://www.inhabitat.com/entry_1132.php

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/wood/index.php

While I disagree with your point about the Xbox design I have to say that site is pretty sweet... I about wet myself when I saw the Tetris shelves! Kudos.

On a different note, congratulations to the xbox 360 marketing team, who pulled out all the stops: constant "leaks" heading up to the launch, the first next-gen console shown off, launched on TV, by a pop show, and by celeberities! Not to mention the whole colony buisness. Full marks Microsoft marketing team.