th comments
holy said: "IT IS VERY GOOD; church can be an opinion leader. in Germany some churches have big roofs for solar..." [read]

SteveC said: "While one might think this is a waste of time, money and resources, so is a Bugatti Veyron. But both have been designed specifically to show that t..." [read]

Duane said: "As to the question in the title "Will the Greenies Take Fireworks Away From Us?", the bad news answer is yes. Yes they will. The good news is tha..." [read]

LT said: "I again repeat my comment from previous posts about poorly designed objects that design students should have some real world practical experience b..." [read]

Harrison Wills said: "This is a beautiful quote by Mother Teresa that expresses the need to Do Good and Make Progress even when it's not appreciated. Love and Creat anyw..." [read]

Jesse said: "I also agree for most families out there the recipies have to have a convertable property. I myself eat limited meat, aka fish, for some additional..." [read]

Sex, Trams n Rock n Roll: Super Furry Animals Celebrate Mass Transit

by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 07. 4.09
Culture & Celebrity

Super Furry Animals Dark Days Light Years album cover image
Image credit: Super Furry Animals

Rock n roll meets integrated transport hubs
Who'd have thought that one of the best songs I've heard all year would be about sustainable urban transportation systems?

I've said it before, but I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Rob Hopkins of the Transition Towns Movement - not just for inspiring one of the most important community-led responses to environmental crisis there is - but also for giving me stuff to write about. His Transition Culture blog is a constant source of inspiration and news on everything from communal nut tree plantings to alternative local currencies. Now we can add rock n roll to the mix - because thanks to Rob I have come across the best (and possibly only!) rock n roll song ever that is taking a stand for trams as a vital part of integrated transportation hubs. And who'd have thought it would be so catchy (at least if you are a fan of mass transportation AND weird Welsh/Germanic spacepop).

Article continues: Sex, Trams n Rock n Roll: Super Furry Animals Celebrate Mass Transit

Street Legal Golf Carts On the Rise

by Sara Novak, Columbia, SC on 07. 4.09
Cars & Transportation

Share the Road With Golf Carts
photo via Flickr

As a native of South Carolina, sharing the road with golf carts is nothing new. With the highest number of golf courses per capita in the United States, we’ve taken our golf carts off-course for ages. Now the rest of the country is finally catching on.

Article continues: Street Legal Golf Carts On the Rise

Sonoma County Welcomes Electric Vehicles With Plans For 200 Charging Stations

by Kristin Underwood, Sacramento, CA on 07. 3.09
Cars & Transportation

Electric Vehicle Charging at San Francisco Coulomb Technology ChargePoint Station Photo
Image via: Coulomb Technologies

Sonoma County, CA is preparing to install 200 new ChargePoint electric vehicle charging stations throughout the county. The infrastructure is being installed in preparation of electric vehicles being sold like hot cakes starting over the next few years, but the plan hinges on a little thing called funding.

Article continues: Sonoma County Welcomes Electric Vehicles With Plans For 200 Charging Stations

Chinese Government Raises Fuel Prices by 10% (That's Good!)

by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07. 3.09
Business & Politics

china gas station photo
Those prices are in Yuans per liter, I think.

Fuel Subsidies Punish Virtue
The Chinese government has recently decided to raise fuel prices by about 10%, the third increase in the past few months, following a 6-7% increase on June 1st, and a 3-5% increase in March. The stated goal is to bring the price of fuel in China closer to what the market price is. From a green point of view, this is good because subsidized fossil fuels only encourages waste, over-consumption, and the buying of vehicles that aren't fuel efficient. It also artificially reduces the competitiveness of technologies that aren't based on fossil fuels, slowing down their adoption.

Article continues: Chinese Government Raises Fuel Prices by 10% (That's Good!)

San Francisco Turns Intersection into Park in 72 Hours (Video)

by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 07. 3.09
Cars & Transportation

san francisco turns intersection into park photo
Image credit: StreetFilms

Dangerous intersection reclaimed as public space
One of my favorite things about the folks at StreetFilms is that they don't just report on innovative projects for livable streets - they deconstruct what has been done so we can all learn from it. It's like they are building a sense of collective literacy around planning and public space. Whether it's physically separated bike lanes or Bogota's comprehensive approach to transport planning, their short videos show us inspiring examples of real change, and they explain how and why they really work. The same goes for their latest offering - a short film about a temporary park created on a dangerous intersection in the Castro district of San Francisco. We get an understanding of the history, a breakdown of what has been done and why, and of course we get to see how the ever flamboyant residents of San Francisco are putting their new park to use.

Article continues: San Francisco Turns Intersection into Park in 72 Hours (Video)

Students Get 568 Km Per Liter, Hope For More

by Jennifer Hattam, Istanbul, Turkey on 07. 3.09
Cars & Transportation

sahimo hydrogen car students photo
Sakarya University students with their hydrogen-powered car. Photo via SAİTEM.

Gas prices in Turkey are among the highest -- if not the highest -- in the world, a fact I was rudely awakened to last summer when some friends and I rented a car to drive from Istanbul to Edirne, a round-trip of around 500 kilometers, to watch the oil-wrestling championships. (A story in and of itself.) We paid about $100 for the gas alone, some 38 liters of it. If we'd been driving the SAHİMO, a car invented by Turkish university students, we could have gone all the way across the country -- more than three times farther -- on just three liters of fuel.

Article continues: Students Get 568 Km Per Liter, Hope For More

Transport TW: Zero Emission Car Powered By Magnetic Fields

by Jerry James Stone, San Francisco, CA on 07. 2.09
Cars & Transportation

transporter tw
Photo courtesy of EcoFriend

Car designer Harsha Vardhan suggests that this two-wheeler concept is the car of the future.

His Transporter TW (Twin Wheel) is a single-seater electric vehicle that uses magnetic fields for driving the car. The two gianormous wheels, suspended over a superconducting fluid, are propelled by those shifting magnetic fields. Thus the power generation, and motion of the car, is a nice noiseless and smooth ride.

Article continues: Transport TW: Zero Emission Car Powered By Magnetic Fields

All Ocean-Going Ships Near California's Coast Must Now Use Cleaner Fuel

by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07. 2.09
Cars & Transportation

california-los-angeles-port-01.jpg
Photo: Flickr, CC

This is a Big Deal
A Californian regulation mandating that all ocean-going vessels within 24 miles of the state's coast must use cleaner burning low-sulfur diesel fuel is now in effect. This will have a big impact on air quality (big cargo ships have terrible emissions, and we too often overlook them and focus on cars & trucks), reducing smog and saving an estimated 3,600 people from premature deaths between 2009 and 2015. "The requirement, adopted in 2008, will annually affect nearly 2,000 ocean-going vessels, both U.S. flagged and foreign-flagged, visiting California." Read on for more details.

Article continues: All Ocean-Going Ships Near California's Coast Must Now Use Cleaner Fuel
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