Hu2 Design has created stickers that show the inner workings of regular day-to-day devices that we may take for granted.  Although the power to your light switch is not necessarily run on Hamster Power it is a neat way to get people thinking about energy and the environment and where it all comes from before blindly plugging their MacBook into the wall.  Unfortunately the stickers are made of vinyl (which can contain harmful chemicals), so although Hu2′s mind was in the right place they might want to get an environmental consultant next time.

But if the vinyl thing doesn’t bother you I think these stickers are a great way to cool your kid’s room up without having to resort to lame flower wallpaper or those tacky wall stamps of that guy playing a flute (if you don’t know the one I’m talking about you will see it one day and say “Oh! That’s what Jorden was talking about!”).  I don’t know if I’d use that toilet sticker though… I don’t want to know where all that stuff goes.

I recommend you check out Hu2 Design’s website as they have lot’s of pictures of all the neat sticker ideas they have come up with.  You can also check out my Flickr Feed as well for a few images.

Cheers!

jordenf

The tiny capsules (there are 125 of them) look pretty futuristic with their clean lines and their Panasonic environmental and lighting controls… but to be honest I don’t care what’s inside them there is no way I’m going to willingly step into a sealed coffin that is built into a wall.  I’m not a bear, I don’t need to hibernate, and I certainly don’t want to rely on some computer pumping the right amount of oxygen into my cocoon so that I don’t suffocate.

These minimalistic styled capsule hotels are becoming all the rage these days as countries like Japan need to find a way to build more travel accommodations into their already over-crowded cities.   The 9H has shared bathrooms, lockers, and a lounge (in my experience anytime you have to share a bathroom with all your other hotel guests the word “luxury” should not be used in describing your hotel), and they supply you with a toothbrush, slippers, bottle water, and all the other gear you would need to pass out for the night.  The idea behind it is that it is convenient for someone who is making a quick one-night stopover and just needs a place to rest for 9 hours, hence the name 9H.

According to Panasonic, who has designed all the fun toys on the inside of these things, the lights and environmental system controls work in a way that guarantees you a great night sleep!  In my opinion a good night’s rest never includes sleeping by yourself on a single bed in a hatch that may not open.

For more pics on 9H and all the gear they supply check out my Flickr Feed.

Cheers!

jordenf

You see these new hybrid and electric vehicles don’t make any noise.  If you have ever gone for a ride in a hybrid or  ZEV you will know what I’m talking about, they make no sound at all.  It’s as if they haven’t even been turned on yet.  Well for people who depend on sound alone to decide whether it’s safe or not to cross the street this has become a bit of a problem.

To fix this problem the folks at Nissan were originally going to give the Leaf an artificial sound that would simulate a regular car engine.  But I guess when you can make a vehicle sound like anything you want a regular old car engine is kind of boring, and apparently Nissan noise and vibration expert Toshiyuki Tabata agrees:

We decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we’re going to make it beautiful and futuristic. We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art.

So Nissan decided to make the Leaf sound like a Police spinner from Blade Runner (see video below).

The sound will start as soon as the car is turned on and then it will switch off automatically around the 20kmh mark when the tire noise is loud enough for pedestrians to hear.  Now Nissan isn’t the first company to use this technique, Fisker Karma decided that their $80,000 electric car would replicate the sound of a jet engine and a Formula One car.  Yikes! Wouldn’t want to live next to that guy.

Cheers!

jordenf

If you would like to see some more pictures of the Nissan Leaf you can do so on my Flickr Feed.

Normally when someone tells you to put a bag over your head it’s a bad thing.  It either means one of two things:

1. You’re ugly so cover it up with a paper bag.

2. You suck and I hate you so put a plastic bag on your head and see what happens.

Yikes! Those really are terrible things… almost as terrible as the parent pictured below.

from peopleofwalmart.com

Well don’t fret my pets, I am here to spread the good word about a new bag that you can be proud to wear on your head… and it probably wont suffocate you like a plastic one!  The Eco Warrior Bag is a canvas tote bag that carries your groceries by day, and can be turned into a Mexican wrestler mask to fight litterers with by night!

This Canvas Crimefighter is made by a company out of Japan called Kawamura Hideo Activity… it’s part of their Rezon line of products which also includes: a couple of lamps, a mirror that’s been pre-broken, and a pendent that doubles as a box-cutter… I’m not making this up.  If you go to their site you will quickly see that you probably wouldn’t trust your money with them but the Eco Warrior Bag is still pretty cool and if I ever found one in Vancouver I would probably pick it up.

They come in blue, silver, and gold and by the looks of things cost between $2,000 – $4,700 US depending on the colour… Wait, WTF!? $4,700 for a bag?  Is it Prada?  Seriously though, go to the site and see if you can figure it out, because I sure can’t… it sort of looks like it would be legit if I was living in Japan but for $2,000 US  when I put that bag on my head it better turn me into a freakin’ super-hero!  I’ll be super pissed if it just carries my apples and Raisin Bran.

Cheers!

jordenf

Oh and if you want to see some pictures of the $2,000 – $4,700 US bags they are on my Flickr-Feed.

The Nissan Leaf will be released in 2011 and will have a max speed of 90 miles per hour and will roughly go around 100 miles on a full charge (so this is obviously a commuting car).  It is geared towards families as it’s tag line is:  “5 passengers, 5 doors”.  And as you can see by the photo above and the few on my Flick Feed it looks fairly “normal” which is kind of nice as it will have a broad appeal.  Now the kicker in all of this is the price… Nissan states that it is only going to cost about the same as a regular compact vehicle.  My complaint with hybrid vehicles has always been that they are too expensive for young people (the people who actually care about the environment) to buy them.  Well not anymore.

Nissan of course is still working on their wireless charging stations so that eventually you wont have to plug your car in, but drive over a panel that will charge the car instead.  And down the road we may even see special highway lanes that will charge your Nissan Leaf as you drive!

This is a step in the right direction and it will be interesting to see how many of these cars are purchased  If you want to keep tabs on the Nissan Leaf or ask any questions about the technology you can follow the vehicle @NissanEVs on Twitter.  Nissan has yet to release info on how it can get a car to tweet.

Cheers!

jordenf

If you enjoyed this post you may also like the articles I have written on Electric Car Chargers, Solar Forests, or E-Bikes.  You can also find any other eco-related posts by clicking the link or by searching the categories on the right side of my page.

Noon Solar - Logan

These bags are not only stylish but are all hand-made and dyed using an all natural process that involves no chemicals… oh yeah, and they come complete with a paper thin flexible solar panel inserted on one side of the bag as well.  This way no matter where you are you can face the solar panel on your bag towards the sun and the Power Bank on the inside of the bag will charge up. Once it’s full all you have to do is plug in your phone or iPod when it needs some more juice and the bag will charge it for you.  Now that is pretty slick.

I’ve posted to my Flickr Feed pictures of some of the bag models available as well as the instructions for charging your device.

From $330US to $498US the bags aren’t cheap.  But that is around the same price you would pay for a Coach bag… but with the guilt-free Noon Solar bag you get to be the one guy or gal who can recharge all of their friends phones or iPods on the go… thus making you a nerdy, stylish, environmentally friendly hero!

Cheers!

jordenf

So in a sense you are pretty much mother or father nature.  During the summer you like to be at one with the environment, no Disneyland for you and the kids, you want to be next to the trees, the soil, to the animals, living off the land in the wilderness… only one problem… you freakin’ hate camping.

Well I have a solution for you Father Freetrade and Mother Must-Be-Organic… it’s called the Camper Bike.  This bad-boy was created by Boston artist Kevin Cyr and is a half-sized RV that is mounted on the back of a modified tricycle.  It’s human powered and completely emission free but you might need to take the back roads when finding your wooded oasis because it looks like it would be really hard to get up to 100km per hour on the freeway with a camper on your back.

On the inside (which unfortunately I can’t find any pictures of) it has small but efficient appliances, some storage, and of course a place to sleep.  You’ll still have to pee in the woods though because is doesn’t have a septic tank.

Cyr created the camper bike as a work of art for his photographs and they make an appearance in many of his paintings as well.  Even though it is meant as an art piece it is fully functioning and will go anywhere you can pedal it… which probably isn’t that far, but even if you did get cooking on that thing think of how hard it would be to stop without the whole thing toppling over on you… hold onto your hat!

Here is a link to the original article on Inhabitat and I have also posted some more photographs of the Camper Bike on my Flickr feed.

Cheers!

jordenf

Well architect Neville Mars has figured out a pretty awesome way to combat the heat while charging your electric car.  He has created tall tree trunks that will stand in parking lots, on top of these tree trunks will be branches with photovoltaic leaves on them.  Those leaves will absorb the sun and turn it into energy that you will use to recharge your EV (electric vehicle) by plugging it into the base of the tree trunks while you run your errands.

The other cool thing is that the solar forest moves with the sun to shade your car while it’s parked, so when you hop back in after getting your groceries your ice-cream wont melt right away.  I’ve posted a video below of the new technology (hopefully Mars doesn’t do that whole copyright thing and have it removed).

I guess it only makes sense after we tore down the trees to put up these parking lots (sounds like a Joni Mitchell song to me) that we put some trees back up!  Also if you want to see some more pictures or want some more info on these parking lot forests you can visit one of my favourite sites Inhabitat which is a great source for everything eco.  If you are interested in Electric Vehicles read my earlier posts on the i MiEV, e-bikes and Nissan’s ZEV.

Cheers!

jordenf

Nissan has developed a revolutionary plug-free technology that it claims will make charging electric cars easier and faster. The wireless charging system is based on the concept of inductive charging, the same electromagnetic field technology used to charge an electric toothbrush. Nissan has scaled it up for use in their Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) electric car, which can charge in a compatible parking bay without the need for wires. Today’s electric car owners, by contrast, have to carry a mains plug aboard to recharge.

So this basically means that when you park your ZEV into an appropriate parking stall the car will automatically start charging for you.  Just goes to show how quickly technology changes as it was only about 2 weeks ago I was writing about plug-in electric charging stations being installed in Vancouver and now in 5-10 years those may be obsolete.  Nissan also figures that if they can install these charging plates in a parking stall why can’t they implant a bunch of them on the freeway as well?

The plan by Nissan is to have designated EV (electric vehicle) or ZEV (zero emission vehicle) lanes which will have a series of plates in them that would allow your vehicle to charge while you drive… in theory as long as you are on a designated charging lane you could technically drive non-stop, with zero emissions, for as long as you wanted.  I bet the oil lobbyists are excited about this!

The Nissan ZEV will be a five-seater family-sized car with a top speed of 90mph.  It will go on sale in 2010 in the USA and Japan and then in most markets in 2012.  I have yet to see a picture of it but Redmer van der Meer, Nissan’s European electric vehicle product manager, says it won’t be a weird shaped egg or anything and it will be built in a way so that when new improved batteries are developed they can easily be retro-fitted.  Sweet!  The ZEV is expected to be unveiled on August 2nd, in Yokohama, Japan.

Cheers!

jordenf

Read my original post below.

So I was reading an interesting article this morning in the Vancouver Sun by Joanne Lee-Young on electric car chargers in Vancouver.  Apparently Vancouver council is trying to make it mandatory for new residential condo developments to have 10 percent of their parking spots include electrical outlets for vehicles.  A neat concept that would put Vancouver ahead of the rest of Canada in this step forward to create a greener city.

So basically how it would work is each new condo building constructed would have to include a power charging kiosk for 10 percent of the parking stalls.  Mayor Gregor Robertson says that the city of Vancouver would also install public charging kiosks in some of their EasyPark lots and eventually have a few on-street stations as well.

The current problem is that the developer’s representative UDI (Urban Development Institute) is saying that 5 percent of the parking stalls would be more reasonable than 10 because currently at the time of this blog their are fewer than 10 EV – Electric Vehicle’s in the city… also their is concern over BC Hydro being able to supply the extra energy to these stations.   But I guess Vancouver council’s thinking is that the more spots available for these cars the easier it will be to get around in one, which will encourage people to purchase them when they do become available in Canada in the near future.  Because lets be honest, no one is going to buy a car if they cant power it up easily.

i MiEV - 120 km on a single charge costing about $2-$4

The City of Vancouver and BC Hydro signed an agreement with Mitsubishi a few months back agreeing to use its new i MiEV electric vehicle as test run models for their fleet.  But even with the City of Vancouver and BC Hydro cruising around in these EV’s it hardly seems necessary to have 10 percent of parking stalls in condo developments “power ready” for these vehicles.  But that being said the times are changing and according to Don Chander, the past president of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association, there are 18 major automakers currently developing EV’s, so the need for 10 percent of parking stalls to have charging stations may be here before we know it.

Cheers!

jordenf

If you enjoyed this post and are interested in electric and green transportation you may want to check out my post on e-bikes or on Nissan’s plan to have a wireless rechargeable car.