Inspired by stones washed smooth by the sea or rive, designer Matthias Demacker has come up with a trendy side table with soft shapes. The “Pebble,” as the designer calls his table, present smooth curves with openings in its body to highlight the floating lines. The openings other than adding to the aesthetics also have a practical aspect, as users can store their daily belongings such magazines, books and other small objects within the table. Designed for Bonaldo, the Pebble table is slated to be launched at the Salone del Mobile next month.
Read the rest of this entry »
FedEx says it will be the first U.S. delivery service to add all-electric trucks to their fleet. Starting in June, the company will enter four EVs into service in Los Angeles.
Two of the trucks will come from Navistar, based on a design the parcel service already is using in Europe. FedEx has 10 EV vans in London and five scheduled to enter routes in Paris. The other two trucks are coming from a yet unnamed company.
FedEx plans to eventually have electric charging stations powered by solar arrays or even the Bloom Energy Server at its various locations for its electic fleet to juice up.
While it slowly transitions to all-electric vehicles, the company is making good use of hybrid technology. They’ve been converting old trucks into hybrids and their Bronx, NY outpost exclusively uses hybrid vans.
via Press Release
With its granite coloring and design, the Incipio Tribal Regrind ECO Case actually looks like a piece of carved stone.
This iPhone case is made out of 100% recycled silicone, and at least 20% of that is waste materials from other Incipio products. This makes The Tribal Regrind ECO Case one of the greenest molded cases ever.
Note: [...]
We have seen a number of electric motorbike concepts, but without being expecting them to come into production. However, Austrian company KTM looks set for its electric motorbike dubbed “Freeride” to allow electrifying ride. Presented in two versions, the supermoto for on road and endure for off-road excursions, the Freeride is based around a lightweight delta box frame with forged aluminum components. Replacing the engine with a compact 30 horsepower electric motor, capable of producing 43Nm of torque, to reach the top speed of 43 mph, the new KTM electric motorbike makes use of a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for supplying electricity to the motor. The Freeride just takes 1.5 hours to juice up fully, which is good enough for an hour of nonstop runtime. The KTM’s new electric motorbike is expected to cost you about $13,500.
Read the rest of this entry »
A boat aptly called the Plastiki, made out of 12,500 recyclable plastic bottles filled with carbon dioxide, has set sail for a great voyage through the Pacific. While it seems like an extreme stunt, the journey has more of a purpose than just seeing if a plastic boat can make the trip.
By now, many of us have heard about the giant collection of floating plastic known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The large aquatic dump is located in the North Pacific Gyre, one of the five major vortices of currents in the world’s oceans. It is twice the size of Texas and contains billions of tiny pieces of plastic.
The boat’s crew including David de Rothschild, Jo Royle and David Thomson came up with this interesting way to draw more attention to the tons of plastic that make it into our oceans. They constructed the Plastiki to tour the Pacific Ocean, teaching us about recycling and lowering our consumption along the way.
The team will take approximately three months to reach Sydney, Australia from San Francisco, heading straight through the garbage patch. They will also visit other environmental hot spots including damaged coral reefs and low-lying island nations threatened by rising sea waters.
Read more…
Happy Friday! Here’s this week’s selection by Mac Games and More featuring fun casual games you can play into the weekend. The games include helping a sea empress with amnesia, collecting endangered fishies, solving thrilling I Spy mysteries and more.
Aqua Park – Although the game play of Aqua Park is fairly simple, it’s [...]
$40.00 from Uncommon Goods
I don’t even need to write anything here. This pair of t-shirts (for twins) is too cute. One is labeled “1st born”, the other is “Runner up”. I wish I knew someone with twins!
Developed as a university project while studying at Konstfack University College of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm, the “Hand in Hand Clock” by designer Yen-Wen Tseng is a unique timepiece that creates a new relation between hours and minutes, giving a new dimension to the portrayal of time. Connecting the hour and minute hand with two pivoting arms, the Hand In Hand Clock depicts a more effective interaction of the hands while creating different art forms on its surface.
Read the rest of this entry »
Taryn, an EcoGeek reader, received her subscriptions to Wired Magazine as well as National Geographic this week. A very EcoGeek combination, I must say, keeping up on the beauty and diversity of our world as well as cutting technology. But what she found surprised her. Each magazine had an ad from the same company, from the same advertising campaign with some disturbingly different messages.
The ad in National Geographic brags about Kohler’s “commitment to creating water-saving products”. On the other hand, the full-page advert in Wired seems to indicate that true luxury can only be had in a shower that simulates the drenching power a category five hurricane…an experience Kohler will gladly provide you with.
So which of these is the Bold Look of Kohler: The one that promises “Bold Conservation” or the one that promises “Bold jets of watter hitting you with one gallon per second of fresh drinkable water from every conceivable angle”? Thoughts?
So you’re browsing around and doing your stuff, and you see some video on a web page that you want to watch.
Most of us will just watch it in situ, but what if it’s something special? What if it deserves to be displayed with a little more respect for the medium?
Enter Extract from [...]
Eliminating the technical stiffness from touch screens, German designer Silke Hilsing has come up with a flexible display called the “Impress” that seems to make technology more human by bringing it closer to the users. Compressing sensors between the pieces of foam, the display makes use of arduino and processing to run them efficiently. Facilitating touch interactivity with feedback, the touch sensitive display triggers the sensors, as soon as the user touches down on the foam, to communicate with an overhead projector. If you want small reaction, you have to press the surface gently, or if you are looking to trigger more intense reactions, you have to piers your hand/fingers literally into the display. Check out the video after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
