A Green Day! What Your Boobs Can Do For You...
Today I took a little time and read through a backlog of entries on Experience's Green Blog (http://green101.experience.com/2008/08/green-tech-part-2.html This is the newest article, but there are many more good ones) and found an interesting entry on harnessing human power, citing some articles which led me to find even more articles. Now I have a collection of interesting news stories on some technological developments to someday reduce our energy crises:
The entry cited a reference for this newly developing technology in the UK, intended to harness the energy created by pedestrian foot traffic:
http://www.psfk.com/2008/06/foot-generated-electricity.html
I see great potential for airports and such.
The original blog also referenced THIS new technology, which attempts to harness women's breast motion to power small electronic devices such as IPODs (and dare I say Walkmans?):
http://www.slate.com/id/2193827/
But if you'd rather show the girls off than have them all bound and bouncing, then perhaps the SOLAR POWERED LINGERIE is for you:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355737,00.html
And I attempted to back this all up with BBC, but instead found this article on using a more full-bodied (and non-gender/fat-biased) energy-collecting method:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7226968.stm
I think this kind of stuff is really awesome, and have often thought about it in terms of fitness places. I don't know what percentage of treadmill/work-out equipment utilizes human power, but I've often wondered why people spend so much energy (electricity, etc.) to burn their own energy. We should not just waste that human energy, but at least put it to work in powering the displays on the work out equipment, if not more. And it looks like other scientists are finally starting to develop methods to do just that. Granted this is not a wide-spread overall solution to our planet's energy and waste problems, but every little bit helps, and I think this is, pardon the pun, a good first step.
Other things mentioned in the blog, in terms of remaining green and recycling and so on, include this website, designed to provide a place where people can GIVE away (for free) unwanted items: http://www.freecycle.org/ It looks pretty cool and I think I might join in my school and home-town networks.
They also talked about a book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (http://www.amazon.com/Cradle-Remaking-Way-Make-Things/dp/0865475873%3FSubscriptionId%3D0MNMC603FA906P2NSD82%26tag%3Dbooktrac-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0865475873) The book sounds really cool and I want to at least look through it at good old Barnes and Noble or Borders some day. I'm especially curious about it's "special ink" which disappears in a certain temperature range, allowing the book to be "re-used."
Anyway, just some fun stuff!
The entry cited a reference for this newly developing technology in the UK, intended to harness the energy created by pedestrian foot traffic:
http://www.psfk.com/2008/06/foot-generated-electricity.html
I see great potential for airports and such.
The original blog also referenced THIS new technology, which attempts to harness women's breast motion to power small electronic devices such as IPODs (and dare I say Walkmans?):
http://www.slate.com/id/2193827/
But if you'd rather show the girls off than have them all bound and bouncing, then perhaps the SOLAR POWERED LINGERIE is for you:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355737,00.html
And I attempted to back this all up with BBC, but instead found this article on using a more full-bodied (and non-gender/fat-biased) energy-collecting method:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7226968.stm
I think this kind of stuff is really awesome, and have often thought about it in terms of fitness places. I don't know what percentage of treadmill/work-out equipment utilizes human power, but I've often wondered why people spend so much energy (electricity, etc.) to burn their own energy. We should not just waste that human energy, but at least put it to work in powering the displays on the work out equipment, if not more. And it looks like other scientists are finally starting to develop methods to do just that. Granted this is not a wide-spread overall solution to our planet's energy and waste problems, but every little bit helps, and I think this is, pardon the pun, a good first step.
Other things mentioned in the blog, in terms of remaining green and recycling and so on, include this website, designed to provide a place where people can GIVE away (for free) unwanted items: http://www.freecycle.org/ It looks pretty cool and I think I might join in my school and home-town networks.
They also talked about a book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (http://www.amazon.com/Cradle-Remaking-Way-Make-Things/dp/0865475873%3FSubscriptionId%3D0MNMC603FA906P2NSD82%26tag%3Dbooktrac-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0865475873) The book sounds really cool and I want to at least look through it at good old Barnes and Noble or Borders some day. I'm especially curious about it's "special ink" which disappears in a certain temperature range, allowing the book to be "re-used."
Anyway, just some fun stuff!