12:50 am, December 6th, 2007 by ina
Just arrived! It’s the first European entry in our current photo contest.
Ivo sends us this image (and he admits he shamelessly stole it from a postcard) of a crazily festive house in Niendorf, which is a neighborhood of Hamburg, Germany. The dwelling seems to be inhabited by English speakers, since they have an electric “Merry Christmas” sign on their garage. Or maybe the “Fröhliche Weihnachten” is just too hard to build from light bulbs. Those Umlauts can be a killer!
This photo contest will be open till midnight (PST) on Christmas Eve.
Email your insanest Christmas lights display pics to: contest@ecomorons.org
First prize: one handmade beeswax candle
The best entries will be posted on this site. Please include your name and location as well as where you found the lights. If you wish to remain anonymous, your name will not be posted. No one’s email will be published or shared!
(photo: Lupus Korridor)
11:59 pm, December 4th, 2007 by ina
This good-looking, smart and environmentally friendly pull-cord generator (PCG) will be available in the US starting in summer 2008! The yoyo look-alike allows you to generate electricity by pulling its cord. Hence the name.
It was invented by the whizz-kids at Potenco, a company founded by MIT graduates and headquartered in Alameda, CA. So far, their primary focus has been to bring electricity to developing nations with patchy power grids. That’s why Potenco forged ties to Uganda and Bangladesh, where the PCG will serve as an energy source for electric lights and cellphones. It also powers the XO Laptops of the One Laptop per Child Project.
Now the PCG is going to hit the American market! “We hope to make it available in the US next summer,” Potenco’s CEO Colin Bulthaup told Ecomorons. It will also go on sale in Europe, but the time frame is less definite. The human-powered generator will come with a USB port for charging devices. Projected cost: $50 to $100.
So what can this gadget do? The PCG is able to charge batteries of small gadgets like cell phones, cameras and even ultra portable laptops like the Eee PC. One minute of pulling generates about 20 minutes of talk time on a cell phone, and three hours of play time on an iPod shuffle. It is not suited to provide juice for ordinary laptops, though. “They are very power hungry,” Bulthaup said. “You might be pulling for one minute and it would only give you energy for two minutes of laptop use.”
What about powering my fridge? Not a good candidate, either. Those large energy-gobbling appliances are too greedy to be human-powered at the moment.
Why does Potenco make us wait till summer?
“We are now doing a large market research study,” Bulthaup said, “and the results will be known in spring 2008.” The study will determine what features exactly the PCG is going to come with, i.e. what it will be able to connect to. Before spring, these details remain a secret.
Well, almost. Colin Bulthaup already gave us some idea about the markets his company is most likely to target: “camping”, “emergency preparedness” and “the gadget geek traveler market”.
Sounds real nice. We are waiting.
PS: For updates about the arrival of the PCG, visit this website or subscribe to the Potenco newsletter.
(photo: Potenco)
11:37 pm, December 3rd, 2007 by ina
Location of the above beauty: South Pasadena, CA
The contest: Ecomorons dares every reader to find a more insane Christmas lights display than this
Email your insanest pics to: contest@ecomorons.org
First prize: one handmade beeswax candle
The pep talk: You can do it! Get your camera out!
The contest closes at midnight (PST) on Christmas Eve. The best entries will be posted on this site. Please include your name and location as well as where you found the lights. If you wish to remain anonymous, your name will not be posted. No one’s email will be published or shared!
(photo: Backhouse Images)
10:36 am, November 29th, 2007 by ina
BREAKING NEWS – Our monthly Ecomoron Greenwashing Award for November goes to the company T3 Motion in Costa Mesa, CA. They are the manufacturer of the T3 personal vehicle (pictured above) which runs on rechargeable batteries – or, in the company’s words, “clean energy”. Congrats, guys!
The T3 trike has been featured in this blog as a vehicle that enables the officers of the Los Angeles Police Department to move at the speed of a cyclist, but without burning any calories.
So what made our jury pick T3 Motion for the prestigeous greenwashing award? It was the surprising yet prominent environmental claim on the company website, delivered with admirable chutzpah:
Clean Energy: At T3 Motion, Inc., we believe that our technology should be a benefit to both our professional end-users and the environment. Our zero gas emissions all-electric vehicle – the T3 Series – proves clean energy can also be cost-effective.
Our experts at the Ecomorons offices did of course put the company’s statements about clean energy to a test. The result is utterly surprising. See for yourself:
There is definitely no air pollution spewing out of this socket. Zero exhaust!
Just to make sure, we also used a second means of evaluation. We went to the California Energy Commission website for more info. The statistics there point out that 48 percent of electricity sold by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in 2006 was generated by coal power plants. The weird thing is: We always thought burning coal was dirty! We have to thank T3 Motion for setting us straight. Again, all the best to our zero emission innovators from Orange County!
(photos: PR Newswire Photo Service, Backhouse Images)
2:21 am, November 22nd, 2007 by ina
Location: San Marino, CA
Signature landscaping style in town: lawns on the sidewalk
Climate: dry-summer subtropical zone
Conditions at the moment: drought
Community demography: according to US Census data, San Marino’s population was 12,945 in the year 2000; median household income was $117,267; the town covers an area of 9.8 kilometers (3.8 square miles) in Los Angeles County
If you do lawn tourism here by bike: you are probably doing something illegal. According to City Code chapter 13 you need to buy a $6 Dollar license to operate your bike “propelled wholly or in part by human power, upon any street, public path or way” within City Limits.
Note to owners: What did you do to that palm tree?
12:20 am, November 19th, 2007 by ina
Location: Palm Beach, FL
Climatic conditions at the moment: drought
Owner: Nelson Peltz
Water use over past 12 months: 57,000 gallons a day
Water use of average single family household in Southern Florida: 54,000 gallons per year
In plain English: Mr. Peltz uses more water within 24 hours than an average home uses in a whole year.
How we know this: We read it in Robert Frank’s Wealth Report at the Wall Street Journal online.
Note to owner: We are aware that your next door neighbor is Donald Trump, who we featured in Insane Lawns (2). We suspect there is some kind of lawning contest going on between you two. We solemnly declare it a tie.
(photo: Sotheby’s)
1:04 pm, November 17th, 2007 by ina
Location: Palm Beach, FL
Climatic conditions at the moment: drought
Owner: Donald Trump. He put the property up for sale. Asking price: 125 Million Dollars.
Mystery: Why would anyone want to sell such a beautiful lawn?
Note to owner: Don’t budge on the price! Your lawn is worth much more.
(photo: Sotheby’s)
1:01 am, November 17th, 2007 by ina
This is the enMotion dispenser, manufactured by Georgia-Pacific (GP). The machine spits out a paper towel as you move your hand over the sensor at it’s front – using four big, beautiful, toxin-filled D-cell batteries to generate the necessary power.
According to GP spokesman Kelly Ferguson, more than one million specimens have been installed in bathrooms across North America since the product went on the market in 2003.
I asked Ferguson why his company has given mankind a towel dispenser that uses electricity for something that could easily be done with one quick hand motion.
“It provides”, he said, “a touchless type of bathroom experience. Some users have concerns about touching things in a public restroom.”
Oh. It’s ok. I understand. But I must point out that there is a downside to the touchless public toilet experience. In fact, it puts you at risk in many regards. Here’s why:
1) Limbo dancing under the stalls as a means to touchlessly enter the cubicle can result in premature disc degeneration on your lower spine.
2) Peeing hands-free, if you are male, can cause problems. It is considered safe only for females.
3) Being trapped in a bathroom for hours because no one else is there to tackle the doorknob for you will affect your mood and might lead to anxiety.
So if you value your health – don’t go for the touchless bathroom thing! Because, frankly, the enMotion is not as harmless as it seems.
PS: One big question remains. Why did any gym, any university or any office in this country ever order this dangerous, battery-powered beast? I’ll keep digging – but let me know if you solve this riddle first.
6:26 pm, November 14th, 2007 by ina
Location: Pasadena, CA
Climate: dry-summer subtropical zone
Conditions at the moment: drought; the City of Pasadena is experiencing its driest year since recordkeeping started in 1878
Survival of this lawn guaranteed by: excessive use of water, fertilizer, power tools
Note to owners: We think your lawn is too small. Please get a lawn-enlargement.
12:52 am, November 12th, 2007 by ina
Just arrived at police stations around the country: the T3 personal vehicle.
The three wheeler looks like a cross between Rascal scooter and Segway. It is operated by a driver standing upright, at a maximum speed of 25 mph. Its power source: rechargeable batteries.
And this is the amazing thing: While it lets you get around at the speed of a bicycle, it does not have any of a bike’s unwelcome side effects. No more annoying burning of calories (except the few needed to keep you upright)! No more cardio workouts going uphill! No irritatingly toned legs! The T3 enables you to develop – and keep – your own personal love handles, double chin and double tummy!
As a special bonus, the machine even lets you waste energy as you benefit from its effects. You will have the privilege of changing batteries every 25, 50 or 75 miles, depending on battery type. It will leave you with the satisfying feeling of having pissed away resources for a task that you could have easily fulfilled with human power.
The desired results of the T3 seem to materialize immediately, as the above picture of an LAPD officer that appeared Saturday in the L.A. Times demonstrates.
Given the effects of the trike it’s safe to say that its engineers clearly knew what they were doing when they gave this thing a carrying capacity of up to 450 pounds. Go LAPD!