The two designs differ greatly. The British version, developed in Edinburgh, looks like a floating snake and faces into oncoming waves. Specially developed joints along its body move with the motion of the waves, generating an uneven stream of power which is smoothed out and sent back to shore via an underwater cable. The American version, seen in the video, sits higher in the water like a conventional buoy, and uses the same mooring and anchoring technologies as navigational buoys do. Power is generated in an open-ended, vertical tube, using the vertical component of the wave energy, and again, sent back to shore through a submarine cable.

The beauty of these wave converters is that they can be put together into large arrays which will interfere very little with the landscape or with human beings (as long as they’re not in the way of shipping routes), and which can produce up to hundreds of megawatts of power—enough to supply the dense populations of today’s large cities.

In a thought-provoking (and slightly tongue-in-cheek) twenty-minute lecture, Kevin Kelly dares to ask: what is technology? What does technology want? And in terms of human society and culture, what is technology’s view of the world?

Thinking of technology as having a life of its own has sparked many a scary work of science fiction. But Kelly carefully takes us through the five major trends in the evolution of life on earthubiquity, diversity, specialization, complexity, and socializationand proceeds to demonstrate how the development of technology has followed these same trends. He concludes that technology is the seventh kingdom of life.

Technology is like a singularity, says Kelly. Before the Big Bang all matter was compressed into a single point, leaving no room for difference. When all of this expanded, so began diversity, freedom, possibility, choice. This, he says, is what technology brings us. Freedoms, possibilities, choices. Perhaps we have a moral responsibility to invent new technologies so that the children of the world can express their own particular talentsafter all, he points out, what would have become of Mozart if the piano hadn’t yet been invented?

There are bad sides to technology. How could deforestation happen without it? But, taking the example of DDT, Kelly suggests that technologies are always in search of their proper home. DDT is a horrible chemical to use as a pesticide, but when it is used to kill mosquitoes and lower rates of malaria, it turns out that it’s not the embodiment of evil after all.

Life, according to Kelly, is an infinite game. Your assignment is to spend the rest of your life figuring out what your assignment is. Technology is what helps us to play the infinite game.

It’s only just been unveiled but some companies have already jumped on this technology. Hotels can use Surface in their lobbies— its multi-user interface makes it easy for guests to look at photos together and make online postcards to send home to their families. Restaurants can use it for ordering— just place a bottle of wine on the table, and you will be charged the appropriate amount.

Of course, the uses of Surface will not stop there. Even easier to use than a regular PC, prices will go down and people will be able to choose to go mouse- and keyboard-free. Microsoft wants EVERYONE to have a computer in their home.

The plan is for construction to start in January of 2008 and, tentatively, to finish in 2009. The first part of the development to be built will be—you guessed it—a nest of solar panels which, together with wind turbines and geothermal energy , will power the city.

All waste will be recycled and the developers want to reduce dependence on desalinated water by 80%, through a rigorous water management plan in which soiled water will be treated, filtered through plant life (thus growing trees and other vegetation), and re-used.

Cars are banned in Masdar. City plans will allow every resident to live within a 200-metre radius of everything they need. To travel, there will be a light-rail system connecting Masdar with the neighbouring airport and other cities.

The university will specialize in graduate studies of sustainable technology and development, of which this city will be a real-life testing ground.

Oh yes, and everyone will eat locally-grown food. It’s hard, as someone put it on grist.org, not to think of this whole plan as greenwashing. The United Arab Emirates, after all, is among the world’s top oil-producing countries. They’re going to ban cars? But it will save a lot of money. And it will be incredibly interesting to find out if this works.

Sustainable Living: Where Do We Start?

Norman Foster’s Green Desert Utopia

I’ve often wondered whether one could make a career as a treehugger. Apparently, you can! This video features Jim Spickler, a forest canopy scientist, climbing what they currently think may be the world’s tallest tree. It was found in northern California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, in September of 2006.

According to Jim, the most accurate (or perhaps the most fun?) way of measuring the height of a tree is to climb it and drop a measuring tape down from the top. Whatever happened to triangulation, I wondered? But really, given the chance, I would climb the tree, too.

First they had to get to the tree, which involved a four-mile hike through thick, old-growth forest. Then they used a crossbow to secure a line into the tree, and climbed it using rock climbing gear. Spickler says he lost sense of the ground. Most of the climb was straight up the trunk, with the crown (where all the big branches start) beginning after about 200 feet.

The view from the top is spectacular. As it turns out, the tree is 115.55 metres tall- significantly taller than the Peace Tower, in Canada’s parliament buildings.

Developer Mattias Jacobsson of the Viktoria Institute in Sweden says that he was inspired by the relationships between unusual pets such as spiders and snakes, and their owners. The GlowBots are built on an open educational robotic platform called the e-puck, and it’s possible that these interacting robots may lead to further research in evolution and evolutionary trends. Click here for a video demonstrating how they work.

The electric van is all white, spacious and efficient. On one charge it can drive about 100 miles, and more than that in the city, since sitting still in traffic or idling at stoplights uses practically nothing— delightfully unlike a conventional vehicle!

Electric cars were among the first automobiles to be produced, and out-sold combustion engine cars in the first part of the 20th century. They are more energy-efficient than typical vehicles, accelerate faster, and make hardly any noise. If they are charged from an appropriate energy source (i.e. electricity produced from renewable sources, rather than coal or other fossil fuels), they are practically pollution-free.

With such a long history and such impressive credentials, why are electric cars no longer popular? Improvements to the internal combustion engine that made it more efficient and less dangerous struck the first blow. Then there was the switch from direct current (DC) electricity, needed to recharge the cars’ batteries, to alternating current (AC), which required an expensive and complicated converter if it was to be used to recharge an electric vehicle.

There are many other reasons given for the loss in popularity of the electric car— expensive and inefficient batteries, oil companies, government regulations (and ties to said oil companies), automobile manufacturers and mechanics (who would have less work if everyone drove electric cars, as they have no engine). The price, these days, is also prohibitive.

But come on guys, they don’t pollute!

Fray will be teaming up with Reverb for their summer tour. In 2004 Lauren Sullivan and her husband, Adam Gardner (Guster guitarist/vocalist), founded Reverb, a non-profit organization that seeks to raise awareness and support for the environment. They do it through building upon the strong connection between musicians and their fans.

The idea of the Green Highway concept was started by Bonnie Raitt (musician/activist) in 2002. Green Highway uses a an interactive eco-village on site at each concert. Some of the eco-village participant include Adirondack Mountain Club, Alvarez Guitars, Blue Ocean Institute, Center for Biological Diversity and others. In addition to the eco-village, Reverb coordinates biodiesel fill-ups in the tour buses, makes sure the concerts are powered with as much renewable energy as possible, and arranges recycling programs at the venues.

Every ticket that Fray sells will have a 50-cent “eco tax” added. The proceeds will all be donated to Reverb to offset the costs to the organization to make The Fray’s tour transportation and concerts eco-friendly. The concerts will have booths by local non-profit organizations that are set up with the assistance of Reverb to provide the fans of The Fray with more environmental related information.

Other touring groups that have gone green by teaming up with Reverb include Barenaked Ladies, Dave Mathews Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cheryl Crow, and The Blue Man Group.

The video below is of Fray singing the song from Grey’s Anatomy, How to Save a Life.

Six to eight weeks later, the mushrooms decomposed and flies laid eggs there. Birds came to feed on the fly larvae, and in the process dropped seeds. Grass grew, other insects moved in, and soon what had been a toxic pile of contaminated soil— one which led to a lawsuit and a fine, in fact— was integrated back into a thriving ecosystem.

Summer is coming and children will be home. There are ways to help teach children at home about recycling. The first thing is to teach the fun side of recycling and then make it personal.

One way to make learning about the planet fun is with the The Eco Deck, which was created by the S.C.R.A.P. Gallery and was designed for children, families, and educators. It is an eco-friendly selection of environmental words, terms, and phrases to help kids learn what goes on in the world they live in! Many websites, crafts, and books are designed to be appealing to children and to teach them recycling and environmental issues. A fun recycling project around the house that is fun can be a great way to prevent boredom this summer.

Children need to know that recycling and taking care of their planet is important because they are the ones that will be living in it in the future. That knowledge alone may not motivate them though. Due to the level of maturity of most children, they will need to see the benefits to them personally today. For example, children can collect aluminum cans to sell and then take the money to buy soda, ice cream, or to use for extra spending money on a vacation. As they mature, they will see the big picture and advantages of recycling. By then, recycling will already be an automatic part of their daily routine.

The following video goes over the basics of recycling in a very fun way.