How Not To Build A Wind-Based Economy
February 29th, 2008 -- Posted in Environment | No Comments »David Cooper, Toronto Star
87% of the land in the Province of Ontario is “Crown Land”- owned by the government. They decided to open some of it up for wind power, and set a deadline of 8AM February 20th. There used to be a limit on the number of applications that one company can make, but there were too many shell companies being set up so the government removed that limit and set up a first-come, first served system. Result: one company, SkyPower, parks line-sitters in sleeping bags days in advance, much like a Spice Girls concert or a Toronto condo launch. A few minutes before the office opens, a car arrives with at least two hundred applications for the line-sitters to hand in. The…
Achieving Density in Prefabricated Housing
February 29th, 2008 -- Posted in Environment | No Comments »One of the problems with modern prefabricated housing is the challenge of achieving greater densities and adapting to more urban milieus. Tim Pyne is trying it with his M-Hotel; Andrew Maynard proposed his Corb V2.0;; Now, in the spirit of Bernard Rudofsky’s “Architecture without Architects” we present the above, which our source at …
Crate & Barrel Adds More Sustainable Pieces
February 29th, 2008 -- Posted in Environment | No Comments »After our initial launch, we were thrilled to find Crate & Barrel’s Kona rug. And over the past few years we
Delta Airlines Celebrates Green Issue, Initiatives
February 29th, 2008 -- Posted in Environment | No Comments »Delta Air Lines held quite a hootenanny at its Sky360
Mystery Solved: Materials Breakthrough Could Lead to Better Hydrogen Storage Systems
February 29th, 2008 -- Posted in Environment | No Comments »Image courtesy of jurvetson via flickr
It is a mystery that has confounded scientists for the better part of the last decade – how to explain the superior hydrogen storage capabilities of metal hydrides? Just over a decade ago, in 1997, scientists added a small quantity of titanium to sodium alanate, a commonly used metal hydride, to evaluate its properties as a storage medium for hydrogen; metal hydrides are a type of alloy that absorb and store hydrogen within their structure – when subjected to heat, they can release the gas.
To their surprise, the titanium augmented sodium al…
Burning the Future: Coal in America
February 29th, 2008 -- Posted in Environment | No Comments »Burning The Future: Coal in America – Trailer from coalmovie on Vimeo.
Ha…
Recipe of the Week: Kasha Casserole with Root Vegetables and Mushrooms
February 29th, 2008 -- Posted in Environment | No Comments »Image credit: Chris and Jenni
My husband exuded an aura of disbelief when I told him I was serving him kasha for dinner earlier this week. He has been politely declining his mother’s kasha for many, many years. My son, who is vegetarian, says there is no earthly reason to eat kasha, also known as buckwheat. But I was casting about looking for something to make and this recipe looked interesting so I thought I would try it.
I think I might have overcooked it a bit, because it was quite soft, but not unpleasantly so. I thought it was quite tasty, and my husband actually c…
M-Hotel By Tim Pyne
February 29th, 2008 -- Posted in Environment | No Comments »We are longtime fans of UK architect Tim Pyne, one of the prefab pioneers with his lovely M-House. Now he has gone multi-unit with his M-Hotel proposal. The 500 square foot units plug into a steel frame “a bit like Corb did at the Unite” – I think it looks more like my Kenner Girder and Panel building set.
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