DIY Kyoto’s Holmes and Wattson technology
UK-based design firm DIY Kyoto has come up with a clever plan to allow homeowners to visibly see how much energy they are using in their home at any given moment. Wattson, a portable and wireless device, hooks up to the main fuse box of any home and a bright display shows how much energy is being used in either in watts or cost over the past 28 days. The program also allows the user to put the information online in a community, where ideas about saving electricity are shared.
Also by KATRIANE HILL
While the green industry and most of the world were looking to Copenhagen for inspiration, New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg was in a helicopter, overlooking Denmark’s offshore windfarm, Horns Rev 2, the largest of its kind in the world to date. Bloomberg has his own offshore windfarm energy project already in motion, and with the Long Island wind project estimated to be operating at 700 megawatts, Horns Rev 2 (operating at 209 megawatts) will be easily replaced as the largest offshore windfarm. Read more
Beautiful Earth Group solar powered vehicle stations
Beautiful Earth Group, a New York-based sustainable energy company, has finally made solar powered electric vehicle stations bi-costal. Red Hook, Brooklyn, is home to the first of these powering stations, just a stone’s throw from Beautiful Earth’s offices in downtown Manhattan. The stations is completely modular and off-grid, and is comprised of shipping containers that have been recycled specifically for this purpose. Read more
World’s largest solar energy building
In Dezhou, located deep in the Shangdong Province in Northwest China, lies a 75,000 square meter structure in the shape of a fan. The building, which houses a hotel, science research facilities, meeting and training facilities, and exhibition centers, is solely powered by solar energy. The structure, which uses advanced wall and roof practices to achieve a 30% energy savings than the national standard. The building boasts the title of the ‘largest solar-powered building in the world’ and will be the main venue for the Fourth World Solar City Congress.
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Aeron Alfrey is just unrelenting with his awesome posts on his blog, Monster Brains. Check out these illustrations of Edgar Allen Poe stories by turn-of-the-century artist Alberto Martini. Read more
I’m not sure this is a sustainable idea, but it’s lovely all the same. Submit your favourite word or phrase to the artists at The Phraseology Project and they’ll transform them into a beautiful piece of typography for you to show off.
This entertaining documentary follows a group of seemingly clichéd American teenagers in their last year of high school. Through a comprehensive recording of their lives it reminds us that, when examining anything in detail, there is no such thing as a cliché. The naivety and hope of each student shines through, providing a memorable and accurate portrait of a middle-American high school. Read more
Installed in downtown Helsinki, CityWall is a multi-touch display featuring digital media arranged into themes and events. Read more
We’re launching a new email newsletter in a few weeks time called My Secret Playlist in which a different guest musician each week will write about eight songs that they’re loving right now. Read more
If you ever happen to find yourself riding across the mid-west on horseback with an iPod jangling about in your holster, be sure to let Calexico soundtrack the experience. They’re cleverly fusing a range of genres, mixing some good old country with US indie, a bit of jazz and even, in 2003’s Feast of Wire, some smatterings of electronica. Lead singer Joey Burns gives a healthy amount of cowboy twang and the soaring orchestral background and sweet country guitar licks add a real atmosphere to the music.
Listen to the Calexico song, Convict Pool.
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These small but innovative in-ear headphones from Audio-Technica are part of a new wave of noise canceling buds that claim to block up to 85 to 90 percent of outside sound. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Communication prosthesis by Sascha Nordmeyer
This ‘communication prosthesis’ by designer Sascha Nordmeyer is hilarious and awesome. I want to wear one to a job interview.
Never ever, ever, ever, ever park here
Some friendly advice for the neighbours, who simply don’t get it, or street art? You decide which one it is.
Christoph Niemann illustrates a nightmare flight
New York Times illustrator Christoph Niemann has created a brilliant visual diary outlining the peril and pitfalls that beset the everyday passenger based on his recent experience flying from New York to his home town of Berlin. Read more
Pencils made from recycled newspaper
The problem with awesome things like these pencils made out of recycled newspaper is that you almost don’t want to use them.
Mathematics? Leave me out. Fashematics? Now you’re talking! This gem of a site is a runway equation that adds up to a whole lot of wonderful.
This pendant by Portland designer Stephanie Stimek hangs from an eighteen inch 14 carat gold chain. Made from a Japanese quail egg, the entire shell has been coated in plastic for strength and is available for purchase through the Lost At E Minor store. Read more
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jotta said | 3 March, 2010
otta spoke with Wattson designer Greta Corke about the search for the monitor’s new design. http://www.jotta.com/magazine/articles/678/redesigning-the-wattson