Bird Groups and Wind Turbines Getting Along

It has been widely assumed for years that two groups that don't get along are wind power advocates and bird protection groups. But, in a move that shows how far things have come, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is looking at installing a wind turbine at its headquarters. The Society has applied to install a 100 meter (328 foot) tower for a wind turbine near its headquarters in Bedfordshire.

This is not a complete reversal on the part of the RSPB, and there have been cases where the RSPB has objected to wind farms. But it shows how wrong the old stereotype is. The Society's perspective is that "renewable energy is an essential tool in the fight against climate change, which poses the largest threat to the long-term survival of birds and wildlife." Furthermore, they believe that, "so long as proper due diligence is conducted and potential wildlife impacts mitigated, ... developing wind power is a smart move."

More advanced understanding of bird migration patterns and habits has helped with the placement of wind farms in places where bird fatalaties can be reduced. Other technologies that monitor bats and birds, and intermittent disabling of wind farms during migration periods also help to further reduce the numbers of animals killed by wind turbines. And, in terms of numbers killed, buildings still remain a far greater threat to birds than wind turbines.

image: CC BY-SA 2.0 by Brian Robert Marshall/Wikimedia Commons

via: NA Windpower

Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles

Wind Ship “Vindskip” Would Use Its Hull As a Sail

In another approach to improve cargo ship design using wind power, Lade AS has developed plans to construct a hybrid cargo ship. The Vindskip, (“wind ship” in Norwegian) would use its own hull to channel wind as a sail or airplane wing does. Powered partially by a natural-gas fired engine, the external design of the ship would generate lift to assist its forward movement. In order to travel in the most optimal conditions possible, Vindskip's systems would constantly calculate both the direction and speed of the wind. Using the “apparent wind” (the wind as moving objects experience it), Lade AS claims, these systems would allow Vindskip to have a positive pull at a minimum of 45 percent of its time en route, traveling at speeds of +16 knots.

The company estimates this design would reduce emissions by 80 percent and fuel costs by 60 percent. While a small model was tested at Cranfield University's wind tunnel with success, the projected efficiencies have yet to be tested at full scale.

hat tip: @TobiasBuckell

image via Lade AS

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EV-Sharing in Paris - Update

A few years ago, we covered Paris’s plans to initiate an electric car sharing program. Through the Autolib car sharing program, which boasts over 1800 vehicles and 800 charging stations, the French capital now ranks among the world’s leaders in EV presence and charging locations.

Autolib’s system was built by a subsidiary of Bolloré, the company that helped create the compact Bluecar. This system focus on being extremely user-friendly, by monitoring the relative location and battery charge of each vehicle. Members of the program can simply swipe their cards at a charging station and use a nearby car with the best charge. Only cars with a 40 percent or higher charge are released to members, and an agent will even contact drivers who’ve ventured past the last charging locations in the suburbs or drive with a battery that has a charge lower than 20 percent.

As IEEE Spectrum reports, more EVs on the road means more familiarity with seeing and driving them--and less local air pollution should they have been fossil fuel powered instead. With ample charging locations and shorter distances, in an urban environment, shared EVs can also shine well within their range. That being said, the convenience of personal vehicle ownership, for those who can afford it and even when space is at a premium, is a challenge all car sharing programs will continue to combat. The Autolib program in particular has its share of critics among EV car sharing supporters, who say the program’s focus on being flexible means its members are more likely to have their own personal cars as well, and that programs that allow the reservation of vehicles have much more success in reducing personal automobile ownership. The Autolib program has also not yet generated profits, although general director Morald Chibout believes the program will become profitable sometime in 2014.

via: IEEE Spectrum

image CC BY 2.0 by Francisco Gonzalez

Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles

VW Announces Production of Two Electric Cars

Following up on expectations, Volkswagen announced the production of two new electric vehicles last week. The 2015 e-up! (exclamation mark included) and the 2015 e-Golf were unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show. While both hatchback vehicles contain lithium-ion batteries and electric motors, they have different specs. The smaller of the two, the e-up! runs on a 18.7-kWh lithium-ion battery and contains a 60 kW / 82 PS electric motor capable of 210 Nm of torque. The e-up! has a driving range of up to 99 miles (159 km), and uses a mere 11.7 kWh per 61 miles.

One of our writers test drove a pilot vehicle of the other EV announced for production: an all-electric version of the Golf. The e-Golf has a 24.2 kWh lithium-ion battery, and a 85 kW/ 115 PS electric motor with a max torque of 270 Nm. It also has a driving range of up to 118 miles (190 km), and uses 12.7 kWh of energy per 62 miles. While the e-Golf will appear in the U.S. market, production numbers have not yet been released and it is unknown whether the e-up! will follow. In addition to announcing production of these new cars, Volkswagen claims that, by 2018, it wants to produce the most electric vehicles worldwide.

Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles

How the Nexus 5 Compares to Its Toughest Smartphone Competition

Finally, the long-awaited Nexus 5 has arrived in the form of 5 inches of pure, unfiltered Android just the way Google always intended . That all sounds nice, but as Google's flagship response to other big dogs like the iPhone 5S and Lumia 1020, does the refreshed Nexus have the specs to keep up with the competition (at least one paper)? We put together the comparison charts below to find out.

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via Web News Blogs http://gizmodo.com/how-the-nexus-5-compares-to-its-toughest-smartphone-com-1456332159/@whitsongordon

Why Cheating Makes You Feel So Good

Cheating isn't exactly the sort of behavior that's supposed to make you feel better, but sometimes it does anyway. The British Psychological Society Research Digest explains why we get that little high from cheating.

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via Web News Blogs http://lifehacker.com/why-cheating-makes-you-feel-so-good-1456118907

New Solar Cell Material Offers Both Cheap and Efficient Power

Another potential path for ever cheaper solar power is now being researched by scientists investigating the use of perovskite minerals to make solar cells. Perovskites are a very cheap material that have good light capturing properties as well as good conductivity. The advantage that perovskites offer is a great combination of inexpensive production combined with good efficiency in energy production.

Current laboratory experiment versions of perovskite-based solar cells have efficiencies of about 15 percent. Although there are other solar cells with greater efficiency, the figure for perovskite cells is higher than other cheap-to-manufacture methods.

The advantages provided with perovskite materials come from requiring a far less intensive manufacturing process. While fabricating silicon-based solar cells requires careful and expensive processing of silicon to a high degree of purity (not to mention the energy intensity of that manufacturing), cells using perovskites are made by spray applying materials to a glass or metal foil substrate, described as a "solar cell [that] can be fabricated as easily as painting a surface."

Perovskite-based solar cells might eventually be able to be produced for 10 to 20 cents per watt, as compared to present soalr panels which are around 75 cents per watt.

image: by Andrew Silver, USGS via Wikimedia Commons

via: MIT Technology Review

Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles

NFL Alum Blasts League Over Head Injuries, Health Care

With violent deaths of former players, a PBS Frontline documentary, a detailed book by a pair of Pulitzer Prize winners and a recent $765 million settlement with former players, the NFL's concussion crisis has been a hot topic in sports and news circles these past few months

But rarely has it been thrown into such viscerally sharp focus as it was Thursday morning

See also: The Yellow First-Down Line: An Oral History of a Game Changer

Former NFL safety Hamza Abdullah went on an obscenity-laced Twitter tirade against the league and its management over the effect of repeated head trauma on players, NFL medical care and long-lasting health problems he blames on years playing a violent game. It's raw, it's angry, it's emotional and it provides yet another window into growing backlash against the NFL Read more...

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Google: Samsung Galaxy Nexus won't get updated to Android 4.4 KitKat

From the horse's mouth, we're hearing some unfortunate news: Google has taken to its Spanish support pages to announce that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is not on the list of devices to receive Android 4.4 KitKat. This seems a bit odd, given the new update's focus on "the next billion" and offering ...



via Web News Blogs http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/31/google-galaxy-nexus-kitkat/?ncid=rss_truncated

The Engadget Podcast is live at 3:30PM ET!

Brian's back from an exceedingly short vacation (thanks Apple!) and Joseph and Dana have come along for the right. Lots to talk about this week, so grab a beverage, pull up a chair and jump on into the chat after the break today at 3:30Pm ET for a very spooky Halloween edition of The Engadget ...



via Web News Blogs http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/31/podcast/?ncid=rss_truncated

How to Mooch Off of Your Friends (Without Them Ever Knowing)

We all like free stuff, but it often comes at a hidden cost: you become the product . If you stop asking companies for handouts and mooch off of your friends, you can get even better benefits with practically no sacrifice.

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via Web News Blogs http://lifehacker.com/how-to-mooch-off-of-your-friends-without-them-ever-kno-1453887254

Google, Oracle Enlisted to Help Fix Obamacare Site

Google, Red Hat, Oracle Corp. and other companies are contributing dozens of computer engineers and programmers to help the Obama administration fix the U.S. health-insurance exchange website.

The help is arriving as the government’s main site to offer health insurance remains plagued by repeated outages a month after its Oct. 1 debut. Among those assisting are Michael Dickerson, a site reliability engineer on leave from Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, and Greg Gershman, the innovation director for smartphone application maker Mobomo, according to a government official who asked not to be identified because the moves haven’t been made public. Read more...

More about Google, Technology, Barack Obama, Oracle, and Healthcare



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Neurocam Scans Your Brain, Records Your Interests

It may look like the poor man’s Google Glass, but don’t let the iPhone-strapped-to-the-side-of-your-head thing fool you, Neurocam and its accompanying app may foretell the future of advertising.

Demoed recently at the Human Sensing 2013 conference in Yokohama, Japan, the system includes a headband equipped to hold an iPhone next to the wearer’s temple. The phone is fitted with a special prism so the camera can record footage from the wearer’s point of view.

SEE ALSO: Quirky Vending Machines Dispense Wit and Wonder

The headset also includes EEG sensors that scan the brain for correlative spikes in interest. The Neurocam iPhone app assigns the EEG data a value from one to 100. When the data hits 60, interest is detected, which cues the phone’s camera to start recording. Footage is recorded as five-second GIFs, which are then stored in an album so users can remember what exactly struck their interest. Read more...

More about Advertising, Iphone, Data Collection, Brain, and Tech



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All the New Stuff in Android 4.4 KitKat

Happy Halloween, everyone. Have a KitKat—Google's latest update to Android, that is, which is rolling out today, along with the new Nexus 5 . Here's what you need to know about the mobile OS update.

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via Web News Blogs http://lifehacker.com/all-the-new-stuff-in-android-4-4-kitkat-1456286732

Blu Homes Completes a Chalet in Colorado

One of our favorite prefab home designers, Blu Homes, just completed a home in Colorado at the beginning of the October. The Fischer Chalet, a modern green prefab home in Breckenridge, Colorado, is a perfect example of what Blu Homes is capable of. While designed as a custom home built with the Colorado climate in [...]

Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles

Winning Homes of the 2009 Solar Decathlon

We’ve been watching in eager anticipation to find out which amazing solar powered green home would win this year’s Solar Decathlon. This year marks the fourth competition, with teams from around the world journeying to Washington DC to showcase their most technically advanced and energy efficient prefabricated homes. The best and brightest turned out this [...]

Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles

Blu Homes Acquires Green Prefab Pioneer mkDesigns

Blu Homes, a LIL favorite in the green prefab sector, announced today that they have purchased the assets of mkDesigns, the pioneering prefab company founded by architect Michelle Kaufmann that has been one of the most visible leaders in modular sustainable design. The plan is to bring some of mkDesigns' leading models (Glidehouse TM, mkLotus TM, Sunset Breezehouse) to customers around the country via Blu's proprietary manufacturing and building system innovations. This could be an intriguing combination, for mkDesigns and Blu were targeting different segments of the market and didn't overlap much.

Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles

Straw Bale Home in Sonoma County

Passive solar design is the most economical way to provide heat for a home and also reduce cooling loads. But what do you do when passive solar design is impractical because your lot or the surrounding terrain makes it challenging or impossible? You make sure the home is very well insulated and install a very [...]

Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles