Fishy hub caps
Life Goggles did an interview with Ptomley from Hubcap Creatures and what fun they are. Basically discarded hubcaps are turned into fish. But also dragons, turtles, insects, dogs and probably whatever else you ask him to make.

Sky cats
There seems to be an animal theme here, and maybe a fishy theme too as carbon offsetting is often a way of excusing being ungreen. But Sky television in the UK (part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire) have an advert about how green it is. Fun but not convincing maybe.

Carbon friendly arachnid
What the hell, let’s continue the creature theme. Groovy Green reported that certain spider species that live upside-down are more energy efficient than other spiders. Which, while not important for humans, it might be for robotics. But the writer does have a message: “Should this research lead to a new breed of killer-spider robots, please remember we warned you.”
Thanks to Sevenoaks Art for the spider.

And finally
Couldn’t find another animal/insect based story, so here’s a link from Treehugger about a great cycle path. I’m off to Amsterdam soon and think this might make the trip worthwhile…

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

Fun Green Roundup #12

Carrying on from last time

Following last time’s iron on stickers for stains, which had a tenuous environmental link, I had to link to designer Shay Alkalay’s partner’s creations. Yael Mer’s Evacuation Skirt is brilliant. Mad, but brilliant. And the Slipper Rocker is even crazier, I love them both.

Sunny dress
And while we’re on the subject on dresses, Groovy Green has a story and pics of a solar powered dress. Michael d’Estries does point out a valid issue though – what happens when it rains? Funnily enough he answered that question a week later with the solar powered umbrella. That’s that sorted then.

Meet the Flintstones
I’m all for eco-friendly transport and I think I may have just found the preferred method of travel of me. EcoFriend has a great story on these mad wooden bikes pictured below, The Cordilleras of the northern highlands of the Philippines use these as their daily transport. Not sure how they get back up the hills though…

And finally
In the traditions of local news reports, a light-hearted look at the funny side of animal life. A baby hippo who’s friends with a tortoise. Ahhhhh. Friends or maybe an adoption, who knows, but it’s a nice story in Kenya and there are a lot more photos here. Hope the tortoise knows the hippo is growing to grow. A lot.

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

Fun Green Roundup #11

What the heck?
Hardly topical, but first up here’s a mad story first about an eel that powers a Christmas tree. Treehugger really does have too much time on its hands.

The future of eating
I always love hopelessly optimistic visions of the future. The film I, Robot was based in 2035. Somehow I don’t think so. But this might have a chance. From a design competition challenging people to come up a way of eating in 2015, these are cutlery pen tops basically. The din-ink’s designer says: “Turn your favourite office tool from your desk in a common cutlery…this is din-ink. A set of pen caps, including a fork-cap, a knife-cap and a spoon-cap, that replaces the normal pen cap during lunch time! All caps are made by annually renewable resources, like natural starch and fibres, to be 100% biodegradable and atoxic, warranting the best alimentary use. Dispensing each set in a compostable packaging the whole set is designed to respect the environment. Now give your office ballpoint pen a good excuse to be gnawed by your teeth: use them for din-ink.” And I was just about to say they were made of plastic and bad for the environment. If you click through to the whole dining in 2015 competition, there’s some cool looking, and vaguely environmentally-friendly stuff there.

Be proud of stains
Have you ever stained something so bad you can’t actually use it again? Come to think of it, not since I was at school and all the sliding on the grass I did in my white shirt. But not everyone can be as careful as me obviously so what do you do when it happens to you? Well over at Green Prophet they ran a story about an Israeli designer called Shay Alkalay who came up with a novel idea and means you can actually show off your stains. It’s an iron on transfer, probably better for kids, but could be used by adults too and get some more wear out of that stained shirt that would have otherwise been thrown away.

And that’s your lot.

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

Fun Green Roundup #10

It’s a wind up surely?
Well if you get wind up torches and wind up radios, why not a wind up lamp? I saw this on a few sites and was struck not only by how cool it looks, but by how simple an idea it is. It’ll take you a minute to wind it, but then it’s free light – hooray! Probably not practical for all lights, but for a few around the house it’s a good idea.

Offset your guilt
Cheat Neutral is a fun concept that you can offset your guilt of cheating on your partner by paying someone to remain faithful. To be honest, it sounds nonsense so I didn’t look into it too closely but seemingly you can get paid for staying faithful, Which is not a reason to stay faithful, but if you’re faithful anyway you might as well get paid for it. Just don’t tell the missus.

Live in billboard
I haven’t really got much to say about this one, but I saw it on TreeHugger and immediately thought it was an interesting idea, then a millisecond later thought it was pretty stupid. I mean, how do you get the shopping up there? Or the dog? And the postman’s not going to want to visit is he? And billboards are usually situated where lots of people are going to see them – namely next to major roads – so a good night’s sleep is out of the question then.

Vegan strip club
And finally, feel ethical about your strippers? Make your next late night trip to a vegan strip club, you’ll feel even better about yourself.

To see all the other Fun Green Roundups just click on the link.

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

Fun Green Roundup #9

Amazon towels
Not sure if you can buy these, but makes a great picture.

Mona
But not as great as this next picture reconsituting the Mona Lisa with discarded train tickets. Who’d have thunk it? Art from discarded, unwanted things, I like it.

Longpen
And how about this to help save on the pollution and carbon footprint of a book signing tour – from author and attendees. Virtual book signing with the Longpen? It’s a nice idea I suppose as the pen writes exactly what the author writes and it’s certainly a novel (get it? Sorry) way of thinking about what we do differently, but it’s just not the same is it? They’re not really signing the books and whether there’s a videoscreen or not, the interaction is just not the same. The cost of making and running the machine might even mean it’s better for the author to sign them at home and people buy copies already signed in the same way they buy a normal book. This was meant to be a fun roundup, so…

Car that really flies
…here’s a car that used to be a plane. Hey, they are reusing it I suppose…

Thanks Treehugger!

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

Fun Green Roundup #8

Energy saving help
21st Century Citizen (were you as lucky as me to get an advert for Snorg Tees: Groin Grabbingly Good Tees?) has a handy little guide to how much a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs save you over time. Which is nice.

Waxy problems
Got problems dealing with a lot of dripping wax? Come on, we all do don’t we? Welll some people do, I remember a bar that was in a crypt which was covered in wax. But they seemed to like it. Anyway, I digress. If you do have a wax problem then get this from Design Boom – it collects your dripping wax to use as a new candle. Alternatively put your candle in a jar or buy quality candles that don’t drip.

Dump your significant other – the green way
Vanessa at Green as a Thistle has done a handy guide to how to have an environmentally-friendly break up. From crying, writing letters to moving out. I would say print it out and keep it, but that wouldn’t be very eco-friendly, so bookmark it instead. And stop crying you wimp.

A punky return
And from humble Life Goggles itself, Punky Brewster makes an eco-comeback.

Green rap
And finally, Treehugger had this nice video below from Dr. Octagon – a rapper who raps about environmental issues. I can’t really expand on that much more, so enjoy.

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

Fun Green Roundup #7

Andrew Steckl, an expert in photonics from the University of Cincinnati (don’t worry, I had to look up photonics too, it’s apparently the science of generating, controlling, and detecting photons. I should have guessed) says: “Salmon sperm is considered a waste product of the fishing industry. It’s thrown away by the ton. It’s natural, renewable and perfectly biodegradable.” And helps LEDs somehow. Waste not, want not.

What about the pandas?
There’s a glut of bamboo products on the market at the moment for some reason. Probably because it’s fast growing. Life Goggles talked about some of them here.

Green faith
While religion is serious and not ‘fun’ as such, I thought I’d include a couple of developments here. Treehugger reports on not only the first FSC-certified Bible from Christian publishing company Thomas Nelson Inc. but also a solar powered audio bile here – which is useful!

Shower shock
Take short showers or face the consequences!

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

The Fun Green Roundup #6

As I was preparing to write a post about going green on Halloween (I liked the rhyme), it occurred to me that I may be a bit late and other people may have beaten me to it. And indeed they have. So if you want to learn more about being green this errr All Hallow’s Eve, then read on…

• Lighter Footstep have to nice tips here.
• Vanessa at Green As A Thistle (thanks for explaining what that means by the way, here) has a two-parter on her blog, but as I write this, only the first one is up here. I’ll update this when the second part goes up. Edit: here it is.
• And TreeHugger has a very tenuous link to Halloween here.

 

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

The Fun Green Roundup #5 – Halloween Green

No Po Po batteries
Trusty Treehugger has once again found something weird – batteries powered by urine and “other precious bodily fluids”. You can buy them in Japan, and as the writer points out, if they were fitted in an electric car, all you’d need to do was take a lot of water with you on a long journey.

Eco undies
New Consumer magazine reports that underwear company Greenknickers is now certified Fairtrade. It only applies to their cotton knickers although it does have others made from hemp and bamboo.

Who needs a helmet?
Are you a skateboarder? But a greenie too? Try and eco-friendly skateboard! Life Goggles has more here. Then after a few more years practicing you can do this:

Leg power
Why drive when you can walk or use a bike? When driving means exercise with the human hybrid car. Groovy Green reports on a car that is a bit like a a rowing machine for four people. Allegedly it goes 60 miles per hour but from the looks of it I’d be scared stiff going 30mph. Still, I like to see people going to a bit of effort for their daily commute.

Wine glasses are not for wine
Our friend Treehugger has some pictures of an unusual use for old wine glasses – a chandelier. I say old, but they look pretty new so not sure how good these are, eco-wise, but it’s certainly unusual.

Remember if you liked this, there are other articles like it and much more. Just scroll through our archives or do a search on the right-hand side. But you can make sure you never miss an article if you sign up for RSS or our email updates here.

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

The Fun Green Roundup #4

On the hoof
A Dubai comapny is planning to start making buses powered by horses. Yes, you read that right. Horses are put on a conveyor belt in the bus and blah blah. It can’t be real can it? Check out the photo below for yourself – Treehugger has more.

Onion goggles
I thought these were goggles made from onions to begin with which is why I included them here, but atually they’re goggles to stop your eyes watering when you’re cutting onions. I don’t think they’re even made from eco-friendly material so have a look here and then just be a man about it.

Carbon phone
The BBC reports that a British student has invented a way of tracking your carbon footprint using a mobile phone. The Carbon Hero uses a mobile phone to work out what method of transport you’re using and therefore how much carbon dioxide is produced.

Washing your hands in the toilet
Well, sort of. Check this video out which is doing the rounds at the moment. Well with my friends anyway. A nifty little system to help save water but not sure how much ’soaping’ up time there is!

All information is © Life Goggles 2010

The Fun Green Roundup #3