Food From the hood

Food from the Hood is a student group turned business that was started by a group of students that attend Crenshaw High School.

the group was formed to turn a weeded area near the school football field into a garden. The group donates some of the food to the need and also sells a number of products such as salad dressing.

half the profits they make go to scholar ships for the kids in the program.

this program helps teach teens business and urban gardening.

so if you are looking for dressing then you might want to buy some form these kids. Not only do you get a good product but you also get to do some good

man made photosynthesis

professor Daniel G. Nocera of MIT and Matthew Kanan have found a way for humans to do something plants do naturally. to create energy from the sun's rays and water.

what the scientist have found is a way to split water apart so you have oxgen and hydrogen.

They dissolved cobalt and phosphate in water and then zapped it with electricity through an electrode. The cobalt and phosphate form a thin-film catalyst around the electrode that then use electrons from the electrode to split the oxygen from water. The oxygen bubbles to the surface, leaving a proton behind.

A few inches away, another catalyst, platinum, helps that bare proton become hydrogen.

this process could be a cheaper way to power fuel cell batteries.

Reef In Peace

Eternal reefs is a company selling man made reefs that they place into the sea.

by man made I think I should also state it's made of man.

the company takes the ashes of people (or animals) and turn them into short of coral reef balls (or half balls) and then drops them to the bottom of the ocean.

the ideal is that these reef balls are not only underwater tombs/urns but well also serve as an environment for sea life.

solar or else

Germany as a country has been a world leader when it comes to using alternative energy.

The German government has many programs in place that make it easy (and to expense) for people to switch over to things like solar energy.

but recently the German town of Marburg may have step the line by not giving people the choice to switch to solar but instead demanding it.

if people don't get solar panels for their homes and business they will face a $1,500 fine.

many people in Marburg are upset about this. The people don't seem to have a problem with going solar but the problem is that they don't like the ideal of being forced to go solar.

giving the cost of solar one may not be able to afford it.

now when a government really wants it citizens to do their part to save the earth, they are bound to have a bad policy here or there. the thing is that before this city (and Germany as a whole) was using a plan that seems to be working by making it cost effective for people to go solar, but not by forcing them.

fallows cali's lead in energy effecency

Salon has an article talking about how if America had more energy efficiency in buildings, appliances and factories we could cut down on the amount of energy this country uses to such a great extent that we wouldn't need to build any new coal planets in the near future (by 2030)

the study looked at how Cali's energy consumption has stayed study while the rest of the nation energy use as gone up 60%. The reason California has had a large push to make sure the buildings in the state are much more energy efficient.

the american eletric grid can handle eletric cars

one of the fears that people bring up when talking about switching to plug in electric cars is that it will be to much for the eletric grid to handle.

but that doesn't seem to be a realistic problem. utility companies say that they will be able to handle the switch over if it's gradual.

and since everyone will not be able to go out and get an plug in electric as soon as they hit the market. everything will be all good.

they point to the fact that they handled the increased power that plasma TV used (and it seems that Plasma screens use up more eletricity then it would take for a eletric car)

swedesh guy's wood powered car

a 78 year old man in sweden has decide to fuel his car using wood gas instead of oil.

during world war 2 Sweden used wood gas due to oil shortages.

Tore Blomqvist grew up during this time period and so the ideal wasn't to far out for him to switch to wood.

he is now only playing about 1/7th the price of gas.

ok this might not really be riding clean but it's an intersting alternative to gas