Friday Hope Blogging

It's Friday already? Sheesh. Well, I'll be hopeful, I suppose...but I won't enjoy it.

A solar vaccine refrigerator keeps vaccines viable even in regions without electricity. You can watch a video here.

WorldChanging discusses some of the things that have been accomplished in poor communities thanks to complementary currencies.

Over the past 10 years, more than 5,300 Chicago school children from impoverished neighborhoods have tutored their peers and earned free computers for their homes. Five parks in Calgary, Canada, have become pesticide free, and a formerly homeless 70-year-old woman in Madison, Wisconsin, received free crochet lessons in exchange for cooking and cleaning for neighbors. All three of these community success stories can be attributed to a single trend: “complementary currency” programs.

WC also has a fine article on biomimetic wave power. One turbine design is based on kelp fronds, while the other mimics shark tails.

Both designs are meant to oscillate back and forth in ocean currents rather than rotating like a turbine, and they use a proprietary drivetrain to convert that low-speed high-torque oscillation into high-speed low-torque rotation of a permanent magnet motor.

A company in Coventry claims to have built a battery-powered van that can travel 100 miles on a single charge, at speeeds of up to 50mph. We shall see. Possibly.

Illinois has mandated e-waste recycling for all state government offices. There's hope that this will fit into a regional policy framework that'll make manufacturers responsible for e-waste collection and processing.

It looks as though people aren't listening to the Denial Industry, whether the issue is the reality of climate, or the economics of fighting climate chage:

According to a recent MIT survey, Americans now rank climate change as the country's most pressing environmental problem--a dramatic shift from three years ago, when they ranked climate change sixth out of 10 environmental concerns.

Almost three-quarters of the respondents felt the government should do more to deal with global warming, and individuals were willing to spend their own money to help.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Corporation Commission has voted to "expand the state's renewable energy standard to 15% by 2025, with 30% of that to come from distributed generation technologies."

Via Inhabitat, a new power cord teaches consumers about energy use:

While most powercords are utilitarian (and in general, rather ugly), Static!’s aesthetic solution brings the issue of energy consumption literally, to light, urging users to be aware of and reflect upon the energy efficiency of electrical devices in their home. Just how does it work? Electroluminescent wires embedded in the cord produce varying patterns of glowing and pulsating colors to indicate the level of energy being used at a given time.

The photo at the top comes from a short but lovely Flickr set by Standers. And Esprit de Sel has a great set entitled Tourisme Souterrain, which goes nicely with these bat detector recordings. Or this one.

Also, check out these astonishing examples of long exposure photography from Aumbody Images and Mystery Me.


Last (via Coudal), Blossfeldt Fractals, which I hereby dedicate to an exceedingly sweet young woman in London.