Human energy

December 17, 2007

Wind up your laptop

Coffee_grinder The human body can deliver enough power to drive computers, television sets and washing machines – but it does go hand in hand with lots of sweat.

Eco-tech boffins dream of self-sufficient gadgets: mobile phones fed by solar energy, heartbeat-powered music players. However, the potential of these energy sources is much too small. Handles, cranks and biking machines on the other hand, do have a promise to be a powerful energy source. Swinging a crank for fifteen minutes is enough to power a mobile phone. Less than an hour of pedalling a bike can power larger machines. The only thing missing is a remedy for laziness. 

Continue reading "Wind up your laptop" »

Found

  • Sustainable energy
    We need numbers, not adjectives (read) (via)
  • Autobahn speed limit
    The fastest your car can go while burning 8 liters per 100 km (around 35 miles to the gallon) (read) (via)
  • T-shirts
    If biofuels are so bad, why aren't we campaigning against cotton? (read)
  • Walking
    My shoes get 220 miles per gallon (read)
  • Cities for living
    Paris is a miraculous city in no small measure because modern architects have not been able to get their hands on it (read) (via)
  • Hydroelectricity
    Dam the Mediterranean (see & read)
  • Marconi news
    Retro-tech juxtapositions & encyclopedic image mechanix (see) (via)
  • Home
    Now that's what I call a tree house (see)
  • The good old days
    I'm not interested in retro, I'm interested in better (read)(via)
  • Get an upgrade
    The energy required to produce a computer is enough to run it for 10 years (see & read) (via)
  • Low-tech writing
    Pen reviews (see & read)
  • Where's the fish?
    Ninety years of industrial-scale exploitation of fish has led to ecological meltdown (read)
  • The telectroscope
    Looking through a transatlantic tunnel (read) (visit) (via)
  • Fitness
    The first gym (see & read)
  • Help in case of an atomic bomb attack
    One reason to get down flat is to let the worst of it pass over you (see & read) (Via)
  • Build an electric car
    Retrofitting a 1970s Fiat 500 (read)
  • Minerals
    “Peak oil” is just one of several cases of worldwide peaking and decline of a depletable resource (read)
  • Travelling light
    Airships are one of several green technologies which might be killed by a shortage of materials (read)
  • Farms became factories
    Chemical corporations continue their propaganda efforts to convince farmers that they cannot make a profit without using chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, and genetically manipulated crops and animals (read)
  • Take it easy
    A 0.5 horse power car (see & read)
  • Robot wars
    Airstrikes from unmanned aircraft over Iraq hit record levels in April (read)
  • TV
    A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken (read)
  • Privacy
    How to kill an RFID tag (read)
  • Insurance versus nature
    In the past five years, London councils alone have chopped down almost 40,000 street trees (read)
  • Long-term storage (2)
    How to make a Moleskine notebook (make)
  • Long-term storage
    It only takes five years and archived data is obsolete (read)
  • Monsanto rules (2)
    Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops (read)
  • Monsanto rules (1)
    Intellectual property thuggery is not restricted to the IT and entertainment industries (read)
  • Time is money
    From New York to Los Angeles in 48 hours (read)
  • Solar
    One of oldest forms of energy used by humans -- sunlight concentrated by mirrors -- is poised to make an astonishing comeback (read)
  • Book of the future
    From stone-age tools to space-age computers (see & read)
  • Food crisis
    What level of meat-eating would be sustainable? (read)
  • Green cars (2)
    Cars like the Aptera are severely impeding humanity's faltering steps towards creating a sustainable society (read)
  • Green cars
    From rainforest to rubber plantation (read)
  • Time capsule
    2000 A.D. (see)
  • Time capsule
    2063 A.D. (read)
  • Green buildings (2)
    It takes 90,000 kWh of energy to construct a single family dwelling (read)
  • Green buildings (1)
    Even if 40% of the materials in a new building are recycled, it would take 65 years for a green, energy-efficient new office building to recover the energy lost in demolishing an existing building (read)
  • Flying
    The revival of propeller-driven planes (read)
  • Water
    Low-tech lemonades (make)
  • The front lawn
    What is that chasm between house and street? Why is it there? Or rather, why is nothing there? (read)
  • Ethanol
    The road to hell is paved with good intentions (read)
  • Wheels
    The car of the future (see)
  • Communications
    Build a telegraph (make)
  • Housing
    Build an eco village (make)
  • Wireless
    Mobile phones more dangerous than smoking? (read)
  • Magnetic levitation
    Germany ditches Transrapid project (read)
  • Writing
    Emoticons on paper (see)
  • Trees versus solar
    What happens when one neighbour with solar panels sues another with big, shady trees? (read)
  • Public transport
    A bus to keep pace with other transportation (see)


  • StumbleUpon