OFFER: I have six million carp, good condition. Nothing wrong with them; just have more than I need. You must pick up.

The State of Utah might just be posting like this something soon. Apparently, they’re in the market to unload a few carp–approximately six million–that are tearing up the bottom of Utah Lake, destroying habitat for an endangered species.

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Image credit: Artur Bergman at Wikimedia Commons.

Iowa State University has figured out a way for the youngest and/or hippest generation of go-getters to power their iPods while maintaining that business professional look: solar neckties.

Via: Gagdets Blog News

David Byrne, of varied artistic fames, has joined with the New York City Department of Transportation. He’s designed nine bike racks — e.g. dog (above), man, coffee cup, woman, car — to give some extra pop to the cyclist’s notion of bike security. The New York Times has the full scoop.

The word on the street, as posted at Environmental Graffiti, is Cuba and Venezuela are holding a swap meet: zoo animals for oil. In the deal, Hugo Chavez picks up a giraffe named Evo, in honor of Bolivian president Evo Morales, among other animals; the Castros will gain 92,000 barrels of petro a day.

Photo source: Hans Hillewaert, under Creative Commons Attribution

It’s early in the pre-dawn dark hours of the morning. A group of Northern California pseudohippies just finished a game of Zonk — or rather, the game just stopped because somebody quoted a line from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and everybody forgot what they were doing.

Yet, by a stroke of luck, the conversation about Harold and Kumar reminds the group of their real reason for staying up so late. They pack into a truck and head down to the local fast food joint looking to load up — but it’s not the food they’re loading up on, it’s the nasty, half-rotted, leftover fryer grease.

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British car-maker Lotus has unveiled an environmentally-friendly concept car, which is partly made of marijuana, at the British International Motor Show. The Lotus Eco-Elise (pictured above) sports body panels manufactured entirely from hemp (they’re the brown bits on the roof and bonnet).

You might be excused for thinking that the Lotus designers had dreamt up such a crazy scheme after sampling some of the raw materials. In fact, it seems that the company are on to a good thing. Compared to metal, hemp is a very lightweight material, which helps to improve vehicle performance and promote greater fuel-efficiency. Hemp is also a renewable, lightweight material that absorbs CO2 through photosynthesis. In addition, the particular type of hemp used by Lotus is ethically produced in close proximity to the manufacturing plant, keeping a lid on the emissions made through transportation.

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Man Blows up Garage Making Biodiesel

Those with a keen interest in DIY and alternative energy may do well to learn from the experience of a British man who was airlifted to hospital on Sunday after blowing up his garage whilst attempting to make bio-diesel.

The explosion left the unnamed man with burns to his face, arm and torso. He was subsequently rescued by fire crews using special breathing apparatus – a spokesperson for Oxfordshire County Fire & Rescue Service advised that people take “extreme caution” if attempting such projects at home.

See also: Learn How to Make Biodiesel on You Tube

With thanks to The Daily Telegraph.

Phil Bridge, a 21 year old Product Design student at Sheffield Hallam University, came up with the design, noting that a bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in the UK, and wondered if anyone would be interested in running off with a cardboard bike.

Using Hexacomb board, he’s fashioned a vehicle that will never make it to the Tour de France, but figures it would last for about six months of constant use.  And yes, it’s waterproof, and would cost somewhere around $50.

Image Credit:  BBC

Story Source: BBC

In what some called a crazy stint, this April the LA crew of riders who call themselves the Crimanimalz hit the highway to make a statement in a city renowned for its hours and hours of commuter traffic. The ride through the city’s Friday commuter traffic jam, also dubbed the “If You Rode a Bike You’d be Home by Now Ride,” is now a monthly event. Check out images of the bold event to bring the car city bike freeways, bike paths and safe bike routes here and video here. The ride even has it’s own Wikipedia entry.

Fuel saving scams, er, devices, have been around for a long time, and now that fuel prices are soaring again, we decided it would be a good time to take a look at a few of the most popular and interesting ones out there.

Since the start of the Iraq War in 2003, oil prices have jumped from $28 per barrel to over $130, with most of that rise occurring in the last year. This fact is made even more stark considering that for all of the last century prior to the current meteoric rise, crude oil prices have averaged about $20 per barrel (adjusted for inflation).

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I’ve heard of making fuel from wood before, but rarely does using wood as fuel come up. However, just today I was pointed to this site, hosted by a local radio station, with a real-life example of someone burning wood as a fuel in his truck.

I can’t say for sure how the system works, whether it’s dual fuel or the wood-burning supplies all the fuel the engine needs, but it doesn’t appear to be a hoax and is certainly interesting. Evidently, during WWII, there was some experimenting with alternative fuels (due to shortages caused by the war), and one of the results was the wood burning automobile.

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18 year old Canadian Ben Gulak has spent a lot of time developing this motorbike, which resembles a unicycle in every way, except that it has two wheels, side by side.

How is it balanced? Ben uses gyroscopic technology to keep the bike upright, and it responds only to body movements. Lean forward, the faster you go, lean backwards and you slow down, and to either side, you get the idea.

It isn’t the speediest bike around, reaching 25 mph on a full charge, which lasts about 2.5 hours. A larger motor, however, would increase the speed, but how fast would you want to go on a unicycle?

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Europe — World’s first commercial tidal turbine installed (EcoGeek)

“The world’s first commercial tidal turbine has been installed in its home in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough.

Though it has yet to be turned on, it will be the first commercial power-producing tidal generator when it is (sometime later this year). The turbine has two 16 meter-wide rotors and will be able to run for 18-20 hours a day. The turbine was installed off the coast in an area known for fast moving waters, and because the rotors will only spin 10-20 times in a minute, it is unlikely to disturb marine life.”

Source: EcoGeek. Hot in media: Digg EcoGeek, Digg TimesOnline.

Africa — Tree-Nation (Tree-Nation)

“Tree-Nation is an ecological project with a focused objective: To plant 8 million trees in Niger, Africa to fight desertification! Large-scale plantation of trees will increase the land’s productivity and re-generate the soil.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2008/04/13/top-10-environmental-news-headlines-of-the-week-no-3/feed/ http://gas2.org/2008/04/09/ok-which-way-do-you-want-to-go/ http://gas2.org/2008/04/09/ok-which-way-do-you-want-to-go/#comments Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:47:18 +0000 Max Lindberg http://gas2.org/2008/04/09/ok-which-way-do-you-want-to-go/ How about riding a tandem bike, and being able to look your companion straight in the eye? This might be dangerous, but a Taiwanese inventor has created a face-to-face tandem bicycle.

Chen Yugang seems to think it will be a big hit, and is courting manufacturers. He says,

“On a traditional two-person bicycle, the rider in the rear seat can only see the back of the one in front. So I started wondering how I could get them sitting face-to-face”.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2008/04/09/ok-which-way-do-you-want-to-go/feed/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/07/sheep-replace-lawnmowers-in-italy/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/07/sheep-replace-lawnmowers-in-italy/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:26:03 +0000 Max Lindberg http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/07/sheep-replace-lawnmowers-in-italy/ Officials in Turin, Italy have decided to replace city lawnmowers with 700 sheep, saving thousands of dollars in fuel costs and equipment repairs. The sheep graze in city parks, fatten up and then are sold at the end of the season.

Drivers aren’t happy as sheep are herded across roads to new grazing lands, and locals who enjoyed sitting on the grass are finding it nearly impossible, since no one is cleaning up after the sheep.

Source 

]]> http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/07/sheep-replace-lawnmowers-in-italy/feed/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/01/one-for-the-books-hopefully/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/01/one-for-the-books-hopefully/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:30:55 +0000 Max Lindberg http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/01/one-for-the-books-hopefully/ With an eye to making it in the record books, Mr. Tan of Songyuan city in China, spent the last six months creating an exact, 48 lb, fully functional replica of his cell phone with camera and internet access included.

He did, however, leave out the vibrate function, which was probably a good idea, and he couldn’t find a battery big enough to power the phone, so he has to plug it into a wall outlet.

Source 

]]> http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/01/one-for-the-books-hopefully/feed/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/03/31/the-ultimate-boys-toy/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/03/31/the-ultimate-boys-toy/#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:40:06 +0000 Max Lindberg http://ecoscraps.com/2008/03/31/the-ultimate-boys-toy/ What every boy needs, a full-size, remote-controlled Hummer H3, crafted by engineers from Cranfield University in the UK.

Capable of climbing a 407mm vertical wally, operate in up to 610mm of water and traverse a 40% slope, it won’t be available commercially. Sorry boys.

Source

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