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Welcome Back, Pittsburgh: FLABEG Brings 200 Green Solar Jobs to Steel City

Tina Casey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:09:47 +0000

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Pittsburgh has been laying the groundwork for a high tech green jobs renaissance ever since its mighty steel mills shut their doors 30 years ago. Now the payoff is coming. FLABEG, the global specialty glass manufacturer, has just opened a solar mirror factory by Pittsburgh International Airport that will bring an estimated 200 jobs to the region, and perhaps as many as 300.

The new $30 million facility will initially focus on its core production line of parabolic curved solar mirrors. Months before the plant opened it already received 700,000 orders, and FLABEG expects to reach a capacity of 1 million mirrors annually.

Wood Toddler Toys from Plan Toys

Tiffany Washko — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:04:42 +0000

Hammer Balls from Plan Toys is a curved wooden box with three colorful balls and a mallet, this toy helps children to improve hand-eye coordination, aligning, slotting and aiming. Pound the balls and watch them roll out one by one. It is now one of my all time favorite toddler toys.

We got Hammer Balls for our 3 year old son as a green Christmas gift and not only does he love it, his older siblings do to! It is just a simple wood block with a lovely curved shape that has three holes in it. You place one or all of the three colorful, wooden balls on it and then you use the hammer to pound the balls through the holes. They roll out from underneath and the fun begins again. The concept is incredibly simple but it is fascinating to most young kids. It is similar to the idea of wack-a-mole but without the violent concept of striking an animal.

Forget To Shutdown Your Computer? New App Helps You Remember

Michael dEstries — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:43:14 +0000

I saw a post recently while browsing Hugg promoting a new piece of software that might help those of us with “Forgetfulshutdowncomputer-itis”. Yes, it’s true. “Forgetfulshutdowncomputer-itis” is a real disease that effects 3 out of 5 Americans with a computer. Those without a computer did not respond to our emails about the survey.

Anyways, as I found while watching Grey’s Anatomy (that’s right, and I enjoy it.) “Forgetfulshutdowncomputer-itis” can be a significant cause of massive energy waste. The CO2 emissions caused by 15 computers consistently running are equal to the gas consumption energy-wise by one car! Overall, more than 30 billion watts of energy are lost to this terrible disease. Thankfully, there’s now a nice piece of software you can install to help optimize your computers energy efficiency.

Called Local Cooling, this little app will save power by either turning off your screen, putting your hard drive to sleep when not used or shutting down your PC when you are away. Of course, so you’re not interrupted in the middle of leaving a humorous response to this post, you can adjust when and how this happens in the settings. There’s also a little ‘incentive’ window that tells you how well you’re contributing in terms of trees or gallons of oil saved. Just glancing at it makes me feel all green inside…and hungry. Though I can’t explain the last part….

Anyways, download the app and give it a shot. At the very least, install it on your work computer and your co-workers computer. “Forgetfulshutdowncomputer-itis” may not go away tomorrow, but at least there’s a handy solution that’s got your back for those days that are worse than others.