I cover a lot of upcoming or future technology, but it’s time to step into the present and aim for the past. Today we’re going to look at a technology available right now that can make some wanton energy waste history. It’s a surge protector that stakes the hearts of vampire electronics without hassling you, the sleeping victim.

Vampire appliances are pretty much anything you can plug in that still sucks energy when it’s supposedly turned off. Some are pretty obvious - the clocks on your microwave or VCR/DVD player burn all day, everyday. We know they’re not “off” because we cans see their LEDs glow. But other electronics, from your television to your cell phone charger also draw power when they’re plugged in but not in use. Check out a handy graph from Good Magazine. Some gadgets are notorious, like your plasma TV. Estimates claim that 5% or more of U.S. energy usage is insidiously wasted by “stand-by mode” or certain misleading “off” buttons. A whopping 5% may not sound like much, but it adds up to about $1 Billion dollars per year - and energy prices will probably continue to rise.

Be honest - how many times would you go around the house unplugging everything before it got old? Smart greenies have been switching off their surge protectors, but it’s easy to forget while watching your favorite late-night TV show or blogging at 4am. So what can we do about these metal-toothed Nosferatu in our midst? How about a surge protector that turns off all your appliances for you?

Smart Power Strips are easy to use: One “master” outlet on the strip controls six other “slave” outlets. When the power usage of the master outlet decreases (by a large enough amount), it automatically turns off the slave outlets. If you plug your “master electronic” like a TV or computer into the master outlet, all your periphery appliances - printers, speakers, Playstation, etc. - are automatically turned off. Oh wait, you have a Tivo and you don’t want all of your peripheries to turn off? No worries, the Smart Power Strip has three “constant” outlets that behave like normal, so you won’t miss your favorite shows. And of course, when you turn the “master” back on, the “slaves” will buzz to life. So instead of housing a legion of thirsty vampires, you can sleep soundly with a gadget that puts your electronics on a diet. For the best deal, check out Amazon.com.

This is not the first or only such gadget on the market. Your choices range from super-smart peripherals to wall monitors to watt-counting surge protectors. You can even use a low cost, old-fashioned timer. For your energy efficient computer needs, you can download power-saving freeware. These applications extend beyond home use too; businesses are jumping on the band wagon to reduce their energy costs and boost the bottom line. These steps could provide big savings for offices with lots of computers and copy machines.

EDIT: Thanks to Tim Hurst for pointing out a neat video via Ecoscraps

(Nosferatu image courtesy of LikeTelevision.com)

(Smart Power Strip image courtesy of MetaEfficient.com)

Casting Notice – Untitled Teen Craft Show

Our production company, Two Bees and a Pea, is casting young adult & teen crafters for a new “untitled” craft show. This show will be guest based - so you could be the star of the show. We produce Creative Juice on DIY and HGTV and this will be a brand new show.

We are seeking crafty guests from all over the USA and will begin the process with DVD submissions. The DVD’s are not for air on TV they are for casting purposes. Fear not if you don’t have access to a video camera. Just send a photo of yourself (big smile) holding or showing off your handmade items.

Here are a few guidelines:

You should have high energy and great style. Show off your style - flaunt it!

Your crafts should be current, hip, cutting edge - think Urban Outfitters, Anthropology, Gossip Girl, Project Runway, MTV!

You can make anything from room decor, jewelry, clothing, soap making, knitted and crochet goods, lip balm, art, etc. The most important thing is that you know your stuff and can explain how you make it in a clear and fun way.

The deadline is May 1st – 2008. Age range: Teens, Young Adults (28 and under)

Video Guidelines:

1. Have high energy and be yourself. State your name, where you are from, how long you have been crafting and what your craft project is. Try to hold your project in your hand or have it next to you and briefly explain to us how you made it. You can show a step or two on how you made it you want.

2. Try to keep the camera as smooth as possible (using a tripod helps) and make sure you have lots of light so we can see you.

3. Fashion tips for the camera: Please don’t wear prints, all black (even if you are goth), white or red. Tattoos, elaborate hair dos, and punky attire are just fine.

4. Videos should be no longer than 3 minutes and should be submitted on DVD only. Tapes cannot be viewed. On the DVD please include your name, your craft, email, city, phone number and age if you are under 18.

Photo Guidelines:

1. Have a big smile in the photo. Try to hold your project in your hand or have it next to you. You can include a picture of you at a sewing machine or at your work station or in the process of making something.

2. Fashion tips for the camera: Please don’t wear prints, all black (even if you are goth), white or red. Tattoos, elaborate hair dos, and punky attire are just fine.

3. Photos should be digital, high resolution and should be submitted in print and on a CD. On the back of the photo and on the CD please include your name, your craft, email, city, phone number and age if you are under 18.

Please mail to:

Casting - Untitled Craft Show
c/o Cathie Filian
1531 Randall St
Glendale, CA 91201

What does this have to do with energy conservation? Read on.

Every old TV will be new again–for about $10.Photo credit: Human Productivity Lab,licensed through Creative Commons.When I was still new to the Bay Area, I lived in a one-room apartment near the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley. I was working at Black Oak Books and spent many a late night after work winding down by watching reruns of NewsRadio, about the best TV comedy series to come along in the 1990s. I miss Bill McNeal, the character played by the late comedian Phil Hartman. And I had a big crush on the Lisa Miller character, played by ER’s Maura Tierney. Now that I have cable, I can watch 3 PBS stations and the Discovery Channel, but back in the day, if I nailed my rabbit ear antenna high up on the wall and turned it just right, I could get NewsRadio, a lifesaver.

If you still have one of those old rabbit ear antennas, or have one on your roof, hold on to it.

As of February 17, 2009, when all the major TV broadcasters will begin to transmit using a digital signal, no one with an analog, rabbit-eared television set will be able to get anything without a digital-to-analog converter box. If you have a digital TV, or pay for cable or satellite TV service, you’re good– you don’t have to do anything. But if you have an old analog set, you’ll need to buy a converter box costing about $50.

But don’t fret, because your government has come to the rescue-with coupons worth $40.

Between January 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009, all U.S. households will be able to request up to two coupons, worth $40 each, for the purchase of eligible digital-to-analog converter boxes. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is administering the coupon program, and has a list of eligible converter boxes as well as information about getting coupons.

The entry of perhaps millions of digital-to-analog TV converters could add yet another widely used electronic device to strain the U.S. power grid, add to carbon emissions, increase our dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels, and so on-you know the drill. But thanks to the efforts of folks at the Natural Resources Defense Council, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, and other energy efficiency advocates, those converter boxes will run on as little energy as possible, especially during the 20 or so hours a day when no one is watching TV. The Department of Commerce has issued a ruling that eligible devices can use no more than two watts while in “sleep” mode, and that the devices will automatically go into sleep mode after four hours of inactivity. The four-hour delay will be set as the default mode at the factory, but users can adjust the delay time at home or disable the automatic switching to sleep mode.

So don’t throw away your old TV sets. You’ll be able to use them after February 17, 2009, but it will cost you about $10, plus the free coupon from the feds. And you’ll probably be burning a lot less electricity with your old TV and converter box than with one of those new monster plasma screen TVs.

Here’s a new wrinkle to advertising, photo and film shoots that are tracked and quantified for the amount of pollutants they produce during a shoot.

A London-based environmental engineering firm has created the tracking software, and it’s been used in the production of several TV commercials. Here’s Hoag Levins of Advertising Age with a report.

A link to the original story is here:

U.S. production company, Landreth Associates, is working with the Chinese CCTV Economic Movie and Television Center and The International Cultural Exchange Audiovisual Publishing House (an agency of the Chinese Ministry of Culture), on what is to be a weekly documentary television show in China called “Seizing the Moment in China” beginning in the summer of 2008.

Ted Landreth once headed the international news department at CBS News, and other team members include Peter Pagnamenta, who once ran the BBC Current Affairs show as well as John Liu who has produced documentaries on the Chinese environment while living in China for sixteen years. The team feels that the Olympics in China offers a good focus for the Chinese population and the world to consider the extreme challenges China faces, as well as the little known conservation and restoration projects, which are underway.

To me, this production project is one of the most creative green-based businesses I have heard of in 2007. U.S. investors (and I suppose those from any other country) are being offered a share of the profits, based upon profits from sponsors whose messages are targeted to reach over one hundred million in the Chinese audience and many more abroad in an English version of the shows.

If you would like more information, you can contact Michael O’Reilly, a Los Angeles-based lawyer and consultant working for Landreth Associates via email: michael “at” oreilly “dot” net.

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• NH farmers savor bumper harvest

• Can a Fractional Be Green?

• AboutMyPlanet.com luanches “GROW” User News Service

• The $40 hidden inside a 12V battery

• US Transportation Secretary: “Bikes Not Transportation”

• Harry Reid Says No New Coal

• Skateboarding Mogul Pierre André Senizergues Backs DiCaprio, Green Lifestyle

• The truth about recycling

• Comedy Central Launches “Address the Mess” Green Campaign

• Green Options Presents Carnival of the Green #91

Imagine and Twentieth Century Fox Television say they will make the TV series 24 the first production ever to save enough energy and reduce enough carbon emissions over the course of a season to render its entire season finale carbon neutral.

Find out their plans (strictly on a want to click basis) here.

Super. Duper. Cool.

The trickle effect of awareness via Live Earth is beginning to spread. NBC Universal announces a week long, company-wide “Green is Universal” initiative to launch on November 4. The network’s most popular programs including My Name Is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, Heroes, and Deal or No Deal will adopt green-friendly programming all in an effort to spread the green gospel.

Below, read my exclusive interview with Danny to find out more about his early days, unique business partnerships, blogging, celebrity clients, and more.

Victoria E: Do you think being born on Earth Day seeded your passion for the planet?

Danny Seo: Well, it is an unusual "holiday" if you really think about it. April 22nd is usually marked with stories about global warming, the rainforests burning down and just overall gloom and doom. So when your birthday is on a day that's about the end of the world, you can't help but take notice. So when I was twelve, I decided I had enough of the scary headlines in the newspaper and decided--right then and there--to do something about it. Who knew I'd still be at it 18 years later!

VE: Where you parents initially hesitant when you told them you want to help people lead green lives?

DS: Not really, as long as it didn't affect their lives. Honestly, my parents not being involved in my activism at a young age was--in hindsight---a good thing. It forced me to be a critical thinker at a young age and to learn from all my mistakes. Nobody was ever there to clean up my messes or do the hard work for me. I think today, my let's-all-roll-up-our-sleeves attitude is a result of their not meddling in my work as a child.

For the fourth episode of their Big Ideas For A Small Planet series, the Sundance Channel takes on the challenging topic of dressing green. The first three episodes of this original documentary series have gotten a large amount of critical acclaim for bringing environmental issues to the millions of Americans who tune in. So far, the topics of fuel, building construction, and city development have been examined, offering up three different topic-specific ideas of how to enhance our lives and reduce our carbon footprint at the same time in each episode.

Premiering this Tuesday, May 8th at 9pm Eastern and Pacific, the Wear episode features commentary from Ali Hewson (Bono's wife and founder of Edun Clothing), Simran Sethi, Carson Kressley (the wonderfully flamboyant blond fashion guru from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy), and Graham Hill (founder of TreeHugger.com). I must admit that when I saw Carson come on screen, I was worried that the episode might end up being less than serious, but he had a unique point-of-view to add to the subject of green fashion, acting as a voice for the many that see style as an integral part of their life, just like eating or sleeping. Helping to show people that wearing sustainable fabrics has little, if anything, to do with tie-dye and hippies is one of the most important factors for the growing green fashion market, and this episode does a darn good job of getting that point across.

Discovery is getting back to its roots with a return to nature programming and is renewing efforts in "celebrating, preserving and protecting the planet." That push has shown success in Discovery's new series, Planet Earth, which premiered in late March and is pulling in strong numbers. They're hoping those numbers carry over to their new channel, PlanetGreen.

PlanetGreen will feature programming ranging in topics from organic lifestyles and healthy living, to green design and architecture, to green-tech and eco-travel. Discovery has committed $50 million to produce original content for PlanetGreen and to develop an extensive, interactive online presence. The Discovery Home Channel will switch over to PlanetGreen in 2008.

Discovery Communications and The Nature Conservancy have come together to present PLANET EARTH, an 11 part series that will premiere Sunday, March 25 in conjunction with a media campaign to raise awareness about environmental conservation.

But this partnership includes more than just an HD nature show. The companies are utilizing online, interactive media to actively engage viewers in the conservation message. During the broadcast you'll be able to go The Discovery Channel's website to chat with other viewers, answer trivia questions about the show and ask questions to a lead scientist with The Nature Conservancy. A live chat with the production team is planned for the following day (March 26) so viewers can get an exclusive on what went on behind the scenes. Of course all of that is in addition to the cross promotional efforts that will blanket both The Discovery Channel and The Nature Conservancy sites with more in-depth information, related content and educational activities.