Google Deploys Street View Cameras on Trikes

Google Street View will soon include images of streets where cars aren’t allowed, thanks to a green and low-tech solution: mounting the cameras on a trike.

From Auto Blog Green via Groovy Green:

The three-wheeled, human-powered overgrown tricycles carry 250 pounds of ballast in the form of “a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image collecting gadgetry,” says the internet giant. All that extra heft reportedly requires a “specially trained super fit” rider.

Google’s new trikes will be deployed first in Genoa, Italy, this spring. Assuming that launch proves successful, Google will send its pedal-powered cameras to the United Kingdom, where they’ll point their lenses towards a slew of famous British landmarks. Have a good one in mind? Google says its open to suggestions and will be working with VisitBritain to pick the most desirable locations to shoot.

Of course, not everyone has taken kindly to being subjected to the all-seeing eye of Google, and being on a trike instead of in a vehicle makes these drivers vulnerable to angry Japanese and British people.  But, at least they’re not on foot like this guy.

Link [Auto Blog Green] via [Groovy Green]

Military Spy Vehicles Powered by Alternative Energy

Even military spy vehicles are going green. Unmanned aerial vehicles, used by the military to scan the terrain for “possible threats and intelligence”, have long relied on fossil fuels to fly – but now, hydrogen-powered fuel cells are gaining popularity as an alternative. What it comes down to for the Office of Naval Research, which is sponsoring the ‘Ion Tiger’ program, is making them more efficient- and quieter.

From Science Daily:

In particular, the Ion Tiger UAV tests a hydrogen-powered fuel cell design, which can travel farther and carry heavier payloads than earlier battery-powered designs. Ion Tiger employs stealthy characteristics due to its small size, reduced noise, low heat signature and zero emissions.

“Pursuing energy efficiency and energy independence are core to ONR’s Power and Energy Focus Area,” said Rear Admiral Nevin Carr, Chief of Naval Research. “ONR’s investments in alternative energy sources, like fuel cell research, have application to the Navy and Marine Corps mission in future UAVs and vehicles. These investments also contribute directly to solving some of the same technology challenges faced at the national level.”

“In this size range, we are hopefully able to conduct very productive surveillance missions at low cost with a relatively small vehicle, and a high-quality electric payload,” says NRL Principal Investigator Dr. Karen Swider-Lyons.

It’s nice to know that the government is cutting back on emissions while training its all-seeing eye upon the land, eh? Now they can say it’s for our own security and that it’s green. It’s for our own good. It’s making us safe. One nation under CCTV… Big Brother is watching. Look busy!

Link [Science Daily]

Pint-Size Eco Police: The New Generation of Greenies

These days, adults are hardly the only ones thinking about how they can conserve more water, use less energy or recycle that widget when they’re done with it. Kids are being brought up in an increasingly more environmentally responsible environment, and many of them are taking their family’s efforts to go green very seriously.  So seriously, in fact, that they’re berating their parents for driving non-hybrid cars and forgetting to bring reusable bags to the grocery store.  The New York Times reports on the growing trend of ‘pint-size eco police’, kids for whom Earth Day is practically a religious holiday.

From The New York Times:

Ms. Ross’s children are part of what experts say is a growing army of “eco-kids” — steeped in environmentalism at school, in houses of worship, through scouting and even via popular culture — who try to hold their parents accountable at home. Amid their pride in their children’s zeal for all things green, the grown-ups sometimes end up feeling like scofflaws under the watchful eye of the pint-size eco-police, whose demands grow ever greater, and more expensive.

They pore over garbage bins in search of errant recyclables. They lobby for solar panels. And, in a generational about-face, they turn off the lights after their parents leave empty rooms.

“Kids have really turned into the little conscience sitting in the back seat,” said Julia Bovey, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental group that recently worked with Nickelodeon on a series of public service announcements and other programming called “Big Green Help.”

Though this seems a bit Orwellian – one might wonder if we should be frightened that these little Spies are going to report us to the Party for thoughtcrime – at least it’s for a good cause, right? It should make us feel better that the younger generations are so dedicated. Stop looking at me like that, kid, I’m doing the best I can, I swear!

Link [NY Times]

Big Brother Says: The Planet is A-OK! Go Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Destruction!

If you’re a conspiracy theorist like (I must admit) I am, this sort of news probably makes you want to build that off-grid cabin in the woods sooner rather than later. Reuters reports that nearly 900 scientists have told the Union of Concerned Scientists about political interference in their environment-related work:

The nonprofit environmental organization said its investigation of EPA was in line with previous probes of other U.S. agencies which found “significant administration manipulation of federal science.”

“Our investigation found an agency in crisis,” said Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency. “Distorting science to accommodate a narrow political agenda threatens our environment, our health and our democracy itself.”

Nearly 100 scientists said the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was the main offender.

One scientist wrote that the OMB and the White House decreased the stringency of proposed regulations for political reasons through hidden influence such as lobbying.

Naturally, the government denies it, saying scientific findings were “balanced with policy concerns.”

This stinks of historical revisionism. When is deception of the people ever okay? I’m waiting for the day the Thought Police start showing up at scientists’ laboratories and homes arresting them for distributing ‘propaganda’ that doesn’t fit in with the contemporary party line.

“War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.” It’s all happening, people, and no, I’m not currently wearing a hat made out of tin foil.

Link [Reuters]

Photo: 1984comic.com