WWF Lets Out Its Inner Professional Wrestler: Panda Bear Mayhem Ensues

OMFGFSMBBQ, I love this on so many levels.

Stumbled Upon at [Apina.biz]

ZapRoot: Deadly Quiet Hybrids, Stupid Politicians, Towel 2.0, and Swag

ZapRoot 035 in short: silent hybrids could be slightly more dangerous to a miniscule number of blind people, so of course some stupid politician wants to require carmakers to install noisemakers in their cars; Pategonia has a new site that lets you track the entire lifecycle of shirts they sell; Zaproot is looking for Green Earth Day Videos and is giving away swag to the ones they like best, some guy has created the Towel 2.0; ReadyMade is going digital (about fifty years late eh?); and Green Energy Wastebusters are saving people money off their energy biill and using cool ass tools and gadgets doing it.

Home Refrigeration 2.0- The Oceania Refrigerator Brings The Sexy Green Noise

OK, I admit it- I hate my refrigerator. I hate it because I know just how inefficient of a design it is. Every time I open the door to get something the reservoir of cold air that had built up tumbles out into your kitchen. When you close the door the refrigerator has to re-cool the air, only to lose it the next time you need mayonnaise or Parmesan cheese. Open the freezer for some ice cream and you’ll get the same, only with colder air.

Seriously, try this sometime- lay down on the floor about 6-8 feet from your fridge and face towards it with your head at ground level. Have someone open the refrigerator door and wait a second- you’ll feel a wave of cold air puff at your face, a river of chill being dumped out of the fridge. That air is your money, and the health of the planet, being wasted away. If it’s winter time and you’re heating your house you’ll get hit with a double whammy of having to warm that air back up.

In short, we need a completely reimagined refrigerator.

Yanko Design points to such a thing- the Oceania Refrigerator, designed by Tez Patel.

Check out some of it’s VERY cool and green features:

• three tiers of compartments cooled by magnetic refrigeration and individually controlled with a digital interface.
• a fourth bottom compartment passively cooled with water and ceramic materials that is good for storing veggies, fruit, and bread.
• multiple sections means you don’t expose the entire unit to the air when you get something, and using pull out drawers reduces the cascade of cold air that happens with a traditional fridge.
• a clear drawer lets you browse before you open and it has the capability of tracking food in the fridge using RFID.
• all materials are biodegradable or recyclable.

Swing over to Yanko and check out the other photos, the thing is one sexy piece of machinery.

I want one.

Link [Tez Patel] via [Yanko Design]

The Eco Drop Shower Invites Pain Into Your Daily Routine

I do my best to keep my showering times to a bare minimum. I’ve even installed low-flow shower heads to reduce waste — and sometimes I throw a bucket under the shower to collect the lukewarm water for plants while it heats up. I consider myself extreme. But the new Eco Drop Shower is too much for me. It’s like graduating from kinky sex to BDSM, Little House on the Prairie to Keeping Up With The Kardashians, or dating Natalie Portman to dating Amy Winehouse.

To put it plainly, it’s hardcore.

How does it work? When you first start to shower, your feet are planted firmly on a plastic mat of sorts with embedded concentric circles. As your water usage increases, the circles slowly start to rise, making it rather uncomfortable to stand in one place for long. Manage to continue enjoying yourself, and pointy mounds will also move upwards from the center of the circles. For anyone with foot issues (warts, corns) this would start to get painful. They don’t show what happens should you somehow avoid these obstacles, but we’re thinking electricity and burning sensations are next.

I love technology that reminds us we’re nothing but a plague upon the planet, but enjoying my morning shower is one of the few pleasures (next to Wii) that I thank modern-society for providing. I think I’ll pass on the Eco Drop and just continue working my water conservation the old-fashioned way. Although it would be entertaining to have one of these installed in the guest bathroom…

via Born Rich

If We Can Build BigDog, We Can Engineer a Green Society

Have you seen the video of BigDog, a project developed by Boston Dynamics for the U.S. Military? BigDog is a four legged robotic pack mule that is at once awe inspiring and a little terrifying (cough**Skynet**cough). Pay attention to the BigDog collecting itself after it almost slipped on the ice halfway through.

If we walked on the moon almost 40 years ago, and can make crazy ass robots like this today, how could we not be able to engineer our society so that it doesn’t destroy the environment in which it lives? We’re barely flexing our ability to engineer a clean (notice I didn’t say cleaner) way of living the good, modern life.