People & Places

http://vimeo.com/21903160

by Streetfilms

via Treehugger

Interesting article on how removing lanes from certain roads can help traffic flow more smoothly while making the streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

In the movie they show Valencia Street in San Francisco - and I can say having cycled on booth the old road and now the road on a diet - it is such a pleasant difference.

'Junges' Interview in der 'Spiesser' mit dem Klimaforscher Hans von Storch, Professor für Metereologie an der Uni Hamburg. - Schön 'geerdet', sehr kritisch im Bezug auf 'individuelle Maßnahmen gegen den Klimawandel'. - Auch wir sollten uns in dieser Richtung immer wieder hinterfragen.

Hier zu lesen.

You know most of these ideas already, I know. For the sake of completeness I blog some of the group's projects here nonetheless. Find the research group here.

The 'Power Aware Cord' shows you the current electricity consumption by glowing in different colours.

The 'Flower Lamp' blossoms when energy consumption is low.

The 'Free Energy' energy tab consists of a crank to self-produce electricity.

'Agents Against Power Waste' is a competition/campaign/game for teenagers to monitor their energy usage with the help of smart meters and mobile phones.

The 'Energy Aware Clock' visualises the daily energy rhythms of the household. If, for example, the dishwasher is switched on it shows immediately on the display of the unit. Yesterday’s graphs fade away slowly and today’s consumption is drawn on top of previous days, making it possible to compare your energy use for several periods.

The 'Energy Plant' is an ambient transparent LCD-display that shows the electricity consumption of the household in the form of a growing plant. Modest electricity consumption result in a thriving fast growing plant and heavy consumption makes the plant wither.

'Watt-lite' is a system of lamps that visually indicate a factory’s energy consumption through spotlights. The design uses three lamps in conjunction, with the diameter of the orange, blue and white projections indicating the maximum, minimum and current energy consumption respectively. The lights are currently being tested in eight factories across Sweden.

'BoEL' is an experimental social ambient interface and web service that presents daily consumption figures to home owners and neighbours to promote joint savings and foster competitive energy saving behaviours. The service includes an ambient lamp that provides feedback on the energy consumption in the household and these interfaces are installed so that the neighbours can observe each others energy status.

"We are an interdisciplinary team of designers, policy analysts and social scientists who collaborate with a network of world-leading experts to address complex social and economic problems.

We start by looking through the eyes of the end users of public services. We bring frontline workers, service providers and experts together to design, prototype and implement new types of public services.

In the last 5 years, RED has run projects focusing on preventing ill health, managing chronic disease, reducing carbon emissions from our homes, strengthening citizenship, reducing re-offending by prisoners, and improving learning at school.

We work with government departments, Local Authorities, frontline providers, the voluntary sector and private companies."

RED

Many design-led projects, also on ENERGY!

I want to remember here Hermann Scheer not only because he was the representative in German parliament from my home town/ county, but because he was a passionate transformer, law maker and visionary for the renewable energy revolution in Germany and internationally.

There is a long recent interview in English with him on DemocracyNow! - one of his last

Hermann Scheer, one of the world’s leading advocates for solar power, has died at the age of sixty-six. The German economist and politician helped make Germany a renewable energy powerhouse and inspired many across the world to expand the use of solar power. Scheer had been member of the German Parliament for three decades and was the president of EUROSOLAR, the European Association for Renewable Energy. In 1999, he won the Right Livelihood Award for his "indefatigable work for the promotion of solar energy worldwide." When he received the award, he described solar energy as the energy of the people.

His last book "Der Energethische Imperativ" was just published.

He's pro nuclear, GM, condensed cities, geoengineering, etc. Controversial. Likes to use 'good' technology to undue the harm of 'bad' technology.

Read an interview here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/03/my-bright-idea-stewart-brand

Watch one (of several) TED talks here about nuclear energy: http://www.ted.com/talks/debate_does_the_world_need_nuclear_energy.html

Read his book 'Whole Earth Discipline': http://www.amazon.de/Whole-Earth-Discipline-Stewart-Brand/dp/184354816X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1286974734&sr=8-4