Up to 10% of a city vehicle's fuel is burned while idling and thus pretty much wasted.  Some newer vehicles, particularly hybrids and the Toyota Vitz have intelligent idling systems that turn off the engine when it's not needed and start it back up quickly and efficiently when it's time to move.

A small Japanese volunteer organization has created the iStart, a device that will, I think, retrofit any existing vehicle with an intelligent idling system.  Unfortunately, it is entirely unclear how the device works, how it is installed, and what it actually does because I cannot speak Japanese.  Their English translation is linguistically fascinating, but it's not much technical use. 

I'm fairly certain that the device shuts off the engine upon idling and then immediately turns back on when the foot is lifted from the brake.  In terms of the efficiency of the restart, I can say nothing, but it probably averages out to be more efficient than it would be without the device.  The iStart costs $490 and can be installed in under an hour.  The people at the site are confident that you'll get your money back in gas savings within the year.

To end, I'd like to share a note from the end of the iStart FAQ:
It is and becomes a present to the descendant because the small consideration that it is made who to be is you.

I couldn't agree more.

Via Hugg

But calculating the value of services that the environment provides us has become a useful tool. And, though some greens may cry and say that nature shouldn't be valued in dollars, I say that it can be valued in many ways and dollars have their place.

So, hats off to Robert Costanza who, in 1997, calculated the services the Earth provides humans to be worth roughly 33 trillion dollars per year. Wham! Take that global economy! You think you're so big with your billions of dollars in trade revenue...try 33 trillion a year, and it's not even trying.

Costanza and crew have just embarked on another, even larger project. They hope to make it simple for anyone in the world to determine the economic value of any particular place on the planet.

"Land use planners, county commissioners, investment bankers, anyone who is interested," Cosntanza said, "will be able to go on the Web, use our new models, and be able to identify a territory and start getting answers."

They've got a huge base of experts working on the project already, along with an $860,000 grant. In terms of fees, getting paid $860,000 to appraise something worth roughly $33 trillion is a pretty harsh deal. But, then again, we're not in it for the money are we Mr. Costanza.

Via PhysOrg

Depending on what kind of geek or how geeky you really are, you may or may not appreciate this. You've got to be pretty geeky to get excited about an archive of free, paperless, downloadable comic books stretching from 1930 to 1980.

We are that geeky.

The current archive of 2861 comic books hosted at AIBQ.com include Green Lantern,  Justice League and, of course, Korak Son of Tarzan. While these don't represent the true cream of comic greatness, there is a lot of history and hours of reading pleasure avaiable here. Now, all of these comics are still under copyright by DC, and the people who run AIBQ say that they want to digitize DC's entire library through 1980 (just DC, not Marvel, darnit.)

So far, they've gotten away with it because it's simply not worth the fuss. These comics aren't earning DC anything, and DC isn't planning on re-releasing any of them...ever.

The books are for educational purposes only, of course, and you need to download a special sequential image archive viewer to read them, but it is well worth the time. Sometimes a geek needs to find some ultra-geeky roots in an ecogeeky way. Thanks AIBQ.

Via Digg

This weekend, pigeons wearing tiny backpacks will roam the skies over Northern California. It’s not a manifestation of pet personhood, it’s a science project. The backpacks, equipped with smog sensors, GPS and a cell phone, gather air pollution data during the flight which is submitted - in real time - to the PigeonBlog website.

As the pigeons fly about, the sensors gather information on oxdizing gases, such as Nitrogen Oxides and Volatile Organic Compounds, as well as reducing gases, such as Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide and Hydrocarbons. On the MAP section of PigeonBlog you can follow both the sensory readings and the flying trajectory superimposed onto a satellite map of the area the pigeons fly over. The site also provides information about the composition of our air, common pollutants and their known health effects as well as the EPA’s Air Quality Index and the current state of air pollution in the United States today.

The real scientist behind the project is Beatriz da Costa who is an Assistant Professor of Arts, Computation and Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She brainstormed the idea as a playful way to get people thinking about the health hazards of smog and as an alternative way to participate in environmental air pollution data gathering.

Da Costa's entry was inspired by a century-old photo of a homing pigeon wearing a tiny spy camera designed by the German engineer Julius Neubronner. She and her team of two graduate students spent a year developing the bird sized packs that weigh a tenth of a pigeons body weight and cost about $250 each. The airborne expedition is part of ZeroOne San Jose, a weeklong showcase of technology and art.

For those of us who live in places without central air, but with triple digit temperatures, there are few solutions to sumer-time night-sweats that don't include drippy, inefficient window boxes. 

Well, China isn't moving beyond the window unit, but they are making them better.  A Chinese institute has just released a remarkably simple device that takes the condensation from the cold part of the air conditioner and uses it to mist the hot part of the air conditioner.  This simple use of coolant that would otherwise be wasted can increase the efficiency of a window unit by more than 8%. 

From the Shanghai Daily.
"The device is attached to an air-conditioner by a series of tubes," (no...not the internet, an actual series of tubes,) "which collect condensation drops. The water is pumped to the device, which turns it into a fine mist that is sprayed on the back of the air-conditioner, cooling it down significantly. The device is expected to cost about 100 yuan (US$12.50), researchers said."

It's one thing to know how much energy you're consuming at any given moment, it's quite another to have a GridPoint system installed in your house.  Both of GridPoint's devices (the Connect and the Protect) save you money by peak shaving.  For example, the GridPoint system will store electricity during off-peak hours when electricity can be as much as 10 times cheaper.  Then, during the day, when most people are using electricity, that stored energy powers your house and you don't have to buy the expensive juice.  This, of course, assumes that your utility company charges extra for peak use, but, as energy gets more expensive, this will become more prevalent. 

Both GridPoint systems are built around a series of batteries and a Pentium computer which is both a client and a server.  The GridPoint computer constantly checks your household energy use and the prices the utilities are charging and decides when to store energy, when to do nothing, and when to pump electricity into your house.

More after the Jump

The SkyYacht isn't completely environmentally friendly.  It's a hot-air blimp and so must burn propane to fill with hot air, but it's certainly more efficient than any other form of personal air travel, and probably more efficient than most cars. Don't expect to be going too fast though, it has a top speed of 12 mph (and don't try and go anywhere if the wind is blowing faster than that).

While it might not be particularly suitable for commuter travel, it could be an excellent resource for aerial photography, and, with the ability to touch down lighter than a feather and just as silent, it would be ideally suited for monitoring environmentally sensitive areas.

Hat's off to "pure fun" and the Sky Yacht team.

Via Make: and Engadget