GIGS2GO is a small set of ‘Tear and Share’ USB drives, about the same size as a credit card, that can be torn off and used or handed out to others… the four-pack of thumb drives is made from 100% post-consumer molded paper pulp with no plastic. You can tear off an individual 1GB drive like a phone number on a flyer for a cat-sitter.
This is what happens when you stack hundreds of photos of the same sky on top of each other. (via SciencePorn)
(via taylorlorenz)
Tesla Is The New Apple
Steven Johnson on the impending electric car revolution being led by Tesla:
And if that’s the case, then the automobile industry will go through exactly what the computer and software world went through with the rise of the PC, the Web, and the mobile revolutions. Smaller companies that bet heavily on the new paradigm will become dominant in an amazingly short amount of time; behemoths who cling to the old models will swiftly become afterthoughts. The EV revolution will be like Hemingway’s classic line about going broke: it will happen gradually, then all of a sudden.
Agreed. This is going to happen sooner than most people think.
[via Daring Fireball]
The full post is worth reading.
"New York City Transit (NYC Transit) is viewed as the world’s most expansive subway system due to its 468 subway stations, the most of any transit system in the world. It is also one of the world’s busiest subways, transporting 1.6 billion passengers annually. While the system emits 2 million tons of greenhouse gases each year, it prevents approximately 17 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, ‘making it one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas avoidance in the United States.’"
- World’s Most Energy-Efficient Subway Systems (via Smarter Cities)
Video Maps Of The World’s Bike Lanes Let You Preview Your Ride | FastCo.Exist
Another cycling innovation is making its way from the Netherlands to this side of the Atlantic. Cyclodeo is a bike-focused mapping website that pairs videos of bike lanes with Google maps.
(via emergentfutures)
A Beautiful Vision Of An American High-Speed Rail Map
Imagine if the country was linked by a network of 220-mile-per-hour trains.
National Geographic Photo Contest 2012
Yosemite Valley at Dusk: A mist had settled over Yosemite Valley, as automobiles passed through, headlights illuminated the fog.
An Oyster in the Storm - NYTimes.com
Oysters…once protected New Yorkers from storm surges, a bivalve population that numbered in the trillions and that played a critical role in stabilizing the shoreline from Washington to Boston.
Until European colonists arrived, oysters took advantage of the spectacular estuarine algae blooms that resulted from all these nutrients and built themselves a kingdom. Generation after generation of oyster larvae rooted themselves on layers of mature oyster shells for more than 7,000 years until enormous underwater reefs were built up around nearly every shore of greater New York.
Just as corals protect tropical islands, these oyster beds created undulation and contour on the harbor bottom that broke up wave action before it could pound the shore with its full force. Beds closer to shore clarified the water through their assiduous filtration (a single oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day); this allowed marsh grasses to grow, which in turn held the shores together with their extensive root structure.
But 400 years of poor behavior on the part of humans have ruined all that. As Mark Kurlansky details in his fine book “The Big Oyster,” during their first 300 years on these shores colonists nearly ate the wild creatures out of existence. We mined the natural beds throughout the waterways of greater New York and burned them down for lime or crushed them up for road beds.
Fat Humans Are The Equivalent Of An Extra Half Billion People On Earth
North America has just 6% of the planet’s population, but 34% of its biomass comes from obesity. For some perspective, Asia has 61% of the world’s population and just 13% of biomass from obesity.
It Takes More Than 3 Gallons of Water to Make a Single Sheet of Paper
Below, the water requirements for some of the things you might be wearing/eating/using right now:
- One pair of shoes: 2,257 gallons
- One pair of jeans: 2,636 gallons
- One chocolate bar: 454 gallons
- One piece of beef: 4,000 gallons
- One hamburger: 632 gallons
- One plain-cheese pizza: 321 gallons
- One slice of cheese: 40 gallons
- One pint of beer: 45 gallons
- One cup of coffee: 35 gallons
- One apple: 22 gallons
- One loaf of bread: 13 gallons
- One sheet of paper: 3 gallons
"
Americans generate more trash than anyone else on the planet: more than 7 pounds per person each day. About 69% of that trash goes immediately into landfills. And most landfill trash is made up of containers and packaging — almost all of which should be recycled.
…It’s estimated that the weight of plastic finding its way into the sea each year is equivalent to the weight of 40 aircraft carriers.
