Sculptor Kris Kuksi’s excellence makes itself evident with these sculptures. Amazing as they look, they are in fact upcycled examples of old, discarded toys. The sculptor uses discarded toys to create these haunting sculptures that carry a medieval-ancient look.

Old toys do make a major part of the sculptures, but the artist also uses other items like statues, mechanical part, or other discarded items he can put to use.

According to the artist, he sees the grotesque as beautiful, has a feeling of belonging to the “old world”, and a distaste for the typical American life and pop culture. These thoughts and factors show themselves quite clearly in his sculptures, which look weird, and to some level, even scary.

The sculptures are detailed and interesting, and the finished product comes straight from the imagination of the artist. His sculptures are very different from “original” items used which gives them more appeal and character.

Via: Inhabitat

The Solar Shelf Concept was a design entry to the Green Life Competition, and has come up as one of the top three designs submitted to the contest. A basic requirement of the competition was that the design entered should be environment and design centric, and that the entry should not be unrealistic.

The Solar Shelf Concept from Chinese designer Leon Zhu intends to provide the car with a certain degree of protection, while generating energy by utilizing solar panels. The concept includes a Rear Wing for cars; this rear wing holds on to the solar shelf.

While the car is in motion, or there is no requirement for the solar panels, they remain safely attached to the rear wing. When it is suitable, the user can pull out the solar panels from the wing to cover the car. This provides some protection against the elements for the car, while the solar panels can also generate some electricity to power the car’s auxiliary systems like air conditioning and radio.

Via: Autoblog Green

The Wind Lamp is a concept that could help the environment and natural resources in a number of ways. This green lamp is designed to serve as a street lamp, and it could come in very handy at places with sufficient wind power. The lamp basically consists of LEDs and a wind power generator.

The wind generators harness energy to power the LEDs, and since LEDs themselves are quite energy efficient, they are in a suitable position to effectively use the energy so generated. LEDs in the lamp use the required energy for light, and any excess energy generated can be supplied to neighboring lamps to keep them running.

Designer Kyung Kuk Kim’s concept generates clean power, gets some load off the grid, and probably even manages to do its job well. All those plus points however, come with some negatives as well. This would be one expensive street lamp to install and maintain, and with the resources each lamp would require, it will likely take away more than it provides.

Via: Ecofriend

Considering the sheer volume of bottles Coke sells every year, the company’s announcement to move from PET bottles to a blend of plastic and 30% plant-based materials, is more than welcome. The new sugarcane and molasses based bottles will have 25% less emissions when compared to traditional bottles.

Over 1.6 billion of Coca Cola branded beverages are served every day around the world. So, it would be great to see the entire lineup move to more environmentally friendly packaging. That however, isn’t exactly happening at the moment. The new bottles will be available with Coca Cola’s Dasani brand of water; not exactly a giant volume, but still a good start.

The new bottles are completely compatible with the existing recycling facilities, and they will not contaminate petroleum based bottles in the process. Coca Cola hopes to sell nearly 2 billion of these bottles by the end of 2010, giving its vitamin water brands the PlantBottle next year. In the near future, the company hopes to have all its offerings in bottles made from 100% recyclable and renewable materials.

Source: Inhabitat

German manufacturer Sulfurcell has cladding modules with integrated solar cells. These modules consist of a hardened, frameless glass followed by an Indium based semiconductor layer connected to a solar module. Sulfurcell claims that the use of Indium allows the semiconductor layer to be 100 times thinner than conventional silicone wafers.

Each module has 82 semiconductor layers, all connected with integrated wiring. The hard glass frame is resistant to snow, hail, rain, wind and longterm UV radiation, allowing the system to last longer. Each of the solar cassettes is rear ventilated and has suppressed drainage channels to prevent any harm from rain water.

The manufacturer claims that these solar modules can be designed on to new buildings, and they may also be retrofitted on existing buildings. Since the modules are hung on a building’s exterior as a conventional cladding system, and are installed on a substrate, it is possible to use them on uneven structures.

Source: CleanTechnica

Early morning of November 17 will have a wonderful display in the sky, with a strong showing of the Leonid Meteor Shower. This year’s meteor shower will look all the more better because of no interference from the moon, as November 16 is the new moon, so the skies will be dark and even the faint meteor streaks will be visible.

The shower will put up the best display for those in central and eastern Asia, with the meteor rate rising to few hundreds per hour at 21:40 GMT. Eastern observers in North America will get a more moderate view with a few dozen meteors an hour, and the best time to watch the skies will be between 3:30 and 5:30 a.m. EST.

Other regions in North America may not get a very good viewing of the 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower, but they will be able to see shooting stars every few minutes. Europe and Africa on the other hand, won’t have much of a view. The Leonid Meteor Showers are so named because their radiant is positioned “sickle” of the constellation Leo.

Source: MSNBC

The Hakka Houses, were created by the Hakka people in China, mainly during the 17th century. These houses are mostly circular, and sometimes square in shape and they functioned as self-sustaining micro-communities. Built as a way to defend their local resources, these houses in the modern Fujian province of China had food storage, space for livestock, living quarters, temples, armories; which almost makes each of these houses sound like the city of Zion in The Matrix.

Locally called Tulou each of the houses was like a miniature fortress. With just one entrance, no windows near the ground, internal water source, and a sewage system, these houses could very well hold out against a siege.

The Tulou were usually built out of stoned bricks or rammed earth, and could have walls up to six feet thick. Some of these houses could cover as much as 430,000 square feet, and house nearly 80 families. These houses were given a “World Heritage” status by the UNESCO in 2008.

Source: Inhabitat

South Park is best known for its dark, politically incorrect humor, but Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park seem to environmentally correct, at least for some part of it. The duo recently gave the world a peek at their Colorado Gateway retreat. The retreat is built in an environmentally friendly, sustainable way.

Built by a firm called Trilogy Partners, the home has a number of sustainable parts to show off. Exterior siding and interior flooring for the home is made of reclaimed wood, it has recycled carpeting, and the beams supporting the ceiling had their previous life at a railroad trestle.

Energy efficient systems are also at work in the home, with high-efficiency boiler systems, energy-efficient insulation, and radiating heating that can be shut off for unoccupied zones. The huge house of course has a lot of environment friendliness to show, though it may not actually be all that green considering it is used only for a few days in the year, and the big house would be an energy sucker when occupied. But then it is built sustainably, and that’s a good start.

Source: Ecorazzi

Zero Motorcycles has received a lot of acclaim for its electric motorcycles, which have been greatly appreciated and admired. Testament to their success is the “Best Electric Motorcycle” award at eCarTec in Munich, Germany, and the appreciation Governor Schwarzenegger put forward for the motorcycles during the AltCar in California early in October.

Governor Schwarzenegger had questions for the Zero S electric motorbike during his tour of the show, and displayed some interest in the motorcycle as well. Buoyed by the success, Zero Motorcycles have issued a release calling for the Governor to ditch his Harley, “Switch Out Your Harley for an All-Electric Zero S!”

The Zero S motorcycle and other electric bikes from Zero Motorcycles are cool, and indeed environmentally friendly, but there still is a long way to go before such ambitious sounding words actually have any effect. The Zero S is no Harley, and it is very unlikely that Swarzenegger would switch it with a Zero S. Hopefully, electric motorcycles will soon be able to compete with the likes of Harley, and actually make people switch to the all-electric motorcycles.

Source: Autoblog Green

Precious little is known about the giant manta ray fish, and Biologist Andrea Marshall got to know them slightly better thanks to a first hand experience with the fish. She calls them “the most beautiful underwater birds” and simply looking at the images, we can clearly understand what she means.

The biologist had a chance to swim with these “mysterious” fishes off the coast of Mozambique, and she returned with a wealth of information. Until recently, it was believed that the fish has only one species, but Dr. Marshall found that some of the manta rays lived and behaved differently, and was able to identify one new species of the manta ray.

She also found that the manta ray migrates nearly 700 miles to reach the Maldives, which is also a unique gathering place for pregnant reef mantas and could be critical for the survival of the species. Most manta rays give birth to a single pup once in a year, but they rarely do this two years in a row. The beautiful fish are falling prey to unregulated fishing due to their demand in traditional Chinese remedies.

Source: Mail Online