Case-Mate, the people who used to make zipper booklets for CDs, built the $80 Enlighten case that lights up the Kindle at night by way of an LED-illuminated acrylic overlay. So basically they pulled a Sony: Taking what's right about e-ink, and screwing it up. You don't put anything on e-ink, for the same reason you don't read paper through a film of plastic. We typically don't write up cases, but despite its unique gimmick (okay, because of it) this one looks exceptionally pass-worthy. [CNet]

It's bad enough when pompous over-the-hill watchmakers think they can get into the cellphone business, like Tag Heuer did when it introduced the luxury-for-luxury's-sake $6000 Merediist. It's worse when they team up with an extreme car company to release a still more ridiculously irrelevant phone, like Tag Heuer did when it called up its friend Lamborghini and cooked up the, yep, special edition Merediist Automobili Lamborghini. For $8000, you get the same crappy phone as before, but with the signature angry cow shield on the keypad, and a plaque in place of the crocodile skin. Yes they'll sell a handful to bald Italian billionaires over 60, but how many of those can there be? [Tag Heuer via Gadgetell]

I love when the age-old bicycle gets a redesign, and points go to Joey Ruiter for thinking through the needs of the urban bicyclist, trading speed for agility, and stripping the bike to its simplest parts. But I never thought bike seats could look any more uncomfortable than the borderline rectal probes out there now, until lo, I spotted this rectangular sucka. Joey, you're clearly talented, but I gotta ask, how can that seat be copacetic to the culo? [Core77 via The Awesomer]

As much as I want alternative energy ASAP, I am worried about wind farms. First, they're killing off flocks of birds or at least scaring them the hell away, and now they're making air traffic control jumpy too. Because of their flailing metal blades, radar waves get super screwy around them, and sometimes cause airplanes to disappear from radar. (Cue gulp of fear.) For this problem, a firm called Qinetiq built a seemingly decent solution, layering blades with sheets of radar-slurping glass-reinforced epoxy and plastic foam. It's nice, especially because you can pretty much replace the blade and leave everything else as is. But it's just coming out of the trial phase, and will take some time before it's ready for turbines that are now in place or being built. While we wait, let's talk about them birds... [MIT Tech Review via PopSci]

Plus, the wind doesn't require huge expensive D batteries, of which this inflatable cash sink requires eight.

The wind also dissipates eventually, takes up no room in your garage, and won't pop or become mangled when your kid—innocent and adorable, yes, but naive as fuck—tries to use this thing on the lawn when he gets bored in the pool.

Still not convinced? The 360 degree movement, all at a neck-breaking 2MPH, is too much to pass up? OK, then, purchase away. Just be sure to send us a picture of the thing in six months when it's stuffed in a closet next to your Snuggie collection. [Cooolest Gadgets]

Sounds a bit weird and anti-green, but for some reason now you can charge its 4,000 mAh battery using a USB adapter or a car cigarette lighter. Why would you like to do a single charge with an external power source when you can just leave it by the window to have it fully charged is beyond me.

According to the company, one hour of sun and wind will provide you with 30 minutes of talk time in a cellphone. Fully charged, the K3 can load the battery cells for an average mobile phone five times, or an MP3 player more than ten times.

At $100 it is a bit on the expensive, but if their specs are correct, it looks pretty useful for emergencies. [CNET]

New wind projects made up 42% of the U.S.'s total new power-producing capacity added last year, adding 8.4GW of new facilities into the grid. That brought the U.S. total up to 25GW, one more than Germany's 24GW.

These figures are coming in from even before the “Obama bounce” expected from the new president's vows for more clean energy initiatives. Last week, the Senate Finance Committee approved $31 billion in tax breaks to boost alternative energy supplies and efficiency. [Ars Technica and Scientific American]

Indeed, several residents of the village of Conisholme, in Lincolnshire claim that they saw bright streaks in the sky "like an octopus' tentacles" right around the time that the blades were damaged. Others claim that the damage was the result of a "cow-sized ice chunk" and even a "robot stealth bomber."

The Guardian is reporting that these mysterious lights were most likely from fireworks being shot off for one of their 80 year old residents—but that explanation is far too boring and believable. We are worried about are economy but angry (possibly drunk) aliens in robot stealth bombers are flying over England people! Everybody freak out! [NYT via DVICE]

Apparently, one hour of exposure to wind or sunlight will net you around 30 minutes on the phone. A full charge should be able to power up a typical cellphone five times over (LED lights indicate charge levels). There is even a handy clip to attach the charger to a bike or ATV to help generate wind. Obviously, this would be a seriously handy device for outdoorsy types or as an emergency backup. A release date had not been made available, but the Kinesis K2 is expected to retail for $100. [Kinesis and DVICE]

The system utilizes a modified version of Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology to take measurements and it can be mounted directly on the turbine itself. Three lasers fired from the device measure vertical and horizontal wind speeds at different distances, as well as sudden changes in direction. Currently, Vindicator is undergoing ground testing with the goal to have a production version available by 2010. If everything goes as planned, this could be big for wind power as a whole—more power at less cost. [Catch the Wind via Technology Review]

What happens is the bats' internal echolocation, which tracks movement, attracts them to the blades of wind turbines, which presents another fairly obvious problem. But a University of Calgary researcher, puzzled by bats dying off in large numbers around wind farms in southern Alberta has found that those that don't get cut down by the blades (surprisingly only 50%) are actually dying from exploded lungs, or barotrauma; the low pressure areas around the spinning rotors, as explained by our friend Bernoulli, cause the bats' tiny air sacs to burst. Even those that do get knocked out of the sky by the blades have their lungs popped beforehand—of the 188 dead bats in the study, 90% had barotrauma as the cause of death.

I'm thinking this is going to have to remain one of those problems without an immediate solution. Hopefully the bats will evolve to realize that the massive spinning turbine blades do not equal a tasty insectoid meal. [New Scientist, Photo: Zeusandhera]

For starters, Rock Port only has 1300 residents, which is much easier to power using renewable energy than most places. Wind power currently accounts for 1% of total power consumption, and the US government only sees it providing around 20% of the power needed to run the country in the future. And even for that to happen, turbines need to become dramatically more efficient. But I'm not trying to rain on Rock Port's parade (which I'm sure every eco-freak would have gathered for, had it not added to their carbon footprint). [Science Daily via Popular Science]

The new pod, an evolution from the Orange portable wind charger that debuted at Glastonbury 2007, will act as a trial in using renewable energy sources on a larger scale. If everything goes well, the technology will become a staple at “Chill n' Charge tents” in future festivals. The pod can be found within the Pennard Hill camping grounds at Worthy Farm in Somerset. [Slashphone]

The concept of decentralized wind power is not a new one, but adoption has been held up by the expense and unwieldiness of existing solutions, which basically involves building a tall, ugly, miniaturized Texan wind farm on your roof. "Architectural Wind" promises to simplify the process, allowing you to strap as many of the attractive, unobtrusive fans to the edges of your building as you can, without requiring any kind of additional renovation.
[Inhabitat]

The new design comes at the request of Ericsson, which wanted an alternative to a purely diesel-run base station. Those consume roughly 20,000 liters (5,283 gallons) of diesel per year - an increasingly costly expense with rising world energy prices.

The E-Site draws its power from a wind turbine in the network tower and solar panels on the roof. Clean energy sources charge a battery that then powers the base station at night. The E-site also has a small diesel generator, just in case the batteries run out.

What's even more amazing is the E-site's operating system, which can learn to adapt its power-generating techniques to different situations. For instance, if the batteries are running low at night, but the system knows the sun will rise soon, it can decide to wait it out until morning rather than head straight towards the diesel. Good thinking, E-site! [Cnet]

Yes, Shawn Frayne's Windbelt was inspired by "Galloping Gertie," the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that collapsed in 1940, whose video is all over the net and occasionally shown on MythBusters. Wind passes over the Windbelt's taut membrane, and the vibrations it picks up (think leaf whistle) jiggle magnets on either end. The magnets, oscillating between metal coils, generate a current. And a substantial current, if you believe the reporting:

Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines.

When you're settling in for the night, plug in all your devices to its electrical outlet that resembles a car's cigarette lighter, and you can also hook stuff up to its USB port. At the same time, if it's a sunny or windy day, the trailer is still generating energy to charge up its battery. Made of recyclable materials, let's hope this contraption is light enough so that it won't be too much of a burden on its rider.

Navitas bicycle trailer/generator concept [Bicycle Design]

You'll need a 12mph wind for 24 hours to charge up that cellie, but with a little luck the wind will hold at a level that's strong enough to charge up your cellphone but not so powerful as to blow over your tent. Another cool pic of the contraption, after the jump.

This prototype, commissioned by Brit telecom company Orange, feeds its generated power into a control box that charges up batteries, and then you plug your cellphone into that.

The lightweight device weighs a mere 6 ounces without its tent mount, and if all goes well with its test phase, it might just make it to the commercial market. – Charlie White

Gotwind, via Treehugger