This week on TreeHugger, Google thrashes 25 ChromeOS laptops, “rocket trike” makes it 2,500 miles without gas, a gift guide for green geeks, turning an amaryllis flower into a Morse code machine, and more!
Inventor Turns Amaryllis Bulb Into Morse Code Machine (Video)
Check out how the inventor turned the bulb’s stem into a sideswipe CW key.
“Rocket Trike” Cleanly Travels From Colorado to D.C.
Tom Weis is not the kind of guy to back down a challenge. In fact, just last week he finished the type of feat few would ever attempt — riding a recumbent tricycle, called the ‘Rocket Trike’, some 2,500 miles across the United States, from Boulder, Colorado to Washington D.C., without consuming a drop of fossil fuels.
iPad Sleeve Made from Recycled Movie Banners
Created by Aire, a team of designers who make the health of the planet a priority in their creations, have come up with an iPad sleeve made of recycled movie theater banners.
Turning More Heads Than a Tesla? The Beautiful Miluira Retro Electric Roadster from Japan
Some electric cars try to be as practical and mass-market as possible, while others aim for uniqueness and beautiful design (maybe someday we’ll have a combination of both). The Takayanagi Miluira Retro EV definitely falls in the second category.
Green Gift Guide: The Green Geek
From eco phones to renewable power sources to Yoda-approved clothing, these tech toys will have your techie’s heart melting — and win you something you can’t wire easily into their hearts — hard-earned respect.
Tiny Hybrid Device Harvests Both Solar and Thermal Energy
Fujitsu hopes that its latest breakthrough in harvesting energy from both light and heat could be the next big thing for microenergy harvesting via wearable technology.
Brazilian Trees Implanted with Microchips For Forest Management
New microchips implanted into Amazon rainforest trees are another tool in the battle to protect the largest rainforest on earth.
Human-Powered Snow Vehicle Zips You Over Hills In Silence
Designer Michele Marin has dreamed up a human-powered snow machine that will get you over the powdery hills without the need for a fossil fueled engine — and alternative for those of us who want to enjoy zipping over hills with more finesse than a snowmobile can offer, if not the same amount of speed.
Google Destroys 25 ChromeOS Laptops To Prove A Lame Point (Video)
For anyone who has ever used a Google Docs program, it’s a big duh that you can access your data from any computer, and don’t lose it if your laptop shuts down for some reason. So why did Google feel the need to destroy 25 computers for a commercial that demonstrates this point?
Cloud Computing Can Cut Data Center Energy by 38% by 2020
It could mean a drop in spending from $23.3 billion in 2010 to $16 billion in 2020, and a nice fat drop in greenhouse gas emissions of 28% from 2010 levels for the industry in an ideal situation.
TreeHugger’s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.
