pedalpower
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Visualized: pedal power lights Christmas trees the eco-friendly way
When many are increasingly conscious of how their lighting impacts the environment, Christmas tree lights can feel like giant bundles of excess energy consumption. We're not advocating that anyone shelve a centuries-old tradition, but we've noticed a growing trend towards alternatives that help save the Earth... at least, if you don't mind cutting a tree down. Take Electric Pedals' two new trees outside London's Southbank Centre, for example: ten pairs of pedals keep the Vivid Design Works installation shining through energy 'donated' by visitors. We've also seen an even larger pedal-driven tree in Beirut, Lebanon, and we're certain that others are lighting up the night as we speak without consuming more of the world's resources. The concept isn't new, as there's been foot-powered trees in recent years -- we'd just like it to see it spread.
ARM server running on pedal power demoed at Red Hat Summit
With x86 and a few high-powered RISC chips dominating the list of the most powerful computers on Earth, you might be wondering what's the big deal with ARM and it's push into the server space. Well, this is the big deal. The image above is of Jon Masters powering a Calxeda-server from HP with nothing more than a bicycle. OK, so there's a bit more to the setup -- including a 400 watt inverter, a 35 Ah battery, a UPS and a Pedal-a-Watt -- but the gist of it is that Masters was able keep 32 ARM cores humming along just by pedaling his road bike at the Red Hat Summit. The demo was mostly meant as a proof of concept, but we can easily imagine our future robot overlords putting us to work keeping their network of servers running. On the plus side, pedaling to power the Internet might help solve our global obesity epidemic. For a quick tour of the rig, check out the video after the break.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: trains speed up, paint improves planes, and the CO2-scrubbing artificial trees
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. This week Inhabitat saw high-speed railways pick up steam around the globe as China announced plans to build a trans-continental railroad in South America and Japan began developing the world's fastest high-speed train. We also saw eco transportation reach new heights as a kite-powered car completed an epic 5,000km journey across Australia and researchers developed a nanotech paint that will increase the fuel efficiency of airplanes. The automotive world is also gearing up for the Geneva car show as Toyota is getting set to roll out an all-electric IQ and Porsche pulled back the curtain on its Panamera S Hybrid and Boxster EV. In other news, this week we brought you an exclusive video interview where celebrated environmentalist Stewart Brand argues that nuclear power could save the world. We also explored several other alternative energy sources that are decidedly less controversial - PurposeEnergy is transforming beer brewing waste into a source of clean-burning biofuel, and a design duo has proposed a series of beautiful solar-powered artificial trees that scrub CO2 from the air. Roughly one in every six people do not have access to safe drinking water, so we were excited to learn about a pedal-powered water purification system based on the bicycle that holds great promise for the developing world. Speaking of cleaning up dirty water, this week Stephen Baldwin sued Kevin Costner over the oil-separating technology that cleaned up the BP oil spill. And last but not least, we were wowed by this hydrofloor system, which can save space and energy by concealing a swimming pool beneath your living room floor!
Sanyo Pedal Juice battery pack powers your wah-wah without distortion
A good roadie can be identified by two things: a wardrobe composed entirely of darks and bulging pockets full of batteries. Sanyo would like to let those tireless workers downsize to some slimmer black jeans with its new Pedal Juice battery pack, which is rocking a little Eneloop technology inside and can power a whole slew of daisy-chained devices. Charge it up for 3.5 hours and it'll provide 9V DC of output to whatever you like, powering a 10mA effects pedal for a whopping 50 hours. That's about 10 times longer than a simple 9V battery and, unlike one of those, the Pedal Juice will provide a constant 9V right up until it's dead. It even promises less electrical interference than using an AC adapter. All that for $149.99, which may sound like a lot for a battery pack, and it is, but real musicians know that success doesn't come cheap. %Gallery-108488%
Pedal-powered Porsche made out of Balsa wood doesn't fail to impress
You've always wanted a knock-off, pedal powered Porsche that was actually constructed largely out of Balsa wood and tin foil painted gold, right? Well, who wouldn't?
Webcycle provides pedal-powered internet, reason to dodge browser-enlarging Flash sites
Need an excuse to get some cardio into your life? Can't live without ye old internet? Thanks to Matt Grey and Tom Scott, the answer to your weight loss woes is pictured above. The aptly-titled Webcycle is essentially a sensor-laden fitness bike that requires users to pedal faster in order to snag more throughput. An Ubuntu-based laptop is wired up to an Arduino and an array of sensors that allow more bits and bytes to seep through based on how hard the rider is working. A simple slow pedal is all it takes to load mobile pages and text-heavy sites, but if you're hoping to actually watch the video after the break, you'll certainly need to kick things up a notch. Pure brilliance, we say.[Thanks, Yoda]
The HumanCar puts your passengers to good use: pedaling
Yeah, it's not going to replace your Hummer any time soon, but the HumanCar is a fun new way coast around town and burn off a few calories while your at it. Of course, pedal-powered cars are not a new idea, but the mix of an electric motor and some clever engineering allow this thing a bit more pep than your average Flinstones-mobile. The car is completely symmetrical, so two passengers can pedal while two passengers steer (yes, we said two), and then trade off once the former get tired. The whole contraption can hit speeds in excess of 60 mph on the downhill, and is steered by "body angulation of the two front operators," which sounds entirely unresponsive for speeds like that. HumanCar Company is marketing the vehicle both as a mode of low-speed transportation and as a team builder for corporations, and it's already been implemented by Intel and the US Army. We don't know the price, but we're pretty sure the cost involved in bribing a few close friends to pedal this thing for us would put it well out of our price range.[Via AutoblogGreen; thanks Nik]
