gavin's blog

Beaming Sun: A power strip that auto-switches outlets on and off in order to mediate their power consumption - like a silent clapper. According to Beaming Sun "This simple to use device is completely plug and play. Just take it out of the box, plug all of your devices into the color coded outlets, and immediately start saving money by elimating wasteful standby energy." Much in the same vein as Green Plug, the ecological surge protector aims at nipping phantom power consumption at the bud. [Via Beaming Sun]

Experimental Design Labs: My favorite green idea: using live plants and LED lighting to provide air purification. Genius. [Via Engadget]

iChange: According to Rinspeed, the makers of a concept car called the "iChange," "gas guzzling behemoths are coming to an end...what people want is a combination of flexibility, fuel efficiency, and styling that represents their lifestyle without making too much of a statement or many sacrifices. The iChange employs an iPhone on its console to control many of its non-essential functions, and uses several auto parts from cars that are on the road today. The vehicle is powered by lithium-ion batteries, which will be offered in two different stack configurations, one for short trips, and another for long ones. The concept vehicle appears to have taken a few from the Tesla Roadster, but no one seems to mind. [Via College Driver via Rinspeed]

Green Plug: "One Plug. One Planet." From Green Plug's website: "Green Plug is the first developer of digital technology that enables real-time collaboration between electronic devices and their power sources." Green Plug's dream is for all manufacturers to use one universal connector for all mobile devices, thereby cutting down on the waste that is created by every device having its own unique power cord and brick.

When devices connected to power via Green Plug are charging, a small processor handles their power consumption, cutting them off when they are full. This eliminates devices' use of "phantom power," the power used when something is plugged in and in standby mode or already charged, but still consuming power. The processor also allows them to communicate with each other intelligently, further governing device power consumption. [Via Green Plug]

NASA: Yesterday, February 24th, NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), the first spacecraft ever launched that is meant to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide. The spacecraft is poised to provide critical information on CO2 levels in the ocean, atmosphere, and on land.

NASA's press office elaborates:

Of all the carbon humans have added to Earth's atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution, only about 40 percent has remained in Earth's atmosphere. About half of the remaining 60 percent can be accounted for in Earth's ocean. The rest must have been absorbed somewhere on land, but scientists cannot yet determine specifically where this is taking place or what controls the efficiency of these land sinks. Scientists refer to this as the "missing" carbon sink. Carbon dioxide is a major contributor to global warming. The new data will help scientists more accurately forecast global climate change. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will yield 8-million carbon dioxide measurements every 16 days. That's a dramatic increase over current data available from today's small network of instruments on the ground, on tall towers and in aircraft, and from limited space observations.

Once in orbit, the satellite will join five other satellites (in addition to the other 19,000), dubbed the "A-train," which gather other data on the atmosphere. NASA says that it will be several years before the information garnered from OCO will be able to be synthesized and used effectively. According to NASA, "Carbon dioxide is a major contributor to global warming. The new data will help scientists more accurately forecast global climate change." OCO will join the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT), which launched earlier this year.

Rock on, NASA. [Via NASA and Grist]