Clean Air from Dirty Fuel

When the exhaust from a typical engine is expelled, it contains a lot of unburned fuels. Besides being wasteful, the exhaust is so hot that in Oklahoma, (USA), firetrucks can not have a catalytic convertor or they may start more fires than the crews are trying to extinguish. GEET (Global Environmental Energy Technology) offers a … Read more

Sooo, We Managed to KickStart it, Now What?

The tech vertical of crowdfunding sites are like candy stores. They’re packed with new businesses that have a pressure to deliver and a willingness to experiment. Not that crowdfunding isn’t a big enough business on its own. It has also helped jump-start a small secondary industry around servicing crowdfunded projects. There are crowdfunding-specific PR companies, … Read more

Gardens in Space

Sustaining Life with micro-algae and flat panel reactors. This is where so-called life-sustaining circulatory systems come into play. Already, on the International Space Station (ISS), researchers have started reconstituting all kinds of things. But the ISS has it easy: it’s relatively close to Earth. Several times a year it receives fresh provisions of food and … Read more

Student Thesis Project Turns Bus Into Tiny House

Like many architecture students, Hank Butitta was frustrated. Frustrated that the projects he and his fellow classmates were painstakingly, time-consumingly crafting at architecture school resulted—almost always—in nothing. But Hank Butitta, unlike many architecture students, decided that, for his thesis, he would buy an old school bus and turn it into a flexible living space. The … Read more

Tiny House Can’t Be Moved

A downsizing dream has been stalled for one Anderson County man who spent his entire life savings building a tiny home that the state says is not certified to move into a mobilehome park. Bob Pritts built the 208-square-foot home himself. It’s only 8-feet wide and 26-feet long, but is equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, … Read more

Does Anyone Wanna’ Go Dance Upon the Roof?

Humans have grown plants atop structures since antiquity. The ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia (4th millennium BC–600 BC) had plantings of trees and shrubs on aboveground terraces. An example in Roman times was the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, which had an elevated terrace where plants were grown. A roof garden has also been discovered … Read more

Attracting Hummingbirds

These hummingbird favorites are easy to plant and they will animate your garden in the most delightful way. Agastache: Quickly becoming a summer favorite, this perennial has fragrant foliage and spiky flowers of pink, purple, blue, red and orange. Hollyhock: Plant these and you’ll have sensational spires of flowers. A classic cottage garden plant that’s very easy … Read more