SCIENCE BUZZ – A set of techniques that drivers employ to get as much as 100 mpg from their hybrid cars. Gas prices are so insane right now that every little bit helps.

The Best Links:

1. Blogger Compiles Favorite Articles and Tips
2. These Techniques Are Dangerous, If the Gas Prices Don’t Kill You First
3. “You have to be able to take a little peer pressure if you want to hypermile”
4. My First Ever Experience with Hypermiling
5. Fuel economy-maximizing behaviors on Wikipedia
6. Cops Say “Hypermiling” Often Risky, Illegal, AAA Agrees
7. The First Few Steps to Saving Gas
8. Driving Style Can Have a Big Impact on Saving Money on Gas

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SCIENCE BUZZ – Join the global movement to live on only 2000 Watts of energy a day. The average American lives a 11,400 Watt life - six times the goal. Europeans are better but still over the limit - they live 5,400 Watt lives. Combined with alternative energy sources, the 2000-Watt Society could stop global warming without ruining the enjoyment of our lives. In the words of project director Roland Stulz: “it’s not starving, it’s not having less comfort or fun. It’s a creative approach to the future.”

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The Best Links:

1. An Overview of the 2000 Watt Society
2. 2000-Watt Society on Wikipedia
3. New Yorker On A Special Danish Island, the Future of Energy, and 2000-Watt Society (Long Article)
4. Slideshow: How To Understand Your Energy Use and Get Down To 2000-Watts
5. Graph: What Switzerland Will Need To Change To Get To 2000-Watts

SCIENCE BUZZ – Phil Bridge, a young design student from the UK, has created a cardboard bike. While he has yet to finalize the design, citing that there are still a few problems to work out, he expects that the final product will look much like what is pictured below. With a frame made entirely of cardboard (the wheels are standard rubber and metal), the bike can support anyone up to 168 pounds. The bike costs $6 to make and is expected to retail around $24. Purdy damn cool, and the shit’s green as hell.

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The Best Links:

1. Phil Bridge: Cardboard Bicycle Costs Just $30, Don’t Leave It Out in the Rain
2. Bicycle Design: Cardboard bike
3. Meet the Cardboard Bicycle : TreeHugger

BUSINESS BUZZ – The “green line” that delineates where you should get your wine if you’re concerned about its carbon footprint: West of the line, go Californian; if you live to the east, get your vino from France. The map was put together as part of a study by Tyler Colman (aka Dr. Vino) and Pablo Paster called “Red, White and ‘Green’: The Cost of Carbon in the Global Wine Trade.”

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The Best Links:

1. How Dr. Vino Did His Math
2. “Though a Bordeaux comes from a different continent, efficiencies in container shipping and shorter truck routes make it more efficient than trucking wine from Napa across the United States.”

CULTURE BUZZ – The green movement is threatened by too much marketing, too many choices, and real confusion about what individuals can actually do to help the environment. Is it better to buy a brand new hybrid or a used car? Should you use a dishwasher or wash dishes by hand? Is it more important to buy local food or organic food? The New York Times reports that the green movement is threatened by “burnout” and “backlash” mostly because of too many conflicting green messages.

The Best Links:

1. The NYT Reports On The Confused, Burned Out, Environmentalists Struggling To Do The Right Thing

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BUSINESS BUZZ – An auto company in the UK plans to take £30 million to convert “tens of thousands” of luxury vehicles over to electric power. Is England the new hotbed for green automotive trends? See also the Axon car.

The Best Links:

1. Liberty’s Endeavor Will Also Create 250 Jobs
2. An Electrically Powered Range Rover - Too Good to Be True?
3. Electric Range Rover unveiled, Will Cost You 125K Pounds
4. Seems Ambitious to Start with a Big Heavy 4x4….
5. More Lustworthy Green Cars!
6. The British Are Really Pioneering the Electric Car Movement
7. Who Pulled the Plug on the Electric Car? Conspiracy or Poor Performance?

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SCIENCE BUZZ – Efuel 100 has developed a contraption that lets you make your own ethanol out of water, sugar, and yeast, and fill up your car at home. It’s definitely not for the typical lazy American, but given the popularity of Hybrids, DIY ethanol could become a real trend.

The Best Links:

1. It’s $10k, but You Could Potentially Get Government Subsidies to Help You Out
2. MicroFueler Home Ethanol Pump Unveiled, Ready For Pre-Orders
3. Efuel 100 Is Now Taking Pre-Orders
4. The World’s First Portable, Produce-where-you-consume, Ethanol Distiller Will Cost $10K
5. Press Release: How the Micro Fueler Works
6. The First Ever At-Home Biofuel Kit
7. “Ethanol Is the People’s Fuel”
8. NY Times Article: “Home Brew for the Car, Not the Beer Cup”

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SCIENCE BUZZ – Dissolving bodies with lye, which has been used to get rid of animal carcasses for years, is being touted as the green alternative to burial and cremation. Burial is expensive, and cremation can be sacrilegious (someone could try to smoke or snort your ashes). The third option of dissolution could become a viable, environmentally-conscious form of corpse removal.

The Best Links:

1. Dissolving Dead Bodies More Eco-Friendly Than Burial or Cremation
2. Discuss: Your Ethical Feelings about Honoring Someone’s Wish to be Cremated, Buried, Or Dissolved
3. Dissolving Bodies With Lye Isn’t Being Offered Yet in the US
4. Cremation and Burial Is Sooo Last Year
5. “It was like you never existed.”

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STYLE BUZZ – New York Times has a piece on the latest trend in environmentally-conscious home furnishing: furniture that disappears when you’re done with it. Here’s an idea that could really take off, especially when it seems like so much furniture from IKEA is practically disposable. It pained me to have to throw out so much stuff when I decided I didn’t want to live like I was in a college dormitory anymore.

The Best Links:

1. Consciously Imagining a Product’s End Use - But Does Biodegradable Mean “Green”?
2. The Latest and Most Interesting Development in Green and Sustainable Living
3. Consumers Are More Interested in Having a Long-Term Relationship with Their Furniture
4. All the Different Ways to Reuse and Recycle When It Comes to Your Home
5. Stylish Chaise Made Entirely Out of Corrugated Recycled Cardboard
6. Cradle To Cradle: A Book About the Transformation of Human Industry Through Ecologically Intelligent Design

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CULTURE BUZZ – An acronym for “Young and Wealthy but Normal” - a certain kind of person who forgoes luxury to change the world. Yawn. I just almost fell asleep sitting up while posting this trend. But it’s so much harder to hate yuppies when they actually care about something.

The Best Links:

1. “The New Yuppies: They’re Back - and This Time They’re Green “
2. Vote with Your Dollar - Spending Money Is Like Showing Support for Socially-Conscious Companies
3. YAWNS Are Useless, Dull, and No One Cares About Their Demographic
4. The New Generation of Hipsters Are Embracing Green Living
5. Pop-Soc Term for Well-to-Do Young People Who Are Actually Decent People
6. YAWNS Are Worth Millions, But Live Like Paupers
7. Rik Wehbring Is a Good Example of a YAWN

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