"With the invention of modern laptops, ubiqity of broadband Internet access, and advances in communication software, there is no longer a need to be in the office. At least not everyday. Thousands of companies are rolling out work from home policies and hundreds of thousands of people are starting to take advantage of them. What are the pros and cons of working from home?"
"If you can’t wait for the commercial arrival of Trev, the renewal energy vehicle, then roadsters in places like the UK and Australia may wish to consider the Hyundai i30, which picked up both the 2007 Car of the Year and 2007 Green Car of the Year in Australia.
Although claimed to have a fuel consumption of 4.7 litres per 100km, the i30 1.6-litre turbo-diesel managed to complete the 2007 World Solar Challenge conventional vehicle class (PDF) on a smell-of-an-oily-rag 3.2litres/100km (73.5 mpg!), while producing 97g/km of emissions. For comparision a Prius petrol hybrid averaged 5.6litres/100km with emissions of 146g/km.
So for Australians this means travelling from Melbourne to Brisbane on less than a tank of petrol, (Britons could do London-Paris return!) and with the cost of fuel on the rise this fuel economy should appeal to many.
The Hyundai i30 won the 2007 Green Car of the Year not only because of its spectacular fuel efficiency but because it matched this with pretty efficient pricing too. In Australia the i30 CRDi costs $21,490, while the Prius goes for about $37,400. (In the UK it looks like £12,995 on-road for the Hyundai i30 1.6 CRDi Manual.)"
"Staff and students at the University of South Australia have designed and built a prototype of what they reckon might be the future commuter car for Australian cities. Trev sounds rather impressive. [It] goes from 0 to 100kph in 10 secs, has a top speed of 120 km/h, with a travel range of 150+km between charges of his 7kWh 44kg lithium ion polymer battery.
When charged from mains power [it] costs you $1 AUD per 100km to run, using what is said to be 1/5th of the energy of conventional car."
"Got a new VoIP-ready mobile phone? Tossing your old phone supports civil war in Africa, endangers gorillas and generates huge amounts of e-trash. Do one of these things instead"50 Ways to Leave Your Cell Phone - VoIP News
"You always hear about how you should change to compact fluorescent lightbulbs and turn out the lights when you leave the room; with something like Motionbulb you can have both at the same time. A slick motion sensor is embedded in the bulb's housing, turning itself on when it senses motion within 25 feet, and switching off when you leave the room."
"... scientists based near Chennai, India have now developed a more environmentally-friendly and cost-efficient method for tanning leather.Eco-friendlier Leather From India : TreeHugger
Raghava Rao and a group of researchers at the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) in Adyar have found a simple way to reduce the amount of chemical pollutants involved in tanning by merely reversing the order of tanning and post-tanning steps. By doing so, they were able to cut the amount of chemicals released by 82% and increased energy efficiency by 40%, without observable reduction in quality."
