Following successful programs in Amsterdam and Copenhagen (along with less successful programs elsewhere) Barcelona is investing in bicycles. The program, called Bicing, will consist of 200 (a goal of 1,500 knock on wood) bikes, accessed by a membership card at one of 14 dedicated racks. The group’s website offers online tracking of the bikes which should help with distribution. Free for the first half hour, the Barcelona system should be able to escape the main problem with free bike programs, accountability, by using membership cards linked to real money. If you can read Spanish, or Catalan for that matter, head over to “bicing.com”:http://bicing.com and learn more about it.
These sorts of community bike projects are an especially dear interest of mine because my first endeavor into public life was an effort at creating a “free bike” system at my “university”:http://uiuc.edu/. It didn’t work out, but the effort lives on in a bike co-op that is still running, “The Bike Project”:http://thebikeproject.org/. Thanks to “this article”:http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006444.html from “World Changing”:http://www.worldchanging.com/ for keeping me up to date.
Category Archives: Original Duenos
All done, Amazon swimmer reaches the sea
Martin Strel, the man crazy enough to actually attempt swimming the length of the Amazon has done it. Swimming all the way from inland Peru to the Amazon delta in Brazil, he swam a total length of 3,374 miles (5,430 km). Averaging 52 miles a day in 66 days, the native Slovenian actually finished the epic swim 4 days ahead of schedule. He has also swum the lengths of the Mississippi, Yangtse, and Danube rivers. Here are links to his “personal website”:http://www.martinstrel.com/main.php?L=2 and the “Amazon swim site”:http://www.amazonswim.com/main.php, also a “BBC news article”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6536283.stm on the end of his journey.
Killer Apps for Mac – Adium
http://duenos.net/article/111/ and "SizzlingKeys":http://duenos.net/article/119/, a lot of people use Adium. This popular iChat replacement is fully customizable instant messaging program that supports AIM, Bonjour, MSN, G-Talk, etc... In fact, I have no idea what most of those icons actually represent, but you can be assured that Adium does. I've been using Adium for years and love the way that it is integrated into OS X with so many visual styles and features. The only thing missing is video support.
To learn more about Adium, go their "website":http://www.adiumx.com or to their "extras site":http://www.adiumxtras.com/. Also see other Killer Apps for Mac entries on "Sidenote":http://duenos.net/article/111/ and "SizzlingKeys":http://duenos.net/article/119/.
Virgin Earth Challenge
http://duenos.net/article/123/ a couple of days ago about the X Prize for auto efficiency, I bring you the Virgin Earth Challenge. Launched in February, 2007 Challenge prize of $25m will go to ??"whoever can demonstrate to the judges' satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth’s climate."??
Just like the X Prize, I hope this will provide the necessary impetus to get innovators and entrepreneurs to take the task of dealing with global warming seriously. For more about the competition, check out "the website":http://www.virginearth.com/.
Thousands mob Victoria station in silent rave
A flash mob of 4,000 dancers clogged London’s Victoria Station yesterday evening. Silently listening to the club soundtrack on their mp3 players, the mob was finally dispersed by vans of police. Here are links to “Gridskipper”:http://gridskipper.com/travel/london/flash-mob-chokes-up-the-tube-250246.php, where I found about the party underground and to “this is London”:http://www.thisislondon.co.uk and their “original article”:http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391632-details/4%2C000+flash+mob+dancers+startle+commuters+at+Victoria/.
Apparently there are some pretty cool pictures “out there”:http://flickr.com/search/?q=mobileclubbing+london+victoria&m=text.
Apple TV launched, now hacked
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/6884002/wo/nY11X6Uorly82tgqIHpQ2XMqE7L/0.0.21.1.0.8.13.0.1.0.0.0.0 has only just been launched and already it is being hacked to be, well, not Apple TV. "Apple TV Hacks":http://www.appletvhacks.net/ is a website serving the Apple TV hacking community and reading their archives, these people are fast. Already people have figured out how to "use an external keyboard and mouse,":http://www.appletvhacks.net/2007/03/30/use-your-usb-keyboard-and-mouse/ "create plugins for the GUI 'backrow'":http://www.appletvhacks.net/2007/04/02/create-plugins-for-backrow/ and even "run a full version of OS X.":http://www.appletvhacks.net/2007/04/01/mac-os-x-running-on-apple-tv/
Thanks to "The Inquirer":http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38779 for the lead on this story.
Browser based image editing
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/ points out this amazing website that offers multi-functional, useful, and speedy image editing tools, all for free. It's called "Picnik.com":http://www.picnik.com and, while still in Beta (what isn't these days?) is actually very useful. For more about the site, I recommend reading Jeremy's "article":http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001646.php at Cool Tools, or you could just go ahead and "try it yourself.":http://www.picnik.com I was able to do this in no time at all.
Inhabitat.com
http://inhabitat.com was founded two years ago by a NYC-based architecture student who seems to be have that magic combination of writing ability, intelligence, and beauty--read: not single. The blog covers issues of ecological sustainability in design and architecture. I've already read through all of this year's archives and am loving it. Expect the plagiarism to begin soon.
X Prize for auto efficiency
The “X Prize Foundation”:http://xprize.org has announced a new competition to achieve automotive efficiency. Arguing that competition breeds success and citing Lindbergh’s prize-winning trans-Atlantic flight, the X Prize foundation shocked the world with the original “Ansari X Prize for space flight”:http://www.xprize.org/xprizes/ansari_x_prize.html by making space tourism a reality. Now it seems the group’s target is more terrestrial with the multi-million dollar prize going to the first group that can make a car that, among many other things, gets 100 miles per gallon. Read the full list of “guidelines”:http://auto.xprize.org/xprize/guidelines.html if you’re interested.
Originally found through “this article”:http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006420.html at “World Changing”:http://www.worldchanging.com
Patagonia sells their scraps
Outdoor company “Patagonia”:http://www.patagonia.com has always been good at being environmentally responsible, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this. The DIY shoe is really just a $30 bag of scraps with instructions on how to turn them into something that sort of looks like a shoe.
You can buy the DIY shoe at the “Patagonia site”:http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/product/collection_alt.jsp?OPTION=FOOTWEAR_COLLECTION&catcode=SHOES_SP07_US.SHOES.MENS.CASUAL#yc or you could pay a lot more for the pre-built Nike version, “Considered”:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/03/nike_considered.php
Originally found at the “Gear Addicts blog”:http://www.sacaddicts.net/