lessthanawake:

Just stick this portable outlet on your window to start using solar power

“We have seen a lot of solar chargers in our day. And among all of them, this is the first one we’ve seen that we will definitely run out and buy as soon as it’s made available in the U.S. It’s a portable socket that gets its power from the sun rather than the grid. You plug into a window instead of into the wall. It’s easy.

That was the whole point, according to the designers, Kyohu Song and Boa Oh: “We tried to design a portable socket, so that users can use it intuitively without special training,” they write.

It is really simple. The portable socket attaches to a window like a leech to human skin. On its underside, it has solar panels.

The solar panels suck energy from the sun. The charger converts that energy into electricity. You plug in to the charger.

Even better, the charger stores that energy. After five to eight hours of charging, the socket provides 10 hours of use. You can pop it off the window, stick it in your bag, and use it to charge up your phone with solar energy, even if you’re sitting in a dark room.”

When a town turns to a perpetual disaster area, it might be time to move it.

rhamphotheca:

Help Our Turtle Friends!!!

(Source: tattoolost)

robertseshelman:

Andrew Freedman at Climate Central writes about what, if any, connection there might be between human-caused climate change and more frequent, severe tornadoes of the type that devastated Moore, Oklahoma. 

You can find his clearly written survey of current scientific understanding here.

The New York Times offers an account of the atmospheric conditions that caused the tornado and explores the potential links to climate change. 

The short answer, says Freedman, is:

Tornado data does not reveal any clear trends in tornado occurrence or deaths that would suggest a clear tie to global warming, at least not yet. 

Atmospheric instability and wind shear are key conditions for the formation of tornadoes. A warming climate is expected to increase instability in the atmosphere and is projected to decrease wind shear.

Freedman says: 

A fact sheet from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on tornadoes and climate change describes the counteracting trends of decreasing shear and increasing instability in a warming world as a “tug of war.”

… which provides abundant research opportunity. So expect more published science on this topic soon. 

smartercities:

A House Powered by Exercise | FastCompany

The JF-Kit House by the Spanish design firm Elii is an experiment in “domestic fitness,” rendering “the image of a possible future where citizens produce part of their domestic energy requirements with their own physical activities.

officialteamgreen:

Myths will kill you.  Stop asking where we get ours, start asking why you are trying to get so much?