Pretty Cool- Oil-Cleaning Robot Army

If only BP had been prepared... or everyone for that matter. Well it seems that the BP oil disaster has caused others to become better prepared for such tragedies and possible future problems with our oil dependence.

Check out this robot created by by MIT's Sensable City Lab.
Check out the video of the "seaswarm" bot.

Tip of the Week: Plant some fresh air

Thought I would start posting weekly... as we've slacked a little on our blog.
Hope to keep this habit which would be good... and hoping that posting about other good habits would help all around. ENJOY!

PLANT SOME FRESH AIR:

Instead of buying an air purifier, try a bamboo palm, peace lily or English ivy in stead. These plants act as natural air filters in a room, removing up to 87% of VOC's (volitile organic compounds).

Going Vertical

via Treehugger

Jargon Watch: Vertical Gardens vs Vertical Farms vs Living Walls vs Green Façades
"..vertical farms, designed for food production, were a very different thing from living walls, which I thought Alex incorrectly called a vertical garden. But he is not alone; we did it in Madrid Gets a Vertical Garden Too and Ugly Cooling Tower Gets Vertical Garden Makeover in Spain. (Interestingly, all Spanish projects) ".

LIVING WALLS:
Randy Sharp explains in Azure:
"Green walls come in two main varieties, ac­cord­ing to Vancouver landscape architect Randy Sharp. His firm, Sharp & Diamond, designed the Vancouver Aquarium's 50-square-metre green wall of polypropylene modules filled with wildflowers, ferns and ground covers. A leading expert on "vegetated building envelope systems," Sharp divides these installations into green facades, where a structure fastened to the wall provides a trellis for vines and climbers planted in the ground or in containers; and the newer living walls, where a modular grid of wall pan­els - complete with live plants, a conventional soil or layered-felt growing medium, an irrigation and nutrient-delivery system, and a support structure - is attached to the building."...

read the whole post on Treehugger.com