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Tag Archive for 'inspiring inventor'
Hello All,
Happy happy Monday!
We’ve got another new contributor to SuperForest: Mr. Julius de Hond!
May we proudly present SuperForester Julius’s first piece:
Hello dear readers of SuperForest,
My name is Julius de Hond and since a short while I can proudly call myself the newest member of the SF team. I found SuperForest through the official website of Jason Mraz. Yes that is indeed the Virginia located singer-songwriter (he inspires me a lot by the way, but I’ll get to that later). Anyway, Mraz features SF in his links section accompanied with a little snippet of text saying “My favorite blog! So many great ideas and alternative art projects”. Well I just had to check that out.
But who is that I actually? Well as said previously I’m Julius de Hond and I like Jason Mraz. I’m living in the Netherlands and going to – what I believe Americans call – highschool. Since I’m near done in there I plan on going to university and study Applied Physics. That basically wraps it up for my career at this point in time.
Furthermore I enjoy rowing in my spare time. It’s good for your physical condition and when the weather is nice it also gives a great experience (you should try it). I also like music (listening to, not making it), photography (making it as well as looking at it), modern art, literature (that includes Shakespeare and A Clockwork Orange) and blogging. I’ve started blogging about a year ago for a Dutch blog. This really encouraged me to start for myself and I did, casuquo.org became mine. I like to write about anything that interests me. That includes science, politics, people, the environment, culture and art.
So what specific things inspire me to keep on going what I do and enjoy it? First of all there are a few teachers walking around my school who really get it on. They don’t just teach stuff from books but they try to tell something. Then there are some musicians and artists who are inspirational. The earlier mentioned Jason Mraz is one of them, his music is great and the lyrics are spot on. Besides Mraz there’s also Jack Johnson, the surfer who couldn’t surf anymore after an accident and decided to start recording music. It’s pretty good to see that a bad experience such as an accident can have considerably good consequences.
Biking is good for you. It keeps your body in a healthy condition, it gets you in touch with the outdoors and it can give a relaxing experience. The only downside of purchasing a bike, is the risk of getting it stolen.
This must be a lot like what went on in Phil Bridge’s head when coming up with his cardboard bike. Bridge is a product design graduate student who created this paper-wonder with the intention of reducing the number of people who use their cars a lot. Because the bike is constructed entirely out of cheap (but sturdy) cardboard it’s not expensive. So the chances of it being stolen will drop (probably a lot), so people have less reasons not to buy a bike.
Furthermore it’s designed in an ecologically OK way, the cardboard is recyclable, and the mechanical parts (such as the chain and some screws) are replaceable. To me the cardboard bike is an example of a great design that is environmentally and socially responsible.
Well I’ve been taking enough of your time now. Get out there, spread the SuperForest humanifesto and check back here once in a while to read about inspirational things.
–Julius de Hond
(Jackson again.
Great job, Julius!
Check back for more from the newest member of Team SuperForest.)
Ooooh, Treehugger had a nice piece up about cardboard bikes: Meet the Cardboard Bicycle
An 18(!) year old inventor has designed and built a very cool custom motorcycle.
The Uno @ motorcyclemojo.
The Uno’s site
Morning All!
Just read about this over at dvice.com
Dean Kamen has invented a machine that purifies water. What’s revolutionary about it is that it works with no chemicals, filters, or membranes, and it can purify just about anything wet.
Puddles of toxic waste in = drinking water out.
Check it:
“Part of saving our environment relies heavily on figuring out new ways to process our natural resources in a self-sustaining, cost effective way. Dean Kamen, the man who brought us the Segway, has just such a solution in the form of a water purification device called the Slingshot. Kamen claims the Slingshot can take nearly any source of moisture–including ocean water, urine or sewage–and quickly turn it into safe drinking water. The Slingshot process operates by means of vapor compression distillation, requires no filters, and can operate using the most efficient fuel known to man: cow dung. In addition to producing drinkable water, the Slingshot also generates enough electricity to light 70 energy-efficient light bulbs.
In order to push adoption of the potentially Earth-changing gadget, Kamen hopes to seed thousands of the units with local village entrepreneurs, in much the same way independent cell phone businesses have thrived and gradually changed the face of many impoverished areas around the globe. Although not ready for pick-up at your local Wal Mart, Kamen’s future target price for the device is in the $1,000 to $2,000 range (a rather attractive price when you consider what we pay for laptops and cell phones). You can see Kamen showing off his new invention by vaporizing Stephen Colbert’s toxic potato chips here.”
Read the full post here: Kamen’s Slingshot
Dean Kamen, you so rad.
Just saw this over at dvice.com.
“Want to create a bike that runs on thin air? Talk to this guy, former sheepherder and current rocket scientist/inventor Jem Stansfield, who took a couple of air canisters normally used by firefighters for their breathing apparatuses, and lashed them onto a Puch moped. The result? An air-powered bike that spews out cleaner air than it takes in.
The two compressed air cylinders drive a pair of rotary air engines (similar to the one powering the Air Car) that propel the bike to a top speed of 18mph, but it’ll only go about 7 miles until more air is needed. Just a quick fill-up at his local dive shop, he’s ready to go again. Might not be a bad idea if you live close to work. Now it’s time for the oil companies to put a stop to these shenanigans.”
-Charlie White @ dvice.com
We want one. Here’s to hoping he puts the plans online.
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