Featured items

Tesla Motors http://www.teslamotors.com/

New electric car designs using advanced lithium-ion batteries; the $80,000 Tesla Roadster, available mid-2007, does zero to 60 mph in four seconds, with no engine noise, and has a 250-mile range.

Inductrack http://www.llnl.gov/str/Post.html

A passive design for maglev (magnetically levitated) high-speed trains. Inductrack doesn't require cryogenic superconducting magnets, complex active stability control, or even any external power applied to the tracks. They think they can make a train do 300+ mph with just a turbine-powered ducted fan at the back. A modified version is being investigated for NASA as a means of accelerating a future SSTO shuttle up close to Mach 1 before engine ignition, probably up the side of a mountain.

PODS http://www.pods.com/

The better way to move. PODS (Portable On Demand Storage) are 8×8×12 or 8×8×16-foot steel cargo containers with a wood lining and roll-up doors. They're delivered by special hydraulic-lift trucks to ground level—no ramps!—loaded at your leisure, delivered across town or across the country, or stored for you in a dry warehouse. This is a very nifty idea, if there's a PODS facility in your area: domestic container freight for the masses.

Flexcar http://www.flexcar.com/

Zipcar http://www.zipcar.com/

Car sharing services, an interesting new idea, are so far only available in certain large markets, but supposedly expanding. It's supposed to be cheaper and more convenient than traditional car rental. You can reserve a car online, as far ahead as you want, for as long as you want, and they bill you. The service takes care of maintenance and repairs.

Energy Innovations http://www.energyinnovations.com/

Sunflower photovoltaic generator featured in Wired July 2005 uses just two motors to steer a whole array of solar concentrator mirrors, instead of two motors per mirror as before.

Earthship Biotecture http://www.earthship.org/

Self-sufficient houses, that collect rainwater and generate their own power, built of rammed earth in recycled car tires, providing thermal mass temperature stabilization.

Rite in the Rain® http://www.riteintherain.com/

Waterproof paper and products that allow you to take notes out in the weather with ordinary pens and pencils. Wish I'd had this stuff when I was a backpacker.

makestickers.com   makesigns.com   (Tinley Park IL)

Custom bumper stickers. This very cool company can make you one (1) bumper sticker with your choice of text on it, for five bucks, and you'll probably have it in a week. You can type text into one of their predesigned templates, or you can send in your own JPG/GIF/TIFF graphics files and they'll scale them to fit. You always get to preview before you order.

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