My Ninja, Please! 4.6.11 : Wood Skyscrapers on the Rise
Highly earthquake and fire-resistant and eco-friendly…. but MY NINJA PLEASE!
In architecture, engineering, and forestry sectors around the world, there is a mega-buzz about forthcoming high-rise towers made of wood. Imagine a 20, 30, or even 40-storey condominium or office tower that has timber structural-members and is clad in wood. The modernist preoccupation with high-carbon-footprint concrete and steel may soon take a back seat to the innovation of towers constructed of wood. The earliest ventures in this direction started in Japan a decade ago. But numerous projects are now also on the drawing boards in Austria, Norway, Australia, and Canada.
Posted: April 6th, 2011
at 5:27pm by mnp
Categories: myninjaplease,green,architecture
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What Ever Happened to Wind Energy?
In 2010 installations collapsed- and now the "Wind Explorer" has driven along the coast of Australia for 10 Euros of electricity.
Posted: March 24th, 2011
at 9:56am by mnp
Categories: myninjaplease,green,weaponry,design,fo' real?,science,travel,development
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What is Web 2.0?
The difference between this Web 2.0 model and the previous one is directly equivalent to the difference between a rain forest and a desert. One of the primary reasons we value tropical rain forests is because they waste so little of the energy supplied by the sun while running massive nutrient cycles. Most of the solar energy that saturates desert environments gets lost, assimilated by the few plants that can survive in such a hostile climate. Those plants pass on enough energy to sustain a limited number of insects, which in turn supply food for the occasional reptile or bird, all of which ultimately feed the bacteria. But most of the energy is lost.
Documentary : Botany of Desire
Watch the full episode. See more Botany of Desire.
Posted: March 16th, 2011
at 6:28pm by mnp
Categories: myninjaplease,green,drogas,mnp is for the children,grub,science,boredom killer,documentary,drinks
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Slugging
10,000 people are cooperating to commute, what a notion!
The Other Side of Apple
Green Momentum has a great post on the lack of concern for the environment by computer giant, Apple. Corporate responsibility has seemed to have taken a backseat to Apple’s power over the masses. They refuse to paricipate in green surveys and in a recent report, "The Other Side of Apple," led by NGOs Friends of Nature, Green Beagle, and the Institute of Public and Envrironmental Affairs, it found the company as being the least responsive to such matters. Apple should be leading the way, not bolstering sales and leaving batteries rotting in garbage dumps.
Posted: March 9th, 2011
at 7:34pm by mnp
Categories: apple,green,not ninja-worthy
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Solar-Powered Art - Craig Colorusso
A solar-powered art exhibit? It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve covered something of that sort on the vaunted pages of mnp, but it could be the coolest.
Creating the effect of an enchanted forest of singing trees, Craig Colorusso’s "Sun Boxes" installation can be walked through in a leisurely manner, or run through at full speed in a last ditch and extremely risky move to avoid the approaching enemy.
Sun Boxes is a solar powered sound installation. It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently, each powered by the sun via solar panels. Inside each Sun Box is a PC board that has a recorded guitar note loaded and programmed to play continuously in a loop. These guitar notes collectively make a Bb chord. Because the loops are different in length, once the piece begins they continually overlap and the piece slowly evolves over time.
Basically, I imagine this to be one harmonious but constantly changing, amplifying, and diminishing barrage of sound that keeps on rocking (God forbid it’s cloudy out). Although not billed as such, I find this to be a potentially very interesting and mesmerizing marriage of sound and mathematics. Plus, this ninja is from Beantown!
Craig will be at the IMA from March 18-20, for what we hope are 3 beautiful days. We recommend you wander amongst the enchanted sound-forest, put don’t pick the flowers!
We are all reliant on the sun. It is refreshing to be reminded of this. Our lives have filledup with technology. But we still need the sun and so does Sun Boxes. Karlheinze Stockhausen once said "using Short-wave radios in pieces was like improvising with the world." Similarly, Sun Boxes is collaborating with the planet and its relation to the sun.
Posted: February 28th, 2011
at 6:34am by Black Ock
Categories: music,green,contemporary
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