Things Are Good

Here’s a real story about a real whale and a real thing that happened on the internet as told by the founder of Reddit. A great four minute story about how the internet got Greenpeace to have a good time and in turn save a whole lot of whales from a Japanese assault.

The Tokyo International Film Festival has rolled out a green carpet made of recycled plastic bottles to show their support for the environment. You can read about their Green Carpet Club here and the Globe and Mail has a short article on the festival, which is also showing The Cove (trailer below).
The theme of the [...]

A community in Japan has put solar panels on nearly every house and they love it! A short article on the solar powered houses shows that in order for the system to be rolled out elsewhere more support from all levels of government are needed. It’s great to see pilot projects like this proving that [...]

Japan is looking to offshore “eco-rigs” to create energy. This project sounds like it’s from the future or something.
The floating eco-rig generators which measure 1.2 miles by 0.5 miles (2km by 800m) are intended to harness the energy of the Sun and wind. They are each expected to produce about 300 megawatt hours of power.
Some [...]

Train companies use maintenance vehicles that can switch from road to rails, however, this is the first time I’ve seen bus do this. Japan Rail is testing the bus-train combo on the island of Hokkaido. The system seems to work because the mass transit there is not mass at all.
Dual-mode vehicles have four rubber tires [...]

This is without a doubt, really reat news. Japan has halted whailing for the year, after pressure from the Australian government. A hat tip to Kevin Rudd and his fellow Aussies for convincing Japan to change their ways.
The country’s chief government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura, revealed the backdown at a news conference today.
Japan had planned to [...]