12-year-old Makes Homeless Shelter from Trash : Green Building Elements

Our friend and host of Design Squad, Nate Ball, checking in on Max Wallack, who's relaxing in the new "Home Dome" he just built in the Model Shop at Continuum

Max Wallack, a 12-year-old inventor from Natick, MA, stole the show at Design Squad’s Trash to Treasure contest with his “Home Dome.” The contest asked kids to repurpose trash into practical inventions.

Max was here at the Continuum studio last week where we helped him to turn his "Home Dome" concept into a functional prototype in our model shop.

At the end of the day, I had a chance to meet the young inventor so of course I asked him if he had anything in mind for his next invention.
He replied "Yes, but I can't tell you about it."

Oh well, I tried.

He's a super smart and motivated young man, and I hope he continues to inspire people of all ages to embrace the power of design for all things positive.

As for the "Home Dome" - it's quite warm and comfortable - and dare I say mod. With a bit more refinement, I could easily imagine them practically employed as inexpensive, semi-permanent shelters.

See the PBS Design Squad video clip here:

Rethinking Green for Lean Times

"Shopping along" in Atlanta

How do consumers see green?

That's a question we asked ourselves at Continuum, the innovation consultancy where I work, a little over a year ago.
Just this week, we officially published our findings, and our friend Jennifer van der Meer shared some great thoughts on the work on the Core77 design blog.

Read the full story here:
http://www.core77.com/blog/business/continuum_rethinking_green_for_lean_times_12646.asp

The Future's So Bright

^ ^ ^ ^ click above for link ^ ^ ^ ^

You can't drill a hole in it.
Because it's made of titanium.

A new supermaterial recently discovered at Ohio State University is made from a hybrid of plastics, molybdenum and titanium.

The researchers who invented the novel solar cell material think it may have the potential to achieve nearly 100% efficiency.

Go Buckeyes! You deserve a cheer for that!

Farmer-in-Chief: Food as a National Security Issue

Many of you may already be familiar with the food writer, Michael Pollan, who recently wrote the NYT bestseller In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.
On yesterday’s NPR Fresh Air, he talked about his proposal for a new U.S. food policy in an excellent interview with Terry Gross:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95896389

Enjoy real good food!

UPDATE (11/18/08): We have a new president-elect, and he's assembling his cabinet and team of advisors. Grist.org provides a detailed and insightful look at who might be chosen to be the all-important chief of the USDA. So far, the options on the table are not all roses.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/19/6373/9820

Energy? Fair dinkum, mate!

(l-r: saul, dan, grant, joe, jeff / photo by cha-ling o'connell)

On Tuesday night, gathered in South Boston around the Absolut-ly-almost-ready-to-be-shipped-to-Linz Quartet, we reunited with our good old Aussie friend, Saul Griffith.

Saul is (ir?)responsible for introducing Dan and I back in school, when we all worked together on a class project to develop a low cost prescription device (aka autorefractor aka autophororetinoscope 4000) for Low Cost Eyeglasses, now known as Optiopia.

These days, Saul's still very involved in technology development, especially around clean energy solutions and educational projects.

His latest work on Energy Literacy is important to all of us, and he's got a really great way of sharing the story. Long story short, I recommend you WATCH THIS and then VISIT HERE.

It's probably as excellent a take on energy and climate change management as you'll find today...