Notes

Inhabitat's Week in Green: Solar Hourglass, Urban Tornadoes and the World's Tallest Garden

Japan is the home of high-speed rail, and remains a leading country in train travel. Officials have unveiled the nation's first magnetic-levitation train that was revealed to the public. The new train, which uses "L-Zero" technology to reach speeds of up to 311 MPH, can transport passengers from Tokyo to Nagoya in 40 minutes. Tesla is set to unveil something big this week. Elon Musk tweeted a mysterious picture of the project. But, we'll need to wait until Thursday to see the complete details. China's Foxconn is most well-known for making Apple products. However Foxconn is ready to enter the electric car market with a car that costs $15,000. Spanish company Opbrid wants to revolutionize public transportation with the development of a system that can charge an entire bus in as little as five to eight minutes.



Copenhagen is Europe's top design capital. The Danish city could soon be home to one of the most innovative renewable energy sources in the world. Argentine designer Santiago Muros Cortes just won the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition with his concept for a gigantic solar energy-generating hourglass that could generate enough power for 1,000 Danish homes. In other green energy news, Burlington, Vermont, is now powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The city of 42,000 residents gets its electricity from a mix of wind, hydro, and a biomass facility. Solar farms are wonderful however they consume a lot of space. That's why the folks from Ciel et Terre just installed the UK's first floating solar farm in Berkshire. The array has 800 photovoltaic cells and an output of 200kW. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to install solar panels in 24 public schools by 2016. These solar schools are part the larger plan to provide 100 megawatts of solar power to 300 public buildings in the next 10 years. Signal, a snowboard manufacturer has just released a solar snowboard that charges electronic devices as you go down the mountain.



The world's tallest vertical gardens are now situated in Sydney. It's a stunning sight. The 550-foot structure was designed by architect Jean Nouvel and French botanist Patrick Blanc, and it has 250 species of native Australian flowers and plants. The largest North American green wall, the North American Green Wall, is now completed in Vancouver. A stunning time-lapse video showcases the installation of the 10,150-square-foot green wall that is double-sided. Urban development is the cause of many environmental issues, ranging from pollution of water to the urban heat island effect. Is it possible for urban design and tornadoes to coexist? A new report that was published in the Turkish newspaper is adamant that the rapid growth of Istanbul was responsible for a string of "freak mini-tornadoes" that recently hit the city. The UK Pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo will highlight the plight and disappearance of bees by creating a virtual beehive made of steel lattices made of fine steel and LEDs.



It's early October and Halloween is fast approaching Do you know what you're going be? Just premium e We have lots of great costumes that you can pick from if you're not sure what to do. You can participate in the iPhone/Android debate by dressing as your preferred phone or bring your favorite game to life by dressing as an actual Minecraft character, Tetris blocks or a Rubik's Cube. You can also create your own R2D2 costume. Best of all, most of these costumes can be made using cardboard boxes and items you have lying around the home!


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