(from an email) I think that there are maybe four dozen plausible solar cooker designs, tops, of which three or four are head and shoulders above the rest and have become standards. They’ve been shaking this stuff out for 30 years. Doesn’t mean there isn’t room for innovation, but the field is much, much smaller [...]

The Hexayurt they built on the playa (pic from Tonx, click for origional) They did a really nice job on it – wish I’d been there! If you’re wondering what a hexayurt is and why it won the Treehugger Prize the answer is simple: it’s a cheap shelter for refugees that would cost about $100 [...]

Lifestraw is a water purifier. It’s a plastic tube filled with magic. You suck on one end, and out comes clean drinking water from the other. Just one problem: kids younger the five, the elderly, some kinds of disabled people, people who are really sick cannot use one. And, hello, that’s actually your most vulnerable [...]

STANDARRD which is a group of sustainable technology people including most of Appropedia, Mel from OLPC, Smari from Fablabs, Andy from Sleepbreeze, the folks from TIDES (national defense university), and Lindsey and myself from the Hexayurt project, of course. Should be fairly low volume, mainly dedicated to personal and project updates, and that mostly by [...]