Quirky Stuff

We often come across unusual gadgets and ideas on the web so we thought we'd share the smiles!

Worm charming

Ever wondered how to get your worms out of the vermicompost? Looking for a closer relationship with your earthworms? Feeling the need for a wider audience for your artistic expression? Why not give worm charming a try! While this only works for earthworms, apparently there are many ways to do it, e.g. by

While some overseas countries have already seen worm charming festivals and championships where a wide variety of artistic expressions have been employed, we're looking forward to the first one to come to African soil, - who knows whether our local worms have the same musical taste?

Note: Only special composting earthworms are suitable for worm farming.

Weird, wonderful and unusual transportion

Bored with the biofuel/hydrogen/hybrid/electric car debates? Looking for innovative ways to become more eco-friendly, that you can do straight away without having to invest in new technology or wait until scientists and engineers have finally figured it all out? Why not have a look at some weird, wonderful and unusual transportation where you can learn how to make really unusual and "optimal" (if not quite legal!) use of cars. Why, for example should two people drive in two cars, if they can just put one of them on top of the other or into the boot? We're guessing the fuel-efficiency would decrease a tad but it's probably a small in the direction of thinking "outside the box" :) See how one vehicle can transport a LOT more than you'd imagine! You'll really be astounded at some of these solutions!

We already hear your plaintive cry: "that's all very nice, but what about public transport?" Have a look at the solutions that some Europeans and Americans have come up with:

Holey printing - is Ecofont a viable ink reduction strategy? You decide.

Ecofont is a free to use and free to download swiss-cheese-like font created by optimising size and shape and omitting parts of the letter. The idea is to save on ink or toner when printing - apparently as much as 20%! Ecofont is based on Vera Sans, an Open Source font and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. It is purported to work best in OpenOffice, AppleWorks and MS Office 2007. Read Treehugger's test-drive and report on using this font.

Christmas Trees - strange and unusual

Come December, thoughts turn to the evergreen topic of Christmas trees. Did you know there are a plethora of exciting alternatives to the standard tree? How about an upside-down, leaning or book-based tree? Or try your hand at an attractive empty can, beer bottle or knitted variety! You'd be amazed at how great they look!

Green funerals - really "going" the green way

Although it's a topic that most of us would rather avoid discussing, there are two things that inevitably come to all of us....taxes and - well, you guessed it, death. Interestingly there are actually quite a variety of alternative options available  when it comes to the final curtain call. Find out more about...

Strange and Unusual Buildings

During the design phase of the Eco-Centre we suddenly found ourselves knee-deep in highly imaginative architects - this prompted our curiosity in asking - what else is out there? Take a look at these wonderfully "Strange and Unusual Buildings" - the Ice Cream Cone and the Basket buildings are our two personal favourites :)

Pedal-powered washing machine

Ever wondered whether you couldn't be doing something more useful with all that energy you're expending on your bicycle or at the gym? Wonder no more - you could simultaneously be doing your washing with a pedal-powered washing machine! Read all about how Alex Gadsden invented and developed a working prototype - Cyclean - after visiting various scrap yards and dumps. Join in on the discussion forums.

The Eclectic car

The Eclectic car is a small renewable energy driven 2-seater solar, wind and battery car touted to be the "1st energy-autonomous vehicle" and the "most economical environmental vehicle ever built". Find out more about this cute and unusual-looking little car here.

Blackle.com - saving energy one search at a time

Blackle is a black version of Google based on the premise, posted in a 2007 blog entitled "Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year", that monitors require less energy to display black backgrounds than white backgrounds. Obviously this effect is only relevant to CRT-based monitors. Another version can be found at http://www.darkoogle.com/. There has been a great deal of discussion and skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved (due to the popularity of Google searches) as well as the cost in terms of readability of black web pages. Find out more.

Update: Darkgoogle has been disabled since the general consensus seems to be that it does not save energy but increases energy consumption on LCD screens.

How do stripes get into toothpaste?

Leonard Lawrence Marraffino invented the concept of striped toothpaste - the first being red stripes on white tootpaste. He managed this by making use of a hollow pipe which extended into the interior of the tube which was then successively filled with red and then white paste. When squeezed, the red paste was forced out through tiny holes opening into the interior. Since then stripes have also been created by other means - find out more about this curious topic here.

Dog-Scootering

Ever considered dog-scootering as an alternative mode of transport? Well it seems some people have (yes "scooters" - not "sleds" - scooters!) Find out more at Diggler - dog scooters and accessories and DogScooter.com.