SuperForest

SuperForester Jon sent us word over the weekend of something great. Thanks to Jon and inhabitat for the tip!

This little beauty is the Zero House from Specht Harpman, a New York and Austin based architecture firm.

So, you order the Zero House, it gets assembled in a day. Yes, one day.

As soon as it is put together, the Zero House instantly goes to work for you. It generates its own power via high-efficiency solar panels on the roof. It collects and stores rainwater for drinking, bathing, and washing up. Finally, it stores and composts all of its waste, delivering two loads of rich fertile compost per year for your gardening pleasure.

Best of all? All of the systems contained within the Zero House are customizable and communicate directly with your PC. So you can monitor and adjust anything from your living room with your MacBook.

It’s basically a living thing. Ooooh! That’s a good slogan!

Zero House: “It’s a Living Thing.”

Get it? Cause it’s for living in, but it’s almost alive?

Ladies and Gentlemen, the gauntlet has been thrown down.

All homes in the future must be self-sustaining, and the Zero House shows us that sustainability and sleek modern design are not exclusive, they are inevitable. Now we want Zero Car, Zero cellphone, Zero Television, Zero Hotel, Zero Breakfast, Zero Magazine, Zero Happy Meal, Zero Movie Theater.

Cha-ching.

Call Specht Harpman:

338 West 39th Street
New York, New York 10018
212-239-1150

Beg them for a Zero House of your own.

Love to all,

Team SuperForest

“This is kind of a small school, and I’m known as the computer whiz,”

This is Jon Penn.
Jon attends Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Millbrook, Ala.

Like most schools, Victory Baptist has a computer lab, and like most schools, the computer lab is under-funded and under-staffed. In fact, the school had just lost its IT systems overseer, and Jon’s mother Paula, the school librarian, had been asked to take over the computer lab, adding to her already busy schedule.

That’s where Jon stepped in.

At the ripe old age of eleven, Jon rolled up his shirtsleeves and got down to business. In Victory Baptist’s old computer lab Jon cleared out mountains of spyware and viruses, installed filtering software, cleaned up hard drives, pulled unnecessary sound and video cards, worked a deal with Microsoft to update the computers, and found time to teach computer classes, in addition to the normal day to day of being eleven.

Read the fuller story here: Jon Penn @ networkworld.com

Jon, you’re an inspiration.

Keep up the good work.

Good Morning All,

Just a short reminder to have a great day today: Monday, March 31st.
Boy, the year is really flying by!

Love to all,

Team SF

These are but a few of the many incredible adventures of Genius Chimpanzee and his helpful dog, James.

MoveOn.org is having a contest. Make a 30 second commercial that best defines Barack Obama and you could win some swag.

Mas details here: Obama in 30 Seconds.

Making things is fun!

Have good weekending.

According to urbandictionary.com,

“To Swede: Noun. Re-making something from scratch using whatever you can get your hands on.”

We happily present – Sweded Tron

Tron: The Sweded Remake This lightcycle scene from Tron has to be the best sweded version of a film in the entire history of sweded films.

Darn fine!

We love the endless possibility of the internet.

Have a great weekend!

-Team SF

This made me laugh so hard, I can’t not put it up.

And the follow up:

Look how happy people are to sing along with her! Amazing.
Some might think they were laughing at her, but I don’t think that’s the case.
She has created something both beautiful and unusual, and people recognize that and want to participate. That is great.

Check the wiki entry: Ken Lee

Hello All,

Jackson here.

I am truly at my unhappiest when I have to throw things away. Coffee filters, magazines, egg shells, anything. I always think: there goes something that could’ve been something.

With that in mind, I want to tell you about Best Shoe Repair.

Best Shoe Repair sits on 8th Ave. betwixt 20th and 21st St.

The good, hard-working people at Best Shoe Repair took my ancient New Balances, so old they were basically ghost shoes, and totally revived them.

Now, unfortunately I didn’t have the foresight to take a “before” picture, but here’s the “after”:

Old on the top.

New on the bottom!

Not only did they fix my shoes, they super-fixed them with hard-core, city-stompin’, hiking boot soles! Blammy!

Now my little New Balances will easily last me another five years, and you know what I’ll do when they wear out again?

Take them right back to:
Best Shoe & Leather Repair
203 8th Ave, New York, NY
(212) 645-2902

Thanks guys for fixing my shoes!

Hey Y’all!

Jackson here.
I did the dishes last night, and when I was done, I saw something that made me stop and think.

Here are the nice, clean dishes:

What gave me pause was the fact that 95 percent of what I washed, let dry and put away, was plastic take-out containers. There they were. I had just spent twenty minutes, plus soap and hot water, essentially washing trash.

Why had I done this? Why waste my time?

Here’s why:

Plastic is great. It lasts a really long time. My fiancee and I use those tossable containers all the time.

We use them to store food in. The lids make great little saucers for underneath our plants. Heck, the containers themselves are excellent for growing things in.

I mix paint in them. I use them when I give the dog a bath. Now that I think about it, I use them constantly.

It’s all about perception.

Plastic isn’t bad. We’re just not using it well.

If it isn’t going to biodegrade in a thousand years, don’t make disposable things out of it. Make the things you want to last for a thousand years.

It says a lot about our society that we make our houses out of wood, and our disposable cutlery out of plastic. One is going to last a lot longer than the other.

I know that plastic can off-gas, but you know what? Off-gassing from my containers is the least of my worries. I think a lot more about the way I treat the people and things around me than I do about phthalate levels. To be honest, I think more about King Kong vs. Godzilla than I do about phthalates.

And you can make plastic out of many other things besides fossil fuels. Corn, soy, hemp, anything that produces either oil or cellulose can be coaxed into becoming plastic.

We just need to shift our perception a bit and all will be well.

Remember: Change is not a hair-shirt exercise. It can be as thrilling and exciting as the best party you’ve ever attended. And that’s the way it should be.

So cherish your plastic containers. Give them the chance and they can serve you well for a long, long, time.

Give plastic a chance.

Love,

Jackson

(photo via hwayoungjung on flickr)

Over on BoingBoing they’ve got a trailer up for a yet-to-be-released documentary called American Furry – Life, Liberty, and the Fursuit of Happiness.

Firstly, what is a Furry?

The simple answer: A human who enjoys dressing up as an animal (cartoon or otherwise.)

Okay, so you’re a normal person, with a normal job, normal life, etc. but deep inside of you, you know that you can never be truly yourself unless you are dressed as a giant ox, or a lion, or a fox. Fabulous, you are a furry.

Marianne Shaneen is a Brooklyn filmmaker who has spent the last few years getting to know the furries. The crux of the documentary seems to be: it’s not about sex, it’s not about humiliation, it’s about being true to yourself and letting your freak flag fly. If you feel misunderstood, find a way to let people understand. Fascinating.

Here’s the site: American Furry.

This is so great. Be yourself. Have fun. Find others like you and get to know them. Find those who share your dreams and aspirations. Wonderful things to hear.

When you’re a furry, the world is your scratching post.

Be excellent to each other. You never know who might come to your rescue.

Love to All,

Team SF