SuperForest

Good morning, SuperForest!

I must apologize, I just missed “World Toilet Day” this year by a couple days. It’s scheduled for November 19th but I figured the date isn’t really all that important, the message is what we’re going after. So happy world toilet day! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Water availability is a topic that’s really close to the heart here at SuperForest, and there are some very exciting developments in the works for what could be our greatest project yet (the concept for the most part is down, I’m still in the planning and networking stages, but I’m working hard on this baby and I’m not giving up on it). Details will come later (!!!) but for now, I realize that any legitimate sort of change is going to have to start with us and the environment that surrounds us every day. And the toilet is definitely part of our environment, so that’s an easy way to start.

This year, us SuperForesters (the ones that haven’t done this yet) are going to celebrate world toilet day by hacking our toilets. Here’s SuperForester Jackson’s left arm showing us how this goes down:

Aaaand in comes the second arm!

This is the abridged version, the detailed directions (with words) can be found in this previous post. But it really is as easy as placing a brick in your toilet tank. As said by SFJ:

The brick will displace volume that would have otherwise been occupied by clean water, so your toilet will use less each time it refills.

Here’s the staggering thing:

Doing this simple thing will save you approximately 11,000 gallons of water a year.

And SuperForester Spoon beautifully demonstrated it, of course, doesn’t have to be a brick, you can get creative.

Yay! Hope you join in on the festivities! I have yet to hack my toilet (can you believe that?!), but I look forward to doing this tonight. We can compare notes. : )

With love,

SuperForester Carla

Disclaimer: This video is by no means “SuperForesty”, but it was the incredible SuperForester Spoon that introduced it to me, so I guess that kind of counts, right? Plus, it is Halloween so I’ll use that as a viable excuse to post this classic gem of a video.

Massive love to all.

Gooooooood Morning SuperForest!

I realized yesterday that I’d never done a video explaining the Jackpot, what it is, and how it works.
So here we go!

The Jackpot is a super-cheap, DIY, hydroponic, indoor garden.

For the full story of the Jackpot, read the following:

Here’s the first post about the Jackpot: Jackson’s Journal (5/14/09) – Hydrodynamics Can Be Vexatious. Here I outline the basic design of the device, and the three main components: the air lift/drip system, the reservoir, and the air pump.

Next, I worked to get the air lift working. Warning: In this video I am pretty tired and keep repeating the word “so”: Jackson’s Journal (5/16/09) – Drinking Straw Water Air Lift Success!
The air lift is a simple device for lifting water. Is is a tube that you pump air into. Submerge the tube in a column of water and the air bubbles will lift the water a good height. That means for very little energy you can move something very heavy straight up, which perfect for drip irrigation. And drip irrigation is perfect for the home gardening enthusiast.

Here’s a quick video of the Jackpot’s bones in action: Jackpot’s Bones

Then the esteemed SuperForester Spoon came to visit me in NY, and his visit totally inspired me to get the prototype done as quickly as possible. So James Michael Spoonhour went out one night to watch a sports thing, and I stayed home to finish the Jackpot, which I did, at like 2:30 AM: The Jackpot: It’s Alive!

The next day I did a recap of the previous nights build session, with some making-of photos:  Jackson’s Journal (5/25/09) – Aloha, Mr. Spoonhour! Aloha, Mr. Jackpot!

SuperForester Spoon left and SuperForester Julius arrived a few days later. Later that week, Julius and I walked the Jackpot over to Eyebeam gallery in Chelsea to show it to Britta and Rebecca from Windowfarms. This was karmically appropriate for a number of reasons, including the fact that the Jackpot had been inspired by an exhibit I’d seen at Eyebeam in 2007 called drinkpee, which Britta and Rebecca had created. Here’s Julius’ wonderful post: Working On Window Farms – The Movie

Helping Out The Window Farmers @Eyebeam from SuperForest on Vimeo.

Man, wasn’t that fun, Julius and James Michael? I had so much fun. Creative collaborating is the best.

Then things got really sexy when I gave a demo at Eyebeam to the Windowfarmers group! Britta and Rebecca then came out with their own amazing version of the Jackpot! Once again the idea improves and can be built upon.

It all began with a fever dream and it ended in a massive idea-sharing group win.

Man, I love the internet and I’m so grateful for this existence.
Thank you to Spoon, Julius, Rebecca, and Britta for all your help and support.

All my best to each and everyone.

-Jackson

The Jackpot demands blood!

Goooooooooood Morning SuperForest!

Loveable, huggable Jackson here, smiling, soaking in New York’s Springtime sunshine like a saguaro cactus, storing it for the Wintertimes.

Last night I finished the Jackpot prototype and I’m happy to report that it works beautifully. Here are some pics I took during the making process:

Here I am working on the airlift. The airlift is just a length of pvc pipe with a length of vinyl tubing ziptied inside of it. I’m drilling holes up and down the length of it in this photo to make the holes for the zipties. (I’m going to write this all up as a proper post with big pictures and everything. Don’t you fret.)

Here is the airlift, (sans center air/water pipe) standing in its reservoir bucket. You can see  that I added some right-angle brackets to help it stand upright. For future Jackpots I think it would be better to just have a collar on the bottom of the reservoir that the airlift could slide into, because then it would be easier to take apart and service.

Here is like the fourth time I cut myself, and I thought it made for a cool photo. I like that my blood has pooled into a little dotless question mark. I cut my hands all the time when I’m making stuff, but this time I also cut my foot by walking into the point of my drill.

OMG! My new drill! Check it out:

It even has a cord! I had to ask special for it… Man, I’m loving these gifs. They make pictures look all alivey!

Here’s James Michael Spoonhour making sure that the duct tape stays securely and firmly affixed to the floor. You’ll notice he’s using the classic head first method. Good thinking, Spoon! SuperForester Baloo is keeping a sharp eye on him to ensure that he keeps the tape on the floor safely and has a good time doing it.

And finally, here’s the prototype of the Jackpot sitting in my bathtub. I can’t believe it actually exists… It was just a thought, and now here it is.

Now that I’ve seen it run with my own eyes and have seen what works and what doesn’t I’m going to plan a much more comprehensive post on the simplicity and ease of the Jackpot. I haven’t yet tallied my costs for the whole unit, but just to approximate, I’d say that it cost less than $50.00, though I was helped keep the costs down by finding most of the materials on the bountiful streets of New York city.

Seriously, New York is like a giant art supply store where everything is free.

James Michael Spoonhour ran out to catch the last few minutes of the Magic game last night, and when he returned, I had the Jackpot up and running and was standing in the shower with it, doing some fine tuning. I’m ever so pleased that SuperForester Spoon could be on-hand to witness such a cool event.

Spoon is flying home to Orlando as we speak. It has been a great week hanging with you, dearest Spoonio! I had a blast and I hope you enjoyed New York as much as I enjoyed seeing it afresh through your eyes. Thank you for the visit.

Much love to each and everyone reading this, and to those that haven’t read this yet.

Do you have something itching in your mind that you’d like to make, but are unsure how to make it a reality? Email us and let’s work on it together.

Yours,

Jackson

Spoon and Jackson, vibrating on the uptown bus.

What does GIF stand for? Graphics Interchange Format. Sweet.

SuperForester Spoon has been out for a visit this past week and we’ve been slang tanging all over town, riding the Strida bikes and looking for kicks.

Wacky kicks like!…

Chillin’ with Ghandi. What up, G-man?

Stone cold compost drop off. Drop that compost off, Master Spoonington.

Look at that technique. Perfection. His first day on the job and he’s making the old guys look bad.

Here, James Michael is just begining work on his custom SuperForest shirt.
You’ll notice that he’s a southpaw, as are quite a few other SuperForesters! Interesting.

I makey one too. Good times!

Then we made this gif of us wearing our shirts:

Look at us throbbing with SuperForesty vitality! Throb! Throb!

Having houseguests is great fun, and the one and only Spoon as a houseguest is a treat beyond measure.

Want us to go somewhere specific and take a photo or something? Send us an email.

Love,

Jackson

Yes!

Love,

-Jackson

Good Morning SuperForest!

Lately, I’ve been spending more and more of my time with the incredible young blogging team the 4fives, our sassy SuperForest sibling.

I used to spend most days online, checking sites like reuters, nytimes, treehugger, inhabitat, and boingboing for feel-good eco and tech news. Now I spend most of my time working on a variety of projects that SuperForest and the 4fives are collaborating on.

It’s a very exciting time for me. SuperForest from the very beginning was meant to be a conduit for environmental positivity, created for children to learn how to succesfully negotiate the turbulent waters of world 2.0. And that is exactly where it’s ended up!

Thrilling. Just thrilling. I don’t know if y’all have seen the 4fives blog recently, but it’s looking great. Not just great, professional. That SuperForest had anything to do with the creation of the 4fives gem of a blog is a high that I never want to come down from.

The big idea is this: SuperForester Bee, (the 4fives most excellent teacher) and I are working on turning SuperForest into a standardized curriculum. Something that can be taken from school to school, city to city, country to country, to teach kids how to live SuperForest.

Living SuperForest means a lot of things, but at its heart, it’s about reading the Humanifesto, learning how to make things with your hands, and blogging. These three actions promote a huge sub-set of actions and results, all of them positive. Teaching kids these skill sets so that they view the world correctly as full of positivity, hope, and solutions is the goal, and we want to do it on a massive scale.

And just think of all the cool partners SuperForest could have in this endeavor! Like a team up between Peace Games and SuperForest! Peace Games can teach Peace and successful conflict resolution from Kindergarten through 8th, and SuperForest is there as the next step. Like, learn the language of Peace and respect, and then graduate to blogging about it, which allows you to connect with other positive minds and share ideas, and then everyone wins…

This has all been so much fun!

I apologize for not posting more, but be assured, there is a whole world of SuperForesty goodness a’cookin! And sooner or later, it will all be up for your enjoyment.

Remember, if you’re feeling blue, come to SuperForest for elevation. If you’re feeling alone, or isolated, write to SuperForest and we’ll see how we can help. If you are feeling great and want to share it with us, please do! We could always use extra positivity.

Also, can I ask a huge favor?

Please, please, please, comment on our blog.

The members of Team SuperForest cherish and adore comments like they were sweet lemon ices on a hot Summer’s day. As a matter of fact, comments are the very reason we post.

A post without comments is just a monologue.
A post with comments is a conversation.

That’s what we’re aiming for here: Conversation.

Talk to us, and we’ll happily talk back, and who knows what great things that conversation will lead to? Adventure and excitement! Hooray!

And finally, SuperForester Spoon arrived in New York from Florida yesterday! He’s out walking around, and it’s his first time in the Big Sneezy! So exciting! I wish I could travel back in time and see myself visiting New York for the first time. Then I’d hand myself a nice sports almanac and SuperForest would be as good as paid for. Lol.

Now, Master Spoon and I are out to see if we can wrangle SuperForester Niki’s bicycle and then go for a ride. Perhaps the observation deck at the Empire State Building is what the doctor ordered? We shall see.

We shall see…..

Love to ALL!

-Jackson

Came across this great quote from director Jim Jarmusch:

(The print is from artist Mark Malazarte.)

My favorite line is the Jean-Luc Godard quote at the end, “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to”.

Hope this inspires you to steal a few things this week.

-Spoon

Well, I just heard some great news.

Continental Airlines just completed its first test flight with a Boeing 737 that was partially powered by biofuel made from algae! The flight was the first test done so by a US commercial carrier.

Props to Continental!

One of the planes’ two engines consisted of a 50-50 mix of biofuel and aircraft fuel.

“The flight from Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport completed a circuit over the Gulf of Mexico, and pilots carried out a series of tests at 38,000ft (11.6km), including a mid-flight engine shutdown.

‘The airplane performed perfectly,’ test pilot Rich Jankowski told the Houston Chronicle newspaper.

‘There were no problems. It was textbook.’”

Textbook baby!

The best part about the test is that the biofuel used is a “drop-in fuel”, meaning that there is no modification required for the aircraft to use it. The use of algae is fast becoming the future for biofuel: it grows extremely fast, does not compete with food crops, and is better for the enviroment.

All that is left is to make algae commercially competitive.

Check out the full BBC article here.

To get your algae fix, click here.