To make up for the relative quiet last week (hope you didn’t miss us too much!) here’s another post to keep you going. Happy weekend!

Inhabitat and a free newspaper I found on the bus the other night were keen to discuss the merits of this new green energy Revolving door by Fluxxlab.

Image from Techchee

Inhabitat praise it as being “an ingenious sustainable energy harvesting idea that makes you wonder why no one else has thought of it before.” Sorry to burst the bubbles guys, but somebody did think of it: in 2005 on Halfbakery. But that’s not to discount the Fluxxlab team, not being the only ones to have the idea is negligible in the context that they are the only ones to have acted on it, apparently successfully. It is also, I think anyone would agree, a laudable goal.

However I find myself questioning the practical applications of this as a large scale solution. Particularily in London as I can’t think of the last time I encountered a revolving door that wasn’t automatic or partially powered for the benefit of the less able or less energetic of us.
Then there is also the problem of the additional friction necessary to generate any energy - unless I’ve misunderstood the design - meaning, potentially, a percentage of the population can’t get through the door at all.

But I think the solution to my concerns might also have been found on Halfbakery - as thekohser suggests “if you really want to power up a few lightbulbs with people exerting the energy, at least go to cooperative participants — try a fitness club (think treadmills and weight machines).” Now there’s an interesting way to keep gym membership costs down!

I have a nice, eco-friendly end to the week - according to the BBC, building work has started in Abu Dhabi on Masdar (”the source” in Arabic and meant here as a reference to the sun/solar energy), the world’s first zero-carbon, and zero-waste, car-free city.

Designed by Norman Foster of London architects Foster & Partners, Masdar City will cost $22bn, take eight years to build and be home to around 50,000 people.

Sounding reminiscent of something from Blade Runner, it will be powered predominantly by solar energy and residents will travel in pods set on magnetic tracks. According to Evelyn Lee at inhabitat the city will be entirely car free. “Carefully planned public transportation will ensure that none of the city’s inhabitants will have to walk more than 200 meters before meeting some part of the transportation link.”

There are suggestions Masdar City may be just a token gesture, or distraction from the oil-rich Gulf emirates and Business Week were tickled by the “delicious irony that the Middle East, awash in oil and dollars” were investing “oil billions into a zero-emissions metropolis in the desert”

But this project is just part of the Masdar plan for “energy security, climate change and truly sustainable human development” and Masdar City is supported by global conservation charity the WWF.

This could be the dawning of a brave new world, but if it is I hope it’s a little less grey than the picture above!

Today sees the launch of the Discovery Channel’s Earth Live web application - brought to my attention by the ever-vigilant chaps at Wired.com.

“It may be more important than ever to track the state of the planet and Discovery Earth Live is designed to help you do that” says the Earth Live page. It’s big talk but the software for the application is pretty impressive - using Adobe Flex technology to wrap video around a three-dimensional object in real time AND allow you to move the globe around without loss of the video frames.

I have already successfully lost a tea break to watching storm patterns and changes sea temperature (it’s more interesting than it might sound!) though sadly there is little more to do at this stage. However the potential is huge and according to The Industry Standard “Future content will include migration paths of birds and animals, and projections of what the world may look like if global warming goes unchecked.” More big talk for the cool little app, which is also available as a facebook widget.