In general landscaping provides huge benefits to the people. Landscaping must be always designed in such a way that it delivers numerous benefits to both planet and humankind. People should avoid landscaping ways which harms both planet and humankind. For example let us consider rainwater. The sloped sides would be helpful for collecting and directing the rainwater. This is called as sustainable landscaping.  Mike curry said that, spending lots of money, time and effort on the non-useful things will finally result in wastage of everything.

Curry’s views on landscaping:

It is always suggested for the people to choose a plant which can be alive without using pesticides, fertilizers, and much water. Moreover, you can also choose the plant which requires less efforts, energy and inputs. Eco friendly landscaping ideas have got a great demand these days. Especially the idea of landscaping with the rainwater has skyrocketed these days among the people. Everybody started using rainwater for landscaping as it prevents soil erosion as well as strengthens a plant/tree. Curry teaches various sustainable landscaping techniques like using rain barrels, rain gardens, bio retention designs, permeable pavers, green roofs etc to his students.

Curry had studied plant horticulture during 1970’s. He said that the landscaping industry had dramatically changed since, while he was studying plant horticulture. He also said that there are plenty options to create sustainable landscapes. He is working in the Midwest trading horticultural supplies in marketing sales section. This company is a specialist in producing non-plant landscape supplies like composts, mulches, nursery containers, structural soil, tools, aquatic supplies and growing media for rooftops, nurseries and landscapes.

He is also a president elect of MELA (Midwest ecological landscape alliance), which is a movement developed to create, restore and preserve sustainable landscapes via networking, collaboration and educating. Its main motto is to turn the green industries in such a way that their materials, methods and designs are of professional standard. Most of the home owners and commercial property owners are purchasing the irrigation controllers which runs on smart technology these days. These irrigation controllers provide the required moisture to the Mother Nature.

Curry also said his students to perform a soil test before using chemicals on a property as this would help in knowing whether the land can withstand chemicals or not. He also said that everything related to eco-system are inter-related. Curry said that we can minimize the usage of fossil fuels, water, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides by following the sustainable landscaping tools like irrigation controllers.

How should you opt for a plant?

You need to always select a plant which suits your area. Jean Brgadon, who is the manager of LGC (Luvey’s garden center) in Des Plaines, is offering a great variety of plants which suits the Chicago area and its climate. You could visit Lurveys.com to find out more information on the plants related to different locations. Besides, a number of green products are available in the market these days. Thus, you could opt for a tree gator to gather the rain water and use it to water either plants or trees.

Bragdon said that they will offer these green products to those who are interested to do landscaping on their own or by hiring a contractor. He also said that they cannot offer installing services. However, you can go through all their plants and green products to choose the one which you feel best and comfortable. If you think that the native plants looks weedy you can chose some other plants which don’t need your attention much. In this way you can minimize your work by following the eco-friendly and sustainable landscaping techniques.

Alphabets- they rule our writing, our speaking, and our listening capabilities. Now, alphabets are no longer restricted to books or notebooks, they have become decorative option for our homes. Here is a list of home decoration option that uses the designs of different alphabets. Make your home more sophisticated and elegant with these alphabets-

1. Alpha chest: Made of mango wood, there are numerous drawers with each having one or two alphabets in the front.
2. Fontable: Fonts of all alphabets, including upper and lower case form the red or white colored table top of the range of furniture designed by Alessandro Canepa and Andrea Paulicelli.
3. For kids: Alessandro Di Prisco created this bold colored alphabet furniture for kids, with each alphabet pointing to a word with which it starts like l for library and s for swing.
4. AB Chairs: Black colored modernistic chairs based on every alphabet are designed by the creative designer Roeland Otten.
5. Letters Bookshelf: Industrial designer Pieter de Leeuw created book shelf with randomly organized alphabets. The setup is trendy and customizable.
6. Customizable letter shelves: Each alphabet can be mounted and acts as individual shelf. Now such alphabets can be arranged in series to create a word. The creative for such innovative approach goes to Ricard Mollon.
7. Letter DIY Shelf: This is a make your own bookshelf project. Pressboards, hanging brackets, nails, screws and bolts are all you will need. Measure the dimensions and create your own shelf.
8. Alphabet set: Set26 has created alphabet shaped furnitures with drawers and doors that look quite modern too.
9. Typography table: The coffee table is made of wood and has names of objects one can expect on such a table.
10. A: The home décor designed by Chris Jackson is a stool shaped like lower case “a”.
11. Shelf: The word Shelf is bending down perpendicularly to support stuffs you put on this wall mountable black colored shelf. It is also available in red or white.
12. Bookcase: The shelf has engraved compartments shaped like letters to hold book and much more.
13. “XL” Bookcase: Shaped like the two alphabets, the inside of the huge shelves have individual storage with a decent capacity.
14. Love table: Created out of steel, the four letters are individual pieces. Each piece can function as small tables, pairs as side tables and together as coffee table.

The set features an office worker with his work briefcase inside the shaker itself, commenting on the direness of the current global economic climate and how badly it affects the lives of the workers working at the grassroots levels in multinational companies. As the salt and pepper is consumed, the workers emerge from the salt or pepper that symbolize debt or unemployment only to be flooded by it once again when the shakers are refilled.

In a way, the Drowning in Debt Salt and Pepper Shaker set makes a dark comment about the nature of debt and the struggle of the average officegoer in our times who tries to break free from the vicious cycle of economic meltdown and debt only to be engulfed by it once again.

Via: MHLMagazine/MocoLoco

The designers had just 72 hours within which they had to design and manufacture the piece of sculptural art. The Wooden Foliage project is composed of over 7,000 wooden discs and a100 cylindrical wooden elements that are held together by 26,000 staples. The structure of the project resembles a canopy as well as dried out foliage which makes it an ideal companion to shady trees as well as nature-themed interior décor. The ‘Wooden Foliage’ also serves as an interactive light sculpture that plays with light and creates a playful show of shadows on the ground that changes as the angle of the sunlight changes through the day. Suspended between two trees, the Wooden Foliage also serves as a shading device.

Via: Designboom

The Viva Docking Speaker uses the reverberation of sound within the empty cube to create a deep base and produce a surround sound effect which makes the docked smartphone, android-based phone or the iPhone sound seamlessly loud yet high fidelity. However, what can be a bit of a turn off for a few users is the fact that the Viva Docking Speaker is fashioned out of an aluminum mesh with a chrome finish which as we know tends to corrupt the purity of sound as compared to wood- or paper-pulp based speakers. On the plus side, the Viva Docking Speaker is extremely portable and can even be carried around in one’s pocket after being folded flat which makes it a great iPhone or Android phone accessory for music lovers on the go.

Via: Yanko Design

Designed extremely innovatively, the planter however derives inspiration from the NASA design and enables you to seamlessly cultivate your favorite plants and herbs indoors where there’s inadequate lighting and space. Although the entire layout looks pretty interesting yet promising for those who love greenery, the indoor garden concept was originally a concept that NASA thought of somewhere in the 1980s.

Well, whosoever’s idea this is – a hats-off is something undoubtedly to be bagged. Nevertheless, the rotating green garden not only catches attention for providing a large output, but also grabs additional points for conserving energy and space. But what really contributes to the model’s less energy consumption characteristic is the embedded structure that allows plants to be arranged around the light source.

Pretty interestingly, as the planter’s wheel spins, the unique Green Wheel automatically waters the plants and keeps them growing. What may intrigue even further is the futuristic looking planter’s inherent ability to hold up to eight feet of plants and its root. Too good for today’s restricted spaces, isn’t it?

Well, though DesignLibero is yet to divulge some more details on the exact mechanism, the model still looks incredible enough to accommodate around. Featuring an extremely clean, exquisite appearance, the Eco-friendly rotating appliance has (indeed) got all the right reasons to embellish your house’s elegant layout. The indoor garden which has been inspired by the NASA design, however, is yet to remove the sheath off its availability.

Via: StumbleUpon

Virgin Scooter is an easy to maintain ride that will be perfect for going shopping, work, short trips around the city and will fulfill general transportation needs. The small sized scooter will not fall down on the comfort graph and is easy to operate as well as maintain. It can be used by one person at a time to move from one place to the other without depending on public transport. The electric ride comes embedded with two taillights, one placed on the rear fender and the other under the seat that increases visibility when dusk sets in. It comes complete with turn signals wedged in the fenders to let others know which way you are heading.

Lights slither out of the fender when switched on, which in turn brightens up a good amount area on the road. The steering has a very interesting shape, inspiration of which has been fetched from the natural steering of a horse. No electric ride is complete without a battery pack. This has been used well to come up with a battery pack that can be detached from the underside of the scooter, which can be rolled on wheels and kept at a safe place when not in use, to make sure it is not stolen. It will also prove to be helpful in case the power outlet is at some place where the scooter cannot reach. Virgin Scooter is very pleasant to look at which will win hearts with its functionality and compact design.

[Cheers Mikael]

Lives have changed for sure. Gone are the days when US folks had the luxury to travel destinations without a fixed location in mind, and could take our sweet time to do so. Well, all that is set to come back if artist Tiago Barros’s new concept the “Passing Cloud” is to be believed as the floating cloud used to travel. Based as a futuristic concept of traveling on floating cloud-like structures, the travelers wouldn’t have a fixed destination or control of speed.

With most traveling gadgets having a high carbon emission these days, there is a demand for those which have lesser emission, if not at zero emission levels. Taking that criterion into mind, these Passing Clouds are a perfect fit, as these have no engines or motor on which it depend to work on. With an internal stainless steel cloud shaped structure, the covering is white nylon fabric with high tensile strength. When placed on the ground, the travelers could board the cloud using the ladders placed on the sides. After boarding on, the balloons would be released to float in the skies, but there is the main catch after that which we even mentioned earlier; complete loss of control in terms of time taken to travel, as wind patterns will decide the travelling direction and speed. Also, if one takes a critical look, there is always a chance where people could either fall off or land in the middle of a water body with no assistance around! We are not experts or decision makers, but it would be a safe bet on our end to wish for more of safety features and controlling mechanisms, making travelling on this futuristic device safer and more enjoyable.

The concept

Airships, invented as far back as 1900 were an advance on hot air balloons or blimps. They included an engine and rudders for propulsion. They also include a frame made of a light aluminum or composite material. The frame is enclosed with a polymer casing that is filled with helium gas. Helium, being lighter than air, causes the airship to rise. When the weight of the airship equals the buoyancy, it stops rising and floats in position. It is then propelled forward using the in-built engine and the rudders. Descent to ground is by bleeding the helium gas in a controlled manner. Airships are also called Zeppelins, after the German inventor.

The initial work on blimps and airships came from mankind’s fascination with flying in air. The first flights on hot air balloons were attempted as early as 1783. As soon as airships were invented in 1900, people attempted to fly in them. The 1937 disaster of the Hindenburg airship, which traveled successfully from Frankfurt in Germany across the Atlantic Ocean to New Jersey before crashing, killing the 36 people on-board led to rethinking on airships. The advent of airplanes for travel filled the role the early airships tried to play. Airship usage was then primarily limited to advertising, where they were an eye-catching novelty. For example, airship advertising would be done over a beach on holiday week-ends, or when ceremonial parades or carnivals take place. For fixed location advertising, such as over a sports stadium, the cheaper blimp was used. The Goodyear blimp became synonymous with such advertising.

There is a recent revival of interest in airships with NASA announcing a program for the development of a new family of airships that could lift and move very heavy cargo. NASA is working with several companies to build a prototype that could be tested as early as in 2012. Simultaneously a British company, Hybrid Air Vehicles, has announced a partnership with a Canadian company to manufacture airships that could transport weights up to 50 tones and at speeds up to 115 mph. One major technical breakthrough has led to these high load capability airships. When an airship loads or unloads cargo, its weight changes and consequently its buoyancy. To maintain constant buoyancy, ballast had to be carried. This limited the load carrying capacity of airships. A new approach to bleeding helium gas from containers into inflatable bladders is said to have overcome this problem.

Benefits

The use of an airship for transport of heavy cargo is of special interest. At present, the heavy cargo has to be lifted with a crane, loaded on a truck-trailer, transported at slow speeds over roads and then unloaded, again using a crane. The operations of lifting by crane, securing the heavy cargo to the truck-trailer bed and unloading all have risks and costs associated with them. In addition, at many construction sites, the road access is inadequate and transport of heavy and large dimension cargo needs detailed studies on load-bearing capacity of the road and the culverts, turning radius for the truck-trailer at road turnings and the like. If the heavy cargo could be moved by an airship, it could result in major savings.

There are many locations where a fixed wing airplane or a helicopter becomes impractical. Fixed wing planes need an airstrip and even helicopters need a helipad for operation. An airship could get deployed at such locations. The deployment could be on hilly terrain or for disaster relief, as in an earthquake or flood affected area.

Military applications are always a spur to technology development. The applications being considered include movement of heavy armored vehicles like tanks or field guns into terrain where there are no roads or where road access has been destroyed. Airships and blimps are already being used for ground surveillance by the military and for policing and narcotics interdiction. All major aerospace companies including Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are working on airship technologies for the military.

One of the major advantages of airships is that they can take off vertically from almost any surface including water.

The lowdown

The earlier airships had very low speeds compared even with road transport. The promise of higher speeds in the new designs would overcome that problem. However, the safety issues in transport of heavy cargo over long distances will remain a major concern. It is unlikely to be permitted over populated places until the technology has been proven to be safe. This could limit the application of airships to limited cargo movement applications.

The airship, by inherent design, does not have all the controls of a fixed wing airplane or a helicopter. It is, therefore, difficult to steer in heavy wind conditions and can also be affected by thermal currents. The envelope of the airship, made of polymer material is prone to puncture and that could happen when the airship in on the ground. Such punctures could cause loss of pressure once the airship is flying with the cargo.

The Impact

There is no doubt that the evolution of airship technology, especially with the application of new materials to its construction, will open up another mode of transportation for mankind. New methods of control and guidance based on GPS and access to the internet could open up possibilities not imaginable even 10 years ago.

Related Trends

Besides cargo movement and surveillance uses, the rebirth of airships is causing innovators to think of new applications.

One of these, can actually be done with a blimp in place of an airship, is as a sky lantern to illuminate a large area such as a beach or a stretch of highway as an alternative to multiple electric poles and light fittings. The energy for the lamp could be derived from solar modules carried on the airship. At the height it flies, sunlight is available for more hours than on the ground.

Another entrepreneur is talking in terms of building a hotel-cum-casino that floats in air.

On a more serious note, Aeros the company that is partnering NASA is already talking of using airships to transport people, as an alternative to airplanes. They claim to be working on airships that can carry 150-180 people. They advocate this as a low carbon transportation solution. The fact that airships do not need an airport runway type of infrastructure would make it possible to use airships for point-to-point travel, theoretically between any two points.

Ladders are formed by two parallel frames joined by intermittent rungs for climbing up or down. Ladders are either rigid type or rope type ladders. Generally rope type ladders are hung from the rooftops and rigid ladders are supported with walls. The ladder is a common tool, which is found everywhere in the houses, offices, and at outdoor works. Portability is the main problem with ladders due to their fixed structure. The ladders should be versatile in use, durable, flexible, and easy to assemble. Here is list of some easily foldable, portable, and collapsible ladders.

1. Telescoping Ladder
These ladders are named as Telescopic Ladders because of their cylindrical telescopic structure. This ladder can be expanded or collapsed to a suitable height and locked for security. You can retract them to a very small size and can carry by hand or can place it in the boot of your car. It is a very robust ladder and can carry loads up to 1000 Kg. It is ergonomically designed for easy adjustment with smooth operation and an integrated handle bar for easy handling. It consists of non-slip end caps to avoid skidding and no-pinch closure system for easy locking after adjusting the height. It costs very less when compared to its versatile usage and are ANSI/OSHA rated.

2. Collapsible ladder is portable enough to be carried just anywhere
This collapsible ladder is designed by Itay Laniado, an Israeli designer. It is made of wood and there are no metal parts in its structure. It can be dismantled easily and carried by an integrated strong nylon strap. The strap is passed through the holes of the two parallel main frames and forms two steps after tightening with a ratchet for reducing the weight. It is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

3. Compact Folding Ladder for Home Use
These compact folding ladders are good for household purposes and they are completely foldable to a mere size of 3.5″ x 4.5″. They are light in weight and are made by aluminum alloy. You can keep it in any corner of your room as they look like a rod after disassembling.

4. Foldable ladder for inflatable boat
An inflatable boat is a boat made of flexible tubes containing pressurized gas. These foldable ladders for inflatable boat are designed to facilitate an easy entry and exit from an inflatable boat or RIB (Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat). The main ladder is in two parts and is attached to its frame which is supported by the inflatable boat. Inner part is attached to the frame, while, the other is dangling in the air to avoid the contact with the inflatable tubes for avoiding bursting. Assembling and disassembling is very easy.

5. Handy collapsible ladder is skid-resistant
This is a miniature model of collapsible telescoping ladder and can be extendable up to 12.5′ and collapsible to a mere size of 2.5′. It is robust in nature, made from aluminum alloy, and is very less in weight (below 25 lb). Its auto locking system is provided by spring loaded stainless steel bolts, which are attached to the rungs. The skid resistance is provided by the molded conical feet and bumpers. The Rungs are in round shape and are specially designed for easy climbing.

6. Folding Ladder
These are designed particularly for marine purpose. These are multipurpose ladders and are useful for swimming, diving, going to another floors, etc. They can be mounted permanently and folded as one of the boat equipment. These are available in different sizes and designs. The frame is tube shaped and made up of aluminum alloy and the rungs are of non-slippery design.

7. Loft Folding Ladders MidMade LUX
These are designed for lofts and are luxurious in design. They are made either by aluminum alloy are wood. They are designed to match the ceiling structure and are easily foldable and hide behind the ceiling when not in use.

8. Collapsible Ladder
These are prominently required while repairing a gutter or roof. These are also foldable to very small sizes and come with security latches for safety concern. These are suitable for domestic or indoor usage.

9. Aluminum folding ladder
They are made up of aluminum alloy and are less in weight without any compromise on the durability. It can be used for any type of work. It can be used inside a house and is easily foldable and portable.

10. Attic folding ladders
These are designed for lofts or attics and are made by timber or aluminum alloy. The timber attic ladders create a safety feeling and maneuver softly even though they are heavy. Aluminum ladders are strong and light in weight but are disliked by some people due to the fear factor for safety.