Jennifer Aniston is playing the green card by announcing an eco-renovation of her sprawling Beverly Hills home – complete with plenty of solar panels. Is her main aim to reduce heating bills in these crunchy times?

A reflective metal roof has been installed to conserve energy and Jennifer has swapped her Range Rover for a Toyota Prius – more than doubling her fuel efficiency for half the price.

The former Friends star is also equipping her new Malibu pad with eco-friendly devices including drought-resistant plants.
>>Keep reading “Aniston – green or just mean?”

It’s been a while since I’ve written an update on what we are doing on the cabin, so this time I’ll write about concrete, or more accurately soilcrete. What is soilcrete? It’s nearly the same thing as concrete but using local materials instead of using purchased materials. We use local dirt, gravel from the creek, portland cement and of course water. This makes a strong and inexpensive concrete/soilcrete to make walls and such.

>>Keep reading “Soilcrete”

Judd PalinThe clean-up crews are slowly moving in to deal with the smoking craters and ecological detritus of the Bush years. The latest teams actress Ashley Judd with the Sierra Club

After her successful work in drawing attention to Sarah Palin’s aerial wolf hunting policies in Alaska, Judd, from Kentucky, and Sierra want the Obama Administration to step in and protect the mountains, streams and people of Appalachia from mountaintop removal.

Judd, 40, joined about 500 people at the state Capitol in Frankfort for legislation that would end the blasting away of mountaintops to unearth coal.
>>Keep reading “Save our Mountaintops”

It’s possible that Apple’s future just got sunnier.

Employees at computer, phone and software company Apple  have filed a patent to place solar cells on portable devices, Trade the News reported Monday.

Outfitted with such technology, Apple devices, like the iPhone, could have photovoltaic cells stacked underneath LCD touch screens, thus maximizing the area available for harnessing the sun.

The filing said that …
>>Keep reading “Apple’s solar strategy”