I just wanted to share this site with everybody.  Inhabitat.com is a blog that provides a ton of fascinating content about sustainable design, architecture, and technology.  The homes and commercial structures featured are brilliant in design and function.  I originally discovered the site while browsing for articles passive solar housing.  However, far beyond building, Inhabitat showcases a whole array of design, including fashion, gadgets, transportation, household products, and lighting.

I read the feeds every day and am always amazed and heartened by the innovation happening out there these days to protect our planet for future generations.  Yet, when you look around, environmental sensibility still seems to be a fringe element.  I hope that sites like Inhabitat.com help spread the beauty and common sense of sustainable design.

Some recent favorites: 

• Electric cars can be fast
• A bizarre concept for a 2-MILE-HIGH  vertical eco city
• Beautiful prefab homes like this one
• Wind-powered swirly lights for your back yard
• The rise of solar power

Unfortunately, a lot of the innovations featured are rather expensive or targeted as high-end luxuries.  A lot of the technology is emerging and will become more affordable as it becomes more mainstream.  However, I’d like to see more cool designs and sustainable products available at prices that everybody can afford.  After all, protecting the environment only works if we can all participate, not just the few top percentiles of consumers.

To that end, I believe Inhabitat.com helps by generating interest in sustainable design.  The more people who catch on, the more demand and innovation.  Hopefully, this technology becomes ubiquitous.  It has to.

Here’s a little something awesome I found featured on Inhabitat.com, a blog that focuses on sustainable design and architecture.  You can order a plush mollusk called a Socktopus that is made from recycled sweaters and is "lovingly filled with hypoallergenic polyester".  I think it’s brilliant because the recycled result is convincingly a new product, whereas some recycled products fall short and just seem like stuff with garbage stuck to it.  And wisely, despite the catchy name, these are made of sweaters not socks!  Aren’t they cute?

Which got me to wondering…what would it look like if Bill Cosby recycled his sweaters?

WARNING: I just crackled and peeled the lacquer on my Yanagisawa S991 while doing this! It wasn’t even directly in the steam. I guess they don’t make lacquer like they used to. I’m kind of pissed, but whatever. So my horn doesn’t look brand new anymore…you can’t tell from more than two feet away. I figured I’d warn everybody before they take a chance with their horn.

Thanks to Pete Thomas’s Saxophone Repairs page, I learned how to fix something that’s peeved me for decades! I thought I’d post it here for any of you saxophonists who are tired of wrapping paper around your neck cork in order for your mouthpiece to fit. I usually just have my repair guy recork the neck now and then. In this case, the Lawton mouthpiece I got for my tenor was a little looser than my Link, so I’d been wrapping a bit of painter’s tape around the cork. Well, guess what? You can expand the compressed cork by holding and rotating it in the steam from a tea kettle! I could actually see the cork expanding. It was a little uneven and lumpy, but no matter. Oh, Pete’s site also mentioned an alternative method of wetting the cork and holding it well above a gas flame. I don’t recommend this approach! I thought I was holding it well above the flame, but I still managed to burn some of the cork. If you don’t have a tea kettle, buy one! Tea is a lovely beverage.

DISCLAIMER: I’m pretty good at tinkering with my saxophone. You might suck at it. If you botch a repair, it’s not my fault, okay?

Jen was on CNN tonight, live via satellite even! She was featured in their Young People Who Rock section for her In the New project. I wish I could have seen it on TV, but I was at work. Luckily, video of the interview is on their website!

Check out her blog and comment and make suggestions! And yes, those are my prehensile toes on display.

Here’s a fascinating site about urban planning for cities without cars:

Carfree Cities

These designs rely on circular districts interconnected by metro rail. Each district is walkable within five minutes and is totally free of cars. The resulting layout alleviates the congestion, pollution, and danger of modern urban environments that have become overrun by private automobile use.

It’s a book, too, apparently.