The Barenaked Ladies are releasing a new DVD next month of a concert they held earlier this year, right here in Michigan. The DVD, entitled “Talk to the Hand: Live in Michigan” (named that way due to the shape of our great state), will also be a statement by the known environmental activist ‘Ladies’. The video will go on sale November 6th and will be packaged in recycled materials. Also, the tray the CD comes in is biodegradable and the ink on the packaging is made of vegetables. The Barenaked Ladies have long been known for their entertaining shows and their large, devoted fan base. They are also known for their environmental concerns and trying to do their part for the planet. The CD trays are made by a company called Paperfoam in the Netherlands and have also been used in CD’s for Universal Music Group. 

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Barenaked Ladies 
Google Map 
Paperfoam

Usually, when you think about consumer-grade batteries either a copper top or fuzzy, pink bunny come to mind, but there may soon be other major competitors coming to the shelves. While looking into fuel cells I stumbled across a category of batteries known as bio batteries. They run on all natural ingredients and their popularity seems to picking up quite a bit of speed in the science communities. 

Sony is one company who seems to be taking a lead in this sector. Sony is actually one of the world’s largest makers of batteries and have now developed one which runs on sugar (carbohydrates)! This is pretty interesting, and so far the test batteries have shown the ability to produce 50 milliwatts (the world’s current record for level of power production for passive-type bio batteries). This seems impressive because it is a record-setter, but what about powering products consumers buy on the shelves? Combining four power units together is sufficient enough to operate most MP3 players and cell phones. 

Another interesting bio battery appeals to both energy conservators and bar-folk alike. That’s correct, a battery which runs on gin and vodka. Scientists from the St. Louis University in Missouri have created a battery that uses enzymes as a catalyst to break down ethanol fuel. So far it seems enzyme-based batteries like these have the more serious potential to be cheaper than their direct competitors because the other fuel cells rely on expensive platinum or ruthenium catalysts. Though, because enzyme-using batteries are sensitive to slight changes in pH and temperature they still need to overcome the hurdle of quickly degrading and become inactive. 

Both of these technologies seemed to stand out to me while researching bio batteries, but there are others out there. Who knows who will end up taking the lead in the mass-production market. Whoever it is, the company will surly be aiming to create an effective energy source which will be suitable for practical applications such as the cell phone and the like. 

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copper top 
pink bunny 
Sony 
vodka 
gin

While listening to the radio, I heard an interesting commercial DTE Energy stated that there is a renewable energy option available NOW! This new project is called Green Currents. I am always interested in saving the environment so continued to listen until they gave me a website to check out on my own. 

Thinking I was going to find the mother load of cool I hit a new stage of euphoria, I went to their new site. It starts out by forwarding you from the green currents page to a DTE product page. I read on. “GreenCurrents is a voluntary green options program that makes being green easy and affordable,” they say.

Excited about the prospect I read the explanation of what renewable energy is and how it will help lessen the impact on the environment. The site even comes with its ownCarbon Emissions Calculator. Still not exactly sure what this new “Renewable Energy Option” was I stumbled across the press release explaining their Green Currents project.

They explained that they are working on creating a wind farm and you can “play a significant role in shaping the future of sustainable energy in Michigan,” and all you need to do is pay DTE more money. 

It is undoubtedly going to cost millions of dollars to switch from the fossil fuel to renewable energy, but it also seems like a great business opportunity for DTE. When you move to a renewable resource DTE will not have to spend money on fuel to keep the generators going and because of this there should be a cost advantage that the early adopters will probably not see any kickback on. If you are interested and live in Michigan you can check it out here. 

I have contacted DTE and when I get a response I will bring you more information on the project and see how DTE plans to make the world a better place without making your wallet too light. 

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Green Currents
Carbon Emissions Calculator
Green Currents Press Release
DTE Residential Green Currents

As many know the florescent light bulb is not the only alternative for incandescent bulbs. The up and coming challenger is the LED light bulb. LED’s started their life as a feedback mechanism for early electronics. They were dim indicators that showed that something was on or that something was happening. Until recently they were never considered a serious challenger to the current incandescent bulb. They have plenty of energy savings but also were not very bright and had issues with natural color light. 

Once upon a time LED was the ugly duckling. Sure it gave off light and used little electricity but not enough for everyday use. Recent research had determined ways to make LED’s much brighter and increase the possibility for home use. Another issue was the ability to give off white light, this issue too has found a solution. Still there are issues that keep them from homes. One of these issues is the price to purchase a LED bulb. Currently due to the complexity of LED bulbs because they use so many LED’s for one light bulb it is expensive to manufacture and that is passed down to the consumer. Currently to buy an LED bulb it costs anywhere from $20 – $80 to get a normal 30 – 60 Watt replacement bulb. Another issue is the angle of the light. LED lights have a very narrow path of light so it makes it difficult to get bulbs to have the wide angle lighting that normal incandescent bulbs. For instance, I have an LED flashlight, and its bright but, it only show the things you point it at so when you point it at the key hole on your car door the light does not show on your door handle. 

On the bright side, pun intended, there are advantages. LED Light bulbs have very low power requirements, and usually use less than half of the power of a comparable brightness Florescent bulb which is four times less than a comparable incandescent bulb. Also due to this efficiency there is very little heat produced. Finally LED lights are expected to last 10 times longer than a compact florescent bulb and 100 times longer than and incandescent bulb. That is quite a bit longer if I do say so myself. 

The future is so bright you gotta wear shades. OLED is the latest popular derivative. Some of the interesting ideas for OLED is to make a thin layer of the OLED material and put it all the way across you celling and give your whole house light or wrap it around a pillar. Some other ideas would be to make a clear version of OLED canvas and place it on your window, so at night you could turn on your window lights and it would light the room similar to daylight. For more news on this you should definitely check out Google News. 

Advantages:
- Low power usage
- Runs cool
- Lasts a very long time

Disadvantages:
- Angle of light
- Price to purchase

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Google News – OLED Lighting

Invented over 206 years ago, the light bulb has gone through many changes. From its early beginnings with a battery and a carbon short circuit to todays standard of not caring what the heck is in the socket and just knowing that when you flip a switch you will be able to see the remote for the T.V. Oh what luxuries we have come to know. 

As some of our readers may know, Greener Thinking recently had an interview with a local news paper and in it I had described how I had converted my entire house to compact Florescent bulbs. I did not, however, have the opportunity to go into great detail about the advantages and disadvantages. 

One of the problems you will find when using compact florescent bulbs is that they take a few minutes to come to full brightness. Some of the newer ones do not take quite as long. Another issue can be that the compact florescent bulbs are not the same shape as a normal bulb so they do not fit into all of the same places. One of the biggest issues with compact florescent bulbs is that they contain a small amount of mercury. This is an issue because it makes it difficult to dispose of the bulbs. You should definitely look into a recycle outlet that can handle these bulbs when choosing to replace the bulbs in your home. Some companies like GE and Philips only use trace amounts of mercury in the manufacturing of these bulbs. Another issue is that upfront cost will be more. And the biggest drawback of them all is that your “Easy Bake Oven” brownies will never cook with a compact florescent bulb. Due to the fact that there is less energy lost to the friction of electricity, compact florescent bulbs will never get hot enough to cook your tiny brown cakes of goodness. 

There are also reasons why using florescent bulbs is good and very helpful. Where your “Easy Bake Oven” gets the short end of the stick your electricity bill will definitely be happier. An average 60-Watt equivalent bulb uses around 14 Watts of electricity. This means that you can run around four compact florescent bulbs with the same amount of electricity as an incandescent one. Another bonus is that a compact florescent bulb lasts around 10 times longer than the average incandescent. I started the conversion in my house to florescent bulbs about 3 years ago and during that time I have not needed to replaced a single florescent bulb, but I have steadily replaced all of the dead incandescent bulbs until there were no more. It is much nicer not to worry about changing the light bulbs in your house every 8 months or so. One other thing that makes compact florescent bulbs nice is that they are built to fit into the same sockets as a regular bulb. This means you can replace just about any incandescent bulb with a florescent one. They are getting smaller and smaller as time goes by which also makes it easier to fit them into smaller fixtures. Finally, over the life of the bulb you will save money and electricity due to the more efficient design of compact florescent bulbs and that is a win-win for the Greener Thinking philosophy. 

Compact Florescent Bulbs Cheat Sheet 

Pros

• Much less electricity to give off the same amount of light
• Last much longer than regular bulbs
• Fits into the same socket as an Incandescent
• Cheaper over the life of the bulb

Cons:

• Use Mercury
• Take a couple of seconds to get to max brightness
• The shape can sometimes get in the way of smaller fixtures
• The upfront cost is more

Welcome back, 

In the previous article I covered how the Wii is a great system for people who like to have fun gaming and also, as a cool side effect, use little electricity. But there is more to the Wii than just a small pretty white case. The Wii is flying off shelves, being bought by everyone from parents for their kids to kids buying them for their parents and grandparents. The Wii is hitting markets that game systems have never even tried to touch. You may still be saying, “Right… your point?” For you I say, there is green to be made! 

Nintendo, the company behind the Wii, is not only selling Wii’s like fire to a caveman, but it also has a portable game system called the “Nintendo DS” which is selling even better than the Wii!!! 

In the video game business it is not the norm to make money off of the console. The idea is usually to sell as much hardware as you can so that game developers see that you have lots of people to sell games to, so that they want to make games, so that gamers buy more consoles, so that developers want to make games… you get the point. There is one difference for Nintendo though, they like to make money on everything that they sell. Stock holders love companies that make money, especially if they make money on things that are normally loss leaders. Another fun fact is that developers of consoles “License” games to play on their consoles. For every game that anyone sells on a Nintendo console, Nintendo made or not, Nintendo will get a cut of the profit. With the speed the Wii is flying off shelves, game developers who once were devoted only to the PS3 and XBOX 360 are now starting to cancel projects on those consoles to put their effort into creating games for the Wii. 

With the expanded market that includes the masses, Nintendo is reaching numbers never thought possible on the back of profits never thought possible this soon after a console launch. Heck Sony is still reported to be losing about $150 – $200 for each PS3 it sells. That is definitely not a good way to make money. 

Nintendo’s stock symbol is NTDOY. I have owned this stock since it was $21 per share and now it has climbed over $55 per share without even glancing back. When I purchased the stock Nintendo were being laughed at because their Wii console was not very powerful and was not expected to sell well and the DS had stagnant sales. People said Nintendo was going for niche market and not much else. By the time the stock hit $35 the DS was starting to pickup steam and the Wii launched to a better than anticipated launch, but everyone thought that both the Wii and DS were a fad destined to die soon. Now that Nintendo is raising their profit forecasts by 40% for the quarter many investors are starting to think that Nintendo has some staying power and a solid base for income. NTDOY has gained tremendously as has the Wii consoles demand in everything from nursing homes to fitness centers to your livingroom. Nintendo is becoming a very steady stock and seems to match the growth of Google or Apple. Get in while the getting is good. This is another one of the many ways we think greener. 

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Yahoo Finance NTDOY
GamePro Sales Info
Fox News Nursing Homes
TG Daily Wii Fit
You Tube Family Wii Game

      When you think of greener electronics, you may think of solar panels for your house, or LED light bulbs. But greener doesn’t only refer to things that are modern day necessities like running water and lights but you can also be greener in your video game selection also. 

Today a game system that has been out since November 18, 2006 is still nowhere to be found on the shelves because it is selling out so quickly. The reason it is hard to find in stores not because it is a greener game system, but it is the greener next generation game system. It is not because it is an inexpensive game system, but it is the least expensive next generation game system. This game system has a unique way of playing that no other game system can currently replicate. The game system is called Wii. You may not quite understand why we are writing about Wii on Greener Thinking but if you would like to find out how this system will help the environment and also help you save and gain money, read on. 

The Wii is a game system is far different than any other that precedes it. When you look at game systems of the past, you find that the intention of their design is to make your fingers do all of the movement so that your rear can stay firmly planted in the seat. With the Wii this dynamic has changed. It has become the norm to jump around your living room flailing as if trying to swat at a pesky fly. This is the reason the Wii is flying off the shelves. It allows people who were considered too old for video games ornon-traditional video gamers to think about gaming in a whole different way. 

But why do you come to Greener Thinking for this news? Sure the Wii is fun and a very different way to play video games, but you want to hear how it is going to save or make you money and how it is better for the environment than its competition. Well lets start with the easy one, how the Wii is better for the environment than the competition. 

If you are at all familiar with the game console market the following facts will not surprise you at all, but for those who are not I will delve into the details. The Wii’s competition is currently Sony’s PlayStation 3 otherwise known as the PS3 and Microsoft’s XBOX 360. Both the PS3 and the XBOX 360 are aiming for the high-end market. They both support 1080p on HD televisions and have much more powerful hardware packed inside than the Wii. Looking at the systems side by side it is very easy to see where Sony and Microsoft fit this extra horsepower. The Wii system is the size of three DVD cases stacked together, but the XBOX 360 is as large as an old school VCR and the PS3 is even larger. But that is not the market that Nintendo is going after with the Wii. So while the Wii is less powerful it can also be smaller because it is not producing as much heat as the other consoles and the Wii does not create as much heat as the PS3 and XBOX 360 because it does not draw nearly as much electricity. 

Hardcoreware has done some research to show the power differences between a PC, XBOX 360, PS3 and, of course, the Wii. The differences are so astounding it baffles the mind. You can run approximately 10 Wii’s with the same amount of power used by the XBOX 360 and almost 11 Wii’s with the same amount of power used by the PS3. 

This is why the Wii is a great system for people who like to have fun but also at the same time not use as much electricity and saving money for not using that electricity. 

Check back in the next couple days to see how you can make money with this information. 

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Vintage Gamers
Non-traditional gamer 
Hardcoreware