Thanks to our good friend Susan who gave us this design heads-up, we now know that Aquaduct has won a pedal-powered machine contest called Innovate or Die. The contest was sponsored by Specialized and Google. Aquaduct is amazing in that it is a bike designed for third world countries (or maybe Raleigh if this drought persists) where a person must travel away from their home, sometimes 3 or 4 miles, to get water each day. The Aquaduct enables a person to ride to the water, fill up a 20 gallon tank on the back, and then pedal back, with the pedalling pulling water through a filtration system and into a clean 2 gallon tank on the front. See the YouTube video showing the whole process here.

Starting with carbon to make Diamonds:

this bike from Moulton that folds yet maintains great frame rigidity

but also this cool guitar from Matrax that resonates longer than any electric out there

roof trusses that enclose huge volumes with the least wood

even the Brooklyn Bridge which has stood the test of time

• Use carpools or public transit to extend the wear of cars and tires and reduce car maintenance wastes such as used oil.

Automotive:

www.donateyourcar.com For a substantial tax write-off, consider donating instead of selling or trading in your old car. The IRS allows you to deduct the retail value quoted in any widely used guidebook, as long as it’s under $5000. (If it’s over $5000, you’ll need an independent appraisal.) Your write-off value will probably be much greater than the trade-in-value, and you won’t need to waste money on repairs or time haggling with dealers or buyers.

www.guidestar.org You can also donate your car to a shelter, church, or theater group. These groups often need cars to pick up clients or transport supplies. Make sure the group you choose is qualified to receive tax-deductible contributions before making the donation, and ask them to provide a written acknowledgment that includes a description of the car. Guidestar offers a list of 850,000 IRS-recognized nonprofit organizations.

www.recycleoil.org Recycling the motor oil from one oil change protects a million gallons of drinking water, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Most service stations that change oil will also take and sagely dispose of used motor oil free of charge.

http://www.burlingtonbiodiesel.org/ Why burn gas when you can burn leftover cooking oil?! Read more about biodiesel benefits and uses.

Bicycles:

www.ibike.org/youth.htm, www.ibike.org/freebike.htm, www.scn.org/bikeworks No matter how old or beat up, there are lots of organizations that want your old bike. Most community bike shops across the country host Recycle-a-Bicycle or Earn-a-Bike programs that try to get kids off the street by teaching them to restore bikes and eventually giving them one to fix up for themselves. In Seattle, the International Bicycle Fund (IBF) sponsors the Village Bicycle Project, which will take your old bicycle, repair it, and send it to Africa, where people are in desperate need of reliable transportation. The IBF also provides links to “bike libraries” (which lend bikes in cities like Denver; Portland, Oregon; and Olympia, Washington) and youth bike programs around the country that are looking for donations. In addition, most Kiwanis Clubs collect and give bikes to disadvantaged children as Christmas gifts.