That beast we call Christmas has taken it’s toll and made posting hard here at the Zebra.  I apologize for the low number of posts the last few weeks.  After the New Year comes around things will get back to normal, I think…

Two posts over at clean technica really caught my eye today.  The first being about an umbrella that generates power from the rain to power it’s own LED lights.  The umbrella is made of PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) which actually harvests kinetic energy.  According to the post, the harder it rains the brighter it gets. Just one more amazing way to generate power from everyday action.  Like the revolving door and the floor in Japan.  Someday your every movement will power everything!

The second post that caught my eye over at Clean Technica was this one.  Apparently a VERY POSH hotel in Dubai, the Palazzo Versace,  will be refrigerating their private beach so their guests don’t get hot feet.  Yeah, you heard right, the city that is constantly getting credit for building amazing LEED certified wastes of natural resources is now going to have cold sand in the summer time.  My gosh!  I can’t wait to wiggle my toes in it (not really)!!!

It is sad to think that in a world where sustainability HAS to become the norm we are still thinking of things like refrigerated beaches.  The very same world where we can now generate power from raindrops on our umbrella.  Well, I guess that it would be OK if they could generate the power to refrigerate the beach through their toes wiggling in the sand.  Ah, why justify it?