The Vieger House

Hiya! Recently my wife and I got an older house in a neat-o neighborhood built in 1957. We were blessed with the chance to renovate it and turn it into something spectacular. With this great opportunity came an important and fun responsibility of making sure the final product was something not only built with environmental awareness and efficiency in mind while it was being built but also in it's use, everyday. We kept blue orby care, enjoyment and living all in mind.

Here are some products we offered to the house. It accepted!

Ranai Tankless Water Heater



Eurofase Low Voltage Lighting




Kohler Low Flush Toilets

It has "Dual Flush Technology" which includes a 1.6 gpf and also an eco-friendly, 0.8-gallon flush option. The daily devotional derriere domicile saves as much as 6,000 gallons of water annually over a traditional 1.6-gallon toilet. However, we still use the practice, "If it's yellow...




Compact Fluorescent Bulbs 6500 K



K.I.S.S. Below Flow Sprinkler System



Succulents and local grasses



Radiant Barrier Paint and Radiant Barrier Insulation In attic and underneath Pier and beam foundation



Jenn Air Refrigerator-it has an alarm that goes off if the door isn't closed all the way. It says" Hey you! Stretch! Close me, I'm wasting energy! but I still love you"



All the major points of entry front, back and side doors are double sealed. They make a great "Psshhhhhhhunk!" sound when you close them! Ooooooooh space crafty!

And we went with Green Mountain Energy. They would ensure we get our power from wind and solar~ Thank you wind!!!Thank you sun!!!

This whole project has been quite an outstanding sophomore class in building right and right living. We loved it!

and we're getting better at it everyday~

Love,

TV

Helicopter Prodigy! Machine Teaches Itself to Fly!

This is pretty neat, here, kiddies.

Toy helicopters are pretty fun, right? Of course. Still, they are one of the more difficult things to maneuver because they require constant input from the pilot to keep it steady. Well, I was over at LiveScience and found an article about some dudes over at Stanford (Andrew Ng, a Stanford University professor directing the research of graduate students Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley) are creating software that allows a helicopter to learn difficult maneuvers that only a pilot can do by watching other helicopters perform them.

Thats right, these helicopters have real human eyes!

No no... of course they don't have eyes. They just record the actions of pilots, and can reproduce those actions on their own. It is the first step to creating machines that can go places too dangerous for humans to go. Neat!

Here's a video of the helicopter doing sweet tricks:


And here's a link to a video where they explain what the project is about:

Learning Helicopter.

Sorry, I can't embed that one. Its "protected".

Take to the skies, SuperForesters!

War is Over - A Clarification

Good Morning SuperForest,

Jackson here.

I owe you all an apology. Yesterday I posted the "War is Over (Via NASCAR & Coors Light!)" post as if I had found it online and was simply passing it along, where in fact I created it myself, and put it up as if it were real.

This is why...

For me, there is nothing more exciting and amazing than the transmission of ideas. Ideas are our main currency here at SF, and we try to find the best, brightest, shiniest ideas and pass them along to you, so that you can form your own ideas, and we can all grow together.

Yesterday I made a mis-step. I was not thinking that many would think that the ad was real. I incorrectly assumed that people knew about John & Yoko's worldwide campaign for Peace, which is what the whole thing was based on.

Here's the story: In December of 1969, John and Yoko purchased ad space on billboards in more than eleven cities worldwide. The cities included New York, Tokyo, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, London and Toronto. The billboards simply read: "War is Over! If You Want It. Happy Christmas from John & Yoko."

I look to John Lennon a great deal for inspiration and guidance, and in reflecting on his ethos of Peace branding I thought: "Well, it's fine and good for a bearded, anti-establishment hippie to buy ads for Peace and promote it. But how powerful would it be if major corporations also took a stand for Peace?" And why wouldn't they?

Then I thought how fun it would be to subvert the whole "Red state/Blue state, Us/Them" mentality by having the ads come from companies that one would assume to be "Pro-war."

Now, I have no idea what Coors Light and NASCAR think about war and Peace. (Hopefully they are interested in Peace because it makes sound economic sense.) I chose them because in my mind they served as good examples of "Red state corporations."

The very idea of "Red and Blue corporations" is too big to get into in this post.

The issue here is that I should have presented my idea in the context of: "Wouldn't it be amazing if this happened? Wouldn't this be extraordinary to see?" Instead, I succumbed to my impish desire to prank and provoke. (And I forgot that most of our lovely readers we probably born after 1969.)

This is a matter of trust. When you read something on SuperForest, I want you to know that it can be trusted, that WE can be trusted.

What I find wonderful about SuperForest is our transparency, meaning that what we do and what we say are in line. We have no need to hide in the shadows, we can dance in the sun.


Love to All,

-Jackson

Plaf!

If you'd consult your Spanish or French dictionary and look up the word plaf you'd probably find out that it means splash (it's a bit of a slang word so you may not find it in a dictionary). But anyway, in the comming context it means splash.

Plaf is the result of a collaboration between MOMO and Eltono. Both being two really great art blogs/instances who do street art and related stuff.
Plaf can be seen as an outdoor exhibition through the entire metropolis of New York. The exhibited objects are so called "autonomous mechanisms", mechanisms that function on their own. In this art perspective it are just sculptures that move due to natural influences. For example the wind, the tides and the sun. In fact the objects in Plaf are a bit like Theo Jansens Strandbeest. Take a look.




This is in fact the first object in the outdoor exhibition and it was placed in the East River at Hallets Cove (an area in Queens). As you see the installation requires some wind and a bit of streaming water to start moving.

The coming time Plaf will be placing their autonomous mechanisms throughout the city. They'll even be giving out maps showing where you can find their work

via:wooster collective

-jdh

The Art of Chess

We SuperForesters absolutely adore the game of chess. Strategy, order, gamesmanship. All are represented in "the game of kings."

So we were very excited to read this on notcot:

"DUBLIN—In 2001, the RS&A, a London-based art commissioning company, initiated the ongoing touring exhibition, “The Art of Chess,” featuring work by top international artists using the chess set as inspiration. The show’s latest outing is at Dublin’s Sebastian Guinness Gallery, where all ten sets, plus a newly commissioned 20-minute film by Gavin Turk, are on view through October 9."

London SuperForesters go and see this show! And perhaps be so kind as to snap a few pickies and send them along to: superforestnyc@gmail.com
Awesome.

Check out the rest of the chess boards here.

p.s. For anyone who's into word etymology, the term "Check Mate" comes from the ancient Persian "Shah Mat" which means: "the king is dead." Interesting, no?

Sly & the Family Stone - "You Can Make It If You Try"

It might take a lot of trying, but you really can make it if you try.
Man, their drummer was out of sight!

Love,

Team SuperForest

Parliament - "One Nation Under a Groove"

"Here's a chance to dance our way out of this constriction."
-George Clinton

A-flipping-men.

Dance, sing, love, laugh, and be happy. It's all going to work out just fine.
We all in this thing together.

Love,

Team SuperForest

SuperForester Savannah's Music Column: G Love and BeGreen!

Hello All!

We're very proud to present the first of (hopefully many) SuperForester Savannah's music columns! Savannah is out there finding the best and brightest in music and posting it to SF.

Here we go!


I finally made it!!!! Helllllloooooo SuperForest! Such a privilege to finally be chilling with my bro Jackson and all our our super fantastic SuperForest friends.

What am I doing here you may ask? Well for starters I'd like to make your ears smile!! Or your eyes dance! Or your feet talk! Music is my bag kiddies so sit back and relax while we do it to your eardrums! SuperForester Savvy has many cool things to share however I figured I'd start with what I know best.

But where to start I have been asking myself the last week? What shall I play first? Who shall I present for your listening and viewing pleasure? The answer became very clear the other day and it was inspired by Jackson's Peace Alphabet.

For the past month SuperForest has been rockin' the peace vibe to the supreme extreme and it couldn't come at a better time. It made me think of another friend who took his message of Peace, Love, and Happiness to the airwaves this summer.



G Love and Special Sauce, one of my all time favorites, got funky on their new single bringing a fresh modern take on the ideals so many of our parents stood for and they didn't even wear flowers in their hair (although that might have looked pretty). Besides the fact that the video is rad and takes place hovering over the city of Los Angeles which is oh so lovely from above I wanted to shout out G Love for another reason.....he is oh so SuperForest.


As an artist he is continually committed to making a difference. This year he teamed up with BeGreen in order to work at offsetting the carbon footprint of his very busy touring schedule. BeGreen offers many ways for us as individuals to calculate and offset our own carbon footprints. Their parent company Green Mountain Energy has been the nation's leading clean energy provider for nearly a decade. So they've got they knowledge and the know how.


G Love and BeGreen created their own site so you can learn about their combined efforts, or check out begreennow.com to explore all that BeGreen itself has to offer. Gooooooo G! Hope you enjoy the hot beats kiddies! Wishing you all peace, love, and happiness!!!!

LOVE!

-Savannah

What's in Season NY?

Hey Everyone!

TimeOutNY, this week, has a great chart to show us what is locally in season from October through December! Which green market has the best brussels sprouts? Which farm sells the yummiest pears? They have the answers:

This is sooooo useful!

Here is a link to their site, so you can print it out and put it on your fridge (if that is the most effective way for you) or you can just keep it on your desktop, when your wondering what to make for dinner!

If you have one for your local area, feel free to email me and I'd be glad to post it!

Yummy Yummy!

Niki

Amsterdam Reduces It's Own Carbon Footprint

For the past few years everyone from every single direction has been shouting at us that we should reduce our carbon footprint. But what about the government? municipalities? cities?
The Dutch capital of Amsterdam took a step in the right direction.

flickr image by francescomontalbano

So what happened?

Recently the city council and a few other parties managed to agree upon a new concept. "City Cargo". This is all about using the current tram-tracks (for people unfamiliar with trams: a tram is a sort of a train but then riding on the street) for cargo. Today there is a load of small companies situated in Amsterdam who all get their deliveries done by polluting Diesel vans. In the future this cargo shipment should be done by the trams. Which is great since trams use electricity and thus don't contribute to a bad quality of air in the city center.

Furthermore the schedule of the new cargo-trams has been created in such a way that they don't interfere with the passenger trams. Amsterdam is such a great place.

via:treehugger

-jdh

Visualizing Kinship

As I stated before, my theme for this week is Kinship with all life. And I can think of nothing that better represents that theme (visually at least) than Gregory Colbert's Ashes and Snow:






The show encompasses over 60 expeditions to almost every continent and more than 16 years in the making (and ongoing). Ashes and Snow has been viewed now by over 10 million people worldwide, making it the most attended exhibition by a living artist in history. All in all an epic endeavor, the success of which I believe must be attributed to the power of its message.

And if that's not cool enough, the show is housed in The Nomadic Museum, a sustainable and transportable structure, made originally out of recycled shipping crates and most recently, out of sustainable bamboo in Mexico City (the largest bamboo building in the world, to date!).



Emily Dickinson once wrote that great poetry can knock your head off. This does it for me. Tune in later for more in my series of kinship with all life...

-jordan

Nerdbots!

Hi all!

These are simply cute.

A couple in Missouri makes these robots out of things they find in antique shops. They're called Nerdbots!

Each one has so much personality.









Great idea! Who doesn't dig robots?

(Thanks again, to the great SwissMiss for the heads up!)
Happy Thursday!
N

War is Over (via NASCAR & Coors Light!)

Wow!

Seems we can all just get along.
It's great to see companies like this shaking off the whole "Red state/Blue state" nonsense.

After all, more Peace = more beer drinkers and NASCAR viewers, and that's a big plus.

Sweet.

A huge SuperForesty "Congratulations!" to NASCAR and Coors Light for promoting Peace.

Love to All,

Team SuperForest