T shirt junkie that I am, ‘was jonesing for a cute, quick change. Bumped into Jump, and thought you’d like to get in the swing.

Scoop neck, Alternative Apparel organic cotton, utilizing “discharge silk screening process instead of white ink.  The process removes the color from the shirt.” Check the size chart, looks like it runs small.

Great color, “Earth ocean,” from circlesandsquares ($28) @ etsy.com

Get your “eat healthy and save the planet” message out there every time you whip-out this serving tray.  Now if they had just made it out of recycled polypropylene…

$40 @ the designglut store

Related:  previously on altCon
(2.5.09) Cultivating Thoughts on Food
(6.16.09)  Food, Inc. – feed your head and soul

• These geniuses just discovered it’s going to require both innovation and sacrifice…Major Nations Scrap Goal of Halving CO2 by 2050 – reuters
• Big oil’s big scam? Beyond Petroleum – naturenews
• NASA Satellite Reveals Arctic Ice Has Thinned 40% in Five Years – guardian.uk
• Make it illegal to sell, and buy, any and all ivory. Elephant-Sized Loopholes Sustain Ivory Trade – sciencedaily
• The dreams of the future fall prey to the realities of the present…Plans for a High-Speed Rail Line are Rebuked in Cash-Strapped Cali – csmonitor
• Is there no end to the creepy…Could Michael Jackson Have Been Cloned – livescience

Is a robot the future of urban trash collection? A group of Italian scientists think it might be.

In the 1980′s the Italian town of Peccioli built one of the most advanced trash disposal sites in Italy, designed to recycle and produce green energy. For 20 years, it’s been Peccioli’s most profitable business. Peccioli’s affinity for innovative trash collection and the fact that its narrow, winding streets can often prove impassable to big, unwieldy, garbage trucks provided local scientists with a perfect test site for their new robotic creation – DustCart.  A group of  scientists from a nearby university in Pisa called Peccioli’s City Hall and asked for permission to run a test of their new prototype. The scientists transformed a terrace into an outdoor laboratory, laying wires on the cobblestone, installing webcams at street corners, and setting up a control room to monitor DustCart’s operation.

DustCart is designed to answer a customer’s call for a trash pick-up, make its way to their location and ask for a personal ID number that identifies the user and tracks the garbage. It also asks for the kind of trash being dumped – organic, recyclable or waste. DustCart then opens its belly bin, collects the trash and takes it to a dumping site.

“The main benefit we expect for both service provider and citizens,” said Paolo Dario, a soft-spoken scientist who heads the Robotics Department at the Scuola Superiore Sant’ Anna University, “is the fact that this service is available on demand.”

Besides replacing the garbage man, Dario said DustCart could also eliminate the noise pollution that comes with traditional Italian trash collection by running on a silent, lithium-battery operated engine. The robot is also outfitted with special sensors that monitor air temperature, as well as air pollutants, such as: nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, ozone, benzene, CO and CO2. (more…)