All unsigned DJs, emcees, producers and bands should head on over and register at bestmusiconcampus.com and get a chance to join the ranks of Definitive Jux (registration began Tuesday Nov. 28, ends Dec. 14).

It was only a matter of time before American Idol-esque projects hit cyberspace.

In mid-December, the powers that be behind the website will choose 25 promising entrants and from there the college audience will vote (begins Dec. 19, ends Jan. 19) and help determine the group or individual who'll win a deal with Def Jux, which includes a digital EP deal (okay, it's digital, but it's Def Jux - c'mon!), a video premiere on mtvU and mentoring from Mr. Lif. Lest any dropouts get the wrong idea, only unsigned hip hop solo artist or group with at least one member enrolled at an accredited college or university are eligible.
[09.04.2007]


Handmade Bicycles - With the ever-increasing spiral of fuel prices around the world the mainstream media coverage of alternative transportation has focused on the cutting-edge, big-business technologies like hybrid engines and hydrogen fuel cells. But there is also a growing movement in the direction of green personal mobility options, and where gadgets like the Segway highlight the fact that unconventional can sometimes mean impractical, a burgeoning group of bicycle artisans is stepping up to the plate with new takes on the traditional pedal-powered transport. Last month 86 of the premier frame builders from North America converged on San Jose, California for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, turning the city by the bay into a two-wheeled mecca for those hoping make a move toward zero emissions without sacrificing their personal style.

With custom made bicycles, as with any high-end product, there is a focus on not only function but also form. Many of the bikes still hold the traditional double-triangle design form at their core, but as builders like Craig Calfee are taking even the most mundane elements in a new direction. Calfee's company, Calfee Design, has already made its mark as a producer of carbon fiber frames and the Santa Cruz builder put that experience to good use building the world's first sustainably-harvested frame, the aptly-named Bamboo Bike.

Standard bicycles, much like standard cars, are often not up to the task of moving us around along with the things we accumulate and use every day, and Massachusetts-based fabricator Mike Flanigan, known as "Ant Bike Mike," understands that problem. Flanigan's solution is the Frontaloadontome, a carryall delivery bike that fuses the mobility of a bicycle with the cargo simplicity of a cart. Flanigan's Alternative Needs Transportation specializes in delivery bikes but also delivers comfortable cruisers with antique chic like the Light Roadster.

From the eccentricities of imported Japanese bamboo tubing to the practicality of delivery bikes and the zip of bikes by boutique builders like Somerville, Massachusetts-based Independent Fabrications and Vanilla Cycles, run by Sacha White out of bike-centric Portland, Oregon, high-end bikes are breathing new life into a bicycle industry overrun with bulk retailers. Thanks to the convergence of international turmoil and peak oil with events like the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, the stagnation that reigned over the bike industry just a few years ago seems unlikely to return soon.
[05.08.2006]

Freecycle: Have you ever wondered what you should do with that old lawnmower, now that you have a new one? Is your basement, garage or attic full of stuff that works but isn't used anymore? Don't have time for a garage sale? Or maybe you're looking for a new dishwasher, laptop or pair of cowboy boots, but just don't have the time or money to buy one? Whatever you need or need to get rid of, this email-based waste reduction program is perfect and, best of all, it is completely free! With over 3,000 participating communities and a membership rapidly approaching 2 million, this revolutionary program is truly "changing the world one gift at a time."
[01.16.2006]


Emerging Green Builders: This grassroots organization of architects, planners, designers, builders and professionals is "intent on promoting the integration of future leaders into the green building movement." Through design contests focusing on environmental impact and efficiency, networking between industry and academic resources and organizational information for local EGB programs, this highly focused offshoot of the Green Builder's Coalition is working to blend the green of environment with the green of industry.
[07.24.2005]


People Powered Machines: Nearly every American, at some point, has had their snuggly Saturday morning hangover treatment disrupted by the obnoxious din of a lawnmower. Nothing ruins a perfectly serene moment quite the way the pocket Hercules of noise and air pollution that is a gas-powered lawnmower does. In fact, the detrimental effects of lawnmowers has been well documented; the United States' Environmental Protection Agency lists the emissions of key smog-forming particulates from a single lawnmower as equal to that of more than 40 modern passenger cars. To put it another way, running a Toro for an hour creates the same amount of air pollution as driving your Subaru 350 miles or so, roughly the distance from Chicago to Cleveland. Multiply that by the nearly 90 million small engines spread across just the United States and the problem is clear. The air, however, is not.

The solution? One of those old push mowers that Beaver Cleaver used to use, an efficient and quiet cylinder of rotating blades that is nothing but goodness. Not only does a human-powered mower eliminate the sheer tonnage of air pollution given off during backyard grooming sessions every summer, but it also tones the user's triceps, quadriceps and hamstrings. To top it all off, the cut from the mechanically simplistic push mower is cleaner than that of a gas mower - which breaks the blades of grass rather than cutting them - giving your grass a reason to stay green and infusing you with a healthy glow.
[05.02.2005]


Hybrid Cars: By now the novelty of a vehicle that doesn't slurp petroleum non-stop should have worn off. After all, the lines for the newest versions of hybrid cars - from the zippy Toyota Prius to the grandfatherly Honda Insight - far outreach those for Hummers. This all-inclusive website provides information on individual models as well as statistics on gas mileage, environmental impact and cutting edge technology.

With Honda's recent push into the market lead with gas/electric versions of its highly popular Civic and Accord models and other manufacturers following suit, the typically older, more educated, and more affluent hybrid driver will soon find plenty of company in line for a vehicle.

The success of the hybrid, fueled in part by perpetually increasing prices at the pump and an increased awareness in the public of environmental issues, has quickly spilled over from the compact import market into the SUV and light truck market. There will be more than 100,000 hybrids sold this year and with Lexus, Ford, Dodge and several makes of General Motors cars and trucks scheduled for launch within the next three years, more than two million fuel-efficient cars will be roaming the streets by 2008.
[03.29.2005]


Restoration Timber: Citing sources like old barns, abandoned schools, textile and paper mills, factories, warehouses and condemned homes, this California and New York-based company stockpiles exquisite, aged-to-perfection wood flooring, beams, siding, cabinetry and furniture for re-use.

Aside from fulfilling the credo "reduce, recycle, reuse" all around, reclaimed wood offers several advantages over newly harvested timber. For starters, it looks better. Over their lengthy lifetimes (most were made before the turn of the last century), wooden elements in houses, public and commercial buildings weather naturally, rich in grain and beautiful in color. Additionally, the trees of old-growth forests, which were used to manufacture early American wood products, were themselves hundreds of years old. The trees were allowed to grow and strengthen through the wonders of nature, providing far more stability than the more pliable, fast-growing trees used in today's commercial lumber mills.

While many of us lack the heart or muscle to cut down and mill a tree on our own, the lumbermen who felled America's old growth forests more than a century ago lacked neither. Don't let their toil and the work of nature go to waste.
[03.15.2005]


Sea Turtle Restoration Project: Through a strategy broad in scope and the work of professional conservationists and dedicated volunteers, this group is working to provide enduring protection for the world's endangered sea turtle populations.

The STRP addresses all of the contributing factors to sea turtle endangerment, working with local and international groups to not only outline protection plans but to also provide economic alternatives for communities whose livelihood depends on industries detrimental to sea turtles. The group also focuses heavily on education, with campaigns like their Turtles and Trade Program, which educates the public about the effects of international trade and economic globalization. STRP has furthered its educational reach with campaigns focused on mercury levels in seafood as well as the production of the documentary film Last Journey for the Leatherback?.
[03.01.2005]


Cedar Works: If you hate splinters, want to avoid dangerous, cancer-inducing chemicals and love to have fun outdoors, this environmentally sound wooden playground equipment manufacturer may be the perfect match for you.

What makes Cedar Works' swing and play sets so special? The company utilizes the light, soft, coarse grained wood of Thuja occidentalis, or Northern White Cedar as it is commonly known. Northern White Cedar is rot-resistant and, as a result, has commonly been used for fence posts and saunas. But it also provides excellent material for play sets that are sturdy and long-lasting and, thanks to the structure of the wood, is also as close to splinter-proof as you can get.

As an added bonus, CedarDesigner, the company's web-based design program, lets customers design their own playground sets custom-tailored to their needs. Utilizing precision cut materials, most Cedar Works sets can be assembled in the duration of a couple afternoon beers by even the challenged tool handler and, with a few in-the-field retrofits, can be used to yank a 350 small block engine in a pinch.
[02.22.2005]


Real Goods: Since their inception in the late 1970s, the sustainable-living home supplier and renewable energy pioneers at Real Goods have been proving the feasability of commercial success with eco-friendly products.

Founded in the hippie and artist mecca of Mendocino County, California, Real Goods put itself on the map by becoming the first supplier to the public of solar energy systems. The company's groundbreaking strides have continued ever since under the foresight of founder John Schaeffer, realizing a steady profit increase from a few thousand dollars to more than $20 million over only a twenty year span. Schaeffer continued pushing for new approaches to business, instituting a then relatively unheard of direct public stock offering to his customers in 1991.

Since going public, Real Goods has expanded its scope to include not only the sale of environmentally sound products - from solar panels and garden composters to greywater recycling systems and non-toxic household cleaners - but also the dissimenation of sustainable living techniques and information through its own Institute For Solar Living.
[02.02.2005]


Ecological Footprint: We live in one of the most massively inefficient societies in history. The average ecological footprint for Americans is 24 - that's the number of acres required to sustain a person's lifestyle. Even as a vegetarian bicyclists who recycles incessantly, conserves resources and consumes hyper-consciously, in America your footprint is 14 acres. There is a finite amount of biologically useful land worldwide, and right now it equates to less than 5 acres per person. We are consuming ourselves to death.

Why should you be worried? Excessive energy and resource consumption in the United States has led to massive deforestation and pollution. The planet on which we live is a wholly functioning organism: once certain elements are destroyed or contaminated, there are micro-reactions that extend into the greater ecosystem. Once natural resources in the United States are threatened or eliminated, the consumptive eye turns toward the rest of the world. American corporations and consumers are the number one force behind behind the rapid expansion of deforestation, pollution and ecological destruction in the Western Hemisphere. To preserve American forests, we decimate timber areas in Canada and South America.
[08.16.2004]


Return of the Wolf: A "trophic cascade" is the term that biologists use to explain the domino effect that individual variables often have on the larger picture of an ecosystem. The term has traditionally been used in well-documented cases of change in aquatic ecosystems, where food chains are generally more distinguishable and the influence of variable components is more clearly documented The reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone Park in the mid 1990s has sparked a tropic cascade of its own, however, and the implications have biologists howling.

After higher-level predators were removed from the natural environment of the American west (wolves were on the brink of extinction by 1880) by wholesale slaughter there was a noticeable shift in the balance of previously healthy ecosystems. Without the checks-and-balances that nature had previously provided, other animals such as elk and deer began decimating the populations of other flora and fauna, completely indirectly. Unchecked, these large herbivores threw the delicate environment off balance by over grazing, their expanding numbers ravaging both meadows and forested areas. Native species of plants, from the picturesque aspen, willow and cottonwood trees to the delicate grasses and flowers such as Indian Paintbrush, were either trampled or grazed down to bare earth.

The loss of the wolves and other predators set off a chain reaction that continues to devastate the immediate and greater biosphere. Without the diversity of plant life to support the various components, the ecosystem began to break down. Just one element of the broader picture, saplings were destroyed, allowing invasive trees to populate forested areas, which in turn drove smaller mammals such as beaver out. Without the contribution of the beaver dams to the health of the river systems, water quality changed and erosion increased, driving off many species of predatory birds and fish which lead, in turn, to the decimation of many more plant species.

Although the balance of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem has been seriously compromised, the decade since the reintroduction of the gray wolf has resulted in a noticeable return to normalcy. Thanks to the canine hunters, elk populations have returned to more traditional grazing and calving grounds, many dwindling tree species have been given a chance to recover, and the dominos have begun to replace themselves. The reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone has provided a key example of the interdependency of both small and large scale ecosystems and a crucial document to the importance of conservation.
[07.05.2004]


Wild Aid: Direct Action and Direct Results: While substantial scientific data clearly states the direness of many animal and plant species' population numbers, the illegal wildlife trade - estimated to be worth $6 billion a year - continues unchecked in large portions of Asia, Africa and South America. While weak or un-enforceable legislation often pacifies the public, traffickers in the pelts of exotic bears, cats and even trees push many organisms near extinction. Only the illegal trades in drugs and arms are thought to be more profitable than the illegal wildlife trade.

Wild Aid provides direct protection for wildlife in danger through innovative solutions to conservation threats that are credible, efficient, cost-effective, and deliver direct and measurable results. The organization, founded only a few years ago through collaboration between amateur and professional conservationists from a variety of fields, is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Vladivostok, Phnom Penh, Bangkok, London, Washington, D.C., and New York City. The efficiency of multiple locations is only part of what goes into achieving Wild Aid's five goals: to decimate the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes , to bring wildlife conservation to the top of the international agenda , to effectively and affordably protect wilderness areas, to ensure that endangered species populations rebound, and to enable people and wildlife to survive together.

The group's frontline programs address the entire trade cycle, from poaching to smuggling to consumption, rather than carrying out additional research to simply reproduced established results. Wild Aid reduces poaching by protecting parks and helping local communities find economic alternatives to poaching. The organization retrains former poachers, rebels and military men, fighting the illegal trade through specialized wildlife police units, lowering demand for wildlife products by raising awareness and changing consumer behavior.
[06.01.2004]


Stop Waste: Bring Back Hemp: Before the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which pushed hemp out of the marketplace and made it that much easier to ban outright, hemp products (industrial/fiber, food, and medicines) were standard fare in the United States. After WWII the Dupont chemical company (who wanted to secure market space for their new product, nylon), Samuel Hearst and major timber companies (who wanted to promote tree-based paper) and other emerging business tycoons joined up with the U.S. government to push the cannabis plant into the underground. Not surprisingly, the director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (Harry Angslinger), was related to a man named Andrew Mellon, who was both a banker for Dupont and Secretary of the Treasury for the US government. Surprise!

Why should you be worried? Regardless of your stance on marijuana (which comes from a cannabis cousin but is not the same as hemp), the whole plant can be used commercially. Easily renewable and requiring far fewer resources than wood pulp or even soy, virtually the entire plant can be converted into useful products. Back in February of 1938, Popular Mechanics magazine called hemp the billion dollar crop with 25000 uses. Hemp provides a exceptionally nutritional seed and seed oil (both edible and industrial uses), as well as a variety of versatile fibers. The cannabis plant has proved vital to the survival of industry and economy during times of hardship in the past, and virtually every environmental study from the past few decades has forecasted dire agricultural/social conditions in the future.
(Also check out www.hempreport.com, www.cannabis.com/ and www.abouthemp.com.
[04.20.2004]


NRDC Mercury Report: In their March newsletter the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reported on yet another environmental atrocity put forward by the Bush administration. According to the report, Bush's newest proposal allows commercial industries to increase the levels of mercury output by nearly 700%, a complete reversal from a Clinton administration plan to reduce mercury emissions by 90% before 2007. The main source of mercury is the nation's 1100+ coal-fired power plants whose emissions, through a process similar to acid rain, pollute our water sources. 

Why should you be worried? Seventeen states already restrict fishing because of mercury contamination in every lake or stream within their borders, and the FDA recently issued strict warnings to pregnant women and nursing mothers against eating more than two servings of fish per week because of high levels of mercury in fish. Mercury contamination is known to cause mental retardation, learning disabilities and attention disorders.
[04.05.2004]