Watch This Now: Renewable Energy by Wind Turbine In New York's East River

Turbine being installed in the East River. Photo credit: Kris Unger

True story: New York City's East River is not actually a river. It's technically what'd you call a "tidal channel"--a giant stream that's affected by the tides of the ocean.

A way's back, we interviewed Jonathon Colby, one of the chief engineers at Verdant Power--a renewable energy company that had installed wind turbines in the East River as an experiment in generating alternative forms of power for New York.

To quote Colby:

...the water moves really fast and it’s long which means the flow is pretty straight. So you have nice fast channel flow [powered by the tides]. You have the ideal flow profile to generate electricity. Then on top of that you have a nearly infinite load. New York City consumes so much energy that you can just keep putting turbines in the river and New York is going to keep grabbing that energy as fast as you can produce it.

The project's been underway for some time, though flash forward to today and New York may now officially be on the brink of a revolution in green energy. 

We implore you to take 3 minutes to watch this and learn what's happening:

If you're interested in knowing more about the project's specifics (and you should be!), head over here for a pretty user-friendly breakdown. And now: You are permitted to have one of those "proud to be a New Yorker" moments.

Made By Hand Film Series Features 3rd Ward Teacher Megan Paska In 'The Beekeeper'

A still from The Beekeeper.

In November we heard that the Made by Hand documentary series was working on a short film about our very own Rooftop Beekeeping and Chickens in the City teacher Megan Paska, known far and wide for her many outstanding endeavors as the Brooklyn Homesteader. We've been eagerly awaiting the film ever since, and it's finally here—and predictably, it's amazing.

The Beekeeper, the third film in the Made by Hand series, focuses on Paska's working maintaining apiaries across Brooklyn. It features breathtaking shots of rooftop farms, the NYC skyline and her fascinating beekeeping work. Along with her inspiring narrative and music that strikes just the right vibe, this one's as pure and delightful as the Brooklyn honey that she harvests.

Watch it below, but be warned: once you do, it's going to be hard to resist signing up for an upcoming session of Paska's Beekeeping 101.

-- John Ruscher

Chronicled Dissolution: 365 Days In The Life Of A New York City Bicycle

We've all seen those sad, abandoned bicycle frames still chained to a street sign or bike rack. Wheels, seat, handle bars and chain, all gone—everything pilfered, leaving just a lonely rusting triangle of metal. It's hard to imagine that what remains was once a fully-equipped bike that someone pedaled around the city.

Though this video from Red Peak Branding can give you an idea of how a bicycle arrives in such a state. On January 1, 2011 the design firm chained a bike with bells, basket, lights, a water bottle and more on a street in Soho and took a photo of it each day of the year. The bike seems to survive a little over 200 days without too much damage or theft, but its state deteriorates pretty quickly after the basket vanishes on day 212. By day 231 its seat is gone, by day 242 it has lost its rear wheel rack, and around day 251 someone walks off with the front wheel. The rest of the bike vanishes forever on day 270, leaving you with a bit of existential ennui as other bikes come and go for the remainder of the year.

If you'd like to follow the bike's sad demise in real time, Red Peak also created a daily calendar out of their photos. We hope the bicycles in NYC's Bike Share program, which is scheduled to launch this summer, fair better than this poor maroon ride:

-- John Ruscher

Visual Science // An Animated Look At The Divided Brain

Today we bring you another great video from RSA Animate, the same folks that turned Sir Ken Robinson's "Changing Education Paradigms" into a mind-blowing animation. This time they've taken up their pens to illustrate "The Divided Brain," a lecture by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.

McGilchrist explores how the common perception of the brain being divided into to halves, with the left handling logic, reason and language and the right taking care of emotion, visual imagery and creativity, doesn't tell the whole story. The brain is indeed "profoundly divided," he says, and has become more so as humans have evolved, but the major difference between the two hemispheres is the right's capacity for broad sustainable awareness and the left's narrow focus and attention to detail, both of which are needed for reason and imagination.

An imbalance between these two hemispheres, with the left's "what" taking precedence over the right's "how", can be found at the root many problems in contemporary society, McGilchrist says, driving things home with a killer Einstein quote.

Hit play and give both sides of your brain a little exercise:

-- John Ruscher

Watch This Now // Our Top 5 Videos From TEDxBrooklyn

 

Just over a month ago the second annual TEDxBrooklyn took over Brooklyn Bowl to tackle the theme of "redefining better." If you missed it, or just want to relive your favorite moments, you can watch video of the entire program on the TEDxBrooklyn YouTube Channel.

Since it would take you a good chunk of your day to get through all 17 videos, we've handpicked five we found most enlightening, ranging from hacking ethics to urban agriculture, for your immediate viewing pleasure.

Get your brain movin' after the jump.

Chad Dickerson, CEO of Etsy, talks about the definition of a hacker:

Brian Meece, CEO of RocketHub, talks about the science of crowdfunding:

Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transporation Alternatives, talks about transportation reform:

Julia Kaganskiy & Ciel Hunter talk about The Creators Project:

Viraj Puri, co-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens, talks about innovations in urban agriculture:

-- John Ruscher

WATCH THIS NOW // How To Fit Four Full-Sized Rooms Into A Small Studio Apartment

New York wouldn't be New York without its bountiful supply of exceptionally small apartments, but we prefer to think of these pocked-sized pads as creative opportunities rather than style crampers.

Your own place probably isn't as "cozy" as this one or this one, but if you're feeling like there might not be enough room for all of those great gifts that you've received this holiday season, this video might give you some ideas for better utilizing your little slice of the Big Apple.

In the clip faircompanies, a cool website devoted to sustainable and simple living, takes a tour of the Manhattan studio of third grade teacher Eric Schneider, who enlisted architects Michael Chen and Kari Anderson of Normal Projects to turn his place into something more than just a 450-square-foot box with a tiny kitchen in the corner. They did just that, packing the features of four full-sized rooms into the space with an ingenious design that overlaps, slides and folds. Behold, the Origami Apartment!

-- John Ruscher

WHEELS UP // Biking The Length Of Broadway + Win A Ride By Helping Out Transportation Alternatives

Have you every biked the entire length of Broadway? That's OK, we haven't come close either.

But thanks to the folks at Buzzfeed you can experience that 13-mile ride without worrying about all of the wayward pedestrians and crazy cabbies along the way. Broadway runs from the northern tip of the island in Inwood all the way down to Bowling Green, and this time-lapses video covers the whole route, slowing down to point out notable landmarks along the way. Girl Talk's "Every Day" provides a fitting mash-up soundtrack for the trip. We particularly like the moment when John Lennon's "Imagine" kicks in around Midtown.

Speaking of bike-related marathons, the great cycling advocates at Transportation Alternatives are currently in the home stretch of their year-end fundraising campaign. If they raise $600,000 by the end of the year, a local foundation has promised to match that with an additional $600,000. They're 75 percent of the way to their goal (we'd say that's somewhere around Times Square if you're comparing it to a north-south Broadway run) and they've thrown in an extra incentive for would-be supporters. Donate now and you'll be entered to win a Jamis Commuter 4 bike. Then you'll be all set for your own Manhattan-spanning excursion (or for any less-ambitious, but still relatively-high-octane urban pedaling.)

-- John Ruscher