farming

Novel, midsize wind turbine tested on dairy farm

Optiwind is one the few companies searching for the middle ground in wind power--somewhere between the gigantic three-blade wind mills and the small turbines for individual homes.

The company has erected its first midsize, production-scale wind turbine on a family farm in its home state of Connecticut to test performance, the company said late last week. It received a $1 million loan from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund for the project.

Optiwind is targeting organizations that have electricity bills around $100,000 per year and are looking for on-site power generation to offset those expenses. Alternatives approaches have included … Read more

Help sheep escape!

Farm Break is a free, sheep-themed arcade puzzler with cute art direction and decent level design.

The game's central schtick--as revealed in a children's-book-style prologue slideshow--is that you're helping three larcenous sheep escape from a farm, by outsmarting and outmaneuvering the many traps (i.e., puzzles) set by the farmer. You alternately control three different sheep (Sally, Knuckles, and Big Jim, each with their own sounds and personality), using their various characteristics (e.g., Sally's strength, or Big Jim's ability to squeeze through small spaces) in tandem to defeat the game's 25 physics-based puzzles … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Ep. 1297: Facebook wants to own your face (Podcast)

We're back from our BOL summer vacation, only to find that Paul Allen is trying to patent-troll the Internet out of existence, Netflix seems to have finally put BlockBuster out of existence, and Foursquare ain't going down without a fight. Oh, and Donald Bell gives us his predictions for Apple's Sept. 1 event. --Molly

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Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (640x360) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS (640x360)… Read more

Virtual farm games absorb real money, real lives

Last century's cash crops included tobacco, cotton, and sugar cane. Now we have magic cauliflower and super berries, too--and even though they can't be sold at market, some people still toil from dawn to dusk cultivating them.

People spend not just real time but also real money growing these crops in virtual farming games that combine the allure of both games and social networking in what is usually a cute and deceptively simple package. They can be addictive: many users come back at least once a day to micromanage their farms and deal with other users' requests.

On … Read more

State Farm Android app texts while you drive, so you don't have to

In an effort to curb the temptation to text while behind the wheel, State Farm Insurance Company is updating its Pocket Agent application for Android with a widget that will do your texting for you, sort of. The On the Move widget is essentially an SMS auto-responder that will intercept incoming text messages and automatically reply with a canned response.

After loading the app, users are able to compose and save their automated responses. Although the widget is primarily designed for use while in a moving vehicle, multiple responses can be saved and used for different situations or moods. For … Read more

Norway oil giant floats idea for bobbing windmills

A group of scientists and engineers in Norway are testing a flotation device that could support offshore wind turbines so that they don't have to be built on shoals.

StatoilHydro, a division of the oil giant Statoil, said Thursday its Hywind floating wind turbine installed about 10 kilometers off the coast of Karmoy, Norway, in June 2009 is a success.

As a result, the company is planning to test an entire farm of Hywind turbines in Norway, and is looking to install more test farms in rough-water areas like Scotland and Maine.

The Hywind turbine is not a completely … Read more

Tipping cows down on the FarmVille

There's a silly but enduring bit of apocrypha about the alleged rural pastime of "cow tipping"--in which, supposedly, there are so few ways for mischievous young people in the boondocks to amuse themselves that they resort to knocking over cows standing in slumber. (Actually, cows don't sleep upright. Should you try to "tip" a standing cow, be forewarned: it isn't asleep.)

Fittingly, a recently launched Facebook-based game designed to make a statement about the supposed inanity of other Facebook games--like the now-antiquated "sheep throwing" of Slide's SuperPoke and the … Read more

Massive Calif. wind farm gets $1.2 billion in financing

Terra-Gen Power announced Wednesday it's garnered $1.2 billion in financing to build what could be the largest wind energy project in the U.S.

The 3,000-megawatt Alta Wind Energy Center when completed would actually be a series of several massive wind farms located near Tehachapi, Calif., a city in Kern County about 116 miles north of Los Angeles.

Terra-Gen is a renewable-energy company that develops wind, solar, and geothermal projects for producing electricity. Its first phase of this Alta Wind Energy Center, called Alta Project I, already has financing. Its construction began in March and consists of … Read more

Hawaii wind farm to synchronize with needs

Hawaii residents will soon be getting a 30-megawatt wind farm off the coast of Oahu's north shore.

The 30-megawatt Kahuku Wind farm developed by First Wind will consist of twelve 2.5-megawatt wind turbines manufactured by Clipper Windpower in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Once completed, it's expected to generate enough electricity to power 7,700 Oahu homes annually.

The Boston, Mass.-based First Wind signed of power of purchase agreement with the Hawaiian Electric Company to sell them electricity generated from the farm for 20 years at an undisclosed price.

A ceremonial groundbreaking held Wednesday for the Kahuka Wind … Read more