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Baron Karl von Drais needed a way to replace his horse; today we need a way to replace the car. On this day in 1817 Baron Karl von Drais rode his Laufsmaschine for the first time. According to a biography by Dr. Gerd Hüttmann: Necessity Led to the Invention of the Bicycle Mount Tambora exploding/Public Domain But what really resonates today, two hundred years later, is the reason he invented it: in response to an environmental crisis....

The mighty oak is truly a remarkable tree. Oaks have sustained humans for more than 6,000 years. Oaks have often been referred to as generous, hospitable, scholarly, surveyors, and long-lived. From Vancouver to Caracas, from Miami to Dublin, from Lisbon to Jakarta, and from Seoul to Tokyo there are about 425 species of oaks. Their lineage dates back some 65 million years. They are genetically rich and an incredibly flexible genus surviving geologic upheavals and many climate changes....

An official listing has revealed the writers behind The Mandalorian Season 3 following Star Wars’ recent announcement of its March 1, 2023, Disney+ premiere.The Mandalorian has been part of a new wave of streaming that has brought, what used to be, primarily big-screen talent to television. That goal has clearly been achieved in front of the camera with Giancarlo Esposito, Pedro Pascal, Timothy Olyphant, and more, but also behind the camera with elite writers and directors....

After finally kickstarting its promotional tour on April 18, Thor: Love and Thunder pushes toward its July 8 release date with exciting new updates at every turn. The first trailer gave fans a look at a back in shape God of Thunder alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy, Korg, and Valkyrie, finishing off with a glimpse at Natalie Portman as the Mighty Thor. While Portman didn’t get any dialogue and saw less than five seconds of screentime, her return will have a key impact on the story that Thor 4 will add to the ever-expanding MCU....

Cities should prepare for, and encourage, an electric bike revolution It seems that all the news coming out of CES is about self-driving cars or autonomous vehicles (AVs), how everybody is working on them, and how they will make the world safe for them. But we have other options and other choices, and perhaps people should step back and think again about what kind of future we want. In a post last year I noted that we are not giving nearly enough attention to bikes and in particular, the rapid expansion of e-bikes, and quoted analyst Horace Dediu, who was covered in CNN:...

They need air for those big engines, but it’s mostly about design. We do go on about how dangerous American SUVs and pickup trucks are with their big front ends, and how, as the Detroit Free Press reporters noted and were quoted in an earlier post, America’s love of SUVs is killing pedestrians. We have quoted Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of UMTRI who concluded that “a pedestrian hit by an LTV (light truck vehicle, which includes minivans, pickup trucks and SUVs) is more than three times more likely to be killed than one hit by a car – less due to the vehicle’s greater mass than due to its height and the design of its front end....

A lot of people are talking about resilient designing these days. Alex Wilson of the Resilient Design Institute defines it: He has completed building his own home according to resilient design principles: Writing in Mother Earth News, Alex goes into much greater detail about his attempt to build a “more resilient homestead.” He and Jerelyn bought a farm a few miles out of town, and Alex describes how he renovated a 200 year old farm house as a model of resilient design....

Marvel Studios may just be starting its theatrical year with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but that does not stop both the studio and fans from thinking about how they will finish 2022. The final film on this year’s MCU slate may be their most anticipated as well. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever comes to theaters on November 11 and has the curiosity of Marvel fans worldwide as it has the lofty task of moving the Black Panther story along while also honoring the first film’s leading man....

“Going to the movies” has an entirely new meaning through this unprecedented time in world history. With the movie industry completely shut down for nearly six months, including movie theater closures and no new movie releases, at home and on demand movie viewing is at an all-time high. Already this year, a handful of all-new films are skipping theaters completely in favor of going straight to availability for purchase or rent on-demand at home....

A Blue Beetle teaser poster suggests that the first film of DC Studios’ rebooted slate may be coming sooner rather than later. As 2022 draws to a close, all eyes are on the newly named co-CEOs of DC Studios, James Gunn and Peter Safran, and their vision for the new DCU. While the duo has been busy mapping out the future of the franchise, the timing of when this new era begins - and who or what will play a part - is a bit fuzzy....

Star Wars actors Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen tried to convince George Lucas to end Obi-Wan and Anakin’s fight in Revenge of the Sith differently than it did in the final cut.The lightsaber duel to decide the fate of the galaxy between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, also known as the Battle of the Heroes (which could be making a return soon), is now one of the most iconic scenes in the entirety of Star Wars....

How much do you know about snow? If you’re like most people, you probably know a few things about it once it’s on the ground. But do you know how it forms in to unique flakes in the first place? “Snow crystals grow into their famously diverse shapes depending on the cloud’s temperature and humidity,” writes MNN’s Russell McLendon in his in-depth file, Flaking out: How snow forms. “They collect more and more ice particles as they drop through the cloud, and often clump together as the crystalline drizzle evolves into a snowstorm....

Marvel Studios may be on a short hiatus in terms of in-universe content, but that’s not stopping breaking news for the MCU by a long shot. In one three-minute video, Marvel fans got more than their fair share of news concerning the future of Phase 4, all of which will be arriving in less than two years. This includes the first few seconds of footage from Marvel’s Eternals, release dates for the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol....

Benedict Wong’s Wong has been a significant part of the MCU’s Phase 4 thus far, with the character appearing in multiple projects already - this includes both Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: No Way Home. The character’s appearance is not coincidental, since the Tom Holland-led threequel confirmed that Wong is now the Sorcerer Supreme. Wong’s next appearance will be in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a sequel that is expected to have massive ramifications across the MCU....

Marvel Studios is now officially underway with the theatrical run for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the studio’s 28th film and arguably the most ambitious solo movie in franchise history. Following a tumultuous filming schedule that ended with six weeks of reshoots, fans worldwide are embracing everything this Multiversal sequel brings to the table to kick off the year for the MCU. WARNING: The rest of this article contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness....

In many places throughout the world, deforestation continues to be a problem–which is what makes seeing the latest in tree-killing machinery all the more troubling. Gone, it seems, are the days of hard-earned lumber, where felling a tree took sweat and grit. Now, thanks to advances in technology, large swaths of forest can be harvested in a fraction of the time by a single lumberjack, all from a comfortable seated position....

Is Moon Knight Marvel Studios’ most ambitious Disney+ project yet? For five weeks, Marvel fans have been questioning what is real and what is fantasy as the series tackled mental health, Egyptian mythology, and even had Oscar Isaac playing different personalities while often sharing the screen with himself. It’s been a lot, and it’s largely been met with glowing reviews. In addition to Oscar Issac, this prodigious series also stars Ethan Hawke as the mysterious and cultish Arthur Harrow, along with May Calamawy as Marc’s wife, Layla El-Faouly....

Right from the start, Tom Holland’s MCU version of Spider-Man has been different from both Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s incarnations of the web-slinger. The previous franchises had their Peter Parkers graduate from high school and enter adulthood, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Peter is still a kid; and while he does live with his Aunt May as the others did before, the Uncle Ben mentor role was filled by Iron Man’s Tony Stark....

Waugh Thistleton’s Watts Grove project raises some questions and they deliver some answers. TreeHugger loves wood construction. We have to reduce the embodied energy of our buildings and building with wood is a great way to do this, as it stores carbon during construction instead of emitting it. Thistleton Waugh has designed and built some of the most ground-breaking, interesting and biggest projects out of wood, using Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT)....

After months of delays and uncertainty, we now know a bit more about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Marvel President Kevin Feige unveiled the show’s debut trailer at Disney Investor Day, which was stacked with not just action-packed footage, but an official release date too. The sub-two minute teaser stuffed a ton of enticing content into a short amount of time. From brief plot hints to subtle nostalgia nods, this show’s first footage left us with a lot to digest....