What do washing the car, watering plants, and wet T-shirt contests have in common? That was a trick question. You probably answered that they all waste water, but only the first two are a waste of water, wet T-shirt contests are understandable. But they all do add up to a large utility bill. That’s why this intelligent hose concept has a consumption meter.

It will measure your consumption and look futuristic doing it. With the Intelligent Hose, you can spray away on your cars, plants and boobies, safe in the knowledge that you will save money.

Beer fueling cars? Cars now competing for beer that you should be guzzling? Yep. And your car won’t get a beer gut or wake up next to Quasimodo the next morning. Don’t sweat it though, we’re talking leftovers. Sierra Nevada has purchased a MicroFueler, which produces ethanol from water, sugar and yeast. As you probably know from Beer 101, yeast is a major byproduct of beer fermentation. So they can now make fuel out of beer leftovers.

It’s a great Earth friendly way to recycle waste. And it’s nice to see a company being responsible and doing something good. Plus their cars get to drink beer. How cool is that? Your job doesn’t put beer in your car.

We’ve all had our encounters with clamshell packaging, so it’s nice to hear about manufacturers that abandon the practice. Sony did just that this week, even though this video is pretty lame. Sony is just one of several big name companies that have pledged an end to this wasteful, destructive packaging.

As we reported last month, Amazon took a stand of their own. Other companies are getting on board too, like Microsoft and Best Buy. Once they start saving money on packaging, maybe Sony can make a better video, or give their workers a raise, but in reality it will likely go straight into the hands of the guys at the top. Then they can feel all good about themselves when they too ask for a bailout. To help the little guy of course.

This self-contained and waterless toilet is called the EcoJohn Sr Toilet. Quite simply, it burns the crap you normally flush, into white ash. It operates just like a regular toilet, except that water doesn’t take away your waste. Just close the lid and the waste is whisked away like South Park’s Mr. hankey the x mas poo on Christmas eve. It’s final destination is a burn chamber where it is cremated. A small bit of smoke is belched out and filtered through a catalytic converter before hitting the air.

There is some water involved, just minimal. The toilet is equipped with a small reservoir that holds about a quart of water. Press a special rinse button, and it’s easy to keep the bowl and auger clean. It’s the perfect water saving device, though I’m not sure how I would feel about having a chimney on my toilet.

The folks over at ElectraTherm have a 50-kilowatt machine that uses industrial waste heat for fuel, providing even more options for green energy. They’re calling it the ElectraTherm Green Machine, not to be confused with that Huffy Green machine you had as a kid.

Get this. With this unit, you can actually get back the money you spent within three or four years. That’s with electricity costing approximately three or four cents per kilowatt-hour. They use an organic Rankine cycle to heat liquids, then the liquids are transformed into a vapor, at which point it will move the turbine thus generating electricity. Looks like heat-to-electricity can be successful on a small scale, since this is capable of powering up to 40 homes at once.