Friday Flowers: Plastic Bag Pom Poms
Remember when I was going to post a flower project every Friday and then I stopped doing it because I kept forgetting it's Friday? Well, today I’m rectifying that, even though technically this is Monday. Let’s just pretend it’s Friday, okay? I could go back and alter the date so it looks like I posted this on Friday but that seems dishonest and technologically complicated. Also, this project is no big whoop because I have pretty much posted it already. Only difference this time is that I’m using a plastic bag to make a bow for a wine bottle, because, let’s face it, there’s a good chance you are giving away some wine bottles in the next few weeks.
Global Food Disparity: A Photo Diary
In an increasingly globalized world, it’s still sometimes shocking to see just how disparate our lives are compared with other human beings around the world. A book of photographs by Peter Menzel called "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" ("©Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com. Ten Speed Press, published in 2005) makes a relevant point with great irony: at a time when hundreds of millions of people don't have enough to eat, hundreds of millions more are eating too much and are overweight or obese. In observing what six billion eat for dinner the authors note, "Today, more people are overweight than underweight."
Carbon buckyballs can turn to jelly - physics-math - 23 February 2011
Sometimes pure carbon can turn to jelly. That's what Patrick Royall at the University of Bristol, UK, found when he simulated cooling carbon cages called buckyballs. The simulation heated the balls, which have been an object of fascination since their discovery in 1995, to over 2000 °C and then cooled them in less than a billionth of a second.
5 Ways Science Could Make Us Immortal
We'll take back every bad thing we've ever said about science if it will just make us immortal. That doesn't seem like too much to ask. The thing is, it might be closer than we think. There are a lot of different ways to keep a human body and mind going long after its expiration date, and experiments are ongoing. The most promising techniques involve ...
Friday Flowers: Garbage Flowers
As mentioned earlier, these garbage flowers festoon the bars on the front windows of my basement apartment. At the risk of tooting my own horn (toot! toot!) I just love how these flowers came out; they look awful nifty, cost $2 in materials, start conversations with the neighbors, and most important--they make me happy every time I walk through my front door.
An Apology: To the Girl in the Parking Garage
It was late. We happened to be walking on the same path. I knew you were nervous--I would be too if I was a petite female, walking alone on a desolate and dark city street at 1:00 a.m. You were about fifty feet in front of me. I was going to turn right.
Spin doctors: Die another day - health - 20 February 2011
Few recent debates in the US have been more poisonous than discussions about healthcare. They have been accompanied by all sorts of dodgy claims and counterclaims, often with statistical evidence to back them up. Take the statement by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani in his campaign to win the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
7 Animals That Are Evolving Right Before Our Eyes
People who doubt evolution tend to have one main argument: "If evolution is true, why do we still see monkeys running around today, all chimp-like? Where are all the monkey-men I was promised?" Well, if you or someone you know refuses to believe that organisms change over time without proof on a monkey-man level, here are a buttload of animals in the middle of getting their evolve on. Well, seven anyway. Elephants are Evolving to Lose Their Tusks (and Avoid Poachers)
Paper Flower Key Holder / Mark Montano
Difficulty Rating: Beginner Tags If you need a quick 'just because' gift for someone, this is it! It’s simple to make, couldn’t be less expensive and we can all use one. I for one am always losing my keys and this, by far, is the easiest way for me to keep track of them.
Designers Spin Spidey-Worthy Webs From Packing Tape
Packing tape has gotten MacGyver out of many a jam, but he never managed to make an entire home out of the stuff. So he could probably learn something from Viennese/Croatian design collective For Use/Numen. The team uses nothing but packing tape to create huge, self-supporting cocoons that visitors could climb inside and explore. Installed three times in the past year, the next deployment will be next week from June 9–13 at DMY Berlin's International Design Fair, which is now in its 8th year.
