Xavier Calluaud‘s “Urb Garden — A vertical food garden for the urban gardener” complete with a composting ‘worm farm’ and internal watering system. [via Inhabitat] More: Flashback: Solar Herb Dryer Set up a hydroponic herb garden How-To: Make an Herb Garden from Recycled Plastic Bottles
Jessamyn West is guestblogging over on boingboing, and she put up a nice piece on how to create a thriving indoor environment for moss. It really is as easy as she makes it look. I’m obsessed with the soft fuzzy green stuff in all its forms, and I’m happy to see this humble plant getting […]
This is rather last minute (the deadline is 5pm PST Monday), but it was just sent to us and we thought some of you might find it interesting: Seattle, WA + aLIVe: a Low-Impact Vehicle exhibition 4Culture is seeking ideas that will inspire and engage the broader community in a conversation about transportation. This opportunity […]
Still, every little bit helps, and this copper-based catalyst recently developed by Elisabeth Bouwman and co-workers at Leiden University in the Netherlands represents a vast improvement over previous atmospheric CO2-fixing processes. Most of these are poisoned by oxygen, which means that you can’t just pump air into the reactor without removing the oxygen first. Bouwman’s catalyst, however, reacts with CO2 but not oxygen, producing oxalate, which is a useful feedstock for the manufacture of methyl glycolate and other organic compounds. And while Bouwman’s material is not a “true” catalyst in that it actually forms a compound with CO2 and has to be regenerated in a second reaction, the regeneration step can be done electrochemically with remarkably little energy.
It’s a Xmas-time publicity stunt from German engineering conglomerate Siemens AG, which manufactures wind turbines and includes, among its vast holdings, a couple of wind power companies. The “Siemens Superstar” was created in collaboration with Munich multimedia artist Michael Pendra and installed on a large wind turbine in Fröttmaning at the gates of Munich, overlooking the A9 autobahn. It was up from November 29 through January 6. The Siemens publicity site has lots more info and some beautiful video. [Thanks, Rachel!]
The “PotMaker,” from Toronto herb gardeners Richter’s, is a two-part hardwood die that makes it easy to manufacture disposable, biodegradable pots for starting seedlings. The pots are made from strips of newspaper and don’t have to be removed before planting. Anja Bartlett has posted a phototutorial demonstrating its use; if you’re interested in buying one consider getting it through her site!
This recording was made and posted by German composer Andreas Bick at a frozen lake in the Berlin area over the winter of 2005. He explains:
Underwater microphones proved especially well-suited for these recordings: in a small hole drilled close beneath the surface of the water, the sounds emitted by the body of ice carry particularly well. The most striking thing about these recordings is the synthetic-sounding descending tones caused by the phenomenon of the dispersion of sound waves. The high frequencies of the popping and cracking noises are transmitted faster by the ice than the deeper frequencies, which reach the listener with a time lag as glissandi sinking to almost bottomless depths.
[via Boing Boing]
