The site SpaceInvading brings us four architechtural wonders of today.  This one is the “Habitable Polyhedron” and it has a unique function.

The project, meant for a family house back yard in the suburbs, aimed at designing a small park or opened area where the young parents and their newborn child would enjoy a independent space [...]

Energy consumption from a new perspective

Sweden’s Energy Aware Clock hangs on the wall and depicts a permanent visualization of your energy use. Every hour, it chimes to remind you to feel guilty about the size of your residence.

Yummy Nationalism

These flags made out of food were created to promote the Sydney International Food Festival. Each national flag is illustrated with food associated with that country: Greece has black olives, India features curry, South Korea has kimbap, etc. Can you figure out which country is represented by the flag pictured above? (Pics)

 
Space time continuum may be the stuff of Star Trek, but it’s not mere fiction to Holly Branigan. The Edinburgh University psychologist can actually “see” time:
“I thought everyone thought like I did, says Holly Branigan, also a scientist at Edinburgh University, and someone with time-space synaesthesia.
“I found out when I attended a talk in the [...]

The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists has warned.  In today’s issue of the leading international journal Science, the researchers say that nations alone are unable to resolve the sorts of [...]

Have we reached magnetic polarity escape velocity yet?

Scientists have long speculated about the existence of magnetic materials that have only one pole, instead of both negative and postive poles. Claudio Castelnovo of the University of Oxford thinks that his team has found evidence of the existence of these monopoles in certain rare-materials known as “spin ices”:
At [...]

The New “Sinless” Search Engine

Muslims will be able to surf the internet without the fear of accidentally encountering what their relegion views as sinful material after a Dutch company launched the world’s first Islamic search engine.
The ImHalal service works like any other search facility until potentially illicit words are entered, when it rates the search [...]

The downside to online relationships
Notice to my friends: I love you all dearly.
But I don’t give a hoot that you are “having a busy Monday,” your child “took 30 minutes to brush his teeth,” your dog “just ate an ant trap” or you want to “save the piglets.” And I really, really don’t care which [...]

A life-sized installation by Austrian artist Ronald Kodritsch is standing on the edge of a building cornice in central Vienna
A small crowd of people wonder if the smart businessman clutching a briefcase will jump off the edge of a four-storey building in central Vienna — but he won’t. He can’t.
 

A camera on board India’s maiden unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has recorded images of the landing site of US spacecraft Apollo 15, a scientist said on Wednesday, rubbishing conspiracy theories that the fourth US mission to land on the moon four decades back was a hoax.
 

Cows have feeling? Meat Eaters Have Ethics? Genetic Engineering has Ethics too?  

That’s the question that Jeremy Hsu asks, given innovations in genetic engineering:
In 2006, researchers found six Pakistani children who felt no pain due to an inactivated gene, and who constantly had bruises and cuts. One fell into the habit of putting knives through his [...]

Giant Space Mirrors. Isn’t it worth a try to help reduce emissons.
Risky and unorthodox technologies such as giant space mirrors or capturing CO2 from the ambient air may be required backups to blunt the effects of climate change if emission reductions prove to be too little, too late, says a new report from the Royal [...]

Six Millon Dollar Man here we come
A MONKEY sits on a bench, wires running from its head and wrist into a small box of electronics. At first the wrist lies limp, but within 10 minutes the monkey begins to flex its muscles and move its hand from side to side. The movements are clumsy, but [...]

Ready to rumble!

It’s the latest thing for the paranoid pet owner: an earthquake survival kit for cats and dogs.
Animal lovers living in earthquake-prone regions can now buy special kits to ensure the survival of their most cherished pets should the earth begin the tremble.
Manufacturers Oyagokoro, from Japan, have released three types of earthquake packs for [...]

Everyone needs their very own bat-mobile
Want your own Batman Tumbler but can’t afford to hire Morgan Freeman to build you a full-size one? Well fear not, intrepid crime fighter, because some guy on eBay is selling $30 plans to build one out of a go kart. Of course, if you don’t want to pay, I’ll [...]

Smog in Cairo, Egypt, one of the world’s megacities
A scientific trend to view the world’s biggest cities as analogous to living, breathing organisms is fostering a deep new understanding of how poor air quality in megacities can harm residents, people living far downwind, and also play a major role in global climate change. That’s the [...]

That has to be the ugliest laptop Ive ever seen.  It looks like a dual pane window.
The world’s first truly dual-screen laptop, which will allow computer users to multi-task while on the move, is due to go on sale by the end of the year.

HOLY CRAP! Look at that dog with a plastic bag strapped to his ass!

We’re afraid that this product is exactly what it looks like: a bracket that holds a stringed plastic bag while attached to your dog’s tail. At the expense of your dog’s sense of dignity, you get to avoid scooping up after him:
People invented [...]

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’…

Philipp Siebourg’s Induction Powered Vehicle (or IPV) isn’t just a concept for a new kind of car, it’s a complete transportation system designed to reduce congestion in big urban centers. Instead of bumper-to-bumper traffic in the heart of the city, Siebourg’s proposal calls for a car-free, magnetized area that is serviced exclusively by [...]

Light up your drink!

Attach this spout to a bottle of liquor. As you pour, a LED light will illuminate the liquid. Unlike similar gadgets, it only lights up when liquid pours through it, adding a cool visual effect to bartending during its four-hour battery life. - Video after the jump.

Could you handle this adorable creature as your pet?

Tamarins are considered highly endangered in the wild yet they are an increasingly popular pet amongst those who wish to purchase a NHP (Non-Human Primate).
Do you want to help save the Tamarins? Why not adopt one as a pet? Here’s the pros and cons:

There are currently more than a million CCTV cameras in London

There are more than a million CCTV cameras in London
Just one crime is solved a year by every 1,000 CCTV cameras in Britain’s largest force area, it was claimed today.
A senior Scotland Yard officer, Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, warned police must do more to [...]

At what point does technology become a weapon?
Robert X. Cringely: This column started out being titled “Is Goldman Sachs Evil?” until I realized the issue is far more broad.  It began with a blog post by my old boss Jim Casella, who now runs Asset International, a financial publisher.  Jim concludes after a review of some [...]

Social rejection can hurt.
UCLA psychologists have determined for the first time that a gene linked with physical pain sensitivity is associated with social pain sensitivity as well.