A Floating Sleep Space From an Oily Place.
These pods are moored in a canal in The Hague. They used to be oil rig life rafts, but now they serve as hotel rooms. Except for an exterior lock and a chemical toilet, they remain in their original state. This way, you can get the true life raft-in-a-canal experience!
Continue reading… “Life rafts serve as hotel rooms”
The highwires of life are where history is being made. Everything else is just waiting
“We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?” – – Niels Bohr
Continue reading… “Top 10 Photos of the Week”
What a non-surprise.
Many of us sounded the alarm as soon as we learned of BP’s plans to dump huge quantities of the chemical dispersant Corexit into the Gulf in an attempt to break up the oil slick. Experts were concerned, seeing as how the chemical had never been used in such quantities before, nor in such a manner — until the federal government made them stop, BP was blasting the stuff directly into the source, seeking to disperse the oil before it even reached the surface.
Well, now Earth Justice has completed a report on the chemicals that were used in the different blends of dispersant, and it appears that at least some of those fears were well-founded…
Dolphins are very smart creatures.
Researchers from Murdoch University have been watching bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia develop an ingenious way to fish. First witnessed by researchers in 2007, a dolphin will use a conch shell to trap and scoop up fish. The dolphin will then proceed to pour the fishies into its mouth as if they were the bottoms of a chip bag. The remarkable part is that this behavior seems to be becoming more widespread, marking it as a trend learned…
Continue reading… “Dolphins now conch fishing”
Brazil is set to start gathering oil in new places.
Want to get a feel for how crazy the post-peak oil fossil fuels industry is getting? Here’s as good an example as any: Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras is about to embark on an unprecedented oil-gathering mission. It’s about to attempt to extract 30 billion barrels of oil from reserves that are locked in deepwater sub-salt fields at least 60 miles off the coast and up to five miles underwater. In order to get at the incredibly hard-to-get oily good stuff, Brazil is spending an estimated $226 billion — and $127 billion will be spent on exploration and production alone.
The product of that venture is already taking shape: a veritable floating “offshore city” has sprung up over 100 kilometers (62 miles) off the coast of Brazil, and it will lead the effort to drill into the deep sea sub-salt…
Continue reading… “Brazil builds $127 billion “Offshore City” to harvest oil in the deep sea”
Rising food costs are a key reason behind rioting.
There’s no doubt that rising food prices in a specific area can lead to rioting. We have plenty of current and historic examples of that. But some interesting new research highlighted in Technology Review shows that once average global food prices cross a certain threshold a tipping point is reached after which “almost anything can trigger a riot, like a lighted match in a dry forest.”
Check out this graph which plots the UN Food Price Index against the dates of riots around the world…
Continue reading… “Researchers identify food price tipping point linked to rioting”
Airdrop House
Mankind has forever dreamed of what the future might hold. Many dreanm of what advances in architecture would be and would the advances make houses look all curvy, like on the animated TV show “The Jetsons”? (Pics)
Continue reading… “10 strange-looking homes of the future”
Brazil has faced hyperinflation in the past.
Twenty years ago, Brazil found itself in the grips of hyperinflation. Its inflation rate hit 80% a month, and the country was in financial free fall.
Economists at the Catholic University in Rio came up with an unlikely – but ultimately successful – plan to rescue the country. And would you believe it, the plan calls for fake money..
Continue reading… “How fake money saved Brazil”
As a dog, its so rare to be entertained by a good bird comedian
“If your parents never had children, chances are… neither will you.” – Dick Cavett
Continue reading… “Top 10 Photos of the Week”
What a strange place!
Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the world’s largest salt flat at 4,086 sq miles. The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar…
Continue reading… “The amazing Uyuni Salt Flats”
Say hello to your dream house if you have ever wanted to live inside the retro-futuristic world of a Jules Verne novel. This $1.75 million New York apartment is packed with giant gears, blimps, and a working porthole.(Pics)
Continue reading… “A steampunk loft with a retro-futuristic look”
Did you know about using Control-F?
Dan Russell, one of Google’s anthropologists, conducted a largeish survey of user behavior and discovered that 90 percent of American Internet users don’t know that crtl-F will let them search documents including Web pages. I recently discovered that a smart and technologically literate friend had never heard of alt-tab for application switching; alt-tab being my single most used key combo!
It strikes me that we could probable come up with a list of ten (or even three) things you could teach to the people around you the next time you sit down to help them with a technology problem, “three things every technology user should know.”
Continue reading… “90 percent of US net users don’t know about ‘crtl-F’”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.