Now humans can no more sense the full meaning of the air than snakes can walk. If I were to sit in damp grass in the dark, I could only listen, mourn this terrible loss, and breathe deeply of what is left to me of this world.
– Kathleen Dean Moore
good:
The 2 million tires dumped into the ocean off the coast of South Florida were intended to create an artificial reef and a habitat for fish. Instead, they became an ecological disaster. Now 80 of them comprise an art exhibit with a message about the perils of trying to dominate nature.
“…the perils of trying to dominate nature.” That bugs me a little. The tires were a catastrophe, tearing up extant seabed as they got torn loose and tossed ashore. It was a huge failure of a project, but that doesn’t mean that trying to supplement habitat is an inherently bad idea. The true wild is gone; we’re in a world shaped by humans. We influence the chemistry of the water and air across the entire planet. We can use our powers to do some good, though. Just because this particular project failed, we shouldn’t fear all interference. Concrete structures and shipwrecks make pretty good marine habitat.
![thedailywhat:
POTUS Pic of the Day: So the President walks into a bar… and he meets Madalyn Starkey, a University of Colorado student who will forever be known as the girl who posed for the greatest photo ever taken of a sitting president.
[thanks, brett! uproxx]
Obama in my town! I hope he signed the ceiling like you’re supposed to at the Sink.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m31mjtsyOx1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
POTUS Pic of the Day: So the President walks into a bar… and he meets Madalyn Starkey, a University of Colorado student who will forever be known as the girl who posed for the greatest photo ever taken of a sitting president.
[thanks, brett! uproxx]
Obama in my town! I hope he signed the ceiling like you’re supposed to at the Sink.
(by Jeen Na)
A ladybug displaying one of the secrets to coleopteran success. Hard wing covers (elytra) provide structural integrity to protect against predation, smooshing and the ravages of crawling through debris, while folding wings stay safe and ready for flight.
A “citizen science” community to test the hypothesis that the uniqueness of a person, from memories to mental disorders, lies in his or her connectome.
Every person is unique. You know this, of course, but it has been surprisingly difficult to pinpoint where, precisely, your uniqueness resides. Scientists have speculated that the properties of your mind, from memories to mental disorders, are encoded in the unique pattern of connections between your brain neurons. This hypothesis is plausible, but solid evidence has been lacking, because we have never been able to see the brain’s “wiring” clearly. Fortunately, revolutionary new technologies are starting to provide the right kind of images, but in torrents that are so overwhelming that no single person can comprehend the data.
The solution is WiredDifferently, which will enlist citizen scientists to analyze nanoscale brain images using web browsers and mobile devices. They will trace the wires of the brain as if absorbed in play with a 3D jigsaw puzzle consisting of image pieces computed by artificial intelligence. The experience will rely on the spectacular graphics and other motivators of video gaming, but allow users to apply their minds to a worthy cause. WiredDifferently will transform 21st century science and society by mobilizing our collective hearts and minds to understand how the brain works and why it malfunctions.
Here comes another opportunity to further human understanding via games!
Via Scinerds
This is Velella velella. Try saying that six times fast. Note that it’s essentially a little air bubble with a hard sail (really, more like a series of tubes filled with air), and underneath are tentacles that the velella use to feed. They float on the surface of the sea and wander over…
An energy-saving socket concept that’s not for the easily startled
The PumPing Tap is a spring-loaded electrical socket that physically ejects plugs belonging to appliances and electronics that are not being used but still drawing small amounts of energy in standby mode.
The key to saving resources is to make it easy. I know I’d save some juice with one of these.
“The creator of beer, historians believe, was a woman. Beer is believed to have been first brewed in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, and Sumerian people even prayed to Ninkasi, their goddess of the beverage, said to prepare the drink daily. A Sumerian poem dedicated to the goddess and translated to English by the University of Oxford describes her baking bread, mixing it with grain and malt and letting it ferment before brewing it with honey and wine.”—
http://www.thetelegram.com/Arts—-Life/2012-03-17/article-2931094/Golden-goddess/1
good:
A ‘Vertical Greenhouse’ Could Make a Swedish City Self-Sufficient
The future of urban farming is under construction in Sweden as agricultural design firm Plantagon works to bring a 12-year-old vision to life: The city of Linköping will soon be home to a 17-story “vertical greenhouse.”
There is nothing like geology; the pleasure of the first day’s partridge shooting or first day’s hunting cannot be compared to finding a fine group of fossil bones, which tell their story of former times with almost a living tongue.
– Charles Darwin (a letter to his sister Catherine, 1834)Struth!
(Source: crownedrose)
Via ScinerdsAbout me
Biology, paleontology, geology, comics, feminism, camping, awkwardness, books, and snark. Percentages may vary.
