Mind Soup

A Japanese architecture firm has come up with a neat idea for eco-friendly teahouses — it has little compartments in the surrounding wall that can generate heat via compost, so you don't get cold when you're sitting inside. The best thing about it might be its name: Comploo. From  Inhabitat : To feed the composter, garden waste, food scraps or other compost materials can be dropped in through a door at the top of each bin. A system of sealed ducts runs through each of the bins, and as the air circulates within the walls, the decaying compost warms it. This heated air is in turn emitted through a central vent that releases into the structure's interior. Occupants can comfortably sit along a circular bench surrounding the heat source, and enjoy the ambient natural light permeating through the transparent dome roof above.  [ via ]    

In meteorology, a corona is produced by the diffraction of light from either the Sun or the Moon by individual small water droplets (and sometimes tiny ice crystals) of a cloud. The corona consists of small number of concentric colored rings around the celestial object and a central bright aureole. The angular size of the corona depends on the diameters of the cloud droplets - small droplets produce bright coronae. Coronae differ from haloes in that the latter are formed by refraction (rather than diffraction) from comparatively large rather than small ice crystals. Reddish colors always occupy the outer part of a corona's ring. Photos taken by amateur photographers using cell phone cameras.

Actual concept work from James Cameron that demonstrates Avatar is really just Pocahontas with a few names changed. In 3D.

Here come the e-readers, a boon to travelers and speed readers, and, we’re told, a saver of trees. And, in their wake, here come the prophets predicting doom to the paper book, and along with it the death of copyright and all sorts of unknown effects. But not so fast. Don’t burn the books yet. I’m not pleading the venerable history, the beauty of design, or the tactility of the page. Here are three practical reasons not to ditch the paper: 1. Solar storms. A big one could fry transformers, as solar storms have in the past, and affect satellites and towers in such a massive way that communications could be down for months, with much disruption of all sorts. Including, possibly, the wipeout of all online libraries and downloads. Don’t let anyone embed a chip into your head, either, no matter how much memory they promise to add! 2. Energy shortages. Remember Peak Oil? We know that green energy is galloping to the rescue, but is nowhere near meeting the need. We know that interne...

Deck the pools: Festive divers work at an aquarium in Manila As the lights were switched on in Trafalgar Square last night – and we all start thinking of getting ours in this weekend – other countries were creating their eye-catching variations. The smallest would be pretty tricky to decorate – because it measures less than half the width of a human hair. Little bit of fun: This silicon tree is 0.04mm wide It is made from silicon with an ion beam, normally used on silicon chips, at Britain’s National Physical Laboratory. Meanwhile, Mexico City has gone to the other extreme, hoping to enter the record books with a tree that towers 90m (295ft) over shoppers – beating Rio de Janeiro’s 82m (270ft) effort. Dizzying: Mexico City’s 90m tree dwarfs the traffic passing by Big in another sense is the effort standing in New York’s Rockefeller Center. It has been bedecked with a dazzling 30,000 lights. But lights would be a fairly risky decoration for the tree ...