We Speak For Earth
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ikenbot CWL -
mohandasgandhi Mohandas Gandhi -
realcleverscience Real Clever Science -
socialuprooting Social Uprooting -
abstractnerd Abstract Nerd -
perscientiamlibertas A Matter of the Most Pleasant Fraternal Confidence
For Your Consideration: Anti-Drone Hoodie
The anti-drone hoodie which can make its wearer invisible to spies in the sky
Those concerned about the conspiratorial machinations of the state surveillance infrastructure can now swap their tin-foil hats for a more fashion conscious accessory.
A New York-based artist has designed an ‘anti-drone hoodie’ stitched from metallised material used to counter the infra-red cameras that spy drones use to spot people on the ground. It is part of a line of high-tech ‘Stealth Wear’ that can thwart cameras and block tracking signals, which has been unveiled in London this week.
Also on offer is a pouch for carrying mobile phones made from a special ‘attenuating fabric’ which blocks the signal so it can’t be tracked or intercepted by the authorities. And there is also a shirt designed with an x-ray shielding print in the shape of a heart which is intended to protect the wearer’s heart from damaging x-ray radiation.
Artist Adam Harvey, who collaborated with fashion designer Johanna Bloomfield to come up with the range, said the pieces are intended to provoke a debate about the increasing ubiquity of surveillance across society. A landmark Freedom of Information lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation last year forced federal authorities to reveal there are at least 63 active drone sites around the U.S. The unmanned planes – some of which may have been designed to kill terror suspects – are being launched from locations in 20 states and flying spy sorties across American soil.
Most of the active drones are deployed from military installations, enforcement agencies and border patrol teams, according to the Federal Aviation Authority. In the UK police forces including Merseyside Police have trialled the use of remote-controlled drones to replace helicopters to conduct surveillance that would usually be undertaken by helicopters.
It was this increased use of military-style surveillance technologies in civilian environments that inspired the 31-year-old artist to come up with with the clothing line. ‘Military technology is coming home from the war,’ Mr Harvey told Slate. ‘These pieces are designed to live with it, to cope with it — to live in a world where surveillance is happening all the time.’ He came up with the range, which also includes an anti-drone scarf, primarily as an exercise in provocative conceptual art, but the garments will also be manufactured for sale to the public.
However, due to the expensive materials used in the design of the clothing, they are unlikely to go on sale in your local Primark anytime soon. Mr Harvey, who hasn’t yet pinned down the retail prices for his garments, jokes that his target demographic is the ‘fashionably paranoid market’. The counter-surveillance Stealth Wear range is on display from today at the Primitive boutique in Great Portland Street in West London, until January 31.
Hydro Power Project
“Hydro Project”, consists of shots in the construction of dams in Ethiopia and China. Splendid photographs the line between nature and human intervention by photographer Rüdiger Nehmzow.
(via ikenbot)
GEOtube Faulders Studio
Vertical Salt Deposit Growth System: proposal for the city of Dubai
“Born from unique environmental conditions, GEOtube is a new kind of urban sculptural tower. Gravity-sprayed with adjacent Persion Gulf waters, its building skin is entirely grown rather than constructed; is in continual formation rather than fully completed; and is created locally rather than imported. The world’s highest salinity for oceanic water is found in the Persian Gulf (and the Red Sea) - local salt water is supplied to GEOtube via a new 4.62 km buried pipeline and misted onto the tower’s exposed mesh. As the water evaporates and salt deposits aggregate over time, the tower’s appearance transforms from a transparent skin to a highly visible white solid plane. The result is a specialized habitat for wildlife that thrives is this environment, and an accessible surface for the harvesting of crystal salt.”
Wuxi Xidong Park: Artificial Island-Bridge Hybrid
L&A Design Group has developed an exciting contemporary bridge design as an architectural highlight of Wuxi Xidong Park, located in Jiangsu province, China. The bridge is planned to be the main connection between the north and south foreshores of the parks lake and allows visitors access to a small island destination that commands views over the water as well as café facilities and pocket gardens.
Interesting tidbits: The important position, jutting out over the central water body, encouraged a dynamic design response. The design team has envisioned a signature iconic structure that is attractive, has a flowing modern form expressing the importance of Wuxi’s relationship with water and is functional in its connections to the island, foreshores and allowing boats to pass underneath its elevation.
(via ikenbot)
The Urban Beehive was developed as part of Philips’ new Microbial Home project, a self-sufficient closed-loop home concept that also features items like a methane digester and a plant-based effluent (read: toilet) filtration system. It’s a design concept, so it’s not exactly coming to a Home Depot near you. But it could, and maybe it should.
The Urban Beehive has two parts that attach to your apartment window: A white frontispiece with a flower pot and a small hole for bee entry, and an orange-hued glass inverted teardrop mounted inside your house. This way you can see the bees at work, and access their honey via a small spigot.
The glass teardrop has an array of honeycomb frames for bees to build their wax cells, like existing honeybee colony kits do. The shell is orange to help the bees navigate, and there’s a small hole for the urban beekeeper to release smoke inside, should the hive ever need to be opened (smoke chills out the bees). The city benefits from the bees’ pollination work, and your apartment benefits from fresh honey and the pleasing effect of watching bees, Philips says.
Article: Sleek Urban Hive Lets You Keep Bees in the Comfort of Your Apartment
(via ikenbot)
cwnl:
Moon Statues
Let those who tread here, heed the warning.
The full Moon rises behind the famous statues of Easter Island in the South Pacific. The statues, called moai by the Polynesians, were carved from volcanic rock by the islanders between 400 and 1500 A.D. By 1500 about 1000 statues had been carved, and 324 erected.
The largest is 37 feet tall and weighs 85 tonnes. Carving and erection ceased because of the total deforestation of the island. This was caused partly by use of the island’s trees as rollers and levers for erecting the statues. Deforestation led to soil erosion, starvation, civil war and eventually to the complete collapse of the island’s culture.
Moral of the story? even if you have amazing workmanship and artistry within a culture, you’re still prone to extinction once you partake in the destruction of the living environment around you.
$1,000 house a step closer for world’s poor
MIT architects have produced the first prototype “Pinwheel House” in an effort to see if low-cost homes can be constructed for $1,000, total.Full Story: ZDNET
(via youngblackthinker)
Positivism
The only authentic knowledge is that which is based on sense, experience and positive verification. Scientific method is the best process for uncovering the processes by which both physical and human events occur.
