News ambiente cercasi

YouTube questions take a different tack (K)
Lesbians asking about gay marriage. Two unrelated
parents with sons in Iraq asking about the war. And a
snowman asking about global warming? Video questions
submitted to the hip Web site YouTube shook up the
usual campaign debate Monday night.

Giant rice paddy art
the practice of growing giant rice-paddy illustrations "by growing a little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety." There's a fantastic gallery of these illustrations, ranging from "36 Views of Mount Fuji" to various demons, gods and traditional illustrations, as well as the Mona Lisa.

Guerilla gardening
Toronto street artist Posterchild has been installing planter boxes of Celosias in various spots around Kensington Market.

Fly larvae shelled in bling
Caddis fly larvae usually form their protective sheaths by spinning silk with sand, minerals, plant particles, and bits of bone they find in their aquatic environments. French artist Hubert Duprat collects the larvae, carefully strips their shells, and then puts them in aquaria filled with stuff like pearls, rubies, gold, and diamonds. The larvae make new coverings out of these materials.

Easy on the Eyes, Not So Easy on the Lake
Lake Erie was once considered to be a "dead lake" in the late 1960s because it was so badly polluted. It now has increasingly clear and pristine waters due in great part to the contributions of the zebra mussel, an incredibly destructive invasive species that entered the Great Lakes system almost 2 decades ago.

Solar Powered Refrigerator (in 1935!)
We keep looking for the perfect solar powered appliances, and keep finding them in Modern Mechanix. The Crosley Icyball was close; In 1935 California engineer Otto Mohr proposed combining an ammonia absorption cycle refrigeration unit (like the Icyball) with a spherical lens.

Bumblebees Get a Buzz Out of British Gardens
LONDON - Gardens provide a lifeline for Britain's dwindling bumblebee population and are a far more popular nesting location than open countryside, scientists said on Monday.