Let’s Get Steamy
The Vap Steamer here brings back memories of the times when Microwaves were not available in India. Im talking about the early 80s, an era when the electronics boom had not hit this Asian subcontinent. We re-heated rice and other such items using the double boiler system, where steam was used to re-heat leftovers. Vap offers a safe and healthy option for not only re-heating but also for steam cooking. How about a round of Dim sums?
Those who have tried re-heating rice without the micro and in pan know that the starch easily makes the grains stick to the bottom. Another problem with refrigerated cooked rice is that the grain on top gets a hardened and steam kinda softens them. Appliances like this, if energy efficient can easily replace the Microwave. Or not?
Designer: Arthur Senant
Simply elegant Leaning cube vase
Leaning cube by Jessica Zhuang is a one elegant decorative vase that has transformed the vase designing. Sitting or I must say leaning haughtily on your table top, this chic vase depends on transforming the placement ways to express the opposite
‘Bulb chair’ with LED glows up to let me read my text
I love it! The cool Bulb Chair by a Belgian designer from Onyx Furniture, Gaëtan Van de Wyer is a stylishly comfortable indoor chair that is endowed with an LED lamp that glows high up on your head to let your read your favorite book while youre
Frigid Farewells: 10 Vanishing Tropical Glaciers
Going, going, gone. Glaciers have been beating a steady retreat as global warming accelerates, and for some it’s a journey of no return. The most vulnerable mountain & highland glaciers are those in the tropics and their loss could be devastating for the local environment, not to mention the plants, animals and people who have depended on their life-giving water for thousands of years.
Qori Kalis Glacier, Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru
(images via: WhyFiles and PNAS)
Qori Kalis glacier in the Peruvian Andes is retreating at a faster rate than at any time in the past 50 centuries. It’s estimated that the glacier will vanish entirely within the next 5 years. Qori Kalis, the world’s largest tropical glacier, is one of many ice tongues extending down from the Quelccaya Ice Cap, the largest body of ice in the tropics.
(image via: WhyFiles)
Besides the dramatic retreat of the Qori Kalis glacier itself, the most worrisome aspect of the above photo is the new glacial lake that has formed from meltwater. Such high-altitude lakes are often unstable and sudden events such as earthquakes and/or the calving of large icebergs can send huge tsunamis of frigid water cascading down into the populated valleys below.
Glaciers of the Rwenzori Range, Uganda and DRC, Africa
(images via: U of Toronto, SkiMountaineer and Touring Zanzibar)
The snow-capped peaks of the Rwenzori Range soar up to 16,761 ft (5,109 m) high and were referred to by the ancient Romans as the Mountains Of The Moon, source of the Nile River’s water. Their great heights have not protected the Rwenzori glaciers from the effects of global warming, however. A survey taken in 1906 showed 43 named glaciers with a total area of 2.9 square miles (7.5 sq km) of ice spread across 6 of the range’s tallest mountains. Approximately half of Africa’s total glacial ice was locked into these frozen rivers. A century later more than half of the ice has vanished, leaving a mere 0.6 square miles (1.5 sq km) of ice on just 3 mountains.
(image via: U of Toronto)
The Elena Glacier on Mount Stanley, tallest of the Rwenzori peaks, shows the dramatic shrinkage documented over the past century but which has accelerated alarmingly in the past several decades.
Glaciers at Iztaccíhuatl, Mexico
(images via: Life In Small Bites, Globalize-Peace and Mapa-Mexico)
There aren’t many glaciers in Mexico… and soon there will be none. “We estimate the glaciers could last another 20 or 30 years,”says Hugo Delgado, a glaciologist from UNAM university in Mexico City. Twenty years ago glaciers existed on three Mexican volcanoes: Popocatepetl,Iztaccihuatl and Pico de Orizaba. By the year 2000 Popocatepetl’s glaciers had vanished though a series of eruptions in the 1990s certainly hastened their demise.
(image via: Treehugger)
Asus Unveils Waveface Ultra Flexible OLED Smartphone Bracelet
Smartphones have gotten progressively smaller, sleeker and more powerful in the past few years, but most of them don’t address one annoying problem – you have to hold them. Oh bother. If you’re looking for something with a little more superhero panache, check out what Asus just unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show – the insanely futuristic Waveface Ultra. It’s a superthin, flexible OLED wristband cell phone that you can snap onto your wrist, sort of like those outlawed slap bracelets from the 90s (remember those?). And the kicker? You can control it by magically gesturingyour fingers – touchscreen is so very 2009.
SEE THE VIDEO AT ECOUTERRE >
PermalinkAdd to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: Asus, ces, consumer electronics show, OLED, smartphone bracelet, Waveface, Waveface Ultra, wearable technology
3D Farming: 26 Vertical Farms and Green Skyscrapers
[ By Delana in Art & Design,Home & Garden,Nature & Ecosystems. ]
It’s predicted that by the year 2050, 80 of the world’s population will live in urban centers. As the global population swells and urban centers lose what little green space they once had, more countries are looking to urban farming to feed their people. The urban environment doesn’t have unlimited horizontal farming space, so the natural solution is to build up. Vertical farms can fit easily into the cityscape while providing a local source of food for inhabitants. Even better, they can be placed nearly anywhere that a building can go. Are these 26 innovative designs the future of farming? It certainly looks that way. Click the thumbnails below for more images of and information on these amazing designs:
Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebEcoist:Going up? Go Green! 15 Eco-Towers & Sustainable SkyscrapersTo meet the sustainable standards of the future, green architects design ultra-tall buildings that combine a range of functions like farming and housing.1 Comment – Click Here to Read More»»
Growing Up: 3 DIY Vertical Gardening SolutionsVertical gardening isn’t just for urban planners mapping out environmentally-friendly cities. These three products let you have a vertical garden at home.2 Comments – Click Here to Read More »»
Green in the City: Rooftop Gardens Rooftop gardens give a view of nature, improve air quality, provide roof insulation, delay storm water runoff and increase natural habitat spaces for birds.4 Comments – Click Here to Read More »»
[ WebEcoist - By Delana in Art & Design,Home & Garden,Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Top 7 Bizarre Eco-Fashion Stories of 2009
” title=”bizarrest eco fashions of 2009″ width=”537″ height=”400″ class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-78292″ />
From the creepy and the kooky to the mysterious and spooky, we had a total blast bringing you the most bizarre eco-fashions of 2009. Did you have a special thing for the taxidermied rat hats, or did the blowup doll body part jackets float your boat? Check out all of these zany stories here and don’t forget to vote for your fave!
VOTE AT ECOUTERRE >
PermalinkAdd to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: bizarre, blow-up-dolls-jackets, eco-fashion, Human Teeth Jewelry, LED eyelashes, pet ash jewelry, reindeer poop jewelry, Sustainable Fashion, taxidermy, weird
Bamboo Fashioned Bam
BamTrike is a three-wheeler that goes with the fancy tag of being a Personal Mobility Vehicle. Besides sporting a really unique form, the most intriguing part of this concept is the usage of Bamboo as a building material. The choice stems from the fact that structurally, bamboo compares to fiberglass, in woven form. The rider of the vehicle gets to sit in a comfy reclined position and the side storage pockets are sufficient to carry your personals. As a recreational vehicle, it really looks neat!
BamTrike is a part of an ongoing research by Monash student Alexander Vittouris, so we can expect frequent updates to this project.
Here is an excerpt:
The parts required for construction of the recumbent chassis have been reduced to encompass the outer framework of the vehicle. By using large molding sections of bamboo fiber, combined with Polylactide resin, the overall assembly complexities are reduced. The philosophy behind this innovative approach is to motivate the consumer in active production of the outcome and enhance the feeling of ownership via positive contribution. The challenge of successive concepts is to find additional ways of making the raw material of bamboo benefit the intention of naturally derived personal mobility.
Designer: Alexander Vittouris
Incredible Humans: 10 Medical Oddities that Will Make Your Heads Spin
The process of growing from a few cells to a fully formed adult is a harrowing one, full of millions of years of evolutionary tricks that help us develop unscathed. Despite everything, there are still mistakes; one missing gene or chromosome, or one too many, and a child’s development can be skewed in a very odd way. It’s remarkable that human growth and development goes so smoothly, despite the numerous opportunities for errors. Here are 10 cases where things went wrong:
(Images via mentalfloss, fancast, miblogdecosasdivertidas, 82muchfood)
It’s pretty easy to assume your child will emerge with two fully formed legs, but sadly, this isn’t always the case. From one leg to four, there are scores of children with rare genetic defects, or people who have incorporated all or most of a twin into their own bodies. The most famous (and recent) example is Lakshmi, who was born with four arms and four legs, and thought by many to be a reincarnation of a Hindu goddess.
(Images via lifeinthefastlane, crazy pics, across the board)
Pituitary glands secrete hormones that tell our bodies to grow. When the gland secretes excessively, you have someone who grows as if they’re an adolescent well beyond puberty. Gigantism requires that a person’s height be several standard deviations above the tallest 1% of the population. Robert Wadlow, the tallest recorded man to ever live, was 8 ft. 11.1 inches tall at the time of his death at the age of 22, and his growth had given no indication of slowing down.
(Images via whatnot, phreeque, strangeoldepictures)
Ectrodactyly is a condition where digits or limbs are either fused or missing. Often called “Lobster Claw Syndrome” a lot of victims of this congenital defect have become sideshow performers, billing themselves with monikers such as “Lobster Boy.” The fused limbs can have surprising functionality in certain cases, but often require the use of a wheelchair.
(Images via forgetfulprincess, oddee)
Dede Koswara has an extremely rare genetic defect known as Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis that renders his body incapable of fighting off various strains of HPV, which is present in 80% of the world population. Dede has become an internet sensation, and is often described as half tree / half man. There have been several made for television documentaries about his condition and his attempts to treat it, but no treatment has been entirely successful.
(Images via wunderkabinett, thisislocallondon, atlasobscura, victoriafalls-guide)
There is a tribe of people living in Zimbabwe known as the Vadoma, that have become known as the “Ostritch People” for the prevalence of electrodactyly in their population. Many of the tribe members are born with fused toes that appear ostritch like. The tribe maintains a consistent population of such births due to their relative isolation. Those with this condition are not handicapped, and are well integrated into the tribe.
(Images via feww, thetotam, pravda, boston)
Ateliers Ciudad de las Artes by Lucio Morini and GGMPU Architects
Argentinian studios Lucio Morini and GGMPU Architects have completed a campus housing artists’ studios in Cordoba, Argentina. (more…)
Categories
Popular Posts
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- None Found
Tag Cloud
-
Applications
Architecture
audio
Burn
CAD
Capture
Convert
Design
Download
Draw
Driver
File
Files
Flash
Gadgets
Games
Graphic
HTML
Image
Internet
LAN
Map
Media
Mobile
Money
Movie
Music
NetWork
Office
Other
Paint
Photo
Photos
Portable
Print
Projects
Ram
RAR
Software
System
Tools
WEB
Windows
Wireless
ZIP