Mike Thompson, the arts graduate from Design Academy in Eindhoven now introduces a seemingly unheard of algae powered lamp, which he names Latro Algae Lamp. He takes inspiration from the findings of a research conducted by Yansei and Stanford University scientists that concluded that algal cells can draw electrical current through photosynthesis. The lamp, basically, draws its energy from a glass chamber of algae.

Via Green Diary

• The pennies produced each year by the Royal Canadian Mint, when laid end-to-end, would go from St. John’s, N.L., to Victoria and back.
• Producing those pennies — necessary after people tuck them away in the piggy bank — is estimated to cost $130 million a year.
• Pennies cost retail businesses about $60 million a year to record, store and transport, plus time spent by cashiers per transaction.
• The penny buys 1/20th what it bought in 1908.
• Until 1996, pennies were anywhere from 95 to 98 per cent copper. They are now 94 per cent steel, 1.5 per cent nickel, and 4.5 per cent copper-plated zinc.
• From 1876 to 1920, Canadian pennies were 25.4 mm in diameter and weighed 5.67 g; current pennies weigh 2.35 g and are 19.05 mm round.
• Thirty-seven per cent of Canadians say they regularly use pennies to pay for goods.
• If all the pennies minted since 1908 were stacked on top of each other, they would go 49,000 kilometres into space.

Via Vancouver Sun

Change in price of items since 1978, relative to overall inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The price of carbonated drinks, for example, has fallen 34 percent relative to all other prices.

Via NY Times

In 19 countries, from Singapore to Iceland, people have a life expectancy of about 80 years. Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now. Meanwhile, women around the world have half as many children as their mothers. And if Japan is the model, their daughters may have half as many as they do.

Read more in the Scientific American

The average Canadian now spends more time on the Internet than watching television, according to a new survey from Ipsos Reid, a shift in digital habits that reflects the increasing prevalence of computers in our lives.

The findings in this study reinforce my previous calls for investment in better Internet access for Canadian users. Not only that, but this study really brings to light the inequality in traditional vs. digital media spending on behalf of advertisers and marketers. I don’t believe that traditional media is dead. However, this new data should pave the way for better and fair funding of commercial and non-profit initiatives online.

Canadians now spend more than 18 hours a week online, compared to just under 17 hours watching television.

Although those aged 55 and over were still more likely to spend a longer time watching TV than younger generations, Canadians as a whole were spending more time online for the first time, Ipsos said.

Read the rest of the article in the Globe and Mail

www.youtube.com/watch?v=70ba1DByUmM

Gordon Hempton is an audio ecologist (how many of those have you met?) who, due to a profound love of nature, has made documenting the way it sounds his life’s work. In the course of his work, he’s come across a startling phenomenon–the quiet places in the world are vanishing.

Hempton argues that “silence is rapidly disappearing…[and] there are a fewer than a dozen places of silence [in America].” He believes that such silence — found in natural settings undisturbed by human activity and sound — is completely underrated, yet it profoundly contributes to our well-being.

Read the rest on Planet Green

Fleshmap is an inquiry into human desire, its collective shape and individual expressions. In a series of studies, we explore the relationship between the body and its visual and verbal representation.

Touch investigates the collective perception of erogenous zones. We asked hundreds of people to rank how good it would feel to touch or be touched by a lover in different points of the body. The resulting images reveal a map of sensual desire with multiple focal points and islands of excitement

Fleshmap: Skin to Skin

www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Io6lop3mk

Part 2:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahJYUVDY5ek

www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4jUMWFKPTY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8