Creating your own Windowfarm is about to get a whole lot easier. Last week, the cool Brooklyn-based organization that creates vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible indoor window gardens, succeeded in meeting their Kickstarter goal. Now they will be able to manufacture new Windowfarm systems that look great and are easier to use. The new Windowfarms will be available this spring. (more…)
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New Windowfarms!
BARBS DOLED
Stingray
There are many things that run deep in still waters. In the Pacific, things run even deeper and one is advised when one is spending time in the surf to shuffle their feet as you move across the ocean floor. Adhering to this logic is a purposeful measure against being barbed by a stingray. Rays are not discriminating in the selection of their victims or the destination of their venom. But, the experience is often described as being electrifying, and excruciating. “The stingray’s tail has one or more barbed stingers and 2 ventrolateral venom-containing grooves that are encased in an integumentary sheath. The tail is thrust into the victim, usually in the foot or lower leg, producing a deep jagged laceration from the serrated spine(s). ”
The stinger apparatus then injects a protein-based toxin into the wound, causing immediate intense (even excruciating) pain in the victim. Injury may occur without envenomation because many stingrays lose or tear the integumentary sheath covering the venom glands.
The following interview is with Bolivar from Guiones Beach in Nosara, Costa Rica. It took place an hour after he was ‘barbed’ by a stingray. (more…)
Illya Kagan in Costa Rica
One does not have to go far to find inspiration. The lone palm is an icon on the beach, and let’s you mark where you are from any point. As you walk to the beach along the woody path from Harmony, first you can hear the roar of the surf, then catch a glimpse of the palm, and then see the white caped waves and turquoise water behind. It’s all about the expectation. Again a subject to which I look forward to returning. Every day different clouds and colors of water set up a constantly changing backdrop to this sentinel tree.
Floatation Wetsuit
Now this is awesome. In 2010 big wave surfer Shane Dorian took the worst wipeout of his life whilst surfing Mavericks, California. After almost drowning he came up with the idea to incorporate an air bladder into a wetsuit. Shane contacted Billabong and straight away they started working on the life saving device. The suit has a back-mounted air bladder and a carbon-dioxide cartridge that inflates with a ripcord. The inflatable wetsuit is patent-pending and should be available soon. This could clearly be a life saving device, and who knows there might be other areas then surfing where this technique can come handy.
Materials for the Arts
"Soccer Player," 2011 by an MFTA workshop participant
Materials for the Arts (MFTA) is an incredible collaboration between the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Sanitation in NYC. Â It was founded in 1978 to gather materials from companies and individuals who no longer need them and makes them available for free to NYC’s arts and cultural organizations, public schools and community arts programs. Â As a result, hundreds of tons are removed from the waste stream every year and kept out of landfills. For example, Soccer Player, the found object sculpture featured above, was created by an MFTA workshop participant exploring the potential of discarded materials during a group visit program at the warehouse. (more…)
Murmuration
A shared moment with one of natures greatest and most fleeting phenomena.
Watch the video here:
Stevie Gee & The Dusty Wolf
Stevie Gee is an artist/designer who is inspired by skate and surf culture. Among his work you’ll find a lot of custom made surf boards and skateboards but this particular piece was inspired by the Beach Boys song “Feel Flows”.
