Video | Alphabet soup

“A Canadian filmaker travels to the north Pacific Ocean to discover a world of unknown plastic pollution.” Well, that’s what the video says at least, truth be told this videos’ message is much more important because this concrete issue has been so neglected till recently. There’s actually a shitload of waste, floating and sinking in the middle of the Pacific, and cleaning it up is nothing short of impossible. Had no idea that plasti dissolves so fast (due mainly to the sun and the salt in the water), had no idea that abundantly eating fish is, in a way, also eating my own trash. Length | 12: 49

Links: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” | Great Pacific Garbage Patch (W) | Ship pollution (W)

For more insight into waste problems subscribe to Geekofriendly.

Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts)

USEFUL STUFF

• [IT] Metacafe Bets Its Future On The Power Of Wikis (here’s to hoping YouTube follows)
• [Eco] [Economy] Green New Deal (atm quite the buzzword)
• [Nano] I Bet You’ve Never Seen Water Bounce Before (nuff said)
• [Health] Less-Invasive Brain Interfaces
• [Politics] Food Security in Japan (well-made & the last 30 secs are LOL funny)
• [Man-made] TED Talks Luca Turin: The science of scent (great stuff!)

ENTERTAINMENT

• Snoop Dogg on Martha Stewart (shizzle on the ridicculizl)
• Older people have more black and white dreams
• Amazing Story of a Man Who Survived Being Buried 40 Days
• Dubai and the UAE
• Police dash cam of Meteor over Edmonton, Canada (just like in the movies)
• Shrimp Vs Octopus

WEEKLY TRIBUTE
A small tribute to chilling the fuck out.

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(via: all the usual and unusual blogs and sites that I’ve got in Google Reader)

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Video | Trailer – Carbon Nation

A documentary that apparently plays on a kind of reverse psychology card and instead of emphasizing the bad focuses on what to do to make it good. Release date unknown for the moment (or I just couldn’t find it), but will definitely give it a view when it comes out. They’ve managed to get some influential individuals for interviews,  which hopefully means this isn’t yet another example of generic film-making.  Just not sure if the title holds up to the premise of the documentary – since they mention how the subject matter affects the whole planet I’d probably go with something a bit more grand scheme-ish than ‘nation’, but that’s just me being anal about petty details again:)

Trailer here.

(via: Treehugger)

For more movie trailers you probably haven’t seen subscribe to Geekofriendly.

Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts)

USEFUL STUFF

• [IT] Some much needed improvements (Watch Seth Godin’s video below to get a better idea of what I mean)
• [Eco] Should They be Generation E?
• [Nature] When under attack, plants can signal microbial friends for help (amazing stuff)
  
• [Man-made] 3D Virtual Heart So Real Doctors’ Own Hearts Go Pitter Patter
• [Man-made] Seth Godin’s Tribes (great presentation on video…I really can’t describe in words how much I feel exactly, EXACTLY(!!!!!!!!!!!!!)  like Seth on this one:). Of all the futurists, he is easily the most pragmatic one!)
• [Sociology] [Psychology] Does the use of hand gestures slow language learning? (I drool over this type of empirical research data)

ENTERTAINMENT

• Not Photoshopped: Li Wei’s Astounding Action Art
• Dolls and Toys that Creep us Out
• That’s Worlds Highest Bungee Jump @ Helicopter @ 500m/1640ft
• Tuttuki Bako (after seeing the video…spechless!)
• When Robot Programmers get bored
• Improv Everywhere Creates Epic Balloon Battles Using MP3 Players (IE still rocks)

WEEKLY TRIBUTE
A small tribute to PBwiki. I’ve tried a couple of online wiki’s, and this one’s price-performance (for personal use, cost-zero!) is by far the best I’ve seen and used thus far. The interface is incredibly slick and easy to use and is a big time-saver. They also put strong emphasis on back-up (which you can also manually download onto your pc) and guarantee that loss of data will not occur on their watch (how much that can be trusted is of course up to you). What’s also pretty sweet is the ability to invite guests and have them look only at a particular page of your wiki and not the whole thing (so personal info and to-do lists of celebrity hotties are safe from prying eyes). Other cool features: RSS (comes in handy if/when many users update pages), downloading pages as .pdf’s, interface flexibility…

My personal thought is that every single company (even a one-man band) MUST have a personal wiki (or anything that allows fluid and user-friendly knowledge-transfer that will be put to good use) to handle the abundance of info they deal with.

One of those things that simply make my life so much easier and better! Simply a must:) For more on IT that I think is really practical and useful, click here.

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(via: all the usual and unusual blogs and sites that I’ve got in Google Reader)

For more random stuff subscribe to Geekofriendly.

The future of designing buildings and other man-made structures

Oh its at least a couple of years away (mildly put) from becoming mainstream, but  the video after the jump gives a surprisingly detailed and thought-out idea of an efficient (again, mildly put) work environment and indisputably shows how technology can be an architect’s best friend. And an engineer’s, designers, you name it!

Hod do I know this? I just do…for I have been to the mountaintop:

On a lighter side, let’s look at it from a different, albeit still important perspective. A mirror of the not-so-distant future, if you willl…

Do you wanna be the I-have-a-serious-long-term-relationship-with-my-desktop-computer,-my-mouse-is-bigger-than-my-erect-penis-and-my-idea-of-exercise-is-opening-a-new-jar-of-mayonnaise bald fat fuck:

Or do you want to be the I’m-actually-psycho-but-still-take-care-of-myself-because-I-predominantly-do-my-work-standing-or-at-least-move-my-arms-and-upper-body-a-whole-lot wholesome, good looking guy like Tom Cruise:

I crossed the line with ‘wholesome’, but the question was rhetorical…or was it?

Further information on building Information modeling (BIM), especially the last paragraph of ‘BIM in the USA’.

For more ideas for the future subscribe to Geekofriendly.

It seems I’ve come across my first obstacle…

It was merely a week ago that I vigorously promoted Cradle to Cradle, and with it its founding father William McDonough (a household name in this blog), whom I’ve admired and respected since the first time I saw his inspirational TED Talk…it was him who convinced me that the Next Industrial Revolution is just around the corner, it was him who showed me that a great idea has answers and solutions to more than just one question or problem (an incredible and rare feat in every respect), and it was him who truly made me realize that a mindset like his is far more potent and productive than most dare dream of.

On a side-note, it was him who singlehandedly made me strive for the same causes…

That is why it saddens me deeply to have read the following article yesterday.

Arrogance, deception, hubris, voracity …need I go on?!

As it turns out (if the article stands on firm ground, that is), Mr. McDonough is his own worst enemy, meaning that his own actions have – on more than one occasion-  cost him business deals, potentially impressive credentials/references/networking and worst of all, have set him back from his goal to ‘cradelise’ the world for the better.

I leave you with the lengthy article, which you can find here (Diigoed), I am still slightly shaken-up and have a hard time coping with the conception that the man I look up to (notice the present tense) just might have some very serious problems of his own. There’s a saying you should never meet your heroes (for these very reasons, I suppose) and I’ve always considered it healthy advice. So how should this man therefore be worth my attention and respect? Well, because I still want to pursue a life where sustainability is obtained, controlled and in the end sustained, to the point of hopefully eradicating bad design and replacing it with good intent. Bill McDonough gave birth to that pursuit of mine.

(via: TreeHugger)

Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts)

USEFUL STUFF

• [Eco] A green New Deal can tackle depression
• [Health] Scientists uncover new gene link to male pattern baldness
• [Health] TED Talks – Dr. Dean Ornish: Healing and other natural wonders
  
• [Economy] The End of Suburbia (worth a view, especially the last 5 minutes or so!)
• [Economy] ‘We need slaves to build monuments’ (Dubai is under a lot of fire lately, more here, here and here)
• [Man-made] Long Overdue GPS Upgrade Could Save Airlines $10 Billion a Year

ENTERTAINMENT

• The Indonesian Mimic Octopus
• The Sun (mesmerizing photography)
• Flesh Eating Mutant Fish Invades Nepal
• What Is The Sport Of Kiiking? (dedicated to my beloved Estonians)
• The Aquaduct Bicycle (brilliant idea!)
• Chinese deaf girls mystical dance (how the **** do you train deaf people anyways?)

WEEKLY TRIBUTE
A small tribute to autumn.

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(via: all the usual and unusual blogs and sites that I’ve got in Google Reader)

For more random stuff subscribe to Geekofriendly.

Let the games begin…

As I’ve mentioned, I’m shifting my focus into graduating (asap, prefferably;)), and I’ll be posting the material I gather as I go along. I haven’t fully fleshed out my project yet, but here’s my inspiration and hopefully my guidelines:

William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle | 22:00

Waste=Food | 49:00

Links: William Mcdonough | Cradle to cradle

Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts)

USEFUL STUFF

• [Eco] It’s Not about Polar Bears Anymore
• [Nano] One small wall crawling step for a bottle of coke, one giant leap to Spiderman-like wall crawling
• [Future] Saving the World Through Game Design
• [Economy] Financial crisis simplified (a whiteboard presentation) (detailed info here)
• [Man-made] Robot suit for rent in Japan to help people walk
• [Astronomy] 50 Consumer Technologies Developed by NASA in the Last 50 Years

ENTERTAINMENT

• The Indonesian Mimic Octopus
• The Quietest Place on Earth – Orfield Labs
• MadTv – Kim Jong IL Crazy Parody
• Pictures Galore: 15 Epic Water and Ice Formations and Phenomena, 7 Spectacularly Skilled High-Speed Photographers, Fantastic Plastic: 20 Essential Works of LEGO Art
• The former President wants you to know exactly where he stands… (kind of old, but Clinton’s never looked more convincing:)
• Wacky human inventions from 1930’s (brilliant…ROFL’d through half of it)

WEEKLY TRIBUTE
A small tribute to priorities. On the top of my list is to graduate before my birthday next year and I’ve already noticed my interest in the last two weeks or so (when I started) has noticeably shifted from all the things that interest me to only (well…mostly, but it’s a start!) those that I’ll be needing to graduate.

My topic, in case you’re interested: a sustainable zero-energy – or if possible even plus-energy (and notice how informational the article is) – residential area in a city (probably and preferably Ljubljana). Why? Because I strongly believe that starting the next industrial revolution is the only (for the time being, at least:)) way to successfully maintain and continue our lifestyles without any serious consequences; both to the abundance of options we have at our disposal as humans, as to, of course, mother nature.

…and someday who knows, you’ll might even quote me on this;)

Till then, I’ll leave you with another quote, a brand new one as a matter of fact…not exactly the bedtime story I had in mind last week:

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
- Richard Feynman

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(via: all the usual and unusual blogs and sites that I’ve got in Google Reader)

Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts)

USEFUL STUFF

• [Eco] Chicken Manure to power 90,000 Homes in the Netherlands!
• [Future] Automated Construction System To Change Face of Home-Building (mental note: it’s fun to be right:P)
• [Nature] [Astronomy] Bill Stone: Journey to the center of the Earth … and beyond! (from caves to cosmos or how this man’s favorite color is definitely black!)
• [Economy] [Politics] When the wind doesn’t blow (ups and downs of wind power)
• [Man-made] [Nature] Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos (physics galore…really fun stuff:))
• [Psychology] Banned Self Hypnosis Video (had to repeat it to get it and just ‘let go’…surprising and impressive)

ENTERTAINMENT

• The Faces Behind The Simpsons
• Gait may be associated with orgasmic ability (forget make-up, ladies! Learn to, khm, walk properly:))
• Rare banned Bush speech
• Insane Stretchable Skin Man
• 70 Amazing Houses from Around the World (great stuff with a lot of effort put into it)
• Racism in the Elevator

WEEKLY TRIBUTE
A small tribute to relevant issues (2) and quality journalism (2).

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(via: all the usual and unusual blogs and sites that I’ve got in Google Reader)