Voltaire wrote Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien , often translated as “The perfect is the enemy of the good;” he might well have been talking about residential construction. You run the gamut from the typical American 2×4 frame wall all the way to Passivhaus construction with 12″ of insulation and incredible care in detailing and construction. Proponents keep saying that Passivhaus only costs 10% more than conventional construction, but they are not talking about Pulte and KB Homes, which is what I consider conventional. How do we … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …A team of Canadians is aiming to send a few hockey pucks up to join Neil Armstrong’s golf balls on the surface on the moon. The Canadians are one of 29 teams from 17 countries competing to win some of the $30 million in prize money Google is offering to…
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Libyan forces were reportedly cracking down on anti-government protesters in the capital overnight, while elsewhere in the Middle East demonstrations were continuing in Bahrain and Yemen. (Feb. 22)
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MANAMA, Bahrain — More than a hundred thousand protesters poured into the central Pearl Square here on Tuesday in an unbroken stream stretching back for miles along a central highway in the biggest antigovernment demonstration yet seen in this tiny Persian Gulf kingdom. Multimedia Graphic Political Unrest in North Africa and the Middle East Related in Opinion Dim View of U.S. Posture Toward Bahraini Shiites Is Described (February 22, 2011) Times Topic: Middle East Protests (2010-11) The protesters, mostly members of the Shiite majority, marched along the eastbound side of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Highway in a wide, unbroken column of red and white, the country’s colors. Men of…
Continue reading …Tasman Glacier Loses 30 Million Tonnes of Ice After Devastating Earthquake
February 22, 2011 No Comment
Photo: ( AAP: Denis Callesen, via ABC ) A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck New Zealand’s South Island city of Christchurch just before 1 pm local time. Unlike the 7.1 Richter scale quake which occurred in September of 2010 this one has caused extensive property damage resulting in the loss of of least 65 lives. A figure likely to unfortunately rise as more collapsed buildings are examined for survivors. Also affected by the earthquake was the countries longest glacier, the Tasman, at Aoraki Mt Cook Nationa… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Smithsonian Museum will have a video game gallery next year, wants you to vote on what’s in it
February 22, 2011 No Comment
Nobody tell Roger Ebert, but the Smithsonian Museum has announced plans for a new exhibition, called The Art of Video Games, which will run between March and September next year. Charting the 40-year (now there’s a number that will make you feel old in a hurry) evolution of gaming from paddle-based pixel exchanges to sophisticated online multiplayer extravaganzas , this collection of memoirs will focus on the most visually striking and technologically innovative titles. Perhaps knowing how heated debates about video games can get, the Museum has sagely decided to co-opt its audience into the curatorial process — the second source link below will take you to a voting page where you can select your top 80 games from a shortlist of 240… and of course express your rage at the omission of some obscure title you totally loved late one night in 1995. Smithsonian Museum will have a video game gallery next year, wants you to vote on what’s in it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Michigan has approved a plan to close roughly half of Detroit’s public schools, pushing the average high-school class size in the struggling city to roughly 60 students, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plan is designed to eliminate the district’s $327 million deficit, but even its creator, district emergency financial…
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Gigi Ibrahim as featured on PBS’s Frontline. (PBS Frontline) Her family is part of the Egyptian elite, but 24-year-old Gigi Ibrahim says she’s fighting for her country’s future. With thousands following her Twitter feed, Gigi has become something of a celebrity in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. In this video, we see her attempts to convince her family of the righteousness of her cause. But will they come around? Frontline airs their special “Revolution in Cairo” on Tuesday night (Feb 22). Gigi Ibrahim and other Egyptian youth are on this week’s Time magazine cover . Her twitter account is @GSquare86 . enlarge
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NATO forces say they have secured control of the south of Afghanistan. But just 30 minutes by car from Kandahar city, Taliban fighters have set up camps. Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton reports from one such camp in Zharay district, where commanders tell her they will expand their operations in the summer.
Continue reading …5,000 Wine Bottles Recycled Into Acoustics-Improving Ceiling At Buenos Aires Restaurant
February 22, 2011 No Comment
Photos: Paula Alvarado. When I posted the story about La Dorita restaurant and its dozens of recycled-wine-bottles-lamps , a reader suggested that I took a look at another venue from the city which had a wine-bottle ceiling. Thus I got to Ginger Restaurant , which has, indeed, recovered more than 5,000 wine bottles from trash to improve the acoustics of its salon…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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