“While the form of the building will be visually reminiscent of a greenhouse or conservatory, plant material will be selected for its ability to co-exist in a microclimate that also suits people. To encourage growth and maintain the health of the plants, the building’s interior will include high bay spaces on five floors totaling approximately 65,000 SF and capable of accommodating mature trees. The exterior enclosure will be highly transparent and be composed primarily of multiple layers of glass supported by a metal framework. In addition to a variety of workplace environments, the facility will incorporate dining, meeting and lounge spaces, as well as a variety of botanical zonesmodeled on montane ecologies found around the globe. The building will be anchored at either end by publicly accessible retail spaces entered from 6th and 7th Avenues.” w/ photos

“…here’s a look at a freshly completed residential complex in Hamburg, Germany, where even Slimer would feel right at home. And while it may not contain an ounce of ectoplasm, tiny photosynthetic organisms commonly associated with pesky green slime are key to the zero-energy structure’s groundbreaking renewable energy systems.” w/ photos

“Cephalotes is a broad genus of ants. They are heavily armored – it makes you wonder just how formidalble they would look if we were the same size. The amazing thing about many of them is the head – used to plug a gap as it were. Above is an ant of the species Cephalotes varians. The ants live in trees in the forest areas of the new world tropics and the subtropics. Some Cephalotes species can even glide back to the tree if they are knocked from it. Most of them are what is known as polymorphic which means that they have various castes that have a specific use and purpose in the colony.” w/ photos

“Colgate has revealed plans for a toothbrush with a built in caffeine patch to deliver the morning coffee as you brush. A patent application reveals the firm is even considering flavor patches and even drug delivery using the system. The patent application from the Colgate-Palmolive Company revealed technology that would allow chemicals to be embedded into the heads of standard toothbrushes and slowly released during use. The firm showed off plans for everything from mint and apple flavored patches to a caffeine patch to wake up the weary in the morning.” w/ photos

“A Russian billionaire has revealed controversial plans to upload his own brain and become immortal by 2045. 32 year-old Dmitry Itskov believes technology will allow him to live forever in a hologram body. His ’2045 initiative’ is described as the next step in evolution, and over 20,000 people have signed up on Facebook to follow its progress, with global conferences planned to explore the technology needed… The foundation has already planned out its timeline for getting to a fully holographic human, and claims it will be ready to upload a mind into a computer by 2015, a timeline even Itskov says is ‘optimistic’.” w/ photos + video

“Some songs are better suited for this process, songs that are very full in the lower to mid range, but also very sparse overall are best,’ she says. ‘Idioteque was a great example of this, it has very strong low to mid tones with minimal backing synthetic drums.’ We can debate the merits of plywood versus maple (Ghassaei says they sound about the same, though plywood warps more), but either way, they’re visually stunning, a new take on tree rings. ‘What I really want to do next is get some 12″ wood rounds, the kind with a live, rough edge and cut some records right into the rings of the tree,’ Ghassaei says.” w/ photo + video

“Using histological techniques, high-speed videography, and anatomical studies, Brown University biologist Cally Harper and colleagues found that the bat Glossophaga soricina relies on hair-like structures known as papillae on its tongue to extract nectar from flowers. The structures, which become erect when muscle contraction fills them with blood, increase the surface area and width of its tongue tip to create a hydraulic process that causes nectar to flow along the tongue into the bat’s mouth. Previously it was thought the papillae played a passive role, more akin to a mop than a pump. The mechanism is ‘surprisingly clever’, according to the researchers.” w/ photos

“Roger Babson had a problem. His family thought he was crazy or felonious or both. He had started to carve mottoes in to the boulders which lay in the fields near the long abandoned settlement of Dogtown close to his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts… In fact his desire to deface was more than a mid-life craving to carve mottoes in to stone, to leave behind platitudes for later generations. The project was undertaken during the Great Depression and it was Babsons intent to help out the unemployed stonecutters of Gloucester by giving them work. Perhaps a sense of responsibility also led him to this act of charity – he had, after all, predicted the crash with alarming prescience.” w/ photos

“The hotel opened in 1885, a 12-storey pachyderm with 31 organ-themed guest rooms that faced the ocean and featured an observation deck and a cigar store in its leg. The press was given a tour when it opened that spring: ‘The ‘Stomach Room’… is 60 by 35 feet and trinagular in shape. From the stomach room the explorers walked through the elphant’s diaphragm and along his liver up into his left lung, where a museum is to be situated during the summer. Then the course was from the lung into the ‘Shoulder Room, then up the ‘Cheek Room, where they looked through the elephant’s right eye out onto the ocean.” w/ photos

“The gun operates on the principle of a pepperbox revolver using a pinfire action and incorporates a fold-over knuckle duster forming the grip and also a rudimentary foldout, dual-edged knife. Due to the lack of a barrel, the revolver’s effective range is very limited, but since all of its component parts can be folded inward towards the cylinder, it was easily concealable inside a pocket. It was common to leavea bullet out of the chamber under the firing pin to prevent shooting oneself while having it concealed in a pocket or bag, as the weapon has no trigger guard or safety. This weapon is not able to be aimed precisely because of its lack of front and rear sights. Despite its limited potential, the revolver proved deadly at extremely close range.” w/ photos