Desert3d digital fabricators are all the rage among DIY designers, and promise to decentralize the physical economy in the way the Internet decentralized the information economy. On the other hand, many environmentalists just see the fabber as another energy-sucking contraption that fills our world with plastic gewgaws.

Now an art student has juryrigged a “solar sinter,” replacing a fabber’s high-tech laser with focused sunlight and toxic resin with sand. It all fits in a suitcase he brought to the Egyptian desert for a test run.

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Your next gourmet meal, waiting in a fishtank near you.

http://www.farmfountain.com/index.html

Farm Fountain is a system for growing edible and ornamental fish and plants in a constructed, indoor ecosystem. Based on the concept of aquaponics, this hanging garden fountain uses a simple pond pump, along with gravity to flow the nutrients from fish waste through the plant roots. The plants and bacteria in the system serve to cleanse and purify the water for the fish.

This project is an experiment in local, sustainable agriculture and recycling. It utilizes 2-liter plastic soda bottles as planters and continuously recycles the water in the system to create a symbiotic relationship between edible plants, fish and humans. The work creates an indoor healthy environment that also provides oxygen and light to the humans working and moving through the space. The sound of water trickling through the plant containers creates a peaceful, relaxing waterfall. The Koi and Tilapia fish that are part of this project also provide a focus for relaxed viewing.

The plants we are currently growing include lettuces, cilantro, mint, basil, tomatoes, chives, parsley, mizuna, watercress and tatsoi. The Tilapia fish in this work are also edible and are a variety that have been farmed for thousands of years in the Nile delta.

The controversial practice of “reconciliation ecology” tries not to restore old habitats, but to create new ones–by bringing nature back into human spaces. Its proponents think innovative software may help people get along with their new neighbors. Capstone, anyone?

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Thoreau’s simple economic calculus shows we sometimes get less out of technology than we put in.

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/lbgq5LWy2d4/ via Byline Henry David Thoreau ['s ] distillation of a year living in relative seclusion offers deep insights not just into the natural world and humanity’s place in it, but how that relationship was being impacted — and degraded — by the Industrial Revolution. It remains to this day a trenchant criticism of the excesses of technology….

A railroad ran along Walden Pond about one-third of a mile from Thoreau’s cabin, and he could hear the rattle of the trains. But he thought a trip by rail was a bad bargain:

One says to me, “I wonder that you do not lay up money; you love to travel; you might take the cars and go to Fitchburg today and see the country.” But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend, Suppose we try who will get there first. The distance is thirty miles; the fare ninety cents. That is almost a day’s wages. I remember when wages were sixty cents a day for laborers on this very road. Well, I start now on foot, and get there before night; I have travelled at that rate by the week together. You will in the meanwhile have earned your fare, and arrive there some time tomorrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get a job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working here the greater part of the day. And so, if the railroad reached round the world, I think that I should keep ahead of you.

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As if Mainers needed another reason to spend time outdoors in July.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/XoxV0sZZO-I/Forest-Bathing-Considered-Healthful via Byline

Hugh Pickens writes “The NY Times reports that although allergies and the promise of air-conditioning tend to drive people indoors at this time of year, when people spend time in more natural surroundings — forests, parks, and other places with plenty of trees — they experience increased immune function. A study of 280 healthy people in Japan, where visiting nature parks for therapeutic effect has become a popular practice called ‘Shinrin-yoku,’ or ‘forest bathing,’ found that being among plants produced ‘lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure,’ among other things. Another study in 2007 showed that men who took two-hour walks in a forest over two days had a 50-percent spike in levels of natural killer cells, and a third study found an increase in white blood cells that lasted for a week in women exposed to phytoncides in forest air.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As if Mainers needed another reason to spend time outdoors in July.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/XoxV0sZZO-I/Forest-Bathing-Considered-Healthful via Byline

Hugh Pickens writes “The NY Times reports that although allergies and the promise of air-conditioning tend to drive people indoors at this time of year, when people spend time in more natural surroundings — forests, parks, and other places with plenty of trees — they experience increased immune function. A study of 280 healthy people in Japan, where visiting nature parks for therapeutic effect has become a popular practice called ‘Shinrin-yoku,’ or ‘forest bathing,’ found that being among plants produced ‘lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure,’ among other things. Another study in 2007 showed that men who took two-hour walks in a forest over two days had a 50-percent spike in levels of natural killer cells, and a third study found an increase in white blood cells that lasted for a week in women exposed to phytoncides in forest air.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/eco-friendly-mobile-phone-runs-on-coke.php

A bio-battery running on Coke (or another such sugary drink) has the potential to run 3x as long as standard lithium batteries, while being fully biodegradable. Nice!

img1 caption=’A cell phone that runs on Coke.’

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/eco-friendly-mobile-phone-runs-on-coke.php

A bio-battery running on Coke (or another such sugary drink) has the potential to run 3x as long as standard lithium batteries, while being fully biodegradable. Nice!

img1 caption=’A cell phone that runs on Coke.’

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http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/eco-friendly-mobile-phone-runs-on-coke.php

A bio-battery running on Coke (or another such sugary drink) has the potential to run 3x as long as standard lithium batteries, while being fully biodegradable. Nice!

img1 caption=’A cell phone that runs on Coke.’

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