cnet:

Look! In the Sky! It’s a cloud! It’s a number! It’s… the first 1000 digits of Pi?

On the afternoon of September 12, 2012, artist ISHKY, with Stamen Design, launched Pi in the Sky, a project that used skywriting to create quarter-mile tall digits at 10,000 feet over the San Francisco Bay Area. It took a team of five synchronized skywriters “equipped with dot-matrix technology” to create the first one-thousand numbers of the infinite order of pi (3.14159, etc.). The airplanes made a 100-mile loop around the Bay Area, which created a temporary piece that was 150 miles long. It was created as part of the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial.

There’s a Kickstarter for everything.

(Laughing Squid via Gizmodo) 

100leaguesunderthesea:

Sunflower sea star, Pycnopodia helianthoides, near bull kelp. by Paul Nicklen

discoverynews:

According to a recent CNN report, project organizers hope that the space “will become an eco-tourist destination showcasing sustainable practices and plants from across the globe.”

thescienceofreality:

Singapore’s Supertree-Powered Gardens By the Bay.

“One of the largest horticultural attractions in the world, Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, opens to the public Friday, June 29, 2012 offering a unique fusion of nature and technology.

Since we last reported on the project’s most distinctive element — 18 giant solar-powered, plant-growing “Supertrees” — UK-based landscape architects Grant Associates have released some stunning photos of the £500 million complex.”

Read more here and here.

Photo Credit: Photos 1-3: © Craig Sheppard / Grant Associates. Photo 4: © Robert Such / Grant Associates. Photo 5: Jackerbie/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Photo 6: © Munshi Ahmed.

discoverynews:

I use them to hang posters and keep cables straight, but I’ve seen them used for wallets and even to keep clothing together.

treehugger:

Sometimes “living green” just means making due with what you have around. Why buy some piece of plastic junk when you can use something else in a new way?

If you have any binder clips handy, here are 16 clever ways to use binder clips around the house.

How do you use binder clips? Tell us!   

npr:

An NPR audience poll to select the 100 best young adult books coughed up 75,000 voters and just two books with non-white protagonists. Even a winning writer complained. Kill the judges? No, the enemy is us. Book editors ask for a solution.

via When A Popular List Of 100 ‘Best-Ever’ Teen Books Is The ‘Whitest Ever’ : NPR Ombudsman

Photo: iStockphoto.com

nasdaq:

11 Fascinating Facts about Google Maps via Mashable.

Did you know that Google’s street team has driven 5 million miles since the project began in 2007? Ever wondered how often each street view image is updated? Mashable tracks down answers to what you may have always wondered, but never known, about the popular Google Maps feature. 

discoverynews:

This would be a sad sight, indeed.

Birds Hold Funerals for Their Dead

The birds gather around their fallen friend and sing to such a degree that the din gathers more birds, who then sing and in turn gather more. After the funeral ceremony the birds avoid foraging in the area around the deceased bird for at least 24 hours.

read more…

theweekmagazine:

Introducing the McCurry Pan, one of the menu items to be offered at the world’s first vegetarian McDonald’s, which is set to open in Amritsar, a northern Indian city. 

McDonald’s has always tried to tweak its menu to suit local tastes, a particularly daunting challenge in India, where up to 42 percent of the population avoids meat altogether. India’s Hindu majority, which considers cows holy, avoids beef. The country’s large Muslim minority shuns pork. Both Hindus and Muslims, however, can enjoy meat-free fare equally.

“There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants,” says Rajesh Kumar Maini, a McDonald’s spokesman in northern India.

Keep reading…

npr:

What do we think? — tanya b.

topherlooks:

Dowling Duncan and redesigning the American Dollar:

Why the size?
We have kept the width the same as the existing dollars. However we have changed the size of the note so that the one dollar is shorter and the 100 dollar is the longest. When stacked on top of each other it is easy to see how much money you have. It also makes it easier for the visually impaired to distinguish between notes.

Why a vertical format?
When we researched how notes are used we realized people tend to handle and deal with money vertically rather than horizontally. You tend to hold a wallet or purse vertically when searching for notes. The majority of people hand over notes vertically when making purchases. All machines accept notes vertically. Therefore a vertical note makes more sense.

Why different colors?
It’s one of the strongest ways graphically to distinguish one note from another.

Why these designs?
We wanted a concept behind the imagery so that the image directly relates to the value of each note. We also wanted the notes to be educational, not only for those living in America but visitors as well. Each note uses a black and white image depicting a particular aspect of American history and culture. They are then overprinted with informational graphics or a pattern relating to that particular image.

$1 – The first African American president
$5 – The five biggest native American tribes
$10 – The bill of rights, the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution
$20 – 20th Century America
$50 – The 50 States of America
$100 – The first 100 days of President Franklin Roosevelt. During this time he led the congress to pass more important legislations than most presidents pass in their entire term. This helped fight the economic crises at the time of the great depression. Ever since, every new president has been judged on how well they have done during the first 100 days of their term.