The Sweet Juniper blog has a gallery of abandoned Detroit houses that are being overcome by the foliage around them, trees and shrubs and plants growing around, on and in them.
Feral Houses (via Neatorama)
Update: Crap, this is a duplicate. Ah, c'est la vie. Enjoy it again, for the first time.

Previously:

• Haunting photo-essay on rotting buildings in Detroit - Boing Boing
• Rotting textbook warehouse in Detroit - Boing Boing
• Artists buying cheap houses in Detroit - Boing Boing
• Detroit Zoo exhibits Rick Lieder's extraordinary bug pix - Boing Boing
• Edwardian croquet-game in the ruined shell of a Packard plant in ...
• Artists paint Detroit's derelict buildings Tiggeriffic Orange ...
• Detroit houses selling for less than cars - Boing Boing
• Detroit's SuperBowl bid faked the skyline - Boing Boing
• Detroit: One theatre for one million people - Boing Boing

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Article:

• http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/pOoRyNkZ2M0/detroit-houses-being.html

DIY fridge hack uses almost no electricity

An Australian guy hacked a freezer into a super-efficient refrigerator:

Nearly every household on Earth has a fridge that totally wastes at least 30 kwh of energy every month. Most of the energy is wasted every time you open the door. Cold air is heavier and falls out on the floor every time you open your fridge and warm air rises to fill the space it left. But with a top opening fridge; even if you leave the door wide open, gravity effortlessly leaves the heavy cold air inside. [...]

His home-made fridge uses much energy in 24 hours as a 100W light bulb gets through in just an hour.

Not only is it energy efficient; but it's absolutely silent too. The thing is only running for a minute or two every hour. At all other times it is perfectly quiet and consumes no power whatsoever.

Home Design Find: Green Fridge Invention Uses Almost No Electricity

(via Atom Jack)

I can see why this hasn't taken off - space constraints. It wouldn't fit in my kitchen, or in the kitchens of any of the apartments I've ever lived in. This may cause a problem for mass production. Still, it's a smart solution.

Related posts:

1. Venice To Get Half Its Electricity From Algae By 2011
2. Report: Spies hacked into U.S. electricity grid
3. Deputies Raid Wrong Address, Kill Couple's Dog

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Article:

• http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/8a6KCNCG8hQ/

xkcd - A Webcomic - Height

They should have a new sim- game: sim-airline. You could choose the flight
routes, the more popular = more expensive, with real delays due to
weather, etc. It might even alert the untraveled public to the fact that
afternoon flights into the NY area are _probably_ going to be delayed, and
yes, it's due to weather which means the airline assumes no responsibility
for stranding you and/or your luggage anywhere between your origin and
your destination.

<http://xkcd.com/482/>

--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

This Kilogram Has A Weight-Loss Problem

This Kilogram Has A Weight-Loss Problem:

More than a century ago, a small metal cylinder was forged in London and sent to a leafy suburb of Paris. The cylinder was about the size of a salt shaker and made of an alloy of platinum and iridium, an advanced material at the time.

Since 1889, the year the Eiffel Tower opened, that cylinder has been the standard against which every other kilogram on the planet has been judged. But that's creating problems. According to scientists, the cylinder's mass appears to be changing.

(Thanks, inky)

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Article:

• http://givemesomethingtoread.com/post/168152064

Citroën Karin – today and tomorrow

via http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2009/04/23/citroen-karin/

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Article:

• http://ffffound.com/image/7f6e54d13f0dbe963d858132017b0e0157111259

Beetle shell ceiling

1.6 million Buprestidae shells were glued to the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Brussels. The project is by artist Jan Fabre and his team of 30 beetle-gluers.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!

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Article:

• http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/08/beetle_shell_ceiling.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

I thought the nightmare was over...

Last night I dreamed I went over to a friend's house I was looking forward
to seeing, but we watched a horror movie. I'm not a big fan of horror
movies just because I get scared. This one was anime about some characters
who had to escape some middle ages monster, but it seemed to have a happy
ending when everyone got away (if only in spirit). I was relieved when I
thought the movie was over, but then I got the worst sensation of
real-world implications to watching the movie, as in it continued and
physically hurt me to watch the end which was like "The Ring" in that it
seemed to happen after the movie. It was like "Suicide Club", which I'm
still trying to ignore just because I can't deal with it right now (<-
drama). Anyway, I think I overslept this morning just to deal with this
dream.. Just woke up now at 11!

MySpace.com - View Image - sketches and drawings. - Photo 4 of 12

via
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=42409183&albumID=1661266&imageID=29068880

Article:

* http://ffffound.com/image/88b47546cf564b602609674393b7875f92181f4f

Why didn't Opera beta detect a new beta?

Help I'm alive by Metric.. Feel like Boomer from Battlestar Galactica when she's having trouble deciding between the water and the trigger

Why does the universe have to be so finite all the time?

sicker than sickest dog

Yay I received the iTunes giftcard I had won!

In related new I just heard my itunes GC is on its way!

the macopoly sucks

I know apple has a good product. I have a macbook myself, and I used to like the ease with which it would sync my itunes library. Now that I have an android phone, though, it's starting to seem like apple is a bit close-minded. Why can't they release an itunes authenticator to let me play my music and videos on my other devices? This is especially ironic in that I believe quite strongly that illegal downloading is hurting the industry and if you're going to have a song on your music player 1$ is nothing especially if you can pick and choose which songs from which albums you want.

I went on a hike to Prevost today. A little far but cute and I got to seee a friend from high school I hadn't seen *since* high school! Overall quite a nice day..

Just watched 'Suicide Club'.. So scary in that depressing way, now I can't stop acting all Hamlet-like

Addled

Sometimes I think I go too fast in the direction of my goals and end up going too far past the mark and getting lost.
For example I was on track with the renovations on my day off and enjoying myself after the day when today I pushed further and got a little overwhelmed with all the changes all of the sudden.
With the listening to my dad and getting surprised by my much older cousin I haven't seen in a while, my step-mom who the building my new apartment belongs to coming back tomorrow on an already delayed overseas flight and drinking a very rare beer, it's been an odd day.

Add to that watching the scariest Japanese movie I've ever seen (Suicide Club) and you can imagine what kind of evening I've been having. I'm getting neurotic thinking about being down and the beer getting me down because alcohol is a depressant. Now I want tea but usually when I'm down I skip any treating myself since I think waiting the depression out is better.

Pish Posh

Where I'm landed now.. Well the new apartment certainly is pretty awesome even though it's not finished. I sometimes still feel bad about going against my parents' wishes to change companies but I like my job a lot more now. My finances are OK, still nowhere near debt even this year hasn't been very good savings-wise.
At least I have my health, I should be happy but sometimes it's hard when I get down about being lonely or something or other and feel like I don't want to talk to my parents or brother because I never really had to growing up and it seems I don't want to be the kind of person to only talk to someone when they need a friend, even if I hope I can count on my family to always be there for me.
In general I'm pretty much living the dream, I feel like I give myself a 'carte blanche' when it comes to having fun or splurging on something, even if it's something I wouldn't have done even a few months ago.
Living alone is so liberating! Of course I still can't justify any of the fun I have, and this is going to sound extremely crazy but it's the little things, they're at once easy to do anyway if I feel like it, but when I am trying to be on my best behavior it's annoying not to be able to do things I used to take for granted.
Take listening to the radio in the car for example. I like listening to a pop station or another, but over the couple of years I've had my car I somehow managed to work all these little reasons why I 'shouldn't' listen to the radio, like that it uses the battery and therefore gas, or the stuff that's on the radio doesn't have very good cultural merit anyway or that listening to the radio will change me in the direction I'm trying to change away from (if that makes any sense) in order to be more attractive to the people I want to be with.
So that's about it, besides that everything is fine and if I can somehow find a way to deal with the fact that all these tiny unreasonable reasons always seem to pop up at the worst times to impede me from enjoying the most ordinary of pleasures I'll be all set.

Really happy to have won that iTunes gift card!

http://ping.fm/DJG2P

I love my new apartment (even though there's nothing in it yet).. Camping and being forced to eat out is fun!

There's something fun about living in a half-empty, half-moved into apartment.. The furniture can be moved around so much, etc.

is in France!

Now that I've gotten the hang of biking to Ikea for breakfast I'm looking for places to go to. Forest trails in parc angrignon, check. Both costcos, check. I think I'll go to Mont Royal via McGill campus next.

Android needs a market website where apks without country restrictions can be freely downloaded from any PC

Walking around downtown nun's island I twice ran into ducks at the store.. Ducks! Downtown at the store!

From LifeCast

From LifeCast

From LifeCast

From LifeCast

And if it wasn't the ducks, it was the great heron at the lake by my place.. Or the family of loons at Parc Angrignon..

From LifeCast

From LifeCast

Emotionally drained; sad (blue) and scared (yellow); stupid job has to color my life with the company colors even! J/K, not wrecked

New bike! Dad's was closer than I thought, only 10km: http://ping.fm/TSLCP

View Forest Walk in a larger map

Paralyzed by perfectionism

It's as if some invisible accountant is tabulating my energy expenditure and as the days starts out OK, my mind wears down with the worries that even though nobody's perfect, I should try and just not do _anything_ because, for example, turning on the computer now will just be a waste of electricity and will add on to the already over-the-limit wifi bill. As you can see, I caved.

Recyling water

I hear they reuse the water from the shower in japan and in a similar vein in think the water going down the bathroom sink should go directly into the tank behind the toilet.

I went for a nice hike today, after the weather we had the air was fresh and the woods were green.. http://ping.fm/U8ciX

Reasons

What's a reasonable balance between a conscious effort to improve upon the past and an all-too demanding perfectionist streak? The things I take for granted are that the world is in bad shape and that there is no use putting all pleasure off. So in between a complete devotion to work and giving in to peer pressure, where do I draw the line? I dreamt that I was reconnecting with my cousin and I was worried that we'd left his wife behind at the store. Is it OK to be friends with everyone? Is is wrong to try and make friends by offering them discounts on flights like I get at work?

Here's what I have so far.. but where's my happy ending?

So why are we here again? What's the purpose of life? (Please leave your comments!) According to the religion I was brought up in, we're in some kind of test to see if we're good enough to get to heaven. Seems a little wasteful of the infinite possibilities that the time and space available in the universe confine us to a set of finite time and possibilities all mostly mapped out. So to be good, well goodness is faith. I think in most of its forms too, like trust of your fellow human being to do unto you and not steal or hurt you. But what else? I justify most of my hedonistic tendencies, which I know are selfish and therefore against some people's definition of good (I think buddhism?) I justify them by claiming we have to be realist in life and take what we can while we're here. It just seems like such a struggle sometimes, right now I don't entirely regret writing this post even though it uses electricity and therefore conflicts with living in harmony with nature or at least self-sufficience.

The other kind of scary dream

This morning I dreamt I was acting the know-it-all in my EWR training and finding other interesting things to do instead. I got so side-tracked that the group went on ahead, I was so worried they were going to leave me behind that I woke up. To top it off I woke up with the guilt from acting that way in my dream, casting a bad light on the new, albeit rainy, morning.

Bittersweet

Isn't anything bittersweet anymore? Fear has crept into my life and taints every future I think about. I don't sleep too well and when I dream they are either melancholy dreams or good dreams I regret aren't real. My sense of self-restraint is all but shot, I pretty much eat as bad as I want and am even staying up to write this and dwell in self-loathing.

Does anyone know about Ceylon tea? I have a lot all of a sudden, but never tried it (or made it) before so not sure how to proceed..

Delays and claims galore.. what else is new?

At least I got my car back.. and this cool new watch from Tokyoflash! I take a delay everytime I check the time now though, it's a whole process to decode what time it is!

Going with the flow...

Ok, this might be a little bit of a depressing post, so I apologize in advance if it brings you down.. I guess what I'm fearing these days, and suppose for the sake of being prepared if it ever happens, is that there is nothing I can do to affect the course the world is on. I am trying to be a good citizen. I don't lie or steal, and generally try to set a good example. my job is really great, even though it's a little easy. But what if my fears a justified? What will happen if the world keeps going to war and resources keep getting depleted, and pollution keeps poisoning the planet and this financial crisis and swine flu, etc, etc.. It's enough to make anyone go nuts. But I don't, I'm not. I try and keep friends, but it's hard when you're scared. Anyway, I would like to be able to affect the world around me starting with myself. I'm earning savings, why can't my company turn a profit? Does anyone out there have any suggestions other than blind faith for dealing with this fear? I obviously already hope that we will get through this by inventing some kind of renewable energy source..

Does anyone know how to read the date on the Tokyoflash Heko?

Android Cupcake is awesome!

Dream

Dreamt I was working really hard on building something between you and I but doing the right thing. After waking up and taking the lazy way of staying in bed, I had a short waking dream of things going very wrong compared to what I had expected.

G1 in Montreal, Canada

So I've seen many of these posts around the 'net, and they have helped me so I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. While it hasn't officially hit the market here, you can buy a legitimately unlocked G1 from google or elsewhere. You then need to buy a Fido (or Rogers) sim card and activate it with a data account (it'll be around 60$ for free incoming and 1gb of data). I'm using the internet.fido.ca APN, with l/p fido/fido. Even though it shows up as roaming you don't get charged. It's mostly edge, although the speed is fast (about half of wifi) and I do sometimes get 3g. You can data-roam anywhere in Canada for free.

My Days Off

...Were really great. The only down-side is the inevitable obsession with trying not to fall into the guilt that accompanies hedonism. Like for example, I can't help feeling like I've destroyed some kind of disproportionally larger something I've been working on for so long. Like everything I was working on is now shown to be false and that I don't even practice what I preach. I don't know what's with this depression but at least it can't get any worse than self-bashing, right?

http://ping.fm/gr2c7

Street sweepers

Can somebody explain to me why we still have thos huge water trucks that sweept the side of the sidewalks during the day? I mean I realize they're supposed to clean, and maybe this was a good idea back when we weren't in a recession, and the price of gas wasn't through the roof. Here in Montreal, it's nothing the rain can't take care of, and I would honestly prefer being able to leave my car on the street on thursdays. (**Ah I feel much better now.)

I'm a libra but you'd never know it with the extremes I go to for their own sake

Fairytales

Have a new plotline in common. High-born kid dislikes country folk, falls among them and realizes that there is truth in simplicity, and that greater spiritual matters matter more greatly than he had previous realized. (Story of my life.) Now if I could just return to my rightful place like they do, filled with all my learned lessons and maybe a couple of new friends, I'd be all set.

http://ping.fm/47be7

Num Num http://ping.fm/JgXAh

Looks like EWR is burning down again tonight.. As usual

Beautiful morning but still can't stop obsessing about Japan

Ugh.. Stll stuck at work, the last flight is coming in 3 hours late at 1:45 am..

If you're flying into Newark Liberty today I would recommend getting on the earlier flight

Well might not be so bad if I can just delay my trip instead of cancelling it..

Well I guess I won't go to Japan, then.. I suppose it's for the best as I have lots of work to do anyway

So far my days off have been less than stellar. I managed to get no shopping done, spent about 200$ on fines and got my car taken away. I'll be lucky if I get away with spending less than 300$. I've had to go to court once already, and have a scheduled appearance June 29th. I know it's just a car and I don't even need to drive that much but it's hard stress to deal with.
Maybe I'm being a baby about this, maybe I need to grow up a bit.

Back pain, right shoulder blad is in major pain.. Like the first time I moved to Montreal, I had to see a chiropractor after less than a year. Now, with 5 years gone by, I'm trying different things like changing my posture and holding my should with my left arm. The latter seems to be helping.
On a lighter note, I'm finally thinking of taking advantage of some of my travel benefits.. I'm hoping (fingers crossed!) that my Japanese friend (who I only just met) doesn't retract her invitation to visit her in Hokkaido next month, and I might go for a whole week and a half!

Been dreaming real lots lately, enjoying my nights a lot.. Except when I wake up in the middle of them, sporadically, because I'm going to bed too early. I've been going to be too early, especially when I was at the hotel in ewr because I thought it was the safet thing for me to do, both socially and economically. Socially because it was odd how I was having fun being social but having a hard time controlling my feelings. I would feel really sad when things didn't go the way I envisioned..

So there was no use feeling depressed, Amos knew. It's not like he had an escape plan, and the only alternative was to go crazy and spend all his money. Well that's not true, he could always just work harder, but sometimes it felt like he was making no difference and it would all be for naught. So he just continued doing what he was doing.. Not too difficult, it paid the bills, and held promises of travel at any time.
Besides, the people were nice..

Amos was feeling depressed. The Deja vu, which he had once relished for the unusual feeling of understanding something he wasn't supposed to, was becoming more frequent. He was feeling it at least once or twice a day, usually while taking a risk and doing something his instincts told him was 'not in the time budget'. He didn't know if it was because he was gradually losing more and more friends, or if it was because the people he was hanging out with didn't really have a choice but to hang out with him too (family, co-workers, etc.)

Working at the airport was fun. Working Thursday, Friday and Saturday night felt like he was out on the town. The job wasn't that hard either, it felt like he was a bouncer or security guard so it gave him a reason to be 'at the club'. His co-workers he didn't really like since none were really available to him as a friend, and so any time spent with them was at his own expense. He tried to be nice, of course, and looked forward to seeing them if only because it gave him the position of their representative with respect to other people who would not normally have dealt with them.

The men reminded him of boxers. He had never really wanted to fight, and held no illusions about his physical prowess. But the looming financial crisis and his dislike of work scared him into fearing homelessness, just because he was too proud to plan for asking for help. And, he knew, the main sport of the homeless was boxing.

Wow talk about your "junkfood day"...
I had poptarts for breakfast, coffee, pizza and pop for lunch, nachos for lunch and another pop tart for dessert.. And it looks like chicken fingers for supper!
Yikes, good thing I don't eat like this everyday!
P.S. Note that at least the poptarts are organic (Nature's Path brand)

My alarm went off at 7am like I programmed it to but I went back to sleep until 8:12! At least I got a dream out of it, albeit a bittersweet one.
A vacation with my cousins was winding down as two of us went into a fast food restaurant for lunch. We ordered for everyone and got charbroiled steaks for ourselves. As we were geting ready to eat the manager approached us and wanted to take back two of our meals as she didn't know why they'd served us the steaks since they would not be ready for another 20 minutes. She had big chicken strips to offer. I wanted her to leave everything since I guessed she would be throwing the steaks out and I could that myself after investigation.
I checked and the steaks were actually chicken strips. She said no deal and was taking away her offer when I folded and wanted them instead. She totally pwned me!

Dreamt that I had a gf who in hindsight had similar characteristics as Eve from high school. I was part of the FF, we got a long somewhat. I was her favorite, but she wasn't 'perfect' for me, so I drove her to flirt with other guys. In the meantime I tried to have hobbies, Karate that didn't really take that one time.

Current Indie Playlist

Here goes the name-dropping:
-The secret Machines
-School of seven bells
-Ronski speed (not really indie, but still)
-Plusminus
And..
-Stars

Posted with LifeCast

Mental Turret's

Like I can't stop thinking obscene things. Does anyone know good meditation techniques or ways to quiet the mind?

Posted with LifeCast

Good One

Posted with LifeCast

My suggestions for improving the economy revolve around the topic of sustainability, as a lot of my ideas have for a while. I don't know why I'm so worried about where we'll be that far down the road but it seems to me that if we don't make sure every aspect of our lives is getting better, then things like the economy can really bring you down.
Basically as a means of improving local economy I would tax imports a lot more. Imports such coffee and bananas might be sorely missed, but on the other hand perhaps it would get people thinking about the people on the other end involved in the production.
Also, we might find homegrown alternatives, ultimately becoming more independent and therefore sustainable.