Smile! Cheese! We have just entered a new year less than 48 hours ago! There are many amazing things out there in the world and universe, and I would like to see if anyone would like to talk about them and share the wonder they see and learn about everyday. This would not fit into either the Thought of the Day and Quote of the Day threads, so I decided to make this thread for wonders of the day.

I read somewhere that life seems to go quicker when people get older because they see fewer and fewer new things and learn. Maybe we can change that just a little bit.

Please post anything amazing, cool, neat, wonderful, no matter how simple or complicated it is: pictures, videos, things, or places, cool books you read about and want to share, newspaper articles, whatever.

Something I had not learned about or considered until I came across it surfing the web were the different ways energy can be stored:
-mechanical storage (e.g. flywheel, springs)
-chemical storage (e.g. carbs, fats)
-falling weights (i.e. bringing water or rocks up a hill and then dropping then at a later time)

Also, browsing Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, I saw two pretty amazing things.

The first one I read about was the AgIC Erasable Circuit which allows a person to prototype circuits quickly without having to restart from scratch.


The amazing thing I learned about recently was the Vitastiq which can be used to measure the status of many different vitamins and minerals in the body. I think it's pretty intriguing how that could be done.


I forgot what thread it was on permies that someone mentioned the advantage of having a battery bank on-grid system for home energy production and how it is the best of both worlds (on/off grid worlds). That got me thinking about local power generation, like microgrids. Essentially, the way a microgrid works is that you have a bunch homes connected to the main grid, but that power can travel to other homes locally before reaching the main grid.

Here is a wonder that I learned about today. Bamboo can be used to make toys, buildings, boats, mats, tools, chopsticks, etc. Bamboo shoots are edible, and the bamboo plant is actually related to grasses, not trees. Also, it grows very quickly- up to one meter a day. Bamboo comes in many different species, each with their own benefits.

Dave, maybe you should cross post that bamboo vid in the Bamboo thread.
Also, there's a short version of Geoff Lawton vid on Bamboo here.

Sure thing CJ! Thank you for the link to the Geoff Lawton thread on bamboo!

The Fibonacci Sequence does not occur in nature because of mystical or cosmic forces as some people like to claim. As ViHart explains in her video, it occurs in nature because it is one of the most efficient ways of doing things.

Dave it seems like I am following you around... I guess I sort of am. lol
*Doing this from my less than perfect smart phone so you will have to look this up youtube. "coke bottle light"
I remember driving through a long tunnel in Pennsylvania once, all the lights shining away, "thinking they could use fiber optics and save some electricity.

Anyway I was wondering how the "coke bottle light" idea could be improved on over here? Use specially designed tubes, bigger ones, smaller, maybe color the liquid, use a antifreeze solution so it wouldn't freeze or evaporate.

It reminds me of something else, holes in wood fences with marbles put in the holes.

Your post is a great
addition to this site.

I'm gonna start a new thread for your discussion over here. This is the correct video?

Thank you for bringing up this topic.

Dave, have you seen the work they are doing with high flying drones? Specifically for use in replacing/eliminating cell and data towers? I was listening to a guy talking about how they fly above weather, are rechargeable, etc.
Talked about use for broadband data, cell phone...

For a guy that lives in the boonies and is often in no coverage areas this sounded promising.

No, I have not heard about that Mike. It sounds neat! Please may you explain how it works.

Mike and Dave : The blimp is back ! Any job that a drone can do requiring its use in a semi-stationary role the blimp can do and do better and Much Cheaper.

This is a Very good thing as it happens, the F.A.A. is dithering about rules and regulations, like they couldn't see this day coming.

Blimps can not only fly above major clouds and weather, their upper surface can be transparent allowing sunlight to shine through and then hit the lower inside
wall which will be a curved sheet of mirror like reflector/concentrator onto solar collecting panes center mounted, due to their location they can get more solar
gain than earth based panels and so their tether does not need to be a link in an Earth-based energy source.

And as always your military is once again at the forefront Two collocated Blimps in maryland/delaware (?) will look for incoming attack planes, rockets, drones
from Boston to Atlanta and as far west as Ohio.

May you live in interesting times. For the Good of the Craft ! Big AL

May we all live interesting times, indeed! I look forward to it!

Speaking of blimps and internet connection, Google has been working on Project Loon to provide Internet access to everyone on Earth sometime. Another link for more information besides Wikipedia is Project Loon's Google website.


And here is a lovely picture of the Internet Map:

http://www.indiaincorporated.com/index/item/3911-zuckerberg-may-use-drones-to-deliver-broadband.html This is an article takking about jumbo jet sized drone, actually it mentions the jet, the article is about India and Zuckerburg and internet connectivity.

I went looking for "drones in the future" and saw some stuff about the blimp/balloon use.

Namaqualand is a beautiful region located in Africa that exists in two extremes: great bounty and great scarcity.

These are some more reasons to protect and care for bees:

Dave when you started this thread you were mentioning storing energy for later use. I meant to mention they have figured out how to store solar energy for electric generation with a substance I would have never guessed, salt. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/525121/molten-salts-might-provide-half-price-grid-energy-storage/

Mike, do you think that process could store more energy longer by increasing insulation?

If you're wondering what to do with all that junk mail, look no further than making a paper log:


However, I am not quite sure about the effects of burning ink and whatever other type of gloss is put on junk mail on human health.

I know the current news is pretty interesting, but some things kind of stick in my mind because of how unique they are.

So, about four months ago, there was an article about Choco Pies being used to topple the North Korean regime.

I know, just saying that sounds kind of funny- waging war with Choco Pies. These little things:


How can that be?

The people of North Korea live in extreme poverty and are isolated from the outside world. Because of the inefficiency of their economic model, it is hard for them to produce everything necessary to feed their people, and the South Koreans want to help them. So they have devised a plan to kill the North Korean regime with kindness. (I love stories like this). To convince the North Korean people that capitalism will help their society, the South Koreans are floating balloons over the border filled with Choco Pies to show how much extra is produced in their country and can be given away to the North Korean people. Choco Pies are very rare and are so highly prized by the North Korean people that they are used as a form of currency.

I think it is pretty cool the South Korean people have thought of doing this, and it makes me wonder if change can be incited by implementing similar methods around the world for many different situations. The North Korean regime has not fallen yet, but I have faith in the great Choco Pies. From my understanding, people are more willing to do what you want if you are nice to them. The big charade one nation saying they have nuclear weapons and another saying they will retaliate seems more like the behavior of children saying, "you hit me, I'll pulverize you!" Nothing really comes of it, at least nothing worthwhile, in my opinion. Just a thought to get your minds spinning...

Ok, now to current event: Bill Gates drank water from an OmniProcessor, an innovative human waste processor that utilizes closed-system techniques similar to the methodology used in permaculture design.

This is being cross-posted at the Official Richie Sowa Thread. Someone had mentioned him earlier, and I found his idea quite interesting. This is the preliminary research; the rest is at the official thread about him.

Some of the people of Uros, Peru live on floating islands made by stacking tons of reeds and other plant materials ontop of one another. They form their houses out of the reeds as well. Some build boats out of the reeds and place their home onto that. Currently, their main source of income is now from tourism.



Richie Sowa has been working on building his own floating island for many years. His idea is an adaptation of the native people of Peru's concept. The main difference is that Richie is making his islands living. The mangrove trees used in creating his island spread throughout the soil and pallets and down into the water typing everything together. He adds dead coral that washes onto the shore to his floating island. The dead coral acts as an anchor for new corals to attach onto and grow, thus reinforcing the structure of his island with their presence.

In this TED talk, Carol Dweck talks about the amazing power of yet and how a simple change in thinking can lead to changes in action and improvement in life.

I am quite amazed some people are able to find so much to eat by foraging in the neighborhoods. This is my favorite video by Green Deane from Eat The Weeds:


At the time 2:53 he shows what I think is a Burbank Cactus. That plant intrigues me some because it looks kinda tree-ish.

Here's what a Burbank Cactus looks like:


They produce these yummy looking fruits, too:


A Burbank Cactus has many uses ranging from edible pads which can also be used as a canteen, edible fruits eaten raw or as jam, woody stems for fencing, and much more.

Once again, a little guess work. I think the Burbank Cactus is a variant of the Prickly Pear or closely related:


Fun fact: I did a search and apparently the Prickly Pear is a class 1 and 2 pest in Australia, maybe the plant could become an exotic export to turn the pest into profit!

Here is the LinuxFamily Tree over time (right click and open in new tab to view bigger image):


It kind of blows the mind that there are so many linux distributions out there. A good site to see how the different distributions are trending is at DistroWatch. My personal favorite is Ubuntu, especially the Unity interface that it uses is fun.

Eco Goats, an invasive species combative task force composed of 50 goats and one human, have recently made international news (at least in England) for their ability to clear up to large swathes of land. Here's a video about them:

In honor of MLK Day, here is something to ponder- skin color is an illusion. This TED Talk is presented by the wonderful Nina Jablonski who explains that skin color is proof of evolution. We are all proof of evolution, living breathing proof. The variations in pigment are caused by our species's adaptation to living with varying amounts of UV A and UV B light.

Alright, I've got two.

The first, youtube for a whole pile of reasons which should already be self evident you having reached this point in the tread, but today particularly it facilitated my discovery of bass track isolation. I think the high school me might own Paul McCartney some apologies.

Second, It is absolutely amazing how much peat moss you can get for 22$ (USD) if you can and will swing a shovel.

I read this article about essential oils and antibiotics by The Atlantic and think it is pretty cool. I like the thought that natural medicine may soon get the chance to get in the public spotlight. its attention may also lead people into considering other things need to be changed, like how food is grown...

Back in January of 2015 I mentioned hearing about drones someday replacing
cell phone towers. I had heard some guys talking on NPR radio about it. Today
I was surfing Youtube for some videos for my son, and there was this Facebook
video.