While scientists have observed the worldwide decline of insects over the last decades, a new study shows that the big picture is more complicated than they thought. The study, published in Science, drew on data from 166 surveys from 1,676 sites.[...]

In an industry notorious for food waste, award-winning chef Douglas McMaster has achieved the seemingly unattainable — Silo, the world’s first zero-waste restaurant. For Silo’s second outpost in London, local interior design studio Nina+Co teamed up with McMaster to craft an interior that reinforces the restaurant’s sustainable ethos with locally sourced natural materials and innovative design aimed at minimizing environmental impact.[...]

The Xuan Hoa commune in the Lao Cai province of northwest Vietnam is, like much of the surrounding area, a region that has suffered from economic hardships in the past. A large number of households in Xuan Hoa live in extreme poverty, including many of the school district’s 78 students aged 6 to 11 years old. The new Dao school by 1+1>2 Architects was completed in 2019 to provide provide education to the area’s children in first through fifth grades.[...]

From climbing walls to a roaming music studio, we've seen a lot of ingenious tiny house features over the years. But this tiny home on wheels from Movable Roots has a distinct feature we never thought was possible — a walk-in hot tub! The Culp is a 500-square-foot home that, in addition to its accessible, spa-like bathroom, boasts unique cork flooring and an incinerating toilet.[...]

UNStudio has completed renovations of the Hanwha headquarters in Seoul — all without disrupting the building’s normal business operations. The impressive feat was achieved thanks to efficient and low-impact construction methods that the international design firm dubs “remodeling in place.” In addition to renovated interior spaces and a redesigned landscape, the Hanwha headquarters is now home to a completely new, energy-generating facade with integrated solar panels to express the company’s identity as an ambitious global leader in the solar panel industry. [...]

Belgian firm Atelier Vens Vanbelle has created a stunning guest home for a client who works in the film industry. Located in the Uitbergen region of East Flanders, the Alex Guesthouse boasts an eye-catching design comprised of a unique curved volume made out of prefabricated timber and clad in corten steel.[...]

Rotterdam-based studio Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven has built a charming new firehouse for Wilrijk, Belgium. The firehouse is clad in bright red bricks that stand out thanks to white grout and vertical columns made of larger bricks. The building is also incredibly sustainable, generating its own clean energy through a massive rooftop solar array.[...]

Chapel Hill-based firm Arielle Condoret Schechter is known for its commitment to building sustainable homes that don't sacrifice elegance or comfort. The company's latest work includes the spacious Haw River House, which was built with several efficient features to create a net-zero energy home that is seamlessly linked with its natural surroundings.[...]

Tiny homes are still all the rage within the minimalist and wanderlust communities of the world, and what better place to consider tiny living than in the warmth of the big island, Hawaii? If equatorial location is on your must-have list, this tiny home might be just the serving of simplicity and decadence you’re looking for. [...]

While your home energy bill may have increased while you shelter in place, the planet’s overall energy use has taken a significant downturn. According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) first quarter report, global carbon emissions could be down by 8% this year, the biggest drop the agency has ever seen.[...]

Nestled on a gently sloping segment of land on the quiet, western end of St. Helena, California, Spottswoode Estate contains a remarkable piece of environmental history. The property became one of the first vineyards in the Napa Valley to farm 100% organically in 1985, eventually evolving into a leader in sustainable farming for the famous wine-growing region.[...]

Tucked into the foothills of California's beloved Laurel Canyon, the Laurel Hills Residence by Assembledge+ is an exquisite example of modern, sustainable home design. Comprised of three cedar-clad volumes with massive glass panels, the house features interconnecting pavilions that are topped with a broad overhangs to shield the interior spaces from extensive sun exposure.[...]

On a windswept hill a three-hour drive from São Paulo, Brazilian architecture firm Arquipélago Arquitetos has completed the House in Cunha, a low-lying, contemporary home that is primarily built of locally sourced rammed earth. To protect the building from the cold, prevailing winds, the architects partly buried the structure into the earth and repurposed the excavated soil as construction material for the building walls. The thick, earthen walls and the building’s sunken position also provide the benefit of thermal mass to help maintain comfortable and stable interior temperatures year-round.[...]

Climate change is affecting everybody, even narwhals. These mysterious “unicorns of the sea” may decline by 25% by the end of this century, according to a new study.[...]

There’s never been a better time to grow your own herbs and veggies at home, but limited space is a common issue, especially in urban areas. In steps Rotofarm, the newest product from Australian-based company Bace, offering a compact indoor garden suitable for the kitchen counter complete with technology inspired by NASA.[...]

Researchers in a new U.K.-led study found a staggering volume of microplastics on the seafloor. At up to 1.9 million pieces on a single square meter, it’s the highest level on record.[...]

Coffee is a popular start to the day for millions of people. There’s nothing quite like the scent of coffee wafting through the air and that first sip to get you started on the right foot. But an estimated 3 billion paper cups end up in the landfills each year — cups that mostly can’t be recycled due to the mixed materials, including plastic. The solution, of course, is reusable coffee cups; however, many people have struggled to incorporate that addition into the host of other items that travel with them daily. So Remaker Labs, a Santa Barbara-based company, has[...]

With the majority of the country continuing to observe social distancing and shelter-in-place laws, families are beginning to face a new normal of interacting for the holidays. Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, and while most of us won’t be able to see our moms in person this year, there are still ways to celebrate! A silver-lining? Choosing to celebrate from home, social distance-style, can be a win for the environment, too.[...]

As part of Barcelona’s efforts to reclaim its car-congested streets for pedestrians, the city has tapped architects to create "superblocks” — groups of streets transformed into car-free public plazas. One such project was completed in 2019 by Leku Studio in the trendy neighborhood of Sant Antoni. Redesigned with attractive way-finding elements and street furniture, the Superblock of Sant Antoni is the second of six superblocks completed to date.[...]

If you’ve been itching to get back to the outside world, two words might make you think again: murder hornets. For the first time, these gigantic, invasive hornets have been spotted in the U.S., which could be a problem for both humans and honeybees.[...]

In an effort to find a balance between protecting the significant investment in our cellular devices and protecting the planet, LifeProof has developed a phone case that sources materials diverted from the ocean and simultaneously supports organizations directly involved in providing safe water, protecting ocean life and maintaining river habitat. [...]

Designed by San Francisco- and Oslo-based firm Mork-Ulnes Architects, the Skigard Hytte Cabin in Norway features various openings on each side that allow the architects, who designed the cabin for themselves, to immerse themselves in the incredible, mountainous surroundings. The 1,500-square-foot cabin is resilient to the extreme weather and is elevated off the landscape to reduce its impact. To top it all off, the cabin is crowned with a lush green roof.[...]

Pacific Northwest architecture firm Mahlum has made history with the certification of its new architecture studio as Portland's first Living Building Challenge (LBC) project. As an LBC-certified workspace, Mahlum's new studio meets rigorous sustainability targets including net-zero embodied carbon emissions and the diversion of almost all construction waste from the landfill. The project is the 48th LBC-certified project in the United States and 57th in the world. [...]

As of May 5, more than 3.5 million people in 215 countries around the world have been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization. While the world continues to socially distance, designers and creatives are beginning to imagine different ways to protect people from the virus; case in point, this futuristic bubble shield by DesignLibero.[...]

With limited traffic on the roads, cruising down abandoned streets on a slick new skateboard can be a dream come true for many skateboarders. Thanks to Rustek's new collection of wooden skateboards, handcrafted out of sustainably sourced wood, we can all dream of popping sweet 180-degree ollies while soaring down the street.[...]

After receiving nearly 500 submissions from around the world, eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of the 2020 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual award recognizes visionary vertical architecture ideas that push the limits of design and technology. First place was awarded to a Chinese team that designed Epidemic Babel, a rapid-deployment healthcare skyscraper concept for mitigating epidemic outbreaks.[...]

Rise and Fall of the Rupert Empire

High Anxiety - part two

They That Sow The Wind…

…Reap the Whirlwind part Two

It’s a Small World

Vivol and Luga

Shots Fired

Bedtime Stories

…Reap the Whirlwind part Four

He Who Saw The Abyss

Bedtime Stories part Two

Downer

The Hood Internet brought us gloriously nostalgic mashups of the songs of 1979 and 1980. But they kept at it with wonderfully-edited songs from other years, too. Now they've expanded their repertoire and announced that another year will be added every Thursday. You can keep up with them in this playlist. Meanwhile, enjoy their latest mashup, the music of 1985 presented in three minutes. -via Metafilter

This is Muffin. Today she received a belly rub from a butterfly. 13/10 absolutely magical pic.twitter.com/er9tu4Srzk

— WeRateDogs® (@dog_rates) April 28, 2020

When 9-month-old Muffin was at the park the other week with her hooman Ashley Schoon, Muffin was not her usual self. What usually was a calm bulldog was really hyper on this day. Suddenly, a butterfly decided to land itself on Muffin’s face, and Muffin became really confused and did not know what to do.

Muffin immediately calmed down and let the butterfly perch on her stomach. “I was scared she was going to try to eat it,” Schoon said. “But she decided to lay all the way flat on her back and just let the butterfly stay on her tummy.”

The little pup wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but she knew she had to be gentle with her delicate friend. Muffin sprawled in the grass, paws out, and completely vulnerable as she let the butterfly wander up her stomach and onto her chest.

Wholesome.

(Image Credit: @dog_rates/ Twitter)

With all of her plans cancelled because of the crisis that’s hit our planet recently, Jacoba Niepoort decided to use her own home to create murals.

“I wanted to use the spaces we were in to create parallel individual works.”

Together with Miami-based artist Alex Void and the Void Projects’ creative team, Niepoort curated Home MuralFest, which inspired many artists around the world to paint on the walls of their living rooms, studios, and garden sheds.

Check out the various murals over at Colossal.

(Image Credit: David de la Mano/ Void Projects/ Colossal)

(Image Credit: Helen Bur and Erin Holly/ Void Projects/ Colossal)

Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other institutes have found the black hole that is currently the closest to Earth. The aforementioned black hole lies just 1000-light years from our planet, and is closer to our Solar System compared to others found to date. What’s more, it is part of a triple system that can be seen with the naked eye.

They say this system could just be the tip of the iceberg, as many more similar black holes could be found in the future.

"We were totally surprised when we realised that this is the first stellar system with a black hole that can be seen with the unaided eye," says Petr Hadrava, Emeritus Scientist at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague and co-author of the research.

More details about this finding over at ScienceDaily.

(Image Credit: JohnsonMartin/ Pixabay)

What would it look like to approach Earth during a flyby mission? When it swung back past Earth last month as it journeyed to Mercury, ESA and JAXA’s robotic spacecraft BepiColombo captured its flyby of our planet in this nearly-10-hour-time-lapse video.

The Earth is so bright that no background stars are visible. Launched in 2018, the robotic BepiColombo used the gravity of Earth to adjust its course, the first of nine planetary flybys over the next seven years -- but the only one involving Earth.

Unfortunately, the video is only in black and white, and I wonder what it would look like if it was colored. Still, it is magnificent to look at.

(Video Credit: APOD Videos/ YouTube)

There’s nothing stopping Jimmy Donaldson aka Mr. Beast from giving away money, this time doing it via video calls. Watch as he and his friends pretend to be a news reporter, school professor, and many others as they interview people, and then surprise them by giving them thousands of dollars. Some recognize him and his team, however.

“A lot of people are going through a ruff time right now so I tried my best to do some good,” he said in the video description. He also posted this on his birthday, and said that liking or subscribing would be “a dope present.”

Very wholesome.

(Video Credit: MrBeast/ YouTube)

As there have been countless cases of Zoombombing in the recent weeks, the security in the video conferencing platform Zoom has been doubted by its users. In response to this, Zoom finally announced on Thursday that they will be implementing and offering end-to-end encryption.

With the acquisition of Keybase, a New York-based startup specializing in encrypted messaging and cloud services, Zoom will finally be able to make good on its claims of offering end-to-end encryption.

“We are excited to integrate Keybase’s team into the Zoom family to help us build end-to-end encryption that can reach current Zoom scalability,” CEO Eric Yuan said in a Zoom blog post on Thursday.

Unfortunately, not all Zoom users will benefit from the company’s new move, as the end-to-end encryption feature will only be available to users who have paid plans (which start at $14.99/month, by the way) on the video conferencing platform.

If a meeting’s host has enabled this feature, participants will be barred from joining by phone and cloud-based recording will be disabled. In Thursday’s blog post, Yuan emphasized that the feature will not store the encryption key on Zoom’s servers, so the company will not be able to see any part of the call.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Zoom/ Wikimedia Commons)

TAKE THAT!
Spruce up your next teleconference meeting with Ace Attorney backgrounds!
Perfect for adding a touch of legal proceedings to anything your agency does, or for having arguments about what those metal things with steps on them are called. pic.twitter.com/98N89kzymo

— Ace Attorney (@aceattorneygame) April 29, 2020

As even lawyers now work from home, and trials are now held via Zoom, I guess it would only be appropriate if they had a background that’s related to their job. And what background would that be other than the courtroom? But even if you’re not a lawyer, you can still use these Zoom backgrounds released last week by Capcom’s Ace Attorney, via Twitter. You can use the 2D background from the original trilogy, or opt for the 3D one from the more recent games.

Take that! And no objections, please.

(Image Credit: Ace Attorney/ Twitter)

When Sam Goree and his colleagues came across articles and blog posts that claim or ask that websites today look very similar to each other, they were intrigued. Unfortunately, since these articles didn’t have an empirical study to back them up, they ran a test to determine whether this claim had any truth to it, and if so, the reason behind it.

We ran a series of data mining studies that scrutinized nearly 200,000 images across 10,000 websites.

And what did they find out? Websites, indeed, were becoming very similar.

More details about this study over at Fast Company.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: 200degrees/ Pixabay)

In his book Secrets of Polar Travel, explorer Robert Peary speaks about a ration that he brought on his expeditions to the Arctic between 1886 and 1909. Among his supplies in his trips, he considers this ration as the “first in importance”. What’s more, he comments that this is one meal that “a man can eat twice a day for three hundred and sixty-five days in a year and have the last mouthful taste as good as the first.” What is this that Peary says is food that you won’t get tired of eating everyday?

Peary was talking about pemmican, a blend of rendered fat and powdered, dried meat that fueled exploration and expansion long before his attempts to reach the North Pole. Archaeological evidence suggests that as early as 2800 BC humans hunted the bison that roamed North America’s Great Plains and blended their meat, fat, and marrow into energy-dense patties with a serious shelf-life. A single pound of pemmican lasted for years and might’ve packed as many as 3,500 calories.

More details about pemmican and how to make it over at Atlas Obscura.

Yum!

(Image Credit: Sam O’Brien for Gastro Obscura)

Which classic novel would you like to read? Penguin Books makes many classics cheaply available with its iconic covers. You can make your own cover with Nicholas Love's easy web tool.

You can see many funny results in this Twitter thread. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an urgent need to find photos of my co-workers.

-via Aelfred the Great

Movie star Robert Mitchum is best known for his many roles that combined allure and menace, in movies such as Cape Fear and The Night of the Hunter. Oh yeah, and for his rowdiness that included being fired from at least one movie and that memorable arrest for marijuana possession. But his life before Hollywood would make a good movie in itself. When Mitchum was only 14 years old, he was sent to live with his sister, but he didn't stay there long.

Mitchum (1917-97) left his sister’s home in New York. He hopped a freight to who knows where. Life was an adventure to be gained and this was how it would start. He rode flatbeds, freight cars, refrigerated trains, teeth-chattering, knees-kocking, met old timers who knew no other life and gave him advice on what to do, and who to avoid, how to steal food and clothes, hunt squirrel, panhandle, and keep clear of the law.

This was an education. This was the hobo life Mitchum had read about and long-wanted to follow. He felt at home among these outsiders, though some of them thought him no more than a tourist, a “scenery-bum”, just along for the ride. Near train stops and train yards, he’d find hobo hideouts and sit by fire light listening to stories told by world-worn travellers.

It didn't take much time before the young teen was arrested for vagrancy in Savannah, Georgia. He was put on a chain gang doing hard labor, and soon knew that his life was in danger if he didn't escape. Read the exciting story of Robert Mitchum's jailbreak at Flashbak. -via Strange Company