Category: Art

Mmmmmm……house

Last time I talked about Mushroom houses was when I watched cartoons. Ok, ok I still watch cartoons. Point is I never thought about using mushrooms to make my home. On the other hand, Eben Bayer a soon to be graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is trying to do it. Using mushroom spores Eben has developed a process to add insulation value and possibly even strong “growable” homes. According to CCNews,Mushroom Paper

“A dual major in mechanical engineering and product design and innovation, Bayer has developed an environmentally friendly organic insulation. The patented combination of water, flour, minerals, and mushroom spores could replace conventional foam insulations, which are expensive to produce and harmful to the environment.

“The insulation is created by pouring a mixture of insulating particles, hydrogen peroxide, starch, and water into a panel mold,” Bayer says. “Mushroom cells are then injected into the mold, where they digest the starch producing a tightly meshed network of insulating particles and mycelium. The end result is an organic composite board that has a competitive R-Value – a measurement of resistance to heat flow – and can serve as a firewall.”

Try Living Without Oil Before You Have To

Peak oil is coming, probably soon than you think. We sort of all know this, but we never really talk about it. What are we going to do when it actually happens? Will we be caught totally unawares?

A new alternate reality game (read: online story-driven community-based game) aims to make people think about this unthinkable topic. World Without Oil is being funded by a number of media companies and being produced by a team of experienced game makers. Their goal? To simulate a global oil shock, applying “collective intelligence” to the problem in advance, and create a record that can help people anticipate the future. The means to accomplish all this is player-contributed blogs, videos, etc.

Tell us your story. Fuel prices are sky high and the ripple effects are pulling at the seams of our society. Everyone’s life has taken a hit – but how much of a hit are you taking? How much pain are you in? No one will know if you don’t add your voice to the collective shout. And who knows? If enough people speak up, maybe the force of collective truth will help prevent this crisis from ever happening again.

For more information, start at the official homepage.

Reuse Your Obsolete Technology

Old disks, keys from keyboards, and hard drives can all be used to make useful and fashionable things you can use! EcoGeek has the lowdown on a man who has created a business converting old geek trash into crafts that he sells locally. Ingenious!

There is no longer any use for a 3.5 inch floppy disk let alone a 5.25′. many a coastered CD never finds another home. And keyboard keys, well, they may be beautiful, but there’s nothing you can do with them after you (I) spilled that beer.