Fun

Fake Plastic Trees

- Adam Clare

I wonder if these fake plastic trees will look like the real thing. Researchers are advocating the use of fake trees that absorbs CO2 and turns the gas into something useful. I wonder if these fakes can be what we need all the time near highways and airports.

The “tree” uses plastic leaves that capture the carbon dioxide in a chamber. The carbon dioxide is then compressed into liquid form. The tree captures the carbon without the need for direct sunlight, which means that, unlike traditional trees, the synthetic trees can be stored in enclosed places such as barns, used anywhere, and transported from one site to another regardless of conditions.
Lackner says the captured CO2 could be used to create fuel for jet engines and cars, the two most common carbon emitters. In other cases, the CO2 could be used to enhance current production of vegetable produce.

I wonder if you’ll need a fake plastic watering can for these trees. I know that doing that would wear me out; if only I could be who the trees wanted.

The only reason I posted this is because when I read the article I couldn’t get this song out of my mind:

Bake Cookies in the Heat of Your Car

- Adam Clare

If you have an automobile that sits around in a parking lot for a long time then you should start baking! Here’s a simple way to bake cookies in your car. Turn that empty car interior into something useful and delicious 🙂

It is scorching hot here and to put that heat to good use (i.e. to give me a reason to go outside and leave the air conditioning), I decided to bake up another batch of cookies, using my car as a oven. Baking cookies in a car is very easy and has the added benefit that you don’t heat up your house at all, but still get to eat freshly-baked cookies. I’ve posted some tips on how to bake cookies in the car before, but the most important things you need to know are:

It should be about 100F outside and the car must be in direct sunlight
Put a potholder or something under the baking sheet so you don’t damage your dash
Cut cookies into an even thickness so they cook at the same time
And, ideally, use an oven thermometer to make sure that your car gets up to about 180F (which it will as long as the windows are up and it’s 100F or more outside)
I like to use slice-and-bake cookies to ensure I get an even thickness, and this batch was Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, instead of the regular chocolate chip I’ve used in the past. The cookies baked up very well in the 180F+ car “oven” and even retained a hint of chewiness. If you don’t use a car, these can be baked in an oven, too. Mini chocolate chips make slicing the log of dough easier, but I actually used a mixture of regular-sized white and semisweet chocolate chips for these. They took a while to bake through, but since my car smelled like cinnamon when they were done, it was well worth it.

New Theme for Spring

- Adam Clare

Every so often I decide to play around with the look and the feel of the site. Today is one of those days, so the site will look different today as I have fun redesigning it.

I’m a Daydream Believer

- Adam Clare

Those silly monkees might have been right after all, it is good to believe in daydreamers as they might solve problems faster.

“People assume that when the mind wanders away it just gets turned off – but we show the opposite, that when it wanders, it turns on,” said Christoff, co-author of the study, and head of a neuroscience laboratory at the University of British Columbia in Western Canada.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest daydreaming might be a better way to solve problems than intense focusing.

“People who let themselves daydream might not think in the same focused way as when performing a goal-oriented task, but they bring in more mental and brain resources,” said Christoff.

She argued that now people might change their attitudes towards daydreamers.

Great Green Videos on Design

- Adam Clare

A website called Building has found five great green videos that centre around design for a better future.

Canvas Bags – Tim Minchin

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