If you can’t afford to buy your own tropical island paradise, why not build your own? That is exactly what Richie Sowa did back in 1998, from over a quarter-million plastic bottles. His Spiral Island, destroyed years later by a hurricane, sported a two-story house, solar oven, self-composting toilet and multiple beaches. Better yet, he has started building another one! His ultimate goal? To build the island bigger and bigger and finally float out to sea, traveling the world from the comfort of his own private paradise.The original Spiral Island was (as its successor will be) built upon a floating collection used plastic bottles, all netted together to support a bamboo and plywood structure above. Located in Mexico, the original was 66 by 54 feet and was able to support full-sized mangroves to provide shade and privacy, yet also able to be moved from place to place by its creator as need with a simple motorized system.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Leaning tower of Pisa loses title
Ananova:
Leaning tower of Pisa loses title
A German church steeple has knocked the leaning tower of Pisa from the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most lopsided building.
A church tower in Suurhusen, Germany, has overtaken the leaning tower of Pisa as the world's most lopsided building /Europics
The tower in the village of Suurhusen applied in June for the title and has now officially beaten the famous landmark in Pisa.
Guinness Book of Records confirmed the award after officials measured it leaning at a 5.19 degree angle compared to only 3.97 degree angle at which the tower of Pisa leans.
Olaf Kuchenbecker of the Guinness World Records office in Hamburg said: "It is a world record."
The church was built in middle of the 13th century but a 90ft tower was added in 1450.
The tower was built on wooden foundations and the combination of the oak wood foundations and wet soil has caused the tower to slowly lean to one side over the years.
Several attempts to stop the tower from leaning any further have been made since 1982, and it was eventually stabilised in 1996.
The church is still in use and also offers guided tours but church officials are appealing for donations to help maintain the building.
Astronomers discover new planet
Astronomers in the US say they have found a new planet in orbit around a star 41 light years from Earth.
The discovery brings to five the number of planets orbiting the star, 55 Cancri, the most found to date in a single solar system outside our own.
Astronomers have found more than 250 planets outside our own solar system - the team behind the latest discovery have found more than anyone else.
The new planet is a gas planet about 45 times the mass of the Earth.
Their latest find is a fifth planet to add to the four they had already discovered around 55 Cancri, a double or binary star in the constellation of Cancer.
Gas giant
If the new planet, which has mild surface temperatures, has a rocky moon or moons around it, say the astronomers, then theoretically they could support liquid water.
But it is the bigger picture that is really intriguing these planet hunters.
They say this quintuple planet system has many similarities to our own.
The planets orbit a star which is similar in age and mass to our own Sun and the system also boasts its own gas giant - a planet four times the mass of our own Jupiter in a similar orbit to Jupiter.
What they have not yet found is a rocky planet like the Earth or Venus, but according to Professor Geoff Marcy, of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the work, that may only be a question of time and technology.
"There is an intriguing, mysterious gap between the fourth planet out around 55 Cancri and the Jupiter-like planet that's far away," he says.
"In that gap, we don't know what there is. Our current technology would be able to detect big planets like Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter. We don't see any of them.
"So if there are any planets there, they must be smaller, the size of the Earth.
"In fact, it's a little hard to imagine that there's just nothing there in this big gap. So the suggestion is there might be small rocky planets, like Venus, Mars or Earth."
Of course, none of these planets can actually be seen - the astronomers use tiny wobbles in the movement of the star to detect the presence of planets tugging on the star as they encircle it.
But you can see the star itself - 55 Cancri - easily, with only a pair of binoculars, at the right time of year and with a clear night sky.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Scientists Find Oldest Living Animal, Then Kill It
British marine biologists have found what may be the oldest living animal — that is, until they killed it.
The team from Bangor University in Wales was dredging the waters north of Iceland as part of routine research when the unfortunate specimen, belonging to the clam species Arctica islandica, commonly known as the ocean quahog, was hauled up from waters 250 feet deep.
Only after researchers cut through its shell, which made it more of an ex-clam, and counted its growth rings did they realize how old it had been — between 405 and 410 years old.
Another clam of the same species had been verified at 220 years old, and a third may have lived 374 years. But this most recent clam was the oldest yet.
"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker told London's Guardian newspaper. "For our work, it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."
• Click here to read the full article on the Guardian's Web site, a writeup on PhysOrg.com and the Bangor University press release.
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