via

]]> http://www.arcticoak.net/posts/ok-i-like-that/feed/ http://www.arcticoak.net/posts/turns-out-hope-really-does-die-last/ http://www.arcticoak.net/posts/turns-out-hope-really-does-die-last/#comments Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:26:59 +0000 megan http://www.arcticoak.net/posts/turns-out-hope-really-does-die-last/

Still smiling, one month later.

The children of DC are safer without Cheney’s dark shadow circling the sky. Although, baby calves thoughout rural Montana should be nervous come January, cause Cheney’s supply of fresh baby hearts is going bankrupt …this is the only recession that will effect him.

Anyway, I don’t care how broke we are as long as those “conspirators, card sharks, double-crossers, and secret betrayers of their own people” leave Washington.

Amen.

PS. I don’t remember how I found this painting from Africa, but it is super bad.

The bottle-collection-turned-building started in 1984, when the monks used them to decorate their shelters. The shiny building material attracted more people to donate more bottles, until eventually they had enough to build the temple standing today. Bottle caps are also integrated as decorative mosaic murals. Going beyond use of glass as a sustainable building material, the bottle bricks don’t fade, let natural light into the space and are surprisingly easy to maintain. So if you’re looking to find Nirvana in a bottle, you might want to consider making a stop at the Wat Pa Maha Kaew Temple.

Nothing like running into a monk to make you realize you are being a whiny bitch.

via

more of doughtery’s work.

By power washing their graffiti designs onto pollution-caked city walls, the Reverse Graffiti Project forces city officials embittered by street art to remove the city’s soot and dirt in order to remove the art.

So, either the city is clean or it’s artful? Sounds pretty win-win to me.

In fact, I like the idea so much I just deleted my commentary about the Reverse Graffiti Project recent advertising work for Clorox’s new “green bleach,” GreenWorks.

See More.

via

For the few things I still use batteries for, this would save me time, money and waste. Chargeable in any USB port, flip the USBCELL lid down and use as a standard AA battery over and over.

by

via

We’ve featured Vincent Callebaut’s visionary green designs before and we are happy to highlight his current muse Lilypads.

Callebaut claims inspiration for his half aquatic, half terrestrial cities from the giant lilypads of the Amazonia Victoria Region and predictions of rising sea levels due to global warming, though perhaps some real life inspiration could equally have come from the floating markets of Kashmir or the gliding villages on the Tonle Sap, Cambodia.

In any case, I’m a little in love with the idea of seasons determined by the pull of oceanic currents.

Inside Beijing’s 2008 Olympic swimming complex.

Appropriately, some of the building’s most innovative features are its systems for handling water. Unlike most swimming pools, which send filter backwash water to the municipal wastewater systems, the Water Cube collects such gray water for treatment and returns it to the pool. The system substitutes rainwater collected from the roof for the small amount of gray water lost in the treatment process. The strategy lessens the burden of the building on Beijing’s wastewater infrastructure and makes it less dependent on the city’s already constrained fresh-water supply. “The idea was to make it as self-sufficient as possible,” says Carfrae.

Read more about this fascinating building’s passive heat systems, bubble physics and rad ventilation systems.

Toyko really lags behind major metropolises in the amount of public space allocated as “green space,” clocking in at a shockingly low 4% (NYC = 12%) . Citizens of Toyko are expressing their desire for more green by creating flowerpot gardens large and small and, in the process, redefining public space as something collectively owned and maintained. Tremendous move, Toykoites.

Check out PingMag for more neat photos.