Project Noah

Check out Project Noah: According to Jill Priluck's article in Slate, it is "a database of spottings, a field guide, and a repository for ecology surveys." You could spend all day viewing the massive collections.

Project NOAH has found the sweet spot between professional scientists and casual naturalists. It began as an app for people to share their nature sightings but has evolved into a scientific and culturally relevant tool for both the masses and the experts. Project NOAH functions as a kind of Foursquare for flora and fauna, a way for amateur nature spotters to record the bugs, leaves, and birds they've found. Those data, in turn, have become a valuable tool for professional researchers.
The good news? "The platform is about to go global with a cross-media blitz, in hopes of turning wildlife spotting into a cultural sport."

Continue ReadingProject Noah

We’re all gonna die

Here's an exquisitely compelling photo project that is also cleverly thought-provoking. It's a project created by Simon Hogsberg and it is called "We're all Gonna Die - 100 meters of existence." Hogsberg took the photos making up this long collage on a Berlin bridge over a 20-day period in 2007. I found myself moving the cursor slightly off-center so that I could sit back and slowly pan from left to right, a bittersweet journey of several minutes.

Continue ReadingWe’re all gonna die

A glimpse at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China

More than 190 countries are displaying their culture and architecture at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. The Expo will run until October 31, 2010. My brother-in-law, Dan Jay (who is an architect in St. Louis at Christner, Inc.) kindly allowed me to publish some of his many photos of the pavilions of participating nations; he returned from the Expo only a few days ago. Click on the photos for expanded views. What you will see immediately below is the U.K. Pavilion, The 20-meter-high cube-like Seed Cathedral is covered by 60,000 slim, transparent acrylic 7-meter long rods, which quiver in the breeze, each of these rods containing a certain type of seed. This exhibit is designed to be a call from the UK to protect our natural species.

Continue ReadingA glimpse at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China