Vivood Shelter

Spanish architectural collective Vivood have developed an inexpensive (Approx. $10,000) shelter that can be erected in one day and is perfect for a glamping retreat, guesthouse, or basic tiny house. The shelter is constructed from sustainably-sourced wood, and features a living space, with room for a bed, couch, and books.

Travel Photo of the Week

Vancouver, Canada

Miniature Cement Skeletons On The Streets Of Mexico

"Artist Isaac Cordal is well-known for his creation and placement of miniature cement figures in public places around the world as part of an ongoing series called Cement Eclipses. While the meaning behind each tiny sculpture is intentionally ambiguous, it’s impossible to look at each piece without imagining a story. The pieces often appear in scenes of mourning or despair, as part of what Cordal says is commentary on humankind’s disregard for nature and as foreshadowing of potential consequences."

Found on Colossal.

Engineering Bacteria To Treat Chronic Disease

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have modified a bacteria to produce a therapeutic compound in the
guts of test mice. Studies have shown that beneficial bacteria naturally found in the gut plays a role in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, so the researchers set out to see if it was possible to manipulate gut microbiota to improve health.

When water containing the modified bacteria was added to the drinking water of mice fed a high-fat diet for eight weeks, the researchers found they ate less and had dramatically lower body fat, insulin resistance and fatty liver compared to mice that received control bacteria.

This has promise in treating diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions.

Hoverbike

Yep, you read that correctly. Malloy Aeronautics has been working on crossing a helicopter with a motorbike and has launched a Kickstarter campaign to support its Hoverbike project.

"Our goal is to produce an extremely reliable helicopter, designed with rugged simplicity at its heart and true pilot safety built into the design and operation of the aircraft," said the company.

It flies like a quadracopter and can be flown manned or unmanned. If you back the Kickstarter campaign, you get a one-third scale working model for $1200.

You know you want one.

Fun Time! Making Chairs From Plastic Found In The Ocean!

Anti-Tracking Phone Pouches

With the worries of the NSA tracking your every move today (not me, if they're watching, they've been bored to sleep by now), folks are becoming more aware of the steps they can take to limit government snooping into their oh-so-interesting lives.

One way that the feds can supposedly track you is your phone, which even if off, is said to give off locating signals to make it possible to pinpoint your whereabouts.

Not anymore! You can now purchase a pouch for your tattling telephone. Offpocket has this quite ugly oversized model (above right) for only $80, while Eyetek offers one for only $17.

Personally, I'm going to cast my fate to the wind. I don't care if I'm being tracked. I'm certainly less trouble than I'm worth.

Twenty Eight Feet - Life on a Little Wooden Boat

The life of David Welsford. A short film by Kevin Fraser. Found on Lloyd's Blog.

Travel Photo of the Week

Côte d'Azur, France

Is There A Way To Test For The Existence Of Multiverses?

In a provocative press release from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Ontario, Canada, physicists there are proposing a method of testing the notion that we may live in a multiverse; multiple universes existing in parallel, but separated forever in their own bubbles.

To do that, they intend to model the entire universe.

“We start with a multiverse that has two bubbles in it, we collide the bubbles on a computer to figure out what happens, and then we stick a virtual observer in various places and ask what that observer would see from there,” says Matthew Johnson, a physicist at the institute. “All I need is gravity and the stuff that makes these bubbles up. We’re now at the point where if you have a favorite model of the multiverse, I can stick it on a computer and tell you what you should see.”

The press release indicates that they are not trying to prove that multiple universes actually exist. They are just looking for the possibility of finding the observational clues that would point the way to an answer.

In the meantime. I'll just keep my traveling clothes packed.