earthquake damage in chile

More photos at Platforma Architectura here and here.

shambala mountain center: red feather, colorado

Shambala Mountain Center located just an hour or so north of Boulder is a Buddhist retreat that offers classes in meditation, yoga and group retreats. The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya at the Shambala Center is the largest and most elaborate example of Buddhist sacred architecture in North America. After 14 years of construction, the Stupa was formally opened to the public in August of 2001. Visit the center while in the Front Range of Colorado and partake in some of their programs.

elder co-housing: spreading retirement concept

As baby boomers turn 60, many are beginning to plan how they will spend their golden years. Many will shun institutional facilities for a concept spreading across America "elder co-housing' experience. These co-housing villages and communities are created by residents for mutual support and environmentally conscious living. Although Cohousing Communities for Elders are somewhat rare and just now catching on in the US, they have been a staple in many European countries for decades. (Netherlands, Denmark)

The Glacier Circle Senior Community in Davis California began in 2002, With the help of co-housing designer Virginia Thigpen, eight households evolved. In Abingdon Virginia ElderSpirit Commmunity is a larger project that includes privately owned homes as well as affordable rental units. Others Elder Co-Housing communites are springing up across the country from Alaska to Florida.

You can obtain more information for yourself or a family member at:
Plan B Retirement
Aging in Community
Culture Change Now
CoHousing Association of US.
Aging Today

urban transformation through landscape

Giardiningiro is an international event taking place in Torino (Italy), from 9 to 11 October 2009.

Giardiningiro is a project that aims to create twenty temporary garden installations in the city of Turin, Italy, in the district called San Salvario, nearby the river Po. The project also includes a cultural program of book presentations, workshops and activities to promote the creation of gardens in the disused areas of the town.

Giardini is part of a wider energy campaign called Uniamo le energie, sustained by Regione Piemonte (Piedmont Regional Government).

Each garden should carry a message and provide the visitor with a stimulating new experience through the layout of the installation and the interaction of artistry and creativity so that places that are normally ignored are reinterpreted and their special features and inherent vitality revealed.

An international jury will select the 20 best applications from all those submitted. Over the following months the different projects will be developed alongside the organising team.

16 inventions

16 Inventions That Boost Habitats, Humanity, Health and Happiness.

aimee mullins: super abled wearable sculpture

Aimee Mullins' TED Talk should not be missed! Her collaboration with different designers leads to unimaginable possibilities. She is truly SUPER-ABLE!!!

save dolphins from being slaughtered in japan

If you have not yet seen The Cove Movie, I urge you to watch it! I usually do not post a request in its entirety on my blog, however this particular issue is so urgent that I encourage everyone with a blog to copy this post and paste it on their blog too. Please help save dolphins from needless suffering and brutality.

Petition Announcement from End the Brutal Killing of More Than 20,000 Dolphins Every Year in Japan:

This past week Ric O’Barry and a team of activists from Save Japan Dolphins and Earth Island Institute have been in Taiji, Japan, the site of the largest killing of dolphins in the world. Their brave vigil has brought media coverage from around the world, and shone a light on the dangers to dolphins and people of letting this slaughter continue. Reaction has been so strong within Japan that the cove has remained tranquil. No dolphins were killed this past week.

But new reports indicate that Taiji dolphin hunters have captured 50-100 dolphins today, possibly for export to aquariums.

This campaign is far from over, and the killing could resume any day. We need you help to keep up the momentum.

You’re among more than 150,000 people from around the world who have signed the Save Japan Dolphins Facebook Cause Petition. If everyone of you could get 7 more people to sign this petition, we could have 1 MILLION signatures to show President Obama, Vice President Biden, and the US Ambassador to Japan. Please help today by getting 7 of your friends to sign:

on FACEBOOK

Help us keep the campaign in Japan going. Your donation will go directly to efforts to stop the dolphin slaughter in Japan. We’ve set a goal of raising $5,000 to keep Ric and his team in Japan and hope you’ll join in by making a Donation.

You can also donate through our SaveJapanDolphin.org website secure transaction center at:

Earth Island HELP

Also, if you haven’t joined as a member of the Facebook Save Japan Dolphins Cause, click below. We'll keep you updated about what's happening with the Cove, what you can do to stop the dolphin slaughter, and you can meet other people who care about this issue too:

Sign the Petition

Thanks for making a difference!

hubble telescope: butterfly nebula

The Hubble Space Telescope, which was equipped with a new imaging camera during a space shuttle servicing mission in May is bringing us lovely new images.

"Let there be no doubt, this is truly Hubble's new beginning," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator, during a news conference Wednesday.

The planetary nebula NGC 6302, also known as the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula. Its "wings" are made of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and there is a dying star at its center.

"The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes," NASA's Web site says.

The "butterfly" is more than 2 light-years across. NASA took advantage of the special filters on Hubble's camera to isolate the light of different elements, said Bob O'Connell, chair of the science oversight committee for Wide Field Camera 3. The red in the image is nitrogen gas, for example, and the blue is oxygen. Hubble is expected to continue its mission for at least five more years.

hawaii telescope

Hawaii beat out Chile to become the site of the Thirty-Meter Telescope, which is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

The giant telescope will have a single primary mirror that measures 30 meters across and is made up of 492 segments, giving it nine times more collecting surface than the the biggest telescopes on Earth today.

The Thirty-Meter Telescope will surpass even the Hubble Space Telescope in some ways, giving scientists a new view of some of the oldest stars and galaxies in the universe, as well as planets orbiting nearby stars.

Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the site of the Keck and Subaru telescopes, was among five candidate sites selected based on a global satellite assessment of atmosphere and climate variables. After further studies, Hawaii and Cerro Amazones in Chile rose to the top of the list.

“In the final analysis, the board selected Mauna Kea as the site for TMT,” Edward Stone, Caltech physicist and vice chairman of the TMT board, said in a press release Tuesday. “The atmospheric conditions, low average temperatures, and very low humidity will open an exciting new discovery space using adaptive optics and infrared observations.”

The project still needs to be approved by the the state and $100 million still needs to be raised for construction. The rest of the $300 million estimated cost will come from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The telescope project is the joint venture of Caltech, the University of California and a group of Canadian Universities called ACURA.


via Wired