MODERN SWISS UNDERGROUND HOUSE

This house is the collaboration between the Netherlands architects at SeARCH and Christian Muller Architects. This underground home, located in the Swiss village of Vals, is set amidst a cluster of mountain houses and if you don’t look carefully you might miss it! The most striking thing about this stone house is the majestic Alpine view through a wide, elliptical opening in the hillside, revealing spacious outdoor entertaining areas that lead to the home’s main entrance. Another entrance from a nearby barn leads residents and guests through an underground pathway, providing an alternate entryway into the home. The circular opening in the mountainside allows for lots of windows, which flood interiors with natural light while framing the stunning mountain views.


© Iwan Baan


© Iwan Baan


© Iwan Baan


© Iwan Baan


© Iwan Baan


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© Iwan Baan

Read more:
www.villavals.ch

THE WORLD'S MOST REMARKABLE JELLYFISH

1. The Giant Jellyfish aka Nomura’s Jellyfish


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These giants of the deep sea, armed with thousands of deadly tentacles, grows up to 2 m and weights up to 200 kg. Since 2005, these life-threatening creatures have been wreaking havoc in the waters off the coast of Japan. These giant jellyfish destroys fishermen nets and poisons all their catches leaving them inedible. These creatures have even managed to sink a ten ton fishing boat (read full article). The overpopulation of these creatures leads to the over consumption of planktons, disturbing the natural food chain of the sea. They are also known for blocking seawater pumps used to cool the reactors in nuclear power stations. The worst is that these menacing beasts causes injuries to and often also fatalities of unfortunate fishermen and swimmers. Scientists have various reasons for the sudden influx of these creatures, however there is no solution yet to combat the burgeoning numbers of these massive, stinging blobs in the Sea of Japan.


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The picture above shows a diver surrounded by hundreds of Numura's jellyfish.



These giant jellyfish destroys fishermen nets and poisons all their catches leaving them inedible. They have also managed to to sink a ten ton fishing boat.

Sources:
scienceray.com
www.environmentalgraffiti.com

2. Mastigias Jellyfish from Jellyfish Lake


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Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake located on Eil Malk island in Palau. Jellyfish lake is somewhat older than 12,000 years. Today the lake is a famous site for snorkeling and snorkeling only, since scuba diving causes disturbance of the toxic layers of the lake and the air bubbles harms the fish. Thousands of golden jellyfish migrate across its surface daily.


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Since the conditions of the lake differs from the conditions of nearby lagoons it caused some species, such as the Mastigias or Golden Jellyfish to evolve differently. This jellyfish – unlike their closest relative the spotted jellyfish that inhabits the lagoons – has no spots, clubs and appendages attached to their tentacles. Although they have stinging cells, the jellyfish are not powerful enough to cause harm to humans.

Mastigias swims in the direction of the sun (counter-clockwise), while swimming their bodies receive heat from the sun and causing them to appear gold. The jellies need sunlight to sustain algae-like zooxanthellae within their tissues; the zooxanthellae in turn help to sustain the jellies. At night, the jellyfish swim down 40 feet and return to the east end to await dawn.


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Aerial view of Jellyfish Lake, Palau, Micronesia


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Sources:
www.nytimes.com
wikipedia.org

3. The Flower-hat Jellyfish


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The flower hat jelly is a rare species of jellyfish occurring primarily in waters off Brazil, Argentina, and southern Japan. They are characterized by lustrous tentacles that coil and adhere to its rim when not in use. The flower hat jelly's bell is translucent and pinstriped with opaque bands, making it easily recognizable.The flower hat jelly can grow to be about 15cm in diameter. Its sting is painful but non-lethal to humans.

wikipedia.org

4. The Crystal Jellyfish


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Crystal Jellyfish are almost invisible in the water. Crystal jellyfish glow when disturbed because of hundreds of tiny, light-producing organs surrounding its outer bell. Osamu Shimomura of Japan and US duo Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien have won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for a fluorescent protein derived from the jellyfish that has become a vital tool in research.

wikipedia.org

5. The Red Paper Lantern Medusa


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The Red Paper Lantern Medusa (aka-chochin kurage) was first discovered in the Bering Sea in 1913, but details about its distribution and life cycle have long remained a mystery.

The Red Paper Lantern Medusa has a transparent, bell-shaped hood measuring about 10 centimeters in diameter and 17 centimeters from top to bottom, with between 14 and 30 tentacles that extend up to 6 times the length of its body. Inside the transparent hood is a deep red colored mantle that can crumple up or expand like a paper lantern, hence the name. JAMSTEC researcher Dr. Dhugal Lindsay is credited with coming up with the name.

The gelatinous creature is commonly found at depths of between 450 to 900 meters in warm and temperate waters around the world. Observations have been reported in the Antarctic Ocean, but never in the Arctic Ocean.

pinktentacle.com

6. The Atolla Jellyfish


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Atolla is a jellyfish specie that can be found in depths from about 500 to 4,500 meters – where there is still a small amount of sunlight. Where there is light, its red color looks black, making it hard to see. It also produces brilliant bioluminescence often called a 'burglar alarm', possibly to frighten predators.

Sources:
oceanexplorer.noaa.gov
www.pbs.org

7. The Mediterranean Jellyfish


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The Mediterranean jelly or fried egg jellyfish. It is commonly found in the Mediterranean Sea, Aegean Sea and Adriatic Sea. Capable of growing as large as 35 cm in diameter with a bell up to 60 cm, the Mediterranean jelly, unlike many other jellyfish, is capable of autonomous movement without relying on the current.

en.wikipedia.org

THE RENOVATION OF VIENNA'S GASOMETERS

Pimp my gas tank


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In 1896 Viennese authorities built Europe's largest gas plant, wich included the gasometers, they also laid more than 500 km of gas lines. However, coal gas was eventually replaced by natural gas and the gasometers became abandoned. Since then they have been seen in movies such as James Bond: The Living Daylights. The gasometers was also used as a rave venue – the special echo of the buildings enhanced the acoustics of the Gazometer Raves. The Gasometers are four cylindrical telescopic gas containers, each with a volume of about 90,000 cubic meters Each tank is enclosed by a red-brick facade. They are each 70 meters tall and 60 meters in diameter.

Eventually, Vienna undertook a remodelling and revitalization of the protected monuments. The renovation of the structures took place during 1999 and 2001. Each gasometer was divided into several zones; living apartments on top, working offices on the middle floors and entertainment and shopping malls on the ground floors. The shopping mall levels in each gasometer are connected to the others by skybridges.


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via twistedsifter

See also:
URBAN ECOSYSTEMS IN MADRID

THE WORLD'S MOST REMOTE ISLAND

Tristan da Cunha – A remote agriculture utopia


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Tristan da Cunha, a small remote volcanic island in the south Atlantic ocean, is 2,816 kilometres from the nearest land that is South Africa. South Africans are unaware of the islands existence. With a population of 263 citizens, the island of Tristan da Cunha lives up to its modern Guinness Book of Records title as the world's most isolated community. The island is part of the British territory of Saint Helena and consists of the main island of Tristan da Cunha that measures about eleven kilometers across and has an area of 98 square kilometers and the uninhabited Nightingale Islands, the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible Island and Gough Island.

History

The Tristan da Cunha Islands were discovered and named by Portuguese admiral Tristao da Cunha en route to the Cape of Good Hope in 1506. Tristan da Cunha was comfortably sitsuated on the ‘maritime motorway’ of the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, making it a safe harbour and supply base for ships from all nations. However, explorers ruled out Tristan da Cunha as a possible home due to its rugged mountain landscape, absence of natural harbour, lack of land for agriculture and a harsh climate with heavy rain and high winds at all seasons. It took an extraordinary community of people to settle and thrive in the world's most isolated community.

The British military aboard HMS Falmouth took possesion of the island on 14 August 1816, on behalf of King George III. A base called Fort Malcolm was established to secure the island against French and American ships. A small group, led by Corporal William Glass that consisted of his South African wife Maria, their two children and Devonian stonemasons Samuel Burnell and John Nankivel, chose to settle permanently on Tristan da Cunha. They all signed a voluntary agreement of communal living that included equal shares of stock and stores; equally divided profit; equal shares in paying for buys and that their will be no superiors.

The community grew slowly as some shipwrecked survivors settled permanently. However, only William Glass had a spouse and family. Simon Amm, captain of the Duke of Gloucester, a regular visitor to the island, convinced women from the island of St Helena to accompany him to Tristan da Cunha so that they could meet the bachelors. Amm returned in 1827 with only five volunteers, however by 1832 Tristan had a population of 34 with 6 couples and 22 children.

Economy

Crucial world events led to the isolation of the island. The Civil War curtailed the already declining whaling industry, whose ships had often called on Tristan for supplies. The Suez Canal's opening in 1869 gave a safer and much quicker passage to Far East, avoiding the perils of the South Atlantic and Cape of Good Hope. The community of Tristan da Cunha had no other option but to rely on traditional farming and fishing for food.

All of Tristan da Cunha's citizens are farmers. Each family owns their own stock and potato patch and live in houses built by themselves or by their ancestors. All land is communally owned, and stock numbers are strictly controlled to conserve pasture and to prevent some families of accumulating wealth. Each household can only own two cows that are all crosses served by a Hereford and a Welsh Black Cross bull.

Tristan's steep mountain slopes are an ideal habitat for sheep who thrive particularly on lush mountain pastures. There are over 600 mountain sheep on the island that is managed by teams of Islanders known as 'gangs'. The gangs laboriously lead their stock up one of three mountain paths. Mountain sheep are the main ingredient for Tristan’s famous stuffed roast mutton. Around 1000 low land sheep graze the plains of Tristan. Sheep stock is limited to seven per household or three for a single householder. Sheep are more efficient grazers on the plains than cattle as they are able to consume short grass and are more mobile on the sheer slopes. Families also keep large quantities of poultry around the settlements and there are also some ducks and geese, reared for meat. Any other livestock is limited since they consume valuable grass.

The Crawfish or Tristan Rock Lobster (Jasus tristani) is found in abundance around the islands and has been exploited commercially since the first canning factory was built in 1949, however the factory was destroyed by the 1961 volcanic eruption. A new factory, incorporating freezing technology, was built after the islanders returned in 1963 and has been the mainstay of the island's economy. The crawfish, marketed as Tristan Lobster, are processed and frozen into three main products: lobster tails, whole raw and whole cooked lobster. Other foreign earnings come from the sale of postage stamps and coins, especially to philatelists and collectors worldwide. Factory oil-driven generators produce electricity to meet the demands of all the facilities on the island.

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No new residents are allowed to settle on the island, however the island has a small tourist industry. Amongst the residents, there are 80 families, and just 7 surnames: Glass, Green, Hagan, Lavarello, Repetto, Rogers and Swain. Currently the only method of traveling to Tristan Da Cunha is via a boat from Cape Town. Tristan Da Cunha might only be a speck on the world map, however the Agriculture Utopia proofs to the world that living in harmony with each other and nature is possible.

See also
THE WEIRDEST ISLAND IN THE WORLD

www.tristandc.com
wikipedia.org
geography.about.com
www.environmentalgraffiti.com

SHELL HOMES WITH LOTS OF LEG SPACE

Invertebrates puts coconuts to good use


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Australian scientists have discovered a one of a a kind specie of octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter. Half cut coconuts that humans discard into the ocean became convenient shelters for the octopus. The veined octopus or Amphioctopus marginatus, was documented gathering the coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out and carrying them under their bodies for up to twenty meters. The octopus then assembles two half cut coconut shells to make a spherical hide out. Julian Finn, a research biologist of Museum Victoria in Melbourne states that this is an example of tool use that have never been recorded in invertebrates before and that witnessing the octopus grabbing the shell and dragging it across the ocean floor is quite entertaining.

Octopuses often use foreign objects as shelter, but the veined octopus literally goes the extra mile by preparing the shells, carrying them long distances and reassembling them as shelter elsewhere. Simon Robson, associate professor of tropical biology at James Cook University in Townsville states that this significant phenomenon is just one more way to prove that these invertebrates are very intellectual creatures capable of complex behavior.

www.timesonline.co.uk
news.aol.ca