How many years left if the world consumes at today’s rate? Via Reddit.
See also: Materials = Energy / Historical statistics for mineral and material commodities.
Speculative biology
Welcome to the beautiful nonexistent world of Snaiad.
Via Metafilter & Tetrapodzoology.
The immutable verities of grand physical laws
“The design and manufacture of scientific instruments has undergone a radical transformation in the last 30 years, achieving what might be described as the democratization of accuracy. Levers, pinions, wheels, and linkages have given way to microprocessors that read data at exquisite levels of sensitivity and reveal it instantly on digital displays. This transformation has affected our lives far beyond the laboratory, but to my eye the gains have been accompanied by losses.”
Read: The engineer’s art, why a contemporary-art expert also collects old machines.
Picture: Einthoven’s string galvanometer.
Four wheels good, two legs bad
“Eurotunnel doesn’t take foot passengers, which is fair enough given you stay in the car on the journey. But if we hop up the road to the Eurostar passenger service from Ashford to Calais, the four of us will have to fork out at least £220. Different service, I know. But same tunnel. And more than three times as much. For not taking a car”. Fred Pearce again, on ferry and train fares. Previously: Only idiots travel by train / Life without airplanes.
Kiteboating
Following kitesurfing, kite buggying, kite landboarding and snowkiting (no slope required); kiteboating:
Airplay Kitesailing, Kite For Sail, KiteCat, the pioneers.
Previously: kitesurfing for cargo vessels. Related: sailing at the touch of a button / Sailing Rockets.
Too many babies?
“It’s overconsumption, not population growth, that is the fundamental problem: By almost any measure, a small portion of the world’s people – those in the affluent, developed world – use up most of the Earth’s resources and produce most of its greenhouse gas emissions”. Read.
