http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Earth_Green-Living_Culture_18_194_600.html Press Review of the Earth from the most relevant websites. Keep in touch with the Earth and your future ! fr-FR http://www.earth-stream.com/logo-stream-Earth.png http://www.earth-stream.com Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:39:20 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/new-hope-in-wood-sculptural-furniture-from-found-materials_18_194_600_230975.html Artist and designer Paul Klein hand-fashions functional sculptures from found and recycled materials he discovers in the old buildings, secluded beaches and forests of his local area.  His art ranges from sculptural tables and floor lamps, to mirrors and candle holders – all imbued with with the lush spirit of nature.  Paul sells his work [...] Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:15:53 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Explosions-Halted-Star-Birth-In-Early-Galaxy-Formation_18_194_600_230922.html Image 1: Artists’ representation showing outflow from a supermassive black hole inside the middle of a galaxy. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss Image 2: Observation showing gas in the galaxy SMM J1237+6203 seen using the Gemini Observatory’s Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS). The contours show how the blast of energy is travelling through the galaxy. Credit: Dave Alexander/Mark Swinbank (Durham University) & Gemini Observatory. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:36:50 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Review-Science-Trips-Out-on-Music-in-The-Heart-Is-a-Drum-Machine-_18_194_600_230847.html Through interviews with a brainy crop of musicians and scientists, a new documentary probes the connection between body, mind and music. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:00:03 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Artist-Uses-LEGO-Blocks-to-Rebuild-New-York-City_18_194_600_230778.html Read the rest of Artist Uses LEGO Blocks to Rebuild New York CityPermalink | Add to del.icio.us | diggPost tags: Dispatch, Jan Vormann, Lego bricks, LEGOs, new york city, New York City Legos, New York., NY, volta, volta artshow Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:33:03 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Sand-Art-Like-You-ve-Never-Seen-It-Before_18_194_600_230738.html Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:33:21 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/The-Cove-makers-expose-alleged-smuggling_18_194_600_230723.html The documentary-makers exposed an alleged whale-meat smuggling operation at the US sushi restaurant The HumpIt was an action worthy of the eco commandos of Greenpeace or the Environmental Investigation Agency: the sushi sting.Fresh from their Oscar-winning triumph, the makers of a documentary featuring clandestinely shot footage of Japan's dolphin slaughter, have helped break up an alleged whale meat smuggling operation at a popular sushi restaurant in Santa Monica, the New York Times has reported.On offer at The Hump, aside from the menu listings of yellowtail tuna, live octopus, and baby abalone, was what was said to be whale meat, despite a ban on the sale and possession of whales.A spokesman for the US attorney's office told the newspaper the restaurant could be formally charged as early as this week. If convicted, they could face a prison or a fine of up to $20,000 (£13,340).The crew from The Cove led police investigators to the restaurant this month after conducting their own surveillance operation. Secretly filmed video from that earlier supper showed the activists ordering off the chef's special omakase menu, with a waitress bringing thick pink slices of what she said was whale meat. The pair took a few bites before putting the meat in a plastic bag so it could be sent for DNA testing.The samples were sent to a whale expert at the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, who established the slices were from a sei whale. The species are endangered but are still hunted in Japan under a controversial programme that allows the killing of up to 1,000 whales a year in the name of scientific research.The bust offered yet more positive buzz for The Cove after it took the Oscar for best documentary.The film, the first feature-length project by the director, Louie Psihoyos, relied on remote-controlled cameras mounted in helicopters, helium balloons, and even fake rocks as well as night vision equipment to record the annual dolphin hunt in a small coast ... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:53:25 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Ready-Or-Not-Hard-Drives-Are-Evolving_18_194_600_230718.html Computer hard drive technology is about to change in a big way, and while the changes should be positive for consumers using state-of-the-art gear, experts believe it could cause problems for individuals using older user interfaces such as Windows XP.Early next year, all new hard drives manufactured will be switching to a new storage system dubbed "advanced format." These new HDDs will eschew the decades-old 512-byte blocks system for a 4k system, which should cut down on the amount of disc space wasted by dividing larger hard disks into such small fragments and having a dedicated error-code reporting system in each.According to BBC News technology correspondent Mark Ward, the larger advanced format HDDs will result in "about eight times less wasted space" while doubling the space dedicated to correcting errors within each dedicated block.The technology was first announced by California-based hard drive developer Western Digital back in December 2009. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:50:04 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/The-Cove-Documentary-Set-To-Become-A-TV-Series-on-Animal-Planet_18_194_600_230712.html Photo via The Cove The Cove has made a tremendous impact on people when it comes to raising awareness about the slaughter of dolphins and the dark story of whale meat in the fish market. It has changed lives, riled people up, won its Oscar, and now it just might turn into a new TV Series on Animal Planet starting this fall. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:08:04 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Art-of-disaster-photographs-go-under-the-hammer-for-Samoa_18_194_600_230673.html Jane Bown, Tom Hunter and Daniel Lynch will be among the celebrated photographers auctioning their works in London tonight in aid of the 2009 South Pacific disaster Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:54:16 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Book-Review-The-Art-of-Eating-In_18_194_600_230671.html Last month, New York City blogger Cathy Erway stretched her story beyond the computer screen.  Her new book, “The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove” (Gotham, 2010) is a continuation of her blog, Not Eating Out in New York , which chronicles the urbanite’s efforts to forgo [...] Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:13:49 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/SnS-Design-Creates-Smart-Kitchen-Appliance-for-Easy-Shopping_18_194_600_230651.html NEW YORK, March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- SnS Design, a woman-owned industrial design consultancy located in New York City, was selected to design a state-of-the art kitchen appliance with an integrated system that automatically builds a shopping list from items scanned. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:35:53 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Natural-history-museums-a-photographer-s-playground_18_194_600_230580.html What is it about the museums that seems to draw art photographers to them? New Scientist asked three to explain why in an online gallery of their work Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:22:10 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Dolphin-cull-film-lies-says-Japan_18_194_600_230517.html Pro-whaling officials have reacted angrily to news that a documentary about a gruesome annual dolphin cull in a remote Japanese fishing town has bagged an Academy Award. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:04:18 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/GuestCentric-Embraces-WordPress-Community-of-More-Than-200-Million-Blogs-and-Websites-With-an-Innovative-Online-Booking-Plug-in_18_194_600_230415.html FAIRFIELD, N.J., March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- (http://www.myprgenie.com) -- GuestCentric Systems (http://www.guestcentric.com), the premier Software-as-a-Service provider for the independent hotel industry today, announced the availability of a plug-in that allows websites and blogs built on WordPress to easily include GuestCentric's innovative hotel booking engine. The new plug-in opens the door to WordPress designers to create websites with state of the art technologies for the hotel industry. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:32:49 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Cove-Wins-an-Oscar-Makes-an-Activist-Statment-Gets-Cut-Off_18_194_600_230394.html Image via The Cove Congrats to The Cove and the entire team who made this world-changing documentary. The movie exposes the dolphin slaughter happening in Japan by doing some Mission-Impossible-style footwork to film the annual killing at one of Japan's most notorious hunting grounds in Taiji, Japan. The film has made a huge splash worldwide, even in Japan, and has impacted the start date, and the quota of dolphins and whales killed during last year's September hunt. They progressed even further by winning t...Read the full story on TreeHugger Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:39:20 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Kovarus-Solutions-Lab-Opens-to-Remote-Access-Customers_18_194_600_230367.html SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Kovarus, Inc., a premier technology consulting firm specializing in data center design, implementation, and optimization, today announced remote access to the Kovarus Solutions Lab, a state-of-the-art facility where IT professionals can test and evaluate applications for virtualization technology. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:39:19 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/High-Tech-Handrest_18_194_600_230347.html For precise tasks by surgeons, machinists, artistsUniversity of Utah engineers developed a computer-controlled, motorized hand and arm support that will let doctors, artists and others precisely control scalpels, brushes and tools over a wider area than otherwise possible, and with less fatigue."We've invented a new device – the Active Handrest – that's useful for aiding people in performing precision tasks with their hands such as surgery, painting, electronics repair or other tasks that require precise control of the fingertips," says William Provancher, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.A patent on the device is pending, and Provancher says he may form a spin-off company to commercialize it, or may license it to companies that produce touch-feedback devices, make robotic surgery equipment, produce art or refurbish electronics.Provancher will discuss development and testing of the Active Handrest on March 25, during the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Haptics Symposium in Waltham, Mass. Haptics is to the sense of touch as optics is to the sense of sight."The Active Handrest would benefit surgeons and other medical personnel, artists, machinists, workers performing pick-and-place tasks, or anyone requiring dexterous control of tools," Provancher wrote in a paper prepared for the meeting.A person using the handrest puts their wrist on a support that can slide horizontally in any direction. Their elbow rests on a support attached to the device.The Active Handrest allows a person to maintain a steady hand while it senses the position of a hand-grasped tool or the force exerted by the hand – or both. Then, the device's computer software moves the handrest so it "constantly re-centers your fingertips in the center of their dexterous workspace," which Provancher says is "the range over which you can move your fingers and be very precise." For example, if a person places their arm on a desk to write, their hand is able ... Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:21:22 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Fishing-village-featured-in-Oscar-winner-The-Cove-defends-dolphin-hunt_18_194_600_230343.html Taiji mayor's office says dolphin hunt is part of a long cultural traditionThe Japanese fishing village featured in The Cove, which won an Oscar for best documentary, today defended its practice of hunting dolphins as a part of a long tradition.The movie, which mixes stunning underwater shots of gliding dolphins with covertly filmed grisly footage of their slaughter, also claims that dolphin meat is laden with toxic mercury.Taiji, a quiet fishing village on the rocky coast of south-western Japan, kills only a small fraction of the dolphins hunted by the country each year. But it has long been a target of environmentalists and animal lovers because it uses a method called "oikomi", in which the dolphins are chased in to shore, making the hunt more visible.Though few residents said they had seen the film, there was universal disgust at its portrayal of the town. Taiji proudly bills itself as "Whale Town" and a main bridge is adorned with dolphin statues, but after years of what locals see as unfair treatment by the foreign press, few are willing to talk on the record. One young dolphin trainer turned and ran away when asked for her opinion."This is a close-knit group of fishermen. The more they feel squeezed, the more they will close off to outsiders. They won't stop this hunt because of such pressure," said Hisato Ryono, a local councillor who appears in the film.The mayor's office handed out a statement that said Taiji's dolphin hunt is lawful and argued that the movie contained statements that were not based on science. Otherwise, most town officials refused to talk."There are different food traditions within Japan and around the world," the statement read. "It is important to respect and understand regional food cultures, which are based on traditions with long histories."Director Louie Psihoyos said The Cove was not meant to attack Japan but that it was "a love letter to the Japanese people"."Our hope is the Japanese people will see this film an ... Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:21:20 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Old-Surfboards-Become-An-Unlikely-Artistic-Canvas_18_194_600_230192.html photo: Recycled Surfboards Surfers have always been known to have a connection with nature, they're one on one with the planet every time they take to the waves. And it comes as no surprise that many surfers also consider themselves environmentalists. One such conscious surfer in Cocoa Beach, FL has found a new way to keep old surfboards from their former destiny at the landfill....Read the full story on TreeHugger Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:18:04 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Green-Living/Culture/Deals-can-be-good-news-when-not-made-behind-closed-doors_18_194_600_230173.html Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute for Environment and Development on the new African land grabLand is life for millions of people across the developing world, central to their livelihoods, culture and identity. But there is growing concern that people's connection to their land is being undermined, and especially in Africa, where land is cheapest and where people's rights to land are weakest.Arab, east Asian, European, American and Indian investors are all leasing more and more large tracts of farmland in Africa, which some commentators have dubbed "land grabs" and say herald a new colonialism. However, blanket statements are misleading. Agricultural investments could be good news for Africa, bringing jobs, capital, know-how, access to markets and infrastructure – but only if they are done right.These land leases carry with them huge risks, as recent deals demonstrate. People, especially the poorest, most marginalised communities, can lose access to land. Companies may pay very low rents and make only vague investment promises. The key problem is the lack of transparency in the ways governments make land available to investors. This opens the door to corruption and means the rich and powerful can capture the benefits of land deals without sharing them fairly.Lands that governments and investors consider "empty" may in fact be used by farmers, herders and gatherers. These people are often not properly consulted and have weak rights to the land and resources they see as theirs. Only a tiny percentage of local farmers in Africa have written documents to back their claims for land rights, even if their families have lived off the land for generations.A 30,000-hectare biofuels project in Mozambique sparked controversy two years ago because of concerns it would undermine people's access to land and water. A few months ago the Mozambican government cancelled the deal as the company failed to deliver on its promises. But it is not clear what will now h ...