Earth from 20 Miles up - by a Couple of Kids

"Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon"
telegraph.co.uk (March 17, 2009)

"Teenagers armed with only a £56 camera and latex balloon have managed to take stunning pictures of space from 20-miles above Earth...."

There' a very impressive photo that goes with this article.

And, Kudos to those kids.

Hof House:for Something Built From Scrap, Not Bad at All

"Iceland’s Gorgeous Passive Solar Hof House"
inhabitat (February 12, 2009)

"Deep in the northern chill of Iceland, just outside the arctic circle, the Hof House sits snugly within its landscape. Built on an existing estate, Studio Granada Architects salvaged whatever materials possible from the site to be incorporated into the new residence, converting telegraph poles into a sun screen...."

With eight photos, and elevations.


(from inhabitat, used without permission)

The building has nice lines, and some of the interior spaces, shown in other photos, look interesting: but if this is "gorgeous," then the civic arena in this central Minnesota town is "gorgeous," too.

Technically, though, the house seems rather impressive. And, an indication that 'solar' features can work in cold climates.

Finally, from an aesthetic point of view, people living inside the house seem to have a very nice set of views of the Icelandic landscape.

Entertainment Hardware Used for Gravity Wave Simulation

"Boffin stacks 16 PS3s to simulate black hole collisions" Register Hardware (February 28, 2008)

Astrophysicist Gaurav Khanna uses "16 PS3 consoles, all linked together to provide the same computing power as a 400-node supercomputer. His set up, which he calls a 'gravity grid', is used to simulate the activity of very large black holes for the Physics Department at the University of Massachusetts."

Innovative! Hat's off to the designer of this very smart, and comparatively inexpensive, supercomputer.

Re-Thinking the Camera

"Feature: Camera Designs That Think Outside the Box:"

• Canon Snap, a U-shaped affair that fits over a finger
• Sony Top, that reminds me of a lid for a wood stove
• FlapCam, with more conventional book-like profile
• Nikon 360, that looks like a game controller" or maybe a high-tech dousing rod
• Kodak 1881, the post says it looks like an amulet: I thought it was a yo-yo
• Triops, a camera you can play catch with??

Better Ideas From India: If it Doesn't Work, Fix it!

This really is a 'better idea,' in my opinion.

Apparently, developing countries envy India's "prestigious higher education system" - the only problem is that it doesn't produce competent graduates.

Now, here's a radical idea for you: If something hasn't worked before, try something else!

An outfit called End Poverty in South Asia has a blog post titled "Innovation in India." It's short piece, and looks like a good introduction - although certainly from the point of view of the author.

There's a link there, to a paper done by Devesh Kapur and Pratap Bhanu Mehta about India's higher education system (dated July 2, 2007). They call it "Indian Higher Education Reform: From Half-Baked Socialism to Half-Baked Capitalism." I haven't read all 66 pages, but a quick glance suggests that the authors did their homework.

Then, there's the National Innovation Foundation / in support of grassroots innovations. "The Department of Science and Technology established National Innovation Foundation (NIF) of India in February, 2000, with the main goal of providing institutional support in scouting, spawning, sustaining and scaling up grassroots green innovations and helping their transition to self supporting activities."

More ideas - good, dubious, and strange - at "Better Ideas From ... "

Better Ideas From ...

Posts about inventions, ideas, innovations, and inspirations from around the world:

• "Better Ideas from Japan: Crazy Game Shows"
  (February 22, 2010)
• "Better Ideas From Unscrupulous Manufacturers: Christmas: Incendiary LED Lights"
  (December 23, 2009)
• "Better Ideas From France: A Hamster Cage for Humans"
  (November 11, 2009)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: Monkey Waiters (Macaques, Actually)"
  (October 22, 2009)
• "Better Ideas From France: Naturists as Diet Plan Assistants"
  (August 6, 2009)
• "Better Ideas from France: the Dog-o-Matic"
  (May 18, 2009)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: 'Robocop' Rolled Out"
  (January 24, 2009)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: Outlets With Antelers "
  (December 29, 2008)
• "Better ideas from England: Concept Car With Built-in Gym"
  (August 30, 2008)
• "Japanese Robot Girlfriend: No Joke, EMA is Here "
  (June 18, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From Norway: A Bicycle Lift
  (June 7, 2008)
• "Better Ideas from Japan: Six Stools Store as a Compact Cube"
  (May 13, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From America: Really Big Water Balloons"
  (April 13, 2008)
• "Better Ideas from Russia: A 405 KPH Land, Sea, and Air Aerocar"
  (April 8, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: Musical Roads"
  (April 7, 2008)
• "Better Ideas from Japan: Space Age Origami"
  (March 27, 2008)
• "Better Ideas from America: Strap-on Automotive Dog Sack
  (March 20, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: Vending Machine Skirts and Other Strange Fashions"
  (February 3, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From China: Glow-in-the-Dark Pigs"
  (February 2, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From France: A Car That Runs on Compressed Air"
  (January 23, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: Human Tetris"
  (January 19, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From Hong Kong: Mobile House Sits on Tricycle"
  (January 18, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From Australia: Houses of the Future"
  (January 16, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: A Robot Snowplow"
  (January 1, 2008)
• "Better Ideas From China: Color-Coded Shower Head Lights
  (December 31, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From New York City: New Year's Wishes Online
  (December 30, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From South Korea: Sim Jae-duck's Toilet House"
  (December 28, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From Canada: Garage-Door Windows"
  (December 27, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From America: Tiara Tower"
  (December 26, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: A Fuzzy Green Building"
  (December 25, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From England: Parking Fines for Slow Shoppers"
  (December 11, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From India: If it Doesn't Work, Fix it!"
  (October 15, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From Japan: Cubical Watermelons"
  (October 15, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From China: Ban Computers on Campus"
  (October 14, 2007)
• "Better Ideas From France: A Paper Bridge"
  (August 12, 2007)

Not that I think all of them are equally useful: or even well-advised. But they're all imaginative.