SuperForest

(Leaf like sea slug that uses photosynthesis, so COOL! via.)

Heyo SuperForest!

Our funky sisters over at Miracle Mile Mind (who I will be talking about in an upcoming post) recently shared this awesome find! …free your imagination… is an fantastic blog that highlights recently discovered or rediscovered species! For a nature geek like me it is the perfect place for me! The coolest of mammals, insects, arachnids, fish, sea animals, and everything else can be found at this awesome site! Go check it out! And if my enthusiasm isn’t enough to sway you here is part of one of their newer posts, one that I find extremely intriguing not only because of the animal found, but because it was originally found on my favourite little island: Lord Howe Island!

Giant Land Lobster Not Extinct…. yet!

7 January, 2010

Excerpt from original article found at NewScientist.com. Find the full article and much more information there.

15 July 2006 by Stephanie Pain

On 14 June 1918, the supply ship Makambo struck a submerged rock off Lord Howe Island, a volcanic dot 780 kilometres north-east of Sydney, Australia. The cargo was salvaged and taken ashore to the island, which is a semi-tropical paradise, lushly forested and rich in plants and animals found nowhere else. Unfortunately, the ship’s rats came ashore too. They spread rapidly, soon dispatching several island species, including a giant wingless stick insect, or phasmid. By the 1930s, the Lord Howe Island phasmid (Dryococelus australis) was written off as extinct.

By all accounts, it had been a spectacular insect, so big the islanders called it the land lobster. Females grew up to 15 centimetres long, with bodies as thick as a finger and long, stout legs equipped with hooks. The slightly shorter males had peculiarly massive thighs armed with evil-looking spines. They couldn’t fly but they could run surprisingly fast.[...]

How freaking cool is that?! For more whacky and crazy new species finds head over to …free your imagination… by clicking here!

Much love SuperForest,

Mathew

Good Evening, SuperForest!

Check out this amazing piece of architecture!

Designed and constructed by German Architect Matthias Loebermann, this temporary pavillion was built in 2005 for the Nordic Alpine Skiing World Championship in Oberstdorf, Germany.

via GBlog

via GBlog

It was made entirely from 1300 shipping pallets and held together with tie rods and pull straps. The pavillion was used as a meeting place and media room for the athletes competing in the championship.  Apparently they dismantled and recycled the structure after the event, however I think this would be a pretty amazing permanent structure if it could survive in a particular climate without any major damage.

via GBlog

Upon further research into this subject, I discovered that there is a lot to read out there on “palletecture”. So search away, SuperForesters! Let’s learn more about sustainable building ideas! Incidentally, SuperForester Julius and SuperForester Jackson have also expressed their love of upcycling pallets:

A social way to upcycle pallets

Pallet sweet pallet

Have a seat

Yours in love with this gorgeous piece of art,

SuperForester Heather

Good Afternoon, SuperForest!

Back in 2009, during the heat of the recession, a trio of love-minded individuals decided to quit their day jobs in order to pursue the sustainable lifestyles they’ve always wanted to live. As a result, they eventually created “Holstee“, a design company that has produced a line of sustainable products.

You might remember the name from my recent post on their manifesto, which was definitely rad, but the biggest reason to celebrate this company, of course has to do with their products and their designs. One of these products, is the “Recycled Wallet” pictured above. It’s beautiful, yes, and it also features the writing of one of their mottos “Live Your Dream”, which might be either the best thing…or the worst thing to have sewn onto a wallet, of all things. But apart from the elegant and classy design, underneath the surface of the wallet is an even better feature. It’s made from found materials scoured across the streets of Delhi. And as if that wasn’t good enough, the company works with a family-run, non-profit organization in India to produce them.

Sayeth Holstee:

Production of this wallet helps reduce waste in Delhi, provides fair wage employment and subsidizes healthcare and education for each employee’s family.

That, my friends, is what Michael Scott would call a “win-win-win scenario“.
You can learn more about the wallets by clicking, here!

Love,
C

Good Evening, SuperForest!

The following clips, put together by filmmaker Jason Silva during the making of his upcoming film Turning Into Gods, features random thoughts and reflections on all sorts of topics ranging from art, love, and beauty to techno-transcendance. Yes, techno-transcendance. And it’s more than just an awesome use of alliteration. As Jason describes it, it’s “a kind of engineered transcendence….Ecstatic mind-states and techno-immortality are promised; a world created entirely by our minds; where we all become imagineers.”

It’s a lot to take in, but after a few seconds of this video, you begin to catch on to his thoughts, his musings, and all of his reflections almost instantaneously.

It’s a little over five minutes, but it’s worth every second.

See what I mean?! At first, I thought he was a little too much. The ferocious intensity by which the video begins totally catches you off guard. But despite this, there’s something about his energy that (a) keeps you interested and is contagious in the best way possible, and (b) almost leaves you falling in love with the guy because Jason Silva is a guy who is genuinely excited about what he has to share. And when you get past the crazy hand movements and the Ashton Kutcher-esque voice and start to listen to what he has to say, you realize that all that enthusiasm just makes sense.

I’m not sure when Turning Into Gods will be released, but you can check out my post on it, here. And you can rest assured that as soon as I find out, I’ll definitely pass on the word. Because this definitely doesn’t seem like a documentary we want to miss.

Love always,

Carla

Heyo SuperForest!

I have great news! UC Berkley has recently released a report stating that they have found a new organism that is native to the Gulf of Mexico that….

dum, dum, dum!!

EATS OIL! It has been going all over the news recently, and I had to share it with all of you! According the the Telegraph report:

It thrives in cold water in the deep sea where temperatures are around 5C (41F) and scientists said it may have adapted over time, through a process of natural selection, due to periodic leaks and natural seeps of oil in the Gulf.

When the bacteria were found to have acted on oil they consumed half of it in 1.2 to 6.1 days, giving an average of about three days. By comparison at the site of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989 the average “half life” was seven days.

Around 95 per cent of the bacteria in the oil plume were the new type, while outside only five per cent were.

How cool is that?! Nature is by far the coolest thing in the world. If you didn’t believe in the old adage, “Nature always finds a way,” I hope you do now. Professor Hazen from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory went on to say, “What we know about the degradation rates fits with what we are seeing in the last three weeks. We’ve gone out to the sites, and we don’t find any oil, but we do find the bacteria.” On top of all this there has been a fear that oil consuming organisms would consume large amounts of oxygen, but it has been found that this little guys do not! Very cool all the way around!

Nature for the win!

Check out these Awe-Some little guys!

(Photo courtesy of Associated Press)

 Good Morning Superforesty Soul Siblings!

I’d forgotten how I much I used to enjoy seeing faces in my shoes  when I was a kid (sneakers were the best with all the “eyes”) until my son started pointing out different everyday objects that had smiles, winks, scowls and various other human qualities.  Everyday objects that appear to have human emotions.

Check out some of these funny faces.

I can’t decide if this one is a grumpy old man or just pensive.

Confused in aisle two…

Hmmmm….this one looks mighty familiar

Say “Cheese”

BOO!

Here’s looking at you.  Hope these brought a smile to your Sun-shiny faces -

much love,
Sheri

Okay, okay, so this isn’t very zen-like at all and doesn’t really create a relaxing atmosphere with which you can meditate to (trust me, I tried finding some sort of inspirational loop-hole with little luck), but the video does create smiles, and at the start of a fresh new week, you can never have too many of those.

Happy Monday, SuperForesters, go out there and do what everybody says you can’t.

With love,
C

(via.)

(click to make large and mighty!)

Goooooddd Morrnninggg SuperForest!

Today I have stumbled upon this incredibly fun and entertaining video! Watch the grooves and the moves of this young buck, and become thoroughly entranced. After that put on a song and do some of your own dancing!

Pretty cool, huh? Go get your groove on SuperForest!

~ SuperForester Mathew

Good Morning, SuperForest!

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve never actually seen a Star Wars movie. But despite my ignorance, I do know enough about it to know that “Star Wars Yoga” is an absolute gem. Created by writer/designer Matthew Latkewicz, “Star Wars Yoga” goes where few geeks have gone before and creates “a bold fusion of two seemingly disparate cultural phenomenons” with mighty poses including “X-Wing”, “Downward Facing Wookie”, “TIE Fighter”, and “Speeder Bike”.

Looks pretty complicated? Not to worry. The fine folks at TIME have put together a nice instructional video!

Check out more of his poses on his blog!

(via the jailbreak!)