Chaff from the Wheat

world-shaker:

Google Person Finder for the Boston Marathon

Connect with loved ones who where near the finish of the #bostonmarathon

(via motherjones)

This is from a great new series from PBS called “The Mind of a Chef” and it follows David Chang of Momfuko on little cooking adventures. This totally trippy kimchi excerpt is from the episode on rotten food. They also cover fish sauce, bananas, and a petrified fish product from Japan. 

Do you eat meat grown in the USA? Do you eat chicken? Are you concerned about consolidation in the food system? This article is long but worth a read. It covers the history of anti-trust laws and regulations on the meat industry. The vertical integration of chicken farming is appalling. The 4 largest poultry packers control 63% of the market but in rural areas farmers may only have access to packer making it impossible to negotiate better terms for their contracts. 

Here’s to hoping that the Obama administration can take this issue up again … .

berlinfarmlab:

A proper technique for testing gas leaks, also biogas I guess.

Learned this one in Pace Corps! Skills for life — how to not kill yourself and your family with carbon monoxide poisoning or blowing yourself up. 

nprfreshair:

explore-blog:

Animal Cheat Sheet – a visual guide to spotting the differences between frequently confused animal species. From the genius who brought us this illustrated guide to animals with misleading names.

(↬ It’s Okay To Be Smart)

Print this out. Keep it in your wallet. Be prepared to tell the difference between a dolphin and porpoise.

Best to be prepared.

(Source: )

nprfreshair:

wired:

archiemcphee:

It’s time for another visit to the Department of Awesome Natural Wonders. These pretty amphibians with perfectly transparent underbellies are called Glass frogs. They live in the cloud forests of South america, are one of the relatively small number of species where the fathers exclusively care for the young, and scientists are still trying to figure out why they evolved to have transparent tummies.

Complete transparency has evolved multiple independent times. This suggests that a translucent underbelly provides some evolutionary advantage. Juan Manuel Guayasamin, an evolutionary biologist who studies glassfrogs extensively as a researcher at Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica’s Center for Research on Biodiversity and Climate Change, explains:

“Most frogs are not transparent because this would expose organs to the deleterious effects of sunlight and heat.” But in transparent glassfrogs, key organs like the liver and digestive tract are covered by a thin layer of light-reflecting organelles called iridiphores. These iridescent cellular subunits may provide a layer of protection from heat and sunlight, a feature that Guayasamin says could give glassfrogs the ability to optimize their internal homeostasis by simply moving about, “covering each organ at a time, as opposed to the entire body cavity.” 

Guayasamin says another hypothesis holds that transparency evolved to help glassfrogs avoid predators (an ability commonly referred to as “crypsis”). ”Most glassfrogs are green and reflect light almost as a leaf. For predators (and amphibiologists), it is quite difficult to find a glassfrog if it is not, for example, calling.”

You can even see their hearts beating inside their bodies. That’s pretty awesome.

Top photo by Heidi & Hans-Jurgen Koch, via National Geographic, bottom photo by Martín Bustamante.

[via Neatorama and io9]

We see right through you, little glass frogs.

fastcompany:

An innovative way to give new life to old tires: In Milwaukee, two students are trying to connect two neighborhoods via an old rail line. And they’re using the old tires the future park is littered with to make it more than just a gravel path.

I love that they are incorporating the trash in their environment into a beautiful open space.

laughingsquid:

Grow A Pear by Phil Jones

This would make a great tshirt! Or underpants!

pitchfork:

Watch the new video from Das Racist’s Kool A.D., “Manny Pacquiao”, in which he dances on a farm with live chickens.

Haha! Love it! Hipster meets rapper meets back to the lander. 

motherjones:

(via)

I am so glad I answered the door!