Watercone is a polycarbonate cone with the capacity to purify up to 1.5 liters of water a day with just a little solar energy.

All users have to do to create drinkable water is pour dirty or salt water into the cone’s black base, place the cone atop it in the sun. As the water evaporates upwards it condenses on the cone’s inner wall and tricles down into a seperate trough. To access the clean water simply lift the cone and pour.

Link – via treehugger

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.

Archaeologists digging at Zaraysk, Russia, unearthed a trove of Stone Age figurines and carvings, including something puzzling: a cone-shaped object whose function remains a mystery:

Also among the finds was an object carved from mammoth ivory, shaped like a cone with its top removed. The cone is densely ornamented and has a hole running through its centre.

The authors note that the object is unique among Palaeolithic artefacts. "The function of this decorated object remains a puzzle," they say.

Since you guys are experts at guessing in our weekly What is it? game, let’s try this one for size: what do you think the mystery object is for?

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(Photo: Amirkhanov/Lev/Antiquity)