After they noticed how much potato peels were wasted in the making of french fries, Milan-based designers Simone Carroni, Pietro Gaeli and Paolo Stefano Gentile decided to do something about it. So they created "Peel Saver," a 100% biodegradable packaging made from potato peels.
via Yanko Design
Alma Deutscher began playing the piano at the age of two. By the age of six, Deutscher had composed her first piano sonata. And by the age of seven, her first operatic piece.
So she's good.
Just how good Deutscher is can be seen easily in this 2017 clip from 60 Minutes, where the child prodigy was given four random notes pulled from a hat. She created a piano sonata in under a minute.
In 2011, then 16-year-old Dutch boy named Boyan Slat came across more plastic than fish during a diving trip to Greece. This led to a high school science project and then to an invention that may help rid the ocean of floating plastic debris.
Slat dropped out of college and founded The Ocean Cleanup, which champions the use of a floating tube that passively collects plastic:
Actively going after plastic with vessels and nets would be costly, labor intensive, harmful for sea life and would take very long. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an area twice the size of Texas, and although the density of plastic is higher than outside the patch, the plastic is still very dispersed (10-100kg / km2). This is why cleaning up the patch has been deemed impossible.
To catch the plastic, we need to act like plastic. We will use the ocean's currents to carry our approximately 60, 1-2 km systems throughout the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, moving in the same manner and patterns that the plastic follows in the accumulation zone, although slightly faster. The difference in speed is what makes concentrating the plastic possible.
The systems will move faster than the plastic, due to the influence of wind and waves on the system; these forces do not affect the plastic as much as the system, because the plastic floats primarily just below the surface. Thanks to the systems’ faster pace, the cleanup system will be able to catch up with the plastic, like a Pac-Man, and concentrate it in its U-shape. A support vessel will empty the systems every 6-8 weeks.
After 5 years of research, The Ocean Cleanup has just launched its first system from San Francisco Bay.
When you think of a coin, you'd probably think of a small round metal disc, with small denomination as face value.
But back in 17th century Sweden, coins called "platmynt" could actually be slabs of metal up to several inches thick, weighing as much as 43 pounds.
As you can imagine, lugging around heavy money wasn't convenient, so the platmynt actually led to the invention of the world's first banknote:
Illustrations of the era depict citizens with sacks of copper plates over their back or pulling a load of plates to the bank on a sled. This inconvenience was the catalyst for the creation of the world’s first bank notes. In the 1660’s, a bank was formed where plates could be deposited in return for a paper certificate of value. This paper money was an instrument which could be exchanged in commerce and the value repaid to the bearer in copper at the bank. This led to the creation of the world’s first central bank, Sveriges Riksbank (The National Bank of Sweden).
Read more over at Past and Present - via TYWKIWDBI
Surely you've seen Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, the famous triptych oil painting from the late 15th century.
But do you know the meaning behind all Bosch's fantastic and gruesome figures in the painting?
Put on your headphones and head on over to this online interactive documentary. Either join the audiovisual tour of The Garden of Earthly Delights, as narrated by Redmond O'Hanlon, or freely explore and click the various icons to read and hear the story behind a particular part of the painting.
Which one to use?
This vertigo-inducing trompe l'oeil bathroom is located in the Chicago Magic Lounge. Photo via JoeBatters
Peter the Great probably wasn't big into Movember.
The Emperor of Russia instituted a beard tax in 1698 - anyone who wanted to keep a beard had to pay a tax. Those who refused to pay were forcibly shaven.
To prove that they've paid the Beard Tax, bearded men would carry around a "Beard Token" - a coin which bore the inscription "money taken" on one side and "the beard is a superfluous burden" on the other side.
Recently, Russian archaeologists have found a haul of ancient coins containing the rare beard token in a 17th century ruin in the city of Pskov.
Via Lost at E Minor
Move over, pineapple! There's a new controversial pizza ingredient that's stormin' the Internet.
Instead of the traditional tomato sauce, Lion and Tigers and Squares pizzeria in New York City uses mustard - yes, yellow mustard - in their pizza.
What do you think? Would you like to try the mustard pizza?
Via Nerdist
Wearable exoskeleton is the stuff of science fiction. Usually, they imbue the wearer with super strength and endurance - perfect for fighting and other soldierly stuff.
But what if all you want to do is sit down?
Enter LEX by Astride Bionix. It's a next-gen wearable tech that'll let you sit anywhere you want!
via The Awesomer
How can you make art history even more interesting? Present them as sandwiches, of course!
This one above is The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
Take a look at the Twitter tag #KunstGeschichteAlsBrotbelag for more.
Balloon Girl by Banksy
Light, earth and blue by Mark Rothko
Photographer Paul Clifton of Goldaming, United Kingdom, took a series of gorgeous photos of Pre-War motorcycles you can peruse over at Behance. Fantastic!
I particularly love this 1915 Indian Big Twin motorcycle.
via Inspiration Grid
This is simply marvelous: as the Sun set, Hawaiian artist Christy Lee Rogers submerged her models in water and photographed them using the last rays of light.
The billowing cloth in the water made the heavenly photos in the series titled "Muses," look like Baroque paintings.
Photos: Christy Lee Rogers - via Ignant
According to the origin of birds scientific hypothesis, birds are modern-day dinosaurs - and this photo by JJJFrank shows how a baby Great Blue Heron looks just like an Archaeopetryx.
This sure beats flying a red eye!
The 360c is Volvo's new concept car that basically combines a bedroom with a self-driving electric car. The idea is to offer an alternative to a short-hop flight to a neighboring city for that morning business meeting. Instead, you can sleep on your way to your destination in a moving bed!
You'd be forgiven if you thought that the photos here are of a high end boutique store.
It's actually Starbucks' first location in Italy (opening inside the historic Poste building in Piazza Cordusio in Milan).
