Here’s another rat story but with a positive spin instead of ending up at the wrong end of a pitch fork. In Tanzania rats have been successful trained to hunt land mines. Now thailand is trying the same along the Burmese border where humans and elephants have had a history of land mine casualties.

“Rats have excellent senses of smell and weigh too little to set off land mines with their bodies, making them the perfect alternative to using robots or humans to find mines in war-torn countries. Plus, they like to socialize, are easy to train, and are motivated almost entirely by food. HeroRATs have already found 861 land mines in Tanzania and Mozambique, allowing trained technicians to destroy the mines before they can harm local residents.”

from Good.

Lockheed Martin wanted to sell F-16 fighter jets to the Thai government

The Problem: Lockheed Martin was competing with Russia’s Sukhoi and Sweden’s Saab. Also the Thai government didn’t want to pay in cash, so it proposed paying with 80,000 tons of frozen chickens.

The Role of U.S. Diplomats: They actually worked to promote the odd-ball deal since it A) helped Lockheed and B) kept the Russians from winning the deal. Incredibly, Lockheed indicated that it was “was willing to play ball” and accept chickens as payment. Nevertheless, the chickens-for-jets plan never panned out because the Thai regime was ousted in a military coup.

from Columbia Water Center:
According to the EPA, the Gowanus Canal was “the repository of untreated industrial wastes, raw sewage, and surface water runoff for decades, causing it to become one of New York’s most polluted waterways” and that

“Numerous sampling events have shown the sediments in the Gowanus Canal to be contaminated with a variety of pollutants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic contaminants (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, and metals. PAH concentrations were found to be as high as 45,000 milligrams per kilogram (4.5%) and the contamination was found to traverse the entire length of the canal. Many of the detected contaminants are known carcinogens.”

Or, more tersely, “The Canal has been heavily contaminated throughout its existence. No environmental remediation has been undertaken to date.”

from Columbia Water Center via Green Home NYC

This is the paste that is half way through the process of turning chickens into chicken nuggets.

“Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this.

There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color.”
Early Onset of the Night via gizmodo ->

Iceburgs: multipurpose architectural placeholders until developers resurrect their projects.

“With the economy on hold, there are lots of good (and some bad) construction projects currently frozen mid-construction, leaving a glaring rip in the urban fabric. As Woods Bagot New York Principal Jeffrey Holmes traveled to work every day, he contemplated these voids and wondered what could be done to make them more attractive and useful until developers resumed their projects. What he came up with is an urban ‘Iceberg‘ made of recycled and recyclable materials that could be easily installed and would serve as a temporary and flexible space for any number of uses.”

More: Inhabitat & Bustler.

The DeMilitarized Zone between North + South Korea is to be turned into a protected wildlife zone.This is one of the rare areas that has been left completely untouched for 50 years and is home to several endangered species like to Korea Tiger and Asiatic Black Bear. While only 2 miles wide, it provides a 155 mile corridor for animals to move freely.

CNN published a series of photos by photographer, Choi Byung Kwan.

“I gradually realized during my work that the Korean DMZ was not only a valuable source of irreplaceable natural life but also a historical site reminding humanity of the preciousness of peace,” Choi says.

“I thought many times that this buffer zone deserved serious international attention as a possible world conservation site, which could naturally facilitate peace in the Korean peninsula.” -CNN

via Treehugger + CNN

Its a nice reminder to realize that mother nature can still shut down the airspace over a whole continent.