From battery covers to bird houses

This nesting box was once a Chevrolet Volt battery. It was designed especially for the endangered scaly-sided merganser in China. A few months after it was installed, a merganser hen and her eleven chicks moved in.

General Motors has made a lot of these, and they have lasted some very harsh winters and many squirrel attacks. The old batteries came from prototype cars, were damaged in assembly, or were used during training exercises. Instead of sending them out to a landfill, GM reuses them to provide shelter for bats, ducks, and birds.

The project was inspired by GM global waste reduction manager John Bradburn's personal experiences with nature. John, who grew up building nest boxes in his youth, said: "Once I saw the Chevy Volt battery cover in our plant, I knew it would make a good nest box. To test the idea five years ago, I built a prototype and within two weeks, I had a hen hooded merganser nesting in it."

I don't think there's an old battery cover lying around here somewhere, but I hope I can create something really nice for the chirping dozen of sparrows that always come around my front yard to hang out, feed and play.

Comments

If you're into vintage erotic art, follow Cold Meat

It's not just the pictures of celebrities in skimpy outfits that makes Instagram interesting. But if those are the only people you follow, then you are missing out. The social media platform is full of some of the most talented artists of the moment, but one account that truly caught my eye is cold___meat , which is dedicated to vintage pictures of BDSM art and erotica. The account has been cancelled several times, but it's alive and kicking and is showing no sign of slowing down. Dazed recently interviewed Daryl, the mysterious founder of Cold Meat, to learn more about his background, his fear of another shutdown, and his mission to make "formerly clandestine and underground erotica available to a wider audience." A photo posted by Darryl (@cold___meat) on Oct 31, 2015 at 1:11pm PDT A photo posted by Darryl (@cold___meat) on Nov 6, 2015 at 8:35am PST A photo posted by Darryl (@cold___meat) on Jul 22, 2015 at 7:17pm PDT ...

Living Small, Feeling Infinite

Everyone likes a house with light. We like fresh air. We like the sun. This is the simple choice of any sane person. And this house in Osaka proves you can live small without feeling small. According to designboom , the site is only 45 square meters. It is narrow—just 2.73 meters wide. Yet inside, it feels anything but cramped. The architects skipped heavy walls and chose to build with transparency instead. A grid of full-height openings, framed in aluminum and glass, creates a rhythm of light and reflection. The result is a a home that breathes. Sometimes, living beautifully just means letting the sun in.

Meet Gary Hug, the backyard astronomer

The small shed behind Gary Hug's home in Topeka, Kansas looks like an ordinary barn. But at night, the structure becomes an observatory, which he built himself. Gary has so far discovered 294 asteroids (according to Wikipedia ) and has tracked countless others. Check out this interview from Great Big Story , a YouTube channel dedicated to the "untold, overlooked and flat-out amazing."

finding cain

Search This Blog