Lifestyle - StumbleUpon. We will never tire of the positive effects of nature. Its calming, soothing and inspiring influence will never go out of style. The more we rush, the more time we spend indoors staring at our screens and devices, the more urban our lifestyles become, the more we crave and need time away from it all. It has been amazing to follow the newest solutions to the old dilemmas: How to bring more green space to cities; how to reclaim underused urban land for recreational and other "green" uses; how to provide more and more people the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of spending time in nature.
Lately, we have seen fantastic examples of how designers and architects, urban planners and citizens' organizations have accomplished both large and small-scale projects, from bringing a bit of greenery, and open space to otherwise bleak surroundings, to large-scale neighborhood-changing undertakings. Getting back to nature is not a new phenomenon. Northern Lights: Breathtaking images of the aurora borealis over the Arctic circle. By Daily Mail Reporter Updated: 19:28 GMT, 1 February 2012 They are one of Earth's most stunning natural spectacles. Few people are lucky enough to see the Northern Lights which paint a breathtaking colour backdrop across the wilderness of the Arctic circle.
The nightime display could be seen across Scotland, Canada, Norway and even the north-east of England last week after the biggest solar storm in more than six years bombarded the earth with radiation. One flyer caught the natural phenonmenon, called aurora borealis, as it lit up the wings of a transatlantic Air Canda flight. Scroll down for video Spectacular: An aeroplane's wing is lit up by the Northern Lights. Natural beauty: These rare green and blue northern lights were photographed over the city of Grundarfjorour in Iceland Eerie: A green aurora appears over Svalbard in Norway, an area close to the north pole which is shrouded in darkness for much of the year The magnetic field forces the particles toward the north and south poles.
36 Jaw-Dropping Nature Photos - StumbleUpon. - StumbleUpon. Can Earth Look Any More Gorgeous Than This? (Answer: No) - StumbleUpon. Japanese Fight Giant Jellyfish Invasion With Jellyfish-Infused Space Candy. A raw caramel craze is sweeping Japan. At the same time, fishermen in the Sea of Japan are tormented by invasive swarms of Echizen Kurage (Nomura's jellyfish), a giant jellyfish that weighs up to 450 pounds and measures two meters wide. A group of enterprising students at Obama Fisheries High School (located in the Japanese town of Obama no less!)
Have brought together these disparate phenomena by developing a sweet and salty caramel made out of sugar, starch syrup, and jellyfish powder, which is produced by boiling jellyfish into a paste and grinding it into tiny particles. The students capture Nomura's jellyfish in fixed fishing nets from a lake in Fukui prefecture, an area plagued by the swarms. The Obama students aren't content with just producing a a jellyfish caramel treat. Previous to producing space caramels, the Obama students developed jellyfish-infused cookies, dubbed "Ekura-chan saku-saku cookies. " Nomura's Jellyfish captured in fixed nets [Via Pink Tentacle] Rainy season brings glow-in-the-dark mushrooms. 24 May 2006 With the arrival of Japan's rainy season, a mysterious type of green, glow-in-the-dark mushroom begins to sprout in Wakayama prefecture. The Mycena lux-coeli mushrooms, known locally as shii no tomobishi-dake (literally, "chinquapin glow mushrooms"), sprout from fallen chinquapin trees.
As they grow, a chemical reaction involving luciferin (a light-emitting pigment contained within the mushrooms) occurs, causing them to glow a ghostly green. The luminescent mushrooms were long believed to be indigenous solely to Tokyo's Hachijojima Island after they were discovered there in the early 1950s. In 1995, however, mycologists found the fungus growing wild in coastal areas of the southern Kii peninsula, as well as in Kyushu and other areas.
The mushrooms thrive in humid environments, popping up during Japan's rainy season, which typically lasts from the end of May to July. [Source: Mainichi Shimbun]