Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house perhaps demonstrated, better than has ever been demonstrated, a principle that is part of the legal system in Switzerland: the principle that plants have dignity. We strongly urge you to watch the performance. CNN reports: Barcelona opera house reopens with performance to 2,292 plants It’s not uncommon for […]
Tag: plants
Of talking plants (and paperclips) [study]
Microsoft – the company that created ‘Clippit’ (a.k.a. ‘Clippy’) the conversational paperclip, is continuing its research into non-human communication – with a project that encourages talking with plants. “If plants could talk to us, what would they say? Equally important how might they respond to us if we could converse with them?” – asked a […]
The benefits of watering plants with Club Soda (study)
“We used six Helzine [sic] soleirolii, commonly known as Baby’s Tears, plants to conduct our experiment. The plants were divided into two groups, A and B. Both groups were placed in the same amount of sunlight and given the same soil. The plants were fed according to florist instructions. However instead of plain tap water, […]
Sharp shaped vegetation lifts property prices (new study)
Residential property owners who want increase the sale price of their property can try a new way of adding value – plant some palm trees out front. See: ‘Money in your palm: Sharp shaped vegetation in the surroundings increase the subjective value of houses.’ Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 46, June 2016, Pages 176–187 “We […]
Effects of the Watergate hearings on the growth of pea plants
It’s always a good time to take another look at Peter Del Tredici‘s experiment: the effects of the Wategate hearings on the growth of pea plants:
PotPet – potted plants which follow you and ask for water
“PotPet acts autonomously like pets: it automatically moves to sunny places or approaches people when it requires water.“ Details of ‘PotPet: Pet-like Flowerpot Robot’(from Ayumi Kawakamim Koji Tsukada, Keisuke Kambara and Itiro Siio at Ochanomizu University, Tokyo) were published in Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, January 22–26, 2011, Funchal, […]
The new opera about each and every species of life
A new opera, called “The Best Life“, will premiere next week — as part of the Twenty-Fifth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Here’s the story line of “The Best Life“, as explained in the program that will be handed to all 1100 audience members in Harvard’s Sanders Theatre: The story: It’s the day before the greatest competition […]
Dignity and intelligence of plants
Plants not only have dignity, as enshrined in Swiss law and explained in the pamphlet The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants. Plants are intelligent, in ways some humans are slow to recognize. That first notion was honored with the an Ig Nobel Peace Prize, the second notion is explored in a new book called Brilliant Green: The […]
Eating plants – is it wrong?
Vegetarians sometimes get challenged with questions along the lines of “If you think it’s unethical to eat animals, how about plants, maybe they have feelings too?” What are the ethical implications of/for a pea in a bowl of pea soup for example? Just such a question has been considered by Michael Marder, who is Ikerbasque […]
Introducing a concept: Hortiporn
What is Hortipornography? We can do no better than consult the word’s coiners – Dr. Paul Hewer, now Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Strathclyde University, Scotland, and Professor Douglas Brownlie, at the University of Stirling, Scotland, who originated the term in their paper ‘Constructing Hortiporn: On the Aesthetics of Stylized Exteriors’ (in: Advances in Consumer […]