In Pure Spirit

For open minds

LastTissue: Save 2 litres of water each time you blow your nose

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LastTissue is the latest idea from a Danish company trying to save the world. We chop through millions of trees and pollute millions of gallons of water just for yucky disposable tissues.

Is there a better way?

[Back this Campaign]

Every year 8,000,000 trees are felled just for American sneezes alone. That kills of habitat and therefore wildlife. At the same time, trees are no longer there to soak up the carbon emissions that are destroying the atmosphere.

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The company behind LastTissue is LastObject, and they have a mission.

In Pure Spirit

Is LastTissue a good idea, or is it just a yucky gimmick?

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The mystery of the Crooked Forest

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The Crooked Forest is as strange as it is beautiful. Growing in Poland, just outside of Nowe Czarnowo, there’s some 400 weirdly bent trees.

These photographs from Kilian Schönberger reveal the alien trees.

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No one is quite sure how – or why – these trees are bent like this. People may have persuaded them to grow this way, using tools and techniques, so the wood from them would be better suited to boat building or furniture but that’s speculation. Fire, flood and other natural events like heavy snowstorms that might have weighed down young trees are also suggested.

The truth is – we haven’t yet solved this riddle.

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What do you think caused the Crooked Forest?

In Pure Spirit

What’s the strangest unsolved mystery that you know about today?

This is amazing: a living, breathing church grown from trees

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Whether you’re a fan of organised religion or of garden supplies this living, breathing and beautiful church grown from trees and planets in New Zealand should appeal.

The coverage is simple, but will get better with time and the landscape is stunning. Could there be a better place to think and contemplate the bigger picture?

In Pure Spirit

In the comments below why not share some of the most beautiful churches you know about or have visited?

The floating tree illusion

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Okay, although you can see the wrinkles this illusion is simple and surprisingly effective. It was created by spraying paint onto foil and then wrapped around a tree outside Potsdam.

The painting was done by Daniel Siering and Mario Shu.

In Pure Spirit

Do you have any favourite illusion videos on YouTube? Why not share the links in the comments below.

Tree spirit carvings

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Have you noticed the Weirwood in Game of Thrones? These are the trees with white bark, blood coloured leaves and heart trees are a type of Weirwood that have had a face carved in them.

Artist Keith Jennings carves his own trees. He calls the project “Tree Spirits”.

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In Pure Spirit

What do you think of the tree spirits? Art? Mystical? Or are you worried the trees might be harmed?

You can see more at My Modern Met.

The science: this is how trees survive the winter

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There are some awfully cute trees in this video from Minute Earth. Cute trees and some handy knowledge about different types of trees. Watching this animation might make you think about a similar program from Minute Physics that talks about the difference between evolution and natural selection. Trees evolved to survive in the winter.

In Pure Spirit

Are you surprised at how adaptable trees are or how fragile they are at times?

What’s your top tips for any would-be gardeners trying to grow a tree in their garden? What keeps them safe?

Gods and spirits projected onto trees

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The Cambodian Trees project uses digital projection to bring deities and spirits from Cambodian culture to life as an overlay on urban trees.

The projected spirits are the work of the French artist Clement Briend. He notes;

It’s a beautiful surprise when the projected spirits awaken and reveal themselves at night as though they are made of the towering trees themselves. The photographic light installations echo the spirituality of the few sprouts of nature in the predominantly urban landscapes. It is a visual imagining of the divine figures that inhabit the world, as seen through an environmentally aware spiritual eye.

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In Pure Spirit

What do you think of the project?

Is this art or is anything digital less than impressive? Could such technology have any impact on the presentation or respect these ancient spirits have in Cambodian culture?

Spirit in the trees

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Spirit in the Trees

This is one picture from a collection of photographs showing a remarkable tree cut. It was taken by Daniel Morgan, who lives in San Francisco, and wrote on this blog;

Has anyone seen anything like this in tree cuts? I was pretty freaked. The first lady may resemble my mom if I squint. Perhaps her spirit animal entered the tree during a watering one afternoon.

It may be the case that the discoloration in the heartwood is nothing more than a serious infection. A systemic fungal infection called Verticillium wilt could be the cause of the effect when combined by the tree’s natural reaction to try and compartmentalize the damage and grow healthy tissue within it.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Fungal infection … or something else?

The chilling beauty of frozen trees on the shore

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These fantastic photographs of frozen trees on the shores of Lake Ontario are the work of Timothy Corbin. You can see more at his Flickr account.

Corbin was born in Trinidad but now lives in East Ontario, Canada and avoids protraits and wedding photography in favour of landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes as well as cars. With photos like this it’s easy to see why that was the right choice.

In Pure Spirit

Have you ever seen trees frozen like this before? Let us know where in the comments below.

Disclosure

This blog discusses ideas and causes. Urban myth and history combine here. In Pure Spirit covers stories from elsewhere on the web and may make fair use clippings and quotations from the original source.