7.1-magnitude quake strikes off Solomon Islands

A powerful earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands on Sunday, but a monitoring agency said a tsunami was not expected.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.1-magnitude quake hit southwest of the island chain's Kira Kira island in the South Pacific. The temblor's epicenter was about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Honiara.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says a destructive wave is not expected. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The Solomon Islands is a country of nearly 1,000 islands that lie on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.


David Mikael Taclino
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Eight of the world's strangest houses

As more and more people rebel against ticky-tacky, cookie-cutter homes, options are growing for more unique, satisfying dwellings.
Popular Mechanics' Chris Sweeney recently created a great list of 18 of the world's strangest homes. And though there are arguably some even stranger ones out there (the toilet-shaped home, for one, or the coral castle), one of the things we like about Popular Mechanics' list is a strong focus on sustainability.
The Popular Mechanics collection focuses on designs that think outside of the box and approach sustainability from a holistic perspective. Some include recycled materials, but recycling itself isn't usually the central theme.
You don't have to live in a house built out of discarded tires, bottles, or vehicles to "go green." There are many ways that we can all go green in our homes, no matter what they look like or where they are located. Switching to more efficient light bulbs and appliances, trying out energy monitoring devices, and boosting insulation are a few examples.
For the greenest of Popular Mechanics' strange houses, look below:


Photo: Courtesy of Free Spirit Spheres

Free Spirit Spheres

Looking like something from Star Wars, suspended tree houses known as Free Spirit Spheres excite the imagination. Made by Tom and Rosy Chudleigh from British Columbia, the "tree houses for adults" are handmade from local wood.
The spheres are recommended for meditation, photography, canopy research, leisure, wildlife watching and other activities, and they can be ordered fully loaded with plumbing, electricity and insulation. Some are available for rental, and DIY kits are offered. They reportedly sway in the wind.




Photo: www.arquitecturaorganica.com

The Nautilus House

Perhaps what Gaudi would have envisioned if he were asked to decorate a sea shell, the Nautilus in Mexico City was completed in 2006 by architect Javier Sensonian of Arquitectura Orgánica. Sensonian practices what he calls "bio-architecture," and has designed buildings shaped like snakes, whales and other living things.
The Nautilus was built for a young family who wanted something that felt more integrated with nature, and it is filled with lush vegetation. The front door blends into the colorful mosaic facade.




Photo: RobertBruno.com

The Steel House

One glance at the fantastical Steel House, and you'll never forget it. Designer Robert Bruno wanted it to look somewhere between animal and machine, and we think he succeeded. The unique home is perched on a bluff near Lubbock, Texas, and minimizes disruption to the area by resting on top of four skinny legs.
Steel is long-lasting and highly recyclable, so green builders have been giving it a second look in recent years, especially for roofing. Inside, the Steel House looks more H.R. Giger than Martha Stewart, and it doesn't look like the most practical living space, but it definitely is thinking outside of the four-walled box.




Photo: dRRM Architects

The Sliding House

In a final form that quite closely resembles the the Barn House by Belgian architectural and planning firm BURO II (which reworks an existing barn), London-based dRRM Architects created the Sliding House in Suffolk, England.
This unique dwelling is designed to be flexible, allowing the owners to take advantage of fluctuations in light and temperature, maximizing energy savings through passive heating and cooling. The 20-ton outer shell can be retracted in six minutes, revealing an inner layer that's mostly glass. It's like layering up in clothing!




Photo: Gigaplex Architects

Montesilo

At Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri, residents cobbled together a livable two-bedroom apartment from an old grain bin. Considerably more upscale is the attractive Montesilo in Woodland, Utah, finished in 2006 by Gigaplex Architects.
The Montesilo was made by joining together two corrugated grain silos, and it has a modest, space-efficient size of 1,800 square feet. The home sits in a gorgeous natural setting, near the Provo River, and the ample windows and balcony help bring the outdoors in.




Photo: Christian Patterson for Popular Mechanics

Amory Lovins' House

Leading green thinker Amory Lovins of the venerable Rocky Mountain Institute lives in a gorgeous home in Old Snowmass, Colorado, that costs a miserly $5 per month to power, thanks to passive solar design, 16-inch-thick walls, xenon-filled windows, and a pair of wood-burning stoves. The home is festooned with solar panels, and there's a passively controlled greenhouse that yields tropical fruit.
Begun in 1982, the house was way ahead of its time, and has recently been updated with LEDs, the latest energy-monitoring technology, and other green tweaks.




Photo: Future Systems

222 House

The remarkable 222 House in Wales leaves a nearly nonexistent footprint on the region's southwest coast. According to designers Future Systems, "The soft, organic form of the building is designed to melt into the rugged grass and gorse landscape, the roof and sides of the house being turfed with local vegetation."
Completed in 1994, the bathroom and kitchen are prefabricated pods that were lifted into the site during construction. The home needs little energy input due to the natural insulation of the ground.




Photo: Wikipedia Commons

Bubble Dream Castle

The space-age Bubble Dream Castle in southern France, near Cannes, was begun in 1975 by Antti Lovag. Inside, the livable sculpture resembles a set from vintage Star Trek, but with more light, since the windows are designed to take advantage of Mediterranean sun.
One of the goals of the visionary designer was to unify the home with its natural surrounding, by bringing outdoor elements inside. Today, the complex boasts 10 suites decorated by different artists, a reception hall seating 350, an outdoor auditorium, and a massive garden.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
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Voting begins in Sudan's historic elections

Sudanese across Africa's largest country voted Sunday in their first competitive elections in nearly a quarter century despite partial boycotts by the opposition and calls to delay the vote.
In Khartoum, turnout was lighter than expected in the first few hours of voting, aside from a few enthusiastic supporters of President Omar al-Bashir. Security was tight around polling stations and trucks loaded with uniformed security were deployed around the capital.
The elections, which will run through Tuesday, are an essential part of a 2005 peace deal that ended the north-south war that killed 2 million people over 21 years. They are designed to kick-start a democratic transformation in the war-plagued nation and provide a democratically elected government to prepare for a crucial southern referendum next year.
But two major political parties, including the southerners, decided to pull out fully or partially from the race, saying the process lacks credibility and was flawed from the start.
They called for a delay of the vote to address their concerns. The government refused.
Many of Sudan's 16 million registered voters, especially in the south where the war raged, have never experience competitive elections before.
"I have never voted in my life," South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said after casting his vote in a polling station in Juba, the southern capital. Kiir arrived exactly at opening time, but the voting station was not yet open and he had to wait outside for nearly an hour before he could cast his vote.
Kiir said he wished these elections laid the ground work for democracy in the country where military coups have been recurrent.
Sudan's President al-Bashir, who came to power in a military coup in 1989, also cast his vote in Khartoum. It is the first time he is running for re-election in a multiparty race.
More than 800 international observers descended on Africa's largest country to observe the fairness of the contests, with the largest group from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's organization. He toured a polling stations in Khartoum at the start of the day.
"I think (opposition parties) want to see a peaceful transition and peace in this country, so I don't think there is any party that is threatening at all any disturbance or violence or intimidation of voters," he told reporters. "So we do expect and hopeful and believe there will be a peaceful election."
The opposition has made a series of complaints — that the National Election Commission is biased to the government, the ruling party has used state resources in the campaign, the number of polling stations nationwide was cut in half from 20,000, making it harder for those in remote villages to cast ballots.
"This is the first time that the party that carried out a coup organizes elections," said Sarah Nugdallah, the head of the political bureau of the Umma party, a major northern opposition group which is boycotting.
Some 16 million people will vote for over 14,000 candidates for everything from president to local councils. Experts said the elections are among the most complex in the world, where voters in the country's north have to cast eight ballots; while southerners cast a dozen votes. A hot line for voters has been set so they can inquire about where to cast their vote.
Voting took place amid heavy security and police have issued stern warnings that no disturbances will be tolerated on election day. Though the day is not a holiday, many shops in Khartoum were closed Sunday.
In the ravaged western Darfur region, rebels have called for a boycott of the election since a state of emergency exists and fighting continues.
Since 2003, this vast arid region has been the scene of a bloody conflict between the Arab-led government in Khartoum and ethnic African rebels. At least 300,000 have been killed and millions driven from their homes.
Election posters lined the few paved roads of the regional capital of al-Fasher, showing pictures of al-Bashir, the "strong and honest leader," and inciting voters to choose the "powerful party."
Essam Mohamed, a 28-year old resident of al-Fasher, said he is still waiting to see how peaceful the process is before going to cast his vote. He said mainly women, who are not working, have turned up to vote.
"It is still the beginning. Not a huge showing yet," he said. "I think these elections are important because we want to change local officials. But we are uncertain if that is possible. It is like a watermelon. We won't know until we open it."
In Khartoum, Amal Saleh, a housewife in her 30s, said she voted and expects al-Bashir's party to garner most of the votes.
"I spent no more than three minutes inside the center," she said. "I am not a ruling party member. But I think it will win...We know them better than others."

David Mikael Taclino
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Astronauts take 1st spacewalk of shuttle mission

A pair of spacewalking astronauts disconnected an old empty ammonia tank outside the International Space Station on Friday and got a new one ready to put in its place.
In the first of three spacewalks needed to complete the job, Clayton Anderson had no problem taking apart the ammonia lines on the old tank. But he needed a pry bar to remove the new tank out of space shuttle Discovery's payload bay. The tank got hung up on a bolt.
"Go nice and easy, Clay," spacewalking partner Rick Mastracchio warned as Anderson pushed and prodded with the pry bar. After several tries, the tank finally came free. "We got it!" Anderson called out.
The two men lifted the 1,700-pound tank out of Discovery and handed it off to a robot arm, which maneuvered it to a temporary storage location at the space station.
The actual swap-out of the two tanks will take place during the second spacewalk Sunday, with the entire effort wrapping up on the third and final outing Tuesday. It will be "a big juggle" with the tanks, said David Coan, Mission Control's lead spacewalk officer.
Besides the tank work, Mastracchio and Anderson collected a science experiment from the space station's Japanese lab and replaced a failed station-positioning device.
Then the game plan changed. Instead of tackling battery work, they focused on hoses and clamps. Astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, directing the spacewalk from inside, urged the men to go slow because of the switch.
Mastracchio and Anderson were originally scheduled to work on old batteries on the far left end of the space station, along the sprawling power truss. But based on new findings, NASA canceled the task this week because of concern the two might get shocked. The job instead will be carried out on the next shuttle flight, once the spacesuits are better protected.
There were a few tense moments early in Friday morning's spacewalk when Mastracchio reported that he bumped a large V-shaped bar in the shuttle payload bay and it was sliding around. He said it did not appear to be off its mooring. Mission Control later said engineers were "pretty convinced" it was normal for the clamp to move around a bit, but as a precaution, warned the spacewalkers to stay away from it.
The V-shaped bar serves as a guide for the cargo carrier that flew up on Discovery and was attached to the space station Thursday. The compartment was unloaded by some of the 11 astronauts inside, as the spacewalk unfolded 215 miles up.
As the 6 1/2-hour spacewalk drew to a successful close, Mastracchio noted there was lot more distance to cover, moving hand over hand, than the last time he worked on the space station in 2007. The orbiting outpost has grown considerably since then.
"Like a marathon with your arms," Metcalf-Lindenburger observed.
After the spacewalkers were back inside, one of them joked, "Of course, she's a former teacher, so we do exactly what she tells us, otherwise she might rap our hands with a ruler." That prompted a big laugh from Metcalf-Lindenburger, one of only a few educator-astronauts.
Later in the day, as expected, mission managers approved a one-day flight extension for Discovery.
Discovery and its crew of seven will remain at the space station until April 17, a day longer than planned, because of the failure of the shuttle's main antenna. NASA wants the shuttle astronauts to inspect their ship for any signs of micrometeorite damage before they depart. That way, all the laser images can be transmitted to Mission Control through the station.
That stretches the shuttle mission to 14 days, with a landing on April 19.
As for the inspection conducted the day after Monday's liftoff, no significant launch damage was found in those images or in any of the other data, officials said.
Only three shuttle missions remain after this one to wrap up space station construction.

David Mikael Taclino
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Afghan president urges Taliban to air grievances

Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged Taliban insurgents on Sunday to lay down their arms and air their grievances while visiting a violent northern province, adding that foreign forces would not leave the country as long as fighting continued.
In the country's south, meanwhile, a bus carrying Afghans working for a U.S.-supported demining group was struck by a roadside bomb in Kandahar province Sunday, killing five workers and wounding 13 others.
Also Sunday, NATO said an Afghan soldier shot and lightly wounded a Polish soldier with whom he had been arguing. The Afghan soldier fled after the shooting and was being sought by Afghan and international forces.
NATO also reported a member of the international security force was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. No other details were given in keeping with standard procedure.
Addressing a gathering in Kunduz province, Karzai repeated his standing invitation to meet with any insurgent who renounces violence and terrorism and embraces the Afghan constitution. Karzai's outreach has so far done little to stem the violence, while sometimes confusing efforts to decisively defeat opponents on the battlefield.
"Come, no one will stop you. Come and have your say, not by the gun," Karzai said.
"You say that 'foreigners are here.' As long as you fight, they won't leave," he said, referencing what the insurgents say is their main goal of driving foreign forces from the country.
Karzai's visit followed his accusations of foreign interference that put a strain on ties with his main backer, the United States, although both sides have since indicated they wished to put the tensions behind them. While referring vaguely to "a little foreign interference," Karzai offered none of the bluster of recent days, in which he had threatened to join the Taliban if the West didn't stop pressuring him to fight harder against graft, cronyism and electoral fraud.
Security has been deteriorating in Kunduz for the past two years, particularly since the opening early last year of a route through the province for supplies traveling from Europe through Russia and down to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
Taliban fighters last week killed three German troops based in the area, and Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense reported Sunday that three Afghan soldiers were killed and three others wounded Saturday in the province.
NATO has mainly been concerned with security in the country's south, having just completed an assault on the Taliban in Helmand province and gearing up for a push into the group's spiritual heartland of Kandahar.
However, Kunduz governor Mohammad Omar told reporters the situation in his province was even more dire and required a monthlong military operation to prevent the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies from taking over. Omar said a Taliban commander in the neighboring province of Takhar vowed to conquer Kunduz within the year.
In the latest blow to crucial demining efforts in Afghanistan, the bus belonging to the Demining Agency for Afghanistan was struck early Sunday in Kandahar province, according to Mohammed Ibrahim, chief of medicine at Kandahar Hospital.
It wasn't clear if the blast was random or specifically targeted the demining agency, known as DAFA, which receives more than half its funding from the U.S. State Department, according to its Web site.
The group clears mines across southern Afghanistan that are a legacy of 25 years of near-continuous warfare and continue to kill scores of Afghans each year.
The unidentified Pole shot Saturday night at a joint command center in the eastern province of Ghazni was transferred to a medical facility for treatment, according to a NATO spokesman in Kabul, speaking on routine condition of anonymity.
The Ghazni base is headquarters of the 2,600 Polish troops stationed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO effort to root out Taliban remnants and extend the central government's remit into rural areas.
While rare, Afghan troop attacks on international forces risk damaging the trust between Afghan police and soldiers who work side-by-side with their foreign mentors on training and combat missions. An Afghan soldier killed a U.S. service member and wounded two Italian soldiers in December in the western province of Badghis, about one month after a rogue policeman in Helmand province shot and killed five British soldiers.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the shooting resulted from an argument, but details weren't immediately known. He said both had pulled weapons and fired. The whereabouts of the Afghan soldier weren't known, Azimi said.
"It seems to have been a fight and the soldier was operating on his own," Azimi said.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said the Afghan soldier had escaped, killing four Afghan soldiers in the process, and was now with the insurgents. The claim could not be verified, and the Taliban has a history of making false and exaggerated claims.
Also Sunday, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemari Bashary said investigators were questioning three Italian medical workers detained the day before as part of an investigation into an alleged plot to kill the governor of Helmand province. They were among nine people held after suicide bomb vests, hand grenades, pistols and explosives were discovered in a hospital storeroom in Helmand's capital Lashkar Gah.
Emergency, the Milan-based organization that runs the hospital, has denied involvement in any plot.
Bashary said the investigation would proceed cautiously in recognition of the work done by Emergency, which has provided health services in Afghanistan since 1999.
Emergency has had a tense relationship with local authorities in violence-wracked Helmand, due in part to its policy of treating all patients, including those who may be Taliban.
Helmand's governor, Gulab Mangul, alleged Saturday that Taliban insurgents had paid hospital authorities $500,000 to kill him, but Bashary said the ministry could not confirm that charge.

David Mikael Taclino
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