More stories by soniaydong

All images via fickleflickers

Get creative and practice the art of paper folding by using up measly dollar bills or foreign currency souvenirs you've got lying around the house to create money origami masterpieces featuring famous people wearing all manner of headpieces from around the world.

Image: Martin_Heigan

The biodiversity on this planet is just astounding. Even with loss of habitat and the threat to flora and fauna, there is still so much to uncover and appreciate. Here we've gathered just a few interesting specimens of plants and fungi for you to discover. Some are more common while others are super strange, and to make things even more interesting for you, they all resemble animals and human body parts.

All images via Wooster Collective

A visit to Isreal may now include explicit stops at the open underground tunnels of Tel Aviv, where artists Bar & Shay have been hard at work installing colourful lights to the once dull underpasses.

Image: left-hand

We humans love to take pictures of animals. Most of the time these pictures elicit many an "oooh" and an "awww", and exclamations of cuteness. But what about the animals and how they're feeling when we decide to invade their space and point flashbulbs in their faces? Well, it seems that sometimes our furry friends really don't appreciate our paparazzi ways and fight back by refusing to sit pretty.

Image: Don Bartletti

In the dusty, hot land between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California, the U.S. Border Patrol faces regular attempts by Mexican drug smugglers trying to enter the land of the free quite illegally. To make matters worse, the ever-changing sandy landscape makes it difficult for even the most watchful guard to say where the border actually lies, especially when fences are constantly being buried by dunes.

Image: Green Roofs

Green roofs have been around for centuries in Northern Scandanavia, but they’ve really only become a popular trend in the last few decades. Recognized now for their ability to reduce the urban heat island effect while also reducing heat loss and energy consumption in winter months - among many other benefits - green roofs are really taking off, all around the world. And these aren’t just your average pieces of sod plopped on top of a building, either.

All images via the Paris-Beijing Photo Gallery

Artist Ju Duoqi loves to play with her food by using vegetables to re-create famous historical scenes and form familiar self-portraits. Carefully chosen and painstakingly positioned by Ju, potatoes, ginger root, tofu, cabbage, onions and cucumbers all come to life as actors instead of eats. The Last Supper gets a whole new meaning when the supper – and those eating it – are edible too.

Image: Walter Rodriguez

Like deer caught in headlights or moths to a flame, these wolves are doomed. It's almost like the artist took a snapshot of them in time, just as the front runners of the huge pack meet with a clear glass wall that painfully stops them in their tracks.

Image via Pink Tentacle

The future looks both bleak and bright according to Kenji Yanobe. The artist's visions come to life with a huge, fire-breathing robot Torayan, colourful orange-clad men, children in a very different kind of kindergarten class and many more thought-provoking works.

Image via Inhabitat

Spring has sprung, and so have all the umbrellas!

Image: Earth Hour Global

The bright idea of Earth Hour resulted in a good kind of darkness in Sydney, Australia in 2007. Since then, the yearly event to turn the lights down low (and preferably off) to raise awareness about climate change and the perils of unchecked greenhouse gas emissions has become a worldwide observance. Over 4,000 cities in more than 80 countries took part in this year's event on March 28.

All images via Holcim Foundation

Avid skiers may soon find a shining new example of sustainable shelter on their next trip to the Swiss Alps. The Monte Rosa Hut, developed by the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) and winner of Holcim Awards Bronze 2008 Europe, is an alpine shelter that uses state-of-the-art technology to self-sufficiently produce energy, collect water and treat both solid waste and waste water - all at 2,883 m above sea level.

Image Edmund Sumner via Inhabitat

The art of tea drinking was fiirst introduced to Japan in the 9th century by the Buddhist monk Eichu upon his return from China. Over the centuries, tea drinking became ingrained in Japanese culture; in the 13th century it was a status symbol for the ruling warrior class, and by the 16th century, the custom had trickled down to all walks of life.

All images via Trendir

Cross-country road trips could become a thing of the past if the designers at Kingsley Architects have anything to say about it. The UK firm's modern twist on the camper van has resulted in a compact, earth-friendly floating home that efficiently uses the sun's rays as its power source.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGhkQqs-6qQ&eurl[/youtube]

Here's something to try out the next time you want to have some fun in the sun - water skidding. Yes, we do mean skidding, not skiing. It's like walking on water, except that you're moving much faster and traveling on your behind.