firehose

In the wild, plants are part of a larger environment, or at the very least anchored firmly in the ground or a body of water. To some extent, an ordinary terrarium creates a micro-environment in which a plant or animal can live. By contrast, Japanese brand [10¹²] Terra turns the terrarium into a kind of picture frame, showcasing plants in a stark, modernist wire-frame cube. The create hydroponic environments for shrubs, cacti, and other varieties of flora: the plant itself is anchored into one box, which slides into a smaller box that holds the water for easier maintenance. The brand itself is named somewhat enigmatically after "the number of cells produced per day," though we're not sure precisely which cells creators Daisuke Tsumanuma and Kenichi Yamada are talking about, and the boxes start at 10,500 yen (around $105), but so far, shipping options appear limited to Japan.

Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio show best known for his scathing diatribes against liberals, women seeking birth control coverage from their employers, and African-American quarterbacks, took a break from his usual politically-oriented commentary last week to tackle another subject near and dear to his heart: tech blogs. "As you know, I spend a lot of time as a hobby reading high-tech and gadget blogs," he began, before proceeding to describe a unique theory combining his interest in tech and politics: that tech bloggers are biased against Apple, just like the mainstream media is supposedly biased against the Republican Party.

"Apple is the equivalent of the Republicans."

"I would venture to say that nine out of 10 bloggers writing high-tech hate Apple," he said on his radio show last week. "Apple is the equivalent of the Republicans on these blogs, and Google, Android, and Samsung are the equivalent of the Democrats. They're perfect, they can't do anything wrong, they're ideal, and everybody hates Apple." As evidence of his point, Limbaugh said that lately, he'd begun to see pro-Apple bloggers attacking the coverage of other tech reporters for "faking data, faking news to make it look bad for Apple when it really isn't." He didn't cite any specific blogs or bloggers by name, but perhaps Limbaugh was referring to John Gruber of Daring Fireball and Jim Dalrymple at The Loop, two bloggers with unabashed love for Apple, who often call out what they see as an anti-Apple slant, even when there is none.

"some of these blogs have actual websites."

However, Limbaugh was clear that he didn't think that the small minority of what he considers pro-Apple bloggers actually vote Republican. "This entire universe of tech bloggers is probably liberal Democrat, in their politics," he theorized, also adding: "most of them think they're young and hip, pop culture hip, that's high-tech, of course it would be." He sought to convey to listeners that tech blogs are surprisingly professional these days: "There are journalists there, some of these blogs have actual websites, they publish as online newspapers, and the people that work there are, in their own minds, journalists," he explained. But he also offered a "teachable moment" to us tech reporters: "would you try to open your eyes and see that in the mainstream media, the Republican Party is Apple, and the Democrat Party is Samsung, Google, and Android[?]" At The Verge, we've gotten Limbaugh's message loud and clear, and we can promise our coverage will remain unaffected.