Japan’s 1,000-Year-Old Cherry Tree Blossoms Again

In Japan’s Miharu (a town in the Fukushima Prefecture), a 1,000-year-old cherry tree continues to blossom. While there are no tourists flocking to see it this year, the tree—known as the Takizakura—is as glorious and mesmerizing as ever for those who live nearby. One such individual is Sidafumi Hirata, who has visited the tree since his childhood and is now at the helm of a …

This Glove-Like Device Encourages Lucid Dreaming

Though still in development trials, the new “Dormio” device invented by MIT researchers shows potential for aiding lucid dreaming—or more specifically, hypnagogic microdreams. Using the “steel ball technique” (popularized a century ago and used by Salvador Dalí and Thomas Edison) as a starting point, the team built a biometric glove-like device that identifies the onset of sleep, and subsequently attempts influencing oncoming dreams based on …

Touring Shel Silverstein’s Fanciful Former Houseboat

In Sausalito, California’s picturesque Richardson Bay, children’s book author Shel Silverstein’s former houseboat floats on the waters like a ramshackle wonderland that only his imagination could dream up. Inside the 1,200-square-foot WWII-era balloon barge, old meets new as reclaimed architectural features and colorful stained-glass windows jostle with contemporary upgrades. See more photos at Apartment Therapy.