Yet more weirdness from the metaverse. Firstly, you can now view meteorological data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association in real-time from a location in Second Life – which could be useful for checking if it’s raining outside without having to turn away from the flatscreen. Secondly, and in case that’s a little too ‘meatspace’ for you, go check out a new ecosystem simulation which has an open API that allows you to create your own critter and add it to the foodchain. I just wish I had enough time in my life to spend a few hours a day playing god…

Seed thinks science fiction might be more than entertainment for pre-teens. A recent spate of science fiction that imagines a world warped by climate change can help envision the future that might be, and the path to avoiding it.

There are plenty of examples of technologies thought up by science fiction authors long before they were even plausible as real products – so much so that there’s a site dedicated to keeping track of them. Well, here’s another one for the list. Frank Herbert’s classic novel Dune featured a life-support system called a ‘still-suit’ which enabled its wearer to survive the ferocious arid desert climate of the planet Arrakis by recycling all bodily fluids in a closed system. It seems the NASA brainstormers thought that was a pretty elegant idea, and are basing a prototype ISS system on the same theory.

So now Home Depot is offering solar installations. You can sign up for a consultation online. [treehugger]

Any marketeer worth his salt will tell you that kids are an easy mark – they don’t look beyond the surface of what you’re selling. This may be the rationale behind a Scottish school’s adoption of biometric palm-scanners as a payment system in the school cafeteria – the kids are stoked with the novelty of the James Bond-esque procedure. Mind you, this attitude may well change once the devices are rolled out as planned to control classroom access and keep tabs on attendance figures. Oh well – start ’em young, as the saying goes.