2008-01-29

Build a Hackintosh

You can build your own "Hackintosh"—a PC that runs a patched version of OS X Leopard. A few clips from posts in Lifehacker.com which show you how to build your own high end computer running Leopard from start to finish for under $800.

clipped from lifehacker.com

Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

OSx86

OSx86 is a collaborative hacking project to run the Mac OS X computer operating system on non-Apple personal computers with x86 architecture processors. The effort started soon after the June 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference announcement that Apple would be transferring their personal computers from PowerPC to Intel microprocessors.

OSx86 is a portmanteau of OS X and x86. A computer built to run this type of Mac OS X is sometimes known as a Hackintosh, which is a recycled term originally denoting the modified Lisa 2/10 running Mac System.

clipped from lifehacker.com

The Hardware

clipped from secure.newegg.com

clipped from lifehacker.com

UPDATE: Building your Hackintosh just got a lot easier. After you build your system using the hardware I've listed in this article, here's how to install OS X on your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required.

clipped from lifehacker.com

Install OS X on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required

Now that you're BIOS are set, it's time to install.

PicLens -- Browser Add-On

PicLens, a browser add-on which enables rich, full-screen slideshows that goes beyond the confines of your browser window

clipped from www.piclens.com

Think beyond the browser

PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen slideshow experience. PicLens makes photos come to life via a cinematic presentation that goes beyond the confines of the traditional browser window. With PicLens, browsing and viewing images on the web will never be the same again.

clipped from www.piclens.com

Using PicLens

Step 1. To use PicLens on supported sites, simply mouse over an image and click the PicLens button that fades in.

Step 2. PicLens will automatically jump into a "3D Wall" of images, where you can then scroll and zoom into images, jump back to the corresponding webpage, and even toggle into full-screen mode.

Step 3. Once in full-screen mode, you can sit back to watch a slideshow or skip to any photo by clicking it.

Polar Bear Cub Flocke (video)

Pictures and a video of polar bear cub Flocke (Snowflake) born by polar bear Vera at the zoo in Nuremberg Jan. 21, 2008.

clipped from news.xinhuanet.com

Polar bear cub Flocke

A handout picture shows polar bear cub Flocke (Snowflake) born by polar bear Vera at the zoo in Nuremberg Jan. 21, 2008. Flocke was separated from her mother Vera after officials at the Nuremberg zoo became concerned she might harm the cub. Now four keepers at the zoo are taking care of the cub, who needs milk every three hours. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

clipped from news.xinhuanet.com

2008-01-28

The Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Super Highway

The ‘Hydrogen Super Highway’. A zero emission hydrogen super highway with fully integrated solar powered hydrogen production and distribution with a high speed magnetic levitation public transit network. The first leg is slated for construction in Michigan in 2008.

clipped from www.interstatetraveler.us

Welcome to the Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Super Highway! Let's ride the Hydrogen Super Highway into a better cleaner safer faster and more exciting future while producing and distributing hydrogen to filling stations all along the US Interstate Highways... Say good bye to fossil fuels and hello to Hydrogen!

Ultimately, we are
creating a massive functional upgrade to the efficiency
of the United States public infrastructure as a whole by
implementing a nested
domain address system for a National Public Transit
Network.

Our vision is this: To mass produce a unified public conduit system
that can be installed anywhere at the lowest possible cost, the highest possible
quality, with the greatest efficiency, built from the most resilient materials
and is pollution free.

'Life on Mars'

A Chinese website has posted the first sighting of Martian life in the form of a mysterious figure caught on camera by NASA's Spirit rover. Below a few clips from the news media about this remarkable discovery.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk

Mystery image of 'life on Mars'

An image of a mysterious shape on the surface of Mars, taken by Nasa spacecraft Spirit, has reignited the debate about life on the Red Planet.

clipped from cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com

NASA via MSNBC

CLICK FOR VIDEO
MSNBC's Willie Geist
reports on the latest
enigma from Mars.

The "Mermaid" is hard to see in the original pictures from NASA,
so this picture helps you get oriented. The enigmatic feature is within the
red circle in this picture. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Some people take this seriously, however - hinting darkly that NASA is covering up evidence of alien life. So it's a good idea to try to figure out just what the feature is. As usual, Emily Lakdawalla does a great job of collecting the evidence on the Planetary Society blog.

clipped from www.theregister.co.uk

Spirit discovers life on Mars

In fact, the Red Planet's first confirmed inhabitant features in this panorama snapped by Spirit back in November last year. We've marked the approximate position of the extraterrestrial with an arrow:

clipped from www.ibnlive.com

Porting the Power of KDE to Windows and OS X

KDE, a well know Desktop environment for Linux, will become available soon also in a version for Windows and OS X. That will enable users of Windows or Mac, to run popular KDE application like the Amarok Jukebox, the KOffice suite and more.

clipped from blog.wired.com

KDE Sets its Sights on Windows, Mac OS X

KDE isn't just for Linux anymore. With the recent release of KDE 4, the K Desktop team has set their focus on porting the core libraries that power KDE applications over to both Windows and OS X. Although still in the early stages, there are already builds available for both platforms that will enable you to compile and run popular KDE application like the Amarok Jukebox or KOffice suite on either Windows or Mac, and KDE's goal is to have production-ready versions out later this year.

KDE 4.0 recently came out of beta (see our previous coverage) and during a KDE event at Google’s headquarters on Jan. 18, Aaron Seigo, KDE project lead said that the plan to take KDE cross-platform is “potentially one of the game-changers” for KDE.

2008-01-27

Unusual Art from Everyday Materials

Art projects that involve covering, cladding, sculpting and decorating with simply sticky pieces of paper.

clipped from weburbanist.com

More Unusual Art from Everyday Materials: 16 Post-It Note Pranks, Sculptures and Murals

wall of notes

a classic video game

passers by were encouraged to contribute to the wall by writing their to-do lists

smothering an office with sticky notes

“Cloud” a Digital Sculpture in Heathrow Terminal 5.

A digital sculpture for British Airways Heathrow Terminal 5, whose surface is covered with flip-dots that can be individually addressed by a computer to animate the entire skin of the sculpture.

clipped from www.thinkartificial.org

Created by Troika, an art and design studio in London, “Cloud” is a digital sculpture housed at the luxury lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5. It’s a smooth-shaped object suspended in the air, covered with 4638 “flip dots” - motorized metal patches that change orientation to produce various patterns.

clipped from www.youtube.com

clipped from troika.uk.com

TROIKA // TROIKART / TROIKA DESIGN / TROIKA COMMUNICATIONS / news / about / clients / press / contacts /

clipped from troika.uk.com

The sculpture is located in Terminal 5 in the atrium hall which leads to the British Airways First Class Lounges. The brief from British Airways was open and simple: to create a signature piece that will mark the entrance of the First Class Lounges and signify the transition between the busy shopping floor and the calm and serenity of the lounges.

2008-01-26

Motorola -- Rollable Phone

A recently published patent filing by Motorola describes a cellphone technology that could allow the display to fold or roll away. This will allow in future the design of smaller and still usable phones.

clipped from www.unwiredview.com

Foldable/ rollable phone from Motorola

The design of the mobile phones is always a fight between two opposite objectives - portability and usability. The more small and portable the device becomes, the less usable the user interface can be.

Well. Motorola has an interesting idea what to do about that. In a patent application “User Interface System” it describes a concept of mobile phone with rollable display and/or keyboard.

clipped from appft1.uspto.gov

Abstract

A user interface system (102) for a portable electronic device (100) is disclosed. The user interface system includes an interface (202) that is made of a flexible material and has an active position and an inactive position. The interface is coupled with a reservoir (204). The reservoir is used for storing electrorheological fluid (206). The user interface system also includes a source (208) that is coupled to the reservoir. The source is used for applying an electric field to the electrorheological fluid when the interface is in the active position.

Bionic Eye -- intraocular camera for retinal prostheses

Researchers at University of California L.A have developed a camera to be implanted directly on the eye’s lens that feeds image data to a chip at the back of the eye.

clipped from www.wipo.int

(WO/2007/130686) INTRAOCULAR CAMERA FOR RETINAL PROSTHESES

An intraocular camera for retinal prostheses may include an optical imaging system comprising a set of optical elements for forming an image of the external world on an image sensor array, wherein the optical elements and the image sensor array may be enclosed in an implantable biocompatible housing that may employ haptic elements for stabilization within the eye. The set of optical elements may be designed to have a short focal length and to provide adequate resolution images that can be transformed into a set of stimulation signals applied to a pixellated microstimulator array. Transmission of the signals from the intraocular camera to a microstimulator driver circuit may be accomplished either by a wired or wireless communication device. Power and control signals may be provided to the intraocular camera by a wired or wireless communication device, or optically by means of ambient illumination or an optical beam.

Solar Panels on the Roof in New York City

Solar City

New York Times' columnist Jim Dwayer, about the first private coop to use arrays of solar panels on the roof of apartment buildings.

(Solar) Power to the People Is Not So Easily Achieved - New York Times

2008-01-25

US Recession Fueled by Low Wages and Consumer Debt (video)

Leo Panitch, a Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto about the fundamental connections between current economic crisis and consumer debt.

clipped from www.foxnews.com

U.S. Consumer Credit Card Debt May Crash Economy

In fact, on the national level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that aggregate U.S. personal income in 1990 was $4.9 trillion. In 2003, it was $9.2 trillion. The rate of growth? 188 percent — pretty far off from the 350 percent growth in credit card charges.

clipped from www.iht.com

Bowring: Profligacy is America's problem

There is a direct connection between easy credit in the United States, Wall Street irresponsibility, consumer excesses, unsustainable trade imbalances, the return of global inflation and the worldwide asset price boom.

clipped from www.latimes.com

Good for borrowers, bad for savers

If you're in debt, the Fed rate cut could give you immediate relief. If you bank up your money, it'll grow a lot slower.

clipped from therealnews.com

US recession fueled by low wages and consumer debt

Leo Panitch: Weakening of unions and global pressures on US wages a major factor (1 of 2)

SpaceShipTwo

clipped from ap.google.com

Virgin Galactic Unveils Spaceship

British billionaire Richard Branson, left, and the aerospace designer Burt Rutan unveil a model of SpaceShipTwo, right, the vehicle they hope will be able to take passengers on suborbital joy-rides, just for the fun of it, with test flights beginning as soon as this year, during a news conference in New York, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008. At top is a model of White Knight Two, the mothership for Space Ship Two, which is now under construction at a hangar in the Mojave Desert. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

clipped from www.popularmechanics.com

clipped from www.virgingalactic.com

IPS -- Indoor Positioning Systems

clipped from www.sciam.com

A Positioning System That Goes Where GPS Can't

Indoor positioning system technology uses radio, ultrasound or infrared signals to more precisely track locations where GPS signals are blocked

Global positioning system (GPS) technology—now found in everything from cars to wristwatches—has become increasingly popular over the past few years for tracking location. But it has its limits—most notably, roofs, walls and floors that shield satellite signals and keep them from locating GPS receivers indoors.

clipped from www.sonitor.com

The Sonitor ultrasound indoor positioning system (IPS) automatically tracks precisely by room the real-time location of moveable equipment and people in complex indoor environments.

The Sonitor IPS represents a robust, virtually fail-safe, yet simple tracking solution to your complex challenge.

clipped from www.sonitor.com

The Ultrasound Advantage

The Sonitor system uses ultrasound as its means of communications. Ultrasound has several desirable properties that make it ideal for this application.

clipped from www.sonitor.com

LAPCAT -- Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts

From Brussels to Sydney in about 2 to 4 hours

clipped from www.esa.int

LAPCAT logo

Overview

Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies

To reduce the travelling time of long-distance flights, e.g. Brussels to Sydney, in about 2 to 4 hours, advanced propulsion concepts and technologies need to be developed. This requires a new flight regime with Mach numbers ranging from 4 to 8. At these high speeds, classical turbo-jet engines need to be replaced by advanced airbreathing engines.

clipped from www.reactionengines.co.uk

LAPCAT - Configuration A2 Vehicle

clipped from www.reactionengines.co.uk

“...to reduce long-distance flights, e.g. From Brussels to Sydney, to less than 2 to 4 hours. Achieving this goal intrinsically requires a new flight regime for commercial transport with Mach numbers ranging from 4 to 8.”

clipped from www.reactionengines.co.uk

LAPCAT - Scimitar Engine

clipped from www.reactionengines.co.uk

Image Library - LAPCAT

Config A2 on Ground 1

Config A2 Takeoff

Config A2 In Flight 1

Config A2 In Flight 2

Config A2 Size Comparison 1

Config A2 Size Comparison 2

2008-01-24

Poisons to heal (video)

Deadly Venoms Could Hold Powerful Cures

Deadly scorpions, lethal cobras and black widow spiders are normally reason to worry - these creatures are dangerous and their venom kills. But now scientists are learning revolutionary ways to use these poisons to heal. Venom, for example, is being synthesised into medicines that kill human pain.

APTN | Planned Coverage | USA: Cone Snail Venom

The USB powerstick

Power up any device as fast as if it was plugged into the wall.

Charges your portable device as fast as a wall charger. The Powerstick™ takes 90† minutes to charge and provides you double your talktime or audio playback on most popular devices.

POWERSTICK :: fueled by Ecosol

CarPC NeO — A 7-inch Car PC

clipped from tech-buzz.net

Introducing CarPC NeO — A 7-inch Car PC

clipped from tech-buzz.net

Here’s an application that will soon render your portable devices like laptops, palmtops, and UMPCs redundant in a car. Well, almost!

SEE-ON Technology, a Korean-based R&D company, recently unveiled its 7-inch car PC, ‘CarPC NeO‘, during the recently concluded CES 2008 in Las Vegas.

clipped from www.see-on.com

2008-01-23

Microsoft patents worker monitoring system (2)

clipped from technology.timesonline.co.uk

Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely
monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.

clipped from angelahayden.blogspot.com

Microsoft's Electric Shock System for Sleepy Workers

I recommend that they add a system that can shock sleepy workers. I can't tell you how many times the guy in the next cubicle falls asleep and snores on the job. He also makes too many body sounds and always has a running nose. His sniffling is driving me crazy. Microsoft should do something about quelling body noises.

Perhaps, Microsoft could just hook workers up to a urine bag and a feeding tube and they could work continuously without any breaks. I also hate thinking on the job so Microsoft should just put a brain implant in workers so they can daydream all day while their brain is doing work.

Inspirational Quotes

clipped from leftofzen.com

Top 100 Inspirational Quotes

Ralph Waldo Emerson

8. People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Friedrich Nietzsche

13. He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Albert Einstein

19. Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Mark Twain

23. Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.

Mahatma Gandhi

39. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Winston Churchill

49. I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

Aristotle

Hope is a waking dream.

Voltaire

55. Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

Henry Ford

63. You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
Zig Ziglar

Truman Capote

76. Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.
Roy Goodman

KiteGen -- Wind Power from High Altitude Troposphere

Uses kites instead of propellers, theoretically producing as much energy as a nuclear power plant

Kite Gen vision is to implement and market an entirely new concept of power plant, suitable to almost any territory, for the production from renewable source of electrical energy cheaper than from fossil fuels (petroleum, coal, gas), directly competing with present day conventional GigaWatt installations.

The energy source, currently untapped and available anywhere, is the powerful altitude wind of the troposphere, channelled through arrays of large tethered power kites cruising at an altitude of 800 / 1 000 m, whose movements are electronically controlled by highly sophisticated sensors and proprietary software.

The power kites are anchored to a revolving structure on a vertical axis at ground level, which conveys the energy thus generated.

Kite Gen

via: KiteGen - Rivaling Nuclear Power For Global Electricity Consumption - Ecofriend
related:
KiteGen - Rivaling Nuclear Power For Global Electricity Consumption - Ecofriend
loveOrganics » Blog Archive » Kite-Powered Generator to Rival Nuclear
Kite Gen
Kite Gen - F.A.Q.
KWG project

Apple Air versus Asus Eee: A Comparison

clipped from www.devindra.org

Macbook Air
Asus Eee
Size
(H x W x D)
0.16” - 0.76” x 12.8” x 8.94” 1.38″ x 8.82″ x 6.5″
Weight 3lbs 2lbs
Display 13.3″ LED-backlit LCD 7″ LED-backlit LCD
CPU 1.6-1.8Ghz Core 2 Duo 900Mhz Celeron Mobile
RAM 2GB 512MB
Hard Drive 80GB 1.8″ (or 64GB solid state flash) 2-4GB solid state flash
OS Mac OSX Leopard Custom Linux Distro
Price $1799 $300-$400

After comparing the Macbook Air and the Asus Eee, it’s clear that Apple’s new notebook is not that great of a value compared to Asus’s surprise hit. The Air wins in overall sex appeal, raw horsepower, and a bigger screen. At the same time, the Eee is simply a more practical machine for those who only need a secondary machine to word process and browse the internet on the go.

2008-01-22

Microsoft patents worker monitoring system

clipped from technology.timesonline.co.uk

Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely
monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.

clipped from appft1.uspto.gov

Monitoring system

Abstract

The invention relates to a stand-alone video recording, playback and
Monitoring system. It has network switches, non-volatile storage devices,
IP cameras, video servers, and NTSC cameras. The system uses
communication channels that are WAN/LAN based and can be hard-wired or
wireless and has a flexibly implemented watchdog to detect, for example,
hardware and power failure as well as other failures in the system.

clipped from www.foxnews.com

Labor unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer's assessment of their physiological state.

Wireless sensors could read "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure," the application states.

SuperBot -- Modular, Multifunctional and Reconfigurable (videos)

clipped from www.isi.edu

SuperBot

SuperBot is a new type of robots that are modular, multifunctional, and easily reconfigurable. Its modules can be dynamically configured into different robots to fit the user's needs. For example, it can crawl, walk, roll, climb, carry, fetch, or survey. The reconfiguration and module exchanges are easy and do not require any special knowledge or training. Such robots are economic because a single robot can provide diverse behaviors and can be changed frequently. This is ideal for home campanions, search and rescue, security, surveillance, and so on.

clipped from www.youtube.com

SuperBot

clipped from www.youtube.com

Superbot - A fully morphing modular robot

clipped from www.youtube.com

SuperBot Walking

clipped from www.youtube.com

SuperBot rollingtrack

clipped from www.youtube.com

SuperBot Sidewinder - Amazing

clipped from www.youtube.com

SuperBot t-swim

Via: Mizzouse.com » Amazing Robot Rolls, Climbs, Walks, Slithers, And Swims (Videos)
Related: Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory
WIRED NEXTFEST

The Most Horrifying Bugs in the World

clipped from www.cracked.com

The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World

Japanese Giant Hornet (vespa mandarinia japonica)

It's the size of your thumb and it can spray flesh-melting poison.

Bullet Ant (Paraponera clavata)

It's a full inch long, it lives in trees and thus can and will fall on you to scare you away from its hive--the one you didn't know was there, because it's in a fucking tree. Before it does this, it shrieks at you.

Africanized Honey Bee (Apis mellifera scutellata)

They give you half a second of being too close before they decide it is time to completely fuck your shit up and empty the entire hive--tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of angry, angry bees.

Army or Soldier Ant (Eciton burchellii)

There are reports of animals the size of horses being overwhelmed and shredded by them.

Bot Fly (family oestridae, genus and species varies)

The larvae can grow anywhere in your body, it just depends on where the eggs wind up.

2008-01-21

Camera Mobilephone Controlling Computers In 3D

clipped from www.techlivez.com

Software Prototype: Camera Mobilephone Controlling Computers In 3D

UK researchers have a developed a software prototype that will use bluetooth of the camera enabled cellphone to control the computer as if its a three dimensional mouse. See this as a Wii controller(sort of) controlling your computer moving and manipulating onscreen items simply by moving,waving the handset infront of you desktop PC.

clipped from technology.newscientist.com

The software makes it possible to move and manipulate onscreen items simply by waving a handset around in front of a screen, a bit like the motion-sensitive Nintendo Wii controller.

The computer translates the phone's movement and rotation in three dimensions into the actions of an onscreen cursor. It possible to use the phone like a 3D mouse, interacting with objects by pressing the phone's buttons or rotating the phone.

A paper on the prototype set-up will be demonstrated at the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications in Madeira, Portugal later in January 2008.

The Liger (video)

A cat born from the breeding of a male lion and a female tiger

The liger is a cat born from the breeding of a male lion and a female tiger. This combination produces an offspring with more lionistic features than if the reverse pairing had occured. That would produce a more tigeristic creature known as a tigon. Both are members of genus Panthera.There is no scientific name assigned to this animal because of it’s human assisted ancestory.

Liger.org - Liger Pictures

9 Inch Touch Screen Eee PC

clipped from www.techlivez.com

Asus To Develop 9 Inch Touch Screen Eee PC

This second generation Eee UMPC from Asus will come in three screen sizes, 8, 9 and 10 inches, but its only the 9 inch ones getting the touch screens.

clipped from www.digitimes.com

Touch panel component makers sampling for future Eee PCs

The 9-inch touch panel-equipped Eee PCs will adopt four-wire resistive touch screen technology. The expected bill of materials (BOM) to add touch panel functions is under US$15 , the sources said.

Although the list of panel partners for the new-generation of Eee PCs has not been finalized, the sources said Asustek will give preference to Taiwan-based vendors. Some industry players estimate that shipments of touch screen Eee PCs will only reach several hundred thousand units in 2008. They noted that if shipments for a specific configuration are too low, not only will the benefits from production scale be limited, but also yields will be affected.

2008-01-20

Massive gas field detected

clipped from www.centredaily.com

A deep reservoir of long-hidden natural gas, stretching from New York through Pennsylvania and into West Virginia, could pump more than $400 billion into the Mid- Atlantic economy and push the U.S. toward energy independence, a Penn State researcher has found.

Penn State Geosciences professor Terry Engelder shows the natural hydrolic fractures that occurred in a sample of shale. Penn State Provided Photo

clipped from www.nextenergynews.com

"Conservatively, we generally only consider 10 percent of gas in place as a potential resource," says Engelder. "The key, of course, is that the Marcellus is more easily produced by horizontal drilling across fractures, and until recently, gas production companies seemed unaware of the presence of the natural fractures necessary for magnifying the success of horizontal drilling in the Marcellus."

Hybrid Electric Power -- Ultracapacitor / Battery

clipped from alfin2100.blogspot.com

Ultracapacitor -- Battery: Hybrid Electric Power

Combining the high energy density of batteries with the high power density of ultracapacitors, provides a better power profile than either alone.

clipped from jcwinnie.biz

Battery / Capacitor Combined Energy Storage

Speaking of incorporating ultra caps into the electric drive, I recently learned from Mike Millikin¹ that PML Flightlink put 350V worth of 11 Farad ultra capacitors into its Mini QED prototype. The ultra capacitors accept power from regen braking and discharge when high current is required for acceleration.

clipped from www.autobloggreen.com

Ultra-capacitor/li-ion battery "hybrids" being developed in China

Maxwell Technologies and Tianjin Lishen Battery, hybrid describes a new sort of energy storage product that combines ultracapacitors with lithium-ion batteries. The two companies recently announced they would partner up to produce this hybrid power source, and samples should be available early next year, possibly in EVs.

clipped from www.theaustralian.news.com.au

CSIRO battery promises cheaper hybrids

About: Japan's Mount Fuji

clipped from www.thethinkingblog.com

9 Smashing Trivia Bits on Japan's Mount Fuji

8) Mount Fuji is a Sacred Mountain and is the Symbol of Japan

Mount Fuji 5000 Yen bank note.

7) Mount Fuji is NOT one of the Tallest Mountains in the World

Look closer and 'Fuji-san' is less than sanitary

6) Mount Fuji isn't a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Trash spoiling Japan's Sacred Mount Fuji.

5) Historically, Mount Fuji has been Off-limits to Women

Mount Fuji poster.

4) Mount Fuji is Privately Owned

3) Mount Fuji is an Active Volcano

Mount Fuji volcanic activity.

2) What Would Happen if Mount Fuji DID Erupt?

Mount Fuji city scape.

1) Mount Fuji in Traditional Art - Tsunami Waves?

Mount Fuji Wave Japan

Article by Steve Levenstein from Inventor Spot. Steve writes about weird and wonderful Japanese innovations on a regular basis and you can catch up on current & previous examples at his blog. Submit your thoughts - click here

2008-01-19

The 2008 Space Elevator Beam Power Challenge

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

A space elevator would consist of a cable anchored to the Earth's surface, reaching into space.

clipped from www.spaceward.org

Welcome to Elevator:2010's annual climber competition.

clipped from www.universetoday.com

Looking for an exciting challenge, as well as a way to try and create easy and affordable access to space? The 2008 Space Elevator Beam Power Challenge has been announced by The Spaceward Foundation, and competitors have the chance at a $2 million top prize. And don’t think the picture included here is complete science fiction. Meteor Crater in Arizona is one of the sites being considered for the competition, which consists of climbing a vertically suspended tether using power beaming technology.

The Beam Power Challenge event is tentatively set for September 8, 2008. The objectives for the 2008 competition are climbing a tether 1 kilometer in height, at 5 meters per second minimum speed, for a prize level of $2M.

ChaCha Smartens Cell Phones (video)

ChaCha is a people powered search engine that uses paid guides to find search results for you. It also has a regular automated search engine. Users who want to use guided search must first create an account. Once logged in, users can chat with guides asking them any question. Guides will engage you in conversation from time to time, but will usually just offer you links to sites that they think will help you.

A Human-Powered Search Engine

ChaCha: search + brainpower | Simple Access, Better Answers

via: ChaCha | CrunchBase Company Profile
related:
Building a better search engine, one answer at a time - ChaCha Results
ChaCha: A Human-Powered Search Engine - ReadWriteWeb
ChaCha: 90% Pranksters

Principles for Good Design

Back to purity, back to simplicity

clipped from gizmodo.com

When you look at the Braun products by Dieter Rams—many of them at New York's MoMA—and compare them to Ive's work at Apple, you can clearly see the similarities in their philosophies way beyond the sparse use of color, the selection of materials and how the products are shaped around the function with no artificial design, keeping the design "honest."

clipped from www.designmuseum.org

Dieter Rams

Industrial Designer (1932-)
Selector for 25/25 - Celebrating 25 Years of Design
29 March - 22 June 2007

Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design helps us to understand a product.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is durable.
Good design is consequent to the last detail.
Good design is concerned with the environment.
Good design is as little design as possible.
Back to purity, back to simplicity.

2008-01-18

Contact Lenses with Mobile Phone Display

clipped from www.textually.org

Contact Lenses Could Project Mobile Phone Displays Directly into the Eye

Imagine walking down the street and as your mobile phone rings, the name of the caller suddenly appears floating in the air in front of you. That is one of the possibilities offered by a new contact lens which incorporates electronic circuits which can create a type of heads-up display, right within the eyeball. Cellular News reports.

"Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

clipped from www.cellular-news.com

A researcher holds one of the completed lenses

Contact lenses with metal connectors for electronic circuits were safely worn by rabbits in lab tests

Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there, Parviz said.

emWave Personal Stress Reliever

clipped from www.livesciencestore.com

emWave Personal Stress Reliever

Ride the emWaves to serenity and strength

emWave Personal Stress Reliever
Ride the emWaves to serenity and strength
• Relieve stress anywhere, any time with this compact portable system
• Experience better overall health with lower stress
• Preserve the peace of those around you by being a beacon of serenity
• Empowers you but does not put you to sleep

• Far better than an MP3 music player packed with annoying music

$199.95

gOS Screenshots

clipped from www.tuxmachines.org

tuxmachines.org

gOS Screenshots

Earlier this week Everex launched the gPC TC2502, which is a sub-$200 PC sold at a major US retailer, but what makes this unique is that it runs the gOS. The gOS (GreenOS) is designed to be a conceptual Google Operating System that is based upon Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.

Though this is not the conventional GNOME desktop environment but an Enlightenment E17 desktop is used that is heavily modified and reflects a green Google theme. The gOS provides easy access to Google services such as YouTube, Google Product Search, Google Calendar, and Google Maps.

clipped from www.phoronix.com

2008-01-17

NASA's MESSENGER mission

clipped from www.nasa.gov

MESSENGER Mission to Mercury

Messenger's First Look at Mercury's Previously Unseen Side

Current Missions
Messenger Mission to Mercury
Launch
Media Resources
Multimedia
Spacecraft & Instruments
Team
Mission Timeline
Why Mercury

clipped from messenger.jhuapl.edu

A NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet

Why Mercury?
The Mission
Gallery
Education
News Center
Science Operations

Beating Heart Created In the Lab

clipped from www.medgadget.com

Researchers Create Beating Heart In Lab

Professor Doris Taylor and his team at the University of Minneapolis have done the impossible. They have successfully "built" a beating heart in the lab, an organ potentially suitable for autologous transplants, at least for rats and pigs in whom the research was conducted.

Video: Researchers create a new heart in the lab

clipped from www.nature.com

Rat organs can be stripped of their cells and regrown to pump blood.

Rat hearts, stripped of their cells by detergents, have been used as a scaffold to engineer a bioartificial heart, which can amazingly pump a little like the original organ.

With further development, the method may one day be used to repair heart damage or even generate new hearts for transplantation. Cell-free hearts from pigs, for example, could serve as scaffolding to grow a heart with human cells, researchers say, because pig hearts are of a similar size and complexity to human hearts.