Of course he's just doing it to impress the girls, but he gets big props for building the flying machine himself, and having the guts to try it out personally.

Soaring and gliding at up to 185mph, Rossy may have the ultimate view up in the sky ... but he can't enjoy it - "I am so concentrated, I don't really enjoy the view".

He plans to cross the English Channel in his wings when they are further developed.

Filed under: personal flight, jet, and rocket

Take a tour of the Blue Whale from its eye on..

Note that you can span over the image like Google Maps does, or click on parts of the small whale icon on the upper right of the screen.

Filed under: blue whale and nature

I thought this was an intriguing idea to help make the bird lovers' house less messy and the cleaning situation less chaotic.

But would it work in practice?

And what do you think the bird thinks? African Greys (see picture) are intelligent.

D

Filed under: african grey, bird, and diaper

Pots and pans built the city, rugged cookware, and a foreground looking oddly like a real cooktop. I love how this artwork evokes the city of San Franscisco while at the same time being fresh, new and science fictiony.

Filed under: san franscisco, art, cookware, and sculpture

The GEN H-4 Personal helicopter brings the old sci-fi idea of a individualized jetpack to life.

We look forward to testing on May 25th.

Amazingly enough, even before this test flight, the helicopter is on sale for the relatively modest (by aviation standards) price of $58,250. They have sold six units, two here in the USA.

With a top speed of 31mph, I'm not sure how useful this thing is, but I salute the brave and slightly masochistic people who decide to purchase it.

Filed under: helicopter, personal, and flight

I normally try to post positive, uplifting stories on amazing.com, but this one's close to my heart.

Martin Eberhard, founder of Tesla Motors, is not being treated well. He was kicked out of the company by financier Elon Musk, despite having attracted numerous fans as the company's open and genial public face. Martin created the whole conception behind the company.

During the employment negotiations, he was promised Roadster #2. Even after his firing, he recommitted his order for Roadster #2 and was told it would ship as the second production prototype.

Tesla appears to have broken that promise by shipping serial number 3 to a happy new owner but #2 has yet to leave the Lotus factory on its leisurely way to the US.

The whole shameful story is at the link. Not so amazing, but an interesting clash of egos over what is still said to be a wonderful car, well worth your interest ...

if the company survives long enough to build it for you.

Filed under: Tesla, Tesla Roadster, and Martin Eberhard

An ex girlfriend of mine was a real Brickhound, so I know exactly how this person feels.

But this made it up to amazing because of this:

9. Agree That the World Would Be Better If Totally Made of LEGO
How simple life would be. A couple of tiles came off your roof? Buy them from the LEGO store, then go up a ladder and clip them back on again. Kids, we're going to build a swimming pool this weekend. A leaky one, but still, a swimming pool. No, honestly. Imagine, if the world was made out of LEGO you would just be able to unclip rogue states from the globe and dismantle them before putting them back in the cupboard, and then the world would just be a safer place. And what if everyone's hands were shaped like those of the LEGO figures? Well, you wouldn't get any work done, for a start.

> by David H Dennis    comments (none)    permalink

Thinking up clever ideas to promote your business?

It might be a good idea to check out this list of strange marketing ideas gone mad, to see what not to do.

Featuring apparent bomb threats, the Zune and a bizarre Olympic stunt.

Filed under: guerilla marketing

There are hidden energy gluttons in your house ... and they are so inconspicuous you don't even know they're around you.

They are computers, printers, VCRs and other appliances in "sleep mode" that still consume precious power while staying ready to serve you. The chart at the link has a list of each appliance and how much energy it generally consumes.

It's no small matter - collectively, these sleeping appliances amount to about 10% of total energy usage.

In the future, these low wattage vampires may lose their sting thanks to technology being developed by Rohm. Their new chips use no power in standby, helping save your energy bill ... and give our long-suffering planet a breather.

Stuff was everywhere, and the good stuff was gone missing. This was the view when thieves took about $5,000 worth of electronics, including a Macbook computer, from a home.

The victim, though, was smart. She used her computer's Back to Mac feature to check out the files on the machine, and activate the camera to take pictures of the perps.

Astonishingly, the perps were people who she had invited to a party a few weeks ago and so they were rapidly identified, and her property was recovered. (One of them is pictured on the left).

See, sometimes it really pays to be computer savvy!

Filed under: computer, theft, and recovery

How much fuel do you have left when that pesky reserve light goes on?

Tankonempty.com will tell you, complete with votes, stories and more good stuff.

Unscientific but very interesting.

Filed under: gas, energy, and tank

Including butterflies big as birds, and a stick insect people keep as pets.

Of course the Giant Burrowing Cockroach is considered one of the best insect pets ... because it can't get out of its cage, having no wings!

Filed under: insects, biggest, and animals

This clip, from WGBH's NOVA, shows various electric car alternatives including Click and Clack's sadly brief drive in a Tesla Roadster.

For those who are not aware, the Tesla is the world's first production electric sports car, an amazing feat of derring-doo and engineering. Over a year late, Teslas are only now starting to dribble off the assembly line in agonizing slowness, but at least they are coming.

The film seems to have been back in the good old days when Martin Eberhard was in charge, since he is featured and it looks like both Martin and the Brothers were driving prototypes.

Filed under: tesla motors, sports car, click and clack, wgbh, and tesla

Well, this is certainly a radical approach to green motoring.

This peculiar looking vehicle has a horse inside, which runs a treadmill, which generates electricity, which runs an electric motor to drive the car.

In other words, it is a one horsepower animal/electric hybrid vehicle. Top speed is a surprising 50mph (80kph) but sadly this is rarely achieved. You are more likely to get a sedate 12mph (20kph) out of it.

Well, as gas prices get higher, why not?

Filed under: horsepower, naturmobil, car, and hybrid

Canon, like most companies, uses some very sophisticated chips in their cameras, which can be trained to do things the manufacturer never intended, including imitating features normally associated with much more expensive cameras.

Simple firmware updates, described in the link, can really change your idea of what a cheap little camera can do.

Filed under: camera, point and shoot, digital, and features

A little eye candy for your Monday - a beautiful slide show allowing you to feast your eyes on the beauty of the underwater world.

The fish is a Queen Angel, one of the most beautiful fishes in the sea. You could keep on in a very large salt water aquarium setup.

Filed under: reef, fish, wrecks, and underwater

Tired of seeing gas prices do nothing but rise, day by day?

You can do something about it. It's a bit geeky and complex, but in this video Gavin Shapiro walks you through the process, showing you how the car is converted and how you can run your vehicle on used vegetable oil, normally discarded by restaurants.

Basically, you take the oil, filter the old meat peices out of it, and put it in a special tank. You can then use it directly as a motor fuel, but only after your engine has warmed up, since the oil does not flow properly until it's hot.

The video gives you a good idea of the conversion process and driving experience.

So running your car for virtually $ 0 per mile is possible ... it just takes a little work. Well, as long as you get, or can get a diesel car.

Filed under: veggie oil, vegetable oil, driving, and fuel

Just a quick celebration - Microsoft has given up on its takeover offer for Yahoo.

I am relieved. I always thought that was about the stupidest idea ever, and it appears that even Ballmer may have figured it out.

Some are saying that they are just waiting for the price to go down to pounce again ... so we shall see.

Oddly enough, I expected the Yahoo stock to tank, but it's still up for the day. I wonder what this means, since Yahoo is already at about the price of the last offer Microsoft made for it. So why isn't it crashing?

D

Filed under: microhoo, yahoo, and microsoft

What's it like to prospect for oil, where a balmy day is -11degF, and your only companions are the frozen wastelands?

This article tells us about the current situation in Alaska: Dwindling reserves and people searching for crumbs of oil in the vast inhospitable place.

ANWR, unexplored thanks to Acts of Congress, beckons ... I would love to see it explored and more oil found. After all, the Alaskans want it and shouldn't they control their own destiny?

Filed under: alaska, oil, and exploration

Well, your name, anyway.

Your name in a database embedded in a tiny microchip will orbit the moon for years in a new satellite they are launching.

I like the idea of being a member of "the new generation of lunar explorers" even if it's just a tiny little digital image.

And it's free, so you can't beat that.

I love the certificate. "NASA Sent My Name to the Moon ... and all I got was this lousy certificate".

Nice to know there's someone with a sense of humour out there.

Filed under: nasa, lunar mission, name, and moon

Here's something crazy for the day: A private, people-powered zeppelin.

Video of it flying at the link.

Filed under: zeppelin, airship, aircraft, and flying

Here's a pretty amazing slide show - the first spy photos ever taken by the US. Features Russian runways, Chinese nuclear testing, and more.

The images are of laughably bad quality compared to Google Earth, and really show us how far we've gone.

Filed under: spy photos, satellite, and intelligence

If you've always wanted to have a plant in your life but never quite got it to work, this "practice plant" might be just the ticket.

Each "flower" displays a reading of the state of your plant's environment, and if things get bad, its leaves start to droop.

Unlike the real thing, it can always be revived with a press of the Reset button.

This potential new breakthrough solar array uses lenses to magnify sunlight 2000 times. Solar cells are then used to convert this energy into electricity.

If all goes well, this should produce electricity for about $ 0.07 per killowatt hour - or about the same cost as the cheapest coal-fired power.

Release is initially to utilities, but a household version could be made available within three years.

Filed under: solar power and cost-effective

Wired Magazine reports on Ponoko, a new startup that automatically fabricates parts based on your designs. They then send the parts to you and you can put them together.

So if you have a design for a table or a birdfeeder ... you can make it real, with minimal effort and very low cost. Custom furniture for the cost of factory assembled.

The picture is of a table, built by Ponoko and delivered to a customer. All he had to do was assemble the knocked-down pieces, like Ikea furniture. The table cost $252, competitive with companies like Ikea and revenue is split between Ponoko and the designer.

Check out the article for more.

Filed under: manufacturing and individualized

As it gets easier to go places, it gets harder to keep them alive.

From cold places warming up, to warm places that can't take more heat or tourists, here's a list of 11 endangered places that you should visit before they're gone.

The photography in this link is particularly stunning.

Filed under: travel and endangered places

Every day, thousands of trucks rumble through Oakland, spewing pollutants on their way to the giant port.

Inventor Terry Kennedy decided to do something about that. He invented a clever device that takes advantage of the weight of the trucks to apply pressure to a plate. This pressure creates a liquid flow that turns a turbine and generates electricity.

Enough for the equivalent of 1,700 homes.

So as the trucks spew their pollutants, they are also contributing energy that helps the Port of Oakland go green. The invention now furnishes about 5% of their electricity needs, which may sound like nothing - but still amounts to a pretty penny each year.

The "Dragon" is spreading fast to other ports and communities, as the idea literally makes something out of nothing, and costs relatively little to install.

Great idea!

Filed under: dragon, trucks, pollution, traffic, energy, and green

The second of our two reassembling robots at first looks quite mundane - a normal looking kitchen chair.

Pull it apart and it automatically reassembles itself and becomes a "normal" chair once more.

You'll never look at your kitchen furniture the same way again ...

Filed under: kitchen chair and reassembles

This is device resurrection day, with two amazing robots that reassemble themselves automatically when kicked apart.

First up is the modular robot which stands and walks. Be a meanie by kicking it while it's walking, and the components fall apart. It can then reassemble automatically, even if you kick it again when it's down.

Check out the cool video at the link.

Filed under: modular, robot, and reassemble

I never was frightfully keen on the idea of killing and taking apart an animal, and apparently scientists have listened: There is now a new, genetically engineered breed of frog that you can see through while he is still alive.

Not only does this reduce the gross factor it also lets you examine the development of the frog's organs over his life, from the tadpole stage on.

(The frog doesn't look particularly transparent in the picture, but I'm sure the photo just doesn't do it justice.)

Filed under: transparent frog, frog, wildlife, nature, and genetic engineering

Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome has launched the "Day and Night" watch, which tells you whether it is, well, day or night. And nothing else.

“When you ask people what is the ultimate luxury, 80 percent answer ‘time’. Then when you look at other studies, 67 percent don’t look at their watch to tell what time it is,” says the company's CEO.

“With no display for the hours, minutes or seconds, the Day&Night offers a new way of measuring time, splitting the universe of time into two fundamentally opposing sections: day versus night.”

Assembled out of steel recovered from the Titanic, there is no doubt that the Day&Night watch is unique. And sold out within 48 hours of its launch.

Filed under: day&night, watch, and time

The Right Whale got its name because it was the right whale to kill - it floated when it was killed instead of sinking, making recovery easier.

No whale has been hunted for decades, but the massive creature is nearly extinct today. Most whales are killed when they are hit by ships.

Environmentalists noticed that the whales make a distinguishable noise, which they make while scanning the cold, lonely ocean for a mate.

The Right Whale Listening network installs buoys near Right Whale habitats to detect their noises and notify ships to slow down or avoid the area.

This helps to save a magnificent but dwindling species.

Filed under: whales and sound

When one group of insects attacks the roots, they send out a signal so that another group will not attack the leaves and be disappointed as the leaves fade.

When that second group of insects attacks the leaves, they send out a signal so another group will avoid the roots and go for another plant.

This clearly helps both groups and keeps the plant healthier and therefore more edible for a longer period.

Filed under: plants, animals, insects, and communication

Are you hesitant to support Barack Obama for President because of his association with Jeremiah Wright, the preacher who hates America?

Turns out Obama owes a great deal more to Wright than you might have thought. Here's an extract from one of Wright's sermons:

The good news that's coming is for all people! Not white people—all people. Not black people—all people. Not rich people—all people. Not poor people—all people. I know you'll hate this... not straight people—all people! Not gay people—all people. Not American people—all people. ...God's good news isn't just for Americans, it's for all people. Say "all people"! Jesus came for Iraqis and Afghanis. Jesus was sent for Iranians and Ukrainians. All people! Jesus is God's gift to the brothers in jail and the sisters in jeopardy. All people! The Lord left his royal courts on high to come for all those that you love, yes, but he also came for all those folk that you can't stand. All people!

So I guess Barack Obama is a uniter, not a divider ... just like Jeremiah Wright.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=479778

D

Filed under: barack obama, obama, wright, and tucc

Of course they always would - pricey batteries are what make electric cars like the Tesla Roadster expensive.

Giving away the car in return for a battery service contract is like giving away the razor and selling blades at a profit, or giving away the printer and selling ink. Both are very profitable businesses, and the customer is better off because he doesn't have to come up with a lot of up-front money.

This venture is particularly interesting because it has wired up two entire countries - Israel and Denmark - with charging stations. So whereever you go in those countries, you can easily get a charge from where you park.

A really cool idea but it seems like something that might not scale well to larger countries and cities.

Filed under: electric car, free, and batteries

Many years ago, I used a Canon XL1 digital video camera as a still camera as well as a video camera. I could shoot video and then pick out the best stills to go on the web. Back then, video was too big to put on the net and so still pictures ruled.

Shortly thereafter, digital SLRs came up and I replaced my Canon XL1's still ability for far higher picture quality. But it's interesting to see that today Casio is trying to reproduce my old still/video camera experience - with a camera that can shoot up to an eye-popping 1200 frames per second - and 60 frames per second in "normal" 6 megapixel mode.

Although this would disappoint true digital SLR fans like me, it's still an amazing device. Check it out.

Filed under: casio, review, EX-F1, and Casio EX-F1

Bored of your pet goldfish?

Check out this entertaining video, showing the power of R2 Fish School, which trains your goldfish to limbo, play soccer, and more.

As the school's founder says, Fish are more intelligent than you think!

Filed under: fish, fish school, tricks, soccer, and limbo

Here are some beautiful pictures of the world of the tiny.

The headline might be spun to tell us something about modern art, but isn't this gold crystal gorgeous?

More at the link

Filed under: modern art, art, and nano photos

Crazy-but-true science story: An all-female fish species has survived for 70,000 years without reproducing sexually.

The original headline is deceptive, because the fish do have sex, but the male's DNA is ignored, and so the children are clones of the mother.

Filed under: fish, reproduction, and female

Here are photos of "resorts that never quite happened", abandoned on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Filed under: hotel, abandoned, and desert

I'm an expert forgetter. As soon as something is thrown at my brain, I forget it.

The developers of SuperMemo software figured out that we forget on a pattern, and if memory is reinforced in a similar pattern we can memorize large amounts of information quickly and easily.

For someone like me, who may have to learn a foreign language soon but is absolutely horrible at it, this sounds like a great thing. Check out more about it from Wired at the link.

Filed under: memory, forgetting, and language

Looking oddly like space alien headquarters or deep-freeze pods for spacemen, these new Delta seats look like they will give flyers a bit of privacy, comfort and a better shot at some sleep during those monotonous overnight flights.

They look like a really interesting design, trying to use some of the unused space defined by the airplane's contours to give a bit more room.

Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until 2010 to give them a try.

And no more $12,900 fares (see below for that story).

Filed under: delta, tourist class, seats, airplane, airline, and flying

This is a trailer for a longer documentary, but it's fairly long and gives a beautiful overview of the event.

Plenty of great still pictures too.

Filed under: SR-71, airplane, and rc

that a trip via Singapore Air's new Suites class couldn't fix.

Determined to provide the ultimate in luxury, Singapore's new class brings a virtually full-sized bed, gourmet cuisine and champagne, a 23" LCD TV, complete privacy and oh so much more to your flying experience.

I must admit that with this kind of service on tap I would be looking forward to the long flight instead of dreading it.

But I'm sure you're guessing this experience might be just a shade expensive.

Well, it costs about $1,600 to fly from LAX to Cebu City in the Philippines via Cathay Pacific economy class.

The same flight on Singapore Air "Suites or First" class is just $12,971.30.

Yes, you could buy a small car for that much.

View the video walkthrough to see how the other 0.001% lives. Although I can't help but wonder if a lot of their potential audience is flying their own Gulfstream IV nowadays ...

Filed under: singapore air, the only way to fly, first class, and suites class

If you like the first one, you'll love the rest. There's also a link on how to shoot them yourself.

You know what to do.

Filed under: light trails and photography

From the archives, a tale of handy household heroism ... on the moon!

Duct tape saves the day by fixing the moon buggy's fender. From the article:

"Okay. I can't say I'm very adept at putting fenders back on. But I sure don't want to start without it. I'm just going to put a couple of pieces of good old-fashioned American gray tape on it...(and) see whether we can't make sure it stays."

Filed under: duct tape and moon

A distant relative of mine, Peter Hodgson, was one of the popularizers of silly putty. Read its story, together with the Slinky and Popsicle, at the link.

Filed under: popsicle, silly putty, slinky, accidental inventions, and inventions

You see them in third world countries ... black smoke drifting up from a group of food stalls, with the acrid odors of burning mixing with delicious chicken smells.

But what if you could get rid of the acrid odors? You'd probably sell a lot more chickens, thought vendor Sila Sutharat. So he developed a clever system - literally of smoke and mirrors - to heat chicken through the sun.

Very ingenious, very green, and saves him money on fuel!

Filed under: green cooking, green, environment, and street vendor

From Esquire, a few things you should do before you die ... that might kill you.

This article is a mix of short and long descriptions. The longer, vivid descriptions are especially worth reading, from cigar nights on the rooftop of a Havana hotel, to potentially lethal surfing.

Filed under: amazing, fatal, and life shortening

If you're like me, you don't particularly like pumping your own gas. It seems like something someone else should do, right?

Well, how about someTHING else?

Meet the Tank Pitstop, an automated robot, developed in the Netherlands, which automatically fills your tank. Click on the link to see it in action.

Filed under: tank pitstop, fuel, and energy

BMW has introduced an engine that not only produces near-zero emissions, it also burns the hydrocarbons in air pollution, thus producing cleaner than ambient air as its exhaust.

The primary fuel is hydrogen, and the V-12 limo-sized car otherwise drives and operates like a normal high-end BMW sedan.

It sounds incredible but for lovers of fast cars it's certainly great news. More in the article.

Filed under: bmw, engine, pollution, and hydrogen

I thought this was an intriguing idea - the tent has the words of a poem stencilled into it on all angles, and as the sun reaches each angle the poem appears as a projected image on the ground.

Filed under: poetry and performance art

Are coral reefs doomed thanks to global warming? Many reefs have been in decline in recent years due to higher water temperatures. However, the evidence is clouded because heavy pollution in these areas is also a factor.

Now, in Eitrea near the Red Sea, corals have been seen evolving to thrive in these temperatures. They can survive in waters from 90 to 98degF, similar temperatures to what we anticipate from global warming.

Scientists are planning to reseed reefs killed or injured by warming with the newly evolved corals.

Filed under: coral reefs, environment, and evolution

if you really hate our world of mass-processed foods, this might be of interest - an aquarium designed to be nearly self-sustaining. The waste products from the fish make the plants grow, and the plants remove the fish waste products so the aquarium remains healthy.

In reality this isn't much different from any aquarium, which relies on bacteria to dispose of the fish waste, but this is a particularly elegant and eye-catching idea. I think having a garden of edible food as a consequence of your fish tank is, well, a bit more amazing than bacteria.

The idea of eating the fish when they grow big enough to eat, though, seems a little hard. As others have said in the discussion, generally people don't eat their pets.

Still a cool idea and a very interesting piece of concept art

Filed under: concept art, fish, vegetables, and self-sustaining

In the old, old, old days, back when computers had virtually no graphical abilities to speak of, there was a company called Infocom.

They produced text adventure games, where you would tell the computer what you wanted to do, and the computer would respond. Like this:

>take lamp
Taken.

In the great struggle for customer dollars, pictures eventually won, but many of us are fondly nostalgic for these word-based games, where vivid descriptions of places and happenings replaced images, and human ingenuity was more important than any trigger finger. Combined with your imagination these word images were very powerful, and the early games had amazing senses of humor and fun that current "blast 'em out" games do not.

So it was amazing for many of us that the lost Infocom archives were found, together with half completed (okay, more like 1% completed) games and more.

Read about the tragically aborted Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy II, and the personalities and ideas of a bygone era of fun.

Filed under: hitchhikers guide, game, text adventure, and infocom

Another milestone in the ever-evolving all electric car. First we had Tesla Motors, which promised to create a completely fresh, uncompromising electric vehicle. Unfortunately, although Tesla has begun its formal manufacturing process, only one production vehicle has dribbled out of the factory -- and that's gone to the company's primary financier.

Now, HST International and Tjaarda Design announces a new partnership that will bring electrified versions of two traditional muscle cars on the road. With a range of about 100 miles, these new introductions are just at the edge of practicality for many commuters.

I wish them the best because a powerful, all-electric car seems like the perfect car for me to drive ... even if I wish it was more like a Mercedes S500.

Filed under: shelby cobra, mustang, electric, and electric car

Combine the flight of a bat with the scuttling of a cockroach, and you have this Morphing Micro Air and Land vehicle, which can be remotely controlled from up to a mile away.

The video features both flying and scuttling stages. The scuttling looked a bit slow to me but I can see how it would be handy to hide the beast as shown in the video.

Warning: The video both from the craft and of the craft suffers from extreme "shakycam" effects, so if you don't like disorientation you might skip this one.

Filed under: fly, bat, cockroach, and spy plane

This crazy vehicle, made out of a salvaged F-108 jet fighter, is going to try and beat the land speed record of 763 mph, and by no small amount.

They're looking for 835mph, which is a mile in 4.3 seconds, and just firing up this beast for testing costs $18,000.

That's where you come in. They need a photogenic driver to help drum up sponsorship. If you think you have what it takes, send a photo and a brief bio and you could be driving this amazing thing to infinity and beyond.

Everything we see touch or hear in the world seems to contain some form of advertisement.

Until now, the skies were pretty much free of commercial messages.

One company is going to change that with its Flogo, their word for specially generated artificial clouds, that maintain a shape requested by the advertiser, such as a corporate logo.

A harmless combination of foams and lighter than air gases causes the Flogo to fly into the sky, and eventually it will disperse into the air. No fuss, no muss.

I have to admit they are rather pretty.

In 1954, a 15 megaton hydrogen bom was exploded over three islands of Bikini Atoll. The islands were vaporized and a giant crater was created, bereft of life.

Fast forward over 50 years later and what do you see? A thriving coral reef showing the resilience of life everywhere. Scientists believe it was reseeded by a nearby reef.

Virtually untouched by radiation fearing humans, the new reef is now truly spectacular, and the radiation has long since dissapated.

Don't eat the coconuts, though. They have absorbed radiation through the soil and are highly radioactive, and the island is said to still be unsafe for human habitation.

Filed under: coral reef, environment, and nuclear testing

So this guy, deeply in love with his girl and not sure how to propose, wrote a Bejeweled video game for Nintendo, handed her the game machine and watched as she played ... and a picture of a giant ring dropped down.

Then he popped the question.

I'm sure it was much to his relief - and that of nerds everywhere - that she said "Yes!"

Filed under: wedding, bejeweled, and video game

This article was originally titled "craziest" but to me a lot of these are pretty cool.

My favorite is the air conditioner that freezes water during the night, when it's cooler and electricity is cheaper, and lets it melt during the day, feeding the heat exchanger to cool the house. Users have experienced around a 30% energy savings with this technology.

Visit the link to see a solar powered cellphone, bamboo clothing, an electric roadster and more. (The image is of the solar cellphone, since the green air conditioner doesn't look like anything special.)

Technorati Profile

Filed under: green technology, green, and energy

This is probably a joke of some kind, since it looks like the vision angle is a bit off, but it would certainly make it easier to concentrate in those tiresome public spaces.

Unfortunately it would attract so much attention that the environmental isolation effect would fail, badly.

Filed under: knitting, laptop, isolating, and environment

The Coway Megasonic Cleaning device looks like a bizarre cross between a water faucet and ultra high end stereo equipment. Using megasonic soundwaves to clean meat, produce, dirty dishes or whatever else you have in mind, it uses inductive micro cavitation to shake dirty particles off whatever you want to clean.

I don't know if this thing works, and the company's web site is just a little strange, but I have to say its aesthetics are pretty impressive. But will it last with all that water coming out of the faucet (the backup cleaning mechanism)?

Filed under: faucet, cleaning, and inductive micro cavitation

Here's the story of a family who got a home computer system ... in 1970!

I remember these years ... my first exposure to computing was a TI Silent 700 terminal, which was only a bit faster than the Teletype he was using. My father, a MIT computer science professor, would take it home, along with reams of thermal paper. I seem to remember he was just a shade annoyed at all the paper I would use playing with it ...

Yes, Virginia, the first computing sessions were done with printing terminals! Years later CRT terminals came up, saving reams of paper and restoring some degree of sanity to the modern computing household.

Now, we're close to having the last CRT becoming landfill and computers look nothing like what they did in the old days, giant hulking cabinets under the harsh gleam of floresecent lights and the chill of air conditioning.

And guess what? They are still used to do homework, do taxes and all the other stuff we thought they would do in 1970. Some things never change.

It was a sad day indeed when the great ship went down, dooming more than half its guests. But could they have been saved?

Researchers have found evidence showing the manufacturer, under immense stress to launch three Titanic-sized ships almost simultaneously, ran out of quality rivets and labor to install them.

To meet deadlines, they had to use inferior rivets, which failed before good ones would have during the sinking. If better rivets had been used, they would have held up long enough for help to arrive and the entire complement could have been saved.

Filed under: titanic, rivets, and construction

Men have always wondered what women really want, so here's a series about what they want in the male kingdom ... and the strange strategies of natural selection.

Women can also laugh at what men are willing to do for them ... up to and including that $4,000 champagne chiller we covered earlier!

Filed under: males, females, reproduction, and natural selection

Here are four digital SLR cameras you might be interested in, taken through their paces by technology site Gizmodo.

I really liked the simplicity of these reviews - they are not incredibly long bogged-down monsters but tell you enough to get a sense for differences between the cameras.

Filed under: nikon, canon, olympus, and sony

A soft pink halo appears, magically before your girl, and she vaguely wonders what it is. As you hold it, it shimmers beautifully. Your girl picks the bottle of perfectly chilled champagne out of it, the beginning of a perfect evening.

A perfect evening that cost you $4,000 plus the cost of the champagne.

Ouch.

Sounds like a great gift for the couple that has everything, as long as you do too.

Filed under: champagne cooler, glow, pink, and magical

Ah, the olden days, when low-tech "film" ruled the roost. Check out a whole bunch of basic home objects in which were concealed ... cameras!

I liked the deer because it was really nicely designed and looks like something I could accept as a gift and therefore incriminate myself.

Pretty clever East German spies.

(Even though the link says it was Spy Tech Monday 2, I haven't been able to find part 1 anywhere. Maybe it was top secret!)

Filed under: east germany, spies, and secret

The rules:

• It must be mechanical


• It must be useless


• It must make people laugh

Filed under: japan, stupid, robot, and contest

Researchers were amazed to find two billion year old unaltered rocks on the ocean floor. The rocks' age was precisely confirmed due to presence of isotopes of osmium.

"I just about fell off my chair. We can't exaggerate how important these rocks are -- they're a window into that deep part of earth."

The picture is of a section of these rocks.

Filed under: earth, rocks, ancient, and two billion years

Jim Jannard had a problem.

Most of us would love to have the problems of the billionaire founder of the Oakley Sunglasses company. Wealthy beyond most people's wildest imaginings, Jim was still discontented. The $130,000 Sony cameras he bought were just not good enough to film Oakley commercials!

Good enough for others, like George Lucas, but not good enough for Jim.

If it were you and me, we might complain about this problem to our friends but it's likely we'd do anything about it. But Jim's made of stronger stuff. He decided to start his own camera company and make the camera he dreamed of making.

This camera, called the RED ONE Digital Cinema Camera, has been out for about six months now, and RED's skunkworks have been developing new models.

Today, they were introduced. The Red EPIC is an even fancier camera than RED One.

Scarlet is probably of more interest to the readers of this site. Scarlet roughly doubles the megapixel count of previous digital video cameras, creating the most rich, beautiful and detailed images you could imagine. It looks like a ruggedized version of a point and shoot camcorder, but has sophisticated manual features, and its metal housing oozes quality. And it costs $3,000, which may look expensive to you but is similar in price to HD cameras with similar manual control options.

I'm looking forward to seeing Scarlet in person, but unfortunately I'll have a long wait: it will ship sometime in 2009.

(The link is to Engadget because RED's site is extremely difficult to reach as of this writing).

Filed under: red, digital camera, video camera, photography, and digital cinema

The idea behind free range kids is to give our children the freedom to be children, instead of being ultra-paranoid all the time.

I have a friend who has kids, and every time I see them locked up in their car seats, I think of the seats as little jails. It just seems like locking them up is a bad idea.

This author doesn't go that far. In fact, she specifically reaffirms the virtues of car seats. But she does make a great point in articles like "Is snow going to kill your kid?" and "Why I let my 9-year old rise the subway alone".

I remember having similar freedom during my own childhood and it didn't hurt me. Would it hurt your kids to give them more freedom and less structure? Are we infantilizing our kids by taking them everywhere and filling their days with constant structured activities?

From their manifesto: "Free Range Kids believes in safety, but we also believe that a lot of parents are going overboard, creating quivering masses of helplessness instead of independent humans."

Filed under: free range kids and child care

One man's journey from PR flack for the North Korean government to cellphone salesman in the UK.

"They treated me like a prince," he says. "Sometimes I wish I could go back."

But they made the mistake of letting him see the real North Korea ... and then he knew his new friends fed him a bunch of lies.

Filed under: North Korea, public relations, and pr

One of the most pleasing aspects of electric vehicles is the noise ... or rather, the lack of same. Other than a surprisingly pleasant whine coming from the motor, electric vehicles are almost entirely silent. A couple of days ago (scroll down for it), we had a video from a giant electric trash truck, which was barely audible except when trash was being dumped.

Unfortunately, pedestrians and bicyclists depend on hearing a vehicle to know it's there. The nearly-silent Tesla Roadster (see picture) might be impossible to notice on time.

There is a bill before Congress that would require the Transportation Department to establish safety standards to solve this problem.

Despite this, I would really hate to see electric cars lose their silent mojo. Perhaps we can find some other way to make them noticable, like make all of them look like the Tesla Roadster instead of a tiny box?

Filed under: electric car, noise, and tesla roadster

How sincere is your smile? Point your mug at a video camera and this device, developed by Omron, will tell the world whether you really mean it.

Okao Catch, as the device is called, can help robo