China: The Land Where Fake Brands Reign Supreme
Shamelessly, China has dubbed itself as “the king of counterfeiters” and the city of Nanjing, east of Shanghai, prides itself on the imminent grand opening of a new shopping centre dedicated to some 58 fake brands of merchandise. These imposters bear strong resemblances to their original inspirations, but are often differentiated by an intentionally mis-spelled letter or two.
Counterfeit goods have been the bane of the world trade industry for decades, and China, while a blatant culprit, is far from the only one. The dynamics of the infringement varies from breaches of product patents in industrial and technical products to illegal reproductions of copyright entertainment material to fake luxury brands. Continue reading »
NASA Captures Unique Elephant Face Image On Mars
NASA astronomers have for the first time captured a unique elephant picture on mars using the HiRISE camera from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Astronomers claim that this elephant face is created by lava. They found that lava flow in Elysium Planitia, the youngest flood-lava province on mars, could have created the unique face.
“Flood lavas cover extensive areas, and were once thought to be emplaced extremely rapidly, like a flood of water,” Msnbc quoted Alfred McEwen, planetary geologist at the University of Arizona, as saying.
Astronomers believe that the elephant face on mars provides a glimpse of the geological changes that shaped the Red Planet over the course of billions of years. The image gives a good example of the phenomena known as pareidolia which means we see things like animals’ faces that are not actually there.
Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction: From Zero to Sexy
A restored ‘63 Chevy Corvette, with a V7 twin-turbo mid-engine, which can take you from 0 to 60 in less than 3 seconds. A 1988 custom-built Kittredge K350 two-man submarine with a maximum operating depth of 350 feet. How about Willie Nelson’s golf cart? If it’s a vehicle, and even if it’s not, it might be on display – and on sale – at the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in Palm Beach County with its show running Thursday through Saturday at the South Florida Fairgrounds. Photography by Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post.
A 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air 2 Door Hardtop. Continue reading »
“Extavium” Museum in Potsdam, Germany
Floris, 8, inspects a mirror cube at the “Extavium” museum in Potsdam, eastern Germany. The new interactive museum, formerly known as “Exploratorium Potsdam”, re-opened with much more space for its 130 exhibits and interactive offers for children and their parents. (AFP)
Ubi-Camera Let’s You Take Photos With Your Hands
Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences are working on a device that allows you to take pictures using your hands. The small camera is attached to your thumb and let’s you frame shots using your fingers in the shape of a rectangle.
“When you draw a picture or take a photo, you sometimes form a rectangle with your hands to decide the composition. With this camera, you can take a photo using the exact same motion. You attach this device to your index finger, and form a rectangle with your finger like this. You take the photo by using the rectangle as the viewfinder, like this. When you push hard with your thumb, the shutter is pressed.”
Camera users fit the tiny square camera unit over a finger, then ‘frame’ shots using their fingers. Continue reading »
Pesticides Causing Havoc to Beehives
Beehives across the world have drastically declined and researchers cite the main culprit as neonicotinoid pesticides. Researchers from the University of Stirling have found that bees exposed to the pesticides have trouble locating their hives. Researchers conducted an experiment on a swarm of bees by tagging them with tiny microchips attached to their neck which tracked their movement. Continue reading »
Unseen Titanic: First Ever Complete Views of the Wreck
The April 2012 edition of National Geographic magazine features the first ever complete views of the wreck of the Titanic, made from thousands of high-resolution images, in its current state on the seafloor
Ethereal views of Titanic’s bow (modelled) offer a comprehensiveness of detail never seen before. (Modeling by Stefan Fichtel / © 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) Continue reading »
Planet Mercury Unmasked: Fantastic Photos Of Crazy New Discoveries
There are competing theories about Mercury’s formation. Physical models pictured here invoke one or more giant impacts (left) or the vaporization of surface by a hot solar nebula to remove the planet’s original crust and outer mantle. Image Credit: Left: NASA/JPL/Caltech; Right: Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature [473(7348):460–461, © 2011] (NASA) Continue reading »
reaDIYmates: Your Fun Wifi Paper Companion
Here are two creative guys – Olivier and Marc, founders of reaDIYmate, a cool design and technology project that just launched on Kickstarter. reaDIYmates are fun Wifi paper companions that move and play sounds depending on what’s happening in your digital life. Continue reading »
Exploring the Deep Sea
Earth’s lost frontier, the deepest part of the oceans where the pressure is like three SUVs sitting on your little toe, is about to be explored first-hand. In the next several days, James Cameron, the director of “Titanic,” “Avatar” and “The Abyss,” will dive nearly 7 miles deep, to the Mariana Trench in the South Pacific, in a one-man sub he helped design.
The DEEPSEA CHALLENGER makes its first test dive in February. (National Geographic, NOAA) Continue reading »
Big East Tournament 2012: Louisville, Cincinnati to Wear New Adidas Camo Uniforms
The Big East Tournament will look a little flashier as the University of Louisville and University of Cincinnati men’s basketball teams will be wearing new, ultra-lightweight adidas adizero uniforms this week at Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y. Louisville will begin to wear them in their first game of the tournament on March 7 while Cincinnati will wear theirs beginning on March 8.
According to an adidas press release, Louisville’s new uniforms will be more than 25 percent lighter than their previous uniforms, while Cincinnati’s new uniforms will be more than 20 percent lighter than their previous uniforms in terms of performance. The jerseys feature what’s called a ClimaCool zone, also used in the NBA, which moves heat and sweat away from the body for breathability and to keep the jersey from gaining weight.
The teams’ shorts, which are unlined so that they are lighter and more comfortable in tandem with compression base layers, possess a four-way stretch woven material used to increase mobility and speed.
In terms of design, the uniforms feature new pixelated, camouflage patterns to shed weight and make players faster. The camouflage was inspired by the concept of teamwork, and amplified school colors pay homage to the excitement of NCAA tournament.
Baylor Basketball Uniforms
The Baylor’s men’s basketball team is the latest to adorn some heinous uniforms as a way to create some interest.
Baylor unveiled its Adidas designed basketball uniforms on Tuesday ahead of the team’s Big 12 Tournament game against Kansas State on March 8th. The specially designed uniforms are bright yellow and “pay homage to the high intesity of March Madness,” according to a Baylor press release.
Baylor says that the new uniforms are lighter – more than 20 percent than past uniforms — and will allow players to be quicker. The uniforms utilize Revolution 30 technology and the backs of the jersey have a ClimaCool zone that apparently gets heat away from the body.
The Making of a Windfarm
A wind energy fair in Husum, northern Germany, September 2010. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images) Continue reading »
NASA Unveils Future Aircraft Designs: Stunning Models
Three industry teams spent 2011 studying how to meet NASA’s goals for making future aircraft burn 50 percent less fuel than aircraft that entered service in 1998, emit 75 percent fewer harmful emissions; and shrink the size of geographic areas affected by objectionable airport noise by 83 percent. (NASA) Continue reading »
Monkey Controls Robotic Arm With Brain Implants
Jianhui, a 5-year-old monkey, is seen with a device attached to its head as it prompts a mechanical arm via brain signals at a laboratory at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province February 23, 2012. A tiny sensor implanted in Jianhui’s brain is allowing the monkey to control a mechanical arm to reach and grab food and drinks, scientists with east China’s Zhejiang University announced on Monday afternoon. The technology, Brain-Machine Interface (BMI), is a real blessing for people with paralyzing conditions, according to Zheng Xiaoxiang, the professor leading the research group. Continue reading »
Pandora’s Boxx: Revolution on Two Wheels?
Portland based BOXX Corp creates Boxx, a new kind of fully customizable two-wheels vehicle with a length of 1 meter. Starts from $3995. Continue reading »
Felt Jewelry by Hanan Kedmi for Real Geeks
Recent design graduate of Shenkar College, Tel Aviv, Hanan Kedmi, has created a series of jewelry made from heat sink devices that are attached to computer parts which tend to get overheated. Kedmi was looking for ways in which to link the metal components and caught onto felting. Continue reading »
“Hello Kitty” Air Jet by EVA Airways
EVA Airways, a Taiwan based airlines wanted to pay tribute to Hello Kitty with an entire plane. EVA launched a campaign together with Sanrio to create the “Hello Kitty Jet”. They painted the exterior of an Airbus A330-200 with both the interior and the exterior having the Hello Kitty motif.
Hello Kitty is one of the most popular licensed characters in the world, so the plane from many stuffs such like credit cards, phone cards, stationary, tissue boxes, greeting cards, clothes, accessories, school supplies, dishes, home appliances, refrigerator. Continue reading »
New Network on the Streets of London Broadcasts News to City Workers via Recycling Bins
New recycling units, by private company Renew, feature news aimed at workers in the City like this one which was unveiled in Gresham Street, St Paul’s. The $48,000 devices broadcast news to the City but can also transmit updates during emergencies. Content will be provided by The Economist and the London Stock Exhchange among other outlets. The idea could be transferred to New York, Tokyo and Singapore.
New BMW 3 Series Premiere Backstage
The all-new BMW 3 Series re-launch within the “History of Winners” exhibit took place in Moscow at February 11. Continue reading »
The Nissan Production Line
Nissan’s factory in Washington, near Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, builds the Qashqai, Juke and Note models. It produced 480,485 cars in 2011, a record for a UK car plant. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian.
Nissan’s production line in Washington, Tyne and Wear. Continue reading »
Inside Ciccolella, Italy’s Leading Producer of Cut Flowers
The free movement of goods in Europe has allowed a flower producer to bloom in an area of Italy with 15% unemployment. Photograph: Mario Laporta/Controluce
Ciccolella has about 100 hectares of greenhouses at its production sites in Italy. Continue reading »
Smart Bullet Path
In this undated time exposure photo provided by Sandia National Laboratories, a light-emitting diode, or LED, attached to a self-guided bullet at Sandia National Laboratories shows a bright path during a nighttime field test. The New Mexico-based Sandia National Laboratories announced Tuesday that its engineers have invented a bullet that directs itself to a target like a tiny guided missile and can hit a target more than a mile away. According to Sandia Labs engineers, the bullet twists and turns to guide itself toward a laser-directed point. Officials say it can make up to thirty corrections per second while in the air. (Sandia National Laboratories)
Finder: Locate the Stuff where You Left
Finder is a cool little device for those of you that are a little bit forgetful and misplace essentials, like your phone or your keys. Technically, Finder is a two-part RFID Locator comprising of main transparent terminal and a series of small tab stickers. Basically you are supposed to stick the tracking stickers to objects that you tend to misplace often, like keys, phone, wallet etc. Continue reading »
Assembly: A Sense of Comfort through Proximity
Assembly is a project of Lorea Sinclaire, canadian industrial designer, and the collaboration between a haptic wearable device and a network of proximity. The goal of this research project was to create a user experience that promotes safety and comfort in the urban environment.
The wearable device uses symbolic language to communicate a need or receive a notification. For example different touch gestures imply different meanings. Doing up a button will send out passive signals of your location. stroking the discrete lining of the hem will send out a ‘friend call’. A combination of two hands swiping the outer arms implies you need serious help.
This user interaction utilizes embroidered conductive thread as touch sensors, and an integrated GPS module to send out location. Continue reading »
