One of the plus sides to HD-DVD is that it is somewhat cheaper (especially so after the Circuit City rumor). However, Sony may have a trick up their sleeve to even out the pricing war. They’ve managed to shrink down the Blu-ray laser to a mere 3 mm. The new lasers are also capable of reading dual-layer Blu-ray discs and the ability to read discs manufactured with organic dyes. This allows Blu-ray discs to be manufactured from existing DVD manufacturing lines.
What does that mean? It mean cheaper production costs and thinner Blu-ray drives (say, for laptops).
Remember those slap bracelets when you were younger? Take that concept, ”futurize’ it, and add a watch. What do you get? You get the E-paper Slap Bracelet. Made out of thin aluminum, this thing is ultra sexy.
The concept was born from design company, Chocolate Agency. The “multimedia device” simply slaps onto your wrist. The energy efficient e-paper surface is powered by kinetic energy supplied by the user as he/she walks around. You can adjust the length of the watch by adding extra magnetic strips.
You shouldn’t be caught entering any lunch room (or any room with food) without one of these. The ZING! may look like a fancy spoon, but the secret is that it sports a spring! It makes it the perfect weapon to fling your favorite (or unfavorite, depending on how you see it) vegetable at your unsuspecting opponent.
The ZING! comes in red, purple, or green. Unfortunately, no pricing information is available.
What do you do with all of your old watches? Make motorcycles out of them! Or at least that’s what Brazilian artist Jose Geraldo Pfau Kings does. The pictures say it all.
A video is out demonstrating Nissan’s GTR drifting on the snow. The video’s purpose is to showcase the car’s sophisticated four-wheel drive and traction control system.
For class credit, Marco Facciola, 16, built a fully functional bicycle out of wood. No metal was used. He was even able to create the chain and ratcheting system (to allow coasting) out of wood and glue.
Facciola was inspired to create a wooden bike after his grandfather had to make wooden wheels for his bicycle during World War II in Holland when rubber was scarce.
You can read the details of how he built the bike here.
It has been known that infrared light can promote the growth of cells. It has been used to cure wounds and cold sores.
With that said, researchers at the University of Sunderland in the UK have decided to use infrared light to promote the growth of brain cells in Alzheimer’s patients. They designed a helmet to emit low levels of infrared light directly into a patient’s skull. The team ran a test trial on mice and discovered the little rodents to gain better learning abilities. Human testing is scheduled for the upcoming summer.
In a related study, infrared therapy has been successful in patients suffering from dementia. With daily, 10-minute sessions under infrared lasers, eight out of nine patients have shown some improvement.
To be honest, the helmet looks ridiculous. However, if it is able to reverse Alzheimer’s, I’m sure sufferers wouldn’t mind looking a bit funny.
