Friday, December 28, 2007

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Phillips and Swarovski, jeweled gadgets

Swarovski crystals are everywhere. You can find them in an unaccountable number of products, from watches to clothes.

Phillips got this trend and now you can also find them in a line of jeweled gadgets, named Active Crystals.

To begin with, there are four models of thumb drives with the crystals and two models of ear phones.

Heart Ware and Heart Beat are USB thumb drivers designed to be used as pendants, Lock In and Lock Out are designed to be used in key chains (or even in a bracelet), they come in 1Gb models and are user password protected.

The line also has silver ear phones, both in-ear and ear-hook models.






















Monday, December 24, 2007

CIS Solar Tower

Built in 1962 in Manchester(UK) to host the British insurance company CIS Ltd. head quarters, the CIS Tower was suffering the from its 40 years exposure to pollution.

The building, that was the highest in Europe when was built and still is the second highest in Manchester, had millions of little mosaic tiles covering its windowless façade, but due to time and pollution, these tiles were falling down. A long term repair was needed.

Gary Thomas, Head of Property and Facilities, had the idea of turning the building in a giant solar panel in 2000. And in 2004 the transformation began.

A few years, 7244 photovoltaic panels and £ 5.5 millions (around $ 11 millions) latter, the 400ft building turned into a giant solar power plant that generates 390kW, 181,000 units of renewable electricity each year - equivalent to the energy needed to full power 55 homes for a year.






Some more details:

In total, 7,244 Sharp 80W modules are used to clad the entire service tower. From this total, 4,898 PV modules are live, 870 ‘full size’ dummy modules and 109 ‘medium size’ dummy modules and 1,367 edge modules were used in order to optimize the system’s electrical generation and minimize costs. (source: Solarcenter)





Curiosities:

Generates total electricity for 61 average three-bed houses each year (note: there is a difference between what is stated in the Tower’s site and in the Solarcenter’s site)
Generates enough electricity each year to light an average three-bed house for over 305 years
Generates enough electricity to make 6.8 million pieces of toast/9.9 million cups of tea every year







































Thursday, December 20, 2007

Top 10 car keys


Top 10 car keys

Bentley




Cadillac



Merc Benz



Jaguar



Land Rover Range Rover Sport LR3



Audi



BMW



Lexus



Volvo



Infiniti



Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Dragonfly robot

world’s first wing-flapping robot (wOw)

Dragonfly robot

Witness the world’s first winged robot in action. It’s flappin’ brilliant.



Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Ferari Dino concept ( wOw )

(from Ugur Sahin) Presenting Ferrari Dino Concept Design;

Ferrari Dino Concept design is the modernized version of the successful Ferrari Dino produced by Ferrari.

The goal was to create a car that feels stylish, modern, dynamic and organic while staying true to the original design language of the Ferrari Dino and Ferrari brand in general.

The main characteristic of the Dino Concept design is the way it looks similar to the original Dino. With very round styling elements around the wheelbases and its cockpit, it looks retro and modern at the same time. With the right proportions combined, the car looks very dynamic and stylish. It stays true to its original with the design of the rear and the front being rounded and avoiding the hard edges as much as possible. Also the rear window opening is a striking feature originating from the original Ferrari Dino. The air intakes scoops however are very different compared to the original Dino, they look very organic and visually add a very organic feel to the car.