Embrace The Light

I never thought that a lamp which costs over $500 and has to be inflated before it can be used would be appealing, but then I was informed that it's huggable. Now I just want to snuggle up with one.

The lamp is called Supernova and it is created by a firm called Scale 1:1

Flexible LED Mat Can Bend and Fold for Any Emergency Lighting Situations

Running off three AA batteries, this FLEXiT blanket of LEDs is completely flexible and able to hold shape, meaning you can wrap and fold it around objects (your laptop, dog's tail, under the sink) for some urgent light-throwing.

There are 16 LEDs sprinkled across the silicone blanket, and there are even three light settings (I imagine for dim, dimmer, and dimmest light?) cost $30 on FLEXiT 

 

 

It's Official: LED Lights Are Coming

The future of lighting is here, it's just not evenly distributed. Light-emitting diodes (LED) lightbulbs have been coming on the market in the past few years, but their quality varies greatly, from "almost perfect" to "horrible."

The Qnuru bulbs use LEDs made by Cree. The versions are "cool white" (6000k temp), they're also available in "warm white" (3000k). They use a standard E26 socket and use respectively 6.4 watts and 9.2 watts, and they're both rated as replacing 60W incandescents, though the bigger OPAL definitely produces more light and has a wider beam angle.

They have a 50,000+ hours lifetime, which compares very favorably to about 15,000 hours for compact fluorescent (CFLs) and 2,500 hours for incandescent bulbs. It makes more sense to pay extra for quality if you're going to be potentially keeping these lights around for decades. In fact, they come with a 3 year warranty, not something you'll find on any fluorescent!

And of course, because they are LEDs, they don't contain any mercury, and they are a lot less fragile than CFLs and incandescents.

Why Do All the Christmas Lights Go Out When Only One Bulb Blows?

If you've dabbled in Christmas decorations with traditional Christmas lights, you'll know that when one bulb blows, the entire line goes out with it. Why is that? Because of how the manufacturers wire them.

That image above shows how the lights and power supply are typically wired (not the new LED varieties, though) in traditional Christmas lights. If the filaments of all the bulbs are intact, then the circuit is complete and all the lights work. But if one bulb so happens to break then the entire circuit is broken, thus making all the lights go out. It's basically much cheaper for manufacturers to build lights like this because it allows them to use this cheaper series wiring with inexpensive bulbs.

 

 

Chinese Tweeter Arrested on Wedding Day for Tweeting Joke

China's not allowed access to Twitter, but obviously there are "ways" to work around that.Cheng Jianping and her fiancé Hua Chunhui, were two such users. Cheng, however, was arrested for RTing her fiancé's joke—on their wedding day.

The situation was made even more traumatic, because her family and fiancé weren't told of her arrest—leading them to think she'd done a runner. All for retweeting her fiancé's tweet, which said:

"Anti-Japanese demonstrations, smashing Japanese products, that was all done years ago by Guo Quan. It's no new trick. If you really wanted to kick it up a notch, you'd immediately fly to Shanghai to smash the Japanese Expo pavilion."

It was turned into a joke because she added "angry youth, charge!" to her retweet.

So, instead of enjoying life as a newlywed, Cheng was sent to a women's labor camp, where she immediately went on hunger strike. She's to remain there for a year, for "disturbing social order." This comes only a week after Irish chap Paul Chambers was slapped with a guilty verdict for joking he was going to blow up Robin Hood airport in England. Tweeters, stay vigilant.

Make Your iPhone the Heart and Soul of Your Car Stereo

I get so frustrated when I'm in a new car and there's no way to plug in my iPod. Get with the times, car manufacturers! Or bring them up to speed yourself with the O'Car, a dedicated iPhone-based head unit.

Oxygen Audio's O'Car has a RDS radio tuner and a 4x55W amp, but the magic happens when you strap in your iPhone. The rotating mount charges your phone and holds it horizontally or vertically, allowing you to play tunes through the iPod app, Pandora radio or whatever else, put your iPhone to work as a GPS navigator, or make hands-free calls over your car's speakers. Or play Infinity Blade while you're in bumper to bumper traffic.

The Oceans Are Getting Louder

We all know carbon emissions are making our planet warmer. But the increase in carbon brings with it other surprising problems. More carbon apparently means low sounds travel farther underwater, making the ocean a noisier place to live and work.

The reason is complex. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide also means increased absorption of carbon in the Earth's oceans. And this increase, in turn, means more acidic sea water. More acidic oceans mean less absorption of sound at low frequencies.

And less sound absorption means louder noises over longer distances. In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, scientists predict that, within 100 years, absorption of sounds at around 200 Hz will go down by 70%, meaning sound could travel much farther.

The effects of less absorption and more noise at this frequency could be huge. For instance, scientists and commercial shipping vessels use these lower range frequencies for navigation and oceanic research. Also, marine mammals, such as whales, use these low frequencies for finding food and mates. Noisier oceans might cripple ocean navigation and interfere with whale life.

Unfortunately, the acidification of the ocean won't end when we stop polluting. In fact, the acidic shallow waters will propagate into the deeper ocean, where sound travels farthest, and possibly spread this noisy effect much farther than expected.

Recently, scientists found that blue whale songs are changing, drifting lower in pitch. Their research hinted at the deep complexity of marine life and the in-progress nature of this kind of science. This new marine acoustics research puts an additional wrinkle in the world of underwater communication, making the story more complex and even more interesting.

He Sees You When You're Tweeting, He Knows When You're Awake

Are you following santa? I know I am @santa__claus

Solar Radio Doubles As USB Charging Multitool for Adventurers

Eton's Raptor doesn't know if it's a radio, a weather-gauge or a bottle opener. An inbuilt solar-panel charges the li-Ion battery, powers the AM/FM/digital tuner, and also juices-up your phone through the miniUSB port.

Planning an expedition through uncharted territory? You also get a compass, chronograph, altimeter and barometer to keep you on track and informed of atmospheric conditions. There's a clip for your utility belt and of course, it's rubberized for waterproofing and shock protection. There's even a line-input for amplifying your iPod, too.

And the feature you'll probably end up using the most? The bottle opener of course. On sale soon, for an unspecified amount.

 

 

Sony's Camcorder That Takes DSLR Lenses Will Be On Sale Next Year

Looks like Panasonic aren't the only guys with a camcorder that can supportinterchangeable lenses like a DSLR. Sony's NXCAM, first shown off in May, takes E-mount lenses (the same used on their NEX cameras) and has a super-35mm sensor.

While it's just a concept for now, they have plans to bring it out in the middle of next year, where it'll be shooting video in 1080p—most likely for a pretty, pretty penny.

 

 

Oil Lamp Grenade: Because a Round-Base Flame Carrier is a Safe Idea

Don't lob this grenade, whatever you do—unless you're attempting insurance fraud and actually want your house burned down. Perfectly rounded, filled with oil, and then lit up. What could go wrong?

 

 

Pretty Soon, Your Gold Wedding Band Can Be Any Color You Want

Researchers have figured out how to use a specific engraving technique in order to alter the frequency of light a metal—any metal—absorbs or reflects. How? By carving tiny rings, smaller than the wavelengths of light.

Gold normally absorbs blue light, which gives it its yellowish hue. Silver metals absorb and emit just about every frequency of visible of light (which means they're actually colorless).

By carving a pattern of rings onto a metal's surface, the properties of its electrons, called the resonant frequency, is altered. By varying the size and depth of these rings, the frequency of light a metal absorbs and reflects is changed. No other properties of the metal are affected.

This is essentially the same technique that scientists are using to create invisibility cloaks, except that instead of trying to make light pass through a material, they just want to redirect how light is reflected and absorbed.

Everyone's Favorite Windows Error is Now Artwork

500 prints of the Windows XP wallpaper "Green Hill" have been turned into a piece of art, called "My Favourite Landscape." Yes, the world's most infuriating computer error can now be cooed at in an art gallery. Ugh.

Paul Destieu, the creator of such horror, used 500 prints which "sets the common bug out of its context, on a wall, expending it to much bigger scale. The famous picture finds a new landscape shape out of its usual frame."

 

 

Don't Try and Eat These Earbuds Made From Cornstarch

Exercise in minimalistic unbranded beauty, or eco-friendly gadgetry using new creation techniques? Both. Direct from Hong Kong, designer Michael Young uses cornstarch for hisEOps Noisezero i+ Eco 'buds. Sounds corny.

 

 

How To Pirate Vinyl Records

Just because vinyl records are analog, it doesn't mean you can't pirate them. All you need is a wood box, glass, window cement, silicone mixture, liquid plastic and a drill press. Hey, I didn't say it was going to be easy.

To start, you put your record in the wood box and pour the silicone mix over the record to create a mold. Then, you pour the liquid plastic into the silicone mold to make the pirated copy of the record.

Silicone Steamer Bowls Might Be The Perfect Bachelor Kitchenware

It's rare to find a kitchen concept that looks truly innovative, but these silicone steam roasting bowls look ace: use them to mix; use them to bake or steam; use them to serve. You can find them here.

 

 

Tapi, A Rubber Adapter That Turns Your Faucet Into A Drinking Fountain

Yes, the Tapi is silly looking. But it makes some sense. Attach the Tapi to your faucet and squeeze the rubber end to turn your faucet into a low cost, full-fledged drinking fountain. No cup necessary! If you don't squeeze the rubber end, water will flow normally.

Boxed Water

Boxed milk and juices are a supermarket staple, but one company is now selling boxed water.

Boxed Water Is Better sells water in cartons, ditching the plastic bottles while reducing the overall carbon footprint of packing and distribution by 80%.

 

 

Snap Capp Reseals Your Soda Can

It's a cheap and cheerful plastic top that pops onto a standard 12- or 16-ounce drinks can, and turns it into a resealable bottle, with a lid, to stop your refreshments going flat. Simplicity itself, and it's reusable too. Available in a variety of colors, packs of three for around $1.99 here.

Adidas-Branded Sennheiser Headphones

The HD 220 Originals come in white and blue, with adjustable earpads and promises of "enough bass." Enough for what, I wonder? Blasting eardrums with some drum 'n bass?

They are perfect for everyday use, featuring powerful bass-driven, stereo sound; a closed headphone design to block outside noise and create the ultimate listening environment; and individually adjustable ear cups for a secure and comfortable fit. The HD 220 Originals cost £50