The Fascinations company offers ”wonders created by physicists.” Their City Lights globe is a little different from most globes. There’s a light source inside that illuminates the major cities on earth. The globe automatically rotates on its axis, as well. The globe comes with a 11oV power supply. The City Lights Globe is available in 6″ or 10″ diameters from various retailers.
Fascinations City Lights Globe originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 28, 2010 at 8:30 am.
Custom-engineered metal implants -- called intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics (ITAPs) -- are fastened directly to Oscar's little ankle bones, inside his fuzzy little legs. From there they protrude directly through the skin and fur, using a biomimicking design inspired by the way that deer's antlers anchor to bone and then extend out through the skin. Prosthetic paws attach to the ends of the implants and let Oscar (no relation to Oscar Pistorius) walk normally.
'The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone,' Fitzpatrick told BBC News.
'We have managed to get the bone and skin to grow into the implant and we have developed an 'exoprosthesis' that allows this implant to work as a see-saw on the bottom of an animal's limbs to give him effectively normal gait.'
According to the BBC report, ITAP technology is being tested in humans, including a woman who lost an arm in the 2005 London bombings.
[BBC]
Despite the fact that this is smart, admittedly, it’s weird. If they had attached a normal colored light it’d probably be slightly less odd, but as it is, it makes the toilet shine red or green. Now those color choices aren’t just there for decoration though, they do actually have a purpose that could keep you from having any light night issues.
When the toilet seat is up and it senses the presence of someone, the light will kick on red. When the toilet seat is down and someone comes near, the light shines green. If you tend to have toilet seat wars, this could make the household a little more livable late at night. After you walk away from the toilet, the light will kick off. You can purchase the Lav Nav Motion Toilet Nightlight for $19.95.
Source: EB$29.99
Nothing will make your entire family cringe more than you wearing around a Hatcam. Sure, it means all the hands-free videos that you could ever desire, but you’ll still look like a dork. Now there are certain cases where some things prove more important than looking like a sane human being. Like if no one ever believes you when you say how big the fish was that you almost caught, now you can have proof.
These hats come in blaze orange, khaki, camo, forest green and pink. The design was actually created by Randy Peterson who loves hunting and fishing. Although this was made for the outdoorsy types, I’m sure you could find other uses for it. These Hatcams can be purchased alone or with the Flip MiniHD Camcorder. The hat alone is $34.99 and the full kit is priced at $204.99.
Source: Geekologie
Instead of scratching, you can use the USB Itching Removal Instrument from Brando. This device doesn’t use chemicals to stop the itch from insects, it uses electronic and optical spectrum technology. Yeah, I have no idea what that means either… But if you have a few mosquito bites that are driving you crazy, this device claims to help. USB Itching Removal Instrument is available now for … [visit site to read more]
Wait, Don’t Scratch that Mosquito Bite! originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 17, 2010 at 8:30 am.
There are plenty of fountains out there to make sure that your pet gets fresh water when the need it. However, most of them stay on all of the time, which isn’t necessarily bad if you enjoy the relaxing sound of running water. However, if you’d like to control how much water goes through the fountain you may want to try one of these Doggie Fountains instead. It doesn’t offer constant water flow, it only gives water when the pet activates it.
Source: RGS
Hong Kong-based SillyCube has launched a new photo-editing Facebook application called CutePhoto. Even though it’s in an older and crowded genre, it manages to stand out for its ease of use and color.
From slimmed down, Photoshop’esque tools, to any number of brilliantly saturated graphics, SillyCube provides its users with a wide assortment of tools to turn their photographs into something quirky, epic, bizarre, or cute.
To be fair, such applications – be they on Facebook or around the web – that allow users to spice up their photos in one way or another have existed for some time. Typically speaking, they are exceedingly simple renditions of the robust and more complex Adobe products, often ported-over versions of simple web-based photo editors. CutePhoto does a pretty good job at letting users get creative. Unfortunately, at the same time, it does still suffer from a handful of obnoxious usability issues.
When starting up the app, users can choose to upload a photo from their computer, use a URL from the web, take a Facebook photo from a friend, or just start with the set of four default images CutePhoto gives you. Upon entering the editor window, it is possible to zoom and move the selected image as you see fit, as well as adjust its brightness and sharpness. Oddly enough, there appears to be no rotate tool.
Anyways, once you have the image the size and orientation you want, you can begin doctoring it in any number of ways. The most basic of these are 18 or so frames that consist of environments ranging from snow to jungles and from wrapping paper to music notes. It’s all well and good, but that’s hardly the interesting part of the app.
There are actually six categories of random graphics that can be used to decorate an image. Selections include plants, animals, party items, environmental stuff, hats, and various symbols. Unfortunately, the graphics themselves cannot be altered (i.e. color), but they can still be scaled and rotated. They’ll even crop automatically if placed partially outside a frame. Moreover, there is a large enough selection that any modification beyond this is not really needed. Sadly, while this is all well and good, but the noted tools are the conduit for some major usability complaints.
As it stands, once a decoration is chosen, it sticks to your mouse pointer until you plant it down. Once you have put it down, while holding the left mouse button, you can rotate or scale the object (it is worth noting that rotation and scale are only done based on the center point of a graphic) by moving the mouse up and down or left and right respectively. It’s a little awkward, to say the least, but then again, that might be due to years of using Photoshop. That said, that’s not the big issue: The problem, is no matter where we look, we can’t seem to find a means to move, or re-alter a graphic that’s been added to the photo.
Currently, the only thing that is possible, is to click an eraser tool, delete the graphic, and try again until you get it the way you want. In many cases, this will not be an enormous issue for users, but when we tried to align our mighty sword with the paw of Polumbus, the Polar Bear King, it took a few, annoying, tries.
Beyond this issues, everything else seems to work out alright. Users can use a pen tool, with any number of simple brush sizes and an entire color wheel of hues to choose from, giving them unlimited potential. However, and most importantly, to anyone who has used an editor of any sort, CutePhoto retains the almighty undo button.
Once a photo has been completed, users then have the option of either saving it to their computer or uploading it to their gallery within the app. From here, they can save it to an album, set it as a profile picture, post on their own or a friend’s wall, or even put it up publicly within CutePhoto’s Photo Wall.
As a matter of fact, despite being new, the Photo Wall already has any number of very cute and many amusing altered images for people to look at. Moreover, anyone is able to take a peek and “Like” them. Granted, it’s just a default Facebook feature, but it is nice to see how many people like your creations.
Despite some usability issues, CutePhoto is still a pretty cool Facebook app. It has enough variety to allow for a good amount of creativity, and is simple enough to allow the majority of users to create decent quality stuff without drastically limiting the overall possibilities. With any luck, some of the issues of selecting placed graphics and the awkward rotation and scaling mechanics will get cleaned up, but all in all, CutePhoto is an application with few complaints.
Staying in the tub for an extended period of time might not be everybody's preference, but if you had this Sub-Tub Whirlpool Bath & Washbasin Unit, you can bet that more people would spend more time in the bathtub. What really sets it apart from your boring old bath is that it offers a huge OLED display that's able to display whatever image you upload, leaving you to decide if you want to soak in the tub next to scenery such as a forest, or the surface of the moon. Too bad it wasn't mentioned if we could watch movies on it..
Hmm. These could be dangerous. If you have a girlfriend, she could check the log and know beyond a shadow of a doubt whether you were, in fact, checking out that lady.
Thanks a lot, Sony for runing my life..;-0
If Albert Einstein were alive today, he'd be very old and quite wealthy. In fact, the world famous scientist still banks about $10 million per year solely from corporations purchasing one-time rights to his likeness. Einstein has been dead since 1955, but an institution is still collecting money on his behalf, and there is a rather substantial price to pay to use his likeness. Just ask General Motors.Report: GM sued for unauthorized use of Einstein originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 May 2010 14:00:00 EST.
