Just another reason not to text and walk at the same time - falling into shopping centre water features.
This is a nice Youtube video of a woman falling into a pool. She was fine afterwards, and told the shopping centre cop that she was just "a little wet" but the video is Youtube gold. Watch above.
As "Maggot" from Westcliffe-on-Sea comments on the Daily Mail:"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... I knew I would see this one day... You only have to see these characters wandering around with their gadgets...they're in another world... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha"
It reminds us a little of the Windows Phone 7 ads...
So, if you thought what you needed to make you happy was a break in the Carribbean, a pay rise or a hunky romantically inclined new colleague, well, forget that - there's a much simpler way. We're talking about shining light into your brain through your ears.
Yes of course we are. While you may have thought that your eyes were the part of you that perceives light, it seems your ears like it too, or rather, what's behind your ears - your brain. Apparently parts of the grey matter are photo-sensitive and appreciate a little bright light now and then. It's of particular benefit to those who suffer from SAD - the winter darkness condition. There's science behind this of course:
Researchers at the University of Oulu, Finland, say that tests gave relief from darkness-induced depression (SAD) to nine out of ten subjects with a daily 8-12 minute dose for four weeks. They've got investment already and are undertaking further tests to back this up.. though the lightbox is available now:
They say:
"In our clinical tests, approx. 9 patients out 10 experienced total relief of symptoms, which is a revolutionary result. Just 8-12 minutes a day is enough."
Valkee Light Box Available for 185 euros on Valkee
It sounds like a scene in a sci-fi film, but it's acutally true. Weapons and defence company BAE systems are trialling a laser cannon for use against pirates. They intend it for use off the coast of East Africa where commercial ships are increasingly in danger of piracy and Somali pirates currently hold 586 people hostages.
The cannon is supposed to deter pirates in a non-lethal way, by firstly warning them that they have been spotted and then by temporarily blinding them at short range. The dazzling light would disorient pirates and prevent from effectively aiming weapons, BAE claim.
It all sounds like Dr Who, but the artist's mock-up above looks more serious.
BAE need to do more human tests (where do they get the volunteers from?), but they claim the effects are similar to a pilot flying towards the sun and don't cause lasting damage. It certainly sounds better than relying on armed guards and gunfights on the high seas. Especially since many of the ships in danger are oil tankers...
Perhaps a cute retro name is all that three dimensional printers need to get the adoring audience that they deserve..
3D printers are super exciting, but somehow the green-glowing wooden Thing-O-Matic has captured the public imagination a bit more than the usual grey metal industry-focussed offerings. Using tiny droplets of plastic to build up three dimensional shapes, it lets you make little plastic models of things from computer files.
Attaching to your computer over USB, it's nice and simple.
So three dimensional printers are a bit pricier than your average Epson Inkjet - this one will set you back $1225 or around £790 from Makerbot and the plastic it uses costs about $10 (about £6.40) per pound.
So, you know about printers, and you know about nail painting ... well ladies (and gents, if you're interested) meet the nail *printer*. A genius machine that prints nail polish onto your nails. Naturally we love it.
For the ArtPro Nail Printer to work, you need to put a base colour on, then stick your finger into the machine, align your nail and it precision prints a design on, and you layer over some clearcoat as a sealant.
Advantages - precision nail art
- customised designs from jpegs
- the fun experience of putting your hands in a machine
Disadvantages - there are no disadvantages to this
The Internet of Things is in swinging form at the minute with cars, blood pressure monitors and all sorts of other devices crowding onto the web. Well, now the baby can be on the internet too... as Withings introuduce a souped-up internet connected baby monitor that can live-stream 3megapixel images of your baby to your phone. It even works in the dark cause of its infra-red camera.
The Withings Baby Monitor is little plastic box that can stream images from its 3 megapixel camera to your iPhone or just computer screen. The Withings Baby Monitor has a connected app that works on iPhone,
You can even interact with your child by making soothing noises to them or rejigging the nursery playlist. Just be careful the child doesn't grow up to love the monitor instead of you.
It " gives parents important information on their child's environment and allows them to interact with their child remotely and easily." Wiithings promise.
We told you about Catfish before - it's a great film about a Facebook romance - recently star Nev Schulmann got interviewed at a London film event via a physical representation of Facebook. All pretty confusing. Though I do like this new interview technique. We might spring it on someone who comes into the office one day all innocently trying to show us a new phone.
It's fun to watch though it's fair to say that you don't get much detail out of people..
We like to bring you the best of the internet here, so obviously a Tumblr blog called Hookers Or Cake is going to have feature somewhere.
We're not really sure what it's about, but it just seems to be quite good. Maybe it's feminist, maybe it's just a collection of weird shit loosely themed by being related to either hookers or cakes. Take a look anyway... The picture above seems to be the stand-out image.
Can't afford a trip abroad but want your favourite teddy bear to experience the thrills of foreign travel?
The answer to that may be no, but new travel company - Stuffed in the City - which is offering just that, may be about to win you over. Let's think of it as a way to get an amusing set of photos of teddy... in the style of that gnome in Amelie.
Focussed on New York, at least to start with, all you need to do is post teddy over the pond to New York city.
"You send us the toy and we do the rest," says Irina Kot, co-founder of Stuffed in the
City. "Your toy meets fellow tourists, takes pictures with New York City landmarks, and gets VIP treatment by our staff."
Its tour takes in Central Park, The Empire State Building and more, all in a "New York Minute," which is the company's signature tour. You will receive a CD with all images taken during the tour, 4x6 print outs, a travel certificate, and a surprise NYC souvenir. Your toy returns enriched, inspired, and grateful.
Err, great right?
We should mention that this offer - Stuffed in the City - extends to all stuffed animals and toys, not just bears.
If you're worried about power cuts over this festive season, it may be worth keeping a few of these beauties stored up for emergencies.
Electric eels can officially power a tree's-worth of christmas lights. They're like wriggly, water-borne batteries. And hell they look a lot more exciting than them too. It was Japanese scientists who figured out the contraption that makes this work.
The brain behind this fun but admittedly quite useless idea is interviewed at the end of the vid. He sounds a bit spaced-out, but he's obviously a fine engineer. He says:
"if we could gather up all the electric eels in the world, we would be able to light up an unimaginably large Christmas tree. I'd love to see the huge flash of light it made on the earth, from somewhere else in the Universe.."
It would be the university of Aberdeen that comes out with a press release suggesting you eat oats for Christmas - the Scottish are famous for liking their porridge.
It doesn't sound like much of an alternative to Christmas turkey - though fortunately what the new study from Aberdeen shows is that eating oats as a supplement to your diet can be good enough to get all the blood-pressure lowering benefits, without having to cut anything out.
It's not a complete surprise that oats are good for you - it's the sort of thing that people tell you in third form biology all the time. But apparently having three portions of wholemeal or oats a day every day can lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease because blood pressure is significantly reduced.
They say: "The study has clear public health implications and suggests that this Christmas wholegrain wheat and oat-based recipes should be on everyone's festive menu."
Though if the roads don't get cleared in Scotland and delivery trucks can't get through, then it could be that people end up eating oats for Christmas anyway and not just because of their blood pressure.
The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2010; 92:733-40 `Effect of increased consumption of whole-grain foods on blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk markers in healthy middle-aged persons: a randomized controlled trial.
Any app developers or data-crunchers out there wanting to use their skills for social good, may be interested to know that the Mayor of London's Office has just released a bunch of data on the NHS in London.
The London council are appealing for developers to come up with useful or interesting ways of structuring the raw data. The London Datastore website has been running since earlier this year but fresh NHS data about maternity care, stroke and performance indicators were published this week.
Up for a challenge? Find it on the London Datastore and see what you can do...
Interesting uses of public data so far include the London Population Cartogram which shows on a bulging map how the populations of different boroughs have changed over the past 200 years - with the growth of the suburbs in the past 50 being particularly striking.
Q Yes yes, I've got Chrome it's a web-browser right, what's all the fuss about?
A Well it is yes, it's Google's speedy web browser, but Chrome is also a new Operating System released just today, in testing mode. That's what everyone is writing about.
Q A operating system for what?
A Well for any computer - for laptops or tablets or desktops.
Q My computer already has an Operating System, why would I be interested in this one?
A Because and this is the big selling point of the whole thing... Google have built it from the bottom-up to be completely in tune with the web. It's a web-based OS made for internet connected devices.
Q What and Windows isn't?
A Of course all other operating systems work with the web, but Windows was built for a time before the internet existed, so Google claim it's not so much in tune with the internetz.
Q Alright then? where do I find it? how much is it?
A Well it's only out in a testing version yet for people who are prepared to provide technical feedback on the system - what is out now though is the app store associated with the new operating system. That means there are a bunch of interesting web apps that will work best on the new Chrome system but are compatible for anyone with a browser. Doesn't even have to be Chrome.
Q What apps?
A Well, okay lots of them are things that are already sites... like the New York Times, and Sports Illustrated, but they just display nicely in an "appy" format.
We're really interested in Tweetdeck the Chrome Extension..see it here
It boasts some beautiful buildings, possibly the best art gallery in Europe and has gifted the world some of its most infamous politicians and writers. But these days St Petersburg is also becoming known for its art and technology scenes too. The city is the birthplace of Yota, a Russian network which delivers incredibly quick wireless data speeds to its customers PCs and mobiles using innovative 4G technology, which is way beyond anything we currently have in the UK. St Petersburg also boasts a small but growing digital arts community which focuses on technology to create exciting, meaningful but very high tech installations.
This week the two communities came together as Yota hosted Yota Space, a digital arts festival which was fantastic in both its ambition and execution. The company took over a huge disused hypermarket - think Selfridges scale - to deliver a festival of bands, Djs and most of all art installations. UK electro pop band Hot Chip kicked the festival off on Sunday, but in many ways the main story was the large number of cutting edge installations from artists across the world.
Digital Technology is starting to have a profound impact on the way that art is created, distributed and even funded, and I'll take a longer look on how in many ways art may follow a similar path to music and media in the way it evolves later this week. Here though is a quick trawl through some of the highlights of the festival.
The day before the show Drive Productions took one of the city's most impressive buildings - the Mikhailovsky Palace - and transformed it by using a 4D projection mapping system. We have seen this kind of thing before in the UK, but not delivered in quite the way that this was.
If you have never checked out the onedotzero website you really should - it is a fascinating place. The group is arguably the UK's leading moving image and digital arts organisation. It basically commissions, showcases and promotes all kinds of digital and interactive arts. It works in interesting ways too with artists asked to submit a video of their work to the site. The company regularly hosts a festival of new and upcoming artists and in St Petersburg offered Russian arts lovers the chance to see some recent and classic works by its associated artists.
Among the highlights were Toplogies by an group called Quayola which cleverly uses a multi screen installation with a pre-modernist painting but then adds a series of formations which emerge to create a clash between the stillness of the original image and the dynamic nature of the emerging images.
Another key feature was an installation from Korean based artist Joon Y Moon. His work Augmented Shadow is a high tech version of the old shadow table concept. Imaginary objects and organic beings can be manipulated by the user to create different life cycles for the objects. Watch the video to see it in action, and look out for the trees and the birds.
One installation that might be familiar to Londoners is Volume by United Visual Artists. The work has already been showcased on the South Bank and at the V&A museum in the Madjeski Garden. Its creators bill Volume as a sculpture of light and sound which is controlled by people's interaction. As a person moves through the space they trigger a display of light and sound. It is an incredible experience to wander through the installation and fascinating to see how user's constantly chnage its land and sounds scapes.
Also at the show were installations from Jason Bruges (who I'll write more about in separate feature as he has some amazing projects on the go), Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings and this work, Body paint. from MSA Visual's Mehmet Akten where users can create abstract painting by moving in front of the installation.
We love these new Lens bracelets by Photojojo, designed with the photo obsessive in mind.
Made from soft silicone, the bracelet is a replica of your lens' focusing ring. From the embossed "50mm" and AF/MF switch to the rubber grip ridges, we can't think of a better addition to our camera style wardrobe.
The bracelet comes in one size, in a choice of either 50mm prime or 24-70mm zoom.
Get both for $15 here
Apparently tomorrow is World Toilet day and the World Toilet Organization (yes really...) has launched an app to help raise awareness.
The Flush Tracker, does just as it's name suggests. By entering in your location the app will show you exactly what happens to your flush once it disappears down the toilet: track its exact position, speed and distance traveled as it navigates the length of Britain's sewage system. In case that's not strange enough, you can check out pre-loaded flushes from such eminent postcodes as 10 Downing Street, and we all know a lot of crap comes out of there.
So despite being a bit of fun, this app is trying to raise awareness of the fact more than 2.6 billion people or 40% of the world's population - lack access to basic sanitation. World Toilet Day is in its 10th year, and is aiming to highlight this problem faced by nearly half of the world's population.
The US rock band OK Go, has become infamous for their creative often low-budget music videos, including their most famous, Here It Goes Again which received over 50 million views.
OK Go's latest attempt to find creative ways to promote themselves, comes in the form of a collaboration with the car manufacture Range Rover, to create the Evoque Pulse of the City project.
The project will involve the geo-mapping of a street parade in celebration of Los Angeles on November 17th. The group will carry their instruments and amplifiers through the streets of their home city, as fans log on to follow them via Facebook and Twitter as they walk and play. As the band moves around the city they will be tracking their movements with the Evoque iPhone app. The GPS app, was launched by Range Rover last month in anticipation of their new Evoque car, and allows users to create stunning data visualizations of their movements across cities anywhere in the world. OK Go, will use this GPS tracking technology to spell out the words "OK Go" in giant letters.
Damian Kulash from OK Go said: "We're asking everyone who wants to be part of something artistic, colourful and musical to join us in this collaboration....We will track every step of our journey through GPS and create a unique piece of collaborative, living art. We are dancing with our home town and asking our fans to do the same."
They are encouraging fans can get involved and create their own journeys which will be made into a film and distributed via OK Go's social media channels by downloading the app
For those of you for whom eating vegetables is a chore, and even munching those little pills is difficult - meet the vitamins you can breathe in.
LeWhif - the makers of breathable chocolate have turned their attention to vitamins and made - LeWhif Vitamin: huff on the little plastic stick to get your nutrients. How about that?
I have to say I wasn't wowed by the LeWhif chocolate sticks, when I tried them out it was a bit like breathing in a light dusting of cocoa powder.. underwhelming.
Still there is some science behind this vitamin thing. They tell us:
"Le Whif Vitamins, now available in the UK, are set to change the way that supplements are taken forever. The new "breathable vitamins" allow supplements to be absorbed into the blood stream without swallowing, a non-digestive pathway proven more effective for many supplements."
There is actually lots of science here. Though to be honest it is more redolent of skincare adverts than the New Scientist...
"Many supplements on the market now lose bioavailability on passing through the liver. In the case of resveratrol, which provides potential cardiac and even anti-aging benefits, a single milligram of resveratrol absorbed through the mouth leads to blood levels of the supplement equivalent to a 250 milligram pill. So whether to increase efficacy, or simply to avoid pills, breathable vitamins offer a new innovative and sensible approach to daily healthcare."
See more on www.lewhif.com
Vitamin LeWhif sell for £5.99 for a three-pack.
It's possible to take covert pictures of people with your phone by pretending to text in a weird way with your phone up at the same level as your face while actually taking a picture. But it's awkward and looks dumb if you pull it off and creepy if you don't.
Anyway taking secret spy photographs of people will get a lot easier with arrival of ThinkGeek's T-shirt with Spy Camera. The super slim camera is cunningly disguised as part of the pattern on the front. In a daring double bluff, the camera lens is actually in a picture of a camera lens.
Still, because it's very rare to find people with cameras hidden in their t-shirts, I think you could get away with this. Just have a good excuse if they discover the attached battery pack and little clicky thing that decides when you take a picture.
The shirt's concealed color digital camera will allow spies-in-training to capture 150 photographs at 640 X 480 resolution before they have to be downloaded to a computer via the included USB cable and wiped from the shirt's memory.
It takes 3 AAA batteries, doesn't work very well at night (flash would kinda give it away) and we're not sure how you wash it... but hey, think of all the covert spy shots you can take of people in the train. - do it!
The From Tokyo With Love Electronic Spy Camera Shirt, $39.99 from ThinkGeek
Jumpers, I understand. But knitting gameboys, iPhones and kettles...? What is that impulse in the human breast that makes people knit woollen versions of things that aren't meant to be made of wool..?
I don't know what it is, but it's the sort of thing that keeps Etsy going.
We've hunted out 10 knitted gadgets - and yes there is kettle. And a car. We're loving on it.
From: CES 2012 - More fitness and health gadgets - Basis, Qualcomm and Striiv