If you want to peek inside the barrel or get up-close-and-personal with marine life, then you will love Aaron Goulding’s work. He loves grabbing those inside-the-tube shots and quiet ocean moments. But everyone wants a self-portrait of themselves catching a wave and in the barrel.
Enjoy a few of his photos and visit his company JAG Media Productions and like him on Facebook.
Continue reading “The photography of Aaron Goulding – peering inside the waves”
The wave park will include 10 buoys stringed together and linked to the coast through an underwater power cable. It is the result of six years of far-sighted research and development, and $10 million of funding.
From One World One Ocean:
Last month, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the country’s first commercial wave energy project off of the coast of Reedsport, Oregon. The 35-year license allows Ocean Power Technologies Inc. (OPT) to build up to ten 140-foot buoys, which will generate 1.5 megawatts of power – enough to power 1,000 homes. The first buoy is expected to be deployed in October.
For testing purposes only one PB150 Buoy (pictured below) will be installed 2.5 miles off the Oregon coast. Assuming no problems nine more will be placed in the waves, connected together, and begin lighting up Oregon homes.
The above picture is pulled from the projects Newsletter and Progress Report (pdf). You can also read about OPT’s technology and coverage from the N.Y. Times.
A great idea from a teacher, two engineers, and a robotics specialist. Developed to use in the classroom but developing a following outside of it. The Multiplo robotics system.
It’s easy to assemble, difficult to break and simple to customize:
The concept is that you get a box that has a kit inside. We took care of all the technical details in order for each single part to be compatible. Everything you need to build a robot is inside of the box. But you can also add your own parts…
“Right out of the Box” are the words we like to use about how you should start using your Multiplo Kit. There is no need to program, study a wiring diagram or buy tools. No soldering or protoboard needed. You can build a simple robot in about 45 minutes.
I particularly like the selling point: “robotics should be for everybody”. There are more videos of the prototype robots and three-wheelers.
Continue reading “The first of its kind – open robot building system”
Maybe it was all those vacations people took?
From the Wall Street Journal:
U.S. consumers in early September felt better about the economy as their expectations brightened, according to data released Friday.
The Thomson-Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 79.2 early this month from the 74.3 final reading for August.
Of course, nothing beats the roaring Clinton years and those enthusiastic Bush years. From Calculated Risk:
Continue reading “Are you happy this month? – Consumer sentiment rises to 2008 level”
I can feel it coming like the light rain before the storm. The temperature is dropping and the kids are back in school. Tourist season is over, no more vacations, and everyone is back at home focused on work. That is until Saturday and Sunday when the raging obsession that is football begins. These are the signs of fall.
Leaves will soon drop and the trees will become ghastly versions of themselves. Rain and mud will replace the heat and sunshine. Our memories of the summer will become stories we enchant, or bore, our friends with. Our fondness for them grows even as we wish away the sweltering summer heat.
Do you like to sweat? Or are you one of those that prefers the cold. Those big jackets and high boots. Hats and handbags, layers upon layers in the sharpest of colors. Even though black and gray always dominate, there is some room for the orange and red of fall. It must be the fashionistas favorite time of year striding down a blustery city street as if it’s the fashion runway in Milan.
Most certainly someone will tell you, fall is my favorite season of the year. Which always causes me to wonder what do you think about Autumn, and why does it have to be fall. I ask such silly questions because I can never make up my mind, is fall better than summer? I know it’s better than spring, for that matter spring is on par with winter. There is just too much waiting in the both of them. I prefer the non-stop action of both summer and fall, but can never name my favorite.
Perhaps because it reminds me of the setting sun. When the sky turns orange and red before dropping its leaves. We all love to see it, but it heralds the end of the day and I never liked endings. It’s the moment I want to get captured in. So I rush to enjoy these last days of summer. Complaining about the heat while quietly wishing it would go away. Enjoying football and the fond embrace of jackets. I get lost in the waning days of summer and feel the cold breezes and think, fall is coming.
The first day of fall is September 22, 2012.
It was an enterprising schoolgirl and a traveling bible salesman in 1919. They couldn’t get ladies to use antiperspirants until they made them feel bad. The strategy was to encourage them to be insecure, from Smithsonian Magazine:
Perspiration as a social faux pas that nobody would directly tell you was responsible for your unpopularity, but which they were happy to gossip behind your back about.
Reading more like a lyrical public service announcement than an advert:
A woman’s arm! Poets have sung of it, great artists have painted its beauty. It should be the daintiest, sweetest thing in the world. And yet, unfortunately, it’s isn’t always.
It worked and sales boomed. The next step was to convince men they needed it. Can you guess how they did that?
Read Sarah Everts full article to find out.
Continue reading “How advertisers convinced Americans they smelled bad”
Pollia condensata produces its blue color at the nanoscale level and is more intense than anything ever studied. From the Smithsonian Magazine:
When they examined P. condensata on a cellular level, they realized that the fruit produces its characteristic color through structural coloration, a radically different phenomenon that is well-documented in the animal kingdom but virtually unknown in plants. They determined that the fruit’s tissue is more intensely colored than any previously studied biological tissue—reflecting 30 percent of light making it more intense than even the renowned color of a Morpho butterfly’s wings.
Most plants produce a pigment which coats the plant but is not a part of its cells. When the plants die they no longer produce the pigment and fade in color. Not the amazing blue of P. Condensata.
Continue reading “The world’s most intense natural color – Pollia Condensata”
That’s right, our favorite British costume drama, Downton Abbey, returns on January 6, 2013, to PBS’ Masterpiece Theater. And because that is far too many months to wait, we have some Downton treats:
The show gets significant historical events right. The depiction of the 1918 “Spanish” ‘flu epidemic is accurate—it came on suddenly, people could be well in the morning and near death at night. And it was people in the prime of life, 20-40 year olds, who were most at risk.
However, the depiction of trench warfare is mixed. The show captures what scholar Paul Fussell described as the “ridiculous proximity” between the home front and the trenches. For instance, the posh department stores Fortnum and Mason and Harrods both had gift assortments specially chosen for the front—and delivery was efficient!
Continue reading “Take the Downton Abbey personality quiz! – Season 3 returns January, 2013”
The average person uses 80-100 gallons of water a day. But where is all that water used?
There can’t be sugar in toothpaste. The dentists wouldn’t allow it. Indeed, the American Dental Association (ADA) says:
No ADA-Accepted toothpaste contains sugar or any other ingredient that would promote tooth decay.
But notice the qualification, “or any other ingredient.” This refers to sweeteners and toothpaste does contain sweeteners. From the preceding sentence, toothpaste includes:
Flavoring agents, such as saccharin and other sweeteners to provide taste.
The other sweeteners are sorbitol, aspartame, cyclamates, and glycerin. And, yes, they are the sweeteners linked to cancer in rats, aspartame and saccharin.
For further reference, from the ingredient list of the toothpaste in my home:
There’s the answer, toothpaste does not contain sugar, but it does contain sweetener.
And if sugar is horrible for our teeth what about sweeteners. If they perform the same function can they cause the same problems? No direct answer was found, but two alternate explanations are available.
First, tooth decay comes from plaque which is the build-up of bacteria on teeth. Any food item promotes this build-up, sweetener included. Therefore, sweetener does cause tooth decay. But it is added for some purpose?
Second, sweetener does nothing for our teeth it is only added for flavoring. From a periodontist:
What most people dont know is that plaque is removed by the mechanical action of the toothbrush bristles against the teeth and gum whether toothpaste is used or not. Much to the toothpaste manufacturers chagrin they have never been able to prove that using toothpaste increases plaque removal, it simply makes for a better experience by adding some flavor.
He then goes on to recommend using baking soda with fluoride, or “use whatever you like” since toothpaste does nothing for your teeth.
An interesting thought, is toothpaste really useless? Here is an article from a mother who, with her dentists approval, stopped using toothpaste – No toothpaste, No cavities. It said her family has greatly improved teeth and fewer cavities.
Another article challenges the other toxins in toothpaste, the abrasives and detergents. Saying they are products pulled from “engine degreasers” and other industrial products. But that is written with the hope of selling you an herbal toothpaste.
In conclusion, there is sweetener is toothpaste but only in small amounts. Most articles say it is less than 2% of the product and maybe that’s why it causes no harm? Either way it is only a flavoring and does nothing to help our teeth. Indeed there is some doubt about the value of toothpaste altogether. So be wary the next time you buy a toothpaste for its cavity fighting protection or sensitive relief technology. And if you’re feeling adventurous consult your dentist, quit toothpaste, and enjoy trying the alternatives.