LG revealed its watch phone at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas earlier this month which managed to get the attention of worldwide gadget geeks…
Looks kinda cool… question is, how much would it cost?
Computer mouse celebrates its 40th birthday this week. The device was invented by Douglas Engelbart and his team at Stanford Research Institute; it was introduced to the public in a demonstration on December 9, 1968 in San Francisco.
The basic fundamentals of the mouse we use today are about the same as the 1968 invention, but the usage of the mouse wasn’t popularised until more than a decade later since its first introduction. It seems like nobody is really sure though… on who came out with the nickname Mouse.
Personal thanks to Mr Engelbart and his team; computing experience wouldn’t be the same without these technology pioneers.
The world’s first blue roses have been unveiled in Japan following nearly two decades of scientific research.
Developed by Suntory Flowers, the roses are genetically modified and implanted with a gene that simulates the synthesis of blue pigment in pansies.
The first blue rose was created in 2004, but further research was required to make them safe to grow in nature.
The Suntory rose made its public debut at the 5th International Flower Expo Tokyo (IFEX) over the weekend; and are expected to go on sale commercially next autumn.
Blue roses have been available in florists in recent years but are created by various dying techniques to stain the petals of naturally white roses. The Suntory roses are believed to be the first genetically-modified blue rose creations [more on Telegraph]
Portugal has officially launched the world’s first commercial wave power project on September 23. The Agucadoura Wave Park, developed by Scottish firm Pelamis, was supposed to launch in 2007 but was delayed by an underwater connection issue.
The first phase of the project cost about 9 million Euros and generates power using 3 Pelamis Wave Energy Converters (PWEC) which are semi-submerged, articulated structures composed of cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints and are located approximately 3 miles off the coast.
The second phase of the project will install a further 25 PWEC and bring the total capacity up to 21MW, which will be able to meet the average annual electricity demand for more than 15,000 Portuguese households while displacing more than 60,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide emissions from conventional power plants.
Video below shows how the PWEC works…
UK will be the next to embrace the wave power with the Orcadian Wave Farm in northern Scotland and the Westwave project in Cornwall, southwestern England.
Back in my school days I was taught that a person could live for 3-4 weeks without food but with water; the teaching is still applicable… but there are other factors that dictates the surviving period.
Mental strength, health condition, body weight, climates and some other factors play their part in determining the survival length; under optimal circumstances a person could live without food for 6-8 weeks or even longer in extreme cases.
I am not sure if there’s any official record for the longest survival without food; the longest record that I managed to find is 73 days during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. A total of 10 prisoners had died after 46 to 73 days of starvation in the strike.
Laurence McKeown survived the strike for 70 days, which could be the record for the longest period for a person to live without food and still surviving.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, has started its first test on September 10, 2008.
The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and lies underneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. It is funded by and built in collaboration with more than 8000 physicists from over 85 countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.
Search engine giant Google has released an open source web browser, the Google Chrome on Tuesday (Sept 2).
Google claims that the new and free browser is more stable, faster, safer, simpler and more efficient (than Internet Explorer, although they didn’t mention the name). You can read more about the idea behind Google Chrome via Google’s comic books if you are into techie stuff.
Google said that the Chrome is meant to add value for users and is just another option that could help drive innovation on the web. While the statement is not untrue, the rivalry between Google and Microsoft for online dominance is heightened obviously.
Internet Explorer still dominates the web browser usage around the world; it’s estimated that 75% of the web surfers are using IE.
The BETA version of Chrome is available for download for Windows user only at the moment. I am testing the browser now… at first glance, it’s a bit too simple for my liking, although simplicity is one of its advantages that Google has stressed about.