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Here's an unorthodox way to help slow down the effects of cancer: a nice tall glass of shark's blood. Sound gross? It is! But it also might just be effective.
The reason that shark's blood might be the next hot cancer treatment is because sharks, like humans, have antibodies in their blood. The antibodies in sharks blood, like sharks themselves, just so happen to be really, really tough. In addition, because the blood is so resilient, it could survive through the acidic environment of our stomachs, getting to us where we need it. Now this treatment would not cure cancer; it would merely slow it down. But heck, if you could pop a pill of sharks blood and slow down cancer, why would you say no?
Singapore's upcoming EDITT Tower, or the "Ecological Design In The Tropics" Tower, is green inside and out. Designed by the architects at TR Hamzah & Yeang and sponsored by the National University of Singapore, the 26-story structure features a prominent living wall of plants that adds some color, ventilation and dedicated biogas generation.
The plants take up about half of the structure and it's planned that it'll be made from local vegetation. Ramps will connect EDITT to the surrounding shops and offices, so people can pop in for a visit to check out the garden. The building is also covered with photovoltaic panels that'll account for 39.7% of its power, and rainwater will be collected for both plant irrigation and supplying the building's water supply — for flushing a toilet, for instance.
Check out the gallery below for more of the EDITT Tower.
The Playstation 3 makes it pretty easy to swap out the hard drive it comes with with a larger one. You simply slide out the old hard drive, slide in the new one, format it, and you're good to go. But what if you're looking to get a bit more fancy? Like by inserting a flash-based SSD drive rather than a traditional HDD that the PS3 is expecting.
Well, you'll need to do a bit of work, but it's definitely possible. The benefits should be faster load times, although you shouldn't expect to see huge differences in speed. Also, look to drop a ton of cash on this little upgrade, as an 80GB SSD will set you back a whopping $600, more than the price of the console itself. If you're rich and adventurous, however, it could be a fun way of making your PS3 just a bit more badass than all the other PS3s out there.
ExtremeTech, via Engadget
Now that Sirius and XM have merged, there's a new crop of satellite radios emerging. Here's one from Pioneer, the XMp3 that can act like a TiVo, snagging recordings of five of your favorite stations at the same time. That's so great it doesn't even seem legal.
Also like a TiVo is the XMp3's 30-minute buffer, letting you pause and rewind live programming so you won't miss a single word of Howard Stern, available as of October 6th in the "Best of Sirius" package ($4/month ) for XM subscribers.
Shipping today, the radio's $279 price seems steep, but hey, it's not that bad considering less-capable satellite hand-held radios such as the Sirius Stiletto 2 cost about the same. Now if there were a Sirius version that receives the best of XM, we'd be on board.
Electronista, via Ubergizmo
It's starting to get cold outside, time to start thinking about warmth, heating, and radiators. So you need to either hide that ugly radiator or somehow fit it into your chic décor. Add this LEGO-style number, called Brick, to that LEGO-style furniture motif you have going, and all the other adult children will be thrilled with your good design sense.
This is a real radiator, though, designed by architect Marco Baxadonne for serious Italian towel-heater and radiator maker Scirocco. It so happens that those LEGO-like projections are plenty efficient, spreading the heat with their enhanced surface area. Add to that some fancy plumbing inside that lets you snap together pieces of the radiator like LEGO, and you’ve got yourself a real conversation piece.
It's been 100 years since Ford's first Model T hit the road, and to commemorate the occasion, Ford commissioned a design contest to create Model T 2.0. Of the two winners of $25,000 in scholarship money, the Model T2 design you see above was our favorite, a three-wheeled coupe from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. It has motors on each wheel's hub, powered by compressed air. It also sports an unspecified "novel steering system," which we figure has something to do with all three wheels getting into the act.
The parameters of the design competition were tough, requiring the vehicle to cost less than $7000 and have a range of 125 miles. It's not going to be easy to actually build a car that cheaply, since the most inexpensive car available these days costs nearly twice that. But if a car like this could get you a $7500 tax break like the increasingly expensive Chevy Volt, they'd be paying you $500 to drive one away from the dealership. Take a look at the other winning design:
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Toilets use a lot of water, you know. And it seems kind of strange to have a sink right next to your toilet, pouring all that water down the drain, when your toilet would work just as well with your second-hand sink water as it does with regular clean water. Why not save water by running your sink into your toilet?
This Dual Flush toilet takes that idea to the next level by actually putting a ink in the tank of the toilet. So you can brush your teeth while you pee, or wash your hands before flushing to use the same water for both. Sure, it's kind of an awkward place for a sink, but you want to save the environment, don't you?
Carnegie Mellon University loves robots and, more than that, a challenge: How do you get at possible minerals around the Moon's crater-studded south pole where there's no light for energy, or to see what you're doing? The CMU team's solution is the Scarab, a fully autonomous prospector 'bot, that'll carry out its work using laser scanners to navigate the harsh terrain and a radioactive power source to keep itself going.
It needs to be able to core through a meter of possibly hard, icy soil to get at the pockets of hydrogen concentrations for study — and its wheels are the key. The dynamic platform allows the Scarab to move over slopes and jagged landforms, and acts as a stabilizer when the 'bot goes belly-down to drill. The Scarab will move along slowly, as its radioactive isotope power source only produces about 100 watts — or the power of your average light bulb — to keep the robotic rover moving and thinking. The good news? That source also lasts about 10 years, so it'll have plenty of time to do what it needs to do.
The Scarab is about to undergo field testing at a volcanic range in Hawaii to see if it's up to the task of exploring dark lunar craters. If it does well, it may win a golden ticket from NASA to head to the moon and start its studies. Click Continue for a snippet from the Discovery Channel detailing CMU's Scarab autonomous prospector.
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It wouldn't be a convention without people in costumes, most of which are some variation of cleavage and bare midriffs. Here's a video of some of the contestants for the BlizzCon 2008 Costume Contest, and below is the winner, Amanda Hosler, showing off her creation before the thunderous roar of the approving crowd.
However, isn't she sort of cheating? That's no costume. That's a float! In this interview with World of Warcraft site Allakhazam, Hosler explains that the turtle was built using an electric wheelchair as a chassis. She also reveals the sacrifices she had to make.
Hosler was also the winner of the 2007 contest.
A gas-powered bike? We've got those. They're called motorcycles. Start slapping combustion engines onto your average pedal bicycle and you're taking one step backward for nature, and one giant backflip for mankind. It can reportedly hit speeds of up to 40 mph, and run on 120 miles-per-needless-gallon.
Sure, it looks alright. It's got a charming white-washed frame and the bike itself cost its British builder $25 at a flea market — a motor was slapped onto it. We can't help but match it up to the slew of other bicycle hybrid designs we see around here, and the idea of wasting gas in such a way — especially these days — is just silly.
Tomorrow's headline: DIY project to make your legs run on gasoline.
British Car Forum, via MAKE, via Boing Boing Gadgets
Japan has upped the ante in the CCTV department with the debut of the Help Vending Machine from Coca Cola recently unveiled in Aichi prefecture. The fully beverage stocked vending machine is also equipped with a siren, a video camera and an embedded emergency phone with a direct line to the police in case you are in need of help.
The controversial part arises due to the fact that the surveillance camera automatically begins recording anyone who comes near the vending machine. Although Japan is only rivaled by the UK in terms of ubiquitous CCTV surveillance, a local citizen recently expressed his outrage at the new technology by vandalizing the machine with the words "surveillance society" in Japanese and ripping off the machine's camera. Somehow this episode feels a lot like the first salvo in a real life humans-versus-robots future war.
Via Lets Japan
When you get a call while you're driving, what do you do? Do you pick it up, or let it go to your voicemail? Of course there's always a temptation to grab it, especially if you think it may be an emergency. Driving while distracted, however, is starting to become more and more of a problem, and one that's costing lives.
Rather than ban cell usage or simply hope drivers can multitask, Canadian software company Aegis Mobility has developed software that bridges those two extremes. Called DriveAssist, the software detects whether or not you're driving and will hold your calls, letting the person on the other end of the line know that you're currently behind the wheel. And don't worry — if it's an emergency the caller can dial in an override and reach you.
Aegis Mobility is currently talking with telecom companies to offer the service to customers as an added monthly fee.
Aegis Mobility, via Yahoo Tech, via Textually
The Xbox 360 Arcade system is the lowest-end version of Microsoft's console, and because of that it comes without a few essential elements, such as a hard drive. And now, with a new version of the Xbox 360 firmware coming soon that won't fit on the dinky memory card that comes standard with the Arcade system, people are starting to wish they had bought one of the higher-end versions with a hard drive.
But don't worry! Microsoft has your back. For a mere $20, Arcade owners can grab a nice 20GB hard drive, just like the one that comes on the standard version. That hard drive will not only fit the new Xbox firmware, but it'll fit videos, music, saved games, game demos and downloaded arcade games. Really, a hard drive is essential for using the Xbox 360, so if you have an Xbox 360 Arcade, hop on this deal while the getting is good.
Even tough guys get nicks and cuts sometimes, and those nicks and cuts need to be bandaged up, no matter how rugged and manly you are. That doesn't mean, however, that you need to mar your body with some sissy band-aid. No, sir. You need a bandage that's as tough and masculine as you are. Like one made of duct tape.
Everyone knows that duct tape is the manliest of adhesives, so it only makes sense that it's unique strength and shine should come to some bandages. Simply slap it on over your wound and keep workin'. It'll either look like you accidentally left a strip of duct tape on your skin or that you're so badass that you simply used straight duct tape to seal a wound. In actuality, it hides a healthy, safe bandage. Everybody wins, tough guy.
Amazon, via Boing Boing
Video game developer Richard "Lord British" Garriott, best known for the classic Ultima series and his love of all things spacey and futuristic, is indulging in that love in a major way. He's shelled out around $30 million for a 10-day trip on the International Space Station, and was shot into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft.
Garriott (bottom left, being helped by an American astronaut in zero gravity) won't only be having fun weightlessly bouncing off of walls. He'll also be conducting scientific tests, including crystal growth experiments, wearing a sponsored watch to see how it holds up in space, and taking pictures of the Earth — something his father, NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, did 35 years ago on the 1973 Skylab mission. Now that's one unique way to see the world.
Click Continue to see a video of Richard Garriott's rocket lifting off.
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editor@dvice.com
i agree about shark hunting. GIVE ME
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