Sweat Sugar

This past semester while I was in my blogging class, the one guy was training for a marathon. He had this awesome blog that talked about his progress towards training. Unfortunately, he hurt his foot somehow, so he had to drop from the race. It made me find a lot of gear for running and biking though.

These shoes were created by The Carbon Pro Team. Louis Garneau, the designer, uses an Ice-Fil insole that allowed the show to stop heat from building up. The insole uses a natural sweetener called xylitol, an alcohol bases sugar, to convert sweat into cool air in the show. The show fibers are able to moderate temperature and moisture by absorbing heat and converting it to cooler air. 

Triple Threat

If you've followed this blog since its beginning then you already know I'm obsessed with skateboarding and snowboarding though I do neither. 

This is the Survivor Split snowboard from Signal Snowboards. It's not only a snowboard but it has a survival kit built into it. The kit includes a shovel and saw, which I find pretty awesome. Based off the design of a split board, this one has three splits that transform the outside splits into skis and the center can be used as a shovel. The boards saw can be found with a retractable blade that can be used to cut wood. It also contains a compass. It's pretty cool. Check it out in the video below. 

Robot Tendons

The Europeans have done it again. Researches have developed a new artificial hand that uses string to work as tendons. The fingers are divided into three different groups that are each controlled by different strings which tighten and twist by the use of motors. The string tendons allow the hand to have more precise control and a greater ability to grasp objects.

My best friend is going to school to be a bio-engineer. I love sharing things like this with her. She came with me on my trip, and she was telling me about things she learned about prosthetics. I kept saying, "hey did you hear about this?" She stared at me and said no. I told her about what I learned through blogging, and she said, "Man, I need to start reading your blog." 

Do you value your privacy? PLEASE READ

What is so dangerous about this is that this is not a law it is a policy adopted by several companies. That means this will not be debated in Congress and you will agree to be spied on by signing a contract with the company.

Obama And ISP’s To Launch Largest Digital Spying Scheme In History 

If you happen to download software, videos, or music then your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching you. They are coming for you on July 1. 

That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.

Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration. The same groups have weighed in heavily on controversial Internet policies around the world, with similar facilitation by the Obama’s Administration’s State Department.

Internet activities and watching for potential copyright infringement. Users who are “caught” infringing on a creator’s protected work can then be interrupted with a notice that piracy is forbidden by law and carries penalties of up to $150,000 per infringement, requiring the user to click through saying they understand the consequences before bandwidth is restored, and they could still be subject to copyright infringement lawsuits.

Response: This is much worse than SOPA/PIPA and ACTA. It doesn’t necessarily censor the internet but it spys on everything you do. Your ENTIRE web history will be watched and recorded and might even assist the government. This was coordinated by Obama and his administration with the help of the MPAA and RIAA.

What is so dangerous about this is that this is not a law it is a policy adopted by several companies. That means this will not be debated in Congress and you will agree to be spied on by signing a contract with the company.

Internet censorship is becoming a reality and now the corporate elite will legally be able to spy on you. If we spread this and cause an uproar like what we did with SOPA, maybe they will back down. Either way people NEED to know about this.

 Read more

(I didn't write this. I'm just sharing it with you because I think it's very important. Because even if you don't download, they are still spying on everything you do.)

45 til Insanity

This isn't really a gadget or a gizmos, so my apologies. It is still really cool though. Well, I think it's cool. So, I am sharing. 

I was browsing the interwebs last night looking for something to blog about for today, and I found this article. 

Basically, it talks about the place pictured above. It's a really small room that is located in Minnesota. This room can block out 99% of all outside noise. Can you even imagine that? No birds chirping outside your window. No wind blowing. No rain hammering the roof. No anything. That's pretty cool. 

The cooler part, to me, is the part where people can't take it for more than 45 minutes. That's right. If someone sits in there for more than 45 minutes then they can go nuts. My first thought was, psh yea right. I could sit in there longer. Then I read the reason why people go nuts, and I realized I probably would too.

The article says, "When it's quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You'll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. ‘In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.' And this is a very disorientating experience. Mr Orfield explained that it's so disconcerting that sitting down is a must. He said: ‘How you orient yourself is through sounds you hear when you walk. In the anechnoic chamber, you don't have any cues. You take away the perceptual cues that allow you to balance and manoeuvre. If you're in there for half an hour, you have to be in a chair."

I'm not one to be grossed out easily, but no thanks. I'll pass. Plus apparently our brains can't take it either because sitting in this room leads to many hallucinations. People begin hearing sounds that aren't there. They start becoming delusional just to block out the noise of their own heartbeats and other bodily functions.

Still, that's pretty cool. What do you think? How long could you take it?