Cooking is most of the time associated with women. It’s more of an ancestral analogy, rather than something that reflects the reality today. There sure are exquisite male chefs out there, but we tend to think that women in general are more likely to provide better cooked food, because it’s in their genes. However, this might sound like discrimination, and men are ready to exert some cooking powers. Apparently, a company called Pandigital is entirely made of men who really want to explore their food-related talents, because I can’t figure out why else they released the Kitchen Technology Center.
OK, the basic premise is that men a re a bit geeky when it comes to computers and electronics, so, in order to be more appealing to men, the Kitchen Technology Center comes in the form of a touchscreen device that puts functionality and entertainment right at your fingertips, while you somehow happen to be looking for a beer in the fridge. You can’t really drink that beer with an empty belly, right? Why not prepare something delicious to go with that beer, or wine, or whatever drink you have handy? Nope, no sandwiches allowed. C’mon, just use that touchscreen.
Are you thinking of a certain recipe? Don’t run back to the computer or crack open a cook book… no time for that. Just access the KTC. It comes preloaded with tons of recipes, plus you can cruise the net and add more. Need some musical background? No problem, the KTC has one gigabyte of memory that you can toss MP3s on, as well as photos and video. It comes with a 15 inch, 1280×720 that also supports HDTV playback.
The KTC is going to be available starting this August for $400.
They didn’t quite master light-speed propulsion techniques, but the DARPA guys are making some progress in this area. Assigned to come up with a propulsion system that combines a full-scale turbine engine and a Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engine that should be capable of delivering 12,000 pounds of payload up to 9,000 nautical miles from the continental United States in less than two hours, DARPA was faced with a real challenge. Eventually, they managed to put together a hybrid engine, dubbed Vulcan. This is a ramjet / scramjet that will easily take an aircraft like the unmanned Falcon HTV-3X from 0 to Mach 4 with an average turbine engine design, then activate the new CVC engine to push it to Mach 10 and maybe farther.
<-125x125 Button - left->Supposedly, an aircraft equipped with a CVC “scramjet†engine would streamline a process that currently requires a second aircraft to take the plane up to the supersonic speeds necessary to engage into Mach 6 speeds. According to Gizmodo, the Vulcan engine is definitely an ambitious undertaking, but the 2012 date they set to have a working prototype might point to the fact that DARPA has more important projects to deal with for now. Here’s a short 3D clip of the CVC-powered Falcon:
We’ve seen rampant progress with many technologies in the last several decades, and people are currently struggling to eradicate the most complicated human diseases out there. However, flesh wounds continue to pose some problems, as muscle, fat and skin tissues need considerable time to heal. Stem cells are good, but these are pretty hard to find and expensive for the moment. So what exactly can we do to accelerate the wound regeneration?
<-125x125 Button - left->Now, don’t imagine that scientists have come up with miraculous devices that not only heal your wounds in a second, but also rejuvenate your entire body and stuff like this. No, that, my friend, is still a sci-fi scenario, unfortunately. Anyhow, DVICE reports that a group of scientists are hard at work on developing a special gun that sprays new, stem-cell infused skin onto a wound, essentially speeding up the healing process to a matter of hours. Hey, they do have enough stem cells?
The special gun is part of a larger research program initiated by the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The Institute has recently invested $250 million to speed up things and keep researchers motivated. It turns out that the gun could be used in several years and the Institute is hoping to develop larger devices in order to heal several individuals at once.
Hungary may not be renowned for any kind of automotive breakthroughs, but that might change if the guys who invented the Antro Solo commercialize this vehicle worldwide. The Antro Solo receives power through various methods: it can be powered by solar energy, by human motion and, in case none of the first two are at hand, a little bit of gas. With these three sources, the hybrid car can achieve a fuel efficiency factor of more than 150 miles per gallon!
For the moment, Antro Solo is still a three seat prototype vehicle made entirely out of carbon fiber. This type of material lowers the total weight of the vehicle to an outstanding 270kg . The design of the vehicle also allowed for a pretty decent top speed of 87mph.
Ihabitat reports that the team that designed the vehicle wanted to make the Antro Solo as efficient as it can get. Thus, the vehicle comes equipped with solar panels on the roof, which store energy in the car’s batteries that can be used for short 15-25km trips. However, if there happens to be a cloudy day, each passenger’s seat comes equipped with pedals that can power the vehicle’s generator. If these two methods prove inefficient, the car can automatically switch to its small combustion engine that is capable of running on petrol or ethanol.
The design team foresees that Antro Solo will enter mass production by 2012, and it is expected t cost around $20,000 dollars.
Bond… James Bond is returning to the big screens this year in the much anticipated “Quantum of Solace.†We’ll see some more cool gadgets in action and some of these might even get commercialized. I don’t know if this will actually be presented in the film, but the new pen recorder is ready to give gadget cravers something to chew on until the movie gets released.
With the new DVR Camcorder Pen you can record important footage of you girlfriend doing some nasty things… OK, that didn’t come out right. Let me reformulate. You can record footage that can be added as proof against some criminal. Or better yet, students won’t ever have to right things on paper with this thing pointed at professors.
However, you can still use it like normal pen, since it has enough gel. The hidden camera that can record color video and sound is located somewhere beneath the ball point. Enough storage space is included to record 30 hours of video, you should be aware of the fact that the tiny battery only lasts for about 2 hours. There’s a 2GB and a 4GB version and the pen connects directly to your PC via USB to view the video. The 2GB version costs $199.95 while for the 4GB one you’ll have to pay $50 more. You can order one of these from the Brick House Security page.
