TECHNOLOGY FRIEND OR FOE?

With our modern world becoming ever so advance with each passing day, you can't help but ponder what next? With every new tech magazine, or news article, there's always a section featuring the latest breakthrough or gadget into the technology world, it's a wonderful thing, but when I think about it, can our fascination with the latest gadget or "tool" make us lazier in time? With more advance techs being created we become a little more dependent on technology, as we find ourselves having robots doing our daily tasks for us that we could otherwise do our self. Take the Rumba vacuum for example, sure it vacuums & gets all the little corners for you & i admit, its pretty nifty! but we become comfortable with the idea of having a handy bot that helps you keep your butt on the couch all day, will this in time give us a future lazy generation who counts on science and wires to do all the little things for us? I'm surprise that we even call "cellphones" cellphones anymore?! there pretty much hand held computers, 3g speeds & wifi connections, wow... What are your thoughts?

-big Mike


Sent from my iPod

HACK YOUR CAR'S GAS TANK!

You’ve heard the rumor… Detroit holds the patent making a car capable of 100 miles per gallon, but won’t release it. Doug Pelmear has a lot of secrets too, but he did prove that his Mustang was capable of 80 mpg AND 400 horsepower, more than double the classic Mustang’s original gas mileage, while almost doubling its available horsepower. He’s after the $10 million Progressive Automotive X Prize to make an affordable, marketable car that will deliver 100 mpg.

For more info Click here

Talk to the hand, Literally!

Warm as they may be, regular winter gloves don’t provide easy access to your mobile device. Aside from the Michael Jackson one-glove solution, there are Swany’s g.cell GX-1 performance gloves, which offer a way to stay both warm and in touch via an integrated Bluetooth system that synchronizes with your cellphone.

When someone calls, the glove’s LED display blinks and a built-in “vibra alarm” at your wrist starts vibrating. To take the call, press the black button located on one of the gloves, hold the loudspeaker (located on the glove’s thumb) near your ear and start talking into your hand. The GX-1 also offers a voice command system for hands-free phone calls, which should come as good news for anyone who has tried (and failed) to access their phone’s touchpad through a pair of heavy, wet gloves.

The gloves offer up to five hours of talk time, though as temperatures drop, the battery drains faster.
for more info Click here

100% WATER PROOF CLOTHING?! WHAT SOCERY IS THIS?

If you were to soak even your best raincoat underwater for two months it would be wet through at the end of the experience. But a new waterproof material developed by Swiss chemists would be as dry as the day it went in.

Lead researcher Stefan Seeger at the University of Zurich says the fabric, made from polyester fibres coated with millions of tiny silicone filaments, is the most water-repellent clothing-appropriate material ever created.

Drops of water stay as spherical balls on top of the fabric (see image, right) and a sheet of the material need only be tilted by 2 degrees from horizontal for them to roll off like marbles. A jet of water bounces off the fabric without leaving a trace!

For more info Click here

Would you take a tour in outerspace?

With the wingspan of a B-29 bomber, the WhiteKnightTwo is the largest all-carbon-fiber aircraft ever built. Its mission is to carry a smaller craft, SpaceShipTwo, and drop it at 48,000 feet, where it will blast off into suborbital space with paying passengers—in 2010, if all goes well. Virgin Galactic’s CEO, Richard Branson, also wants to use WhiteKnightTwo as a low-cost way to launch satellites into orbit. Scaled Composites engineers had to overcome numerous setbacks, including a fatal explosion at the company’s headquarters, to finish the craft. virgingalactic.com

for more info Click here

Can a violent video game take over your thoughts?

Everyone knows Halo gamers don't sleep. But now a group of scientists in Sweden have published new research linking violent video games to increased heart rate variability and sleep disruptions.

In the joint study by Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and the Karolinska Institutet of Sweden, two groups of boys (ages 12 to 15) were hooked up to heart monitors and split into two groups, one given a violent game and the other a non-violent game. The violent game group experienced increased heart rate variability, which continued after they went to bed and was recorded in their sleep patterns, despite the fact that the boys reported no problems sleeping.

So what is heart rate variability (HRV) and what difference does it make whether or not certain games affect it? HRV is a measure of the normal cardiac fluctuations that occur during respiration. Your heart beats a little faster when you inhale and a little slower when you exhale. HRV is also used to monitor vagal activity (the vagus nerve runs from the brainstem throughout the abdomen, and controls the heart among other things). Excessive activation of the vagal nerve due to stress (for example, shooting a bunch of aliens) can cause a vasovagal syncope (a seizure-esque episode) and, in extreme cases, loss of bladder control. That's right, too much stimulation from a violent video game can, theoretically, make you pee your pants.

It gets worse. According to F. Baker's article in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research ("Reduced parasympathetic activity during sleep in the symptomatic phase of severe premenstrual syndrome"), similar HRV activity was noted among women suffering from severe PMS. It all makes sense now -- the mood swings, anger, irrationality, the need for unhealthy food -- playing violent video games leads to male PMS! Apparently, the HRV disruptions that occur in sleep from playing violent video games can have unpleasant psychological effects, which any woman could have told you.

So don't complain. Just take some Midol, eat some chocolate, and kill some ninjas.

For more info Click here

GADGETS OF TOMOROW: ITOUCH

The new iPod touch will take advantage of the touch-screen technology developed for the iPhone, and users are able to connect to the Internet at a WiFi hotspot,at home,work school,wherever wifi is present. It's pretty much an iPhone minus the phone with double the memory, the iPod touch can range from $399-$299 but if your like me, you'll find yours on sites like ebay for under $200, times are hard =P —Inspector Gadget