Perfect for a technology geek or perhaps an environmentalist or outdoorsman, the Brunton New SOLARIS i6 Foldable iPod® Solar Charger will charge the batteries of your mobile phone, radio or lap top while traveling and its available from Amazon.com for US$102.71.
Overreact to tiny threats and ignore big ones….
The Winged Victory Women in Aviation webzine has recently noted an odd site called Laviators where airline passengers post photos of themselves taken in the lavatories of commercial airlines. There is no explanation as to what the point of the website is but we will assume that these are passengers on long cross country or transoceanic flights who have to much time on their hands - both in the air and on the ground...
If you live in New York City and are a book lover, Bookzee is a location-based library book search application. Users simply go to bookzee.net on their desktop or mobile browser, enter a book title or author and then Bookzee will find a library nearest to you that has it. The app can be downloaded from Apple iTunes and a short demo video about the app is available on the Bookzee official website.
The Fear of Landing blog has recently noted this interesting and reassuring piece of trivia (the image is courtesy of Gizmodo):
Electronic book readers like Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are growing in popularity globally but according to the Wall Street Journal (Outlook for electronic books in China appears bright— once big hurdles are cleared), they face some hurdles in China where piracy is, ummmm, RAMPANT. Nevertheless, the article quoted a recent report by DisplaySearch which forecasted that e-reader sales in China will jump from 800,000 in 2009 to three million in 2010 and account for up to 20% of the global market. However, I wonder if these figures count all of the pirated e-Book readers that will not doubt soon be floating around out there….
A giant bluefin tuna has fetched 16.3 million yen ($177,000) at a Japanese fish auction – making the 513-pound (233-kilogram) fish the priciest since 2001 when a 440-pound (200 kilogram) tuna was sold for a record 20.2 million yen ($220,000). What does a US$100,000+ fish taste like? Delicious according to a January 2009 article in the Wall Street Journal – which is probably why the species will be extinct in a few decades.
Gordon Crovitz has recently written an interesting op-ed about why technology predictions are mostly “bunk.” In his op-ed piece, he listed his “Top 10 Worst Technology Predictions” of all time as the following:
On the other hand and according to Crovitz, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was an exception to the rule that predicting the future of technology was hard as he predicted everything from satellite communications systems to the Internet. His op-ed is worth a quick read.
If you are planning a trip to the tropics in summer time, this USB Air Conditioned Shirt has fans powered by a USB drive that will blow fresh air into the shirt. Beats having to sit there and fan yourself! Available from the Japan Trend Shop for US$230.
If you are traveling and are worried about all of those new and scary diseases out there like bird or swine flue, this nano-UV disinfection scanner can destroy all kinds of dangerous microorganisms without toxins or side effects (I can just imagine someone using this on an airplane before they take their seat). The scanner is 3 3/4"H x 1 3/4"W x 1"D and uses two AAA batteries. Available from Skymall.com for US$59.99.
