duminică, octombrie 31, 2010

Ada Kaleh - oaza orientala de pe Dunare

La trei kilometri de localitatea edilului, apele Dunarii ascund ce a mai ramas din insula turcilor, Ada-Kaleh, inecata de comunisti pentru a ridica barajul Portile de Fier.
Pe strazile de numai doi metri latime, marginite de case mici, din caramida, acoperite cu tigla rotunda, turcii tineau cafenele si baruri, faceau cafea la ibric, dulceata de trandafiri, baclavale, halvita "si cel mai bun rahat din tara - "Lochum" cu alune, fistic, lamaie, cacao, nuci...", povesteste un batran profesor din Orsova, Jean Constantin, pasionat de istoria tumultuoasa a insulei.

Secretul citronadei si al cafelei la nisip

Turcii care nu faceau bani din dulceturi si delicatese lucrau la fabrica de confectii si la cea de tutun. "Tigarile Ada-Kaleh erau foarte apreciate, dar comunistii i-au obligat, pana la urma, sa faca doar tigari Marasesti...", a aflat profesorul.

Pe insula erau si o uzina electrica, posta, o scoala, o moschee mare si o bisericuta ortodoxa cat o bucatarie. Aveau turcii si un pasa, trimis de la Istanbul.

Fiul unui cafegiu de pe Ada-Kaleh, Durgut Husref, are 63 de ani, traieste in Severin si povesteste cu placere primii 25 de ani din viata lui, petrecuti pe insula.

"Faceam cea mai buna citronada de lamaie din tara. Veneau romani, militieni, securisti... Ne-au vizitat si vreo 20 de sefi de restaurante si ne-au cerut reteta. Le-am dat-o, dar nu le-am spus cate zile trebuie sa stea lamaile la macerat, he-he, si nu le-a iesit citronada bine".

Nici secretul cafelei la nisip nu l-au dat. "O faceam din boabe verzi prajite acolo, pe loc. Trebuia sa stii exact cum sa faci caimacul de-un deget si cat de calda sa fie apa. Ca nu se face cu apa fiarta!"


Tot articolul: http://www.newspad.ro/Supravietuitorii-de-pe-insula-scufundata-de-Ceausescu,173001.html

miercuri, octombrie 27, 2010

Japonia - Robot realist



Se numeste Actroid-F!

developed by the Department of Systems Innovation and ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communications Laboratories. Thank you for the images, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Osaka University, and ATR!

http://en.akihabaranews.com/68574/robot/actroid-f-makes-appearance-at-aist-lab-fair-wows-world

Fucking with the mail: Artist puts Royal Mail to the test

We may be living in the era of the email, but one young illustrator has proved that the art of correspondence is far from dead. While working for her degree at Glasgow School of Art Harriet Russell decided to find out exactly what lengths the men and women of the Royal Mail were willing to go to to ensure the safe delivery of her missives.

Galerie completa: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/return-to-sender-artist-puts-royal-mail-to-the-test-955499.html?action=Gallery

Tot articolul: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/return-to-sender-artist-puts-royal-mail-to-the-test-955499.html

Ikea Beijing

BEIJING — With no plans one Saturday, Zhang Xin told his wife, son and mother to wear something smart and hop into the family sedan. He could have taken them to the Forbidden City or the Great Wall, but he decided on another popular destination -- IKEA.

Zhang said the family needed a respite from the smog and a reliable lunch.

"We just came here for fun," said the 34-year-old office manager. "I suppose we could have gone somewhere else, but it wouldn't have been a complete experience."

Welcome to IKEA Beijing, where the atmosphere is more theme park than store.

Tot articolul: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/25/business/fi-china-ikea25

Imagini: http://gizmodo.com/5673748/beijings-ikea-is-apparently-a-great-place-for-a-snooze

luni, octombrie 25, 2010

Hoț de biciclete în București

Dupa reportajul olandez au facut si cei de la noi o varianta autohtona:



Nu pot sa nu observ ca romanii care nu sunt pasivi sunt binevoitori si chiar il ajuta pe hot sa fure bicicleta. Sa fie vorba de naivitate?

Ma astept sa se dubleze furturile de biciclete dupa acest reportaj.

duminică, octombrie 24, 2010

insulindeplein automatic car park - paul de ruiter architects:


Sunt atat de simplu de realizat si totusi nu le gasim si pe la noi.

'insulindeplein car park' by amsterdam-based office paul de ruiter architects is the first
fully automated car park in rotterdam, the netherlands. the design features a street level
pavilion-esque structure with two separate entrances. providing space for over 140 cars,
the underground park is fully operated by a 'parking robot'. by utilizing a mechanical
distributor rather than providing circulation space, the car park is able to accommodate
one-third more cars than in a traditional setup.

the pavilion features a transparent facade, offering a view of the square from the car park

and vice versa. made completely out of glass, the treatment provides a subtle mirroring effect,
merging the structure with its surrounding by day, and becoming a light-filled lantern by night.

besides freeing up the streets of parked cars, the advantage of building an underground

and fully automated facility are many: it saves on energy cost (lighting and climate control)
since it is not occupied by people; the space about the car park can be developed into
a square with green space and a playground.

These Square Gears Really Work

sâmbătă, octombrie 23, 2010

vineri, octombrie 22, 2010

Vending Machine Sells Live Crabs


JapanProbe dot com
Încărcat de pubjapaned. - Explore international webcam videos.

The inside of the machine is kept at 5 degrees celsius, a temperature cold enough to make the crabs go into a state of hibernation. A sign states that all the crabs in the machine are fresh: if the crab is dead-on-arrival, they promise to give you three free crabs.


Converted into yen, the prices for the crabs range between 120 and 600 yen (depending on size). By cutting out the cost of store personnel, the seller can offer the crabs at 30% less than the usual price.


The Chinese man who came up with the idea for the vending machine enthusiastically declares that he is ready to consider offers if there is demand for his product in Japan.


The second half of the video focuses on Japanese vending machines. It shows us the banana vending machine inside Shibuya station, as well as a bar that is equipped with sake vending machines.

Masinaria e in Nanjing (China).
David: Daca iei trenul pana acolo sa nu cumva sa o ratezi :P


Sursa: http://www.japanprobe.com/2010/10/20/vending-machine-sells-live-crabs/

Samsung Galaxy Player (YP-G50)



Ce e diferit de toate celelalte sisteme Android este ca nu este un telefon! Este un MP3 player/computer portabil numai si pretul target este de 200 de euro!

YP-G50 runs on Android 2.1 OS and features 3.2-inch screen, 2MP camera, DLNA, Wi-Fi, 8 or 16GB internal memory, microSD card slot, GPS, SoundAlive, DivX support and FM Radio.

miercuri, octombrie 20, 2010

Bioshock infinite - gameplay

Airport Sleepboxes



Mai multe: http://www.arch-group.org/portfolio/diz/1/

Invisible helmet airbag



Probabil se declanseaza si daca te trantesti pe pat

marți, octombrie 19, 2010

How to make your own Cut Out Paper Vertical Sundial

This page is about Sundials. Sundials are instruments that tell you the time with the shadow of the sun. To design a sundial you need to know exactly where you are going to put it, i.e. you need to know the longitude, the latitude and the orientation of the wall with respect to North.
I have designed this page and integrated Google Maps. It helps you to easily find all the parameters needed and finally produces a printable page with a cut-out paper sundial, that can be cut and folded to give you a vertical sundial.
This page allows you to make your own Cut Out Paper Vertical Sundial customized to your place on earth and the declination of the wall you are going to put it on.

Link: http://sundial.damia.net/vertical/index-en.html

Design: Take Shelter in a Human Habitrail

Radius’ shelters start at $200,000; the multifamily pod shown below goes for $2 million, plus about 25 percent for shipping and installation. They all have fiberglass shells, which are less prone to cracking than concrete and, lacking steel, won’t show up on target-acquisition systems. The bunkers can run for years entirely off the grid, which means that when a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse takes out power on the surface, you’ll still be able to operate your hair dryer. And they’re buried far enough underground to be impervious to radiation. In the event of a chemical or biological attack, you’ll feel secure knowing that the sealed and pressurized units come with specially designed air filtration that uses three different physical purifiers and an ultraviolet-radiation sterilization system.


Tot articolul:http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/09/pl_shelters_safehouse/

duminică, octombrie 10, 2010

joi, octombrie 07, 2010

dentsu: paint sound sculptures

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Surprisingly Effective Treatments for Depression

- x-axis (popularity) = the fraction of respondents who tried a given treatment
- y-axis (effectiveness) = the average rated effectiveness of a given treatment, Bayes-adjusted for the number of respondents
- Vertical grey line = the average fraction of respondents who tried each treatment
- Horizontal grey line = the average rated effectivenss of all treatments
- Quadrants – Treatments in the upper-left quadrant have below-average usage, but above-average effectiveness, so presumably more people would benefit by trying these. Those in the lower-right quadrant have above-average usage but below-average effectiveness, so presumably more people would benefit by avoiding these.
 Sursa

Grafic complet: http://www.curetogether.com/depression/ig/treatment-effectiveness-vs-popularity

marți, octombrie 05, 2010

Scratched glasses give perfect vision for any eyesight

Zeev Zalevsky at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, has developed a technique to turn a standard lens into one that perfectly focuses light from anything between 33 centimetres away and the horizon.

It involves engraving the surface of a standard lens with a grid of 25 near-circular structures each 2 millimetres across and containing two concentric rings. The engraved rings are just a few hundred micrometres wide and a micrometre deep. "The exact number and size of the sets will change from one lens to another," depending on its size and shape, says Zalevsky.

The rings shift the phase of the light waves passing through the lens, leading to patterns of both constructive and destructive interference. Using a computer model to calculate how changes in the diameter and position of the rings alter the pattern, Zalevsky came up with a design that creates a channel of constructive interference perpendicular to the lens through each of the 25 structures. Within these channels, light from both near and distant objects is in perfect focus.
 Article: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827806.000-scratched-glasses-give-perfect-vision-for-any-eyesight.html

A blind architect relearns his craft


Two and a half years ago, Downey had just started running the architecture practice at a stylish green-design firm. A few weeks after he took the job, he noticed something wrong with his vision. A tumor was wrapped around his optic nerve; he needed surgery right away. When he woke up, everything was blurry, but he could see. “Five days later,” he said, “it all went black.”

Downey returned to the office. But he couldn’t use design software. He couldn’t read plans. A few months passed, and the firm was caught up in the housing crash. Downey scheduled a talk with the owner, an old friend, to figure out how he could be more useful. He was at a workstation, up on a loft, when she came to see him, and he could tell by her footfalls that it wasn’t going to be the kind of conversation he had been planning to have.

San Francisco was full of laid-off architects. Downey could be pretty sure he was the only blind one. It turned out to be an interesting credential. SmithGroup and another firm, the Design Partnership, hired him as a consultant.

luni, octombrie 04, 2010

duminică, octombrie 03, 2010

This Pool Creates Waves In The Shape Of…Anything!



The pool consists of several generators that are pulled and pushed in and out of the pool creating the perfect wave in the form of anything you can think of. No shape or angle is too complicated… if you’re prepared to calculate the exact movement and impact point of each and every generated push.

Sursa: http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/this-pool-creates-waves-in-the-shape-of…anything/