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Loz Blain
Four crucial resources that may run out in your lifetime
By Loz Blain
06:14 August 27, 2009 PDT
We're living in lucky times. Living standards - in the Western world, at least - are the highest in history. It's an era of relative peace and plenty that would amaze our ancestors. But it's not going to continue forever; we're already stretching many of our natural resources to their limits, and the world's population will jump from 6.5 billion to around 9 billion over the next 50 years. Get ready for a painful correction - here are four interconnected resources that are headed for a catastrophic squeeze within our lifetime. Read More
UK government: crack down on file sharing, cut off suspected pirates' Internet connections
By Loz Blain
17:22 August 26, 2009 PDT
Illegal peer-to-peer sharing of movies, music and software is currently estimated to comprise more than half the world's Internet traffic - and copyright holders are up in arms, saying that CD, movie and software sales are taking a devastating hit from the quick, convenient and anonymous piracy options the broadband age has opened up. Now, the UK is considering legislation that would see suspected illegal file sharers cut off altogether by their ISPs - despite the fact that the European Parliament recently rejected a similar plan from France, on the grounds that it contravened the modern citizen's fundamental right to access the Internet. Read More
Sakhr's Blackberry app puts spoken word Arabic/English translator in your pocket
By Loz Blain
00:07 August 20, 2009 PDT
Mobile device convergence is accelerating like crazy, with a new breed of smartphones packing enough power to run an impressive range of software. And some of these mobile applications are getting pretty freakin' amazing - take Ray Kurzweil's kReader for Symbian, which allows blind or illiterate folk to point their phone camera at printed words and have them spoken aloud. Sakhr has gone a step further with an Arabic Spoken Translator for Blackberry devices. You speak English or Arabic into your handset, it transcribes, translates and speaks your phrase back in the other language, breaking down the language barrier in one fell swoop. Read More
Cabasse La Sphere: US$176,000 speaker system is a giant feat of audio engineering
By Loz Blain
21:45 August 17, 2009 PDT
French company Cabasse has redefined the notion of high-end loudspeakers with the creation of a speaker system that costs almost as much as a base model 2009 Ferrari F430. But for your UK£108,000 (US$176,000), you're buying a monumental engineering achievement - the world's only four-way, point source speaker system (more about that after the jump). This audio perfectionist's dream required a spherical enclosure - which means you also have to accept the fact that two giant, ugly eyeballs on sticks will be watching you enjoy some of the best audio reproduction, sound staging and stereo imaging the world has ever experienced. Read More
The quietest Orange County Chopper yet: the electric Siemens Smart Chopper
By Loz Blain
03:13 August 14, 2009 PDT
The beefy gents at Orange County Choppers have surprised us a few times before, going out of their normal raked-out design brief to customize a Ducati Monster 1100, for example - but they really turned heads this week when Paul Teutul, Snr, presented the company's - and perhaps the world's - first all-electric chopper. Commissioned by Siemens and built using recycled steel, LED lighting and environmentally-friendly water-based paints, the Siemens Smart Chopper features a 27hp brushless motor good for a top speed in excess of 100mph, and enough battery life for a 60-mile range. And it's going up for auction. Read More
Spinal Cord Stimulators - the 'pacemaker' for chronic pain
By Loz Blain
02:20 August 12, 2009 PDT
While nobody's exactly sure how it works, it's been clinically proven over the past 30-40 years that low levels of electrical energy, delivered straight to the nerve fibers in the spinal cord, can disrupt the signals that certain chronic pain conditions send to the brain, and replace them with a much more pleasant tingling sensation. Now, St Jude Medical has received FDA and CE mark approvals for the world's smallest and longest-lasting rechargeable neurostimulator. The Eon Mini is the size of a silver dollar, about 1cm thick (1/2 inch), and weighs only 29g (1oz). It sits under the skin of the buttock or abdomen, and its rechargeable battery should last nearly 10 years. It can be programmed by remote control to treat as many as eight different chronic pain areas and, in doing so, it can get many patients with chronic pain off morphine and back into a semblance of normal life. Read More
Blue M&M food dye reduces paralysis from spinal injuries - but turns you blue
By Loz Blain
00:20 August 11, 2009 PDT
Spinal injuries are both common and devastating, leaving many victims paralyzed and relegated to wheelchairs for the rest of their lives. But in most cases, the worst spinal cord damage doesn't happen at the scene of the injury - it's the swelling around the spinal cord and the crazy firing and burning out of otherwise healthy neurons in the hours and days following the incident that turns a bad situation permanently worse. Now, scientists in Rochester, New York, have discovered a simple way to stop a lot of this secondary damage in its tracks - using the same, familiar blue food dye that gives M&Ms and blue icy poles their color. Patients with spinal injuries could escape with vastly reduced loss of function - but they'll turn bright blue in the process. Read More
The world's highest hotel... but not for long!
By Loz Blain
06:29 August 10, 2009 PDT
If a gob-smacking view is your thing - and heck, it's mine - you could do worse than check in at the Park Hyatt, Shanghai, which has just taken the mantle of the world's highest hotel. See that nice pagoda-shaped building you're looking down on out the window? Yeah, that's the Jin Mao Tower, and it's about 40 meters taller than the Empire State Building in NYC. The Park Hyatt Shanghai occupies floors 79 to 93 of the Shanghai World Financial Center, the tallest tower in China at a massive 492 meters - and it's shaped like a giant bottle opener. Rack rates start at around US$320 per night, and ramp up to nearly US$13K for the stunning Chairman Suite. Read More
Obama bets US$2.4 billion on battery-electric vehicles
By Loz Blain
03:29 August 7, 2009 PDT
Awesome news: battery technology is about to get a US$2.4 billion-dollar kick in the pants. US President Barack Obama has announced the single largest funds injection into battery development and electric/hybrid vehicle technology the world has ever seen. Obama's hope is that this huge chunk of stimulus funds will be enough to knock down the biggest wall standing between electric vehicles and the mainstream: the fact that current batteries are still too expensive, take too long to charge, and don't hold enough energy. If the move succeeds, it could put America right at the front of the electric car revolution - but at the least, it could help the next generation of iPhones last more than a day between charges. Read More
Gizcast #9: can Vertical Farming solve the impending global food crisis?
By Loz Blain
23:57 August 4, 2009 PDT
In this week's Gizcast, we're privileged to be joined by Dr. Dickson Despommier of New York City, who is perhaps the world's leading expert on Vertical Farming, a topic we've covered several times in the past few years. Dr. Despommier speaks with Loz Blain about the social, economic and environmental issues we'll have to face as the Earth's population jumps to 9 billion in the next 40-50 years. If we keep farming the way we are now, we're simply going to run out of land to feed ourselves - so the solution seems clear: we need to start bringing food production and agriculture into the high-rise age. The farms of the future, it seems, will be skyscrapers. Geoffrey Baird also joins us for a weekly roundup of top stories. Read More
Licensing issues threaten to shut Skype down for good
By Loz Blain
03:02 July 31, 2009 PDT
When eBay bought Skype from Joltid in 2005, the whopping US$2.6 billion price tag didn't include the Global Index peer-to-peer software that the world's biggest Internet Telephony system is based on. And now, Joltid is trying to cancel Skype's license on the Global Index technology in a move that threatens to shut Skype down once and for all. Is it just a canny commercial chess move to force eBay to sell Skype back to Joltid at a huge discount - or is it the end of Skype as we know it? Read More
Erik Buell announces 2010 Buell Blast: a crushed cube of metal
By Loz Blain
00:27 July 31, 2009 PDT
The Buell Blast was a friendly motorcycle, a beginner's bike and a favorite of US-based rider training organizations. Its 500cc air-cooled single was reliable, simple and unintimidating, its low seat height made it great for shorties and lady riders, its unassuming looks made it a bike that you didn't have to be a rev-head to ride. But the unassuming Blast wasn't exactly a sales hit, and worse, Erik Buell was finding that it was giving young riders the wrong impression about the Buell range - so, in a commitment to balls-out sportsbiking, he canceled the bike for 2010, and stuck a few of his remaining stock into a crusher. Next year's Blast, it seems, will have an exceptionally short wheelbase and highly centralized mass. Read More
iPhone Passion app rates your sexual skills
By Loz Blain
22:44 July 28, 2009 PDT
The iPhone app store ranges from the kinda useful to the utterly ridiculous - and here's an extreme example of the latter. The Passion application rates your sexual performance based on duration, power (as measured by the iPhone's built-in accelerometer) and loudness of orgasm, giving you a score out of 10 for your efforts. You can then compare "high scores" with other couples (or singles) around the world. That's right kids, to be the world's best lover, simply bang away like a jackhammer for 45 minutes, bellowing like a baboon. The ladies looooove that. Read More
Shrinking jug keeps milk fresh for an extra week
By Loz Blain
04:22 July 28, 2009 PDT
Milk goes sour in about a week, even if you keep it in the fridge. That's because Lactobacillus, the "good bacteria" that's found in yogurt, is constantly going about the job of oxidizing the lactose sugars in the milk into sour-tasting lactic acid - the same chemical that makes your muscles sore after exercise. But since this souring process requires the presence of oxygen, theoretically it could be slowed down even further if you kept the milk out of contact with oxygen. Rather than going with a high-tech nitrous contraption like the N2Wine globes we wrote about recently, one entrant to this year's James Dyson awards has come up with something devilishly simple: a shrinking milk jug that squeezes all the air out as you empty it. The inventor claims it lets milk last as much as a week longer. Simple and brilliant! Read More
High-tech tattoo ink - just as permanent but 4 times quicker to remove
By Loz Blain
01:24 July 27, 2009 PDT
Gone are the days when tattoos were only for registered bad-asses - today's tattoo owner is just as likely to get inked up with a tramp stamp or football team crest as a Hells Angels insignia. If you're thinking of getting a tatt to commemorate a relationship, or for fashion reasons, or simply as a dare or a joke, you might want to make sure the artist is using InfinitInk - a high-tech tattoo ink that's just as permanent as regular ink, but four times quicker to remove through laser treatment if you ever want to get rid of it down the track. Read More
Gizcast 8: Meet Chris Toal, inventor of the Cranklock
By Loz Blain
03:36 July 24, 2009 PDT
There's some controversy in the original Cranklock article comments over whether Chris Toal's latest invention will actually work - in this week's podcast we hear a little from the man himself about the device he believes could revolutionize the cycling world. We'll also hear from Geoffrey Baird in the booth about what he's been enjoying at gizmag.com this week. Read More
Google Wave - the end of email as we know it
By Loz Blain
01:31 July 24, 2009 PDT
E-mail has been dawdling along in much the same form since the early days of the Internet. In fact, e-mail now feels like a pretty stodgy, clunky and formal style of online communication. But hold onto your seats, because Google is about to turn e-mail on its head with the release of a revolutionary new technology called Google Wave that's due to start trickling into users' hands this September. Wave combines the strengths of e-mail with the immediacy of instant messaging and the collaborative power of social networking - and wraps that all up into a killer web application that can then be embedded into any web page or used as a private communication system. Sound complicated? It is - but you'll understand it perfectly after watching this ten-minute video. Read More
Inventions that changed the world: Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47
By Loz Blain
21:38 July 22, 2009 PDT
It's the most effective killing machine in human history - a gun that, on its 62nd birthday, is still killing as many as a quarter of a million people every year, in every corner of the globe. Invented by a gifted tank mechanic to save Russia's motherland from the invading German hordes in WW2, the AK-47 went on to rise to global prominence during the proxy battles of the Cold War. Even today, a poorly trained militia group can become a force to be reckoned with once it finds a supply of AK-47s - such is its simplicity, reliability, affordability and sheer killing power. Abhorrent - yes, but with reference to its impact on humanity it is, sadly, among the greatest inventions of the 20th century. We take a look at this amazing weapon's history, its significance and its brutal dominance of world politics. Listen to the Podcast or Read More
Exclusive: Cranklock system delivers massive corner speed advantages for racing cyclists
By Loz Blain
01:00 July 22, 2009 PDT
Seconds are everything in cycle racing. A 10-second gap on the nearest guy behind you means he's got to work his butt off just to stay in touch. So a device that can reliably give you an effort-free 20-second advantage on a 3km twisty downhill stage is clearly going to be dynamite in the racing market. It's called the Cranklock, and it allows cyclists to enjoy motorcycle-style lean angles and massively improved cornering speeds by putting your center of gravity low and to the inside of the corner, like you can on a motorcycle. And if initial reactions from pro racers in New Zealand are any indication, it's going to revolutionize the world of competitive cylcing. Oh - and there's safety and security benefits for your average road rider, too. This is a sensational idea. Read More
Gizcast 7: Great Inventions - the AK-47
By Loz Blain
05:31 July 17, 2009 PDT
This week, we take a look at the fascinating story of how Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47 assault rifle came to be the world's most popular firearm, with as many as 75 million units currently in service around the globe. Throw an AK-47 into a combat zone, and David suddenly starts beating Goliath - it's become a powerful political symbol of strength in the face of invasion or repression. It's the most successful killing machine in history, which is a horrifying achievement and obviously not something to be applauded, but with reference to its impact on humanity it is, sadly, among the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Also, Geoffrey Baird has been surfing away in his sound booth this week, and he's dug up 5 oddball gadgets for our weekly roundup. Read More
iBum chair automatically photocopies your butt
By Loz Blain
04:25 July 16, 2009 PDT
Since the invention and proliferation of the photocopier, office clowns around the world have been united in a single desire - particularly around Christmas party time. Ignoring the jagged, buttock-splitting hazard of broken glass and the virtual certainty of dismissal should they be discovered, thousands of pranksters annually drop their strides or hike their skirts and enjoy the age-old ritual of photocopying their bums for their innocent co-workers to find in the out tray. Now, a Japanese designer has facilitated the process by designing a chair that automatically scans and prints a photo of your backside. Call me a traditionalist, but if it's not naughty, a bit dangerous and a blatant abuse of equipment, I can't see why you'd bother photocopying your bum at all. In fact, to me, the iBum chair seems to remove all fun from the act whatsoever. Read More
Virgin Galactic and the start of the Commercial Space Race
By Loz Blain
04:41 July 6, 2009 PDT
Space - it's the final frontier of human exploration, a mysterious eternity of distance, all around us and yet so tantalizingly out of reach. In its dark recesses hide the secrets of extraterrestrial life, planets yet to be explored, and it's reasonable to assume, some sort of future home for the human race once we're finished stuffing this planet up. Although mankind has been fascinated with space since we first saw the twinkling of night-time stars, it's only in the last half century that we have developed spaceships that allow us to take both ourselves and our equipment and technology outside the Earth's atmosphere. While the exhilaration of early space exploration seems to have faded in the public imagination over the past three decades, the scene is now set for a whole new space race. Loz Blain looks at where the 21st Century space Odyssey will take us and how we'll get there. Listen to the Podcast or Read More
Gizcast 6: Virgin Galactic and the start of the Commercial Space Race
By Loz Blain
06:43 July 3, 2009 PDT
In this week's podcast, Loz Blain takes a look at commercial space travel with Virgin Galactic and the start of a new space race for the 21st century. Noel McKeegan talks to us about quantum computing and a new unmanned Nano Air Vehicle that weighs just ten grams and flies by flapping its tiny wings like a hummingbird. And Geoffrey Baird gives us a roundup of four environmentally friendly gadgets for around the home. Plus, we're finally on iTunes! To subscribe, jump into the iTunes store and search for "Gizmag." Read More
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 speech-to-text engine reviews itself
By Loz Blain
05:05 July 1, 2009 PDT
Note: this entire article has been written using the uncorrected output of Dragon's NaturallySpeaking speech-to-text engine. Regular podcast listeners will know that a couple of weeks ago I had the misfortune of falling off my motorcycle. Well, it turns out I broke my wrist in the accident, which makes it pretty tough to type. This stupid plaster casts can be on for at least six weeks so I figured I'd better watch out an alternative that would let me keep writing. And here it is: the number one speech to text engine on the market, Dragon NaturallySpeaking. And what better way to review a speech to text product and the Post an article written entirely using it, and completely uncorrected will stop Read More
Fast 'n' mean or slow 'n' green: Code X's solar-hybrid yacht
By Loz Blain
07:26 June 30, 2009 PDT
Code X's solar hybrid yacht is a study in extremes that lets you choose whether you're going to be an environmentally conscious Dr. Jekyll or a petrol-headed Mr. Hyde on the water. If you need to impress your greenie friends, you can cruise along at a fairly sedate 9 knots using a fully solar electric drive. But when it's time to get a boogie on, you can fire a gushing stream of fossil fuel into the twin Ilmor Marine V-10 Formula One engines and unleash 1420 raging ponies upon your unsuspecting marine environment. Read More
John Wassner
- November 27, 2009 @ 01:40 UTC
