Monday, 30 April 2012

Turn Your iPad into a Laptop



Brydge aims to transform your iPad into a laptop. Promising to be a product of higher quality than what exists on the iPad accessories market, Brydge is a keyboard made of aerospace-grade aluminum. With a hinge that connects to the tablet, this devices turns the iPad into a cohesive singular unit resembling a MacBook.


The hinge uses friction and magnetism to hold onto the iPad. To create laptop-like functionality, Brydge has a version with built-in speakers. Furthermore, when the “lid” is closed, both iPad and Brydge to to sleep automatically.


A Kickstarter project, Brydge exceeded its $90,000 fundraising goal within a day. Currently backers have pledged a little above $190,000, with many days to go.











With an asterisk, WTC is back on top in NYC



   One World Trade Center, the giant monolith being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, will lay claim to the title of New York City's tallest skyscraper on Monday. Workers will erect steel columns that will make its unfinished skeleton a little over 1,250 feet high, just enough to peak over the roof of the observation deck on the Empire State Building.


The milestone is a preliminary one. Workers are still adding floors to the so-called "Freedom Tower" and it isn't expected to reach its full height for at least another year, at which point it is likely to be declared the tallest building in the US and third tallest in the world.


Crowning the world's tallest buildings is a little like picking the heavyweight champion in boxing. There is often disagreement about who deserves the belt. In this case, the issue involves the 408-foot-tall needle that will sit on the tower's roof. Count it, and the World Trade Center is back on top. Otherwise, it will have to settle for No. 2, after the Willis Tower in Chicago. "Height is complicated," said Nathaniel Hollister, a spokesman for The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, a Chicago-based organization considered an authority on such records.


Experts and architects have long disagreed about where to stop measuring super-tall buildings outfitted with masts, spires and antennas that extend far above the roof. Consider the case of the Empire State Building: Measured from the sidewalk to the tip of its needle-like antenna, the granddaddy of all super-tall skyscrapers actually stands 1,454 feet high, well above the mark being surpassed by One World Trade Center on Monday. Purists, though, say antennas shouldn't count when determining building height.


An antenna, they say, is more like furniture than a piece of architecture. Like a chair sitting on a rooftop, an antenna can be attached or removed. The Empire State Building didn't even get its distinctive antenna until 1952. The record books, as the argument goes, shouldn't change every time someone installs a new satellite dish. Excluding the antenna brings the Empire State Building's total height to 1,250 feet. That was still high enough to make the skyscraper the world's tallest from 1931 until 1972.


From that height, the Empire State seems to tower over the second tallest completed building in New York, the Bank of America Tower. Yet, in many record books, the two skyscrapers are separated by just 50 feet. That's because the tall, thin mast on top of the Bank of America building isn't an antenna, but a decorative spire.


Designs call for the tower's roof to stand at 1,368 feet — the same height as the north tower of the original World Trade Center. The building's roof will be topped with a 408-foot, cable-stayed mast, making the total height of the structure a symbolic 1,776 feet.


So is that needle an antenna or a spire? Without that spire, One World Trade Center would still be smaller than the Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the Sears Tower, which tops out at 1,451 feet (not including its own antennas). Debate over which of those buildings can truly claim to be the tallest in the US has been raging for years. As for the Council on Tall Buildings, it is leaning toward giving One World Trade the benefit of the doubt.


Hollister also pointed out that, technically speaking, One World Trade Center isn't a record-holder in any category yet, as it is still unfinished. "A project is not considered a building until it is topped out, fully clad, and open for business or at least occupiable," he said.


As for the world's tallest building, the undisputed champion is the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, which opened in 2010 and reaches 2,717 feet. Not counting about 5 feet of aircraft lights and other equipment perched on top, of course.





Top 10 Goals in Football


 



Some of the many different games known as football. From top left to bottom right: Association football or soccer, Australian rules football, International rules football, rugby union, rugby league and American football.

Football refers to a number of sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". Unqualified, the word football applies to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears, including association football, as well as American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union and other related games. These variations of football are known as football "codes".

Various forms of "football" can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The influence and power of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread, including to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic Football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage. In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. In the twentieth century, the various codes of football have become amongst the most popular team sports in the world.

10 Worst sure-goal bloopers



New Bee Species: Human Sweat Bee is Buzzing New York City




A newly found bee species has been creating a buzz in New York after the new breed of bee was discovered to be feeding on human sweat, according to reports. Reports say that the tiny insect is producing very little amount of honey.


Entomologist John Ascher said that the new bee species “use humans as a salt lick. They land on your arm and lap up the sweat.” The 41-year-old Ascher is now looking at a digital catalog of 700,000 bee specimens at the American Museum of Natural History to determine what insect kingdom these new breed of bee belong.


A DNA testing to be conducted by sweat bee specialist Jason Gibbs at Cornell University will confirm the identity of the insect. These bees reportedly prefer sweaty people due to the salty human diet. Reports say that the bees alight on a bare arm or leg almost unnoticeable.


There are about 250 species of native bees in New York City that are usually found in sidewalk cracks, traffic median strips, parks and high-rise balcony flower pots.








Cool And Unique Ceiling Fans



Generally interior designers cringe at the mention of the term ‘ceiling fan’. Majority of designers despise them for a reason. They believe that ceiling fans severely compromise the aesthetics of a room and act somewhat as a sour spot. Having looked at creative options, we tend to side with them. There are hardly a dozen fans out there that any ‘designer’ would be comfortable living with. Anyways we have decided to feature the top ones we came across in our quest for unique ceiling fans. Like we said, they are tough to come by and not surprisingly, most are even tougher on the wallet.

Artemis Fan

 The Artemis Minka-Aire Fan makes quite a style statement with its unique twisted blades form. The maple finish option would go well if you have wooden accents in your room.

beautiful ceiling fan

 This fan also comes with translucent leaves.


Blow Fan

If you have an eye for color and tasteful minimalism, the Blow ceiling fan might interest you. It is one of those rare ceiling fans with lights above the blades.


Torto Fan

Fancy a fan with a twist? 


Sycamore Fan

Inspired by the beauty of a falling Sycamore tree seed pod, this fan offers efficiency with no sacrifice in aesthetics.


Propeller Fan


Perhaps best described by the makers themselves:

    It derives its ethereal form from the manner of its construction: Fabric is quite simply placed over a thin spring wire. In this way, room for a bulb is created in the corpus. In line with its delicate frame the light is very soft and gentle. As a fan the design functions extremely well in dispelling air. The number of revolutions and the light are regulated by remote control.


Fanaway Fan

What is unique about this particular fan is that it has retractable blades that extend out only after the fan has attained a certain minimum speed.


 Here is a video of it in operation:


Fiore Fan

Similar in concept to the Fanaway Fan, but instead of retractable blades, the Fiore fan uses petal like blades that open up to reveal a lamp.


 Watch this video to get an idea of its operation.


Enigma Fan

Short on blades? Maybe. Short on style? Remote controlled halogen lamps included.


Centaurus Fan


As this is very much a post on unconventional ceiling fans there is no way we can ignore the Centaurus Fan from Fanimation.


Faltfan

This is just a concept but we believe this group project by three designers – Joanita, Johannes Marmon and Martin Sprekelsen – is very much in line with our tastes. They used Origami technique to shape this bird like structure off a single aluminium sheet.


OLD Fashioned Toy Tricycle Red Ceiling FAN Pull Kids Room


OLD Fashioned Toy Tricycle Red Ceiling FAN Pull Kids RoomAdd a nostalgic look to any room with this unique ceiling fan pull. Designed to resemble an old fashioned toy tricycle, the fan pull will complete your design theme without breaking the bank. Perfect for kid's rooms, or for collectors of antique toys.

Measures 2" H x 2.5" W.
Made of sculpted resin.
Attaches easily to existing ceiling fan chains.
Makes a great housewarming gift !
NOTE: This fan pull has the design on one side only. The back of the pull is flat and painted black.