July 4th Skiing at Kirkwood!
Lift access for skiing/riding will be available this Fourth of July Weekend! Skiers/riders will access the snow of Thunder Saddle, the Wall, and Sentinel Bowl by hiking along ridges (over dirt) before descent. Hiking shoes are recommended. Be ready for expert terrain (obstacles will exist; no beginner or intermediate runs available). The ridge hike from the top of Chair 6 to the Wall is about 35 minutes. At snow’s end, click out and walk 10 minutes back to the base of Chair 6. Sentinel Bowl is a 15 minute walk from the top of “6″ with a 10 minute walk at the bottom. Round trip runs: 35 to 60 minutes.

Taiwan based TexRay, a global player in the fabric and apparel business with subsidiaries in North America, Asia and Africa offers various wearable technology solutions under the brand name AiQ, a business unit specializing into smart clothing.

To demonstrate their capabilities AiQ created the SmartMan product line for their customers to visualize their solutions.

The wearable technology portfolio currently on offer include:

ThermoMan, a garment heating system to keep people warm during cold winter times and even includes heating elements for water sport suits.

NeonMan, textile illumination modules for safety clothing and as fashion style element.

SoundMan, soft, wearable sound system, creating the successor of Boombags to turn clothing into a sound docking station for iPod and MP3 player.

MusicMan, based on the AiQ SwitchMan fabric switch for a seamless integration of music controls into garments.

CameraMan, a video module for integration into clothing to capture the action moment of your life.

BioMan, textile sensors to pick up heartbeat and other biometric signals of interest for activity monitoring or medical aid.

SolarMan, flexible solar panels for seamless integration into clothing, jackets that charge up all the devices in the pockets.

ArmorMan, comfortable soft padding which stiffens upon impact… smart polymer

A very ambitious and long list of technologies and concepts we have seen around but the remarkable fact is: all this comes from a company that has it’s roots in the textile and clothing business for a long time. TexRay/AiQ are experts when it comes to supply fabrics and to fabricate clothing.

AiQ aims to offer to clothing brands solutions to integrate functions and fun into fashion. We have seen many of these technologies in demonstrators but only a very view made it to commercial products. Let’s see how big of an impact a company like TexRay via their smart clothing brand AiQ will be on the technology enhanced clothing market.

My expectation is high, the signs look promising as this initiative is coming from a business sector which has been considered as too conservative, too slow to become actively involved into wearable technology.

via: talk2myshirt

Tip 1. Whether you live a hectic city life or out in the country, you don’t have to go without fresh veggies.

This system window farm can churn-out a salad per week. The window farm described in this How-To is a reservoir system. A water pump on a timer periodically pumps water and liquid nutrients from the bottom reservoir to the top reservoir. There are small holes drilled into the underside of the top reservoir. Small drip emitters with valves let out a constant drip of water and nutrients into a column of plants. Each plant sits in a grow medium in a net cup (a perforated plastic cup commonly used in hydroponics), within an inverted plastic water bottle. The cap of each water bottle has a hole in it so that the water and nutrients can drip from one bottle to the next, from the top to the bottom of the column of plants. The bottom-most bottles are connected to tubing that takes the water and nutrients into the bottom reservoir, where it sits until the pump turns on again.

Water pump systems are a little more finicky and are susceptible to clogging. Most of the community has moved toward the airlift design so unless you are very comfortable with tools and handy, we suggest trying the airlift how-to.

IMPORTANT ELECTRICAL SAFETY INFO!! Please remember to include a drip loop on electrical components of this system. Make sure the cord hangs down below the outlet and then goes back up to plug in. Make sure you do not have an outlet directly under your reservoirs.

Download the How to PDF from windowfarms.org

via windowfarms.org

The RoboCup competition, first held in 1997, is intended to spark developments in robotics and artificial intelligence that could see robots become more useful to humans in rescue operations, assisting the disabled or elderly, and other applications.

The RoboCup competition is a well-known, landmark project in the robotics communities. Virginia Tech became the first team from the United States to participate in RoboCup’s humanoid league when it qualified for the 2007 competition in Atlanta.

RoboCup has multiple leagues for different sizes and types of robots. TEAM VT DARwIn is competing in the kid-size, humanoid league for two-legged robots up to 60 centimeters tall.

The rules of competition get tougher each year, Hong said. Last year’s challenge was for teams of two-robots — one goalie, one striker. This year’s more challenging games will be three-on-three with collaborative play.

The roots of TEAM VT DARwIn go back to 2004, when Hong and his students created a two-legged humanoid robot as part of their research into bipedal locomotion. Since then, he and his students have created progressively more advanced versions. For RoboCup, they are fielding the DARwIn III series.

“It’s a refinement,” Hong said. “Much stronger, faster, smarter.” Developing robots that can walk around like people, as opposed to relying on wheels, is important if robots are to be able to realize their full potential to help humans, Hong said.

“For these robots to live with us, they have to have a similar form, a locomotion method so they can actually climb stairs instead of us building a special ramp for the robots,” he explained.

“RoboCup is an amazing place to be,” he said, “You have so many different robots, developed all over the world. People with completely different backgrounds and educations [are] all competing on the same challenge and trying to do the same things. You really see a lot of different perspectives, which is always very interesting.”

RoboCup team members are allowed to program their robots to perform specific functions on the field, such as forward, defender, and goalie. But the robots have to play autonomously, not by remote control, for two 15-minute periods.

In other words, participants prepare their robots as best they can, then hope their squad will perform as expected.

Inventor Saul Griffith spoke at TED regarding his fancy for kites and power. I’m sure he likes beer too.

Serena Mitnik-Miller executes her painting with watercolor on paper, employing transparent, all over repetitive shapes in vivid colors that reference nature specific to the sea. Mitnik-Miller associates these colors and geometries with organic vocabulary and palette, most importantly its complex dynamic. The paintings become increasingly disorienting with layered internal space and vortex like sensibility shifting the image beyond the paper.

In her photographic work Mitnik-Miller both seduces and alienates the viewer employing graphic and abstract approach to her images. Experiential qualities of light abound within the images, embracing the films grain to create a watercolor-like effect when printed on natural matte paper.

Hand packaged neatly with natural twine is a map she designed of her Treasured Spots of San Francisco. The map lists a handful of places the artist visits frequently, giving the viewer a closer look into her daily travels.

Serena currently lives and works near the ocean in San Francisco, where she helps to run the Mollusk Surf Shop Gallery and her own new venture, General Store.

via: Arkitip

Enter the Photo Contest by submitting your single best winter image taken in the Kootenays by March 20th and become eligible to win some superb prizes. The top 3 winners will be picked by the celebrity photographers and be shown on the big screen during the Gathering’s In the Crosshairs presentation!

Get your photo loaded at www.thegatheringatred.comby March 20th 2010.

Prizes
Grand Prize: 2 days cat skiing for you and a friend at Valhalla Powdercats!
2nd Prize: Elan skis
3rd Prize: Winter gear prize package

via: powder

G.R.L., Open Frameworks and graffiti legend Tempt1 have teamed-up to bring you the latest weapon of ocular assault: the EyeWriter. Source code, free software, HOW TO guide, videos and eye tags by Tempt1 available at eyewriter.org.

“Art is a tool of empowerment and social change, and I consider myself blessed to be able to create and and use my work to promote health reform, bring awareness about ALS and help others”

– Tony Quan, aka Tempt One

The EyeWriter core development team consists of Zach Lieberman, Chris Sugrue, Theo Watson, James Powderly, Evan Roth, Tony Quan & The Ebeling Group.

Made possible through support from the Not Impossible Foundation and Parsons Communication Design & Technology.

DOWNLOAD EYEWRITER HOW TO PDF

Check it out!

Kellogg Co. is introducing new technology in the U.K. that allows it to burn its famous signature onto individual cereal flakes by using lasers.

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes with brandingEnlarge
The technology, which was developed in Britain, is being used in a trial to stamp out imitation cereals — which Kellogg calls “fake flakes” — by branding Corn Flakes with the company logo.

The news has caused quite a frenzy among U.K. outlets, with many wondering whether this was just Kellogg having some PR fun. But in a phone call the company confirmed that it possesses the technology to do the laser etching and that it’s planning a trial, though it clarified the illustration it supplied was a mock-up.

Kellogg makes 67 million boxes of Corn Flakes every year in the U.K., but the company struggles to get across the message that it doesn’t make cereals for anyone else, and it has lost ground to private-label imitations, or generics, in recent years.

Helen Lyons, lead food technologist at Kellogg, said in a statement, “There has been an increase in the number of [private labels] trying to capitalize on the popularity of Kellogg’s corn flakes. We want shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else. We’re constantly looking at new ways to reaffirm this, and giving our golden flakes of corn an official stamp of approval could be the answer.”

Kellogg plans to produce a number of trial batches of the branded flakes to test the system. The company will then consider inserting a proportion of branded flakes into each box to guarantee the cereal’s origins and protect against imitation products. If the system is successful, it could be used on Kellogg’s other brands, including Frosties, Special K, Crunchy Nut and Bran Flakes.

The laser uses a concentrated beam of light that focuses the energy within the beam down to a very small spot on the corn flake. The energy density of the laser is enough to give the surface of the flake a darker, toasted appearance without changing the taste.

Ms. Lyons added, “We’ve established that it is possible to apply a logo or image onto food, now we need to see if there is a way of repeating it on large quantities of our cereal. We’re looking into it.”

The initiative comes despite Kellogg’s claim that sales of its Corn Flakes have risen this year, as shoppers with limited budgets opt for recognized, reliable brands. Its factory in Manchester, in the north of England, is the biggest Corn Flake production line in the world, churning out cereals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Every year, 128 billion bowls of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes are eaten worldwide, in countries as far afield as Guatemala, Japan, Argentina and India.

via adage.com