Green ideas: 'Blight', solar Venetian blind lights

One of fifty top entries in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition, Vincent Gerkens’ Blight offers a brilliant twist on staid venetian blinds. Rather than serving simply to block the sun’s rays, the design re-envisions blinds as sun-soaking solar panels that store energy during the day and illuminate your interiors at night.



Named after a combination of the words “blind” and “light”, Blight creates a seamless link between the indoors and the outdoors, storing sunlight during the day and giving it back at night. The smart design takes advantage of the large surface area of extended venetian blinds by lining each panel with flexible solar cells. Once night falls, stored energy is transfered to a layer of electroluminescent foil, which provides energy-efficient light.

Gerkens states: “With Blight we have not produced a new object; we have just created the design of an everlasting product: the Venetian blind. We use all the current functions of this object and add a little technology to give it a new function - to catch solar energy and convert it into electricity.”



Nice idea, I think a little more research could go into the name before it hits retail though.

.. found at inhabitat.com

Holy cow cola!

NEW DEHLI: For millions of devout Hindus, it's the real thing: a cola made from the urine of India's sacred cows.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a leading Hindu cultural group, has developed Gau Jal or Cow Water, at its research centre in the holy city of Haridwar on the River Ganges, and hopes it will be marketed as a "healthy" alternative to Coke and Pepsi.

In some Indian states, cow dung and urine are sold in regular dairy shops alongside milk and yoghurt.

Om Prakash, the director of the RSS cow protection department, said: "It will be a revolution of sorts. The acceptance of cow urine as a potent medicine is increasing day by day and once it comes as a cold drink, its demand will definitely increase. It will justify the high stature accorded to a cow in Indian culture."

His team is focusing on packaging, marketing and preservation work to stop its drink from developing an unpleasant odour in the summer heat.

Chinese New Year in the Office

Groovey, I've always suspected it, glad to have it confirmed :)

Things has been very, very busy of late. Workwise, I've been moving back towards a development role, which is good. On the home front, we're trying hard to organise all the various odd & ends for Pei Lin's visa application for the impending move to Australia.

I can understand why all the paperwork is required, but it only slightly helps to have a glimmer of this understanding when we're wading through it.

Last week I was overjoyed to receive my 'certificate of single status' from Australia (which will allow me to get married in Malaysia), but the joy was short-lived, they'd spelt my name incorrectly, and rather than just a hurried phone call to get another reissued, I find out that I need to return the incorrect one first. CrapCrapCrap! More unnecessary delays. Head office will no be pleased. Are already not pleased.

So I spend another 75RM express mailing the incorrect certificate back to Sydney, along with another form detailing the very basic concept of checking the spelling on someone's name.

I keep telling myself that in 3 months from now, everything will be settled.
.. I can't wait till then.

PePaKuRa Designer

While scouring the net for tutorials on how to draw cartoon monkeys (please, don't ask), I found this.

PePaKuRa Designer is software that allows you to take 3d data and then deconstruct it into a pattern that can then printed, cut out and assembled into a paper model.

Pepakura Designer does not contain software to create the original 3D models, but instead translates them to a 2D printable format. Pepakura supports some 3D file formats from software such as 3D Studio, LightWave and Softimage. Pepakura also supports files in the freeware format from "MetasequoiaLE".

Check out the below images of one intrepid PePaKuRa Designer who has created his own Daft Punk helmet using it. Awesomeness!

pePaKuRa Designer is available here.

Be warned!