It's a been multi-media packed week of sights, sounds and sensations.We've brought you some highlights.At the Consumer Electronics Show(CES) in Las Vegas this week, the latest gadgets and devices were premiered. While there was no shortage of the energy guzzling “who needs them” kind of goods, such as the OhMiBod vibrators , or the hysterical Jada “Air Guitar Rocker” (watch video here), there were also some green electronics to be found.
Image from the movie Air Guitar Nation Fujitsu have developed a laptop with casing made of corn. As Inhabitat reports from the CES, the main ingredient is polylactic acid, (PLA), a resin that comes from the fermentation of the raw biomass from plants. PLA by itself is biodegradable, does not generate dioxin when burnt, or other harmful gases. Unfortunately the material still needs a small amount of fossil fuel for it to be able to be used as a laptop housing. However, the PLA-based plastic can be processed after the end of use of the product and by doing so, the corn-based component can safely degrade".
PC Pro reports of a new technology where Mobile Phones could include their own mini projectors. The handheld device is still in the prototype stage, but the statistics are already impressive. The projector has a brightness of around 8-10 lumens and is capable of displaying an image of up to 50 inches. This means that anything from power point presentations to your holiday snaps can be publicly displayed. While it's certainly a good solution to the faulty projector, I'm not so sure I really want to watch others while I'm having my lunch.
The Greenpeace boat, Esperanza, is currently in the Southern Sea, showing that the only way to shoot a whale is with a camera. The crew is following in the wake of a Japanese whaling fleet, allegedly on a scientific expedition, who plan to kill up to 935 minke whales and 50 endangered fin whales. This week the Ezperanza crew recovered valuable whale songs, which can be heard here. Look at the website for more photos and diaries of their journey. You can also send letter here to the Japanese Prime minister to stop the building of a new factory ship.Humpback whale in the Southern Sea Yet another new way to combat global warming, the Guardian reports, is to grow more reflective plants!
Experts at the University of California, Irvine, say reflective plants could send more of the sun's heat back into space, and reverse temperature rises in parts of the world. Encouraging farmers to grow shinier crops could reduce maximum daytime temperatures in agricultural regions by as much as 1.9C, they say.” We imagine rows of mirrored sunflowers or metallic cacti.
So popular was Knut as the face of Climate Change action for Germany, that now Nuremberg Zoo has produced a second baby polar bear! Pronounced a girl after some initial confusion, there is of course much anticipation that the two young stars will hit it off romantically. Knut will have to wait, along like the rest of us, to find out her name. But you can catch your first glimpse on the Spiegel site.