My Plant LED lights for indoor gardening

Now here's something for plant-loving city dwellers. My Plant, a plant-rearing LED stand, is aimed at those who want to grow plants indoors but are finding it difficult to do so due to the lack of sunlight. My Plant comes with two lamps, each made up of 10 red and two blue LEDs. By placing the lamps at a certain distance (10cm to 40cm) to the plants, the blue and red LED lights are effectively absorbed by the plant to promote photosynthesis. While the LEDs are said to be similar to ultraviolet rays from flourescent lights and will not be harmful to human body, it will burn the plants if placed closer than 10cm. As with all cultivation of plants, carbon dioxide and water will still be needed.

A built-in timer means you don't have to worry about when to switch on and off the LED lights. It is recommended that My Plant is used from 6am to 8pm (based on Japan's 14-hour summer setting). The manufacturer claims the 50,000-hour lifespan of the LEDs should last almost 10 years on daily usage. Its low 1.6-watt power consumption is estimated to cost about 17 yen (US$0.16) per month to maintain.
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The sporty commuter

What gets 35 miles per gallon and goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.5 seconds? You might suggest a motorcycle, but you would be only 66 percent right.

BRP's Can-Am Spyder uses three wheels, two in front and one in back. The Spyder isn't exactly a motorcycle, a trike, or a three-wheeled car. BRP suggests calling it a roadster, but that designation is a stretch as well.

We got our first chance to ride the Spyder this week, when BRP brought a few of them to our offices.

The learning curve was fairly quick--the BRP representative explained the controls, then we shot off down the street. Actually, we were only going about 20mph, but it felt fast, as we're used to looking at the world through a wide expanse of safety glass.

Within the hour, though, we were speeding along at 45mph with no fear. The Spyder uses a traditional motorcycle-style gear shift, down by your left foot, and a clutch lever over the left hand grip. Similarly, the throttle is on the right hand grip. But you activate the brakes on all three wheels with a pedal at your right foot. And unlike most motorcycles, the Spyder has a reverse gear.
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An alarm clock that should never be built

Crave has seen all manner of sadistic alarm clocks, from models that emit sonic booms and electrical shocks to those that fly and roll away. But the appropriately named Tyrant from Taiwanese designer Alice Wang takes sleep disruption to a disturbing new level.

If you don't turn it off, this little monster will randomly dial numbers programmed in your mobile phone every 3 minutes, according to SlashGear. That's right--not calls to yourself, but to others who surely won't be amused. Mercifully, this is only a concept so far (we hope).

Via CNET Crave

Flashlight DVR brings us closer to living out our 007 fantasies

Well, maybe not quite 007. I mean, for one thing, could you imagine James Bond walking around with a huge flashlight sticking out of his back pocket? Well, maybe the Timothy Dalton 007, but he was never that cool to begin with. Dalton did redeem himself in my eyes with Hot Fuzz, however.

Anyway, before this becomes a huge diatribe about how Daniel Craig is second only to Sean Connery as the best Bond, let's get back to the issue at hand. Swann Communications, a company that specializes in security monitoring devices, today announced a covert surveillance tool, the FlashlightDVR. The tool combines a working flashlight (with three degrees of brightness), color camera and Digital Video Recorder (DVR) all in one. In addition to being able to take pics, the FlashlightDVR also records video in one of two ways. Either internally, via the included 128MB flash memory, or externally through an SD card which is sold separately. The DVR in the device uses MPEG-4 and records at a resolution of 640 x 480. The recorded content can be transferred to a PC via the embedded USB port. The camera also includes a night-vision mode, which is appropriate if you're a Cheaters staff member waiting to record a late-night hookup. There is also a built-in mic if you need just that much more incriminating evidence.
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Club4Climate's "dance to save the world" agenda

Shake your booty, lads and lassies. Because if Club4Climate founder Andrew Charalambous had his way in getting his dance club into every country, the world would be a much better place. And we'd agree with him, too. The Club4Climate project not only preaches eco clubbing, it practices what it preaches. Besides the usual organic beverage, air flush, waterless urinals and automatic taps, the London outlet features a piezoelectric dancefloor. What this does is use quartz crystals and ceramics to turn all that gyrating energy into electricity. So the more you jump up and down, the more you charge those batteries to power the club.
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