WebsitesTthat Make You Smarter

1.        Unplug The TV

Turn off your TVs now (and YouTube too :) ) and open this link instead – every time it will generate a new video to watch for you that will benefit your mind.

URL: http://unplugthetv.com/

2.        Thesaurus

Let’s not forget about every student’s savior – Thesaurus, the source of synonyms for articles and essays we all have to write at some point in our lives. Definitely expands your vocabulary!

URL: http://www.thesaurus.com/

3.        Factsie

Click on the link and you will get a scientific or a life fact you probably didn’t know before!

URL: http://factsie.com/

4.        BBC Languages

Studying a new language? Use BBC platform for interactive guides, shows, TV programs and much more.

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

5.        TED

TED talks are a great way of learning new things in an engaging and interesting way. No further explanation needed here!

URL: http://www.ted.com/

6.        Do It Yourself

For those of us who love arts and crafts – numerous tips, advice and DIY lessons.

URL: http://www.doityourself.com/

7.        Drawspace

Always wanted to learn to draw but never got a chance? It is never too late! Drawspace provides lots of lessons and e-books on techniques and styles form basic beginners to professionals.

URL: https://www.drawspace.com/

8.        High Brow

This website sends 5-minute long courses direct to your inbox every day. Take a break and learn something new!

URL: http://gohighbrow.com/

9.        Lingvist

Lingvist promises that you will learn language in 200 hours. Hurry up whilst it is still free to use!

URL: https://lingvist.io/

10.  Creative Live

Take creative lessons in photo and video, art and design, music and audio, crafts and even life from the greatest creative minds in the world.

URL: https://www.creativelive.com/

11.  Instructables

The name explains it quite well –there are many various instructions and explanations on this website for practically anything.

URL: http://www.instructables.com/

12.  Investopedia

Yes, this is like Wikipedia but with a focus on financial markets. It is tough for those of us without a business degree to understand what’s happening in the world of finance. Investopedia will help with that – they provide financial news digests that are fairly easy to understand even for those of us who don’t know the first thing about money.

URL: http://www.investopedia.com/

13.  Coursera

Click through to find a great number of various free courses on any subject you could think of – study biology or learn how to become more productive. There is something for everyone!

URL: https://www.coursera.org/

14.  edX

Similar to Coursera, this website has tons of different courses available from numerous universities all over the world.

URL: https://www.edx.org/

10 of the most useless products ever invented :)

    While many companies and individuals invent some of the best products since sliced bread, there are others that offer consumers some of the most useless products ever invented. Here we take a look at 10 of them that you may wish to pass over handing out your hard earned money out for.

The Air Conditioned Shoes

   Hydro-tech says that the air conditioned shoes will help to put freshness back into your step and are excellent for those with smelly feet. The shoes however seem to be no more than standard shoes with holes in them. The company says they have unique filter technology and they can be purchased from Fancy.com for $70.

The iPotty

    It’s all well and good starting children off early when it comes to technology, but CTA Digital are taking things a bit too far. They are selling the CTA Digital iPotty to give young children that are being potty trained a lesson in technology at the same time. The potty is a traditional potty with a shelf for the Apple iPad, which can be attached so that your child can play while using the potty. You can pick it up at Amazon for $34.50.

The Remote Headband

    With the technology out today it is not unusual for homes to have four or more remote controls for such as TV, DVD, satellite system, music centre and more. With this many remote controls it’s easy to lose them and this is when Rodd Miller came up with the idea of the remote control headband. This is a headband that fastens around the head and comes down under the chin, to which you stick on your remote controls; with Velcro that you attach to them and which stick to the band.

The Shoe Umbrell

    he Shoe Umbrella was designed to keep the feet dry when it rains. Why anyone would want to be out in public with two stripy umbrellas attached to their shoes is beyond me. However with the price of a pair of Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos it could be worth looking a fool to keep them dry and rain free.

The Motorised Ice Cream Cone

There is nothing more refreshing than a cold ice cream on a hot summer’s day. However with the heat the ice cream tends to run down the sides of the cone, unless you continually lick around the cone. Rather than having to twist the cone around in your hand, someone came up with a battery operated cone that turns around for you. All you have to do is stick your tongue out and press the button – but that kinda takes most of the fun out eh.

The USB Pet Rock

    Pets are very popular in households around the world, the most popular being a cat or a dog, followed by fish or bird. However there is another choice thanks to someone having invented the Pet Rock. You can pick it up at ThinkGeek for $7.99 and your pet comes in its box complete with air holes. On removal from the box you plug it into your USB port on your computer…..and that’s it. It just sits there, doing absolutely nothing.

The Go Office Wheel Mate Steering Wheel Desk

     As stupid as it may sound, yes there is actually a product that you can attach to the steering wheel of the car on which you place your laptop, making it easier to type. Of course the product is aimed at being used while the car is at a standstill, or at least we hope, however it doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. If you fancy typing as you drive and getting a hefty fine or ban for stupidity from the police, you can pick up the steering wheel desk at Amazon for $25.39.

The Goldfish Walker

    Mick Madden from the UK invented the Goldfish Walker after looking at his pet goldfish one day and thinking that they might need a change of scenery. So he invented a pull along walker and took his two fish out for a stroll. Wonder how long they’ll remember the new scenery?

Flair Hair Golf, the Hair Hat

     The Flair Hair Golf Visor from Flair Hair is a visor hat that comes complete with a full head of shaggy hair, which seems to resemble a shaggy carpet more than hair. While we cannot see Tiger Woods wearing it, if you fancy wearing a rug on your head on the golf course, or indeed anywhere else, you can pick it up at RockbottomGolf for $29.99, but at the moment of writing they have it on for $19.99.

The DVD Rewinder

    Yes you read it right, the DVD Rewinder was invented and put onto the market by DVD Rewinder, however if you wanted to grab this invention you would have had to do so before 2009 as the company behind them stopped production in that year. Of course as anyone with half a brain knows, a DVD doesn’t have to be rewound, unlike the VHS tapes that used to be around.

"Sony" and "Panasonic" Announce 1TB Optical Discs

       Sony and Panasonic recently announced from Tokyo, Japan, that they have formulated “Archival Discs” that will hold up to 1 TB of data. This news may leave Blu-Ray discs in fear of being tossed away so soon. The new discs will allow intergenerational compatibility between different formats, to ensure that data can be read as formats evolve.

     The two companies plan to actively promote the new disc standard in the professional field in order to offer an effective solution for protecting valuable data in the future, with the objective of expanding the market for long-term digital storage solutions. They seem beneficial for HD video storing and compact large volume data storage.


   
     Optical discs are known for their excellent properties that protect them from the environment. They are dust-resistant and water-resistant and can withstand changes in temperature and humidity when stored.

    The two companies plan to release a 300 GB version of the discs in the summer of 2015. The plan is to then produce greater capacity discs as soon as possible, starting with 500 GB before producing 1 TB formats. Due to the inter-generation compatibility, the same hardware that will be introduced along with the 300 GB version, will be compatible with the 1 TB disc when it arrives. After the release of the 300 GB disc, signal processing improvements along with high linear density processing will work towards readying the 1 TB version.

    To put this into perspective, current single-layer Blu-Ray discs hold up to 25 GB of data. Double-layer disc do exist but are not widely used. Remember 30 years ago when floppy discs were offering 750 kb of storage!  It’s also quite a leap from the Sony Compact-Discs, introduced in the early 80′s, that offer 700 mb of storage. Data storage technology has certainly come a long way in terms of compact long term high volume data storage.

    The partnership of the two companies may avoid format conflict and also both companies have a proven track record with Blu-Ray technology.



    Panasonic had adopted a newly-developed changer system that together with RAID technologies has the promise to offer rapid data transfer performance of up to 216MB/s, while this year the company launched its LB-DM9 series of optical disc storage devices. This system utilizes a dedicated magazine of just 20.8mm thickness to house 12 100GB optical discs.



     Sony has also developed new optical disc storage systems, including its XDCAM series of professional broadcasting products, which houses 12 optical discs within a compact cartridge as a single storage solution.

Google’s block by block modular smartphone "Project Ara"

     Google is putting some serious effort into making its block by block modular smartphone design into a reality. Project Ara is aiming to release a basic smartphone for $50, which can be easily upgraded by replacing the blocks at the rear and front.

   The blocks can be anything from additional memory, faster CPU’s to a better quality camera. The only limit is the level of technology at the present moment. The need for expensive upgrades could soon no longer be an issue. Phone running slow, get a new CPU. Camera not up to your photography skills, get a new camera block and slot it on.



    The blocks attach to the device with small electro-permanent magnets. Place the block in its slot and a small jolt of voltage locks the block into place. This locking and unlocking device can easily be controlled with an app and with password protection, this can protect the blocks from being popped off and stolen. The head of Project Ara, Paul Eremenko, says “it’s a passive component, meaning it consumes no power in both the off state and the on state.”

    



     Google’s plan as of early 2014 is to have the first Ara smartphones go on sale in the first quarter of 2015, keeping prices as low as possible to try and build a strong and early backing that would allow for rapid progression of the technology to go along with it. Google is working alongside Phonebloks and Motorola to make this dream a reality.

     It also seems that the device will come in three different standard sizes – phone, phablet and tablet. Each will have a different amount of space for modules, meaning that the tablet version will have more room for extra modules. The covers for the modules are 3-D printed and this of course opens up doors for custom designs.

     The upgrade benefits is an obvious win and the lifetime of smartphones could be prolonged greatly. It also means that you won’t have to pay for a load of features you don’t want or need and can use that extra space to ramp up CPU power or get some more memory.

Doubt has been cast however and there are a lot of obstacles to overcome. “Putting as many parts as possible on a single circuit board — or even a single chip — has benefits that are impossible to ignore,” reports Verge, ”Integration saves on battery life, weight, thinness, and cost, among other things.”

A car that runs on AIR in 2016

Firstly, let’s get one thing straight: There’s no such thing as a truly air powered car. Air requires energy to store energy as it needs to be compressed. However, Peugeot have brought a new hybrid combination to the automotive table by teaming hydraulics with a conventional gasoline engine. During low speed driving under 43mph, in a city for example, the car will solely be powered by air 80% of the time and the gasoline engine provides a boost for uphill driving or fast speeds such as motorways.

Peugeot are planning to introduce the hybrid transmission to the Peugot 208 hatchback and have them rolling off the line by 2016. The idea is the brainchild of Karim Mokaddem and Andrés Yarce. They have claimed it extends urban-driving range by 90% against to non-hybrid transmissions and will only produce 69g CO2/km; compare that to the Toyota Prius’s 89g CO2/km. With an estimated starting price of around $26,000, it’s also $7700 cheaper.


So how does it work? During acceleration, high pressurized nitrogen gas is discharged from the energy storage system which pushes hydraulic fluid, driving a hydraulic motor connected to the transmission. The depressurized nitrogen gas then collects in the low pressure storage system. As the car decelerates the process is reversed; energy from regenerative breaking (or the gasoline engine) powers a hydraulic pump that pushes the hydraulic fluid into an accumulator and also re-pressurizes the nitrogen as it returns to the high pressure storage system. The remainder of the power will be provided by a 82-hp 1.2-liter gasoline engine.




It’s interesting to see how this system will face up against the increasing popularity of electric hybrid systems. Electric hybrid vehicles have well established themselves in the automotive world in recent years and Peugeot’s proposed gas hybrid system has no proven reliability meaning it could be difficult to gain consumer acceptance. They claim the Air Hybrid 208 coming in 2016 can produce 97.3 mpg, with an aim of 117 mpg by 2020.

Top 10 of the Coolest Offices

1. McLaren Technology Centre.

                   This is the HQ of McLaren Group positioned in Woking, a part of the Greater London Urban Area. This is a work place for approximately 1000 employees and houses also McLaren Racing Formula One and McLaren Automotive. It would be a true happiness for every automotive fan to work where some of the world’s fastest cars are developed.



2. Williams Group

          Grand Rapids. It is a Michigan-based company that works in the field of communications with customers. Their team consists of 25 creative persons such as writers, consultants, project managers and designers.




3. Canary Wharf, UK.

          This is not the office of a single company but a whole business district instead. Canary Wharf has office area of 1.3 million square meters located in the West India Docs, East London.




4. Googleplex, California.

            Well, this isn’t the place where Douglas Adams’ Googleplex Star Thinker is hidden. This is the general headquarters of Google located near San Jose, California, US.




6. Etsy Office, New York.

        According to the official website, “Etsy is a marketplace where people around the world connect to buy and sell unique goods.” The interior of this office is as close as possible to the cozy home atmosphere.




7.Cannon Design St. Louis Regional Office.

           It is nested into the Power House building in St. Louis which previously forwarded steam heating to several buildings until 1980. The building remained intact for 30 years when it was turned into a Cannon Design local office.




8. Horizon Media New York Office.

                   The company was founded in New York in nearly 25 years ago – 1989. The company has grown significantly since then and now it gives a job to 800 people and has invested more than $4 milliard in different media projects.




9. Vocon Headquarters in Cleveland.

                   It is placed in a historic building from the 1920s at the Midtown of Cleveland. Vocon is an interior and architectural design studio with around 60-70 employees. According to Vocon, their HQ interior was designed “to bring clients in and demonstrate numerous design concepts simply by walking them through the office”.



10. Red Bull HQ in Amsterdam.
 
 The central office of the famous energy drink maker was designed by Sid Lee Architecture. The office is inside an ex-shipbuilding factory in Northern Amsterdam. The space inside is divided on three main parts all decorated with plywood and metal parts. And the coolest part – there is a DJ console.

Top 10 Engineering Projects in the World

10. International Space station. This is the largest masterpiece of the human engineering in orbit around Earth at present. The station consists mainly of habitable and science modules, external trusses and solar panels to provide power. The International Space Station leads its origin from merging of two former space stations – the Russian Mir-2 and the American Freedom. ISS is expanding continuously by adding new modules and it is sometimes visible even with naked eye.

9. Three Gorges Dam. It is a giant wall that cuts the Yangtze River near the town of Sandouping, Hubei province, China. At the moment it is the world’s largest power station producing roughly 22 500 MW per year. The other function of the facility is to prevent flooding in the following parts of the river. However, the dam caused flooding of important archeological places and the displacement of 1.3 million people.

8. Boston’s Big Dig. Officially it is Central Artery/Tunnel Project, but people know it mostly as the Big Dig. The project had several goals, mainly to reroute and build few main road arteries and tunnels. Work was done between 1991 and 2006.

7. The World Islands. This is an archipelago of artificial islands arranged to form a copy of the world map. It is located 4 km away from the coast of Dubai, UAE. Each island has an area between 14 000 and 42 000 square meters. The whole archipelago required 321 million cubic meters of sand and 386 million tons of rock for its construction.

6. Dubai Canal. It was expected to be completed in 2012 but it is still on hold because of financial difficulties. The canal would cost $11 milliard and another $50 milliard was dedicated to building new “city” around the canal. Plans show that the Dubai Canal would be suitable for yachts and small ships with its width of 150 meters and depth of 6.

5. Panama Canal. This is a cut through the neck that connects North and South America. It strongly reduces the travel time of cargo ships, eliminating the necessity of traveling around the whole South America. Digging was started for first by France in 1884 but strong epidemic and engineering issues forced them to stop. USA started again in 1904 and needed ten years for completion.

4. Marmaray. The railway tunnel that connects European to the Asian coast has already an open section. This section with four stations was officially opened on October 29, 2013 for the celebration of 90th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.

3. New York Subway. This is the fourth largest subway system in the world with length of 700 miles (1126.5 km). It is also one of the busiest, serving passengers 24 hours a day with 6500 cars.

2. Havvada Island. This is an artificial island that is proposed to be created near the Turkish coast. But it’s not just, this is a concept of how a future city could look like. The island will be a home for 300 000 inhabitants and will consist of 6 geodesic domes.

1. Future cities concepts. Although not a single engineering project, many scientist work on ideas of how the future cities will look like. Havvada Island is one of them, another idea is the sky cities which consist of many higher towers to provide more residential space. Another popular idea is the self-sustaining city gathered into one huge building.