Friday, September 13, 2013

Message in bottle the world's oldest discovery in Canada

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Who never dreamed of discovering a bottle with a message inside? The Canadian Steve Thurber is one of the lucky few who can say I have done â€" and with a great bonus: on Monday, he discovered the oldest message in bottle in the world, submitted for 107 years by Earl Willard.

Willard, apparently American, put the bottle into the sea near San Francisco, California, 1,800 miles from the spot where Thurber found, in Schooner's Cove, Tofino, Canada.

Submitted to September 29, 1906, the message, however, has not yet been read. Is that Thurber refuses to open it, a decision that is leaving many onlookers flabbergasted. The sealed envelope that is inside the bottle is clearly visible, showing the date of shipment and the address of Earl Willard. And that was sent from a boat, but no more than that.

According to the American press, Thurber believes the message must remain a mystery.

Until Monday, the oldest bottle with a message was 97 years old and was discovered in Scotland, last year. According to the fisherman Andrew Leaper, he found, the bottle had a postcard with a bounty of six pence to who delivered her to the owner.

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Australia builds the world's tallest vertical garden

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Patrick Blanc, the inventor of the concept of the vertical garden, and the French architect Jean Nouvel teamed up to create a magnificent project in One Central Park, the newest residential tower in Sydney, Australia. The leafy vegetation will occupy a front of 166 feet tall, creating one that is expected to be the tallest living wall in the world.

Based on a symbiotic combination between landscape and building, the revolutionary design prepares to redefine the appearance of the city. The project combines the green space with the building, using a lush green carpet of plants and gardens on terraces as physical extensions of the surrounding Central Park, of 6,400 m2.

The wall is composed of 190 species of flowering plants native to Australia and 160 species of exotic plants and will cover 50% of the façade of the building. According to Blanc, the project seeks to replicate a cliff and resemble "a giant slice of the Blue Mountains placed in the middle of the city".

The One Central Park will consist of two residential towers with 624 apartments. There will still be room for 38 luxury penthouses positioned on a protruding structure on the heights, as well as a system of motorised mirrors that capture and direct sunlight down to the surrounding gardens. At night, the protruding structure will be transformed into a shimmering LED art installation created by the artist Yann Kersalé.

The completion of the project is scheduled for January 2014.



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Thursday, September 12, 2013

New app turns off the heating as soon as you leave the House

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A German start-up launched a smartphone app that allows you to turn off the heater when it crosses the door of the House. Tado-company name and the app â€" is part of an energy management system that connects both to the heater, as directly to the heater, using the wireless network your home.

The app uses GPS and geolocation to detect where you are, so that when he moves away from home with the phone, she connects to the heating system and turn it off. The application also allows you to turn up the heat and alter the temperature remotely, as well as check your energy consumption and the money saved.

In the same way that shuts down when it moves away, the system also automatically reconnects the heat source when I get home. Although the concept is similar to the Nest Learning Thermostat, which turns off the heating or cooling when the user is away, the company says that there are some major differences between the two technologies.

"The Nest is called a thermostat and apprentice needs to be prepared by the user over a period of at least one week. The Tado, in contrast, starts working immediately, once it works with signals in real time, "says the company. "Our control algorithms are actually the entire space. The focus is the use of real-time signals coming from the smartphone app or weather data from the internet to adjust room temperature. "

According to Treehugger, the company claims that the app allows users to 27% savings in heating costs.

The State obtained a financing and plans to launch its service throughout Europe, already in October â€" although any person can do already downloaded the free app and verify the savings that the system provides. The Tado Connector Kit can be purchased for € 299 ($ 901) or rented on monthly contract for €8,25 ($ 25).

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London's sewers blocked by 15 tons of fat

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The unsavory images of fat that blocks the sewers of London may disgust even who has the strongest stomach. As a result of lard and cooking oils spilled by pipes, there is a block the size of two stories underground â€" and the situation is getting worse. Since the discovery made last month, already over three tonnes were added to the existing mass.

Despite the efforts of the engineers to remove the mass of 15 tons and the appeals of the city water company, fat continues to increasingly clog sewers. The blockade is so critical that a drain cover in Kingston has already threatened to burst.

Old fat and frozen is white, but the images have a yellowish tint, what seems to have been poured in the sewers during the past few weeks. You wouldn't think so from where are coming these massive amounts.

The Thames Water prepares to launch a new campaign allusive to the dangers of pouring fat in the pipes, in an attempt to sensitize the homes and businesses to the problem that is costing the company €1,2 million ($ 3.6 million) per month in repairs.

This problem is not new â€" in the late 1990, Thames Water spent €2,4 million (US $ 7 million) per year in removing fat from your network. The scenario worsened to €14,2 million (US $ 43 million) in 2012.

But it's not just the cooking oils that are causing the problem â€" an annual increase of 15% is due to the moist wipes, a material with the sewers can't handle but which records a growing tendency to use in Great Britain, to the detriment of toilet paper.

"Our sewers are designed to receive human waste and toilet paper, nothing more than that," warned Simon Evans, spokesman for Thames Water. The toilet paper fades in seconds but the same is not true with the wipes, despite the manufacturers call it.

So please bear with a lot of attention: here or in London, has not yet been created no wipe moistened not that can be processed in the sewers of cities.

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Wireless charger allows you to feed the smartphone in motion

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Cell phone battery at the moment when we need him most is horrible. But even worse is having to carry a bulky battery, with twice the size of its thin and light smartphone, when this happens. An inventor in Singapore comes now with the solution to this problem â€" a device the size of a credit card that allows you to load, and wireless in motion, the cell phone.

"In order to keep pace with modern energy consumption, many people choose to carry additional batteries in an effort to keep connected in this wireless world," said creator Raffi Ismail. "The portable charging this way seems to be the stone age, especially when the Wireless charging and ultrafine batteries lithium-polymer are already a reality."

The WiFlux device uses an inductive coil in the charging circuit which fits in with the dimensions of 72 x 55 x 5.5 mm. The system consists of a receiver and a transmitter. The receiver is set on the back of the phone and connects to a micro USB port; the transmitter contains a lithium-polymer battery 850mAh.

The device does not provide a full charge, but give it some time before you can connect your phone to the electricity. "We are racing to finish the prototype of WiFlux Card, focusing at the moment on the inductive wireless transmitter card and receiving coils", said Ismail.

The WiFlux project is trying to raise funds at Indiegogo â€" €76 thousand (R $ 230 thousand) is the value that is expected meet to go ahead with the production of the device. If the goal is reached, the charger will be available from January 2014.

The unit price is € 30 ($ 90), but supporters can now reserve a device for € 26 ($ 80) or receive a customized version for € 150 ($ 458). At present, are only available two versions of the WiFlux charger â€" one for the Samsung Galaxy S2, S3 and S4 and one for the iPhone 4, 4S and 5.

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Brazil: motel draws on sustainable green economy

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On Valentine's day 2010, couples in the region of São Paulo won a new reason to go to a motel. Does the Vitara, which lies in the rodovia Régis Bittencourt, in Taboão da Serra, was built on a sustainable basis. He is known also as the first sustainable Brazil motel.

According to explains the cycle Alive, the Vitara Motel took a year to build and cost €985 thousand (R $ 3 million). The project "fell into the graces of the ecologically correct couples", explains the Brazilian site, because it has rooms with solar power system and energy efficiency, reforested wood furniture and structures adopted to receive people with special needs.

The Vitara, swimming pools, hydromassages, showers of the rooms are heated with the Sun's rays, and the structure was thought to spend the least amount of electricity. Hotel lamps, of course, are the less they spend, and another plus point is the ecological certification of floors.

According to the cycle Alive, nor the design was forgotten: the scenes of rooms are inspired by scenes of wild nature.Here are all motel sustainable characteristics.

Finally, the establishment of recycling all the waste produced by the guests and the selection of employees is done locally, IE, you don't need many hours in traffic for developers to reach their workplace.



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Tibet: Buddhist monasteries and monks protect Snow Leopard

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The Snow Leopard, an endangered species, is being protected in hundreds of Buddhist monasteries in the Tibetan plateau, according to a study of Conservation Biology. The research, unveiled yesterday on the Huffington Post, says half of these monasteries are found in the habitat of leopards-das-neves, the monks the monitor and protect the poachers.

"Buddhism has a maximum principle â€" love, respect and compassion for all living beings. This study highlights the way in which science and the spiritual values of Tibetan Buddhism can combine their visions and wisdom to help protect the natural heritage of China ", explained George Schaller, biologist of the conservationist group Pantera and one of those responsible for the study.

According to the study, between 3,500 and 7,000 leopards-das-neves live in the high mountains of Asia, of which 60% are in the Chinese territory. Your hot skin protects you from the cold of high altitudes, and its big feet are excellent for walking in the snow.

Poachers seek in these leopards endangering their hot skin and internal organs, intended for traditional Chinese medicine. Farmers, on the other hand, want to get rid of the leopards as they eat their animals. Thus, the population decreased 20% in the last two decades.

In recent years, however, this statistic may be changing. From 2009 to 2011, Schaller and his colleagues surveyed the population of leopards-das-neves in Sanjiangyuan region, Chinese province of Qingahi, on the Tibetan plateau.

About 80% of the people living in the habitat of this animal practice Tibetan Buddhism, which, around here, the animals are not in danger. According to scientists, the population of leopards-das-neves should increase in the coming years.

On the other hand, half of the 336 monasteries Tibetans are home to these animals, so it is normal that your reproductive cycle help to their survival as a species and increase the number of individuals.

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