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Refik writes in and shows you how to to build your own ECG device & heart monitoring system -

This article should teach you how to build a simple heart monitoring device, ECG/EKG (electrocardiograph). In the United States and Worldwide million’s of people are losing their life because of heart failure. It is a disease that comes with diabetes, stress and etc. Before I continue to explain what I did, I would like to WARN you! 500mA (miliAmps) on 220V will completely destroy your nervous system (so run it from battery supply), check everything twice and you are responsible for it on you own.

How to build your own heart monitoring device, a simple ECG - e-dsp - Link.

Related:

• DIY ECG Electrocardiograph kit - Link.
• Low cost ECG Tester - Link.
• EEG & EKG schematics - Link.
• Homemade Electrocardiograph - Link.

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on February 18, 2007, 4:32pm

Jason over at Hackszine writes -

The lenses in my favorite pair of glasses are getting to be about a year or two old, and it’s getting to the point where I can barely see through them. My prescription hasn’t changed much - the problem is that the UV filter coating is starting to wear off, giving the entire lense surface a rough, partially-opaque finish.

I spent last evening trying to remove the coating and restore my lenses to a like-new condition, and I’m happy to say I can see again, thanks to a little polishing effort. You don’t want to do this if your glasses are in reasonable condition, but if you’re to the point where it’s between this and buying a new pair, it may be worth your while to give it a shot.

Sunscreen To The Rescue
It’s ironic, but I found that oil-free, SPF 45 sunscreen does a fantastic job at removing the thin coating from polycarbonate lenses. I believe this is because sunscreen has extremely fine aluminum powder in its composition, which is course enough to work away the coating, but fine enough to not leave visibly deep scratches in the soft plastic.

First, clean your glasses as best as you can. Using an old (but clean) sock or cotton rag, polish both sides of the lense, reapplying sunscreen as needed. You will feel the surface becoming noticably rougher as the coating is removed and becomes more patchy. It takes a long time, but eventually the last of the tiny patches of coating will be worked through and you’ll be left with a really smooth finish. As a last step, you should clean the lenses off and then polish them again with another clean rag.

It’s hard to photograph, but you can see the difference it made in my glasses (above). I haven’t yet tried, but this should also be a good way of removing the scratched up reflective coatings from cheap sunglasses. Your mileage may vary, so only try this as a last option, but let us know in the comments how it works out.

/www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/02/how_to_remove_e_1.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890″ />Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Originally from MAKE Magazine on February 17, 2007, 11:34pm

Electronics Weekly on “printed electronics” -

Nowadays, the term printed electronics is taken to include thin film electronics that will become printable. Most of the potential for printed electronics lies in what Toppan Forms calls Smart Media Products (SMP) which will be intelligent and mass producible yet often customisable as well. They will usually be used at the human interface or connected to networks and embedded ubiquitously into the environment.

All this means that printed electronics will largely create new markets, such as tape around pipelines to detect leaks and impending leaks and signal that there is a problem. After all, leaks still occur in refineries and in utility pipes underground.

Certainly, printed electronics will commonly take the form of tape, “wallpaper”, posters, patches and packaging rather than electronic equipment. Electronically savvy companies already making patches, tape or packaging such as 3M and Toppan Printing will be more comfortable with this world than the big computer and telecommunications businesses or even the silicon chip makers.

tronics set to be next big thing - 14/02/2007 - Electronics Weekly - Link.

Thanks Nat!

Pictured here, the structures of transistors mass-printed on PET-foil - Link.

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on February 17, 2007, 5:14pm

Tom writes -

This little gem is perfect for anyone interested in 3D modeling and no budget. The software is free while in beta and is totally unique in how easy it is to learn. I found it looking for a product to use for virtual protyping ceramic designs and fell in love with it. I purchased also purchased Mudbox 3D; but, by far, the interface of CB Model Pro is my favorite. By the way, they have a similar children’s product (ages 7-14)called Cosmic Blobs and it’s going to be distributed by The Learning Company in the near future. I have some video demos of how easy it is to use on my photobucket site. Just go to my album here to find some art and videos related to CosmicBlobs, CB Model Pro and Mudbox…

CB Model Pro - Easy 3D Modeling - Link.

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on February 17, 2007, 12:26pm

Cory Doctorow:
The author of ForestBlog, a blogging tool, has discovered that the MPAA was using his code in violation of his license. He gives the code away for free, but requires that users link back to his site and keep his name on the software. The MPAA deleted all credits and copyright notices from his work, and used it without permission. They ripped him off:

Way back in October last year whilst going through the website referals list for another of my sites I stumbled across this link. That’s right, my blogging software is being used by the MPAA (Motion picture Association of America); probably one of the most hated organisations known to the internet. Cool, I thought, until I had a look around and saw that all of the back links to my main site had been removed with nary a mention in the source code!

Now, as Patrick Robin (the software author) notes, this probably wasn’t the outcome of a high-level board meeting wherein the executive committee decided to rip him off. It was more likely the work of a lazy Web person at the MPAA who was cutting corners at work.

But the MPAA believes that employers should be held responsible for employees’ copyright infringements. They want you to know that if you download movies at work, your employer will also be named in the suit. Infringe as we say, not as we do.

This reminds me of Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman, Jr’s admission that his kids downloaded infringing music. He shrugged it off, saying that he’d dealt with the matter privately. Other parents are not so lucky: when their kids get caught downloading music, the RIAA sues them for every penny, through a thuggish boiler-room operation.

Copyright law is hard. It used to only govern relations between giant industrial players. Copyright didn’t regulate reading an interesting tidbit from the newspaper for a friend. It didn’t regulate watching movies. But now, sharing a newspaper article with a friend (by blogging it) involves copying, and so triggers copyright. Now watching a movie (by downloading it) involves copying, so it triggers copyright. The rules that are supposed to be interpreted by lawyers at Fortune 100 companies now apply to every single kid working on a project for her class’s website.

This is like having to file with the SEC every time you loan a buddy $5 for lunch.

Even the MPAA and its member companies can’t avoid violating copyright. The MPAA’s own CEO personally
ripped off Kirby Dick, pirating his film “This Film is Not Yet Rated” using the MPAA’s duplicating facilities. The studios regularly hose writers, painters, composers and performers, nicking their creative labor without compensation, and sneeringly invite them to sue if they don’t like it. Even the web-development departments get in on the act.

Is it any wonder that everyone with a computer is practically guaranteed to be a copyright criminal?

Link

(Thanks, Mike!)

Originally by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing on February 17, 2007, 11:40am

Originally from BLDGBLOG on February 18, 2007, 12:20pm

Originally from BLDGBLOG on February 18, 2007, 12:20pm

Cory Doctorow:
NASA is investigating the use of a protein found in human ear-hair as a means of powering space suits. The protein converts motion into electrical energy — and if it’s augmented with an electricity-conducting microbe, it could form self-healing, semi-living “skins” that convert Martian wind and even the jogging and walking of astronauts into juice.

They are focusing on a protein called prestin, which is found in the outer hair cells of the human ear. In the cell membranes of these cells, prestin converts electrical voltage into motion, elongating and contracting the cell. This movement amplifies sound in the ear.

However, prestin can also work in reverse, producing electrical charges in response to mechanical stresses, such as tiny vibrations. Each protein is only capable of making nanowatts of electricity, but Matthew Silver and Kranthi Vistakula, both of IntAct Labs, believe that many proteins used together may be able to power small devices or help charge a battery…

But eventually, they say networks of the proteins could form ‘power skins’ to coat spacesuits, so that the astronauts’ natural movement would be able to generate power for their equipment. The skins could also wrap around buildings on the Red Planet, where gusts of wind would activate prestin.

href=”http://futurismic.com/”>Futurismic)

Originally by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing on February 17, 2007, 10:47am

David Pescovitz:
Alex Pang says, “Have you boing boinged the ‘evolution, the big bang, and heliocentrism are part of a vast, ancient Jewish pharisee plot” story?”

Apparently, a memo went out with Georgia state Rep. Ben Bridges’s signature claiming that “Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion… This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.” The Anti-Defamation League is demanding that Bridges apologize. He says that he didn’t write the memo and didn’t personally issue it. Rather, it was penned by his former campaign manager’s husband, Marshall Hall. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The memo calls on lawmakers to introduce legislation that would end the teaching of evolution in public schools because it is “a deception that is causing incalculable harm to every student and every truth-loving citizen.”

It also directs readers to a Web site www.fixedearth.com, which includes model legislation that calls the Kabbala “a mystic, anti-Christ ‘holy book’ of the Pharisee Sect of Judaism.” The Web site also declares “the earth is not rotating … nor is it going around the sun….”

Bridges acknowledged that he talked to Hall about filing legislation this year that would end the teaching of evolution in Georgia’s public schools. Bridges said the views in the memo belong to Hall, though Bridges said he doesn’t necessarily disagree with them.

“I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory,” Bridges said. “I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?”

Link to Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Link to more at Talking Points Memo, Link to Scientific American’s “15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense”

Originally by David Pescovitz from Boing Boing on February 16, 2007, 1:42pm

Cory Doctorow:
UrbanCurators is a clade of decay-fanciers who go around big cities, hanging elaborate, gilted gallery-style frames on the walls of rotting buildings to highlight the artistic, aesthetic qualities of our falling-down world.

Humans have for centuries sought after the grandeur of ruins that were once the glory of ancient cultures, recognizing them as windows into the lives of past civilizations. The Urban Curators project proposes that we should likewise cherish those ruins that reflect modern-day consumerism and industrialization, realizing them as vehicles by which we can gain insight into our own society

Link

(via Geisha Asobi)

Originally posted by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing, ReBlogged by Rosanna Flouty on Feb 18, 2007 at 12:18 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on February 18, 2007, 11:18am

Cory Doctorow:

Walt Disney’s “The Story of One of ‘Hitler’s Children’” is a vintage anti-Nazi propaganda toon that inflames your sense of justice by showing how an innocent German baby could be twisted into a goose-stepping fascist by the machinery of the Reich.

Link

(Thanks, Alf!)

Originally posted by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing, ReBlogged by Rosanna Flouty on Feb 18, 2007 at 12:18 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on February 18, 2007, 11:18am

Ecoboulevard of Vallecas near Madrid, designed by [ecosistema urbano].

Each one of the 3 “air trees” is 20 meters in diametre. The first air tree is built as a column of air, the inside is covered with vegetation. The second air tree will be covered by plants both on the inside and the outside. The last one will be wearing a similar green cover but its inside will become a huge screen for videos, there will be seats to host the audience and a big canopy to protect them from the sun and the rain.

Each air tree is easy to assemble and move to other locations and it consumes only the energy it creates thanks to the use of photovoltaic technology. A system of evaporation and condensation provides the air conditioning and ensures that throughout hot Spanish summers the inside of the building is 8 to 10 grades cooler than the outside.

Via Domus. MorfoLL has loads of images, Fresh Madrid has renderings and there’s an interview of the architects on rospotline.

Originally posted by Regine from we make money not art, ReBlogged by Rosanna Flouty on Feb 17, 2007 at 12:52 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on February 17, 2007, 11:52am

It doesn’t look like much in this picture (although I am not much of a photographer) but this mix of old brick, old reclaimed douglas fir wood and new siding is another innovative and important social housing building by Levitt Goodman Architects, known to TreeHuggers for their flying prefab and their vermicondo. It is not in the prettiest part of Toronto either, and fits right in, as it is supposed to.

The former city works yard is now a homeless shelter and transitional housing; the part of the building shown here is composed ot 20 one-room 16 foot square rooms with small bathrooms, wrapping around a large courtyard. Originally conceived as a prefab, it turned out to be more economical to build on site, as is often proving to be the case.

Originally from TreeHugger, ReBlogged by Rosanna Flouty on Feb 17, 2007 at 12:50 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on February 17, 2007, 11:50am

Originally posted by salrio from del.icio.us/tag/art, ReBlogged by Rosanna Flouty on Feb 17, 2007 at 12:45 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on February 17, 2007, 11:45am

AP - Webbed feet run in Stumpy’s family, but a rare mutation has left the eight-day-old duckling with two nearly full-sized legs behind the two he runs on.

“It was absolutely bizarre. I was thinking ‘he’s got too many legs’ and I kept counting ‘one, two, three, four,’” Janaway said.

Originally from Yahoo! News: Odd News, ReBlogged by Rosanna Flouty on Feb 18, 2007 at 12:28 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on February 18, 2007, 11:28am

The Thai architect and product designer Singh Intrachooto has created a beautiful series of furniture using scraps of teak wood. The wood is sourced from reclaimed trees uprooted to build roads and from off cuts of wood left over from Intrachooto’s architectural projects. His company Osisu Design launched three collections last year called Lini, Lami and Tilee. The two pieces shown above illustrate how different off cuts are used in different ways to influence the form and pattern of the furniture. The Chairwalker, from the Lini collection, uses off cut strips, while the seat of the TT bench, from the Tilee collection, is made from the smallest off cuts, showing how even the tiniest pieces can be reused. In an interview with Three Layer Cake last year Singh Intrachooto talked about his commitment to environmentally concious design, but also expressed the challenges he faces in his work:

Originally from TreeHugger, ReBlogged by Rosanna Flouty on Feb 18, 2007 at 12:20 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on February 18, 2007, 11:20am

Originally from Pruned on February 18, 2007, 12:20pm

Originally from Pruned on February 18, 2007, 12:20pm

Pirate Bay is a long running Swedish hosted file-sharing server that seems to be run by kids whose parents were skate-brats and copyright lawyers. They’ve publically and amusingly scoffed at legal letters sent to them by U.S. based entertainment companies, and continued to host torrent files for all types of media. Not remotely shy when it comes to entering public debates about copyright and file-sharing, they’ve recently gained news attention for another reason - their desire to purchase a nation, preferably a small island, where they want to host their files under their own national laws. First choice was Sealand, the famous oil-rig as nation off the coast of the UK, and is still under negotiation apparently though expected to be too expensive. See www.micronations.net for a full list of alternatives on offer. ( Includes a page to Start-Your-Own-Nation!! ) Related : Craziness off the coast of Dubai, where a map of the world is being built as a series of islands ( amongst other mega-construction projects ).

Tags: sealand, pirate bay, micronations, dubai

Originally by jean poole from { { { { - - Sky Noise — >>> on February 16, 2007, 11:06pm

Originally from Tinselman on February 16, 2007, 5:34pm