Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Survival: Life Saver Portable Water Filter Cleans the Crap Out of Your Water...Literally

lifesaverbottle.jpgThe Life Saver water bottle is a military grade water sanitizer that can make the dirtiest of water drinkable in seconds. The bottle not only filters out bacteria, but also takes care viruses and water that has been contaminated by fecal matter. The creator, Michael Pritchard, initially came up with the idea after watching victims of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Tsunami in Asia go for days without receiving clean water. There are others, however, that are interested in Pritchard's invention.

After showing the bottle off at a defense conference in the UK, Pritchard sold all 1000 of his $385 bottles in under four hours. Defense experts were impressed with the fact that it could filter 4,000-6,000 liters before the filter had to be replaced. An innovation such as this could have a significant impact if it ever reached the consumer market, not only being used as emergency gear, but for camping and travel as well. [The Register]

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NYT: The Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Performance of New York Times Company (NYT) stock during the 5-year bull market:

Nyt5year

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Cellphones: Samsung WEP500 Quarter-Sized Bluetooth Headset Available Now

samsungwep500.jpgSamsung's just announced the availability of their tiny quarter-sized WEP500 Bluetooth headset for the US. It's definitely small—weighs less than 9 grams and is the size of about a quarter—but suffers in low battery life because of it. 3.5 hours talk time and 80 hours standby time isn't fantastic, but it does have 2 microphones and noise reduction, which still isn't standard in Bluetooth headsets for some reason. All this can be yours for $119, and an extra $119 when you lose the first one because it's so miniscule. [Samsung]

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Water: IBM to Monitor the Hudson River with Solar-Powered Underwater Vehicles

underthesea.pngIBM is gathering some goodwill points by partnering up with a nonprofit to help monitor a 315-mile stretch of the Hudson River. They're going to be using a combination of sensor-laden buoys and solar-powered robotic underwater vehicles numbering in the hundreds. The vehicle, which sort of looks like a yellow sting ray covered in solar panels, will monitor things like the rivers temperature, pressure and pH levels. With this info they hope to be able to analyze the amount of pollutants in the river and better asses the risk to marine life. First things first, change the solar vehicles' color from yellow to murky brown. That way it will blend in with the Hudson a little better. [TreeHugger]

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AT&T Brings Back Cingular Orange to "Mobilize" Brand

Augustine:  TRULY, TRULY unbelievable waste of money. Do they (or their agency) really think orange will help drive sales, get new customers, increase customer satisfaction? Why not simply bring call centers back from India, better train support staff, end anti-customer policies like "you lose all your roll-over minutes when you make any change to your plan, including adding a line" and let your customers tell others how super-great you are.

attoraaange.jpg

After spending an ungodly amount of money to kill Jack and mutate the Cingular brand into the "new AT&T," they've decided that Cingular's orange palette offered a "younger, edgier and more contemporary style—all attributes closely associated with wireless." But clearly not AT&T. So, they're rebranding. Again. Look for Death Stars set against the new "primary corporate color," orange, and a series of commercials directed by Wes Anderson coming your way as of—yesterday. Wow, I feel AT&T tickling my cutting edge sensibilities already. [AT&T via Broadband Reports]



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