Self-Healing Paint Is Full of Magical Tiny Caulk Crystals [The Future Is Here]
The paint is unfortunately too rough to be used to stop those darn kids from keying your car because you won't give them their frisbee back. It contains tons of tiny microcapsules of two types: one with polymer building blocks and the other with a catalyst. The capsules themselves are made of polyurethane to keep the chemicals isolated, and can be used in all kinds of paints, but each microcapsule is about 10 to 100 micrometers in diameter, which leaves the paint containing them rough to the touch and not suitable for locations where aesthetics are important.
When the paint is scratched, the microcapsules burst and spill out their chemical guts, which combine to form a material called siloxane, which the inventor describes as similar to bathroom caulk. This siloxane fills in the crack that created it, and thus we have self-healing paint. Its potential uses are widespread, from airplane wings (to stop fractures) to buildings and bridges. The paint is apparently ready to go commercial right now, and the inventors are just ironing out the financial details. They expect it to come to market in under four months. [Technology Review, photo credit: Paul Braun]
Photographer Syl Arena created an impressive array of twelve strobes to help him take ultra-clear high speed shots, and possibly to incite God's wrath by one-upping the sun.
The Thanko MP4 watch lets me tell time and take compromising photos or video of coworkers at the office Christmas party? SOLD!
And, does it all without the usual stigma that affects these kinds of devices—utter butt-ugliness. It's a bit bulky, to be sure, but thanks to some solid Japanese ingenuity it's finally something I feel confident bringing into public for another of my infamous "photos of things you can never take back" field assignments.
As for the specs, the MP4 sports a 1.8-inch color screen (160x128), supports MP3 and WPA, WMA audio, and can display JPG or text files. A video camera mode recordsin 352x288, while the photo mode is 640x480. [
We only just learned about the HDMI upgrade to the Asus Eee Box line with the 
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Your holiday shopping budget may be smaller than usual this year, but that doesn't mean you can't afford great gifts for your friends and family. You just have to know where to look.
Free, high-end image editor SUMO Paint is a fairly impressive clone of Photoshop's major features inside a browser window, for those who want more precision and tools than offered in most free Flash-based image editors.
Ecofont is the brainchild of Colin Willems, a font with tiny circles placed within the characters to reduce the total ink/toner laid upon the paper. Much like you can purchase pocket knives with skeletonized handles to reduce weight, Ecofont reduces the volume of printing supplies consumed.
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