Thanks in part to dystopian sci-fi films that depict a world overrun by technology and devoid of natural elements, many people think that technology and the “green” world are at conflict.
Realistically though, responsible applications of modern technology could be greatly beneficial in helping nature, much as it has helped humans. For a great example look no further than the organization Back to the Roots who are constantly looking for new ways to help both individual users and companies like Whole Foods minimize their environmental impacts with products like a kit that can take coffee grounds and grow fresh mushrooms from them.
However, their most intriguing product is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, and it’s called the Home Aquaponics Kit. Basically it’s a fish tank with a small growing area atop for potted plants. The tank automatically filters the fish feces to the plants above to provide them with necessary nutrients needed for them to grow fuller. In essence then, you are getting a self cleaning fish tank that doubles as a personal home garden in one package.
As you’ve probably heard from that celebrity everybody wishes would shut up, or that activist girl you acted interested in for a while until you got…uninterested, we can all be doing more for the environment. The Home Aquaponics Kit not only allows you to contribute a little more green to your world, but if you’ve never cooked with truly fresh herbs, it lets you discover the flavors you have been missing.
It’s currently a $50 minimum contribution on Kickstarter to buy one of the Aquaponics (assuming the funding goal is reached), and for the urban gardener, fish enthusiast, or someone looking to just class up their apartment a little, it may prove to be worth it.
Congratulations to the re-elected president Obama, as yesterday after a long campaign you and your team claimed victory and will lead this country again in the next four years.
Or, as the great Homer Simpson put it, you could “…walk up to the President and blow smoke in his stupid face and he’d just have to sit there groovin on it”
With that in mind, if you live in one of the recently impacted states, it may be time to consider the an upgrade to your smoking equipment in celebration. After all, now that you don’t have to shame hide your pieces in old socks, or cupboards any more, it may be time to add a little more class to your glass. To help you, here is a quick rundown of the best paraphernalia on the market.
Water Bong
The centerpiece of any respectable collection is a good bong. Many smokers own one with a variety of “trippy” colors, a funky name, a few fun stories, and maybe a skull or two. However, there are few brand names that serious smokers swear by, and among them the best may be Sovereignty Glass. Of that particular collection, the jewel in the crown would be the Peyote Pillar Perc.
This 19 inch beauty is made of some of the finest glass work available in this particular field. However, unlike other flashier models, it isn’t meant to impress just by looks alone, but rather with its functionality. Sporting a multi chamber base, you can load the bong with more smoke than any other model, while producing a cleaner pull than you ever felt possible. It is a model of dangerous design and efficiency and is the absolute head of its class in every measurable way. As a testament to its quality, it retails for a hefty $1,200 and is regularly sold out.
Pipe
Ideally a pipe is going to be your on the go piece, or similar option. As such, you don’t have to invest as much in it, and there are a variety of ways to go. Since so many pipes are of good quality, don’t be afraid to go for a little more style, or something that reflects your personality.
Or, if you want a really cool and extremely practical option, just go with the Monkey Pipe. A handy little wood model, the Monkey Pipe is extremely portable in its native form, is easy to maintain, looks cool, and is still very reliable. Now that residents of Colorado and Washington will be able to smoke freely in the great outdoors, a Monkey Pipe is a perfect solution for smoking on the go.
Vaporizer
A more modern solution to smoking, there is no substitute for the vaporizer. The unit heats up to a high degree and evenly burns your marijuana with minimal effort and maximum effect. Even better, it produces virtually no smoke and is kinder for your lungs. Every smoker must own one.
But which to buy? For years the answer was, without argument, the Volcano. While it is still a great way to go, I must recommend the Exteme Q vaporizer from Arizer. It’s cheaper than the more popular Volcano, has memory settings for temperature, comes with a remote, and unlike the Volcano has traditional hose as well as a bag option for your toking pleasure. Wrap it up in a well designed package, and for an even $239.00 you’ve got the only home piece you’ll ever truly need.
Grinder
If you’re new to the smoking game, you may underestimate the value of a good grinder, but you do so at your own peril. It crushes and breaks up your marijuana in an instant, and not owning one is the equivalent of peeling all of the potatoes you will eat for the rest of your life by hand, and not using a peeler.
You’ll be wanting the best then, so you’ll be wanting a four piece Space grinder. It’s output consistency is impeccable, its durability is unquestionable, it features magnetized top seal, and has a mesh screen for collecting that most potent of smokeables, crystallized kief. There’s no going back from one of these, but considering how well they work, that’s a good thing
Snack
Not technically an accessory, definitely not a gadget, but without a doubt a necessity. There are an impossible number of ways to go for snacking, from the bag of chips, to cookies and candy. However for something salty, sweet, creamy, and satisfying it’s hard to argue against Ben and Jerry’s “Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Snack” ice cream.
It’s vanilla bean ice cream with a salty caramel swirl and fudge covered potato chips, as well as evidence, besides the recent de-criminalization acts, that smoking has definitely planted roots in the mainstream.
The iPad mini was recently unveiled to the shock of few, but certainly the delight of many of the Apple faithful who, with outstretched arms and open wallets, welcomed the new 7.9 inch tablet into the world. It is beautiful, it is fast, and it is currently so hot that the surface of the sun is considering releasing a sex tape to stay relevant.
It also represents one of the biggest Apple missteps in years.
Now, let me make this clear. I love the iPhone 5 (though I prefer the Galaxy S3 in many respects), I would trade limbs for the any of the upcoming MacBook line, and I think that the iPad 3 and it’s mind blowing retina display is without competition the best all-around gadget on the market, and possibly the company’s greatest release on a purely technical level. I certainly do not hate Apple, and instead love them for how they force everyone to step up their game.
And that’s why I am tremendously disappointed with the iPad Mini. Since the original Kindle Fire received a great deal of mockery initially for being viewed as a “can’t afford the iPad, might as well settle” device, the small tablet market has become its own niche, no longer defined by the functions of the iPad. This is particularly evident by the quality of the Google Nexus 7, a tablet that’s versatility far outshines any limitations it is supposed to have. It’s also an idea that’s being carried on by the news of the upcoming Kindle Fire HD, which at its full price model is as statistically impressive of a 7 inch model as we’ve seen.
It would have once been impossible to imagine that a small tablet released by Apple wouldn’t storm a market set up to defy it like a bully on a fresh playground. Instead the visual we are left with after its initial unveiling is a timid child approaching with a drooping baseball cap feebly mumbling, “Hey guys…can I play?”
You can view the statistics and figures of the iPad Mini compared to its main competitors, and you’ll find that it is pretty much even, slightly better, or slightly worse in all fields. I like the super slim size and light weight of it to be sure, and of course appreciate its typical Apple beauty, but there is no one spec that jumps out at you as truly jaw dropping, or even noteworthy. Well, besides the price, which runs from $329 for the base model 16 GB with WiFi up to a 64 GB model with LTE capabilities for $659. This is compared to the Fire HD which is $199 for the 16 GB model, and the Nexus 7 which goes for $199 for and 8 GB and $249 for the 16 GB.
Now, you could justify the price of the iPad mini if it was indeed the top of the line, “Rolls-Royce” of 7-inch tablets. However, you just don’t get that vibe from the early word about the mini. The positives so far talk about what a great e-reader it is, its ultra slim design, and of course the benefit of the Apple app market which is far and away deeper than the Android market, and has apps designed more for a tablet in mind which Android is lagging on. That last point has been a the major defense of Apple since the announcement of the mini, as they have been feverishly supporting their price point to many different sources, with the main idea being that what you’re really buying here is the Apple brand and everything that comes with it, more than a product that can be easily defined by numbers.
But the question for consumers must be is that really still worth it? Can you justify using the word investment on what is still essentially a first gen product, that will no doubt be outstripped by a new model next year for the benefits of the tablet specific apps, and the Apple brand? Apple is touting that the mini is not a reduced and instead a condensed form of the regular iPad, but ironically in a market once created as a smaller alternative to the iPad comes an actual smaller iPad that finds itself in a field where that is no longer enough. The Google Nexus 7 was a game changer for 7 inch tablets as it proved that you don’t have to compromise for a smaller size, and that a cheaper tablet can perform on a high level for a reasonable price, with features and qualities unique to its model. It’s hard to say the same for the iPad mini which still looks and feels like a smaller iPad, but not a 7 inch iPad of its own.
In times gone by Apple would not have put up with competition in its domain and would have unequivocally released the 7 inch tablets to end all 7 inch tablets. While the iPad mini looks like a more than competent device that will no doubt perform at a high level, for the first time in a long time consumers have viable options to choose from when facing the prospect of going against an Apple device.
The only question is, will they test these new waters in mass, or blindly take the worm like the good little fishes Apple seems to think they are?
Today on this gadget blog designed to bring you all things exciting and hi-tech, I bring you plants.
What’s that you say? Plants aren’t hi-tech and are barely exciting? Well, on any other day about any other plant, you may have a point. These plants, however, were designed by students at Keio University in Tokyo to be just about the most exciting, and unique plants in existence. That’s because they are built with a series of LED lights, sensor modules, speakers, and good old fashioned programming that turn them into musical instruments.
Umm…..Not Quite.
Dubbed “Sound Gardening,” they’re designed for multiple users to experience at once. The plants are real, and respond to touch and movement to generate certain noises, music, and voices. Certain plants work together to create a melody, and when a series of proper sensors are activated, a bonus sound appropriate to the current melody is played. The technology that powers this invention is fairly impressive, yet oddly, according to one of the sound designers on the project, the most difficult part was actually getting the plants to sing. Along with voices being triggered by specific motions, the voice feature is also used to alert passerbys of the plant’s capabilities as it will whisper “Hey, over here” in Japanese after 30 seconds of inactivity.
The team behind this project imagines that it can be used as a group musical activity, but their main motivation behind it seemed to be as a creative outlet to allow them to work on something outside of the normal creative constrictions. In short, they wanted to have fun with this project, and they’ve already noticed how much fun others have when they try it as well. Being in nature is very relaxing in and of itself, and when you combine interactive social music in with that, you have a device that can produce sheer joy and pure imagination. In a world where technology seems to be aimed at making our lives more and more stressful, inventions like this that first look like mere novelties are sometimes more important than they appear.
At this point I thought we’d actually hit something of a peak in modern television performance. I mean there’s always the concepts out there for ultra-realistic 3D models or virtual reality type systems, but strictly speaking about traditional displays, and improving current technology, I look at my HDTV and think, “This is about as good as it gets, and I don’t think I need anything more.”
Sony’s hoping there aren’t too many people in the world like me, as they are aiming to put a TV on the market by the holidays that can only be described as excessive. Specifically, it’s an 80 inch LED TV that makes use of the new, better than 1080p, 4K Resolution that will serve as the flag bearer to Sony’s new XBR line. There’s no way to sugarcoat the price, as it will retail for a clean $30,000.
Now understand this. This TV cannot make you a sandwich, wisely invest your money (quite the opposite), take care of your pets while your away, or anything like that. In fact, the only thing that we know it can do so far is display a really pretty picture on a really big screen, that we can’t really comprehend because the only thing that can display a picture as clear as itself, is itself. Not only that, but Sharp is already working on an 8K TV that could debut even cheaper than this model.
Some have already pointed out that this model is actually cheaper than a previously announced 36 inch model by Eizo Nanao, and have gone back in time to remind us that the first plasma TVs debuted in 1997 for $35,000 and weren’t even capable of true HD. While that’s all very interesting, I hate to say that I don’t think the argument exists yet that will justify the purchase of a $30,000 TV that will be outdated by this time next year. Plus, I’m fairly certain that there isn’t much technology out there that can actually properly make use of this kind of display.
But hey, to be fair I’m not an early adopter, socially awkward type with a trust fund who I assume this TV is marketed at.
