Google Map Maker's "Map Your Precinct" For the May 10 Philippine Elections

Google invites Filipinos to "Map Your Precinct" on Google Map Maker by tagingg voting centers on the Philippines' online map 

This is aimed to help voters find their designated polling stations come Election Day - May 10, 2010


The "Map Your Precinct" campaign relies on the volunteer efforts of Filipinos who are encouraged to tag the locations of the voting centers they are familiar with on

Intermission

I'll get back to the music soon. Once I've actually listened to the albums I want to write about again, I'll give y'all some music to gawk at.

But first, hockey.

And first in hockey-related news, congratulations to the Kitchener Rangers, who shocked the entire OHL by not only beating the heavily-favoured London Knights, but by nearly knocking off the Windsor Spitfires in their year of destiny and coming within one game of the OHL finals.

Nobody expected the Rangers to even get past the first round of the playoffs at the beginning of the season, so this was a tremendous accomplishment. With Skinner, Maxwell, Murphy, Landiskog, and hopefully Morin all being back and another year older next year, Kitchener stands a great shot at returning to the Memorial Cup in 2011.

For more on the Rangers, today's Record has a solid special section.

Now on to the pros. I found myself watching quite a bit of the first round, because well how couldn't I? My on-again off-again favourite team (Colorado) nearly toppling an overwhelming favourite, some Canadian teams looking good, and exciting hockey even when I didn't really care about either team.

But now? It's very hard to get into the second round (which started last night), because I can't even pretend to have a rooting interest.

Proof? Let's start in the west. Can't cheer for San Jose, because they beat Colorado. Problem is that they're against Detroit, and no self-respecting Avs fan would ever support Detroit. The other series has a Canadian team at least, but Vancouver has long been my least-favourite Canadian team, because I find them too uppity (and I've never liked Ryan Kesler). Chicago's okay, I guess, but "okay, I guess" isn't enough to get me interested.

Out east, you've got Pittsburgh against Montreal. For a while there, I thought the Habs were going to become my new favourite team--starting with my trip to the Bell Centre and carrying through. But then they brought up PK Subban from the farm, and the Kitchener fan in me can never forgive him for the 2008 OHL Finals. Subban being around was enough to single-handedly destroy any interest I had in the Montreal Canadiens. Pittsburgh's a safe bet, but I find it hard to cheer for a winner...possibly I like underdogs, possibly I just don't like being accused of bandwagoning, but I'm not going to start cheering for a team the year after they won a Cup.

Boston doesn't particularly stand out to me other than that I dislike Zdeno Chara. I've never liked Philly, going back to the days of Eric Lindros, but they do have Michael Richards, which is more than anybody else has going for them among teams remaining in the hunt.

So, um, go Flyers. And go exciting hockey, since that's the only way I'll be watching.

--Ryan

Homemade Lamborghini by Chen Jinmiao

We know that Lamborghini is one of the most expensive car manufacturer. when we can't afford to buy the real Lamborghini car so why don't we make our own Lamborghini? look at Chen Jinmiao. he has a dream to own a Lamborghini car since he was a kid and now he made his own homemade Lamborghini car.

Chen had dreamed of driving his very own Lamborghini, ever since he was a child. And when he became a skilled mechanic, this ambitious man decided it was time for his dream to become a reality. He downloaded the necessary blueprints, began searching and manufacturing the parts , and after a year’s work, he finally had his own yellow Lamborghini.

Chen Jinmiao, of Chenzhou, Hunan province, spent a total of about $3,000 on his home-made Lamborghini, and though it might not look exactly like the real thing, it has the wing doors that open upwards, and a top speed of 60 miles per hour

Malaysia LED Products is expected to Increased 20% This Year

PENANG, April 27 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's export of Light Emitting Diode (LED) products is expected to increase by 20 per cent this year, compared to 12 per cent in 2009.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said last year, the export of LED products amounted RM1.81 billion, an increase of 12 per cent from 2008.
"We are confident that the export of LED products will increase this year following the improving economic conditions," he told reporters, after the opening of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd's LED Wafer Fabrication Plant here Tuesday.
He said the LED products are mainly exported to Japan, the United States, Singapore, Germany and Taiwan.
In his speech, Mustapa said Osram Penang had been manufacturing LEDs for worldwide distribution, for more than 20 years.
He added that it had at present, the world's most advanced LED chip factory.
"This new wafer fabrication facility is operating in addition to the main plant in Regensburg, Germany, to manufacture LED chips using state-of-the-art nitride technology and meeting growing demand from high-volume lighting and consumer applications.
"With this expansion, it also becomes the first wafer fabrication plant for LEDs in Malaysia," he said.
The facility is also the company's first ever LED chip plant in Asia and currently, the most modern in the world.
The production facility in Penang also makes Osram Opto Semiconductors the first LED manufacturer with high-volume chip production facilities both in Europe and Asia.
-- BERNAMA

PS
Today is the Opening Ceremony of Osram Opto Semiconductor in Penang. Though I was invited but due to my current assignment, I could not go and thus I miss seeing a lot of old friends in Penang.

The Smallest Man in The World He Pingping

The Smallest man in the world which is listed on the Guinness Book of records was He Pingping.He Pingping, of China, who was 2 feet, 5.37 inches (74.6 centimeters) tall, had become a recognized figure across the world, often taking part in shows, photo shoots and other events, Guinness World Records said. If he pingping was listed as the World Smallest and Shortest man so he have to meet The World Tallest Man from China Zhao Liang.

Born in Inner Mongolia in July 1988, the size of 74.61 inches was due to osteogenesis imperfecta, a disease that has abruptly stopped its growth, from an early age. His status as “the smallest in the world” had made an international celebrity, traveling the world, loud and clear on the colors of his country of origin. The editor of Guinness World Records, Craig Glenday, said in tribute: “For a small man, he had a huge impact on the world.”

He Pingping, the world's shortest man, has died at the age of 21, AFP reports. Pingping was 2 feet, 5 inches tall. His death was announced by the a spokesman for the Guinness World records.

Pingping was filming a TV program called "The Record Show" in Italy when he developed chest problems, according to reports.

Born in China with a form of primordial dwarfism, Pingping was recognized as the world's shortest man in 2008.

"For such a small man, he made a huge impact around the world," Guinness World Records editor-in-chief Craig Glenday said, according to the BBC.

Spring 2010 music roundup (Part I)

Yeah, I could probably listen to Random Spirit Lover and The '59 Sound and Merriweather Post Pavilion for the rest of my life, but sometimes it's worth trying something new.

I'm breaking down my latest batch of album reviews--since I haven't talked about music yet in 2010--into two parts. First off, we get the stuff that hasn't officially been released yet, but has somehow made its way onto the Internet. Three albums fit this category, here they are:

Frog Eyes - Paul's Tomb: A Triumph
Release: April 26

The thing about Frog Eyes is this: for most people, good music doesn't startle. For most people, when listening to music, you want to be able to forget about it if something more interesting comes across your screen or into the room. If you're listening to any Frog Eyes, you can't do this--suddenly, Casey Mercer will start whooping "I KNOW WHAT SHE SAID AND THE WITCH HEARD WHAT SHE SAID TOO", and your attention will be back on the music.

In short, they are not an accessible band. They're not as out-there musically as you might think from what I've written this far, but they're not exactly normal either. Which is why Paul's Tomb is kind of neat. The crazy vocals are still there, but not quite as prominent, and the instrumentation has been given more prominence, leading to a sound that's less "insane singer with keyboards" and more "band with insane singer".

It's a little heavy on the indie rock epic side of things, three songs clock in at over seven minutes, and they all tend to drag a bit (unlike Mercer's Swan Lake collaborators, who seem able to pull the long songs off in their other projects). One plus is that the short-burst-of-noise songs are much less abundant than in the past--only one song under 2:10 on this album, while a previous offering, The Golden River, had four--these quickies are some of Mercer's best work, but they've been overused horrendously in the past.

I can't say much about specific tracks because, well, it all sounds somewhat the same to me. It's Casey Mercer whooping (not my word, but easily the best descriptor of his vocal stylings) over crashing keyboards and drums and sometimes guitars. The lyrics are usually unintelligible--not in a bad way, but in a way that makes it difficult to remember any song a few hours later.

The inclusion of "Lear, In The Park", an instrumental track, works, mainly because of the hauntingly familiar riff.

Overall, a good album. Noticeably less crazy than the early stuff, but the trade-off is that it's more accessible.

The New Pornographers - Together
Release: May 4

Finally! The band that got me out of purely classic rock and into more modern music have released their follow-up to 2007's Challengers, an album which got poor reviews only because it was being compared to the rest of the NP's discography.

Together is a clear effort to appease those who felt Challengers was a castrated version of a New Pornographers album, shorn of any power pop sensibilities. At last, every song says, this is the energetic band you remember, despite occasional callbacks to the last album such as "Up In The Dark".

To some extent, it works. Only two tracks in, "Crash Years" provides the first absolutely-amazing hook on par with anything from Twin Cinema (and it's whistled, which I believe is a first for the group). "Your Hands (Together)" is up there with the band's other beloved anthemic songs. I loved the Dan Bejar tracks, "Silver Jenny Dollar" in particular, right away, but he's generally my favourite part of any NPs album on first listen.

But overall, something still seems amiss. The harmonies are as strong as ever, the vocals are distinct and spectacular, the instruments are heavier and far more energetic than on Challengers, instrumentation is being given more attention than ever...but something's still not quite right. I can't point to any specific examples of this, but the lyrics feel a little more reflective than they were in the band's best years. The words still make as little real sense as they did when I called attention to that last year, but somehow they seem less involved, more observational than active and participatory.

(Reading that paragraph again, could I be any more of an annoying elitist snob?)

"Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" is a real gem, and a song I could see getting actual radio airplay, something that has generally eluded the New Pornographers through their history. "Valkyrie In The Roller Disco" is a neat track to highlight the back half of the album, and something a bit different from anything this band has ever done before (well, they've done ballads, but...). "Daughter of Sorrow" is another catchy tune, and sounds much more like a Newman composition even though I assume it's a Bejar song, as he's on lead vocals.

It's been said that there's one track on a previous album that gives you an idea of the direction for the new one--for example, "Streets of Fire" off Twin Cinema was the precursor to Challengers--and if that's the case, "Mutiny, I Promise You" is perhaps the best indicator of what to expect from Together.

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
Release: June 15

This one leaked early.

It's a bit of a cop-out here, because pretty much everybody is banking on this being Gaslight's breakthrough album that turns them into legitimate mainstream rock stars. This album should accomplish that.

The '59 Sound was awesome, but it only achieved limited success because it sounded more like what you'd hear on a classic rock radio station than on a newer-skewing format. American Slang retains the distinct vocals and guitars that Gaslight have become known for, but eschews the older influences in favour of a more upbeat album that sounds much more palatable to today's audiences.

The catchy hooks are still around, starting with "Stay Lucky" and going right through the album. It's also nice to see some oft-repeated phrases like "the cool" sticking around.

One opinion on the album I've seen is "oh, they became Kings of Leon"--which isn't really that far from the truth. Gaslight has gone from their Springsteen-esque retro anthems to songs you could easily see filling a stadium.

"Bring It On" could easily be a hit, with "Old Haunts" as a followup, while "Orphans" is a nice callback to the band's past sound.

To me, this seems like the album that will finally catch on with the mainstream and turn The Gaslight Anthem into bona fide superstars. Right now, it's my least favourite of their three albums, but like the others, I imagine it'll grow on me over time.

At the moment, though, I'm disappointed. It's a generic rock album, a bit better than average, but it doesn't have the unique amazingness that I found in The '59 Sound and even Sink or Swim to an extent. If this is what they've been building to, I'm not sure I like the new direction.

--Ryan

China LED Street Lamp vision and market development 2009-2012 (十城万盏)

Overview
2009 is China’s entry point for LED development, LED adoption and early experimental volume manufacturing. From what we can see the support of China Government as a national policy as to push for LED implementation nation wide, China is well aware that by year 2020, it will be the World No.1 Consumption of crude oil and energy consumption in the world. There is a need for China to adapt the new technology in order to save the energy and to reduce emission.
National Energy Resource policy
Being a developing country, we need to have along term vision in preservation on the energy resource as national policy. Or there will be no competitive edge of manufacturing cost amongst all countries in the world as China will be forced to import oil of mega tons. Though we can not see many solid encouragement plans, minute implementation road map nor advice to the industry enterprisers from Beijing government on how to go for LED, we can see that this is an essential topic in all kind of energy consortiums and LED seminars nation wide as part of the preliminary promotion approach and direction. 2009 Will be an early step into the LED era and this is an experimental prelude for electronics industry to migrate into the LED industry.
Street Lighting in China
China has issued ordinance and recommendation for street lamp implementation as part of the national energy campaign so called “ 十城万盏” “Ten City Ten Thousand Lamp” for the year 2009. LED is one of the biggest topics amongst the Green industry. Solar by Silicon has been blamed for his huge electrical and water consumption during the manufacturing process and this has been going into a cold down stage before next move. I have visited a lot of factories in the China, many of them involve whole LED line manufacturing from Chip to lighting modules, building their own LED tubes, Illumination lamps, direct replacement for the CFL tubes and Light Modules.
Replacement for CFL tubes
There is direct replacement built with High Power LED with SMD solder reflow onto the main board. Most of the Sothern region has been building LED replacement CFL tubes in the past 5 years though in small scale at an experimental and research level, however, more and more people with solid experience in Lighting and electronics industry followers and expert transference from some of the Taiwanese LED factories will establish new factories in the Northern Region of China.
Obstacles
However there are a lot of road block :
1. Lack of standardization on the Lighting specification and hard to buy off.
2. First installation price is still High for the end users, especially to short-termism.
3. Reliability in large scale road installation is still a query.
4. Fog penetration and lighting coverage is still a challenge.
5. Internal competition on CFL product, the CFL supplier is also some of the LED makers.
6. Manufacturing Process is yet mature for Hi Power LED manufacturing. We understand that only one company* has such kind of process capability to build Hi Power LED using new technology in a full line solution provider.
7. This is still hard for the building construction and lighting firm to use the LED to replace traditional Incandescent lightings in a large scale.
A lot of LED, LED display billboards can be seen in Shanghai EXPO, despite, a lot of Government exhibitor of China still using the awful incandescent lamp in many of the interior lighting designs. Is it a bit ironic to the Government?
Through 2008 Olympia games, 2009 60th National Celebration and Shanghai Expo; LED has been revealed and this is in fact a very effective promotion for LED itself to all the public.
Competition
There are a lot of price and technology competitors in the LED makers in China, after years of Copy cat production, we have seen hundreds of K2 LED makers in the market, and their price is just faction of the original K2 of Lumields. Apparently they look the same, they function the same, but they might not perform the same. Who know who can sustain the light performance over the next 50,000 hours!? In such market environment, Lumileds has to drop K2 production.
In many of the LED applications, low quality copy cat K2 were being used, after a few thousand hours, some of the LEDs did not light up at all or went dim due to premature aging before the life cycle is terminated.. Partly due to the failure of external electronics circuitry, but most of the failure is the using of low quality LEDs why has bad heat dissipation capacity.
Some of the European installation such as the Dutch City halls has to replace them again after two years of usage as many of them fail to light up. Hong Kong MTR Airport Express interior LED illumination has almost 10% failure on those 5 mm Vertical LEDs in side the light modules this gives bad impression on the LED and hardly persuades the end customers to use LED widely.
IC manufacturer
Many large IC manufacturers are interested converting their exiting wafer equipment to run LED. As partly they are so keen to go into this profitable market and on their other hand IC seems not going to experience such a high growth rate as LED in coming 5 years.
Shortage of Manpower
Insufficient technical support in the LED factories, we have seen a lot of small factories is in fact running by merely 1-2 people who has been either previously working from some of the bigger LED firm and they had hard time to find the right people for LED production line maintenance, There is difficulty to find the right people, who understands the manufacturing process of LED. There is no way to run a factory without proper skillful technician.
Remuneration for engineers
There are a lot of head hunting activities in these hot LED market in China. Some of the technicians are offered for RMB$10,000 a month in some of the North East Region, some of the middle manager’s salary is in the range of RMB$20,000-50,000 per month if they are capability to manage the LED manufacturing house. This will drive the market to short term instability as the high labour cost will lose out come of the competitiveness for the LED Company to the large LED houses.
Taiwan technology transfer
There are a few Taiwanese commonly has been announced plan to invest and run company with the local China factories, partly the Taiwanese as quid pro quo with local labor resources and cost benefit in China. China will be likely to take this as a learning process on the Taiwan LED manufacturing technology. Taiwanese LED makers are good at vertical integration. This is because they have been the strongest on LED manufacturing since the 80’s. The have all the experience in bonding process, equipment selection, process control and material vertical integration and staff management.
However under this relation, the China side may take a few years time to pick up the process know-how, Chip knowledge and manufacturing experience on LED from The Taiwanese.
Understand oneself
To understand one’s capacity is the prime factor to win the market, China LED factory should understand themselves on their level of technology capability. They are the third tier of the technology. The Western world has been dominating the technology and they have earned good reputation on LED as a branding. Their LED is being used as industrial standard. European and American LED are enjoying the highest selling price through stable quality and good reliability. However, this technology will sooner be coming less prominent after a few years and there are more and more Taiwanese and Chinese Companies would, on their other hand, with the maturity of the bonder equipment, and the total solution where company* is selling to the LED makers, the company can slowly developing their own recipes in the LED manufacturing with best cost performance in order to survive and to make profit.
Major Investment in China
Epistar and Liteon will set-up a new production line in Chang Zhou for LED assembly.
UMC will start a LED assembly factory in Shan Dong, with initial investment of USD$1.6M, the first installation will be some MOCVDs.
2010 vision
The technology maturity and scale of the vertical integration would drive the price of LED lower and such continuous move will push LED into an enormous market in 2010.
From what we can see that 2010 will be the having 300% growth as comparing with 2009, all the front and back equipment supplier shipment indicates that the market is very hot in 2009, Those Big Company like Aixtrons and Veeco who representing the unsurpassed leading quality equipment in front is working out way to increase their capacity to meet the new equipment demand.
Internal Competition.
With the ASP drop of 15% a year, more billion dollar investment multinational company announced to invest on LED in China, inevitably more competition will force the collaboration of smaller individual or smaller scale manufacturers to merge to further invest in order to survive in such harsh price competition. If there is no technology differentiation amongst those smaller companies, or there is not sufficient scale in vertical integration nevertheless, this will be soon be eliminated at the price war. However this only will happen after a few years when there is more or less a full picture of the LED market, price and players are stabilized.
CFL Supplier
The LED manufacturing cost reduction programme in order to debut themselves as leader in CFL and LED as well in the world wide market. On the other hand CFL is improving their performance. The mercury contamination of a CFL would contaminate tons of water at the end of the tubes. This will push the LED to be a prominent replacement for CFL as faster speed. Philips and Osram as the World’s largest CFL suppler will not hand off on the producing the best reliable, powerful LED at a reasonable competitive price for the market. In order to differentiate their cost advantage over the China Supplier. Being manufacturing in Malaysia, they might have to plan for serious cost reduction, adoption of new manufacturing Process, working with world leading LED equipment manufacturer for special powerful LED manufacturing Equipment.
Supplier performance on their 6” wafer will becoming dominant in the wafer epitaxial growth, There will be a lot of impact on the challenge on the LED sorter equipment.
Technology support
China Will remain the world largest LED manufacturing centre Tomorrow as it is today.
There is a need for government support in the research and development of LED.
There should have certain Optoelectronics and LED courses in Universities and technical institutes of China.
Ten Cities and Ten Thousand LED lamps
There are 222,000 LED Lamps installed in 2009, and there will be 1120,000 street lamps in 2010 and 2011. the Number is VERY small in the Cities of China but we can see there is a Tremendous Growth 500%... This is a index for us to work into these LED market. The Only concern is if we have the right food chain in supporting this kind of growth Rate.
Attached the Cities plan for the LED street lamp installation, being the first LED City Tian Jin was overtaken by Wei Feng in Shan Dong by number of installation. Wei Feng is the World Famous Kite City as the world Kite Competition is held in Wei Feng every April. 
Vision for LED market 2010-2012
The market will continue to be hot as we are in the last Quarter 2009 and Q1 2010.
Back light will be the major contribution. The next hot driver for LED is the street lighting and indoor illumination lighting. We would see that there will take time for China to establish this market momentum, viewing that The major players in the world is investing huge amount of money in the factory set-up in China. This will create certain chain actions to lead and bring the local manufacturers to participate.
The year 2010 will be another years, more LED products will be found in the shelves in Supermarket. More people will be alert of the benefit of using LED in money saving and reduction of emission. The Whole life cycle would be speed up at, ASP will drop more abruptly. Bigger investment plan would be seen in China for LED manufacturers.

Feverip

PS
* denotes the World Largest Semiconductor Equipment Supplier : ASM assembly Automation LTD. Located in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Luxurious House of Robert Mugabe in Harare

This Luxurious House was belong to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, this mansion was located in Harare. this might be one of the most luxurious house in Africa. at the first sight people will think that the one who own this luxurious house should be an American billionaire, or even a prince of Saudi. but this luxurious mansion was belong to Zimbabwe president. Robert Mugabe.

How could Robert Mugabe live on this luxurious house while his people starve, and die because of no medical help.... and we are asked to help his people over and over again he and his family live like this??

Here's the Picture of Robert Mugabe Luxurious Mansion in Harare.















We got this content from a forwarded email on our inbox mail.

Apple Updates MacBook With LED-Backlit Display and More

Rumors are buzzing around that Apple will updated its popular MacBook® again, soon.
But before that  happens, let's take a look back at its latest enhancements late last year. The Macbook was upgraded with durable polycarbonate unibody design with a glass Multi-Touch™ trackpad, a brilliant LED-backlit display,and Apple’s 7-hour built-in battery.

The then new MacBook served an ideal consumer

Amazing Stunt of Li Dasheng Pull a Car with Eyelids

This Chinese Stuntman do the most extreme stunts by pulling a 1.5 tons car with his own eyelid. how come li dasheing pull those car by his eyelids?? Li Dasheng is known as one of the greatest Chinese performers. He's amazing stunt by pulling a car with his eyelids really amaze me.

Known as the “Prince of Stunts” , 22-year-old Li Dasheng is famous for being able to perform over 30 kinds of Qigong, an ancient Chinese meditation art, as well as several other stunts. On April 16, he shocked the audience, outside the Boying Art Museum, in Xuzhou, China, when he pulled a vehicle, with his eyelids.

The Chinese performer put 2 curved hooks, onto his lower eyelids, and attached them to the frame of the 1.5-ton-heavy car. He managed to pull the vehicle nearly three meters.

Some of Li Dasheng’s previous include having a drilling machine drill into his temple and ripping apart a metal basin, with his bare hands. well there's so many great stunt performed by a chinese people such as the stunt performed by Xiao Qinglian.

Here's another picture of Li Dasheng the owner of the World Strongest Eyelids.

Bloody Fountain in Bucharest

This Bloody Red Water Fountain was located in Bucharest Romania, this colored water fountain was make due to the increasing hemophilia case in that country. Hemophilia is a serious condition,and over 2,000 Romanians suffer from it. To draw some attention to the hardships the 2,000 Romanians suffering from this disease, have to go through every day, the Romanian Association for the Problems of Hemophilia colored the water fountains, in the center of Bucharest, bloody red.

Passers-by did in fact notice the red water flowing in the fountains, but it’s going to take a lot more than this to inspire them to help hemophilia victims.

Here's the Bloody Red Water Fountain for Hemophilia Victims in Bucharest Romania.

Scientific proof that I am not a jerk

(For once, the subject title is surprisingly close to the content of the post.)

A few months ago, I received a letter.

I didn't think much of it at first, but after a few days I realized that it was the background information--not the parts which were important to the sender--that were interesting.

You see, I was born with congenital cataracts (cataracts that developed while I was still a fetus). I have only the vaguest recollection of this, but according to the letter, I was part of a study at McMaster University to determine what happens with vision development after the cataracts are removed.

According to this letter, the research I took part in found that people in my situation have "the ability to discriminate between large shapes like a circle and a cross, [and] to tell faces apart based on the shape of the chin or the mouth".

Most of this post will be about the latter half of that quote, but allow me a quick word about the first part.

"The ability to discriminate between large shapes like a circle and a cross"? As in, there was a chance I wouldn't be able to do that?

Here is the symbol of the Red Cross:

Here is the flag of Japan:

And you're telling me there was doubt I'd be able to tell the difference? Just how close to being unsalvageably blind was I?

But back to the second point. Okay, so I can tell that Jay Leno has a cleft chin. Is that really worth all the money I'm sure this study took?

Well, no. But it gets more interesting. They also found some things that I cannot see--including "the ability to see fine detail, to see some aspects of motion, and to tell faces apart based on the spacing among the features, like the distance between the eyes."

This, coupled with an invitation to return to McMaster to have my brain activity monitored as I looked at pictures of faces, set off a light bulb in my head. Eureka!, I thought.

You see (no pun intended), anybody who knows me has a story that proves the old adage "I may have trouble with names, but I never forget a face" applies to me in reverse. I walk past people I know without recognizing them, I confuse perfect strangers with people I know, and I'm utterly horrible at giving physical descriptions of people.

After reading the letter from McMaster and giving it some thought, I've finally figured out why.

Most people are able to tell others apart based on their faces. So if they see somebody, they just think "oh, I know that person" or "oh, that's a stranger".

My eyes (or possibly the connections between my eyes and my brain) don't work that way. When I see somebody, I have no idea if I know them or not--unless they're Jay Leno--so my mind goes into overdrive and starts putting things into context. Do I recognize the person's coat? Am I expecting to see anybody I know in this location? Would it make sense for this person to be here?

This is all done very quickly, within split-seconds...but other times, my brain goes "eh, we're just passing them anyhow. No point figuring it out." And I end up not saying hi to somebody I know, and come off as a bit of a jerk.

The reality is that I'm not a jerk, I'm just blind. Or something. So says science!

--Ryan

Soraa and Kaai, an All Star LED Company

Soraa is a stealth cleantech startup that is focusing on LED technology and Kaai , workng for Blue Lasers. Khosla Ventures has invested in both of the aforementioned firms, and while company representatives aren't disclosing much at the moment, we do know that the duo is exploring ways to "exploit gallium nitride", which is also the basis for existing blue LEDs and blue lasers.Soraa is also known as SJS Technology, and is reportedly in the midst of a $5M fund raise.


What makes the companies intriguing are the founders Shuji Nakamura, Stephen DenBaars and some of the ex-staff from Lumileds and Cree. In Japan LED circle, Shuji Nakamura is a major celebrity. Nakamura invented the blue LED in the early '1993 while working for Nichia.
Nakamura also made history by suing his employer, which gave him a bonus of around $200 for his invention, and winning in court. The somewhat un-Japanese action on Nakamura's part resulted in a settlement in the millions. He later became a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He also won the Millennium Technology Prize. (Refer to the interesting biography of Nakamura by Bob Johnstone called Brilliant I introduced beginning of the Month).

Stephen DenBaars, a professor of material science at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is one of the leading researchers on LEDs. DenBaars has said that if 25 percent of the lightbulbs in the U.S. were converted to LEDs putting out 150 lumens per watt (higher than the commercial standard now), the U.S. as a whole could save $115 billion in utility costs, cumulatively, by 2025. "They (Nakamura and DenBaars) found the next breakthrough in LEDs in 2000 and they have been working on it for seven years," said Tamer. Tamer, who formerly worked at Broadcom, will primarily focus on energy-efficiency investments. Earlier this month, for instance, the firm announced it has an investment in EcoMotors, which is developing diesel engines that could get 100 miles per gallon.

Let's watch out for the possibly brightest LED ever made by Soraa!

Feverip

Illumitex LED, an advance new lens technology for more Lumens

Illumitex, Inc. ("Illumitex"), a developer of revolutionary high-brightness LEDs, revealed its first breakthrough product line on 5th April, the Aduro™ series of packaged LEDs. The Aduro series transforms LED lighting design by emitting uniform, narrow-beam white light without the need for expensive, inefficient secondary optics. Based in Austin, Texas, with strong backing from world-renowned investors such as New Enterprise Associates, Illumitex is changing the way lighting is envisioned by enabling the most efficient and cost-effective LED lighting solutions in the world.


“What Illumitex has achieved is a fundamental breakthrough in delivering the most usable lumens to the task surface, thus providing unrivaled overall lighting system efficiency," said Matt Thomas, CEO of Illumitex. "We have reinvented the basic die and package structure to create the industry’s most optically advanced LED. Our technology allows us to deliver perfectly uniform light exactly where the customer wants it.”

Their Characteristic of LED is small footprint, easy scallable for a High Power point souce for Lighing Illumination.

Feverip

Sassy Thomas Supersized Internet Models

Eating anything you want and getting paid for it seems like a fantasy, but for Sassy Thomas, a supersized internet model, it’s just everyday life. Sassy Thomas was a supersized internet models that gather her success because of her fat body, you know that she could make about $3000 just for eat anything that she want to eat. well i wonder if Sassy Thomas could be a great contender for Donna Simpson the Fattest Woman in the planet.

30-year-old Sassy Thomas has had trouble with her weight, ever since she can remember. her parents put her on a diet, wen she was only 10-years old, but after countless diets and nutritionist consults, the poor girl still weighed a lot more than most kids her age. School, and pretty much life in general, were a nightmare for the young Brit, from Tottenham, North London. In everyone’s eyes, she was the fat kid, and that’s never easy.

At 18, Sassy left school, and got a job as a security guard. She would spend her shift reading glamor magazines and thinking celebrity life-style was out of her reach. But one day, after a simple Google search, she discovered the wonderful world of Big Beautiful Women (BBW). She signed up on a forum, with a picture, and within minutes, received 20 emails from men who wanted to see more of her. It was the start of the life she always dreamed of.

After contacting a fellow BBW, Sassy Thomas learned there are men out there (known as fat admirers) wiling to pay big money to see her stuff her face and rub her 63-inch belly. She set up a website, bought some fat food and started filming herself eating it. After only one session, Sassy had already become a star, and fat admirers couldn’t get enough of her. She began charging between $8 and $60 for photos and videos of her eating away at super-sized portions of food, and is now making up to $3,000 a month, as an internet model.

Sassy gave up her $20,000 a month job, as a security guard and is now enjoying the high life as a super-sized model, that everyone wants to see eat. Admit it, you’d hit that piece of…chocolate cake, in her hand. it's really the great way to enjoy your life sassy. Is there any other interesting job than to be a paid to eat models?? there's so many man would pay Sassy for her eating photo.





Via : The Sun

Find High Quality Jeep Accessories

Nowadays almost every car owners do a modification to their lovely vehicle, several years ago people only do a modification for a sedan type car to look like an expensive sports car but nowadays not only a sedan type owner that can do a modification but now you can make a unique modification for your jeeps.

There's so many Jeep accessories that you can install on your lovely jeep to make a unique modification, you can show your jeep true identity by adding a new jeep accessories. but where to find the high quality Jeep accessories?? don't worry about that anymore. now you can find your needed accessories for your jeep on carid dot com. on their site you can find a wide variety of jeep accessories starting from a grill, grill guard, a headlights and many more.

You can search the high quality accessories based on your vehicle type. let's say if you own a Chevrolet jeeps. you can search what accessories that suitable for your chevy. after you choose what part do you need for your chevy then the next step is choose the accessories manufacturer and select your vehicle years to find the most appropriate jeep accessories.

How about the price?? on carid dot com you will get the high class jeep accessories with an affordable price. carid dot com also give a guarantee for having the lowest price of the High Quality Jeep Accessories, for example is the lambo doors for your chevy. you can get the Chevrolet S10 - Lambo Vertical Doors for only $1.095 on carid. where on the other place it was sold for $ 1,368.75. it's a proof that carid has the lowest price for a high quality jeep accessories.

So what are you waiting for? if you really need a classy high quality accessories for your jeep you can visit carid dot com and search your needed accessories for your jeep and then you can define your jeep true identity.

Pinoy Blogfest 1.0 Held for Bloggers and Journalists

Gadgets Magazine organized their first alternative media convergence called Pinoy Blogfest 1.0 last April 17 at the Richmonde Hotel in Ortigas, Pasig.
It's objective was to gather together internet media practitioners on issues confronting the new media. Among the topics discussed were work ethics, copyright concerns, and journalistic integrity.


I learned a lot form the morning plenary

Annual Blog Summit iBlog 6 A Success

Since iBlog 4 which I first attended, this was the first time the iBlog conference was divided into a two-day installment - April 16 & 17, 2010.
Held at Malcolm Theater of UP Diliman College of Law, iBlog6: The 6th Philippine Blogging Summit is my best ever as the first-day topics were focused on the business side while the next day were fit for new bloggers.

Even though I was not able to attend

Chinese Cat Love to Read

As we know cat is one of the cutest pet in the world, cat is surely a cute animal that can make all people happy. have you ever seen a cat that love to read a book? this Chinese cat has a weird hobby, this feline love to read a book such as human!

These purring fur ball has become an internet sensation, in China, after its owner took some pictures of her, reading a book. The cat seemed to be drawn to that pile of books, always trying to get a sneak peak, when her master was reading. Noticing her peculiar behavior, the man took a camera and immortalized the cat’s reading activity.

As you can see, the feline seems focused on reading every Chinese character, but that made her little brain very tired. After every reading session, the cat needed a good nap, to recover, and get back to her book.

Here's another picture of the Unique Chinese Cat who love to read a book. oh yeah don't forget to check about another cute cat on Funny Cat Costumes