Chinese HospitalIntroduces AutomaticSperm Extractor ToMake Sperm DonationEasier

Sperm donation might be considered
taboo in a number of places the world
over but scientists seem to be making
the process easier.

 A hospital in Nanjing, China now has an automatic
sperm extractor at its disposal.

So much
for a hands-free device, huh? Let’s dive
into the more interesting details.


This piece of technology comes with a
massage pipe that the user can adjust
to suit his height.

 Upon setting the
desired amplitude, frequency and
temperature on the machine, the user is
good to go.

 A small display on the top
is featured for those who like some
‘visual’ assistance.

Director of urology
department feels it’s just to have the
machine in the hospital considering
many individuals have issues retrieving
sperm by the old conventional methods.


Arguably, standing and delivering like
that in a room full of other men is likely
to make many individuals feel awkward.


It depends what sort of slant you put on
it, I suppose.

This Water BottleTurns Air Into WaterAs You Ride Your Bike

Austrian Industrial Design student Kristof
Retezar has created something simple
and innovative, a bottle that condenses
humid air into water. Its called Fontus.


He customized it to latch on to his
bicycle so that when he goes for a
ride, he can be relatively unafraid of
running out of water.

It turns out that
the prototype works so well that it
made him a finalist for the James Dyson
Award for Industrial Design in 2014.


The prototype is basically a bottle
attached to a filter and condensation
system. It faces forward so when the
the bicycle rushes forward, moist air is
channeled in to the filter and is
condensed into the bottle.

There is a
solar panel atop the machine to power
it and it produces a drop per minute or
half a litre an hour under the following
conditions:
1. 50% humidity
2. 20 C


The design is far from complete
however, as the Fontus doesn’t account
for the pollutants in an urban setting; it
can only filter out dust particles and
leaves and dirt .


Machines like the Fontus have been
built before, just not on a scale as
personal as this.


A billboard in Peru
condenses moisture from the
surroundings to provide free water to
the populace, Warka Water towers from
the Namib Desert imitate the native
beetles that quench their thirst from the
fog in the air.

 Ultimately the projects
are a tool to alleviate the suffering of
the 780 million people without access
to safe drinking water.


The Fontus will be priced somewhere
around $25-40.

What’s Inside? TheGreat Mystery of theTiny Cylinder in LaptopChargers Solved

I can’t say it’s really bugged me, but
it’s always seemed strange that there
is a bulge in my laptop charger right
after the charger connects to the
laptop.


 It can’t be an aesthetic decision
to put a bulge in the middle of a
streamlined piece of hardware and it
certainly wouldn’t save money to add
extra weight to the machine (building,
raw materials, shipping costs would
increase), so why does the charger
have that little cylinder preinstalled?
Well the answer is quite simple actually.



Every device that transports energy or
deals in the transfer of energy gives off
and picks up energy from different
sources. The energy generated from the
socket that powers your laptop is just
enough to transmit radio waves.



Also,
the laptop charger that transports all
that energy can also pick up radio
waves of that frequency. All of this is
called Electro-Magnetic Interference
(EMI).

So, of course, to reduce energy
loss and white noise from random radio
waves swimming around in the air, one
needs a filter, the little cylinder.



It’s called a Ferrite Bead, an EMI filter
or a Ferrite Core. It is specifically built
to ward away radio waves and prevent
energy loss of the same type from
within the charger.


This makes the
charger much more efficient and helps
charge your computer more quickly.



And you may have noticed that
the Ferrite Bead is covered in what
seems to be plastic casing.

 That’s just
to protect it from damage. Of course
there are ways to avoid the need for
the Ferrite Bead but since it is
relatively cheap to purchase and
increases efficiency, it’s a welcome fix.

A Quarter of theWorld’s Hazelnuts GoTowards MakingNutella

Nutella. Its that creamy, rich chocolate
hazelnut spread that makes you want to
gobble it up pronto. And like every
successful franchise, the beginnings of
Nutella were very humble. During the
Second World War, Chocolate
maker Ferrero faced a shortage of
cocoa so to make do he introduced
hazelnuts in to his recipe. Needless to
say this flavor caught on and was
refined in to the creamy goodness you
eat today.

Now, the opposite is happening. The
rest of the world might face a shortage
of hazelnuts because of Nutella. You
see most of the hazelnuts that Nutella
uses are grown in one specific location,
the rising steep slopes on the shores of
the Black Sea in Turkey.
Karim Azzaoui, the Vice President of
Sales for BALSU, USA which imports
hazelnuts to America, says that the
Turkish families that grow the nuts
follow a very traditional way of life.
They’ve been handpicking these nuts for
2000 years and, it seems, will continue
to do so.

Now Nutella purchases a hundred
thousand tonnes of hazelnuts every
year, approximately a quarter of the
world’s production, and that drives up
the price. This year, due to a late frost
in Turkey, the hazelnut blossoms froze
and the price went up 60%. Now the
race is on to find other places to grow
this dry fruit. You’ll find farms in Chile
and Australia and now, even in the
Northeastern United States.

A disease called the Eastern Filbert
Blight (EFB) would kill off the hazelnut
crop in Northeastern USA, but scientists
are quickly developing ways to counter
that. Some efforts are bearing fruit
(pun intended) at Rutgers University in
a project headed by Thomas Molnar, a
plant biologist. Molnar has set up
projects in Canada and the US to
breed EFB resistant strains of hazelnut
crop.

This Router Provides Wireless Charging Over a Five Meter Radius For Upto 12 Devices

Plugging in all your devices to charge
can be tedious, even more tedious than
finding out that your phone and laptop
and tablet are all out of juice at once.

Wireless charging is making small
strides at last and though some devices
have a wireless charging pad, you still
have to place the device on it to begin
charging. Nikola Tesla’s dream of
powering the planet is too far off to
make predictions but this year at CES,
a device from a company called
Energous aims to change that.

The device uses WattUp technology (not
as catchy as Wifi but maybe it’ll catch
on) to connect to your devices via
bluetooth and beam them energy at
5.7-5.8 GHz. Its able to deliver 1/4
Watts to 12 devices and 4 Watts to 4
devices at once at a distance of 1.5
meters. The power drops to about a
Watt at the 4.5 meter mark.

An iPhone charger delivers 5 Watts of
power but with this thing in the house
the makers are hoping your battery
power won’t run low in the first place.

There are also other perks. WattUp can
be made to charge what is essential
according to you. You can use it to
keep your phone at 100% at all times
and to charge your wireless mouse just
when its barely clinging on to life. And
if there are multiple Watt Up routers in
the house, your devices will just charge
depending on which router is the
closest to them.

Now for the bad, there are tremendous
energy losses with Wireless charging.
WattUp is only 70% efficient, and until
further notice, batteries from Energous
are the only ones that will be able to
charge with WattUp.
The price however is not a drawback.
At $300 the price is OK compared to
chargers.
Verdict: We all need this badly.

This Machine Turns Poop Into Drinking Water, And Bill Gates Drinks It

Well…not exactly. Bill Gates, the
billionaire philanthropist who cofounded
Microsoft has been famously working on
many projects as part of the goals of
his foundation (the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation) which have included
a campaign to rid the world of polio
and education reform. He has recently
chosen to spread awareness about the
importance of clean drinking water and
to bring that water to developing
countries where it is scarce.
Gates recently shared a blog post
pertaining to a machine designed by
Peter Janicki, CEO of Janicki Energy,
called the Janicki Omniprocessor. It
uses sewer sludge to produce clean
water and to generate electricity and
ash.

The waste is dried and burnt to
produce energy and the water from the
waste is treated until it is healthy and
safe to drink. As Gates described it, “I
watched the piles of feces go up the
conveyor belt and drop into a large
bin…I took a long taste of the end
result: a glass of delicious drinking
water.”
He claimed it was as good as any
water he had tasted from a bottle and
said that after he learned about the
engineering involved, he would drink it
every day.
“It’s that safe.” He remarks.
Bill Gates has been advocating a
redesign of the toilet since 2011 to
include a function to turn the waste in
to fertilizer or fuel and remove the
piped in water to remove the health
hazards that occur in the developing
world including water contamination.
Indeed, 700,000 children die every
year due to lack of clean drinking water
and nearly 2 billion people are exposed
to these health hazards.
The Omniprocessor is currently being
used as a pilot project in Senegal but
Gates would like to see it spread
further. It would energy problems and
save lives.
watch videohere

5 Amazing Uses of Shaving Cream You Didn’t Know Before

Shaving cream is a handy tool to shave
off stubbles or beards but it is also a
handy tool for several other tasks that
irk the average human being.
1. It is a paint remover
Paint can be really hard to get off your
hands and if you’re an artist, you must
be black and blue and red all over.
Apply shaving cream to the stains and
rub for about a minute. Rinse off the
cream and your skin will look good as
new.

2. It is a potential
detergent
If you have spilled some food on that
nice shirt of yours, you would want to
get it off as soon as possible. Apply
shaving cream to the stain and scrub
your shirt clean.

3. It is a quick fix for
squeaky hinges
If your doors are giving off voices that
befit a haunted house, their squeaky
hinges could use some shaving cream.
Rub some in to the spaces of the
hinges generously and you won’t hear
that creaky squeak any time soon.

4. Make your faucet shiny
Who doesn’t want a clean bathroom? If
your faucet has lost its luster and
sheen, you can use shaving cream to
return them to it. Apply generously and
rub and rinse off.

5. Mirror cleaner
After a hot bath your mirror is sure to
fog up. So apply some shaving cream to
it every one or two weeks and you’ll
be able to examine yourself properly
after the steamy shower.