Living

The simple act of turning a shirt from white to blue—or any color—requires 25 liters of water and enough harmful chemicals that every clothing manufacturer should be looking for safer methods. Like this fantastic CO2-based DryDye technology that Adidas has started using which doesn't require a single drop of H2O. But it's not like the color dyes are blasted at the shirts with a pressurized CO2 canister—although that would be pretty awesome. In reality, the fabrics and chemical dyes are placed in a large sealed chamber, and CO2 is pumped in to a pressure of about 74 bar. The tank is also heated to 88 degrees fahrenheit at which point the CO2 behaves like a gas and a liquid, allowing the colored dyes to thoroughly permeate the fabrics without the use of excessive chemicals. The DryDye process actually uses about half the chemicals as traditional water-based dying methods, and requires about half the energy too, so it seems like an all-around better way to go about tinting cloth...

Here come the dog days. Time to get the heck outta town and do as little as possible. This month we found the speaker you'll use to pump up the jams at the beach, the water gun you'll use to cool off, and the headphones you'll listen to on the way there. When it comes to $200 pairs of cans, there aren't many that can top the Harman Kardon CLs. Are there better sounding headphones out there? Of course, but they're all likely bigger and bulkier, more expensive, or open-air. The CLs are a near-perfect combination of price, design, portability and sound quality. More » The Origin Bitfenix Prodigy system small enough to sit unobtrusively on top of your desk, but spacious enough that you should be able to upgrade parts without having to find your Operation tweezers. Powerful gaming performance aside, it's a great PC, too, owing to its SSD. You can't beat this machine for the price. More » The HyperJuice Plug is the only charger you need. The stalwart brick will p...

Jul 30, 2012 12:20 PM   If you're not big into the summer Olympics because track and field just doesn't get you going, infamous pranksters Improv Everywhere have a nice alternative for you. Their latest MP3 experiment takes on the Olympic games in a characteristically bewildering style. Over 4,000 participants showed up at New York City's Governor's Island on July 15th to participate in this year's MP3 experiment, the 9th of its kind. Donning headphones and simultaneously taking commands from the same pre-recorded omnipotent voice, pseudo-Olympians took part in several ridiculous games which included implements like bed-sheets and time-honored skills like water-marksmanship. The Improv Everywhere Games may not have had their own torch, or medals, but they were on tape-delay. And that's how the professionals do it, right? [YouTube] View the original article here This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appe...

Jul 26, 2012 2:40 PM   It's often tricky, as a runner, to rehydrate without lowering your heart rate. But will Salomon's new Sense Hydro S-Lab gloves—which strap a water bottle to each hand for easy access—make it easier or downright impossible? The set won't be available until September, but it looks like they use a pair of soft plastic bottles so they can be folded up and reduced in size as they're drained. Which is a lot easier than trying to run with a pair of empty rigid plastic bottles strapped to your hands. The design also lets you squeeze every last drop of moisture out of the bottles using just a single hand. In fact, the only obvious disadvantage is that the heat from your palms is bound to leave you sipping luke warm water, which might not be that refreshing after all. [Salomon via Gear Junkie] View the original article here This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activ...

Keeping a garden lush all summer is a lot of work. You're traveling. You're busy. It's hot out there. But technology offers the equivalent of a remote control watering can that you control from the couch. Here's how to wire up your yard to keep it thriving when you can't get out back to do it yourself. Irrigation at the most base level is just a series of tubes. They're channels and pipes that carry water from one location to another. To automate their performance, the key is controlling the valves. Being the 21st century and all, water valves have evolved beyond the lefty-loosey-righty-tighty hand-turned models that populate most yards. The inclusion of a 24-volt actuator means that the automatic in-line valve offerings from companies like RainBird, Orbit , or Toro will open and close themselves when a charge is applied. These, however, are designed to work with only basic timer systems. They don't think for themselves. To do that, you need a control modul...

Flickr/mtarlock Namibia is Africa's fifth largest country and its driest country south of the Sahara. A newly discovered water source could supply half of Africa's driest sub-Saharan country with 400 years of water, reports Matt McGrath of BBC . The new aquifer – called Ohangwena II – flows under the border between Angola and Namibia, covering an area of about 43 miles by 25 miles on Namibia's side. The water is up to 10,000 years old and cleaner to drink than many modern sources.  Project manager Martin Quinger told BBC that the stored water could last 400 years based on the area's current supply. Currently the 800,000 people living in the northern part of the country get their drinking water from a 40-year-old canal that brings the scarce resource from Angola. Quinger added that Ohangwena II could change the nature of farming in the area, which has only been viable near two rivers in the region, and could act as a natural buffer for up to 15 years of drought. Natur...