Waterless Urinals; 'Ur-ine' For A Surprise!

Yes, it may sound odd that an unpleasant body fluid can be effortlessly disposed of in a urinal without the assistance of any water and, additionally, not leave behind any objectionable odor.  Well, thanks to the wonders of technology, waterless urinals are becoming increasingly popular; and the technology is astoundingly simple.

How Does It Work?

The simplicity of the workings of a waterless urinal is sheer genius.  ‘Simple’ and ‘genius’ at the same time?  It might sound like a paradox, but it’s really not.  The process goes like this:
1) Urine flows down the waterless bowl and goes through a special strainer.
2) The urine continues its flow through a special sealing liquid which is nothing more than an oil-based fluid.  In fact, even vegetable oil could serve as the oil component.
3) The urine collects in a waste pipe, below.
Now, here is where it gets quite interesting.  Since urine is denser than oil, your high-school science class would tell you that oil, then, would be the liquid that would produce the top layer or ‘floating’ layer. The  heavier-weight urine will remain below the lighter-weight oil; and once this happens, the urine is, in essence, trapped under the oil.  Then…
4) Any air bubbles will rise to the top and escape, which leaves the urine in a virtual oxygen-depleted environment.  The odor is trapped under the oil and has no way to escape out into the room.
5) Once the urine is trapped in the waste pipe, simple displacement sends it into the regular plumbing system. It’s important to note, also, that urine combined with water helps to heighten the natural odor of the urine.   With water lacking, the odors, yet again, are absolutely minimized.

Speed of Urine-Flow Is Key:

One might wonder why the urine hitting the oiled fluid doesn’t break the sealing liquid just enough and, therefore, allow odors to quickly escape.  That thought was taken into account and the potential for that problem was eliminated.  Due to the urinal’s design, the urine is slowed down just enough before it hits the oil; and, in addition, the flow speed is minimized due to no water being present in the bowl.

Two Types of Waterless Urinals:

There are two varieties of waterless urinals, cartridge based and non-cartridge based.  The cartridge based units use a replaceable, pre-filled cartridge that holds the sealing liquid.  Eventually, in any waterless urinal, the sealing liquid becomes ineffective and new cartridges are effortlessly inserted, within minutes, into the units.  Non-cartridge based urinals simply have new oil introduced into the drain hole of the unit.  The oil, on its own, settles as it should.

Water—It Needs To Be Conserved:

Here are some startling facts concerning water, which make the utilization of waterless urinals even more compelling:
Fact #1:  Global demand for water will outweigh supply by 40% once 2030 rolls around
Fact #2:  Americans flush away 5.7 billion gallons of clean drinking water every 24 hours
Fact #3:  A single flush, even from a low-flush toilet in the U.S., uses 6 liters of water which equates to 1.6 gallons of clean drinking water
Fact #4:  Less than 2% of the water on earth is the water humans and land animals need to survive
And a big pat on the back should go to the designers of the new Dodger’s Stadium that underwent a $100 Million renovation—an impressive transformation project that included all waterless urinals in the men’s restrooms—Now, THAT’s a homerun!
Many companies like Clearwater Plumbing are very savvy with this technology so finding a competent contractor these days is not too challenging.  Waterless urinals herald a major breakthrough in clean, efficient, waterless technology.  That technology saves money, saves water and saves the environment!

Karen spent her career on teaching and is now enjoying her retirement in Nebraska where she writes about Fort Worth plumbers and many other topics.

Samsung's premium T9000 fridge - with 10 inch touchscreen and evernote

Not a successful venture by various brands, a touch panel containing fridge is still being pursued by Samsung, known to have broken some odd jobs like this one with the Galaxy Note series, launching the T9000 four door 32 cubic feet (906 Litres) refrigerator.

Sporting a Triple Cooling system to control humidity in the fresh foods compartment,  increasing shelf life of fruits and veggies, with help of 2 compressors, 3 evaporators and an array of sensors, along with an optional 10 inch touchscreen panel which can be connected through WiFi, runs on Android, and comes with many preinstalled apps like Epicurious, weather, AP news, and a read only twitter client, apart from Google calender and Evernote. Though don't let Android make you dream big, because the apps list is only this long, with no option for user installable apps from Play store or something, which is a big disappointment.

Focusing on the giant itself, its a pretty spacious fridge, with 19.4 cubic feet (539 litre) french door compartment on top, 6.1 cubic feet compartment on lower right and another one as a freezer on left .

Expected to be available by late spring, at a humbling price of US$3,999 without touchscreen. The touchscreen model's price is yet to be announced.

Mathematical formula for the perfect Christmas tree

A tree that could benefit from the formulas devised by students at the University of Sheffield (Photo: Shutterstock)

For those who prefer something more traditional than the Treeasy, members of the University of Sheffield’s Maths society have devised a formula for the perfect Christmas tree in response to a challenge by U.K. department store Debenhams.

The formula, which was created by students Nicole Wrightman and Alex Craig, uses the height of a tree to calculate the ideal number of baubles, length of tinsel, length of lights and even the height of the star, fairy or angel sitting atop the tree required to give the tree that catalog-perfect look.

“The formulas took us about two hours to complete,” said Wrightman. “We hope the formulas will play a part in making Christmas that little bit easier for everyone.”

The "treegonometric" formulas are as follows:

• Number of baubles = √17 / 20 x (tree height in cms)
• Length of tinsel (cms) = 13 x π / 8 x (tree height in cms)
• Length of lights (cms) = π x (tree height in cms)
• Height of star/fairy/angel (cms) = height of tree in cms /10

For those without a calculator at hand, an online calculator can be found via the source link.

Source: University of Sheffield , Gizmag

Barcode Room: The Optimus Prime of apartments

People living in cities are increasingly being squeezed into smaller and smaller apartments, a reality that is driving a search for new living space designs that can adapt, transform, and evolve as the needs of those residing in them dictate. Barcode Room from Japanese design company Studio_01 is an attempt at doing just that. At present it's nothing more than a concept, but Barcode Room could prove to be a good strategy for maximizing space while also tending to the needs of multiple residents.

The basis of Barcode Room is a set of three sliding walls (or bars) that can be moved around to form multiple configurations. By moving the walls into different positions, residents can customize the space to suit their particular needs at any particular time.

The 12 different components that make up the walls of Barcode Room

There are 12 types of walls, with the three chosen by and for the residents dictating the configurations available to them. The walls are attached to a ceiling rail and mounted on wheels, which means they can not only be installed in new apartments but in existing apartments as well.

Both the storage and furniture components are actually slotted into the walls, ready to be taken out and used as needed. When the storage and furniture aren't being used at all, this system frees up living space, allowing for a blank canvas without the detritus associated with inner-city living. Essentially all the components needed to live are present, but presented in a way which means they don't dominate the apartment.

Barcode Room recently won the Grand Prix at Tokyo Designer's Week 2012. Studio_01 is committed to continuing work on Barcode Room, with plans to develop additional bars, and components within the bars. As well as the obvious potential in residential locales, Studio_01 sees potential for the Barcode Room to be used in other spaces such as offices, galleries, and restaurants.

The Studio_01 video below shows some of the transforming systems in operation.

Source: Studio_01 via Treehugger , Gizmag

Realflex wraps serve to warm and light riders' arms and legs

As if cyclists didn't have enough choices to illuminate themselves at night, we now have one more. Joining the lighted helmets, belts, backpacks,wheel lights, and plain old bike lights are Realflex arm and leg wraps.

Realflex wraps are designed to keep a cyclist's arms and legs warm and limber, while lighting the rider up for the surrounding traffic. In order to tackle this two-headed function, the wraps use a three-layer design that combines a nylon-spandex material with an aluminum foil mid-layer and a glass-bead coating. The glass beads on the exterior reflect light, creating a glowing effect that is highly visible at night.

Other companies offer arm warmers in bright neon colors, but the Realflex design appears to add some serious illumination over those more basic designs. Claims are that they can be seen from up to 100 meters (330 feet) in all directions.

Despite the glass-bead outer layer, Realflex wraps are designed to be highly stretchy and easy to slide onto the body. They wrap the arms tightly and don't appear to restrict movement.

While arm and leg warmers might seem odd and uncomfortable to those that have never used them, some cyclists, joggers and others like to wear them in cooler weather to keep the body warm and the joints flexible. A pair of leg warmers underneath bike shorts should certainly function more comfortably on the pedals than a pair of boot-cut jeans. The Realflex wraps are also a little more subtle and low profile than a bright orange vest, in terms of style.

Realflex makes several different wraps, including arm wraps, a scarf and an XL model that's suitable for the legs. They are made in Germany and available on Amazon for around 20 to 40 euros (about $26 to $52 as of publishing). They'll be making an appearance at the upcoming ISPO sports show in Munich.

You can analyze Realflex warmers a little more closely in the video below.

Source: Realflex

Losing Things and wishing everything had a tracker?? StickNFind is for you then!

If the number of “finding” systems cropping up lately is anything to go by, we seem to be quite a forgetful bunch. One of the latest such systems, known as StickNFind, looks to be particularly simple – just some little adhesive tags, and an app on the user’s smartphone.

The tags are about the size and shape of an slightly-fat U.S. quarter dollar. Each one contains a circuit board, a replaceable watch battery, a buzzer and an LED light. They also each have an adhesive backing, which allows them to be stuck to things like keys, TV remotes, or any number of other things that tend to go AWOL.

Using a custom app on a paired iOS or Android smartphone, users can assign specific tags to specific objects. Should they subsequently need to find one of those objects, a display on the phone’s screen will show them how far away it is – as long as it’s within the maximum range of about 100 feet (30 meters).

It won't show what direction the object lies in, but users can determine that by moving in different directions and seeing if they get closer or farther away from the item. They can also simply get the app to sound the buzzer, illuminate the light, or do both on the missing object’s tag.

If the object is out of range, users can instruct the app to notify them when they – and their phone – later get within its range. The app can also alert users when a tagged object moves more than a given distance away (useful if the tag is attached to a child in a shopping mall, for instance), or when they forget an object and walk away without it (also useful if the tag is attached to a child in a shopping mall, perhaps).

Up to 20 tags can be paired to one phone. When any of their batteries get low, the user will be notified via the app.

As mentioned, there are already similar systems available, such as theGadget Hound, U Grok It, and BiKN. All three of those, however, incorporate hardware that is used either instead of a smartphone, or that the phone must be docked into.

The designers of StickNFind are currently raising production funds on Indiegogo. A pledge of US$35 will get you two tags (or “stickers,” as they’re referred to) when and if they go into production – the planned retail price for two is $49.95.

A demo of the system can be seen in the pitch video below.

Source: Indiegogo , Gizmag