British company Pavegen has developed a new paving tile that captures the energy of footsteps and turns it into electricity.
On a small scale, one day’s worth of foot traffic over a few tiles could power one street light overnight. In another recent field test at a music festival, dancers stomping on a dance floor with Pavegen tiles generated enough energy to recharge their mobile phones.
The company’s first big field test will come this summer at the London Olympics. Pavegen will be installing its system just outside the Westfield Stratford Shopping Center, one of Europe’s biggest and busiest urban shopping malls. The tiles will be placed on one of the main pedestrian thoroughfares leading into nearby London Olympic Park. Depending on the foot traffic, the company hopes its tiles might be able to power the mall’s entire lighting system. More.
(Image: Pavegen)
(via npr)
Tummy ache!!!
Not to turn tumblr into my complaining place, but I feel sick to my stomach! I made cookies for the gentlemen working last night, which had zero flour but still a lot of sugar, and I was hoping they would eat them all or take some home after I had the one that I wanted (Why would you bake one cookie at a time? Thus, generosity.). They didn’t eat them all. I came to work very hungry and tired, so I ate the last three. And even though this is not really a big deal, my body is begging me to be more consistent. And now I have a good old fashioned little kid tummy ache from eating cookies that mommy told me not to. I am never eating raw sugar like that again. EVER. I wish I could vomit on command. Again, not bulimic. Just miserable.
But other than that everything is awesome! I am reading the Hunger Games like every other American teenager (and ashamed adult) because I want to read some Dostoevsky but I honestly need book candy for a week or so first before I immerse myself. It’s been a long winter and I haven’t been tanning enough.
This entire post is so vile I can’t stand it. It’s going up anyway.
I might need
one of those adrenaline shots they put into a person’s heart when there is a flatline. That is the level of fatigue and “don’t give a fuck” I am currently fighting.
Slow sugar death oh my goddddd
For an entire week I have eaten only vegetables, fruit, and a little bit of meat, because I wasn’t feeling too excellent and I needed to keep things simple and let my body heal itself and reregulate in a multitude of ways. Tonight at work - constantly surrounded by bread, caffeine, bad stuff - I was like, hey I feel great and I really wouldn’t mind partaking of a slice of pizza for dinner with the guys.
Flash forward and I also had a chocolate milk and a scoop of ice cream from the recesses of my freezer. I feel so disgusting. And I know it’s still like I ate so much less crap today than some people order for breakfast at our store, but after a week of eating pretty raw my body just can’t handle it. If it didn’t smack of bulimia I would try to make myself vomit it up just so I could stop some of my stomach ache. It isn’t about body image it’s just about feeling like I only want to eat certain things and it is really inconvenient sometimes. I don’t know how people can even be vegetarians, let alone vegan or macrobiotic.
Sunday means
Sleeping in
Taking a particularly long, hot shower
Making a french press and putting the whole thing into my huge blue mug
Scrolling through NPR and a couple other news sources which don’t yet irritate me and giving myself a pedicure
Doing my hair and makeup under no time constraints while listening to really smart people talk about astrophysics on podcasts, and sipping that java
Eventually putting on some clothes after being free to walk around naked for a few hours
Manicure
Putting on those shades and heading out for the rest of the day, knowing that when I come home I already did my Sunday cleaning rituals on Friday night and the place is spotless
Ahhhhhh Sunday. It’s my favorite.
Winds from stellar-mass black hole clocked at 20 million mph
The event is ‘the cosmic equivalent of winds from a Category 5 hurricane’ and is blowing in many directions at once.
BLACK HOLES.
(via npr)
wnyc:
Multiple Exposure Shot of Takeoffs at Hannover Airport by Ho-Yeol Ryu
Mesmerizing. —A.P.
(Source: marcmoukarzel, via npr)
Sunday Soir
Some things I wouldn’t mind doing tonight:
1) Flying to Paris and having breakfast at the Place St Germain before everyone wakes up.
2) Dancing a very slow tango.
3) Having a beer at B-Dubs.
4) Going to see a movie at the theater around the corner.
Number 1 is fairly expensive and I would get fired, number 2 might be impossible because all of the men I know who are good at tango either are shorter than me or not in town, and I am too late for the last screening of number 4.
B-Dubs it is!
