Glow in the dark stickers were great fun as a kid.  But now you’re grown up and its not as fun anymore.  Or is it?  The Eco Light Inside (ECI) mirror is eco-friendly and made of photo luminescent material developed by Sotirios Papadopoulos.

There are two types of glow in the dark mirrors.  One is the I Love Me version and the other is a Fingerprint version.  The mirror is offered in 3 different sizes:

Dimensions:
Small: 19.75″H x 19.75″W
Medium: 19.75″H x 39.5″W
Large: 19.75″H x 59.25″W

The pricing of the Eco Light Inside is not available, but it can be made on request.  Checking out for the good is slightly odd because the price is reporting $0.00.   I don’t know the exact price, but if anyone ends up buying this, let us know in the comments.

Starting this Spring, Sears Stores will be offering the first-in-the-world tailored clothing made out of recycled plastic bottles.  According to the Clean Air Council, about 2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown away per hour.  That is about 60 million bottles thrown away per day.

Bagir Group Ltd. is the only tailored clothing company that has the ability to take a blend of fibers from plastic bottles and convert it into tailored clothing.  The collection is available under the “Covington Perfect Wardrobe” label.

“Bagir has again turned the clothing industry on end,” stated Bagir President of Global Marketing and Development Moshe Gadot. “Responding to the public’s concern for sustainable practice, the company has taken unprecedented steps to deliver superbly tailored clothing that respects the environment. We are proud to introduce the first and only collection of tailored clothing that appeals to the eco conscious customer by features fabric created from recycled plastic bottles.”

Bagir can create a full suit with about 13 2-liter plastic bottles.  The suit’s fabric has about 54% recycled post consumer materials.  The collection includes a sport coat made from 100% recycled polyester.  The starting price of one of these suits are $149.  Buying the jacket separately is about $99.99 and the pants are $50.

In the Gulf of Mexico there are several oil rig vessels that are no longer in commission.  Instead of blowing up the vessels, the Morris Architects’ Hotelier At Sea project turns the oil rigs into luxury hotels.  Approximately 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico will be decommissioned within the next century according to BldgBlog.  Morris Architects has made a proposal to convert these oil rigs into what could be America’s “Dubai.”

“In a twist on the symbol of oil dependence, the rig is transformed from obsolete industrial infrastructure into a vibrant component of the biosphere’s ecosystem and a destination for discerning travelers,” stated Morris Architects Director of Design Douglas Oliver.

Morris Architects is a company with 200 people working in offices in Houston, Orlando, L.A., and Rio de Janeiro.  For more info, check out http://www.morrisarchitects.com/.

Twitter is gaining traction at an alarming rate.  The company has $55 million in funding and the user base is growing by the millions.  Twitter users include celebrities, politicians, VCs, surgeons, entrepreneurs, etc.  One of Twitter’s biggest features is their search engine.  Thousands of people are using it everyday to find the latest topic trends.  Earlier today Twitter Search was added to the homepage of several limited users.

“Searching over Twitter messages is like a filter for what is happening right now—it’s an interesting look into the real-time thoughts of people and organizations around the world,” stated Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. “Whether you’re curious about something specific or you just want to browse the trending topics, we’ve found that Twitter Search adds a new layer of relevance.”

All I can say is that Twitter may be a good search engine for people to use to find news about trends.  After all people reporting news may be a better source than any algorithm can put together.  I think we may have found a legitimate Google News competitor.

Twitter Search was created after the company acquired Summize.

A case has been dismissed between Google and the Borings.  The lawsuit involved the Street View mapping service entering private property.  The ruling was issued by Judge Amy Reynolds Hay in a Pennsylvania court.  Aaron and Christine Boring filed the lawsuit against Google last year.  The Boring couple believed that Google violated their privacy when the Street View camera car drove past their driveway even though there was a “private road” sign.

In the case, Google’s law team stated that “complete privacy does not exist” and then mentioned that photos of the couple’s home and floor plans were already available on the Internet.  The photos were on the Allegheny County assessor’s office website.

Google also pointed out that they make sure to take adequate measures to protect the privacy by allowing individuals to have pictures of their property removed from the map.

“While it is easy to imagine that many whose property appears on Google’s virtual maps resent the privacy implications, it is hard to believe that any—other than the most exquisitely sensitive—would suffer shame or humiliation. The Plaintiffs have not alleged facts to convince the Court otherwise,” stated Judge Hay in the decision.

The Judge pointed out the irony with the situation.  The Borings didn’t opt to have the images removed from Street View and in fact drew more attention to themselves by suing Google.

“‘Googling’ the name of the Borings’ attorney demonstrates that publicity regarding this suit has perpetuated dissemination of the Borings’ names and location, and resulted in frequent re-publication of the Street View images,” added Judge Hay. “The Plaintiffs’ failure to take readily available steps to protect their own privacy and mitigate their alleged pain suggests to the Court that the intrusion and the their suffering were less severe than they contend.”

This robot from the UK has got some advanced artificial intelligence.  The robot made its debut in London with a game of rock-paper-scissors.  The robot is called Berti and he is less than 2 years old.  The robot was created by Bristol Robotics Laboratory and Elumotion.  Bristol Robotics is based in the city of Bath, England.  Berti was created to mimic human actions.

Berti stands for Bristol Elumotion Robotic Torso 1.  Berti is programmed to even detect whether it won or not.  The competitor has a sensor glove that shows what move they made.

“We are working towards the design of future humanoid robots that will be intuitive and natural for people to interact with,” stated Elumotion co-director Dr. Graham Whiteley. “Robots like Berti could be used in the development of prosthetic limbs for people who have been in car accidents or to carry out extremely dangerous jobs such as land mine clearance.”

Guests at the Science Museum will be able to see Berti give a speech using computer-generated speech.  Berti costs around £200,000 in parts and technology to build.

“Berti was certainly a challenge to build. To mimic human gestures a robot must be both lightweight and powerful.  It was certainly a challenge for us but the result is a robot which is as sophisticated as anything else out there,” added Craig Fletcher, another co-director of Elumotion.  “This is the first time we have brought Berti out of the lab so it is great to have it here at the museum and meeting people.”

Forrest Gump actor Tom Hanks will be turning on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).  The LHC is a giant underground machine that recreates the ‘Big Bang’  on a small scale.  The LHC is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.  Last September after the device was turned out there was a catastrophic malfunction.

The LHC malfunction was caused by a faulty electrical connection and this led to a leak of super cold helium.  This caused £20 million worth of damage to the LHC.  Cern operates the LHC in a particle physics lab near Geneva.  After the malfunction took place, 53 of the magnets used to accelerate the subatomic particles around the 17-mile circular tunnel underneath the Franco-Swiss border.  The magnets had to be clearned and repaired.

Tom Hanks was approached about the idea of turning on the LHC while filming Angels and Demons.  In the movie, Hanks plays a Harvard University professor investigating a plot to annihilate the Vatican with 0.25 grams of antimatter stolen from Cern.  Cern director of accelerators and technology Steve Myers gave a tour of the lab on Feb. 13 and asked Hanks if he would return to turn on the LHC.

The ‘Big Bang’ is a theory that explains how the universe was created 15 billion years ago.  The universe was created by subatomic particles being smashed together.  It is possible that tony black holes may be created within the LHC, but if it does happen, it won’t be a big threat.

I wonder what type of speech Hanks will give while turning on the LHC.  Maybe it’ll have something to do with a box of chocolates.

DHL is testing out GPS cargo containers, making it easier for shipping companies and departments to keep an eye on their goods.  Detecting the location of the cargo is just the beginning.  Soon Savi Networks will create devices for DHL to monitor temparature, humidity, shock, vibration, and exposure to light.  This would be especially useful for retail companies that import and export produce.  The pictures above are equipped for LCL customers with shipments moving from Hong Kong to Europe.

[via BBG]