The XO Directory

If you have been mailing electronically, this time you can smoke electronically.

Tobacco companies should be afraid with this invention - the Electronic cigarette. This cigarette replacement is the fastest growing cigarette-replacing product in the market today. E-cigs as they are called, don't have cancer causing carcinogens such as tar and carbon monoxide. They are quickly becoming an effective method of harm reduction for smokers, as well as being used as a smoking cessation tool. And the best thing about it, it feels and taste like the real one.

If you're an smoker who wants to quit using the Electric Cigarette, you can buy a guide here.



(Get Electric Cigarette guide here.)

NASA Robot, Senseta MAX 5.0A, solves a 19-year-old murder mystery of Dawn Sanchez.

It happened in 1991 when Bernado Bass killed Dawn Sanchez. Her body and the murder gun was never discovered during the investigation. Bass' car, in which Sanchez was last seen, was also missing which resulted to the dismissal of the case in 1991 due to lack of evidence.

The case was recently reopened when an informant told the authorities that the car may have been disassembled and buried in a large abandoned lot in Alviso. The exact location in the lot was not specified, and the cost to excavate the entire area was too high. Enter Senseta MAX 5.0A, a rover outfitted with a Geometrics G-858 magnetometer. Based on data gathered by the robot, the county excavated the site and retrieved car parts that matched the suspect’s car. On August 29, 2009, Bass pleaded no contest to the charges and was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison.

Carnegie Mellon Innovations Lab (CMIL) in collaboration with the NASA Payload Directed Flight research team from the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames, and the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., assisted the County of Santa Clara’s District Attorney’s Office in solving a 1991 cold case murder investigation. The team deployed a Senseta MAX 5.0A Rover, an autonomous ground vehicle, to perform magnetic surveys of a vacant lot in Alviso, Calif., looking for buried material evidence, which included car parts and a possible body buried in the old junk yard.

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If you're an avid fan of cycling but often get tired of doing so, then you need Joules, the bicycling robot. Joules sits on the back of a tandem bicycle and does the pedaling for both of you. How cool is that.

Jem Stansfield, climbs the 40m (120ft) BBC building with a pair of vacuum gloves, while being watched by hundreds of people. He used an everyday vacuum cleaner to construct the kit.

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For the love of coffe, astronaut invented a drinking cup in space. This cup's design works in space's weightless environment.



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If you are on a diet but can help dining out, why not try the ZeroCal - the negative calorie food container.

* The meals contain a large proportion of foods with negative calories (cauliflower, cucumbers, celery, garlic etc.) creating a calorie deficit.

* •Many high-calorie foods (like meat) are substituted with lower-calorie foods that are just as delicious (like seafood).

* •The remaining calories are erased through our proprietary CalBurnKnob™ technology. This is a knob on the takeaway box that's very hard to open (see picture below) – meaning you burn off the remainder just by opening the container!

Link (Thanks to Candy)

Are you dreaming of swimming like a fish? Well, the artificial gills is maybe the answer.

A brainchild of Alon Bodner, this battery-powered device named "LikeAFish" will extract oxygen from the seawater allowing for a tankless underwater diving. Although this new invention is in the prototype stage, Bodner says they are working hard to develop a prototype small enough for a diver to carry it on his diving vest. They are estimating that in two years a fully functional prototype will be available.

The system can work as a replacement of common 'open diving systems'. However, because of large air and water requirements, the system is best suited for 'closed systems', also known as 'rebreathers'.

Submarines and underwater habitats are private cases of rebreather uses, and where use of the new system would have enormous benefits. Many operations that are now considered to be 'impossible' become within reach when the underwater time of sub sea vehicles becomes virtually unlimited.

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Invented by Swedish inventor Jan von Heland, Waboba ball, the ball that bounces on water, is now becoming popular around the world after videos of it were posted in YouTube.

This ball is made of a combination of plastics with lycra coating. It has the same density as water and floats when at rest. Wabobal ball which is said to have a consistency of breast implant, took the inventor several years to perfect and now being sold around the world after debuting in the beaches of Australia.

"I first got the idea when I was throwing a frisbee upside down on the water trying to get it to bounce,” he said.

"I thought it would be good to get something that used the water to bounce off and began to experiment.”

He added: "It has been very successful and we sell the balls all over the world - Australia is our biggest market.

"It seems a bit odd that a Swede should invent this because it is best for a hot climate where people are in the sea and in swimming pools all the time."

Link. See also Waboba.com