At the forefront of women in big wave surfing, Maya had a close one earlier this year during the Code Red swell in Tahiti. Taking several on the head after a cartwheel wipeout, a last-minute jet ski rescue assured her another breath. And boy are we glad that she took it. Ever wonder what a woman that surfs waves like that and looks like this is into? These are Maya’s influences.
WatchING: I’m always watching movies. I stay in Hawaii for the season so I spend many nights watching them. I usually rent them on iTunes. The last one I watched was The Help. It was really good. It’s about women from the south in the 1960s that document their stories and they all work for rich white woman. I watch House every Monday to keep up with my boyfriend’s work. He plays the role of Dr. Chase. They’re not a like at all in real life but I notice the small things that I believe actors carry with their characters.
ReadING: Right now I’m reading Steve Jobs (amazing book), and The Hobbit ……… My favorite magazines I like to read are Vogue, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and The RedBulletin, ESPN SURFING (I was really up to date when Taylor was my roommate …harder now 
)
BrowsING: The internet is addicting, so I’m constantly browsing Surfline.com, Stormsurf.com, Globo.com, Twitter.com, Facebook.com and CNN.com
EatING and DrinkING: I love all food. Cereal, almond milk, coffee, poke, Thai, toast with almond butter and fruits. It’s all pretty much part of my daily diet
ListenING: I’ve been listening to all kinds lately. I love Jay-Z, Rihanna, Eminem, Adele, Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I recently saw Jay-Z and Eminem in concert at Yankees Stadium when I was in New York. It was amazing.
Grid parity in cost between solar power and grid-supplied electricity is likely to begin being reached in the US in as little as 2 years, and within the next 25 years, many of the largest metropolitan areas will reach the point where solar is less expensive. An animated map from Energy Self Reliant States shows the picture.
This timeline includes no government subsidies in the calculations. It uses a baseine cost of solar power in 2011 at $4.00 per watt, installed. Using the average residential grid supplied electricity price for each metro area, it makes the two assumptions based on present trends to determine when the price of solar drops below grid: the cost of solar decreases by 7% per year, and the grid electricity price increases by 2% per year.
Based on these assumptions, the San Diego CA metropolitan area will be at solar parity in 2013, and within the next 25 years, many of the largest metropolitan areas will reach the point where solar is less expensive.
via: BoingBoing
A concept to turn the Eiffel Tower into a giant green wall has been proposed as a symbolic statement of “the reconciliation of nature and mankind.”The plan calls for 600,000 plants to be attached to the structure using hemp sacks filled with soil as the growth media. An irrigation system comprising 12 tons of tubing would be used to provide water for the plants.
The installation would not be permanent, and would be removed after a few years. But, once in place, the installation would help remove an estimated 87.8 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
“Should it not be the duty of engineers to imagine a new future where nature is brought back into the heart of the city,” said a statement from Ginger, the company behind the proposal. With an estimated cost of nearly 100 million dollars for the project, that’s more than a million dollars per ton of CO2. Hardly the most cost effective carbon sequestration, but certainly a visible one.
image: CC-BY 3.0 by Taxiarchos228
via: Sustainablog
A new optical furnace that uses intense light rather than a conventional furnace to heat the silicon to make solar cells saves about half the energy needed. The process uses a furnace with “highly reflective and heat-resistant ceramics to ensure that the light is absorbed only by a silicon wafer, not by the walls inside the furnace.” The process was developed by scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
In addition to providing improved efficiency in the production of the cells, the optical furnace also does a better job at removing some impurities, which makes for better output from the finished panels. Eventually, researchers on the project believe that this could provide a four percentage point increase in the efficiency of the solar cells produced with this method.
image credit: NREL/Dennis Schroeder
via: Treehugger
Photovoltaic technology has taken another step forward as researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have demonstrated a photocell with an external quantum efficiency over 100 percent using quantum dots. The new cell uses a process called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) that produces more than one electron-hole pair per absorbed photon, and reached a level of 114 percent.
This development offers the possibility of increased efficiency in solar panels, and the technology is able to be manufactured using high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing. With the use of quantum dots, photocells could theoretically see as much as a 35 percent increase in power conversion efficiency above contemporary cells. The research cell was constructed as a “layered cell consisting of antireflection-coated glass with a thin layer of a transparent conductor, a nanostructured zinc oxide layer, a quantum dot layer of lead selenide treated with ethanedithol and hydrazine, and a thin layer of gold for the top electrode.”
Note that this does not mean that the entire panel would have a total efficiency above 100% (which would be thermodynamically impossible). The quantum efficiency means only that the number of electron-hole pairs created in the cell is greater than the number of photons that are absorbed. Nonetheless, the advance provided by MEG could lead to the next generation of even more efficient solar energy collectors.
image: Lawrence Berkeley Lab and CC-BY-SA 3.0 by Opticks3
I have some good news for all you Verizon customers who were as upset as I was over the whole “convenience” fee fiasco. Verizon has decided to jump ship on the whole “convenience” fee idea after receiving immense backlash from customers as well as oodles of bad press (probably the bad press that did it). At one point it even looked as if the FCC was going to get involved, and for good reason: Verizon was simply trying to nickel and dime its customers. It’s not often we get to score one for the good guys, and this news has certainly put a smile on my face. Kudos to everyone who voiced their opinions, eventually forcing Verizon to release the following statement:
Verizon Wireless has decided it will not institute the fee for online or telephone single payments that was announced earlier this week.
The company made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions. The company continues to encourage customers to take advantage of the numerous simple and convenient payment methods it provides.
Verizon’s president and chief executive officer Dan Mead followed up by ensuring us Verizon takes great pride in listening to its customers (cue eye roll):
At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time.
Congratulations Verizon customers, your outspoken voices have bought you some extra time with your hard earned cash. The customers win this round, but I’m sure Verizon has a few more sucker punches lined up, so watch your back.
Source: Verizon
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A photo of what is supposedly a next-generation iPad 3 display has surfaced on a Korean forum. The pic in question was tipped to MacRumors and has been making the rounds this afternoon.
The alleged iPad 3 display doesn’t tell us much of anything at all, other than the slight difference in cabling arrangement at the bottom of the panel.
Not only can the authenticity of this photo not be confirmed, but we also don’t think that it reveals anything interesting about Apple’s future tablet. The display is the same 9.7-inch size as the current iPad models.
MacRumors has done some comparing with help from iFixit and a look at the iPad 2′s display connector. When looking at the ‘leaked’ iPad 3 photo and the disassembled iPad 2 display, the iPad 3 connector has 3 possible ribbon cables for data transfers. The iPad 2 uses two ribbon cables for data and one for power. MacRumors suggests that this difference could be related to the next-generation iPad’s increased need for data bandwidth. It’s been rumored that the iPad 3 will feature a Retina-like display that would likely require a beefed-up connection.
It’s also possible that this display is not finished or a prototype.
The latest rumor from this morning is that Sharp is tapped to provide thinner, hi-res IGZO displays for the iPad 3. Another rumor about Apple unveiling two new iPads at Macworld in 2012 was also debunked recently.
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Today’s tip is a simple one, but it fixes one of the most frustrating things that can happen when you’re browsing the web — especially on an iOS device. Have you ever hit your iPad’s display accidentally while browsing the web and closed a tab that included an article you were halfway through reading?
Thankfully, mobile Safari on the iPad has a handy feature that allows you to quickly access recently closed tabs.
To open a recently closed tab in mobile Safari, simply tap and hold the ‘new tab button’ that sits below the app’s address bar.
A list of five recently closed tabs will appear; simply tap on one to reopen the page. Simple!
[via Macgasm]
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Good news if you’re an Android user: an “official” Siri app is now available to download from the Android Market, claiming to be the “REAL Siri for Android.” Of course, it’s not official and it’s not real — it’s a shameless rip-off from a developer called “Viewide,” complete with Apple’s own icons.
Despite claiming to the REAL Siri, Electronista notes that “the differing results on the weather widget suggest it’s not actually asking Apple’s servers.” The free app is called Speerit and is currently available only in Korean, but its developer does promise that support for the English language is coming soon. However, I don’t think they’ll have time for that, with Apple’s lawyers likely to be onto them after the news spreads this weekend.
But it’s not the only one in the Android Market. Another app called “Siri for Android” is also available for free, from a developer called “OFFICIAL APP.” Unlike Speerit, however, Siri for Android, clearly states it is just a shortcut for Android’s built-in Google Voice Actions feature, and not an actual Siri clone.
I’m guessing neither of these apps will be around all that long, so if you want them, grab them while you can.
[via The Next Web]
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Apple is being sued by its largest reseller in France. Profit by eBizcuss’s 16 locations dropped 30 percent during the third quarter due to Apple cutting the number of iPad 2s and MacBook Airs shipped, claims CEO Francois Prudent. The tipping point appeared when the tech giant opened its first French retail location in 2009, the lawsuit alleges.
Prudent added his chain of Apple resellers have not been able to get iPhone 4S handsets during the all-important fourth quarter. The lawsuit is just the latest as resellers bristle from Apple’s increasingly aggressive move into retailing and in pursuit of small business.
The lawsuit also claims eBizcuss spent $6.5 million to bring the stores’ point-of-sale systems up to Apple’s snuff. Additionally, Prudent claims the Cupertino, Calif. company is taking small business customers by undercutting his prices. “The proposals submitted to Apple commercial enterprises are lower than the prices at which we buy the equipment,” according to the lawsuit reported by France’s Le Figaro.
In 2009, Apple opened its first retail store in France at the Carousel del Louvre in Paris. The lawsuit charges the company then began favoring its own retail locations over those of resellers. Earlier this week, Apple’s retail operations in Italy came under fire after one government arm fined the company $1.2 million for what was described as “unfair” practices that did not fully explain product warranties.
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Asmita Prasad:
Created by designer Stefan Djerkic, this compact and lightweight device serves as a more sustainable solution that solves the problem of flashlights being misplaced or lost. The VersaLite allows nurses to easily work in environments where patients might be sensitive to microbial exposure. Named after its versatile attributes, the device was primarily designed to be worn which would give nurses more freedom with their hands.
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Asmita Prasad:
The year 2011 is almost at an end now and its time to look back at a fabulous year gone by that was significant for the whole world in more ways than one. The year 2011 saw some great innovations in terms of design and we had some breath-taking concepts and breakthroughs in home décor, auto and gadgets. They certainly made the world a better place just by having been conceptualized and innovated. Here’s our list of the best designs and concepts that set DesignBuzz on fire in the year 2011:
Sahil Khurana:
It’s a tedious task to clean fish aquariums, especially, when it comes to changing the water. Weaving their concept around this problem, designers Craig Wenger and David Turover have crafted the really neat concept of NoClean Aquariums.
NoClean Aquariums
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Mayank:
Snowmobile, also known as snow machine, is a vehicle that is used to travel on snow. Specially designed to run on terrains covered with snow, these machines do not require a road or trail. Therefore, whether you are planning to explore deep snow forests, frozen lakes or planning for any other adventure, you do not have to think twice if you have a snowmobile. There are amazing snowmobiles available in the market that pack all the features, luxury and touring capability needed by a user. Here is a list that describes the best snowmobiles available in the market. Read on to know more.
Arvind Sundararaman:
Gone are the days when the use of submarines was limited, just as a means of naval warfare. Use of submarines for recreational purposes, in fact is slowly gaining attention. Contrary to the most submarines that generally use electric motors and a rechargeable battery pack to move under water, US based company named AquaVenture has created a personal submarine that doesn’t have a propulsion system at all. Surprisingly, AquaVenture claims that its submarine, named as SeaBird, is, yet, the fastest personal submarine in the world.
SeaBird
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