aardvarks and cheap adjustable eye-glasses-for-the-masses

from zooborns and neatorama - i can't believe i've been missing out on a blog dedicated to new baby zoo animals around the world!!! - here is a fresh baby aardvark at the Detroit Zoo. (yes, an "ahd-vahk".) this is one precious wrinkly little animal.


so this is a photo of the receptacle in which scientists plan to ignite a tiny man-made star, dabble in fusion, and see what happens. we all feel an "i lived through" tshirt coming on, yes? from the Daily Telegraph and neatorama, here's the article about igniting a tiny man-made star in a giant metal box. this'll be at the National Ignition Facility in california, btw. brink of fusion power, one more time! c'mon y'all, let's see if you can do it without blowing us all up.


my fave picture here - this is a Zulu man wearing adjustable glasses. a physics professor at Oxford university designed some glasses with adjustable, liquid-filled lenses. They are adjustable in the sense that one can fill the lenses to the desired thickness, and thus change the magnification. the professor wants to distribute them to poor folks worldwide, and make these glasses for less than a dollar each. he's already distributed over 30,000 pairs in poor countries, with great success. one point for the near-sighted and far-sighted of the world! i myopically salute you all, and professor Silver. brilliant!!!

from the Guardian UK and neatorama, here's the link to adjustable glasses for the masses.

"Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device's tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.

The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription."

i wonder how the glasses stand up over time? is there a mini-warranty? harnessing the power of fluid, okay!