Gadgets Blog

Today is usually fun Friday for everyone at Gadgets tower, the office is normally buzzing with gossip about what we’ll be doing at the weekend. Everyone dresses down, the biscuits are brought out and its naughty food for all at lunch time.

However this Friday doesn’t quite have that same buzz, as you’ll read in tomorrow’s official post, this weekend is the anniversary of the death of one of our directors, Jules Nicholson. To be honest I can’t believe it’s been a year, it only seems like yesterday that Jules was in the office full of excitement over the latest gadgets to arrive at his desk. He had a passion for gadgets which was infectious and everyone loved to see what bizarre items he had found next.

Although I’ve only worked for Gadgets for a couple of years I’d known Jules as a friend for many years, back from the early days when Gadgets was just starting up. In fact it’s Jules I have to thank for working for Gadgets as it was him that approached me and offered me my position, I said yes and the rest as they say is history.

Knowing Jules he wouldn’t want to us be sad on this day so to celebrate in true Jules style, the office is full of sweets, the chocolate fountain is flowing, fizzy pop is on tap and we’ve even managed to find a Darth Vader Duck to join us! (You need to have worked for Gadgets to understand the duck quote.)

Rest in peace Jules, I know you’ll be in a happier place now.

It would appear the Third Ashes Test is to become the latest victim of the “Sodden Summer” forecast that has now replaced the long range “BBQ Summer” forecast we were presented with by the Met Office earlier in the year. I am secretly hoping myself that it won’t be quite as bad as they are suggesting, mainly because I have a few BBQ’s lined up, as well as visits to Reading and Sonisphere Festivals before the end of the month! Still at least the downbeat weather seems to be at least partially distracting folks from talking about Swine Flu…

One person not letting the soggy summer get him down was this chap who, using a modified vacuum cleaner, and some self built apparatus scaled the outside of the BBC building in White City as part of the upcoming Bang Goes The Theory series being shown on BBC1 which started on Monday. Not quite as portable as Spider Man type super Powers, but handy none the less.

Here’s keeping my fingers crossed that it’s not too wet over the weekend!

Hey guys!

Although it’s only Tuesday and a lot of the working week is still yet to come I am determined to keep looking on the bright side today. So I thought I’d share with you some of the bizzare news I’ve come across this morning.

It has been announced that Micheal Jacksons hair is to be made into precious gems. Although I am all for marking the legacy of the superstar, I do feel this is slightly strange not to mention grotesque! Only in America ey!

Some other strange news today I found which tickled me was about poor Alex Schwarz from Germany. In order to save her ear which was unfortunately bitten off, the decision was taken to have a small pocket opened on her bottom which the removed ear piece was to be placed inside for safe keeping until the rest of her ear had healed and the lobe can be stitched back on. I’m sure she’ll be the ‘butt’ of every joke for a while poor thing

That’s it for the bizarre stories for now. Before I leave, I must just alert you to the fact that its the end of the Gadgets Summer Sale. There have been some new additions, and some savings are still to be snapped up, but be quick as its ends on Friday.

As for me i will see you Friday!
xx

Now I like Lego, I’d go so far as to say that messing around building various things out the little bricks was one of my favourite past-times when I was younger. I bet in fact that there are a fair few people out there who would say they love Lego. The question is, do you love Lego enough to live in a house made entirely from Lego? Well that’s just what James May is going to do as part of his “James May’s Toy Stories” series for the BBC.

3 million bricks have already been delivered to the site in Surrey where the 2 storey house is set to be built, they are hoping to be able to have a fully working Lego toilet, and shower in the life size house. If you fancy designing your own Lego kit when not try downloading the Lego Digital Designer. Once you have finished designing your Lego model you can even place an order and get the parts and instructions sent to you!

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of one of mankind’s greatest accomplishments. Apollo 11 took the first men to set foot on the moon, and the pictures below were beamed back to a worldwide TV audience. What have we done since that has been quite as monumental? I’m not saying we haven’t made progress, after all we have more technology crammed into a mobile phone than the Astronauts had in the Lunar Module, but to use the words of Mr Armstrong, when since has mankind ever taken a similar ‘giant leap’?

It would be remiss of me at this point not to mention all the conspiracy theorists out there who think this was all just a big fake, and was actually recorded in a Hollywood film studio somewhere. I’m not sure myself, but it’s certainly nice to think that we have been ‘out there’ and set foot on a planetary body other than our own.

With being ever greener remaining an important priority for all of us, researchers are set to track around 3,00 piece of rubbish to show their final destinations, and how they end up there. Rubbish, given it’s not particularly ‘glamorous’ image we don’t want to see where our rubbish goes, and as such its transit is fairly invisible, and do you know where it goes once your bin is collected? I’m guessing that even if you do initially, in the majority of cases two or three steps down the line you don’t.

Thus the point of this particular study is to draw the average person’s attention to not only the route that your rubbish takes from bin to landfill or wherever its final destination may be, but also show how much of our resources and energy are expended merely moving it about from place to place. The problem with rubbish, as well as it being made virtually invisible once collected from our bins is that, understandably, as soon as we throw it away we sever any connection we may have had with it, and it’s forgotten about, out of sight out of mind and all that.

The researchers at MIT are hoping that tracking rubbish will hopefully have a significantly positive effect on waste disposal and management. Carlo Ratti, a member of the project said “Think about a future where thanks to smart tags we will not have waste anymore, everything will be traceable.” The full article can be found here on the BBC website.

We here at Gadgets Towers have just had some new recent additions to our Eco Gifts section, so why not check out our new recycled bags, mirrors, and bowls? Just click on the pictures below to go to the appropriate page.