If you’re the type who likes to regale your guests with silly viral video clips on the big screen in the living room — and who doesn’t? — this next item is for you. Vimeo has just launched its “couch mode” full-screen viewing mode. Like YouTube’s Leanback mode, it features a simplified UI with just the options you’d want while couch-surfing: in this case a More Info screen toggle and a Watch Later queue. Less clutter means more time to watch eight year old rappers and bad local comedians. Sounds like a winner to us! Currently only available to Chrome and Safari users, with support for other browsers on its way. Get a closer look at the info screen after the break. Continue reading Vimeo launches Couch Mode, full screen browsing for the TV Vimeo launches Couch Mode, full screen browsing for the TV originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Looks like world weather is about to head into a very cold pattern : A super La Nina is developing. Historically, these strong La Nina events drop the Earth’s average temperature around one degree Fahrenheit, and the drop comes quickly. As a result, some of the same places that had record heat this summer may suffer through record cold this winter. La Nina is the lesser-known colder sister of El Nino. La Nina chills the waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean, and in turn cools the entire planet for one to two years or more. This chilling has the potential to bring bone-numbing cold to many parts of the world for this and the following winter. As a result, world energy demand may spike in the next one to two years as much colder weather hits many of the major industrial nations. This La Nina appears to be special, at least so far. It is well on its way to being the strongest of these events since the super La Nina of 1955-1956. During that powerful La Nina that lasted two years, the global average temperature fell nearly one degree Fahrenheit from 1953 to 1956. So, in a practical sense, what does this mean for temperatures around the U.S.? Right now the Pacific Ocean is in the beginning of a thirty year cooler spell called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. There is a strong, potentially super La Nina developing. The sun is still quiet with very few sunspots. When these conditions exist, the first two months of the cold season (December and January) tend to be cold from Montana to Iowa to Florida up to the Great Lakes and most of New England. In addition, temperatures tend to be very cold from central and western Canada to Alaska. China could suffer a bitterly cold December and January if historic temperature patterns are consistent with current conditions. Much of central and western Europe are cold in these situations as well. The second half of the cold season (February and March) typically experiences some changes in the global temperature patterns in these types of winters. For Europe the changes are not good. Bitter cold and snow dominates from western Russia across all of Europe. In other words, what starts as a cold winter in central and western Europe deepens into a severe winter in February and March across all of Europe. The extreme cold eases in southern China but it deepens in the north and northeastern part of the country. In the United States the cold of December and January in the middle and eastern part of the country reverses to mild weather from Texas to Florida up to the Great Lakes and New England. All of the western U.S. is cold and snowy up to the northern Great Plains. What starts as a mild winter out west turns much colder with large amounts of snow while the east gets a break from the cold. By the way, for all the global warming activists out there, you might enjoy this paragraph: The El Nino of the last year pushed the global temperature right back to where it had been in the beginning of 2007. The result has been no net warming or cooling since then. In fact, there has been no net warming or cooling since around 1999. Interestingly, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 369 parts per million to 387 ppm (parts per million) during this time. This amount is above the level of 302 ppm in 1910, when 20th century global temperature started to rise. Despite this significant rise in carbon dioxide since 1999, there has been no “global warming” during this period. An inconvenient truth for Al Gore.
Continue reading …Photos via Electrolux This summer we let you know about a really cool project from Electrolux, a company that wanted to make a series of their well-known vacuum cleaners out of plastic collected from the ocean. Well, they’ve done it — and the vacuums turned out way cooler than we’d have imagined. The company just announced five unique vacuum cleaners each made from plastics collected from a different sea. Check them out, and a video on the process of collect… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Conservative Delaware senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, a popular target of the mainstream media, was questioned on CNN’s “American Morning” for her statements about faith and prayer in her interview with Christian Broadcasting Network White House Correspondent David Brody. The Christian candidate cited prayer as playing a central role in her campaign, and her comments drew raised eyebrows over at CNN. “For some people, they think this seems so arrogant, to pray to win a senate race, um, but how is it viewed in the evangelical community?” anchor Kiran Chetry asked Brody. Brody quickly responded by saying that O’Donnell isn’t praying for a victory, but rather, “God’s protection, and for, you know, people within her staff and the eyes of the voters to be open, so to speak.” Brody quickly pointed out to Chetry that the power of prayer is a mainstream concept among average Americans and that O’Donnell is being singled out because she is a political candidate. read more
Continue reading …There are so much to love about Andrew Maynard Architects . As I wrote when we gave him our Best Young Architect Award in the Best of Green 2010 , “as his body of built work grows, it shows every sign of the humour, talent and environmental concern of his conceptual work.” Now he demonstrates it again with the Butler House renovation…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Considering that you’re an avid viewer of The Ben Heck Show , we’re assuming this is old news to you and yours. On the off-chance that you missed the last episode, we’re here to rope you back into reality. Embedded past the break is a video filled with love, laughter and legitimate instructions on building your very own Portal t-shirt. According to Benjamin, the system consists of a front-mounted LCD, pocket-mounted battery pack and rear-mounted camera, and naturally, it’s being released just prior to Halloween. You now know exactly what you have to do. Continue reading Latest Ben Heck Show helps you build your very own Portal Shirt Latest Ben Heck Show helps you build your very own Portal Shirt originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …photo: Naimi Grondin / Creative Commons No matter who wins the bragging rights, it’s all pretty great news: In the United States, the Department of the Interior just gave approval to a 1 GW solar power on public lands in southern California; and, in South Africa plans for 5 GW solar power plant, large enough to supply 10% of the nation’s current electricity demand, was announced. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Janet Jackson says she still has a long to-do list. The 44-year-old star of the new drama “For Colored Girls” says she’d love to foray into Brazilian music and Jazz, genres she grew up listening to. (Oct. 26)
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