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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Join a Coffee CSA for Fresh Beans on Your Doorstep Every Month [Coffee]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5815464/join-a-coffee-csa-for-fresh-beans-on-your-doorstep-every-month

There's more to coffee than pre-ground grocery store blends, and if you're ready to explore it, consider joining a Coffee CSA (Community Supported Agriculture.) The CoffeeCSA project connects coffee lovers around the globe with small-batch farmers who ship monthly batches of beans directly to them.

Buyers can also select specific farmers to support or types of coffee to buy through the program. If you like your coffee traceable, shade-grown, certified organic, and fair trade, CoffeeCSA can meet those needs. If you just want fresh coffee mailed to your door from farmers who grow it for a living, the service works just as well. Photo by Stirling Noyes.

CoffeeCSA | via TheKitchn

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter.

Tony Blair Gets Hacked, Address Book Published [Hackers]

Source: http://gawker.com/5815492/tony-blair-gets-hacked-address-book-published

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's address book—including the names, phone numbers, and addresses of members of government, plus Blair's own National Insurance Number—was apparently leaked to the public by a group of hackers on Friday.

The group, Team Poison, claims to have accessed the Blair office's webmail server "via a private exploit" in December of last year. (Though the group said seperately that they've had the information "for 1 year now.") In the document, which was put up on Pastebin around 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday, the hackers claim that they "still have access to the webmail server, [sic] phone numbers may have changed but all the information is legit."

According to the Team Poison Twitter (manned by a hacker called "Trick"), the motive seems to be political—Blair is described as a "war criminal," and Trick seems to imply that those whose information is being released "supported the war in iraq." (How Team Poison knows that Blair's dentist, whose address and phone number appear in the file, was pro-war, is unclear.)

Two days ago, members of Team Poison gave an interview to FoxNews.com, presenting themselves as rivals to Lulz Security, the group that hacked websites related to Sony, the FBI, the CIA and the U.S. Senate, and whom Team Poison derides (in the interview) as "nothing but a bunch of script kiddies."

NAU's Slick-Looking Take On the Future of the RV [Concepts]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5815612/naus-slick+looking-take-on-the-future-of-the-venerable-rv/gallery/

Zero-emissions. Smooth lines right out of Tron: Legacy. Scenic, rendered vistas. Yup, sounds like a design firm's taken a crack at the future of camping. Let's have a peek.

Called the Ecco Camper, this concept fills up with electricity and skirts occupants off on what appears to be a luxurious, albeit slightly cramped jaunt across desert locales, the beach and what looks like salt flats.

Who cares, really—you're camping in a giant Norelco razor. To the future! [NAU via Gizmag]

New phase-changing alloy turns waste heat into green energy, exhibits spontaneous magnetism (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/25/new-phase-changing-alloy-turns-waste-heat-into-green-energy-exh/

Looks like harvesting waste heat is all the rage in 2011. Yet another team of researchers -- this time at the University of Minnesota -- has found a way to harness energy from our hot castoffs. The group has apparently created a brand spanking new alloy that spontaneously creates energy when its temperature is raised by a small amount. Future uses for the material, known as Ni₄₅Co₅Mn₄₀Sn₁₀, include charging a hybrid car's battery with the help of waste heat from its exhaust. So what's the trick? Well, this wonder material is a phase changer, meaning it can go from non-magnetic to magnetic in moments, when the temperature rises. When that happens, the alloy absorbs heat, and bam! You've got electricity. The team is also collaborating with chemical engineers to create a thin film version of the material that could be used to convert waste heat from computers. If phase changing gets you all hot and bothered, check out a video demonstration of the alloy's sudden magnetism after the break.

Continue reading New phase-changing alloy turns waste heat into green energy, exhibits spontaneous magnetism (video)

New phase-changing alloy turns waste heat into green energy! , exhibi ts spontaneous magnetism (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jun 2011 08:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cowon C2 portable media player review

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/26/cowon-c2-portable-media-player-review/

And here you were assuming the tried-and-true PMP was dead. Au contraire. Cowon's not giving up on its dream quite yet, but after the D2 hung around at the company's low-end for the better part of four years, it's an alphabetic step backwards that's taking over as the successor. The diminutive C2 is about as simple as a PMP gets -- design wise, anyway -- but it's actually capable of supporting both music and video on its 2.6-inch resistive touchpanel. And then there's the purported 55 hours of battery life, included microSD card for expansion and the company's world-class audio quality. Still, $135 goes a long (long!) way in the portable music industry these days -- does the C2 pack enough punch to make your short list? Head on past the break to find out.

Gallery: Cowon C2 hands-on and unboxing