Sunglasses Made From Skateboards (Video)

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People will make sunglasses out of anything these days and the guys from Vuerich B are no exception

A slightly helpful Star Wars guide to buying sunglasses

By Oliver Jones
From: http://www.asylum.co.uk/

Who needs some new sunglasses for the summer? Yoda, that's who. Yoda and you.

Both of you fashionistas need to know what's going to be 'in' this year and that's where we step up, with the help of Vivienne Westwood designer Chloe Struyk.

That's right cool cats, with the help of one of fashion's top labels and the cast of Star Wars (obviously!) we present what's funky this year and what faces, human or otherwise, they fit...

(NB: Apologies for the standard of the photoshopping. We had to do it while bull's-eyeing womp rats in our T-16 back home.)

Read more: http://www.asylum.co.uk/2011/08/08/asylums-slightly-helpful-star-wars-sunglasses-buying-guide/#ixzz1UeCRA1Dv

Style: Aviators
Our expert says: "This style suits round faces. The big swooping lenses lengthens the face. Gold frames suits pale skin tones like the baggy old Emperor here, while silver frames suit more olive skin tones. There are plenty of variations on the aviator out there, it's best to keep it simple and try as many frames as possible."
Cooler than: The Emperor's new clothes. What do you mean he's been wearing the same cloak for years?

Read more: http://www.asylum.co.uk/2011/08/08/asylums-slightly-helpful-star-wars-sunglasses-buying-guide/#ixzz1UeCXirWw

Style: Circular
Our expert says: "Round frames are really on-trend right now. It's a really strong look but it won't work for some face shapes. They suit angular and long faces. They soften big cheekbones and long jaws. I mean they're helping Moff Tarkin here a bit, but that really is a hell of a face."
Cooler than: A Nine Inch Nails gig on the Death Star.

Style: Wayfarers
Our expert says: "Wayfarers are awesome. They'll always be cool. They have this amazing capacity in that they really suit most face shapes. They pull in long faces and extend round ones. Black, or ideally, deep tortoise shell frames, look better on long faces like old Hammerhead here."
Cooler than: A planet Hoth Slush Puppie.

Style: Wayfarers
Our expert says: "Yeah like I said they suit all face shapes. But if you've got a round face, you can go for slightly more outlandish frames. Now I've seen Yoda in these I can't remember what he looks like without them. That's how hard he's pulling these off. The thick-framed, Ray-Ban, 50s reissue, with the over-sized hinges are the best example."
Cooler than: Admiral Akbar supping a scotch on the rocks at Mos Eisley.

Style: Sports
Our expert says: "Sports visors suit round and oval face shapes, and they're going to be massive again this summer, whether it's the Kanye grill shades, or the rather natty 80s hold-screen style being flexed right here. I'm not sure they do anything for green skin-tones though. Be loud and proud with the frame, bright colours, anything goes really."
Cooler than: 80s orange tank tops.

Style: Teigan or Square lenses
Our expert says: "These suit oval and round shaped faces. They are achingly cool, and all you really need to pull them off is a lot of confidence, something Lando isn't short of. There is something about a square lens shade with facial hair too, that really works. I can't explain why exactly, but look at Lando. Phwoar."
Cooler than: Lando's 'stache. Actually, nothing's that cool.

Style: 80s wraparound
Our expert says: "Oval faces and men with lots of facial hair. The 80s angular style wraparound glasses are just incredible. Team them up with a simple v-neck tee, a pair of cropped trousers and some espadrilles, you'll look the bomb. Can't imagine Obi-Wan adopting that look mind. Good photoshopping by the way." Liar.
Cooler than: A carbonite office table.

Style: Clubmaster
Our expert says: "Square-jawed blokes get the honour of wearing the clubmaster. They were without doubt last year's hipster frame of choice and are sure to be everywhere this summer. It's a difficult frame to pull off, because they're so top heavy and square. Blokes with strong jaw lines should try them, but everyone else beware."
Cooler than: When Star Wars meets football.

Style: 80's visor glasses
Our expert says: "This is a really bold statement. This style was very big, very briefly in the 80s, but was even a bit outlandish then. Whether we're sartorially enlightened enough to cope with them this time round, only time will tell. Personally I adore them, and Chewie here is really working them. They're big and heavy, so they'll suit long broad heads best but might overwhelm small, rounder face shapes."
Cooler than: A breakdance fight between Wookies and Ewoks. Brrrrap!

Growing a New Eye (With a Little Help From Technology and You)

Posted by erinleecarr

From http://www.motherboard.tv/

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When I grew up, I wanted to be like Sarah Connor in Terminator II: leather clad, ass-kicking, and mean as a snake. But my male compatriots yearned to be Arnold: part-man, part-machine. Our society has always nurtured a fascination with the melding of humanity and science. And its origins were often more based in fantasy—see sci-fi favorites such as Darth Vader, Robocop, or Tom Cruise—than reality.

But the melding of metal and flesh begs a few questions. If you put metal parts into an individual do they stop being a human? How much metal can you put into a person before he/she isn’t a person? At what point does the line between humanity and AI bleed into each other? Obviously, this amalgamation provokes a certain amount of conflict, anxiety, and identity crisis.

But what about people who aren’t characters in movies, everyday people who want to fuse the concepts for the betterment of their bodies and minds? Enter Tanya Vlach, a women who lost her eye during a horrific car accident. Before the accident she was a well-known visual artist and performer. Afterwards, she had a frontal lobe minor brain injury and was missing an eye. Despite her subsequent depression, Tanya refused to be victim of her circumstances and sought a fix through technology. What if she could see again, but better? Couldn’t she just put a bionic eye in her socket and move on?

She pitched her idea to Wired founder Kevin Kelly; his curiosity was piqued. He put out a personal call to engineers to help build an implant of a miniature camera inside her prosthetic eye. Hundreds of scientists and engineers responded with their ideas. But such innovations don’t come cheaply; insurance wasn’t going to pay for this, and she didn’t have the money.

In June, Tanya started a Kickstarter campaign. It was quickly picked up by the Internet, and suddenly she was the newest poster child for transhumanism and body modification. Her project, Eye-Camera: an experiment in wearable technology, cybernetics, and perception. The project inspired frequent questions on her website ranging from the laughable (“Are you a Spy”) to the hopeful and suspicious (“are you starting a cyborg revolution?”). One can dream.

Tanya continues to travel and discuss her plight and subsequent plan of action across the United States; on Sunday July 31st she comes to Brooklyn for an eye fundraiser at Brooklyn Winery. Come prepared to discuss cyborgs, eyes, and the art that lies in between.

False Eyelashes Made of Paper Celebrate Wildlife

by Jaymi Heimbuch

from http://www.treehugger.com/

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Photos by Paperself, courtesy of NoneSuchThings

The things we do for fashion can be extraordinary, and often damaging to the environment and our health. But for once here is an interesting fashion statement that promotes the environment, rather than harms it.

Fashion website nonesuchthings has a few designs for eyelash extensions. The site writes:

Inspired by the art of Chinese paper cutting, these delicately pretty and intricately cut paper eyelashes are so utterly exquisite. They come in a really neat little box with a display window and can be reused over and over again and they also make a fabulous and surprising gift and are just plain fun to wear.

Not only fun to wear, but they have a deeper meaning: "The designs come steeped in Chinese symbolic meaning with "Deer and Butterfly" meaning "free, sensitive and delicate".

These are certainly better than some eyelash fashion we've seen -- anyone remember those crazy LED eyelashes?

These nature-centric eyelashes are available to purchase from www.nonesuchthings.com.
Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this

Bin Laden Killing Team May Have Used Night Vision Contact Lenses

Jesus Diaz

from: http://gizmodo.com/

Christian at Military.com's Kit Up! has heard an interesting rumor on one of the technologies that Seal Team 6 used to kill Osama bin Laden: Night vision contact lenses! Holy pants, Batman.

I heard a rumor that the Team guys who busted bin Laden might have been wearing "cat vision" contact lenses that literally give the wearer night vision for a limited time without having to wear the bulky, heavy NVGs.

Night Vision Goggles technology has advanced quickly over the last decade. Right now, the most advanced setups are panoramic models that use four 16mm image intensifying tubes, which provide with a 100º horizontal by 40º vertical field of view. They are made by the same company that makes the F-35 demon helmet as well as other manufacturers.

These helmets are still limited, however, especially for special operation teams. While they are better than your standard NVGs, they are quite bulky and heavier and still don't provide with the natural field of view that would be ideal for field operations.

These rumored night vision contacts, however, are almost sci-fi material. People have been speculating about this technology for almost a decade, so perhaps they exist in some hidden Area 51 lab. If anyone has access to these, that would be the SEALs from Team 6. We already know that these guys have access to really advanced, completely unknown technology like their stealth transport helicopters. I wouldn't be surprised if they had other toys like these. [Kit Up]

Scientists grow 'embryonic eye' in test tube

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Eye transplants to cure blindness have taken a step closer after scientists managed to 'grow' a retina in the laboratory for the first time.

Cultured stem cells spontaneously organise themselves into an optic cup 

By Richard Alleyne, 

Science Correspondent

Researchers were amazed when stem cells in a test tube spontaneously organised themselves into a complex structure that resembles the developing embryonic eye.

The surprising development could lead eventually to whole retinas being cultured and then transplanted, restoring sight in the blind and visually impaired.

The team from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan, first cultivated embryonic stem cells in a test tube and then added proteins to trigger them into developing.

They hoped that they would form a recognisable organ but were still stunned when over 10 days they clustered together and began to grow the "optical cup" of a retina.

Tests showed that the cells were functioning normally and were capable of communicating with each other.

The research was done on mouse eyes, but there is no reason why a similar technique would not work on humans, said the experts.

They hope that within 10 years to be able to start clinical trials on retina implants.

"This is an absolutely stunning achievement," said Professor Robin Ali, an ophthalmologist at University College London.

"It is a landmark not just for the retina but for regenerative medicine as a whole."
More than a million people in Britain suffer from vision problems caused by a damaged or malfunctioning retinas.
The retina is the "business end" of the eye, where nerve cells convert light into electrical and chemical signals that are sent to the brain down the optic nerve.

If it is not working then the eye is useless.

Professor Yoshiki Sasai, lead author said: "What we've been able to do in this study is resolve a nearly century-old problem in embryology, by showing that retinal precursors have the inherent ability to give rise to the complex structure of the optic cup."

His team, who filmed the technique as it unfolded, grew floating clusters of the mouse cells in a special tissue culture in the laboratory that had previously been successfully used to make a variety of brain cells.

By adding particular proteins they were able to get the cells to build a three dimensional layered structure reminiscent of the optic cup within 10 days.

The retinal neurons ultimately organised into a six-layer structure closely resembling that of a retina shortly after birth.

This could eventually lead to treatments aimed at repairing the eyes of people with conditions that limit or destroy their sight.

Potential applications include regenerative medicine approaches to the treatment of progressive genetic disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa.

Prof Ali, who reviewed the research published in Nature, said: "For the first time, we see unfolding in real time the beautiful events that shape the early stages of mammalian eye development.

"But even more remarkable is that these are not recordings from live animals, but of self-organising 3-D cultures of embryonic stem cells."

The First Laptop To Be Controlled With The Eye

By: Radu
From: http://www.geekwithlaptop.com/

Lenovo, the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of personal computers, a multinational corporation with principal operations based in China and Head Quarters in USA, has built the world’s first eye-controlled laptop, using eye tracking technology from Tobii. Tobii Technology is a manufacturer of hardware and software solutions for eye tracking.

The company was founded by three Swedish entrepreneurs; John Elvesjo, Henrik Eskilsson and Marten Skogo, in 2001 and has continuously shown very rapid year-to-year revenue growth -- in 2007, Tobii was awarded a prize as Sweden’s fastest growing technology company by Deloitte.

What exactly does this technology mean, in plain English? Tobii’s eye-control tech allows users to do things like select, point and scroll, these are things you’d traditionally do with a mouse or track pad. Even more, the developers say that there are already games that are available and which can be played with the eyes only.
Nonetheless, Lenovo and Tobii are on the edge of revolutionizing the notebooks market with this unthinkable product. As the company states: “The laptop is a fully functional conceptual prototype and an important breakthrough for Tobii in its mission to bring its eye tracking technology to serial production and consumer products.” Watch the video below to get a better understanding of what exactly an eye-control laptop really means.




Also, texts can be made to automatically scroll upwards or return downwards as the user reads them by using their eye movement. This is possible due to small infrared camera incorporated in the laptop that track eye’s positioning. But, there’s a fear that this technology will put our eyes to a higher stress. Will the Lenovo-Tobii partnership manage to pass over this issue?

The official representatives of the companies affirm that this technology isn’t very hard to understand and use, as it may seem at first sight. Even if the eye-tracking technology gives the user the chance to do with his eyes things he’d normally do with a mouse, this doesn’t mean that it totally replaces those devices.

“More than anything else, the Tobii laptop prototype is proof that our eye tracking technology is mature enough to be used in standard computer interfaces. To reach a state where the technology is part of the average computer, we need to make it smaller and cheaper. We believe that this can be realized in a couple of years by partnering with the right manufacturer,” comments Henrik Eskilsson, CEO of Tobii Technology.
“On the one hand, we have Lenovo, a great partner, representing industry-leading expertise in computer manufacturing and hardware development. Tobii, on the other hand, has the world’s leading eye tracking technology and unique expertise in eye tracking and eye control interfaces. We are very happy with the outcome of this collaboration,” Henrik Eskilsson concluded.

Johns Hopkins doctors do brain surgery via eyelid

By Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun

From: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/

Barbara Haddock, Baltimore Sun

When Liane Lefever complained to her doctor about a persistent ear ache, an examination found a much more serious problem: a brain tumor.

For many Americans, that diagnosis could have led to invasive surgery — including slicing open her skull — and a long recovery. But with an innovative procedure being pioneered by two doctors from Johns Hopkins Hospital, her tumor was removed through a small incision in her eyelid.

"When you tell people you had brain surgery, the first thing people always do is look for a scar, and that's what's amazing, there isn't one," said Lefever, 47, who lives in Manheim, Pa. "Anyone who needs to go through this should know it's not that big of a deal even if it sounds like it is."

"When you tell people you had brain surgery, the first thing people always do is look for a scar, and that's what's amazing, there isn't one," said Lefever, 47, who lives in Manheim, Pa. "Anyone who needs to go through this should know it's not that big of a deal even if it sounds like it is."The Hopkins doctors first used the procedure three years ago and it's still relatively rare — there have been only about 18 patients so far at the hospital. But the doctors, who published this month the first studies on the procedure, hope to add more patients and varieties of the surgery. Eventually, they believe, a quarter of tumors could be removed and many other repairs could be made this way.

The method adds another entry point to the brain for surgeons who also are going through the nose, eyebrow and even leg. And it means many more patients with common brain maladies could avoid traditional surgery — as well as its complications and costs.

"In surgery in general, we have a goal of doing things in a simpler way so patients recover more quickly and the cost is less," said Dr. Kofi Boahene, a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who helped pioneer the eyelid procedure. "This is a new concept in minimally invasive surgery."

Dr. Anand V. Germanwala, an assistant professot at the North Carolina School of Medicine and a spokesman for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, said such minimally invasive procedures are still only performed at a few, mainly academic facilities around the nation. Traditional surgery is still most commonly used — and is often the best method because it allows for such a large opening in which to work.

But the quick procedure and the small incision were appealing to Lefever, whose tumor was removed in October.

She had a meningioma, a type of tumor that grows from the protective membranes, called meninges, that surround the brain and spinal cord. After seeking a second opinion, she landed in Boahene's office and in three months, the tumor had doubled in size.

Lefever knew it had to come out.

When the doctors told her they would enter the brain through her eyelid, she was most worried about her vision. But the procedure poses little threat of that, though she did lose some of her sense of smell because of the tumor's location. She was wearing contacts again in three months and back at work at the family french fry business in several weeks.

Eyelids weren't Boahene's first forays into brain surgery. He had worked with Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, a neurosurgeon and associate professor at Hopkins, on the nasal surgery, a procedure pioneered in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s.

But three years ago, a 14-month old boy with a tumor needed a biopsy that could not be accessed through his nose. Boahene began thinking about alternatives to the very invasive, traditional method, which involves shaving the patient's hair, peeling back the scalp, sawing into the top half of the skull and moving around sensitive brain tissue.

As a plastic surgeon, Boahene had been cutting into eyelids for years and knew the location might provide access to the middle and front region of the brain. He approached Quinones-Hinojosa. The boy's surgery and the 17 others since then have gone smoothly, with patients recovering significantly faster and with less scarring than traditional surgery, and with less infection than with nasal surgery.

Under the minicraniotomy, the eyelid is cut at a crease, and a quarter-sized piece of bone is removed just above the eyebrow. A computer-guided endoscope fitted with a camera leads surgical instruments to a tumor or a brain fluid leak needing repair. Once the work is done a few hours later, the bone is replaced and a small metal plate is used to hold it in place. A few dissolvable sutures close the eye lid and leave no visible scar.

Indeed, when Jeanne Fogas bats her eyes, there isn't a hint of her surgery to remove a benign brain tumor a little over a year ago. She wasn't even exactly sure where the incision was made.

Behind her right eye she had a two-centimeter meningioma. It was discovered through a routine MRI. The 59-year-old occupational therapist from Gettysburg, Pa., was referred to the Hopkins doctors.

Her tumor had started to grow and needed to be removed before it affected her vision or caused brain damage, the doctors told her. But the tumor was near her optic nerve and would be tough to reach through her nose or even through traditional surgery.

She was surprised when doctors told her they planned to go through her eyelid.

"I went home [from surgery] in two days, and it looked like someone punched me in the eye," she said. "When I think of the alternative, more invasive surgery, it was nothing."

She said she has had no pain. For a while she heard the sound of rushing water and kept smelling a strange odor. Occasionally, her eye gets a little puffy. No big deal, she said. She returned to work in less than three months.

Doctors say each patient could have unique side effects depending on the location and type of tumor. Patients could also have complications from anesthesia. But in general the risks are far fewer than traditional surgery.

There aren't accurate statistics on how many minimally invasive brain procedures like these are performed annually, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. But last year, there were an estimated 22,070 new cases of brain and central nervous system tumors diagnosed, according to the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.

The Hopkins doctors say that in coming years they expect thousands to have the eyelid procedure, formally known as a transpalpebral orbitofrontral craniotomy. They describe the procedure in the June issue of the Journal of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery and in the July issue of Skull Base.

Eventually, the doctors say they may use it on car accident victims, those with other injuries, and particularly, those who have had traditional surgery but require another procedure.

"The transpalpebral approach is a very viable and practical option for thousands of surgeries done each year in the United States that involve problems deeply seated behind the eyes or at the front of the brain," said Quinones-Hinojosa.

He and Boahene said doctors at several facilities around the country are pioneering other minimally invasive procedures, involving eyelids, sockets and brows, and are building on each others' work. The success stories, which eventually spread to other facilities, will mean many more options for patients, they said.

Among those adopting new procedures is Germanwala, an assistant professor and chief of the section of cerebrovascular and skull base neurosurgery. After training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and at Hopkins, he frequently operates through the nose and has a few times gone in through the eyebrow and eyelid.

In the next decade, advances in research and collaboration are likely to broaden surgeons' tool boxes, he said. Other up and coming areas are robotics, where surgery is performed via computer, and radiation, for which there are new methods that can help patients avoid surgery.

"We're really at the beginning," Germanwala said. "These are just additional tools in a great bag of tricks we have today. In 15 to 20 years, we'll look back and say, 'Wow, we used to do it that way!'"

Meredith.Cohn@baltsun.com

Woman glues right eye shut

A woman is facing permanent damage to her sight after she mistook a bottle of toxic nail glue for eyedrops.

Paula Griffin(29) from Bournemouth glued her eye shut when she dropped nail glue into her eye instead of eye drops Photo: BNPS

Paula Griffin, 29, squirted the hazardous liquid into her right eye by mistake after waking up with blurred vision.

Her eye was glued shut for eight hours and was only prised open again when doctors cut off her lashes.

Miss Griffin was warned she could have lost her sight forever and is still waiting to be told if there is any lasting damage.

The accident happened when she woke up and reached for a bottle of eyedrops in a bathroom cupboard.

But in her confused state she grabbed an identical-sized bottle of nail glue that was next to it.

The glue is used by beauty professionals to fix false nails and carries a toxic symbol and a warning that it bonds skin within seconds.

Paula, from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: "I was still really tired and I couldn't see very well, so I stumbled into the bathroom and picked the bottle off the shelf.

"As soon as I squeezed it, I knew something was wrong.

"I managed to stop it hitting the centre of the eye, and doctors told me later that it saved me from permanent damage.

"It was agonising. It was burning so much it was my natural instinct to shut my eye.

"But as soon as I did, my eyelashes stuck fast together and I couldn't open my eye again."

Miss Griffin, who also runs her own fancy dress business, said: "I would hate people to think I'm just some dumb blonde, because I'm not.

"It was a nasty accident, and it could have happened to anyone but I won't be putting the bottles anywhere near each other again, that's for sure."

Dr Simon Bell, consultant in emergency medicine at Poole Hospital, said: "As long as the glue remains on the outside of the eye, the injury will be extremely painful but will only have superficial or cosmetic damage."