The Asian Fantastic |

Glow sticks are a fantastic idea, the technology behind which I have always wished to understand. Beyond knowing that they do not glow because they housed gu10 led bulbs, I knew little else about the mechanism behind the glow stick, which is why I decided to conduct a little research. Glow sticks consist of a small fragile container containing a solution which is within a flexible outer container which contains another solution. When the glow stick user bends the outer container, the inner container is broken which releases the solution within the smaller container into the second solution which is housed in the outer container. The two solutions in question are hydrogen peroxide and phenol and it is recommended to keep these away from one’s skin as they have been known to have adverse effects.

The two chemicals within the glow stick are also accompanied by a fluorescent dye to ensure that the glow stick does indeed flow. Inside the plastic tube is a mixture of diphenyl oxalate and dye. Inside the fragile glass vial is hydrogen peroxide. When the phenyl oxalate ester and the peroxide are mixed, a chemical reaction occurs which creates one molecule of peroxyacid ester and two molecules of phenol. Energy is released by the spontaneous decomposition of peroyacid into carbon dioxide which then excites the dye which releases a photon. The structure of the dye determines the colour of the emitted light. Who would have thought? I always took for granted that glow sticks simply emitted a fluorescent light when I snapped them!

PCI stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect, and it is a computer bus that is utilised for attaching hardware devices in a computer. These attached hardware devices can be either an expansion card that is fitted into a slot, or an integrated circuit that is fitted onto the motherboard. Really cool right? PCI cards are usually: sound cards, network cards, modems, extra ports, disk controllers, and TV tuner cards. PCs nowadays, have no cards fitted.

So who the devil came up with such a riveting concept? Look no further than an exciting team of Intel engineers who developed the PCI in partnership with teams in the company’s PC systems. I can hear you are dying to find out their names. Well, hold your breath no longer, I am about to spill the beans. The original PCI team who created the Peripheral Component Interconnect, were: Dave Carson, Brad Hosler, Norm Rasmussen, Ed Solari, Gary Solomon, Bruce Young, Tom Sakoda, Ali Oztaskin, Jeff Rabe, Rich Haslam, and Steve Fischer. Work on the PCI commenced in 1990 and when it was completed, PCI was puts to use in servers within seconds! Goodbye MCA and EISA, hello PCI!

Today, the Celestron company is one of the most well-known and respected companies which makes telescopes. The company has a very interesting history which starts when a man named Tom Johnson wanted to find a telescope for his two sons who were young at the time. He couldn’t find any acceptable starter telescopes so Johnson decided to make one from scratch instead. The first “Celestron” telescope was a six-inch reflector. Johnson discovered that he had a passion for building telescopes and began to make increasingly larger and more advanced telescopes. Soon, what started out as a hobby turned into a business venture.

The innovation which really put Celestron telescopes on the map was when the company was challenged to make a production-efficient Schmidt corrector plate. These plates are used in high end telescopes but are hard to make for general use because of their unique surface which is a bit wavelike. The team at Celestron found out how to mass produce the plates and by the 1970s these high end telescopes were available to amateur astronomers at a reasonable price. Johnson held onto the Celestron company until 1980 and then it had a few different users. Through the years, Celestron has lived up to its initial mission of making great starter telescopes. While Celestron also does make many professional level telescopes, amateurs love that they can get a good quality telescope from Celestron for a very reasonable price.

2011 saw me in the exact clothes I was in 2010 so this year I made a resolution to overhaul my wardrobe. Luckily, I had some Littlewoods discount codes to facilitate this particular New Years’ Resolution. So, January 2nd dawned and off I went to Littlewoods to buy myself dresses, socks, jumpers, jackets, tights, skirts, shoes, trainers, and underwear. It feels fantastic to be in a whole set of new clothes now instead of wearing constantly the same gear. People were even starting to notice that I was always in the same clothes, it had got rather embarrassing!

So now I am facing 2012 with an entirely new wardrobe and an entirely new frame of mind. It’s amazing how clothes can have such an impact on your mentality. If I’m overdressed somewhere, I hate it. If I’m underdressed somewhere, I’m similarly in an awful mood. If I’ve stained my clothes before I’ve yet to leave the house, that also puts me in a bad mood, though it certainly puts my mother in a worse mood!

The Kunsthaus Tacheles was originally built as a department center in Berlin. Originally named “Friedrechsstadtpassagen”, it currently serves as an artist’s center in the Mitte district. It is cover in murals and graffiti with art sculptures inside. In the courtyard metal-works take place, the building also contains workshops, a nightclub and a theatre. The building at one point served as a Nazi prison and was later partially demolished. In 1990 when the building was scheduled to be demolished a group of artists occupied the building, after discovering the building was actually structurally sound they had the building deemed a historical landmark. The centre was intitally run by curator Jochen Sandig. He expanded the building dramatically. Early on Tacheles served as both an artist’s space and home for several well-known artists, dancers and theatre groups. In 1991 the housing structures burnt down, many believe this was to make way for a new artists centre. I accidently wandered into this building my first night in Berlin. They had massive prints of their artwork, Im going to Metroprint later to print out my work as big as the prints I saw in Tacheles, I found all the details about Metroprint large prints here on their site.