Amazing Lunar eclipse

A very rare lunar eclipse occurred during the early hours of 21 December 2010.It is the first time a full lunar eclipse has occurred during winter solstice since 1638 and the next one will occur in 2094.

A lunar eclipse happens when the sun, Earth, and moon align--with the Earth in the middle. By virtue of that placement, there is always a full moon during a lunar eclipse. Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is viewable for quite some time and is safe to view.

 

click to enlarge

Despite being in shadow, the Moon did not become invisible, as there was still residual light deflected towards it by our atmosphere.

Best of what's new 2010 part 2

Computing:

                                     Intel Wireless Display

The Web offers more entertainment than cable, but who cares when it’s all stuck on tiny laptop screens? Now, Intel’s Wireless Display (WiDi) makes the Internet watchable by streaming whatever is on your PC—from House on Hulu to live games on NFL.com—to your big, beautiful TV, no programming or wires required.

Home Technology:

            Neato Robotics XV-11 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Unlike the better-known Roomba, which cleans at random, bouncing off furniture and redirecting itself, the Neato XV-11 vacuums strategically. It surveys the room with its infrared laser range-finder, taking 4,000 readings a second and measuring the distance to every object within 15 feet, and repeats this reconnaissance from several vantage points until it has constructed a bulletproof plan of attack. Next it goes to work, vacuuming around the perimeter of the room and then taking out the center, zooming up and back in neat rows.

Home Entertainment:
                          Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT25

 In a fight, your home theater could now take on any cineplex, thanks to this 3-D TV. While other TV makers entered the third dimension with upgraded LCDs, Panasonic was the first company to work with ultrafast plasma. And it turns out that plasma is what it takes to make at-home 3-D beautiful.

Auto Tech:

                                 Porsche 918 Spyder

The future of the car will be electrified, and the Porsche 918 Spyder concept shows just how much fun it will be. In this mid-engine supercar’s current configuration, a 3.4-liter racing V8 shares propulsion duty with three electric motors that produce a combined 218 horsepower. Together, all four powerplants create 718 horsepower and catapult the Spyder from 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds, with a top speed of 198 mph—but if you don’t floor it, the Porsche can deliver up to 78 mph. In E-Drive mode, the electric motors alone propel the vehicle. Three different hybrid modes allow you to choose between varying degrees of efficiency and performance.

Recreation:  

                                    Sealegs 7.1M RIB

 

The first-ever commercial amphibious vessel with retractable all-wheel drive, the Sealegs rigid inflatable boat (RIB) allows boaters to launch and land nearly anywhere. On land, the 23-foot craft gets around on three 25-inch all-terrain tires. Each wheel is powered by its own hydraulic motor, while an onboard 24-horsepower motor provides the fluid. It tops out at 6 mph but can crawl over even the toughest terrain.

Aviation & Space:

                                Solar Impulse HB-SIA 

zero-emission flight

Made largely of carbon fiber, the HB-SIA weighs 3,500 pounds, roughly the same as a midsize sedan. The plane's 208-foot wingspan and its horizontal tail stabilizer are covered with 11,628 solar cells that supply electricity to its onboard electronics, four 10-horsepower electric motors and lithium-polymer battery packs. The battery packs take over from the solar panels approximately two hours before dusk, when the sun's rays become too weak to be useful.

Best of what's new 2010 part 1

Security:

                                                    

                             Hydronalix EMILY

Ocean riptides drown an estimated 100 people every year in the U.S. . EMILY, the Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard, is a four-foot-long remote-controlled rescue buoy that can zip across choppy waves at up to 26 mph, reaching a drowning victim 10 times as fast as any swimmer.

Green Tech:

                       AquaPro Holland Groasis Waterboxx 

Drylands actually have enough water to sustain trees for decades, but it’s several feet beneath the surface. Because rain and irrigation evaporate quickly, many young plants die before their roots can tap that reservoir. The Waterboxx, shaped more like a doughnut than a box, helps plants survive long enough to make it through that layer of dry soil. Place the tub around a freshly planted seedling, and fill the evaporation-proof basin—just once—with four gallons of water

Gadget:

                                           Apple iPad 

After years of companies trying to cram a computer into a tablet—the resulting boxes have been too heavy, the software too sparse, the screen too small—Apple made what everyone wanted: a sleek device with a gorgeous screen and a dead- simple interface that makes you want to sit back and play. The trick? Rather than shrink a computer, enlarge a phone. By using the same multitouch gestures and App Store as the iPhone, Apple created an intimate gadget for updating your Facebook status, watching a movie, or reading a magazine. Making it look simple. 

Engineering:

                              Burj Khalifa

The 2,716.5-foot-tall Burj is not merely “the world’s tallest building”; it’s taller than any other building by more than 1,000 feet. In structure, scale and sheer weight, the pride of Dubai is “a different animal,” says Skidmore Owings & Merrill engineer Bill Baker, who designed the beast with architect Adrian Smith. The engineering has the potential to transform the world’s skylines. 

Health:

Trauma doctors have a saying: Time is blood. The quicker a physician can identify an injury or disease, the better the patient's chances of survival. Ultrasound can show doctors a patient's beating heart or blood flowing through a kidney, and now the Vscan, just a bit larger than a smartphone, puts the tool in every doctor's lab coat. As a doctor glides the sound-wave-generating transducer wand over the patient, circuitry inside it combines overlapping echoes into images of organs or real-time blood flow and displays them on a handheld screen.

What happened in 2010

The entire review of year 2010 in 3 minutes