Technabob » gray

Solid Gray: Backpack to the Future

Range — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:00:29 +0000

I’ve seen a few hard shell backpacks in my time, but this is one of the first that is supposed to be quite lightweight as well, since its cut and folded out of a single sheet of copolymer. It’s called Solid Gray and it definitely looks like an interesting pack to have.

The hard shell actually folds back to open up. It has straps to secure your laptop and tablet. There are two compartments to store smaller items, like smartphones. The backpack is made in the Netherlands. The straps look a bit too minimal for my taste, but the rest of the design is definitely unique. It weighs 2.5 pounds and its capacity is 15L. It can fit laptops up to 15.6″.

The backpacks are being sold through Solid Gray’s official eBay site, where you can get yours for appx. $162 USD. They’re available in either white or gray, but the gray color is currently out of stock.

Experiment Reveals Gray Hair Means Damaged Dna – So Baldness Means Lack of Dna?

Lambert Varias — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:30:42 +0000

Can mental or emotional stress damage our DNA? An experiment has shown that the presence of gray hair means that the melanocyte stem cells in hair follicles – that ones that become melanocytes that give color to hair - have badly damaged DNA. In response, our body forces these DNA damaged stem cells into early maturity. No melanocyte stem cells means no melanoctyes, and no melanocytes means gray hair.

The experiment was conducted by dermatologist Emi Nishimura in 2004. She exposed mice (their hair also grays with age) to genotoxic stressors – things that can damage our DNA – such as chemotherapy drugs and x-rays. The hair of the mice turned gray, and as Nishimura said, “the stressed mice’s gray hairs and the cell populations in their follicles were indistinguishable from those of elderly mice, suggesting that genotoxic stress might drive natural graying as well.”

So what does all of this mean? Oncologist David Fisher says that while it’s very strong evidence that the things we encounter everyday – radiation from the sun, household chemicals, perhaps even the medicine we take – can all damage us at a genetic level, the experiment doesn’t prove that emotional stress can damage our DNA or induce premature maturation of our cells.

More importantly, the experiment shows that to some extent our body is capable of protecting itself from DNA-damaged cells by accelerating their aging. Fisher thinks that the experiment is a good starting point to find ways for our body to do the same to cancer cells – which are also DNA-damaged cells.

[via Science]

Gray Xbox 360 Coming Soon?

Technabob — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:16:40 +0000

There’s an image circulating around the web this morning showing what looks suspiciously like a GRAY Xbox 360 model.

Notice the console on the far left is decidedly darker in appearance than the white models in the middle. The photo was snapped by the guys over at Gamerscore Blog, who managed to sneak a peak at Microsoft’s press conference venue for this week’s E3 event.

There are a lot of theories on what this case could be, but the most likely scenario is that it’s a new “low-end” model that would retail for around $249, perhaps running on new, lower cost hardware. This would fit in nicely with all the rumors that Microsoft is going to drop prices on the consoles as a direct response to Sony’s PS3 price drop this week.

I’m sure Microsoft will spill the beans later tonight, but for now it’s fun to speculate.

[via Joystiq]