Gizmodo: Australian

Australian Student Invents Cheap Solar Using Nail Polish and a Pizza Oven

Elaine Chow — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT

An Australian PhD student has found a cheap way to make solar cells with nail polish, a pizza oven and an ink jet printer. 23-year-old Nicole Kuepper's invention, named iJET, doesn't require the pricey clean rooms and high-temperature ovens of traditional solar panel manufacturing plants, thus dramatically lowering the cost of solar and paving the road for introducing the technology to third-world countries.

Kuepper was awarded two Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, the country's top science award, for iJET. Unfortunately, it seems like the only page that would explain how iJET works is down right now, but Kuepper said it would probably take five years to commercialize the technology and it'll help people in less developed nations to “read at night, keep informed about the world through radio and television and refrigerate life-saving vaccines” without all those nasty CO2 emissions. [The Australian via Treehugger]

Retromodo: Astounding Analog Traffic Signal

Jason Chen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:40:00 EDT

This analog traffic signal was in use from the 1940s through the 1970s in Australia, eventually replaced by whatever it is they've got going there now (Koala bears on poles holding flash cards, we think). It's fantastic.

Instead of solid lights, the analog rotating signal shows you exactly how much time you've got left in a green or a red, allowing you to better time your "floor it, we can make it" so as to not run the light and get caught by the intersection cameras. It's an easy solution that can be rigged into current light schemes by putting a countdown number in each light instead of just a solid color. I need to patent this. [Infosthetics via Make via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Australians Boast 5Gbps Wireless Speeds

Eric Sheline — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:34:45 EST

As usual, just as 802.11n is being finalized news hits about a much faster wireless specification. An Australian NICTA team claims to have made a CMOS chip capable of 5Gbps transmission speeds at a distance of 32ft. Their so called "GiFi" transmitter is small and cheap, but is not yet approved by the IEEE nor independently speed tested. Even if this is real, the 2W power consumption will prevent it from dethroning 802.11n in mobile devices. [Ars]

Australian Miners Wreck It

Haroon Malik — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:02:18 EST

If you have always wondered how Australian miners amuse themselves when they are bored, wonder no longer. It is way cooler than any of us expected: they take a massive mining truck and use it to destroy land cruisers that are found unoccupied, all for funzies. Is there anything more fun than destroying large metal based structures with larger metal based structures? The video of the event indicates that there isn't. Don't believe us? Hit the video for the truth behind real good times. [Liveleak]

In the past two years, the Australian Navy ...

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:10:00 EDT

In the past two years, the Australian Navy has paid for 13 women to get breast implants for reasons of morale. But whose morale? [Danger Room]

M500 Wristwatch Phone Shipping

Travis Hudson — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:11:48 EDT

The M500 by SMS Technology is now shipping in the land down under for an extremely high $820.

We learned last month that this same phone is trying to get approval Stateside, so one could only assume that the FCC approval is imminent. Hey, Maxwell Smart, I think it is time to ditch that shoe phone once and for all. –Travis Hudson

Wrist Phone M500 Ships this Week from SMS Technology [Wrist Dreams]