Gizmodo: rice

Accidentally Take Your Gadget Swimming? Rice Might Be Your Best Friend

Dan Nosowitz — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:00:00 EDT

Who hasn't accidentally left a phone, camera or MP3 player in a swimsuit pocket and gone swimming? It's a harrowing experience, but there's hope: Dunking the gadget in rice is a somewhat surprising yet very effective drying method.

We've all soaked a not-so-waterproof gadget or two, and we know that lots of them can come back to life after a few days of drying, albeit sometimes with some unfortunate damage. But dunking a wet gadget in a container of rice (provided the surrounding environment is humidity-free) can absorb excess moisture and reduce the possibility of damage, which can come in handy in these glorious summer months that are so fraught with danger for our beloved gadgetry. Not that we're suggesting you take your iPhone along with you for a surf, but if you do, this (and more suggestions at Lifehacker) might save your gadget's life. [Lifehacker]

Rice-Sized Solar Panels Produced Noodle-Sized Power

Mark Wilson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:20:00 EST

Researchers from the University of South Florida have developed a minuscule solar panel that's just 1/4 the size of a grain of rice. Yet when you combine 20 or so of the cells, they can create 7.8 volts of electricity. Sounds good so far, right? It gets better.

The solar cells could easily be incorporated into coatings for buildings and clothing, they're build primarily from abundant and green components carbon and hydrogen, and it's believed that their efficiency could double in the next year.

I love wind power and find hydroelectric moderately interesting. But it's stories like this that get me ridiculously excited about the potential of solar. Oh, and I swear I thought solar was cool before Obama won the election or whatever.

OK, fine fine. I totally lied. I didn't hear about solar power until earlier this week. Are you happy now?? [Reuters]

Wired: Rice Cookers Reviewed, Asians Everywhere Surprised

Brian Lam — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 18:35:20 EST

Chris Null of Yahoo! Tech and Mark McClusky, one of my old mentors at Wired, did a side by side shootout of Rice Cookers. They actually went and dethroned what I always considered the king of the long grain, short grain, and everything in between: The Zojirushi, known to me as the Hattori Hanzo in its class. Apparently its ability to start cooking at a set time, or its ability to make rice to different degrees of hardness, were meaningless after it prepped rice inconsistently between batches.

The winner? A Sanyo that doesn't even beep when its done. The Zojirushi was even topped by a Cuisinart. Just goes to show ya: even if you eat 100 pounds of rice a year, you can still learn something new about how to cook it. Asians everywhere, I suspect, will share my surprise. But a fair fight is a fair fight, and I assure you that those two know how to test gadgets. –Brian Lam

Go With the Grain [Wired]

Microwave Rice Cooker

Jason Chen — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:35:06 EDT

College students and lonely singles who enjoy rice, but don't want to make a whole bunch can use this Micro Rice Cooker from Japan to make rice for one. The rice washing is still necessary, but this allows you to use the microwave instead of a rice cooker, and comes in a small bowl—perfect for one.

This takes 15 minutes to heat up in the microwave and out comes a bowl of rice. We suppose you could just use a regular rice cooker and put in a tiny bit of rice for the same results, but this seems more gadgety. Available now for $44. – Jason Chen

Micro Rice Cooker [Compact Impact via Popgadget]