Justin Abdelkader has spent most of his short professional hockey career in the minor leagues, but the 21-year-old Detroit Red Wings centre is becoming a household name in the post-season. Abdelkader along with fellow farmhands Darren Helm and Villie Leino have moved seamlessly into the Wings lineup as fill-ins for injured regulars. Abdelkader, a lifelong Wings fan, has scored in each of the first two games of the Stanley Cup final.

via calgaryherald.com

Canada's banks continued to lend in March, but at an increasingly slower pace as the recession slammed demand for household and business credit, a report from TD Securities showed Monday. The report by Grant Bishop, an economist at TD, showed bank credit to households was unchanged in March, dragging the annual increase down to 10.2% from 11.3% in February. Mr. Bishop said the slower pace of lending was consistent with weak demand due to the worsening economic conditions.

via financialpost.com

Korean banks’ lending to households rebounded in February as home-backed lending rose by the largest amount in more than two years on the back of record-low borrowing costs, the central bank said yesterday.
Outstanding household loans by commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions amounted to 515.5 trillion won ($386.4 billion) as of the end of February, up 2.8 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. In January, household lending declined 3.3 trillion won, marking the steepest monthly fall in more than five years.

via joongangdaily.joins.com

At least 14,180 poor households in Ho Chi Minh City rose above the poverty line (over VND6 million/person/year) last year, a conference in the city heard Wednesday.
That meant only 3,203 households, 0.24 percent of the city’s total, remained below the poverty line at the end of last year, the municipal Steering Board for Hunger Eradication and Poverty Alleviation said at the conference.

via thanhniennews.com

Apparently the number 269 is quite important, it’s the address of an old building. That old building is what inspired the design of this clock. I can’t help but wonder what the actual building looks like and if it has a swinging pendulum on it as well. The nice thing is that the Japanese designer apparently has a true love for home, because they opted to use not only materials, but techniques from their local area in order to create the clock.

via coolest-gadgets.com

Sennheiser's latest entry into the world of uber premium headphones comes to us in the form of the stunning HD 800. New features include a completely new type of transducer and ear cup design. On the transducer design:
The HD 800 sets new standards with its innovative transducer technology. Measuring 56 mm, the transducer in the HD 800 is the largest that can currently be found in a dynamic head-phone. In simple terms: the more transducer surface area that vibrates, the purer the headphone sounds at low frequencies.

via i.gizmodo.com

Nyko has just announced wired versions of their Wing (classic controller) and Kama (nunchuk). And while the previously announced wireless versions may be more technically impressive, these models are recession-friendly. Identical to the previously released versions (except for a wire sticking out of each), the wired Wing and Kama will each retail for $15. That's literally half the price of Nyko's $30 wireless versions, or $5 less than what Nintendo's officially licensed versions cost ($20).

via gizmodo.com

Household waste collected weekly across Britain for recycling is being shipped and dumped in India, according to an investigation by ITVs 'Tonight programme'. As part of country's efforts to go green and improve the environment, UK councils ask households to carefully separate waste into different categories: plastics, metal, paper and glass so that they all can be recycled.

via ptinews.com

Emaar Properties said on Monday it plans to build one of the largest fountains in the world as the centrepiece of its Downtown Burj Dubai project. Arabian Business reveals what the real estate giant has in store. The fountains, which has yet to be named, will be capable of shooting water over 150 metres into the air - the height of a 50-storey building - and stretch over 275 metres - the length of two football fields.

via newlaunches.com

Ever wondered what the mute friend in your office tells his best friend? Wanted to learn sign language but couldn't find the time to join a training session. A group of researchers Carnegie Mellon University have come up with the Hand Talk Glove. Sensors in the glove pick up gestures and transmit the data wirelessly via Bluetooth to a cell phone which runs a Text to Speech software. The sensor data are converted first into text and then to voice output. A person not knowledgeable in Sign language can listen.

via newlaunches.com

It appears that Perpetual Kid, a site designed to “entertain your inner child”, has lived up to their slogan with the Lego speakers for the iPod and iPhone.
These Lego speakers have a connector that is fully compatible with the iPod Classic, Nano, and Mini. I can only assume that the sound comes out of those big plus signs that you see on the front. What you don’t see are the volume controls that are apparently “camouflaged” by design.

via coolest-gadgets.com

Have you ever been so mad to wake up in the morning that you smash your alarm clock? Hopefully you don’t do that every day, or that would be one expensive habit. However, you could purchase the Throw Alarm Clock, a special type of alarm clock which actually requires you to bounce or throw it in order to switch it off. As you can see, the Throw Alarm Clock is a cushioned ball with an LCD display. It also has all the features of an alarm clock such as a time, date, as well as an hourly chime and the aforementioned alarm.

via coolest-gadgets.com

The Kohler Fountainhead VibrAcoustic Bathtub adds a whole new dimension to your bathtub, throwing in sound vibration, chromatherapy, and music to enrich your soaking experience. After all, research has proven that sound vibration, music, and chromatherapy works wonders when it comes to relieving one of stress while keeping the mind at ease. The only thing missing is a complimentary rubber duckie to keep me company during my relaxing baths in a Kohler Fountainhead VibrAcoustic Bathtub.

via ubergizmo.com

Try to come up with idea for something weird to plug into your computer’s USB port, and there’s a good chance such a product already exists. Like this vibrating LCD alarm clock that looks like a washing machine.

Features:

Time, date and alarm clock LCD display

4 different melodies with vibration

Hourly chime signal with LED

12/24 hour mode switch

Clock setting by 3 control buttons

via geekalerts.com

It has been a while since we have reported on Tanita’s products. Tanita probably makes the best weighing scales in the world, but one of their products, the BC558 is more of a “Segmental Body Composition Monitor” than a scale.

So what exactly is a Segmental Body Composition Monitor? It is a way of taking individual measurements for each body segment, including the trunk, right arm, left arm, right leg, and left leg.

via coolest-gadgets.com