Gearfuse

Ovi. What sounds like a menstruation period for a woman is actually Nokia’s attempt at an application store. According to TechCrunch and several other blogs, the service has launched but it’s hardly working. Search results yield nothing of value and the categories are all screwed up. Looking for a top ten apps list? No one’s been able to accomplish that yet. It’s not looking good for Nokia with a fucked up launch like this. Let’s hope that by Friday, Nokia has everything it needs to in place.

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Los Angeles is a focal point for earthquakes and it’ll be no surprise to scientists when another one hits the San Andreas Fault in the future. When it comes to ground trembling geological faults, you’ve got to be prepared.

That’s where Aftershock comes in. Aftershock is a game based on a 300-page U.S. Geological Survey that details how screwed L.A. would be if another devastating earthquake hit. The Institute for the Future and Art Center College of Design does not want L.A. to be caught with its pants down. So, Aftershock has been created as an interactive training system that will not only increase awareness, but change people’s behavior towards earthquakes.

“Think of the scenario as DOS,” said Jason Tester, the lead game designer at the IFTF. “[Aftershock] is like the GUI to the scenario.”

Well put, Mr. Tester.

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Evacuations are sometimes mandatory in times when a possible disaster could take many lives. This all sounds well and good, but formulating these evacuation plans are not so simple. How do you organize a mass evacuation of a hospital in which there are many bed ridden patients, some of these patients possibly being cancer victims, burn survivors, amputees, or even midgets?

A new product called the Evacusled, looks more like a product used in a mental institution then as a hospital rescue device, but turns hospital beds into sleds, allowing hospital employees to slide the bed ridden right out their rooms. Evacusled only takes one person to load a patient, compared to older methods which needed upwards of 3-4 per bed. — Andrew Dobrow

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If Evel Knievel had known about something like this Lifebag, who knows how many more brain cells he’d have left. Made for those into extreme sports (and possibly for those little bus riding helmet wearers I use to make fun of in school), the Lifebag is manually deployed, much like a parachute, producing a 150-liter shield in less than three seconds after deployment. But much like the hipDisk, how can we possibly take something that looks so silly, so seriously?

Something like this could also work in an event of a disaster. If you knew a tornado was coming, you could throw this on, and the Lifebag might just give you a saving grace by protecting your head and providing a space for you to breathe (or possibly vomit) if you were covered by debris. The Lifebag will cost around $1,110 and won’t be available in he U.S. until December of 2008. — Andrew Dobrow

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Not sure if you have ever noticed that some fluorescent lights do glow in the dark for a while after you’ve turned off the power, that’s because the excited particles (ions) take time to give out the light (photon) after being excited by electrical energy. NEC has extended this behavior of fluorescence material and apply it to their new Hotalook-alpha household lighting system, which was demoed at the Lighting Fair in Japan.

This has captured immense attention in Tokyo as Japan is a country where earthquakes are common, so when the lights go off, you’ll still be able to see around, hide under the table or gather everyone at the exits. This might also be useful in offices, when you would like to check if you have left anything before leaving, or in your bedroom so that you don’t have to fiddle your way on bed after turning off the lights. Another really important use is when the lamp gets smashed, you’ll still be able to see the pieces in dark and pick up the mess. The Hotalook-alpha series has just started selling in Japan, it is priced close to similar products without Hota-look-alpha technology. –Sam Chan

Tokyo Lighting Fair [Impress]