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Italian village gets lit up thanks to gargantuos mirror
Considering nobody (well, mostly) likes to be alone in the dark for months on end, a group of Italians have devised a method to brighten everyone's day. Due to their position around numerous mountaintops that cut off direct sunlight and warmth during the winter months, the villagers were previously left to fend off darkness and cold without any external assistance, but thanks to a ridiculously large mirror (and some clever engineering), all that's changed. The sun-challenged hamlet nestled in the Ossola Valley now has a "towering 26- by 16-foot mirror installed on the flank of one bluff," and it utilizes a "computer to follow the sun's path and cast its rays back on Viganella." The project, seven years in the making, was reportedly difficult to construct and fund, but now that they've forked out the €100,000 ($131,260) and rediscovered the sun, we imagine the current population of 185 will likely be on the rise when envious folks from neighboring towns start to move in.
Konica Minolta develops ultra-bright mobile display
Making mobile displays extraordinarily bright seems counter to the logic that battery life is priority number one, but Konica Minolta is taking its chances and marketing its new organic EL backlight tech to cellphone manufacturers, claiming to rock 1,000 candela per square meter (by comparison, a highway flare burns at about 70 candela). We're questioning the need -- or ability, for that matter -- to look at a screen blasting more light at us than a small flashlight, but if the output can be toned down for typical use, we can certainly see the safety applications in this. Just don't kill our precious batteries, Konica Minolta, and we're down.[Via Akihabara News]
