Well, the only reason I am writing this review is to stop anyone else paying to see it when it’s really best to wait until it comes out on DVD if I’m honest!

I only went to see it due to the 2 magic words: ‘Bruce’ and ‘Willis’.  And however sexy he looked in his little suit - he was barely a cameo role - as was Arnie who was in the film even less than Mr Willis!

I loved all the action-hero films of the 80’s and 90’s - so was drawn to this film due to all the old favourites in there from Die Hard, Commando and Rocky - as well as the new kid on the block; Jason Statham.  However, this was a disappointment.

The Plot:
I can’t say it any other way than the storyline was terrible.  There were several characters who weren’t even famous to begin with which seemed a bit weird as the others were all such long-termers in the movie world.

All of the baddies were ‘movie nobodies’ and even 2 of the ‘good guys’ were so un-important that they may as well have been acted by the same person - nobody would have really noticed!

Dolph’s character had a pointless role of ‘loose cannon turned baddie turned goodie again’ with really only the slimmest of connections to the main story - which itself was rather predictable and flimsy!

Basically these guys are a gang of heavies who go in and get things (like hostage situations) sorted asap - and that’s how the film opens.  They then get propositioned by the very handsome Bruce Willis to help out with a problem on an imaginary Central or South American Island - which they turn down - but then go and do anyway after the ’sexy’ Governors daughter helps them out.

Needless to say the bad guys all die and the good guys get barely a scratch after lots of explosions and fights (and a few corny gags).

The Good Bits:
Some of the fight scenes did have me on the edge of my seat, however.  I was so involved with the fighting and watching the really ‘nice’ injuries (like heads totally blown off, arms hacked off, etc) that the film went really quickly and it all made up for the fact that I couldn’t really hear what a lot of the characters said (but then that was always a problem with Stallone anyway!).

Conclusion:
Wait for the DVD release so you can fast-forward all the terrible biker/tattoo den scenes and the equally terrible airplane CGI effects - and then put the subtitles on so you actually know what they are saying!

My cinema viewing took place in a room with less than 100 seats and there were barely 20 or us in there on a Friday night!  I can’t believe its a Number 1 Box Office Hit! 

Go watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World insteadand add this to your Love Film listings! 

Almost every day, there is an announcement about something great to advance our thinking or challenge our current ways of thinking - the future looks so different - if only we would make the change!

Looking back over time Adam Park takes us through his top 10 Tech Milestones That Changed The World for a glance at the past - and hopefully they can take us places in the future!

Add to this some of the following technological information here from Susan, as she details her best 25 Startups Revolutionizing Biotechnology. Even small things can make a huge difference!

Staying with the prefix ‘bio’ - take a look at the amazing advances and technology involved with Mike’s great article on: Massive Future MRI Machine Promises to Unravel the Secrets of Human Biochemistry! Great stuff!

Moving on to inventions today - read on if you want to know about something new: Coming Soon to a Classroom Near You: 10 Things To Know About Robot Teachersby the converted Erin Lenderts! Now I’m not sure if these will ever really take over in mainstream schools - but the idea for smaller groups or adult learners could really be a good thing!

And, if you ignore all the adverts at the top - scroll down to a very thorough article by Rick Cole as he reviews the difference between to very similar in-car technologies: Garmin vs TomTom. Worth a peak if you are considering a sat nav in the future.

And finally - How to use Twitter in a way I hadn’t really thought off: Sharons719 offers us 50 “Healthy” Ways to Use Twitter. Very interesting!

And on that note - get back outside and enjoy the nice weather before winter sets in!

You don’t need a separate scanner and fax machine anymore (the 2 are combined), a whole room for your computers (laptops are shrinking) or even a computer to update your emails or write documents (a smart phone or iPad will do!).

So why are you still struggling to maintain and house your hired phone system in your office?

If you are thinking of improving your business - and the perception of your business - then VoIP for business could be just what you are looking for - so let’s learn more about what it can offer the small and large business - whatever your business!

VoIP Today:
This Internet-based communication system was first hyped up to get ‘free’ phone calls over the Internet by plugging a headset into your computer - but it has certainly come a long way now.

Your office phone system could be completely off-site - with no hiring, storage and maintenance of hefty or bulky equipment - basically you just have your own phones and your existing phone line - everything else is off-site and so there is nothing to worry about.

Basically, you can have all the services you currently have with your ground-based phone system with the constantly improving Internet-based VoIP.  Whether it’s conference calls, call divert or ansa-phone systems - it will all be exactly the same as before - only better!

Not only will it be better - but it will be quicker, easier and cheaper than your existing system - virtually guaranteed!

Business Benefits:
Well, the most obvious benefit will be the financial savings involved!  Not only are VoIP calls cheaper in the first place - you won’t be having to pay to hire any equipment to get started.

There will be no maintenance costs at all - as all the equipment is off-site, except your own phones and computers.  Any upgrades can be quickly and easily added to your account overnight via your IP rather than having to change software or hardware yourself (no doubt at an extra cost as well!).

There is also no need to sign a long term contract as these services are usually charged for monthly usage only rather than the huge investment you make by taking on a whole hardware system. 

And most businesses can save between 50-85% on existing calls - as you simply pay for each user, not the number of calls they make!  So no more paying extra to call during working hours - or waiting to the weekend to save a few pence a minute.  And think of that ‘free’ time on the phone to spend on talking to your new clients, or calling to update your existing clients and answer any of their questions.

You can be online with your new VoIP system in minutes rather than having to waste days fitting and wiring a contract system throughout your office - and of course there is no need to stay in the same office for the length of your contract to save moving it all and rewiring everything at your new office.  This system is totally phone-line based and is only fixed to a phone number - not a building or postcode!

And you don’t even need to give up your existing business numbers to sign up - they are totally transferable onto your business VoIP account!

I don’t know what you are waiting for!

The idea is that many other European cities are bicycle friendly, and thousands of people use bikes all the time when in town - and having stood outside of Amsterdam Train Station on a week day, I have seen the sheer numbers involved!

So, London have taken the initiative and offered a ‘bicycle hire’ scheme to get people on to 2 wheels without the expense of buying a bike outright and worrying about storing your own bike in small flats on chained to fences overnight!

The Scheme:
At the moment you have to sign up to the scheme in advance for this - so you can’t just put a £1 in the meter like a shopping trolley and ride off!  You pay for access to all the bikes for a 24 hour period, and then pay your time-based hire charges on top.

Once signed with the scheme, the organisers (Transport for London and operator Serco) send you out a key (for £3) which will allow you to unlock any of the bikes on the street - currently there are 500 available cycles, stored at 315 docking stations across the city - including places like 32 docking stations in Westminster, 14 in Camden and many across the Royal Parks.

Currently you control your account online, and are charged for using the bike (up to £1 a day) and then the period of time you use the bike for - basically, when you release a bike using your key, your account gets debited as per the charges you can read online.  The first 30 minutes of a ride are always free but you can be charged up to £50 for a full 24 hour period (and a further £150 if you keep it longer than that!).

So if you buy a years membership at the current price of £45, and plan to ride for less than 30 minutes at a time (which is free), you will be paying around 12p a day to ride to and from work every day. 

For casual riders, they are hoping to allow people to pay for bikes at paypoints in the future - (at £1 to use the bikes during a 24 hour period and then hire charge on top) but they are starting with accounts only at the moment - and so far over 12,000 people have signed up!

The Benefits:
You can arrive in London on the train and then just hop on a bike instead of waiting for buses or going underground with everyone else!  You could cut your journey times massively in the rush hour!  When you arrive at the docking station closest to your workplace, you just park it up and leave it there.  No chaining up - no worries!

Alternatively, you could use the bikes for a day-trip to the city, and casually ride around back streets, through Hyde Park, out to Kew Gardens or London Zoo.  You just dock the bike whenever you have finished and head off home.

You can of course just hop on and off whenever you want and use as many bikes as you want through the day - so park up after arriving at your destination - maybe a museum, then after that you can hop on another bike and stop somewhere for lunch, then hop on another bike to go to a West End Show in the evening!  As long as you dock each bike securely in the docking station - that is your hire period over with, and someone else can hire the bike while you are feasting on some gourmet food or singing along to Dirty Dancing!

The Problems:
Well, as you may have calculated - 500 bikes: 12,000 people.  Let’s hope they all don’t want to ride at the same time!

Needless to say, there will always be teething problems when a new scheme starts up - and the main one will be that the operators don’t know when people will be using the bikes - and for how long, so they need to see what happens over the first few weeks.

So, there is a possibility of there not being a bike at the docking station closest to you when you arrive!  And the possibility of there being no free docking station for you to drop of your bike into after use!

There are maps showing the closest alternative docking stations and up to 15 ‘free’ minutes to cycle to it - but that could mean up to 45 minutes before you are back where you started (15 minutes to cycle there and 30 minutes to walk back to where you wanted to be!).

There will be staff at most of the main docking station over this first week, but other than that you are on your own, so if you card doesn’t work, your bike is faulty or you travel to a second docking station to find it full or empty too - you might need to make a call.

The Result:
I think that this could be a great scheme if they keep it as members only - as if they start letting anyone hire the bikes without signing up first - you will get problems.  Just as people make up fake names and addresses to get freebies, I think those same people will damage these bikes (activists have already stuck stickers over some of the bikes) or not return them (like the 4 shopping trolleys in my local park!).

However, the green potential is fantastic - and I would love to see big cities more pedestrian and cycle friendly. I’m fed up of having to walk around miles of metal barricades to cross a road, or standing in the rain waiting for the traffic lights to change, or even risk my life cycling among lorries and coaches in tiny streets. 

People and bikes should get the straight routes and priority lights - ad I hope that this is a step in that direction!

There are 100 amazing these, 50 free those and 5 more of something else!

All listed like the articles they will lead you to - you have the choice as to what you want to hop on the links for to have a more in-depth look into. They all tell you roughly what area they cover - so you can go from there.

And I hope you can use some of these well researched links…….

1) Rose King offers a massive energy listing with her huge article on: 100 Amazing Lectures to Follow the Future of Energy.

2) Suzane Smith helps us to modify our design work or school work with: 70 Awesome Open Source Tools for Graphic Designers.

3) Alvaro Cramton geeks it up with: Top 50 Computer Science Blogs.

4) Leonard Gilhooley sees through all this with these great images to see the unseen with: 5 Sites With Free & Interesting X-Ray Photos.

5) Diane Laine chirps and tweets out about her social networking research with: 5 Twitter Users Every Info Junkie Should Follow.

6) Alex Carson offers us teachers a huge resource pool with his massive listings of: 100 Great Tech Talks for Educators.

7) Engelbert Hudson brings us back to routine with our monthly injection of apps - but this time for study with: 25 Excellent iPad Apps for Scripture Study.

So, there must be something for everyone in that bunch!

If not, then join us next month for the next Latest Inventions Blog Carnival.  We are always on the lookout for great articles - and the odd apps listing.  Whether it’s science, space, medicine or some gadget just for fun - if it’s new or a great research article - then send it in right here to share with all my readers.

Well there is one solution that will no doubt help millions of people all across the globe in these times of climate change and rising sea levels - a floating farm!

Many communities around the world inhabit wetland areas and have developed raised housing and methods of transport and livelihoods that make the most of existing circumstances - but growing crops on water?

That really is something quite amazing - and sustainable!

The Idea:
Well, areas of India and Bangladesh for example have annual flooding - but it’s lasting longer and longer these days - and coming when it’s not expected, ruining crops and homes, and leaving farmland underwater and families without anyway to feed themselves.

So, why not farm on the water itself?  Well it’s not as difficult as you might think, and as this is only a temporary solution it doesn’t need to be highly advanced and permanent.

Basically you can build up layers of floating vegetation mixed with fertiliser and stabilizers and you have a raised bed for growing anything.  And as long as you tether it to your home or river bank - you can grow your crops! 

Even if the water levels rise again - your crops do too, so they are not destroyed!  And when the water finally falls back to earth - your crops are already on a bed of fertile compost!

When the water level falls, you can transplant your seeds back into the now fertile soil (enriched with sediment from upstream) and grow them to maturity.  Maybe you could even sell the excess at a local market increasing your income.

The Implementation:
A small charity called Practical Action is working with communities in Bangladesh and has already helped hundreds of families do just this.

Their solutions are simple and cheap to construct for the local communities as they are made from local ‘ingredients’ and are not huge in size.  For example they base their ‘raised beds’ on an initial layer of water hyacinths strengthened with a layer of bamboo strips on top, then bound in place by a further layer of water hyacinth on top so the roots create a sturdy platform.

On top of this solid base is a layer of animal dung and earth - both plentiful in the area - in which to grow the actual crops.  And watering them is not a problem!

The Future?
This is already a lifeline to so many people in Asia, but it could help with innovations across the globe.  If the future is to bring more flooding and adverse weather to many countries - it’s great to know that there are people out there already working on the solutions.

Some of these recent inventions in areas that are already experiencing problems can be the basis for future inventions and inventors to plan for similar scenarios.  Planning for crops that can grow on water could lead to new crops, new farming methods and new lifestyles.

It could also be the first step towards living on water and building flood resistant homes, crops and energy stations!

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It always seems like an invention suddenly comes along and you think ‘wow, that is absolutely fantastic!’ - until you think it through for a bit longer.

Well this is exactly like that.

The invention is still a great idea - but the implications of it could actually have worse effects than before it was invented!

Why?  Well let’s follow through the life cycle of a plastic bottle and see what happens - but first - what is biodegradable plastic all about?

The Invention:
Regular plastics are made of polymers that can take literally for ever to break down.  They will do though - at varying rates - depending on the type of plastic they are it can be months or years before they start to break apart.

Now, we all know that plastics will never actually really ‘biodegrade’ in the sense of breaking down into total natural products that can be used again by organisms - but the word is used for the relatively fast breakdown of an entire container or sheet of plastic.

Now, this plastic is made to contain certain other particles that will help to induce and encourage the ‘natural’ breakdown of the item.  Just like burying a plastic carrier bag in damp mud will help it to weaken and fall apart.

So, anyway - they have come up with 2 types - Hydro-Biodegradable Plastics (HBP) and Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics (OBP) - and they work either by the chemical actions of hydrolysis or oxidation respectively to reduce the overall bulk of the product.

This then renders it into small enough pieces that natural bio-degradation can start to act on the remaining parts, reducing the product to it’s chemical components much faster than normal.
 
The Problem:
Normal plastics have been designed to be virtually indestructible, therefore you can use a plastic bottle over and over and over again. Even if you can recycle it - it is still as strong as it was before.

This was the original problem, meaning that plastic products never broke down:

Old Plastic Bottle: Brought new with product inside - product used up - container cleaned - container reused to carry another product - and another - and another -and another - then the container is recycled to start all over.

However, now this means that all new plastic will only have a short shelf life - too short for some - in fact, it is already making regular plastic fall apart as well!

New Plastic Bottle:  Brought new with product inside - product used up - container cleaned - container thrown in compost heap to degrade - the end!

So, how is it affecting new bottles?  Well - biodegradable plastics shouldn’t ever be recycled as it will compromise the quality and durability of new mixed plastics - basically it is starting to make recycled products less reliable!

If you buy a product in a biodegradable container, you must dispose of it after use - this means more plastic is being produced and thrown away than ever before!

At least with the regular plastic, you could reuse your toiletries bottles when travelling, use old pots and tubs for planting and store water and food over and over again.

Not with this new invention!  You will just have to keep replacing your containers and as a result, dispose of more plastic than ever!  And in fact, there are governments who are really getting angry about these new plastics and is trying to get them eliminated!

The Answer?
Well, we still need the regular plastic and we still want the biodegradable plastics!

Can they both co-exist or has 1 got to go?

I suppose it all depends on the person using it as to how beneficial each type is - to them and the planet.  Can you trust people not to recycle the new type - and can you trust people to recycle the old type?

Is it better to have lots of old plastic going around and around  - or only new plastic, but a higher production rate?

Well, maybe financially - it was a better invention after all!

Millions of homes in rural Africa are now all proud owners of the new eco lamp called The Kiran.  It is a simple solar powered lamp that is free to power and could save the lives of over 1.5 million people a year based on current statistics!

Now, that is a good enough advocate for this new lamp as it is - but it is also very eco friendly as well - and infact that is what it has recently won the Ashden Award 2010 for Sustainable Energy.  

The Lamp:
Basically, it is just a simple hand held lamp that harnesses the sunlight during the day, and releases it when needed during the evening.

However, it has been specially designed to be not only durable and cheap to produce and sell - but made to offer the same if not better lighting than the existing alternative: kerosene.

Over 75% of households in Africa have no access to electricity - and for those that do, the supply is not always 24 hour!  Therefore they have no alternative than to light with other means, and this is usually kerosene gas.  A gas that is known to gives of unpleasant and dangerous fumes when used internally or in badly ventilated areas.

Infact it is estimated that over 1.5 million people a year in Africa alone die from bad ventilation in combination with kerosene fumes.  Not to mention the cost of buying and storing the fuel in the first place - and the risks of house fires and personal injury.

Needless to say, D Lights small solar lamp eliminates all of that worry for the consumers!

It has 2 light settings depending on your use requirements and also has various positions for the handle so you can carry it, suspend it or fix it to a wall.  It’s fat base allows it to stand freely on a table of the floor as well. 

The Result:
This just goes to show you that the simplest things are still some of the best inventions!

Just the right design at the right time in the right place - and the invention is a winner.  I mean you have been able to get a chain of little solar lights for your garden for years now; but they didn’t win any awards!

They didn’t need to be so practical and so durable - and were infact made to be priced as profitably as possible rather than as affordable as possible!  Ironically it is the cost effective version here that is winning awards and selling millions of products.

So maybe you budding inventors need to think of something else simple and everyday that could be tweaked to make another great invention!

Get designing!

Not only have they come up with the bag-less vacuum - and the vacuum that goes around corners; they are now breaking out from the floor and up onto our desks and tables!

Well, why only blow wind about inside a cute little vacuum cleaner when you could be cooling off busy office workers instead?  So, they gave it a go!

The result is the very stylish looking desk fan that blows cool air around - but without the blades.  It is basically a fancy looking basketball hoop on it’s end!

The Bladeless Wonder!
The theory of these new fans is the fact that they don’t have blades spinning around at top speed all the time - making rather a loud annoying noise.  And the blades are usually covered in dust and stuck in an equally dusty ‘cage’ around them making them virtually impossible to clean - however they are made safer by this.

What Dyson want to do is get rid of the dirty noisy fan blades and make the physics of air do all the moving you need!

Just as moving water sucks more water towards it - so does air - and this is one of the factors which makes the fan work - and also gives it it’s complete name: the Air Multiplier. 

Basically, a small motor in the base sucks in air from the surrounding space and then shoots it out of a thin slither at the rear of the ‘fan’ and shoots it over the curved surface (just like on a planes wing).  This action of faster moving air drags in more air behind it to replace that which has been blown over it in the first place!

Still with me?  Good.  Now we have already got the air from the fan itself shooting out towards you as well as the sucked in air around the edges - but there is more multiplying to come!  The rim of the fan gets wider, so therefore spreads out the air - and you guessed it: that sucks in more air through the centre of the hoop!

And yet more - as the air all rushes through it also draws in air from outside of the fan hoop and shoots it out towards you as well - basically multiplying up all the original little bit of air loads of times!

Your basic Air Multiplier!

Other Benefits?
Well apart from the cleaning part and the unbroken stream of air (that hasn’t been chopped up by the fans) - they also claim it is more environmentally friendly than air conditioning.

Although this isn’t a direct comparison, they aren’t lying as the amount of wattage to run these fans is so much less than a whole air conditioning system.

However, you would need an awful lot more of them to keep the whole office cool - and I’m not sure if the production, transport and production energy costs have been taken into account here.  I would imagine that you would need a fan for almost every desk, so about 200 for a large office - now imagine how much less energy would be used for a comprehensive air con system instead of 200 single electrical fans on site!

However - they do look pretty cool and come in all shapes and sizes too (at around £199 though!).

Lets start small with Peggy Stoppelmoor well researched article on 25 Ways Nanotechnology is Revolutionizing Medicine. and we can only get bigger from there, can’t we?

Just a short one from Glory Scott comes next with a few impressive links about How To Learn About Xray Technology for Free, and then another 2 quickies by Heather Sanders highlighting the technology needed for Everything You Need to Know About Radiology Technology and Top 50 Medical Technology Blogs.

Whoopie Patterson comes in here with her list of 10 Essential Web Tools for Research Scientists if you are already researching the next medical advances - and you might even be able to get yourself a grant from it!

And maybe the health-care professional out there may want some web tools too to help keep their CPD on the move - so take a peek at John Laugherton short piece on 10 Essential Webtools for Healthcare Professionals.

Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without some apps now would it?

So let’s join Elisha Knackwood with her Top 25 Android Apps for Your Health and Happiness -and Melissa Seyfried with hers: 5 Excellent iPhone Apps for Health & Medical Reference.

Feel Better Now?