Solar mobile charger

The last months I read several times about new solar energy breakthroughs on Digg, but often it takes a few years before you will see it back in the stores. I was not planning to buy a big solar energy panel, because we don’t even have the space for that. And because we are renting this house, I am not going to install it on top of our roof. But solar energy is something which could really make you independent on electricity, helps for a cleaner environment and in the end is cheaper. First you have to make an investment and you need to have the panels for a long time, before it pays back. But anyway, with new discoveries around the corner it might become even more interesting to buy solar panels in the near future.

While I was looking around for portable/smaller solar panel based chargers, I stumbled upon a so called Solar Mobile Charger. This device allows you to recharge your mobile phone, mp3-player or other device, by converting solar energy to electricity, which is really handy. My plan is to recharge my mobile phone as much as possible with this new device. I immediately ordered the device via a Dutch website and I hope to get it this week. You have to start somewhere with solar energy.

Holiday in France

Last week Nina and I had our holiday in the southern part of France, in a (little) harbourvillage nearby Marseille. We had very nice weather, around 20 to 23 degrees Celcius and just one day with rain. We are used to intensive holidays, wanting to do as much as possible within a short timeframe. This holiday we decided to do it different and so we made it more a relaxing holiday, which means we were half of the time laying in the sun on a little beach nearby our hotel. The rest of the time we walked through the town and visited the local market, shops and rocky beaches. Because we went after the summerseason it was not crowded at all. If you want to see some pictures of our holiday take a look here and here.

Visiting saw windmill De Ster and RTV Utrecht

Besides celebrating my birthday last Saturday I also visited saw windmill De Ster in Utrecht together with my brother and his wife and children. It was a so called Monumentendag (European Heritage Day), which means that a lot of monuments are open to the public. De Ster is the only original saw windmill in The Netherlands which still functions and runs every Saturday. It delivers about 60 horsepower to saw wood into shelves. The trees sawed in the windmill come from the city of Utrecht self. Since last year they make benches which you can buy for a few hundred euros. At the moment there is a waitinglist of about a year before you can get your own handmade bench. Click on the pictures belowe to zoom in.

Today our local tv- and radiostation, called RTV Utrecht, was open to the public and me and Nina went there to see what’s going on inside that building and how the news, radio and television is made. Not that I watch RTV Utrecht much, only when zapping around sometimes I watch it for five minutes. There was an opportunity for visitors to do an interview with a policewoman to experience how it feels to be a host. Furthermore we walked into a room where we witnessed live how radio is made. And we also peeked into the “television broadcast room” (as I call it), where quite some screens where hanging and where everything is “aired” from.

Sulfur Hexafluoride

Most people know helium as a gas which is used in filling balloons and as a gas which can alter your voice, it raises the tone of your voice. This is because helium is light weight. But there is also a heavy gas called sulfur hexafluoride which does the opposite: it lowers the tone of your voice because of it’s higher density. See the movie below to hear what that sounds like. It is not fake.