The last time I ever dealt with a compost pile was back in elementary school science class  with an over-zealously earth-minded teacher. While I could never find that much enjoyment from decaying matter, Japanese design firm Bakoko has created an interesting greenhouse heated by various compost chambers in the walls.

Designed to sustain tea gardens through biting winters, the Comploo uses some super-secret heat dispersal method to keep temperatures inside up to 120˚F. The official word is:

A steady supply of rich organic compost is extracted from a door at the bottom of each bin. It fertilizes new vegetation that will eventually become fuel for the next cold season. The concept is suited to large urban parks, community gardens, or even serving as an outdoor café – anywhere that generates a continuous supply of organic waste for fuel.

It may look like a UFO, but this is really a brilliantly sustainable design. All that’s left is to work out how to eliminate the god-awful smell that comes with it. Expect a prototype to be unveiled soon.

[Treehugger]

Boozehounds and hobby alcoholics beware: A new technology developed by the Tokyo Medical and Dental University is able to analyze your breath odors and visualize their dispersal. But it’s not only good to detect alcohol in your breath but could also be used as an indicator for diseases in the future (sorry for the silly pic – the university doesn’t supply any).

The person to be tested has to stand in a dark room and speak into a microphone-like device whose mouthpiece is covered by a special enzyme-treated gauze. The enzymes interact with components in your breath, resulting in a chemical reaction that produces light. This light is then captured by a video camera, with the footage serving as the object for analysis.

The researchers say their system can accurately measure the amount of ethanol, methanethiol, or acetone in a person’s breath. It can be used as a breath analyzer for drinkers, but also to investigate the reasons for a person’s bad breath, to evaluate liver functions and possibly even to help in the analysis of serious diseases such as diabetes or cancer.

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

Short Version: The HUGlight is a flexible foam rubber flashlight-type apparatus that can be worn around your neck. It can also be bended and positioned to illuminate hard-to-reach areas, making it more useful than just a simple wearable flashlight.

Long Version: HUGlight: a silly name for a product that’s actually quite useful. Please note that it does not give hugs like you’d get from an old Army buddy or from your grandma.

The “hug” part is for the fact that it can hug itself around your neck for some hands-free light dispersal. On the end of each foam rubber arm, there are two LEDs. One’s a wide beam, one’s a spot beam. You can use one or both via a series of clicks to the button atop each end. Four beams total.

And here’s a shot of one of the LED clusters:

My first thought was to put HUGlight to the test as a reading lamp. It actually doesn’t work quite as well as you’d think. The light is more focused than a traditional book light, so it would only illuminate a certain area of my book’s pages. Luckily HUGlight is flexible, so I eventually got both arms pointed well enough to ensure adequate coverage of my reading area. After that, though, I had to be conscious not to move my book or my head around too much. So, yes, HUGlight works okay for reading but I wouldn’t buy it just for that purpose.

Aside from reading, HUGlight worked really well when I needed to carry a bunch of boxes down the dark and creepy back staircase in my apartment. I positioned one side of HUGlight to shoot light directly out in front of me and the other side down at my feet to illuminate the stairs as I made my way to the basement. I could see everything fine thanks to the super bright light from the LEDs and both my hands were free to carry the boxes.

HUGlight can also be wrapped around stuff like doorknobs and whatnot to allow you to shine light into hard-to-reach areas. Or you can coil HUGlight up to allow it to function somewhat like a desk lamp:

So it serves a few purposes in one: average book light, above-average hands-free flashlight/worklight, and makeshift desk lamp. Although the beams of light are a bit too focused in some cases, the LEDs are very bright and HUGlight provides great value in its ability to be used for a wide range of household projects.

HUGlight uses two AAA batteries, which are included and apparently good for up to 40 hours of use. At $14.95, it’s not a bad tool to pick up just to have around the house — I found myself using HUGlight far more than I thought I would.

HUGlight [MyLight.com]