Window Cleaners Smarter Than Einstein Or Hawking

Clear thoughts: Steve Borlase has an IQ of 180

Genius smarter than Albert Einstein wants to quit cleaning windows: When he came to, he had suddenly become a maths whizzkid - but, despite his skills with numbers, the 39-year-old can’t get a well-paid job. Steve, 39, said: 'I fell off some monkey bars when I was five and a couple of days later something changed in me and I was able to work out huge arithmetic sums. 'For the past year I've been working as a window cleaner but I would love somebody to take me on and give me a chance to show what I can do with figures.'

With an IQ of 180, he can figure out sums running into millions but can only find work polishing windows in Warminster, Wiltshire. His vast intelligence makes him smarter than Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Countdown's Carol Vorderman. He also knows exactly how much his shopping is going to total before he gets to the till and is easily able to keep track of how much money his girlfriend spends. Mr Borlase, who has represented England as a pool player, said: ‘I did apply to go on Countdown as the new Carol Vorderman but they said I was no good as the male viewers like looking at a shapely figure.’

Maths wizard Steve Borlase, who works as a window cleaner, took just 90 seconds to solve this page of calculations.

It doesn’t add up – all I want is a new job: A human calculator who can solve complicated sums in seconds says he can only find work as a window cleaner – despite having an IQ of 180. Steve Borlase, 39, has a higher intelligence test score than former Countdown star Carol Vorderman, Professor Stephen Hawking or even Albert Einstein. He can recite complicated six-figure equations in just seconds while scrubbing windows – writing out long division in his soapy suds.

But the numbers man, from Warminster – whose skill mirrors that of maths genius janitor Will Hunting in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting – has been turned down for dozens of jobs. The former salesman, who earns £300 a week cleaning windows, said: “I know I have this really rare talent and I don’t believe anyone can do what I do.

“I sent 127 emails to sales companies – but I only got two replies. I have had to take up window cleaning because it is the only work I can get. I have been working in this job for about a year but I would love a job where I can use my skills. “It is quite incredible really, because I can get even the bigger numbers within a few minutes – without writing anything down. I can see all these numbers floating around in my mind and the brightest one is always the right answer. I can work out sums going into millions in just seconds and I have never seen anyone else who can do this before.”

Mr Borlase claims he got his extraordinary talent after falling off the monkey bars in a playground, aged five. He is able to add, subtract, multiply and divide five- and six-figure numbers faster than most people can enter the sums into a calculator. In less than 90 seconds he was able to give the answers to 53 x 7, 64 x 64, the square root of 332, 19 x 19 / 3, 99 x 99 x 99, 7 x 21 x 29, and 47 x 49. He has an IQ of 180 – which is 20 points higher than TV presenter Carol Vorderman, maths professor Stephen Hawking and physicist Albert Einstein.

Steve said: “I have been shopping in Morrisons with friends and they have said to me, ‘Right, let me know when we get to £70’. I’ll add up all the shopping in my head as we go along. When we get to the cashier, I can tell her to the penny what the shopping will come to.” The sums genius, who only got a B in GCSE maths, left school at 16 and became a gas and electricity salesman before the work dried up.

He then was made redundant before he began scraping a living as a window cleaner. Now he is looking for a job to match his talent and says his dream job would be working the numbers on Countdown. Mr Borlase, who is also a professional pool player who has represented England, said: “I rang Countdown and spoke to somebody about a job but it came to nothing. “I got the feeling that I might have got somewhere if I had been wearing a skirt.

“Things are a struggle at the moment – but I am convinced I can do a job for someone. I would be great as a bookie or a job where you have to do a lot of buying or selling.” The film Good Will Hunting, starred Matt Damon and Robin Williams and featured a young maths genius, discovered working as a janitor at a US college. The critically acclaimed film won two Academy Awards and one Golden Globe.

Intelligent, Self Cleaning Glass By IKU, Dubai

Al Jawhara Tower brings new accounts for successful company trio from Kuwait and Austria: The Austrian company iku® intelligente Fenstersysteme AG, specialist for self-cleaning façade systems, currently finalized its prestigious account in Kuwait city. The Al Jawhara Tower, with a height of 135 m and 32 floors, has been equipped completely with the iku®windows Unitized façade. All in all 8000 m2 aluminium glass façade, totally 2000 Unitzed façade panels, has been fabricated and installed on site.

The rise of a jewel: The office tower is a new landmark of Kuwait city. "Al Jawhara" standing for "Jewel", now is perfectly shining always with iku®windows - self-cleaning facade systems, just at the touch of a button. The start of the construction work was January 2007. The installation of the first facade panels on site started in August. In December 2007 nearly half of the building already had been glazed. Till July 2008 the whole façade construction was completed. During the second period of construction all electro mechanical works have been executed. After the finalizing of the power and water feed lines, 100 motors, which are carrying the wipers as well as the electronic units for the controlling of the cleaning cycles, have been installed. Till the end of 2008 the final test with numerous washing cycles have been conducted, which caused astonishment by the local construction people and passing by pedestrians.

Clear arguments for iku®windows in comparison with traditional cleaning methods: There are many advantages of iku®windows system for the building owner compared to traditional BMU systems: The cleaning of the whole façade, e.g. the Al Jawhara Tower, could take several months, depending on the weather conditions. Only seven hours will be needed to clean the whole façade with iku®windows - self-cleaning façade systems.

A world patent from Vienna sets new standards in modern glass architecture: The investment for a traditional BMU system is about € 200.000,-. For the solution with iku®windows the investment is around € 300.000,-. Given the building is cleaned 12 times a year, which is a must in the countries of the golf region with its hot, humid and sandy air, the amortisation of the additional investment is reached already after 1.9 years. From this time on the owner makes a profit. Some owners are performing cleaning cycles once a week, as the use of the system is very simple - at the touch of a button. The running cost for one cleaning cycle is very low - only about € 10,- in the case of Al Jawhara Tower. And there are no additional costs for cleaning personnel. This way the running costs for a building can be reduced significantly. Not to forget the permanently rising personnel and maintenance costs for traditional BMU systems, which are important factors within the running costs.

A world patent from Vienna sets new standards in modern glass architecture iku®windows, with its headquarters in Vienna, is rolling out into the world market with an invention as simple as it is genius - intelligent glass facades with integrated self-cleaning and numerous additional options. The technology is based on a world patent, which was invented by company founder Julius Thurnher. Electronically controlled wipers with automatic water supply are enabling the cleaning of large façade surfaces at the touch of a button. Benefits: Apart from enormous time saving the systems convince by usability, security and cost effectiveness. It pays for itself soon with long term low running costs. Also facades that are difficult to access, can be cleaned easily. The newly developed maintenance and evacuation units are already applied for patent. The extended use of Photovoltaic and solar cells in the façade of modern buildings will further lead to the success of the innovative system. Especially in the golf region, the permanent cleaning of the solar cells is a must in order to keep their efficiency in the energy production.

Also see "Incredible Transformation of Dubai City." Click on the pictures to enlarge, the first picture shows how Dubai looked in 1990 & the second; 13 years later in 2003. Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world’s cranes. The Dubai Waterfront — when completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world. All of this was built in the last 5 years, including the island that looks like a palm tree. The Palm Islands in Dubai — new Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands; they are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space — three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities; it is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people and is advertised as being visible from the moon. The World Islands: 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world; each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million. The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai: The worlds tallest hotel. Considered the only ‘7 star’ hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world, it stands on an artificial island in the sea. Hydropolis, the world’s first underwater hotel, was entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai; it is scheduled to be completed by 2009. Dubai Sports City, a huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubai Land - an amusement park.

See previous blogs on Dubai here, here, here & here.

Smart, Intelligent, Living & InterActive Glass

Intelligent materials which can adapt to their environment and those which, more modestly, are able to alter their properties as required by their users are called "intelligent" or sometimes get pre-fixed with 'i-'. Liquid crystal glazing can be used to instantly block out intrusive observers. Thanks to electrochromism, blinds or curtains are no longer needed to darken a room: just press a button and a window will darken. At night, electroluminescent polymers can be used so that windows continue to emit light. Intelligent materials will be user and environmentally friendly. Continually self-cleaning materials, which are presently at the development stage, will keep roofs, windows and external glazed walls effortlessly clean without the need of special cleaning products. Many of them are used to make traditional products more attractive, enjoyable and safer to use. One company, namely the LTI Group in USA, give a multitude of applications not excluding ballistic glass. Thanks to the MWCoA forum for the tip & giving me the insight for this blog.

Living glass is applied to that glass that inter-acts with the user by coming into or near its vicinity: two demonstrations are given below. This glass will probably be the worse nightmare for window cleaners!

And finally, inter-active glass that will still need cleaning, but probably not by your average window cleaner, but I couldn't resist adding the video's as I'm blown away by this technology. If you want to keep up with this technology, go to Microsoft suface, Mindstorm, i-bar or google any of the title key words.