finally, a non-lethal weapon that is fun at parties too! introducing the LED Incapacitator, a flashlight-like device that emits a nauseating strobe light to the effect of making its targets throw up. that is correct: we have a barf gun! point this flashlight in the face of an attacker - or even a friendly work acquaintance or loved one - and the blinding light combined with the continuously changing colors and pulses of the LED capacitator will make them temporarily sick and vomit! great for parties, boring powerpopint presentations, and halloween. i’m ordering 4 right now!
Tag Archive for 'science/technology'
on a trip from san francisco to new york back in october of 2007, i took the opportunity to fly the then new virgin america. the cabin interior is really great - very slick and very comfortable (as in roomy with great seats & well lit). each seat has a touch screen kiosk with a wired remote control/mini-keyboard in the back. with the kiosk system, you can watch videos, buy food, text/chat with other passengers, play video games, and all that. very convenient and very cool! shortly after take off, my kiosk froze up (very highly possibly due to my spazzing out on the typepad) and had to be re-booted. when the startup scripts where running, i got to see that virgin america uses linux to run their in flight kiosk system. i liked that too! with the kiosk now up & running, i cued up a big daddy kane video and ordered some drinks. thanks virgin!
meet the world’s largest wind turbine! it’s the enercon E-126 made by enercon. this beast is gigantic! The length of each rotor blade measures 413 feet (126 meters)! the first E-126 wind turbine was setup near emden, lower saxony, germany in november 0f 2007. though it’s rated to generate 6 Megawatts of power, it is expected to go much higher - up towards 7+ megawatts (20 million kilowatt hours per year). with those figures, enercon expects one e-126 wind turbine to generate enough power for 5,000 households of four in europe. awesome!
a very interesting and informative article from tech author nicolas carr via his blog rough type titled Google, Apple and the future of personal computing. the article discusses the future of personal computing based on the developing partnership between google and apple. the future would have apple building the front end of sleek gadgets, devices, & handhelds that easily integrate with each other (phones, computers, etc) and google providing the back end of a networked supercomputer to provide the bulk of the data-processing might and storage capacity for the devices. it’s brilliant. what would such service and computer setup like this mean for the user? according to the article, computing will be cheap, highly energy efficient, very low maintenance, and it will be flexible. for more in depth info, please check out the original article (and the comments too).
very cool time-lapsed video clip of what is called an automatic graffiti robot. the art is created using a spray can attached to cables running on a X / Y axis. the cables control or press the nozzle on the spray can at precise moments. the cable are moved & controlled by a computer program. it reminds me of a giant plotter printer. very cool idea! the clip is from 2006 but i haven’t been able to find any other info on this artist other that the video. anyway, enjoy!
ever been in a situation where you were bitten a lot by mosquitos but your friends around you were never bitten? me too! turns out i’m hella flavorful to mosquitos. no really. be sure to read the post titled Why some people are prone to mosquito bites on the telegraph.uk. quoting the article: Specific cells in one of the three organs that make up the mosquito’s nose are tuned to identify the different chemicals that make up human body odour. To the mosquito some people’s sweat simply smells better than others because of the proportions of the carbon dioxide, octenol and other compounds that make up body odour. awesome! this research will more than likely lead to developing a new generation of repellents that stop or prevent a mosqito’s nose from ever smelling (and thus detecting)a human. wow.
a very amazing lecture and demo video from TED talks by software architect blaise aguera y arcas showing the incredible new photo technology called photosynth. from the what is photosynth page on the microsoft live labs website, photosynth “takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.” please watch the video (also on the clip-a-day website) to see what that entails - it’s pretty incredible.
an exciting article over on sciencedaily covering a breakthrough in solar technology. researchers at the new jersey institute of technology (NJIT) have found a way to make inexpensive flexible solar panels that can be printed out or painted onto a surface, making them very easy to produce. awesome! lead researcher Dr. Somenath Mitra states “Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.” the new solar cell technology uses cylindrically shaped carbon nanotube complexes combined with tiny carbon Buckyballs (known as fullerenes) to harvest the sun’s energy. read more about the science behind the new solar panels at sciencedaily or at the NJIT website.
i am really liking the homebrew biodiesel processors for sale over at biodiesel warehouse. for the price of a new laptop ($2,000) you can get a complete biodiesel processing system that generates 55 gallons of biodiesel fuel in just 3 hours of hands-on processing time. if you’re not liking the hands-on approach, they offer a fully automated biodiesel processor model costing $7,000 but there’s no measuring or mixing of materials required (processes 50 gallons of fuel in about 60 hours). so nice to see these alternative fuel systems becoming much more accessible to the general public.
the 2nd annual maker faire is going on this weekend. saturday, may, 19th from 10am to 6pm and sunday, may 20th, from 10am to 5pm. happening at the san mateo fairgounds. here’s a link with directions to the fairgrounds and here’s a pdf link of a map of the makers faire. am i going? hells yeah! lots to see! just check out the schedule! i am definitely going to check out chicken john’s woodgas pickup truck, the arts, the crafts, the mad science & scientists, hacks, mods, robots, solar inventions, tiny houses, and did somebody say sock monkey madness? yes they did. dammit - why aren’t you going?
UPDATE:
wired has a great maker faire 2007 preview gallery to get you in the mood.
a very mighty replacement to the hubble space telescope (hst) is planned for launch in 2013. behold nasa’s james webb space telescope (jwst)! this is exciting. even though the hubble had problems, it delivered (and still delivers) some really amazing images, discoveries, and insights into deep space. the james webb space telescope will be larger and more powerful than the hubble, with a much larger mirror and advanced imaging using pria near-infrared (IR) camera, a near-IR multi-object spectrograph, a mid-IR instrument, and a tunable filter imager.
scientists at rice university’s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) have made a breakthrough in cheaper solar cells: make them out of quantum dots. the breathrough comes through the use of quantum dots and the recipe for stable development of four legged quantum dots called tetrapods. quoting principle investigator Michael Wong:
“Our work knocks down a big barrier in developing quantum-dot-based photovoltaics as an alternative to the conventional, more expensive silicon-based solar cells.”
the essence of the new quantum dot recipe developed by CBEN produces quantum dots where more than 90 percent are tetrapods (which are many times more efficient at converting sunlight into electricity). the new process is cheaper and safer than previous methods too. read more on about this via rice university’s article. and you can read more information on quantum dots here via a 1999 article at lawrence livermore national labs.
on april 16th, 1943 a young swiss chemist named albert hoffman accidentally discovered the interesting effects of lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD. it is safe to say that nothing in modern society (from baseball, to the military, to art, to health and science) has been the same since. one small yet big example: francis crick, noble prize winner and geneticist, was under the influence of LSD when he first deduced the structure of human DNA. more? okay: nobel prize winning chemist dr. kary mullis came up with the idea for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process used in the amplification of specific DNA sequences from an experience he had while under the influence of LSD. quoting albert hoffman from the wired article:
“I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD,” he said at a symposium in 2006, marking the centennial of his birth. “It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be.”
so happy birthday LSD! you’re 64 years old today!
more advances in science and health with stem cell research and discoveries. Early reports from study conducted in the UK by a joint team of Brazilian and American scientists has found that diabetics with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again through new stem-cell therapy. quoting Dr. Richard Burt on the study:
“As a research scientist I am always hesitant to speak of a cure, but the initial results have been good and show the importance of conducting more trials.â€
the united states is finally getting its priorities in serious order. you know what i’m talking about. and - no - not those silly things like universal health care for every american, a clean & renewable energy policy, diplomacy, restoration of habeus corpus, electric cars for everybody, or open source voting machines. nope. that’s silly. but dude - we’re going to the moon! totally! we are going, then we’ll build a permanent moon base, and then head off to mars too! sure, it will cost 100’s of billions of dollars. but dude - it’s the moon! yes! i am all for advancing scientific discovery - but - i really think we should fix simple things here on earth first, like levees and pollution. seems easier. i believe david cross summarizes this best …
i’d like to buy steve jobs and the folks at EMI a drink! why? Apple and EMI (the world’s third-biggest record label) have made a deal to sell the entire EMI music catalogue as non-DRM & unrestricted mp3s from the iTunes store! this is really great! no locks! thank you! also read EMI’s great press release with links to a podcast of the event. that means that the EMI track you pay for at the iTunes store will play in your ipod and also on any other mp3 player on the market. previously, a track downloaded from the itunes store would ONLY play on an ipod, (which is like buying a CD or a record that only plays on a particular brand of player - not on all players). that’s one of the things DRM does and that’s just silly! glad to see common sense prevailing. in remembering steve job’s letter about removing DRM from the all of the itunes music store library, i am hopeful that more deals like this will be reached. here’s the breakdown of the price structure with the Apple & EMI non-DRM mp3 deal (from the bbc website):
99¢ single = digital locks and at 128kbps quality (DRM! boo! hiss!)
$1.29 single = no digital locks and 256kbps high quality (non-DRM! yay! hi-five!)
Album prices unchanged with no locks and all at 256kbps (non-DRM! yay! hi-five!)
yes, the non-DRM costs more. but it is a much higher quality mp3. and, removing DRM is definitely a step in the right direction.
from boingboing: itunes store will sell entire EMI catalogue DRM-free!
from wired: thank you, uncle steve!
breakfast can be magical and friendly again when you are able to burn any image you want into your toast. i’m talking about DIY laser engraved toast! nice article on how to burn the image of jesus or david hasselhoff or erik estrada onto some bread. the instructions start off with 1) find some time to kill, 2) get access to a laser etching system, and goes from there.
fishermen off the coast of new zealand caught a 990 pound (450 kilogram) colossal squid. wow. measuring a wee bit over 33 feet in length, the colossal squid is the largest cephalopod captured intact. read about the differences between the giant squid and the colossal squid on the giant squid and colossal squid fact sheet at tonmo.com.
the brilliant minds at graffiti research lab (GRL) have come up with another cool way to tag. going beyond their very simple & cool LED throwies (which have gone beyond simple), GRL has made what looks like a laser-tagging/writing system using high end projectors. the system projects laser light onto the sides of buildings in a repeated pattern which spells out words. in the picture, the phrase ‘free berd’ is a word play on the lynyrd skynyrd song and also applies to ‘free berdovsky’, an appeal for the arrest of the 27 year old artist behind the aqua team hunger force LED signs that gave boston reason to descend into madness.
note: about the GRL laser tagging system, it looks like the projectors GRL uses are the very pro yet pricey panasonic PT-D5600’s (please feel free to correct me on that - i recognized the projectors immediately from the pic). these projectors come in at around $6,500+ each. outfitted with a lens, that’s an additional $2,000+ per projector. that would make the complete 2 projector laser tagging system cost around $15,000+ each. the economics of graffiti are definitely changing. AV nerds are taking over! had to happen. link via boingboing.
very cool to read this: scientists at Purdue University have developed a portable generator that turns garbage and trash into electricity. the generator, referred to as a ‘tactical refinery’ (yes, it was developed for the US military) is the roughly the size of a moving van (larger, hi-res picture here). the tactical refinery converts different types of waste and garbage to fuel via two parallel processes and burns the different fuels it creates in a diesel engine. quoting Michael Ladisch, scientist and lead on the tactical biorefinery project: “At any place with a fair amount of food and scrap waste the biorefinery could help reduce electricity costs, and you might even be able to produce some surplus energy to put back on the electrical grid,.” also, much of the generator’s combust/exhaust is carbon neutral. from the article:
The tactical biorefinery first separates organic food material from residual trash, such as paper, plastic, Styrofoam and cardboard. The food waste goes to a bioreactor where industrial yeast ferments it into ethanol, a “green” fuel. Residual materials go to a gasifier where they are heated under low-oxygen conditions and eventually become low-grade propane gas and methane. The gas and ethanol are then combusted in a modified diesel engine that powers a generator to produce electricity.
on a greater scale, i could see these tactical refineries set up in housing districts where people can go to convert their garbage into electricty for their neighborhoods and home. i want it now!
just had a minor earthquake here (northern california) about 45 minutes ago. no worries though - all is well. it was a small shaker. the real-time earthquake maps of the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program of northern california tells me it was a minor quake of 3.5 in magnitude near san martin/morgan hill california at 9:43:22 AM (PST) on Wednesday, January 17, 2007. they’ve even got real-time fault maps too! screengrab of recent usgs earthquake activity in all of california, screengrab of usgs real-time earthquake activity in san martin/morgan hill california. screengrab of usgs real-time map showing the recently active eathquake faults in northern california.
here’s a very nice environmentally friendly vehicle from the french company venturi electric called the eclectic (great pics & forum post on the dexigner website too). deemed the ‘first energy autonomous vehicle‘ it is powered using 100% renewable energy: solar and wind. the eclectic is 1st solar production vehicle and it is the 1st production vehicle that can be directly recharged with a personal wind turbine. this means that the eclectic can access the energy needed to power it by deploying its wind turbine, using solar cells or, if necessary, find a simple electric plug (which can also use solar energy). no oil or fossil fuels (gas, coal) needed. the eclectic will have a range of 31 miles (50 kilometers) and a top speed of 31 mph (50 kph) making it best for urban travel and campus areas. more photos and info on the venturi eclectic website. via treehugger via dexigner.
on the heels of the stem cell legislation passing in missouri, a study published in the journal nature reports that stem cell transplants in blind mice have helped to restore their sight. in the test, the scientists treated mice which had eye damage similar to that seen in many human eye diseases. a stem cell is a cell which can be set or programmed to grow into any type of cell. in this case, retinal stem cells were grown and transplanted onto the eyes of the mice. the eyesight of the mice gradually returned as their pupils contracted when exposed to light. this is a great breakthrough as people (mice too, it seems) who have already gone blind may someday be able to regain and restore their damaged rod and cone photoreceptors and see again.
rather discouraging report on the BBC website titled ‘Only 50 Years Left’ for sea fish, which talks of a report on the declining fish stocks in the earth’s oceans. the report is for the journal Science and is the work of an international team of researchers and scientists. The great decline in fish stocks is largely due to the broader loss of marine biodiversity. quoting steve palumbi from stanford university (one of the scientists on the project):
“Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood.”
in the report, experiments performed in small, relatively contained ecosystems show that reductions in fish and marine life diversity tend to bring reductions in the size and robustness of local fish stocks. This implies that loss of biodiversity is driving the declines in fish stocks seen in the large-scale studies. But data gathered from areas where fishing has been either banned or heavily restricted was promising, showing that protection of fishing areas though ‘no fish zones’ and marine sanctuaries brings back biodiversity and helps to restore fish populations.
future sci-fi medical advances coming your way in the form of a biodegradeable liquid peptides. it’s pour-on nanotechnology with huge beneficial medical applications. researchers at MIT and the university of hong kong have developed a liquid solution that quickly halts bleeding and promotes and accelerates healing. the discovery of the solution came about through experiments in using the solution as a matrix for regrowing brain cells in hamsters. the nano-solution has been tested on liver, skin, lung, blood vessels, and other tissues. quoting from lead researcher Rutledge Ellis-Behnke:
It isn’t clotting that we’re seeing. We tested for all of the things you find in all blood clots; fibrin, thrombin and platelets and none of them were there, said Ellis-Behnke. Either this is acting as some kind of molecular band aid or we are stopping bleeding via a completely new direction that we have never seen before.
that’s a lot of space on one DVD. how much? it’s a bit hard to grasp. but 50 terabytes is the same as 51,200 gigabytes, or rather equivalent to 10,893 DVDs (@ 4.7 gigabytes each). completely amazing. these super high capacity DVDs it seems are closer to reality. Professor V. Renugopalakrishnan of the harvard medical school developed a disc with a layer of genetically altered proteins called bacteriorhodopsin that makes the mega-storage 50 terabyte DVDs possible. the proteins are only nano meters across so a lot can fit on the surface of a DVD disc. when light shines on bacteriorhodopsin, it is converted to a series of intermediate molecules - each with a unique shape and colour before returning to its original form or ‘ground state’. this is the basis for the binary code for such storage, with the molecular conversion of intermediate molecules being the one and the ‘ground state’ being the zero. Prof Renugopalakrishnan and his colleagues genetically modified the DNA that produces bacteriorhodopsin protein to produce an intermediate state that lasts for more than several years. the finding were presented at the 2006 International Conference On Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. there is more to read about it from articles on engaget and also digital video guru.
the future is here! the future is here! granted, there’s still no fancy jetpacks to use for daily travel. but how about bionic technology that enables artificial limbs to be directly attached to human skeleton? researchers and scientists at the Centre for Biomedical Engineering (UCL) in collaboration with Stanmore Implants Worldwide have developed a technique called Intraosseous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthesis (ITAP). The process involves securing a titanium rod directly into the bone and it allows the prosthesis to breach the skin without risk of infection. very exciting! in celebration, we yet again offer up the opening theme and closing theme to the six million dollar man tv series.
The Six Million Dollar Man - Main Titles.mp3
The Six Million Dollar Man - End Credits Theme.mp3
no, that’s not the name of a fancy new wax job. i’m talking about the discovery of what is being called ‘the brazilian stonehenge.’ located on top of a hill, 127 large rocks of stone where found in the state of amapa, brazil. the stones weigh several tons each and appear to have been laid out to help pinpoint the winter solstice.
all the hullabaloo about the new apple macbooks seems to be missing an important point: there’s still no right-click. waah-wah. why aren’t any mac laptops built with a dedicated right-click button? how can that be overlooked - especially with macs now capable of running windows XP? yes, yes, yes - you can get a ‘right-click menu’ on a mac laptop by ‘control-clicking‘ (hitting the button pad and the control button at the same time). this is always pointed out as a solution when it is so not a solution. that’s hitting two buttons when only one is needed. and for me & my lovely apple desktop, the apple mighty mouse and pro mouse were never quite right-click friendly. which meant buying another mouse (something mac users may be familiar with). back to the macbooks: so why then? why not just install a dedicated right click button? how hard is that? people will herald apple as truly inventive and steve jobs as a genius if this is done. doo it now! i love macs, but it’s time to focus on the practical: decicated right click buttons on your laptops. if apple is going to pay attention to something as unimportant as shiny screens, then please do away with the single mouse button laptops. it will more than make up for still unaddressed yet obvious terrible shuffle program on itunes (yes, it’s true). and, as a mac fan & user, i will even forgive the horrid hocky puck mouse.
here’s a really lovely music & sound experiment using flash actionscript called the whitney music box - brought to you by the talented jim bumgardner of krazydad.com and coverpop.com. read more about the whole process and thought behind the whitney music box on krazydad’s blog entry on visual harmony. my favorite is variation 6: 48 tones in one octave. the whitney music box is based on the theories of john whitney (more on john whitney here and here) and his book digital harmony. the cool thing about the whitney music box is that while john whitney was interested in turning musical ideas into motion graphics, jim bumgardner’s whitney music box does the inverse - turning one of whitney’s key animation ideas back into music. very very cool.