Archive for 'Random'

9. Thermite vs. Liquid Nitrogen

One of the greatest scientific questions of all time: can liquid nitrogen freeze molten iron?

8. Gummy Bear Dies In Firework Display

Watch the helpless gummy bear explode when it is dropped into liquid potassium chlorate.

7. Scientist Spits Flaming Spores

A favorite circus trick. In this instance the scientist breaths fire by igniting a cloud of lycopodium spores.

6. Mysterious Reaction Creates an Undulating Brew

Here we see several clear liquids being poured into a beaker; the mixture then quickly changes colors, over and over again. This demonstration was perfected back in 1973 by two high school teachers Thomas Briggs and Warren Rauscher.

5. How to Make Stalagmites Instantly

Sodium acetate will suddenly crystallize if you prepare a saturated solution and pour it onto a seed crystal. This is same chemical reaction found in many hand warmers.

4. Elephant Toothpaste

If you mix concentrated hydrogen peroxide with dial soap and then add a pinch of sodium iodide, a fountain of oxygen-filled bubbles will erupt from the container.

3. How to Make Your Own Glow Sticks

Ever wondered how glow sticks generate light?

2. The Inner Life of A Cell

Animator John Liebler gave the world a look at the beautiful ballet of molecules which gives rise to life.

1. Magnesium Burning Between Bricks of Dry Ice

The pick of the bunch! Watch magnesium burn whilst sandwiched between two bricks of dry ice. This is possible because magnesium can combust in an atmosphere of pure carbon dioxide.

A legend in the ‘handheld gaming’ hall of fame, the Sega Game Gear is a classic example of a popular retro handheld gaming console.

For those who missed out, Sega’s 8 bit, full color Game Gear was the third ever handheld console and was release back 1991 in competition with perhaps the more popular, Nintendo Game Boy.

The Game Gear was basically a Sega Master System housed in a portable case, boasting a 3.2 inch wide color screen that had a slightly lower resolution than the Master System, but which allowed for a larger color palette.

Gameplay and graphics were certainly hi-tech for it’s time, so much so that the Game Gear is still extremely playable, especially for the those who enjoy classic arcade beat em’ ups, racing games and platform games like Sonic The Hedgehog, Streets Of Rage and Road Rash.

The slower refresh rate of the Game Gear could cause fast moving games to be slightly blurred and the contrast and brightness of the screen made it difficult to play in brightly lit areas. The battery life was also quite low; six AA batteries only provided enough power for 5 hours gameplay. Apart from these points the Game Gear was and still is a lot of fun.

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With most of the population owning a cell phone, the numbers of text messages flying around the airwaves has drastically increased over the last 5 years. And with spammers try to expand their audience, text messages have become fertile territory for malicious spam adverts.

Estimates vary greatly regarding the exact percentage of spam text’s out there, however Clouldmark - a San Francisco company that makes anti-spam software for carriers – claim that the problem is on the increase with numbers expected to quadruple by the end of the year.

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This great custom R2-D2 PC case modification is set to rock the worlds of all Star Wars fans. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be information regarding this particular mod, except that it could possibly have been made from the original R2 chassis.

The original R2-D2 chassis used in the movies was precision made to a high standard by an Australian firm called Petric Engineering. A closer look at this R2-D2 PC case reveals slight imperfections in the build quality but considering the thing looks this much like R2-D2, I don’t see many people complaining, just asking where on earth they might be able to pick one up.

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Whether or not the creator actually wanted to keep his name quiet is unclear but one thing is for sure, he has sparked off a lot of interest regarding R2 mods. There seems to be a bunch of R2 case mods popping up here and there, and one of the better ones we found actually had some information.

This R2-D2 case was created by Ken “TGS” Kirby for ExtremeTech’s Science Fiction Case Mod Contest. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to complete the mod in time for the competition deadline so didn’t make rank, however many have reported that R2 would of certainly taken the 1st prize had it been entered.

The idea started when Ken salvaged two R2-D2 legs from an old R2-D2 Pepsi cooler. The after a long search he managed to find a white plastic barrel for R2’s body and a weber grill for R2’s head, then the chassis was ready.

Ken’s finished mod comes complete with:

• ABIT IC7-G
• P4 3.2Ghz w/HT @ 3.71Ghz
• 2GB (4 x 512MB) of DDR400 RAM
• 120GB Hard drive
• Radeon 9800XT 256MB Graphics Card
• Creative 7.1 surround sound
• Asetek Vapochill Phase Change cooling @ -38C

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As the trend for R2-D2 mod’s catches on and begins to grow, perhaps it won’t be long before a large company patents the idea and sets up for mass production.

Iraq is a country that has been subjected to an ongoing battle for dominance for over 4500 years. Nestled between the Tigiris and Euphrates Rivers, Mesoptamia or modern day Iraq lies in the heart of the fabled “Fertile Crescent.” From the earliest times, the struggles for the region have often been dictated by the need for natural resources.
Currently the United States and its “coalition of the willing” occupies the country, however the Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, and British - not to mention the indigenous peoples - have all buried their dead in this land.

Here are 10 key battles from the violent history of Iraq

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This newly redesigned Russian military uniform was unveiled last months at Russia’s Defense Ministry. The new uniform was designed by a famous Russian designer Valentin Yudashkin and although the picture doesn’t seem to focus too much on the uniform, it does say a thousand words about the good looking chick wearing it!

There are many weird and wonderful abandoned structures throughout the world, being based in Bangkok, a city of unfinished projects; I certainly see my fair share everyday. But no where has quite as many amazing abandonment’s as the former Soviet Union. The complex political, military and social history has lead to everything from buildings to entire cities being left uncared for, still standing to weather the elements until the end.

More Pictures After The Jump!

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I’m sure that most of you stationed overseas will have noticed the different techniques other countries have for counting their money. We are not sure about the origin of these differing techniques but we did find a great little video that runs you through each one. They all seem rather practical - some slightly more than others - with the exception of the technique used in Turkmenistan, Kazakistan, Pakistan and some parts of Turkey, what exactly is going on there?

A joint project is developing the Cell Chip from the PS3 to help improve medical Imaging

IBM has recently teamed up with the Mayo Clinic to develop a research facility aimed at advancing medical imaging.The joint venture into improving the way we view medical images is developing the cell chip from the PS3 to hopefully enable doctors and radiologists to track patients’ health and treatment more effectively.

Bradley Erickson, chairman of radiology at the Rochester-based Mayo Clinic said that researchers are specifically looking at how the PS3 Cell chip - which was collaboratively developed by Sony Corp., IBM and Toshiba Corp. - could speed up the imaging process.

“It changes how we think about things…..We are facing significant problems in medical imaging because the number of images produced in CT scanners basically tracks Moore’s Law. My eyes and brain can’t keep up. I see more and more images I have to interpret….

Erickson said,

“The innovation here is to take computer chips and extract the information in these increasing number of images and help present it usefully to the radiologist.”

With the computer the Mayo Clinic is now using, it would take a few minutes to run the algorithm and get the new and old images lined up successfully. Using the PS3 Cell chip, which is extremely efficient at doing raw computations, the process could be done in a second.

This time saved can mean a great deal when it comes to treating patients with life threatening conditions.

“This is focusing on the quality of the medicine” Erickson explains,

“We might take an image of someone’s brain tumor to see if it’s getting better or worse or staying the same. We’re looking for really subtle changes. You might find out after two months of radiation that it’s not working, and you want to switch their treatment. If you have a human interpret that image, they may not see any difference, and the doctor will have them keep on with that same treatment, which in reality is not helping. … We can have a computer take that image and focus more quickly on what areas need attention.”

He added that it’s not unusual to be thinking about using a gaming processor in a medical imaging machine. He noted that a lot of high-powered graphics cards and other gaming technologies are have previously been used in medical imaging.

When it comes to racing simulators the VRX Mach 4 wins hands down. Power by 4 Xbox 360’s – one for each of the 3 Sharp Aquos LCDs, and one for the 7″ LCD rear view mirror – There are hands-on (and feet) controls to mimic the driving experience, a Harmon Kardon surround sound receiver with 10 Bose Acoustimass speakers. There is even a “Virtual Wind System”, consisting of 2 dual Honeywell fans and Tactile Vibration Feedback System for extra realism.

More Pictures And Full Technical Specifications After The Jump!

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Scientists believe to have made a break through discovery that could one day allow us to charge or power electrical devices such as cell phones, by converting body heat to electricity.

A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have been working with silicon nanowire-based converters and recently announced that they may have found a way to use to increase the conversion efficiency by a factor of 100.Using a process called “electroless etching” the scientist are able synthesize silicon nanowires in an aqueous solution on the surfaces of wafers. The “technique involves the galvanic displacement of silicon through the reduction of silver ions on a wafer’s surface” the team explain in their paper.

This technique of creating the nanowires results in vertically aligned wires that feature a rougher surface than normal nanowires. It is believed that the rough surface of the nanowires is to account for the high thermoelectric efficiency.

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Following on from our previous post about Datamancer’s custom laptops, PC’s and steampunk devices, we’ve come across another handmade custom mod we thought was worth a mention.

Ukrainian, Valerie Beetle has spent countless hours’ hand carving this Gothic looking PC Tower. No word on what exactly was his inspiration but it seems like this guy must have some dark thoughts! Click On Image To Enlarge

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This intricate - perhaps impractical - five shot revolver apparently does work.

Produced in the 1800, the (probably French made) ring pistol is a perfect example of what was known as “la petite protectors”. The ring pistol once was one of the smallest killing devices ever developed.There doesn’t seem to be much info around regarding the practicality of the finger mounted firearm however, after a long search it appears some believe that,

“If it were fired, the smoke, flames, and noise would be considerable. The muzzle velocity would probably be so low that the powder burn would be worse than the bullet”

So may be it doesn’t classify as the most efficient killing device but considering when it was made and the craftsmanship it took to make, it certainly is an exceptional one off antique firearm. Hat’s off to the unknown creator.

More Pictures After The Jump

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We would like to introduce our new military and government financing partner High Tech Credit, a partner of 800HighTech. Who is High Tech Credit? Well, High Tech Credit was formed by the 800HighTech joining up with the guys who kept CompUSA alive for as long as it did. They left CompUSA after its doors closed and got right to work building up the partner base and delivering the goods under 3rd Coast Marketing LLC. With 800HighTech’s customer base growing, we needed to offer a larger product range and pre-configured computers and laptops at the best possible price for our Armed Forces and Civilian DoD customers. It was also imperative that we continue to provide fast shipping that included overseas military address and combat zones.

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Defragmentation of your hard disk is a necessary task that should be done regularly to ensure the efficiency of your PC.

It is extremely common and almost certain that over time your PC will slow down. This is caused by the way files are stored on a hard disk and is directly related to the amount of files you manage.When you save data on your hard drive the file is split up and stored in sections which are adjacent to each other. Small files are easy to store because they can be placed efficiently next to each other.

As you continue to use your computer performing tasks such as editing, adding and deleting files, changes occur in these sections of data and some areas will become empty pockets. These areas are referred to as fragmentation.

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