‘The immense fossilised claw of a 2.5m-long (8ft) sea scorpion has been described by European researchers.
The 390-million-year-old specimen was found in a Germany quarry, the journal Biology Letters reports.
The creature, which has been named Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, would have paddled in a river or swamp.
The size of the beast suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought, the team says.
The claw itself measures 46cm – indicating its owner would have been longer even than the average-sized human.’
‘back in the 1920s george bennie designed and built the railplane, a propeller-driven monorail initially intended to travel between glasgow and edinburgh.
the design was way ahead of its time, the railplane capsule home to a 4-blade propeller at each end, each of these powered by its own electric motor – the result a cruising speed of 120mph.’
‘Two-photon (2-P) microscopy offers several advantages for biological imaging – in particular for non-injurious imaging of dynamic cell behaviors deep within intact tissues, organs and even the living animal [Cahalan et. al., 2003, Stutzmann et al., 2005]. However, its widespread adoption for such applications has been hindered by two factors: commercial 2-P microscopes are very expensive, and they typically acquire images at frame rates too slow to resolve many biological processes. Both of these problems may be circumvented by building your own 2-P microscope!
[..] The object of this web page is to gather together all the information you should need to build your own 2-P microscope.’
‘When the military decides to get weird, it’s gets REALLY weird
It all started in the Fourteenth Century. We have a record of a “pre-tank” machine, called “Fighting Unicorn”.’
Also, Strange Tanks, Part 2.
she has one friend, he lives next door
they’re listening to the weather
he knows how many freckles she’s got
(10.0 and 10.1meg Flash videos)
see it here »
‘Untriseptium (IPA: /ʌntrʌɪˈsɛptiəm/) is a chemical element which has not yet been observed to occur naturally or be synthesised. Its atomic number is 137 and symbol is Uts. [.]
In a non-relativistic approximation, the speed of an electron in a 1s electron orbital, v, can be obtained using the expression:
v = Zac = Zc / 137.036
where Z is the atomic number, and α is the fine structure constant, a measure of the strength of electromagnetic interactions. Under this approximation, any element with an atomic number of greater than 137 would require 1s electrons to be traveling faster than c, the speed of light.’
‘These guys build a huge stack of wood and then wheel in a large jet engine to start the fire. Amazing the power from a jet engine as the wood is engulfed in flames.’
(7.5meg Flash video)
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‘This project involves restoration of a rather rare breed of machine. Very few steam-powered motorcycles are known with the majority of historic “steamcycles” residing in museums (e.g., the “Field” steam motorcycle). There has been very little commercial exploitation of applying steam power to two-wheeled vehicles, so most “steamcycles” that come to light are one-of-a-kind prototypes built by hobbyists and steam enthusiasts. The steamcycle restored here is no exception. It was custom built by Arthur “Bud” Hubbard of Monroe, CT during the early 1970’s.’
This guy make some lights that flash in time to music, out of a condom, some LEDs and part of a drink bottle.
(2.8meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘A Pythagorean cup (also known as a Pythagoras cup) is a form of drinking cup which forces its user to imbibe only in moderation. Credited as an invention to Pythagoras of Samos, it allows the user to fill the cup with wine (a popular beverage in Pythagoras’ time) up to a certain level. If the user fills the cup no further than that level he may enjoy his drink in peace. If he exhibits gluttony however, the cup wreaks instant retribution by spilling its contents out the bottom (the intention being: onto the lap of the immodest drinker).’
‘The Prince of Wales will today open the only public garden in Britain to be allowed to grow cannabis.
The Prince will officially open the second phase of The Alnwick Garden, in Alnwick, Northumberland, which includes the UK’s only public poison garden, growing plants such as cannabis and coca under lock and key. [..]
The first phase of The Alnwick Garden, which has cost £35.1 million ($A82.04 million) to construct, was officially opened by the Prince in October 2002.
This afternoon, he will view the second phase of the project, which also contains the world’s largest wooden tree house, a unique set of water sculptures that combine physics with the arts and an imposing pavilion designed by architect Sir Michael Hopkins.’
Lots of pictures of cool libraries.
‘Are you sick of pigeons crapping all over your pool or backyard? Are plastic owls not getting the job done? It might be time to try the motion activated sprinkler defense system.’
(2.7meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘The Defence Department is urging war veterans and historical groups to write in and tell them why they deserve a free decommissioned Leopard Tank.
The German-built Leopards began service in 1977 but are being phased out to make way for 59 new Abrams tanks.
The 42-tonne armoured monsters are nearly 10 metres long and come with a 105mm main gun capable of firing armour-piercing shells.
The Australian Army’s Leopards have never been used in action.
To be eligible for consideration organisations need to show that the tank will have historical or cultural significance.’
‘Behold! The work is now complete.
Once started, the machine opens the each page of the book and scans the content. The whole process is automatic.
The lesson of this story is that LEGO is great.’
‘These firemen rig a contraption that lets them lift a car up in the air using water pressure from multiple hoses. I guess this is what they do when there arent any fires going on, where do I sign up?’
(2.4meg Flash video)
see it here »
It turns out that toy radar guns work pretty well. This is a simple modification that doesn’t actually seem to do much more than change the on/off switch from a momentary button to an actual switch. But it’s kinda cool anyways. 🙂
(3.4meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘SABLE-3 was launched on Saturday, August 11th, 2007, at 9:31 AM with a payload, consisting of a Nikon Coolpix P2 digital camera set to take 1 image every minute and a Byonics MicroTrak 300 APRS Tracker, that the Kaysam 1200 gram balloon carried to over 117,597 feet. The last payload camera photo from the ground was just before it was launched, at 9:31 AM, and the last photo before the balloon burst was the photo above, at 12:01 PM, exactly 2½ hours or 150 images later. And what a photo. The composition couldn’t have been better or the horizon more level and out of the 196 images taken during the flight, only 1 other image is as good. What are the chances?’
‘Programmer Ivan Bowman spends his days at iAnywhere Solutions Inc. in much the same way his colleagues do.
He writes code, exchanges notes in other developers’ offices, attends meetings and, on occasion, hangs out in the kitchen or lounge over coffee and snacks.
About the only thing he can’t do is drink the coffee or eat the snacks — or touch anything, for that matter.
It’s not that Bowman doesn’t have hands or a mouth; they’re just in Halifax, along with the rest of his body.
In fact, it’s not really Bowman in the Waterloo office at all. It’s IvanAnywhere, a robot Bowman uses to interact with his colleagues in Waterloo from his home office 1,350 kilometres away. [..]
The computer screen displays a live shot of Bowman’s face from his living room in Nova Scotia. [..]
When Bowman has a question for a colleague, he doesn’t pick up the phone; he uses his joystick to drive his doppelganger to the team member’s office.’
‘Rockets can help power robotic arms, which could help lead to “better, stronger, faster” bionic limbs, research now reveals.
A new prototype rocket-powered mechanical arm can lift about 20 to 25 pounds—three to four times more than current commercial prosthetic arms—and can do so three to four times faster.
“Our design does not have superhuman strength or capability, but it is closer in terms of function and power to a human arm than any previous prosthetic device that is self-powered and weighs about the same as a natural arm,” said researcher Michael Goldfarb, a roboticist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
“It has about 10 times as much power as other [robotic] arms,” Goldfarb said.’
‘A stainless steel pen, 8cm long. However when you unscrew the top, the ‘nib’ is a solid piece of metal. There is no ink, yet this pen will write on virtually any type of paper. This is what it looked like when we tried it on a piece of normal paper…’
‘Minuscule wind engines could help to take computing power to the next level, scientists believe.
US researchers have developed a prototype device that creates a “breeze” made up of charged particles, or ions, to cool computer chips.
The “ionic wind”, the scientists say, will help to manage the heat generated by increasingly powerful, yet ever-shrinking devices. [..]
“A 250% improvement (3.5 times the cooling rate of a conventional fan) is quite unusual.”‘
Apparently this Tesla coil is 15 feet tall, runs at 33 kW and throws lightning 26 feet.
(11.6meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘Explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell has had close encounters with vampire bats and angry bees, but his latest brush has been with a rather odd dog.
He spotted a rare breed of Double-Nosed Andean tiger hound, which has two noses, on a recent trip to Bolivia. [..]
He said: “While we were there, sitting by the fire one night, I saw an extraordinary-looking dog that appeared to have two noses.
“I was sober at the time, and then I remembered the story that the legendary explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett came back with in 1913 of seeing such strange dogs in the Amazon jungle.
“Nobody believed him, they laughed him out of court.”‘
This is apparently some footage from a human powered boat competition.
(18.5meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘Good news, everyone! Here is a story about building my very own Bender. This, as everyone should know, is the foul mouthed, cigar smoking, booze drinking, shiny metal arsed, bending robot from the programme Futurama. More information can be found in the Wikipedia Futurama entry .
Of course just having a Bender that doesn’t do anything would be a waste of time so mine shall be used for a practical purpose. One Bender himself would be proud of. I’ll use him to make beer! This was actually done in the show in the episode “The Route of all Evil”. The idea was suggested to me by my drinking buddy Dave. [..]’
‘These guys raise an injured lion from birth and then release her into the wild. After one year they attempt to reunite with the lion and its amazing how happy the lion is to see her old friends.’
(2.4meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘It looks like a big flashlight — but it’s really a nonlethal weapon designed to make you sick.
Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc., of Torrance, Calif., has been granted a contract by the Department of Homeland Security to develop what it calls the “LED Incapacitator,” according to a DHS online newsletter.
The handheld device using light-emitting diodes to emit super-bright pulses of light at rapidly changing wavelengths, causing disorientation, nausea and even vomiting in whomever it’s pointed at.
“There’s one wavelength that gets everybody,” says IOS President Bob Lieberman. “Vlad [IOS top scientist Vladimir Rubtsov] calls it ‘the evil color.'”‘
‘Even by astronomical standards, Roger Angel thinks big.
Angel, a leading astronomer at the University of Arizona, is proposing an enormous liquid-mirror telescope on the moon that could be hundreds of times more sensitive than the Hubble Space Telescope.
Using a rotating dish of reflective liquid as its primary mirror, Angel’s telescope would the largest ever built, and would permit astronomers to study the oldest and most distant objects in the universe, including the very first stars.
“It’s an idea that’s been around, and we decided to flesh it out,” Angel says. [..]
Angel dreams of a 100-meter mirror, which would be larger than two side-by-side football fields and would collect 1,736 times more light than the Hubble.’
