Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
The new LED light bulbs from Philips will change color and brightness with one touch, squeeze, or turn. They are also energy efficient and last 10-20 years. Good work. Expect to see these in coming months or years.
Philips’ New "Simplicity" LED Bulbs
I have a bag full of these disposable cameras that I got for the lenses but I think that the flashes might end up as one of these. I need a way to pop balloons…
[via Hack-a-day]
Silly string as a tool for urban combat? You bet! Turns out the stuff is great for revealing trip wires. Read more…
[via BoingBoing]
With more and more hybrid cars on the streets these days the world of crash rescue is finding itself failing dangerously behind. Hybrid cars will often route high voltage (100-500 volts) cables around door frames in order to supply power to all parts of the car. Without special tools a rescuer conducting a regular extricating my become a fatality due to electrocution. With these new tools the operator is safely insulated from dangerous voltages.
[via BoingBoing]
Think of this as speed bumps for the dead. In locations where there has been a traffic fatality it’s pretty common for a small shrine for the dead to be erected by friends and loved ones. This idea has the location augmented with a small piezo powered transmitter that says the name of the dead and how many days it has been sense the accident. The traffic running over it powers the device. Radios in the local area would be able to pick up these transmissions.
The Japanese mission to land a 10cm high robot names ‘Minerva’ on an asteroid is still on track even if the spacecraft is not in the best of health. Three of its four reaction wheels (devices used to maintain correct orientation) have failed and is now using precious propellant to stay on target.
The images that are being sent back are stunning. The survey of asteroid Itokawa is sure to produce a wealth of data on solar objects.
I’m looking forward to seeing if the tiny rover will be able to stay on the surface for any length of time or if it will bounce off and float away. If everything works as planned this will be the fist controlled landing and exploration of an asteroid in the history of mankind.
[ via BBC News ]
