Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
Cool… No shark jokes please.
According to Boeing, the C-130 fired its 12,000lb high-power chemical laser through the beam control system while flying over White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The beam control system acquired the ground target and guided the laser beam to the target.
[via NetworkWorld]
Zapping things from the sky: Airborne Boeing laser blasts ground target.
Not only is this super fun looking, but there are some very nice build photos that show how the SRBG2007SideWinder is constructed. Electric powered, fires hundreds of shots, simple design, what more could you ask for in a rubber band gun?
But if that wasn’t cool enough, you should look through the pages of the Japan Rubber Band Gun Shooting Association. Yes, there is a group of people that get together and compare notes on how to build rubber band guns.
[via Japan Probe]
SRBG2007SideWinder photo gallery
Japan Rubber Band Gun Shooting Association
(in Google English)
Set another place at the periodic table, we have another confirmed guest!
Set another place at the periodic table, we have another confirmed guest! It’s not every day that science updates the classic chart of the atoms that make up our universe (well what we know of it so far…)
A team of scientists, lead by Sigurd Hofmann at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany are credited with its discovery.
“The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table,” the scientists said in a statement.
Hofmann and his team first synthesized the element in 1996 by firing charged zinc atoms through a 120 meter-long particle accelerator into a lead target. The zinc and lead nuclei were fused to form the new element.
Go science! Too bad you can’t get a sample of it, the lifespan of this element is measured in seconds. Wikipedia has a gob of tech on it if you want to sound all smart like to your friends: Wikipedia – Element 112
[via Periodic table adding new element – The Register UK]
Want your own periodic table of the elements? I bet you do! Amazon has a nice periodic table of the elements for less than $10. Buy it and I get a tiny kick back, we all know how that works.
One of the things you do when you visit Southeast Asia is getting a rid on a Tuk-Tuk. It’s not some sort of amusement park ride because if park rides were this visceral the lines to ride them would be epic. Nope,the Tuk-Tuk is a three wheeled scooter taxi like car that gets you form one place to another in a busy crowded Asian metropolis quickly, sometimes by using sidewalks or by zipping between traffic that you could have sworn didn’t have enough space to fit a cat let alone a thing you are sitting in. Soon, local laws permitting, you may see them popping up on the streets in your area:
Get on board with the ONLY EPA and DOT approved Tuk Tuk in America! Tuk Tuk USA is excited to bring the internationally acclaimed Tuk Tuk motor vehicle to the United States after over 60 years of service abroad in over 20 countries! Dealership opportunities are coming soon with full service and and parts departments to be included on site! Tuk Tuk USA is proud to present over 14 models with choices in transmission and even alternative fuel source engines! There are both private and commercial vehicle configurations to choose from!
[via Red Ferret]
Like a scene from the Japanese TV series “Planetes“, a Russian and US satellite have collided in orbit. Early in February a non functional Russian military satellite (Kosmos 2251) and a US Iridium communications satellite occurred temporarily disrupting the Iridium communications network. An on orbit spare will be brought into service within the next 30 days. So far this isi the first accident of it’s kind, where a satellites has struck another satellite and not just orbital debris (paint chips, fuel tanks, etc) hitting working space hardware. There was that Chinese missile test where they destroyed a non functional weather bird but that was intentional (and also caused quite a mes up there). Hopefully the junk left from the recent accident will burn up, if not it will become part of the cloud of over 17,000 objects that are currently tracked by ground stations.
Original story:
Russian and US satellites collide
I spotted this while on Twitter today. Neil tweeted this site that just has me stunned. The name says it all. ‘This is why you are fat’. Yeah. I told my daughter “Not even Jesus and his invisible rainbow colored dinohorse could eat this stuff and expect to live. He’d have to heal himself after every bite.” She replied that he’d have to heal himself after just thinking about taking a bite. I think she’s right. Excuse me, I’ve some DIY angioplasty to do after looking at this page. Ugh.. (“Turbaconucken”?!?! What the was the creator of that monstrosity on?)