The Spinthariscope

spinthariscope

Another gem form United Nuclear, the Spinthariscope. A Spinthariscope is a small device that contains a tiny speck of radioactive material (in this case its Thorium ore) on a plate of zinc sulfide. As alpha particles are emitted from the ore, tiny flashes of light can be observed on the zinc sulfide. Its an old idea, the page says that it was discovered in 1903 by Sir William Crookes. It would be a dandy device for a practical demo of radiation. And yes, its safe.

United Nuclear- The Spinthariscope

nuclear, science, radiation, cool

It Will Suck The Iron Out of Your Blood

BIG Magnet

Ok, it can’t suck the iron out of your blood, but it could kill you in a number of facinating ways.

Scroll down to the bottom of the linked page…

It’s $100. I think just looking at the photo might have demagnetized my credit cards.
-Greg

Computers & monitors will be affected in an entire room. Loose metallic objects and other magnets may become airborne and fly considerable distances – and at great speed – to attach themselves to this magnet. If you get caught in between the two, you can get injured.
We can only ship this magnet by ground UPS – it cannot be shipped via air as it will interfere with the navigational equipment an the aircraft.

United Nuclear – Neodymium magnets

Bigfoot?

New bigfoot

Well, the latest ‘bigfoot’ footage aired on the Tv show Current Affair yesterday.
To me it looks like a blob trudging along a lake shore. We all know that no human would ever walk along the shore of a lake… I like to look at it like this, Current Affair made a nice doanation to a city in Canada.
I do find it a bit of a chuckle that Current Affair is mounting a bigfoot hunt. Hum, is this the beginning of national sweeps weed by any chance?
Perhaps I’m selling all of this short, maybe there is a ‘yeti‘, ‘sasquatch‘, ‘bigfoot‘ what have you. There may be all sorts of creatures out there that we have never seen before. Every once in a while a new species will show up like a new kind of fish or some mammal that was thought to be extinct is found for sale in a market somewhere. Maybe one day someone will find a bigfoot body somewhere and that will be more evidence to support the theory that the critter is real and not just a guy in a suit wearing funny shoes.

bigfoot, yeti, coelacanth, TV, Canada

The Speedy Way to Capture a City

City Mapping

Of course the best use of this technology would be to make CounterStrike game map

-Greg

The concept is similar to building a virtual reality model, but the process is very different. To produce a VR model, a programmer manually combines distance measurements and 2D pictures to make a 3D model. The new technique, dubbed “virtualised reality” by creator Avideh Zakhor, is automated and much faster. “Right now, a detailed urban model can take many months to create,” says Bruce Deal, vice-president of the Virginia engineering firm SET Associates, which is helping to adapt the technology for the US military. “With the new model, we’re talking about an hour or so.” Virtualised reality scans the urban landscape using lasers and digital cameras mounted on a truck or plane. A laser measures distances to objects such as lamp posts and building facades, while the digital camera takes 2D photos. Another laser calculates the movement of the truck and checks its position against data collected from the aerial laser aboard the plane.
These measurements and pictures are fed into a computer that combines them to create a photo-realistic virtual 3D model of the area. Zakhor and her team recently created a working model of downtown Berkeley (see graphic) in just 4? hours – 26 minutes of driving plus 4 hours of data processing.

The speedy way to capture a city
3D, maps, virtual

Wearable Church Key

Ring bottle opener

What a clever device. I can see some smart lad having a stone set on the normal ring looking area. Now THAT would make a great university class ring! (ASU students listen up!)
(BTW, ‘church key’ is what some of my relatives used to call bottle openers. It’s things like this that shape a kids future outlook on things I suppose…)
Ring Thing Bottle Opener
gadget, church key, beer, cool

Sharps Zapper

Disintergrator

The little video that is on the page is pretty cool. The syringe is placed into a hole at the top of the device and then the blue button is held down for a few seconds. After the button is released the syringe is removed and the needle is just a little black blob on the end of the syringe. Pretty neat!
I wonder if there is a larger version of one of these avaliable for doctor offices. Not that the sharps containers don’t do a good job right now but this could make it safer and easire to dispose of.
I want one that I can drop a soda can into and get a little button of aluminium when it’s done. That would beat the heck out of hauling big bags of crushed cans to the recyclers…

The DISINTEGRATOR is a portable, easy-to-use device that allows for safe disposal of used insulin syringes by disintegrating the needle. Its small size and affordable price makes the DISINTEGRATOR practical for both the home and office.
Because the DISINTEGRATOR destroys the needle immediately after use, it eliminates the need to transport and store hazardous sharps in separate containers.
The revolutionary DISINTEGRATOR utilizes a unique plasma arc to melt the needle at a temperature of over 2500° Fahrenheit, reducing it to a small “bb” shaped ball. The built-in rechargeable battery will disintegrate over 40 needles between charges.

Disintegrator Plus Needle Disintegrator

medical, cool