Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on August 23, 2010 1 comment
REACQUAINT YOURSELF WITH THE PLEASURES OF A HAND-SHARPENED PENCIL.
In New York’s Hudson River Valley, craftsman David Rees still practices the age-old art of manual pencil sharpening. His artisanal service is perfect for artists, writers, and standardized test takers. Shipped with their shavings and a “certificate of sharpening,” these extra-sharp pencils make wonderful gifts.
Traditionally people mail in their pencils to be sharpened; however David now offers a new service: He will provide the pencil.
IS THIS A JOKE?
If you start a pencil-sharpening business, you can expect to hear this question a lot. The short answer? No, this is not a joke. You pay David Rees money and he sharpens your pencils. It actually happens.
If you think it’s a joke, why don’t you poke yourself with your newly sharpened pencil? Or better yet, don’t — because it’ll really hurt. In fact, every pencil David Rees sharpens is shipped with a signed and dated certificate authenticating that it is now a dangerous object.
$60 gets you a sharp pencil and the poster you see here. Only want your pencil sharpened? That’s just $15.
Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on August 22, 2010 0 comments
Brookline, MA-based Jin Choi & Thomas Shine of Choi+Shine recently received the 2010 Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Architecture Award for their “Land of Giants” project. The project was originally submitted for an Icelandic pylon competition, where it received an honorable mention. The competition was to find a new typology for Iceland’s high voltage power lines and pylons.
Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on August 10, 2010 0 comments
Access to clean drinking water is still an uphill fight for many in the world. However, most of the water purifying techniques rely on the grid and are not suitable for regions where it’s difficult to find even the barest of necessity like clean drinking water. SteriPEN Sidewinder is a completely off-grid solution to purify water using a UV-light mechanism.
All you need to do is fill the unit’s one-liter bottle and attach the Sidewinder to it. Then, flip the bottle and Sidewinder upside down and unfold the handle. You may crank until the green LED indicates. The bottle will be available in September for $99.95.
Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on August 5, 2010 0 comments
In 1864, a family embarks on an impossible journey into the untamed American West. Based on the classic educational computer game, The Oregon Trail by MECC.
Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on July 31, 2010 0 comments
This is the INTIMIDATOR Puzzle Sculpture from GarE Maxton.
The INTIMIDATOR breaks down into over 125 separate pieces. In addition to standard notched pieces, the puzzle includes cap screws, springs, threaded parts, cylinders, hex bits and numerous circular borings to obtain the locking fit for two different assembly procedures.
There are some special parts within the puzzle sculpture that create an altogether different assembly…..
The INTIMIDATOR PUZZLE PISTOL is is a single shot 45 caliber muzzle loading pistol; a unique offering for personal self defense.
The sculpture includes everything required for assembly of the puzzle pistol. Integrated into the sculpture are a customized set of tools, all necessary hardware, 45 caliber bullets, a standard sight, a laser sight, a cannister containing black powder pellets, a secure storage area for 209 shotgun primers, a spent primer removal tool and a ramrod for loading the bullets.
Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on July 17, 2010 0 comments
Jelloware re-imagines the concept of drinking, and imparts a new experience in the way it feels, tastes, smells, moves, and is even disposed of. The cups are made entirely out of agar agar and cast in different flavors, such as lemon-basil, ginger-mint, or rosemary-beet. All are specifically designed to compliment a corresponding drink. Jelloware is meant to be thrown into the grass after it is used, as agar agar is a seaweed extract and actually nurtures the growth of plants.
Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on July 17, 2010 0 comments
An upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere recently shrank so much that researchers are at a loss to adequately explain it, NASA said on Thursday.
The thermosphere, which blocks harmful ultraviolet rays, expands and contracts regularly due to the sun’s activities. As carbon dioxide increases, it has a cooling effect at such high altitudes, which also contributes to the contraction.
But even these two factors aren’t fully explaining the extraordinary contraction which, though unlikely to affect the weather, can affect the movement of satellites, researchers said.
“This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years,” John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab was quoted as saying in NASA news report.
Emmert is the lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
“We cannot explain the abnormally low densities, which are about 30 percent lower” than from previous contractions, Emmert told CNN.com.
Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on July 9, 2010 0 comments
A liquid armour has been shown to stop bullets in tests carried out by UK scientists at BAE systems in Bristol.
The researchers have combined this “shear-thickening” liquid with Kevlar to create a new bullet-proof material.
The company is keeping the chemical formula of the liquid a secret, but it works by absorbing the force of the bullet strike and responding to it by becoming much thicker and more sticky.
The BAE scientists describe it as “bullet-proof custard”.
“It’s very similar to custard in the sense that the molecules lock together when it’s struck,” explained Stewart Penny, business development manager in charge of materials development at the company.
. . . . .
In the tests, scientists used a large gas gun to fire ball bearing-shaped metal bullets at over 300 metres per second into two test materials – 31 layers of untreated kevlar (pictured left) and 10 layers of kevlar (pictured right) combined with the shear-thickening liquid.
“The Kevlar with the liquid works much faster and the impact isn’t anything like as deep,” he explained.
Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on July 6, 2010 0 comments
AquaLux 3D, a new projection technology developed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, can target light onto and between individual water droplets, enabling text, video and other moving or still images to be displayed on multiple layers of falling water.
In contrast to existing technologies for projecting images onto water surfaces, AquaLux 3D makes it possible to create three-dimensional images in water by using multiple layers of precisely controlled water droplets, said Srinivasa Narasimhan, associate professor of robotics. By combining the droplets with clouds of mist, it would be possible to create unique 3-D effects for theme parks, exhibitions and interactive games that don’t require special eyeglasses to view, he added.
“The beauty of water drops is that they refract most incident light, so they serve as excellent wide-angle lenses that can be among the brightest elements of an environment,” said Narasimhan, who developed the display with Takeo Kanade, professor of computer science and robotics, and Peter Barnum, a Ph.D. student in robotics. “By carefully generating several layers of drops so that no two drops occupy the same line-of-sight from the projector, we can use each drop as a voxel that can be illuminated to create a 3-D image.”
Check out the video below, be sure to watch the 3D tetris game that starts at 4:07.
REACQUAINT YOURSELF WITH THE PLEASURES OF A HAND-SHARPENED PENCIL.
AquaLux 3D, a new projection technology developed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, can target light onto and between individual water droplets, enabling text, video and other moving or still images to be displayed on multiple layers of falling water.