courtesy: David Yanko of Virtual Saskatchewan

This blog is about “finding better ways to pour coffee.”  At the risk of sounding like a bureaucratically-generated cliche, it’s a little like a more focused “think outside the box,” which I hate.  Allow me to explain what I mean, starting with a quick story.

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Working with others is easy for some, difficult for others.  Engineers, in particular, often have a difficult time communicating clearly.  For many firms, the end goal (a finished product) isn’t finished until many, many engineers get their hands on the design.  Naturally, in the corporate world, this mandates that teams of technical gurus are created under the glorious umbrella of hierarchical chain of command. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientific American has created a ridiculously interesting infographic on sustainable energy sources.  The article outlines a plan to get the world off of fossil fuels in 20 years.  That’s 100% clean, sustainable energy by 2030.  Although not feasible for a number of economic and political reasons, it is still damn interesting to see how the authors (Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi) plan this out.  Give it a good read, there are a few surprises in there, particularly re: wind vs. solar.

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Above is how a basic info graphic explaining how a railgun works.  Below is the General Atomic’s new Blitzer Railgun’s test apparatus.

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While not as huge as some of the vacuum tube-based mainframes of the 1940’s, it was still pretty damn large for an accounting calculator.

Here are some still-shots of the revolutionary machine:

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Steven Wiltshire (The Living Camera) is world renowned for his photographic memory and incredible archtectural skills.  He is also autistic, and although unable to speak until the age of 5, at age 11 he drew a perfect aerial view of London after just a 30 minute helicopter ride.  He’s now a successful artist and architect.

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The image above is a simple betavoltaic graphic from medgadget.  It shows the beta particles creating an electric field over a pn-junction diode, biasing the device, which thereby causes conduction.

It has been some time since betavoltaic batteries have been used. Lithium Ion has been the battery of choice for awhile, probably because it isn’t, you know, radioactive. Widetronix is looking to change that with its Tritium-based, navy-funded technology. By using more efficient semiconductor materials, they have revamped the self-charging betavoltaic battery.

These tiny power sources are said to last for 25 years! Of course, this technology only works for devices that require minimal amounts of current draw (think pacemakers and small sensors).

Check this VentureBeat article for more on these tiny batteries.

Um, that is insanely cool.  This Toshiba article delves into the company’s brilliant ad campaign, and how sending a chair to space relates to laptops.

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