There was a time when all a man needed for a good snowball fight was dry gloves and some fresh powder. These days you need to step up your game, with weapons specifically engineered for winter warfare like this crossbow designed to hurl balls of snow instead of arrows.
It's been a while since something from the Sharper Image has caught our attention, but that's because an iPod dock is useless when there's two feet of snow on the ground. But a crossbow designed to launch a snowball up to 60 feet? Well, now you have our attention. This snow launcher's got an easy to pull lever which makes it easy to prime the firing mechanism, and includes a press designed to make three perfectly sized frozen projectiles. Besides warm gloves and gallons of hot chocolate, we can't think of a better way to spend $40 on winter gear. Just make sure you pick up one for each hand for complete domination, since the neighborhood kids can probably only wield one at a time.
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Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
You ditched your landline years ago. Smart! Because the one thing it was good at—buzzing people into your building—can be done better with your smartphone anyway. Here's how to have that buzzer ring any phone you want.
First, you'll need a Google Voice account. If you already have one, you're halfway there. If you don't have an account, here's a handy guide on how to get one. Once you've got a Google Voice number, give it to your landlord/super to program into your building's buzzer system. Now the when someone rings your apartment buzzer, the call will be routed to the Google Voice account.
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So, has the technology finally arrived that will permit the manufacturing of genuine Marty McFly hoverboards? Don't hold your breath. Despite researchers' intriguing work in quantum levitation, hoverboards won't be showing up on store shelves anytime soon -- at least not on planet Earth. "It would be practical only in an already cooled environment like outer space or a planet like Neptune," noted tech analyst Roger Kay.
"Quantum levitation" may not be a household term, but one look at a YouTube video now nearing 3 million views, and you'll soon get the gist of what's going on.
In essence, it's a thin but solid disc floating in mid-air.Magic and science fiction might be what spring to mind, but in fact what's being demonstrated is real, live science, courtesy of the Superconductivity Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University.
Quantum levitation is the phenomenon behind it, and the term has been on the tip of more than a few tongues ever since the group demonstrated the feat last week at the 2011 Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – President Barack Obama boldly predicted Thursday his new plans for space exploration would lead American astronauts on historic, almost fantastic journeys to an asteroid and then to Mars — and in his lifetime — relying on rockets and propulsion still to be imagined and built.
"I expect to be around to see it," he said of pioneering U.S. trips starting with a landing on an asteroid — a colossal feat in itself — before the long-dreamed-of expedition to Mars. He spoke near the historic Kennedy Space Center launch pads that sent the first men to the moon, a blunt rejoinder to critics, including several former astronauts, who contend his planned changes will instead deal a staggering blow to the nation's manned space program.
"We want to leap into the future," not continue on the same path as before, Obama said as he sought to reassure NASA workers that America's space adventures would soar on despite the impending termination of space shuttle flights.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_sc/us_obama_space;_ylt=AtQKQ21SUlUue9GDS01hUkIjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTJpaW1wZmNpBGFzc2V0Ay9hcC8yMDEwMDQxNi9hcF9vbl9zYy91c19vYmFtYV9zcGFjZQRwb3MDMgRzZWMDeW5fdG9tYnN0b25lBHNsawNvbnRvbWFyc29iYW0-
The International Space Station will get its first humanoid robot this fall. Though R2 is only half a man -- he's got nothing from the waist down -- he's a lot stronger than the real people he's designed to help. Also, he'll be better suited to undertake some tasks that are too dangerous for ordinary mortals.
Moving slowly and deliberately, a pair of white-gloved hands reach out, grasp a white cloth and carefully pull it back, revealing a manila envelope. The hands then deftly move to the envelope, pick it up and present it to onlookers.
The scene is from a NASA video, and the hands belong to a character known as "R2," or Robonaut 2 -- a startlingly humanoid looking robot currently prepping to fly to the International Space Station aboard the last scheduled space shuttle mission in September.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/R2-Lands-Space-Station-Gig-69771.html
"The American Lung Association is jumping on board the ban-E-cigs-train. From the article: 'So, while the ALA admitted that electronic cigarettes contain fewer chemicals than tobacco cigarettes, they refuse to acknowledge the obvious health benefit that lack of the most toxic chemicals provides to the smokers who switch. Are lives and lung health the real issue here or is nicotine addiction? The ALA must know that numerous studies show that, absent the tobacco smoke, nicotine is relatively harmless and comparable to caffeine. The American Heart Association acknowledges that nicotine is "safe" in other smoke-free forms such as patches or gum.' For those of you not in the know, electronic cigarettes (also called personal vaporizers) are a nicotine delivery device that resembles a cigarette in shape and size, but does not burn tobacco. It is less a expensive alternative to the traditional tobacco cigarette that is by all appearances (though not thoroughly researched) also healthier."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/15/1850246/American-Lung-Association-Pushes-For-Ban-On-Electronic-Cigarettes
ne week before President Obama is scheduled to attend a major "space summit" in Florida, NASA unveiled sweeping new programs Thursday designed to implement the administration's proposed shift to commercial manned rockets and development of new technologies to enable eventual deep space exploration.
The president's fiscal 2011 budget request, which would cancel the Bush administration's Constellation moon program, does not specify a long-range target for manned exploration or a timetable for moving beyond low-Earth orbit, factors that have generated widespread criticism.
But NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former shuttle commander, defended the agency's new direction Thursday, saying the president's controversial "vision" is, unlike past programs, affordable and sustainable.
"On April 13 — the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 accident — Bonhams in New York City will auction off pages from the Apollo 13 mission manual, with handwritten notes by flight commander Jim Lovell. I'm thinking the chances of actually outbidding a rich space enthusiast are slim to none, but having a chance at owning a piece of spaceflight history should be popular nonetheless."
http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/04/07/0148253/Apollo-13-Mission-Manual-Pages-To-Be-Auctioned
"The widespread belief by astrophysicists that pulsars and white dwarfs are the best clocks in the universe is wrong, say two Australian physicists. John Hartnett and Andre Luiten from the University of Western Australia have recently shown that man-made terrestrial atomic clocks take the crown, contrary to numerous claims in astrophysical literature that the natural timing provided by pulsars and white dwarfs is the most precise. The preprint of their paper, available on the arXiv, shows that terrestrial clocks exceed the accuracy and stability of the astrophysical 'clocks' by all sensible measures, in some cases by several orders of magnitude."
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/04/07/1944245/Man-Made-Atomic-Clocks-the-Best-In-the-Universe
Food poisoning costs the U.S. $152 billion, kills 5,000 people, and sends 325,000 to the hospital each year, new calculations suggest.
The figures come from a new study by former FDA economist Robert L. Scharff, PhD, JD, now an assistant professor at Ohio State University.
"This study illustrates how serious food-borne illness is as a problem for our society," Scharff said at a news teleconference announcing the findings.
The study, underwritten by the Produce Safety Project at Georgetown University and Pew Charitable Trusts, considers the direct health care costs of food-borne illnesses as well as the costs of years of life lost.
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/news/20100303/food-poisoning-costs-152-billion-a-year
WASHINGTON — One of the aerospace industry’s most widely respected experts told House lawmakers March 24 that NASA’s proposal to rely on commercial crew taxis for operations in low Earth orbit is too risky and urged Congress not to approve the plan.
During a hearing before the House Science and Technology space and aeronautics subcommittee, former Martin Marietta Chief Executive A. Thomas Young said NASA should continue the Moon-bound Constellation program President Barack Obama proposed canceling in his 2011 budget request. Young said the Obama plan would leave the nation reliant on a private sector that is “a long way” from satisfying human space transportation needs. http://www.spacenews.com/policy/100326-young-hits-spaceflight-plan.html
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin could be forced to slow or stop work on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle this spring in order to preserve enough money to cover the cost of shutting down the project as soon as this fall, according to congressional sources.
Orion and the rest of NASA’s Constellation program are slated to end in 2011 as the U.S. space agency seeks to outsource human spaceflight to a fledgling commercial space sector.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100326-contractors-preserving-constellation-funds-closeout.html
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) on March 31 exercised several options for its Sentinel-2B multispectral Earth observation satellite that have increased the program’s value to prime contractor Astrium Satellites to 105 million euros ($142 million), Astrium announced.
Sentinel-2B will be a near-identical copy of the Sentinel 2A satellite, also under construction by Astrium under a contract valued at 195 million euros signed in early 2008. As it did with the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 satellites under construction by Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy, the 18-nation ESA negotiated directly with Astrium for a Sentinel-2B, rather than organizing a fresh competition, to reap the savings the manufacturer could offer in producing a second copy of essentially the same spacecraft.
http://www.spacenews.com/contracts/100331-options-boost-value-astrium-sentinel2b-deal.html
PARIS — Boeing officials on April 1 moved to defend the Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) military satellite communications system following the U.S. Air Force’s notification to Congress that the program’s cost had climbed more than 25 percent higher than previous estimates.
The increased average per-satellite cost, Boeing officials said, is due to the fact that the program suffered from intermittent funding, which interrupted industrial workflow,and to the Air Force’s recent decision to order two additional satellites. Boeing is prime contractor on the program.
http://www.spacenews.com/military/100401-boeing-defends-wgs-following-nunn-mccurdy.html
PARIS — The Bolivian government on April 1 signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese authorities under which China will build and launch Bolivia’s Tupac Katari telecommunications satellite, the Bolivian government announced.
Bolivian authorities did not say whether the agreement, which followed months of talks with China and the creation of the Bolivian Space Agency, means they have resolved frequency coordination issues that will make it difficult to operate a C- or Ku-band satellite in the geostationary arc covering Bolivia without infringing on international frequency-sharing rules.
http://www.spacenews.com/launch/100402-china-build-launch-bolivian-telecom-satellite.html
Orbital Sciences Corp. completed its $55 million acquisition of General Dynamics Corp.’s satellite manufacturing division under a deal announced in March, the company said April 2.
With the formal closing of the deal, Dulles, Va.-based Orbital acquires a 12,000-square-meter satellite manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Ariz., and 325 new employees, many of whom have security clearances to work on sensitive U.S. government programs.
http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/040210-orbital-closes-acquisition.html
WASHINGTON — As NASA devises its strategy for fostering development of a commercial successor to the space shuttle, the nation’s primary rocket builder is cautioning the agency not to count on industry for a substantial upfront investment in an endeavor rife with uncertainty.
“Not surprisingly, we are a little reluctant to commit,” Andrew Aldrin, director of business development for Denver-based United Launch Alliance (ULA), said during a March 30 event here sponsored by the Marshall Institute. “But this wasn’t always the case. Just remember, it was about 10 years ago that we invested billions in EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) systems for a [satellite launch] market that frankly looked much more solid than the [human spaceflight] market we are looking at today.”
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100402-commercial-crew-plan--hinge-risk-sharing.html
Students across America have been dreaming up ways to solve the world's toughest problems using the magic of software. They are competing in the Imagine Cup, the world's premier student technology competition hosted annually by Microsoft Corp. Starting today and running through April 23, the public is invited to learn more about the U.S. finalist teams, view videos about their innovations, and vote for their favorite Software Design idea at http://www.imaginecup.us/peopleschoice.aspx.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/mar10/03-25mspeopleschoiceimaginecuppr.mspx
"Photographs of the Sea of Crises on the Moon taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show the Soviet lunar landers Luna 20, Luna 23 and Luna 24, which landed on the Moon in the 1970s. In addition to the landers, it is possible to see the tracks made by the Lunokhod lunar rover! The Soviet Lunokhod lunar rover predates the first successful Mars Rover by some 30 years. (Note: Very cool old-style artists' drawings of the Soviet craft at the Wikipedia links above.)"
http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03/26/2022248/LRO-Photographs-Soviet-Lunar-Landers-From-the-70s
"A team from Surrey Space Centre has developed a device called a CubeSail, designed to be attached to satellites and rocket stages in order to drag space debris from orbit. CubeSail is a nanosatellite, weighing 3kg (6.6lb), and measures 10cm x 10cm x 30cm. Within its frame is a polymer sheet that unfurls itself once in space. 'The simple deployment mechanism features four metal strips that are wound under tension and will snap into a straight line when let go, pulling the sheet flat in the process.' The overall idea is that 'Residual air molecules still present in the spacecraft's low-Earth orbit will catch the sheet and pull the object out of the sky much faster than is normal.' Sir Martin Sweeting, the chairman of SSTL, who supported the research, said, 'We would be looking to put it on our own satellites and to put it on other people's spacecraft as well. We want this to be a standard, essential bolt-on item for a spacecraft; and that's why it's very important to make it small, because if it's too big it will interfere with the rest of the spacecraft.' The team is also hoping that CubeSail can act as a propulsion system, using 'solar sailing' to help satellites keep their orbits more efficiently."
http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03/27/1355226/Tiny-Cube-Drags-Space-Debris-From-Orbit
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