Category: tech things!

these things are geeky!

Science is AWESOME!

Here’s a neat demonstration of vibration, frequency, standing waves and a whole lot of cool images, using nothing but salt, sound, a board, and an audio generator! I prefer this version with the music, but there’s a link on the page to the version with just the tones at the frequencies used.

Enjoy!

Burritos… In… SPAAAAACE!

I won’t make any jokes about “the flying burrito, brother” (too late!) but this was a pretty interesting video by the “Mythbusters” guys, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, and Canada’s coolest astronaut, Chris Hadfield, with help from chef Traci Des Jardin. The plan was to come up with something good to eat made with the ingredients available on the ISS. Chef Des Jardin figures out a way of making a beef burrito using the steak, tortillas, and beans that Commander Hadfield had access to. It’s neat to see how things work on Earth and how different the same things work without gravity, and how cruel it can be to watch people eat fresh fruit that you only get once every few months if you’re lucky!

Enjoy!

Nerdtour 2012 quickie: Parking

So, what do you do when you have to park a lot of cars, but land is very expensive and hard to come by? If you live in Japan, there’s only one way to go: grab a bit of space and double up!

Here are two examples of how people in Tokyo deal with parking, one a parking garage in an apartment building, the other a space for a fleet of company cars. If you don’t have the space to put up a dedicated parking garage, if you have room in your space for two cars, all you have to do is get one of these things, hook up your electricity, and boom, now you’ve got room for four! A little corner that would hold 4 cars in a US neighborhood can now hold all 8 company cars just as easily. I’ve heard there are some clever ways of using space in New York City and probably in other cramped US cities, plus there’d be no need of them in the rest of the US, but it seems like these things were everywhere in Japan. Like a lot of Japan, it’s simple, efficient and convenient!

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Coolest. Astronaut. Ever!

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been using his time on the International Space Station to show that space is not just for scientists, but also for artists and creators. He’s been posting some beautiful photos of the Earth from space, and now he’s made a music video of his cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” with a few revised lyrics! He apparently recorded the video and audio of his song on the station, which the producers on the ground mixed with the music track and edited together into this video. He recorded this with new lyrics having to do with his return from the ISS, which you can tell he’s going to miss. It’s really a great job that he’s done, and I hope others get to follow the musical and artistic trail he’s blazed!

Now, by definition (mine), astronauts and cosmonauts are cool people, but I have to say that, after the Apollo astronauts, Chris Hadfield is on my list of The Coolest Astronauts Ever!

Enjoy!

Better hope your next surgeon was a gamer…

Somehow I can see the scene at certain homes: “Honest, Mom, I’m going to be a surgeon, I need to keep playing!”

Hour a day on a Wii boosted surgeons’ skills: Console helped doctors speed and efficiency in delicate procedures

"Oh, I'm not a surgeon, but I did just marathon 36 hours on a World of Warcraft campaign!"
“Oh, I’m not a surgeon, but I did just marathon 36 hours on a World of Warcraft campaign!”

Katsucon 2013: pre-convention cosplay

So, I went to pick up my badge for Katsucon 2013 Thursday night, and managed to catch a few cosplayers wandering the hotel/convention center. I put most of the pictures on a photography page, but I thought I’d share a few in a post.
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