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World’s First Electric Generator
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How a watch works
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How does a microwave work?
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Match Rockets
(via Vimeo)
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Shock anything
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Fire without matches
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A Dolphin-Like Speedboat That Can Reach 50 MPH and Launch 18 Feet Into the Air
Outfitted with a 1500cc engine, a watertight cockpit and six dolphin-like fins, the Innespace Seabreacher redefines personal watercraft. The 17-foot vessel can reach 50 mph on flat water, cruise beneath the surface, and launch 18 feet into the air. It’s also got an iPod-compatible sound system and a digital periscope. Summer may never be the same.
Tail Fin
The Seabreacher’s top rear fin acts like a car spoiler. When the craft is underwater, aiming its water jet toward the tail fin produces drag that pushes the craft’s rear downward and the nose upward, launching the vessel out of the water.
Water Jet
A single jet controls propulsion and steering. Drivers aim it with two foot pedals in the cockpit. Pointing the stream left or right initiates a turn; directing it down pops the tail up and aims the craft’s nose down for a dive.
Engine
The 260-horsepower gas engine—similar to a Jet Ski’s—generates speeds of 50 mph on the surface and 25 mph beneath. Air intake at the dorsal fin lets the craft cruise underwater while getting oxygen to the engine.
Side Fins
Two manually controlled side fins add maneuverability. Tilting the fins forward sucks the vessel deeper into the water; tilting them backward helps it rise. One forward and one back forces the craft to roll onto its side underwater or on the surface.
Cockpit
The two-seat, pneumatically sealed cockpit is outfitted with a GPS, an iPod dock and speakers. LCD screens display live footage taken from a camera mounted on the dorsal fin, which acts like a digital periscope.
(via PopSci)
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How to break an apple into four slices
(via Instructables)
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A $25 PC On a USB Stick
David Braben has developed a tiny USB stick PC that has an HDMI port on one end and a USB port on the other.
You plug it into an HDMI socket and then connect a keyboard via the USB port, giving you a fully functioning machine running a version of Linux.
The cost? $25.
The hardware being offered is no slouch either. It uses a 700MHz ARM11 processor coupled with 128MB of RAM and runs OpenGL ES 2.0, allowing for decent graphics performance with 1080p output confirmed.
We can expect it to run a range of Linux distributions, but it looks like Ubuntu may be the distro it ships with. That means it will handle web browsing, run office applications, and give the user a fully functional computer to play with as soon as it’s plugged in. All that and it can be carried in your pocket or on a key chain.”
(via Slashdot)
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Vehicle Arrestor
Barrier1 Systems is a defense contractor that has developed a number of amazing retractable road blocking systems. The above video shows several of them, starting with a net that can be kept below the surface of the road, then deployed in an emergency. Hitting one of them is like slamming into a brick wall.
(via Neatorama)
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Use Packing Tape to See Through Privacy Glass
You can use a simple piece of tape to create a clear peep hole in frosted privacy glass.
Because we’re painfully curious, we had to see if this trick would work on the frosted windows around the office. We had two windows we could test, a window in a bathroom that had been professionally frosted (it came from the window factory acid etched) and a window that had been “frosted” by being sponged with acrylic glaze to create a simple DIY privacy glaze. Although fully braced for the trick to not work, we were shocked when it worked on both windows. It didn’t create a perfectly clear portal through which to peek but it provided enough clarity that what were just blobs outside the window became easily identifiable as trees, cars on the street, the mailman coming up the sidewalk, and other features of the landscape. Consider us extremely impressed by how effective a simple piece of packing tape was rendering the privacy glass less private.
(via Howto Geek)
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High voltage rig wipes CDs clean
Positioned between two high-voltage transformers, the spinning CD has its data violently stripped off in just a matter of seconds. To be fair, the data isn’t erased per se, but the metallic substrate on which the data is recorded is flaked off by the aggressive application of electricity.
(via Hack-a-day)
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Throwable fire extinguisher offers instant solution to small fire emergencies
The Nagekesu SAT 119 throwable fire extinguisher from Japan is possibly the quickest and easiest method of putting out a fire in your home or office. If only Japan had a jumbo version of this invention to cool down its still beleaguered nuclear reactors. The blue chemical housed in an easy-break container costs only $71.
(via DVice)
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PCB parts salvaging made easy
Take a moment to think about how many old or damaged computer motherboards you have tossed away over the years. Sure we try to repurpose everything we can, but reclaiming electronic components from complex devices can be overly time consuming if you don’t have the proper means of doing so.
Ideally, if we were to try removing components from a motherboard, an old stove or an unused toaster oven would be great. If you didn’t have either item at your disposal, you could always attack the board with a soldering iron and some braid – but who has the time for that?
[Giorgos Lazaridis] over at PCBHeaven put together a quick video demonstrating his favorite technique for salvaging components after a motherboard has outlived its usefulness. Using a 2000W heat gun, a few hand tools, and couple of metal pans, he had the entire board stripped bare in about 30 minutes time. He talks about some of the best parts he has discovered while salvaging and points out a few hard-to-find items that can be easily obtained by tearing down a motherboard.
Sure his process might not be as easy as inverting a PCB in an oven, but his method is cheap, portable, and takes up very little space.
(via Hack-a-Day)
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Dyslexie
The Dyslexie typeface is based on the notion that of the 26 letters in the standard Latin-based alphabet, as used in English, many of the letters look similar – such as v/w, i/j and m/n – thus people with dyslexia often confuse these letters. So by creating a new typeface where the differences in these letters are emphasized, it was found that dyslexic people made fewer errors.
The Dyslexie typeface was developed by Christian Boer from Studio Studio in 2008.
(via The Next Web)
