The Big Picture

I've found myself back on the Boston Globe website time and time again checking out photo stories that run on this page called "The Big Picture." Most likely it's because they fit into my bite-sized news gathering routine (mostly done while at the office between emails), maybe some of it is my fascination with photograph and visual mediums, maybe its just the nerd in me. But I found myself there again today looking at a couple of features; one on the Sun, the other on the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. I've seen Arthus-Bertrand's coffee table book before, but it's been a while and the photos remain breathtakingly interesting. Looks like he's added to his collection and will be opening an exhibit of 150 4'x6' prints in NYC. Us Californians will have to wait until 2010 when it comes here (probably in Santa Monica, they get all the good outdoor installations).

I Want One 8.07.08

Jetpacks!

Dreams are coming true for thousands of scifi and geek grownups and kids this week. A totally amateur inventor from New Zealand has gone public with his personal jetpack. Plans are to demo it in more depth at an airshow in Wisconsin this week, but the NYT reports,

With the startling power of its twin rotors and its 200-horsepower engine behind my shoulder blades screaming like an army of leaf blowers, it felt almost as if I were doing the lifting myself, with muscles I did not know I had. It felt like living in the future — and, even better, the future we imagined back when it was something to be hoped for rather than feared.

Needless to say, that is awesome. The story continues,

The current iteration of the product, the 11th, weighs about 250 pounds and provides 600 pounds of thrust. It includes safety features like a so-called ballistic parachute with a small explosive charge for rapid deployment in case of an emergency, like those used in some small airplanes. The pedestal that forms the main support for the device has a shock absorber like a pogo stick to soften landings. The weight of the engines and body of the flier sits lower than the rotors to create a pendulum effect that discourages the contraption from tipping upside down and creating what might be called the lawn dart effect.

“People come up and go, ‘Is it safe?’ ” Mr. Martin said. “Safety is a relative thing. We think we have done a lot to make this by far the safest jetpack ever built.” But, he acknowledged, “It’s not a high bar.”

More, including video here.

Famous photos recreated with Legos

This guy has created a flickr set of photos recreating famous images from history (or recreating the scenes of famous photos and then photographing them). I picked this awesome shot of Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal from the World Cup back in the day to illustrate, but there is more.

Jet car

and for those of us who are not as fond of VW beetles

Nanocleansers

I have to admit, I'm completely fascinated with anything related to nano-technologies. Today's gnarly-nano moment comes courtesy of potassium manganese oxide fibers (wtf?). Scientists at MIT have crafted sheets of this stuff which acts like a paper towel for oil and basically sucks up oil and nothing else (even pulling it from water). It was designed to pick up oil from the oceans and does so remarkably well - it can hold up to 20 times its weight in oil. Oil that can later be extracted and used. Plus, it's apparently affordable to produce and it's recyclable.

Stellacci explained that there are other materials that can absorb oils from water, "but their selectivity is not as high as ours." In other words, conventional materials still absorb some water, making them less efficient at capturing the contaminant.

The new material appears to be completely impervious to water. "Our material can be left in water a month or two, and when you take it out it's still dry," Stellacci said. "But at the same time, if that water contains some hydrophobic contaminants, they will get absorbed."

Made of potassium manganese oxide, the nanowires are stable at high temperatures. As a result, oil within a loaded membrane can be removed by heating above the boiling point of oil. The oil evaporates, and can be condensed back into a liquid. The membrane--and oil--can be used again.

Link to MIT News which has a short video
Link to the post on gizmodo

If you have a nano fetish like me, you may also like the blog behind my first post ever - io9

DARPA

DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Its an arm of the government that gives a bunch of money to companies to experiement with goods and products that could prove valuable to the defence department. Yeah, its crazy Morgan Freeman guarding batmobiles in the basement of Wayne Industries type stuff. I learned about it because this one energy drink I was working with was being tested by DARPA on soldiers. Today, im writing about it cause they funded a project that will undoubtably be the craziest thing I see today. Here's the video for some super agile, freakishly natural acting hunk of metal called BigDog (wha?).


From Gizmodo

nanospolsions

stumbled on this teeny firestorm today. an electron microscope captured little nano explosions. so rad. thanks to i09 - a new blog that strums my nerd chords.