Apr 15, 2011

Soda Can Fizz

Here is a little tidbit that can be very handy around the holiday or anytime. You have seen how soda fizzes out all over if you drop a can or bottle. If someone shakes a can, it makes it difficult to open without making a mess. Here is a trick to prevent that from happening. Tap the side of the can and you can open it without fear of making a mess. LINK

Apr 8, 2011

Happy Friday

It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.

I am always prepared for the opportunity to have a Happy Friday!

Do Stuff Faster

Interesting collection of videos that show how to do ordinary things faster. Some are very practical. LINK

Plastic Computer Chips

A plastic processor and printed memory show that computing doesn't have to rely on inflexible silicon.

Silicon may run the computers that surround us, but the rigid inflexibility of the semiconductor means it cannot reach everywhere. The first computer processor and memory chips made out of plastic semiconductors suggest that, someday, nothing will be out of bounds for computer power and we are getting closer every day.

Researchers in Europe used 4,000 plastic, or organic, transistors to create the plastic microprocessor, which measures roughly two centimeters square and is built on top of flexible plastic foil. "Compared to using silicon, this has the advantage of lower price and that it can be flexible," says Jan Genoe at the IMEC nanotechnology center in Leuven, Belgium.

The processor can so far run only one simple program of 16 instructions and run at a speed of six hertz, on the order of a million times slower than a modern desktop machine. Organic transistors have already been used in certain LED displays and RFID tags, but have not been combined in such numbers, or used to make a processor of any kind until now.

Making the processor begins with a 25-micrometer thick sheet of flexible plastic, like what you might wrap your lunch. A layer of gold electrodes are deposited on top, followed by an insulating layer of plastic, and the plastic semiconductors that make up the processor's 4,000 transistors. In the future, such processors could be made more cheaply by printing them. This may prove to be the future of chip technology, but personally, I still like my chips made from potatoes.

Pub Sign

In the pub at Royal Hotel in Pilgrims Rest, South Africa, hangs a board engraved WYBMADIITY. Each time a customer asks what this means, the bartender says, “Will you buy me a drink if I tell you?”

Ralphs

In 1872, 22-year-old bricklayer George Albert Ralphs lost an arm in a hunting accident and was forced to find a new occupation. Ralphs took a job at a grocery store in downtown Los Angeles and saved enough money to open his own store with his brother two years later. Ralphs Bros. Grocery provided lodging for farmers who came to Los Angeles to sell their crops, enabling its founders to establish a good relationship with some of their main suppliers. By 1928, Ralphs, had 10 cash-and-carry stores. As it grew over the next several decades, it opened bakeries, creameries, and floral departments in its stores. In 1978, it introduced a line of Plain Wrap products, an alternative to name-brand items. Today, Ralphs is the largest subsidiary of Kroger.

Mobile Phones

1983, Motorola's DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) 8000X was the world's first commercially-released mobile phone, with a price tag of $3,995 equivalent to $8,772.59 in today's dollars. DynaTAC and Droid below, not according to scale.

Motorola spent 15 years and over $100 million developing the technology. The DynaTAC 8000X allowed 30 minutes of talk time, took 10 hours to charge, weighed 1.75 lb., and stood 13 in. high. It is fun to watch old movies and see characters use the large bulky phones and wonder how old is that. It is younger than you think.

Artificial Lungs

Growing new body parts has always been more science fiction than science reality, but that balance may quickly be shifting, at least in the lab. Relying on more sophisticated biosimulators that can better mimic body conditions, researchers have re-created the delicate architecture of a rat lung accurately enough for it to assume 95% of a normal lung's inhaling and exhaling functions.

The key to their respiratory success was starting with a skeletal rat-lung template, including a matrix of blood vessels and collagen and other connective tissue, then seeding it with stem cells and nutrients to generate lifelike tissue that exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide just like normal lung tissue. The ultimate goal is to replace enough human lung tissue to aid patients with emphysema or lung cancer.

Apr 5, 2011

Many More Uses for Toothpaste

You probably have heard that toothpaste is a good cleaner for getting crayons off a wall, or cleaning scuffs from your running shoes, and polishing chrome. It can also help clean stains from a carpet and it is also a good idea to keep an old toothbrush for that application.

An old standby is to use toothpaste to clean water rings from wood tables. It also works as an excellent jewelry cleaner.

Back when all walls were all white, it was great to fill in nail holes in walls, especially when moving out of an apartment.

Now you can add more to your list. Use it to clean the bottom of your iron (I know some of you still use irons). Toothpaste is great for removing scuffs from leather, just rub gently and wipe. Use a dab of toothpaste, not the gel kind, to erase scratches from your iphone or a dvd. Just add a very small bit to a cotton swab or soft cloth and gently rub in a circular motion across the scratch. It is also good to clean a watch face or glasses. The key is to rub softly so you do not mar the surface and rinse with a clean damp cloth.

I have heard it stops itches from bug bites, but have not tried it for that. Use it to rub out small scratches in your car. Works like rubbing compound. Of course the best use for toothpaste is to clean your teeth. . .