Category: Cool sights

Build your own X-Ray vision camera

Popular Science has starting instruction on their How 2.0 Blog for building your own X-Ray vision camera. They are quick to point out one of the potential issues with building the camera:

xray-pic_resize.jpgYou’ve seen them in the back of magazines–heck, probably Popular Science–all your life: the crazy swirling paper X-ray specs, with the campy ’50s pervert looking at the bloomers of a shocked gal. While we don’t support such nefarious uses, you can make your own working X-ray camera, just by modifying a CVS Disposable. It won’t give you Superman vision, but you should be able to see through one or two layers of paper and fabric (again, behave!) in the right light. Here’s the catch: The key is in a hard-to-find X-ray conversion material called a beryllium window. PopSci got its sample from NASA during a visit to the Goddard Space Flight Center a few years ago, as it is sometimes used in satellites to block out cosmic X rays that might distort digital communications.


So if you don’t have friends at Goddard, you might want to start looking now for another source of a beryllium window (a quick search of ebay turned up zero, so don’t think it’s that easy). Still, I think the results show this to be worth trying to get and build anyway.

[tags]Build your own X-Ray vision camera, PopSci X-ray camera instructions[/tags]

Worth1000.com Attack of the Clones contest #11

Recently, Worth1000 had an Attack of the Clones contest. Some of the entries are really good. Naturally, I really liked the entries with multiple Jessica Alba shots, although the multiple Katherine Heigl shot is probably my favorite in the group. Check out the contest results for some really great photochopping (and shorter link if that’s broken) of easy-on-the-eyes images. Here are the full contest details:

In this contest you will clone any famous person in such a way that they appear to be interacting with their twin (as demonstrated in the themepost).

The rules of this game are thus: You are to take any famous person and “clone” them. The clone should interact with their twin in the image in such a way as that the interaction looks real, not like you just took the original and mirrored it. NOTE: We only want images of FAMOUS people, not an image of your weird Uncle Carl wrestling with himself. As always, quality is a must. You’ll have 48 hours for this contest, so make your submission count.

[tags]Worth1000.com Attack of the clones contest[/tags]

WoodPod – Case modding comes to the iPod domain

This is kinda old news, but since I’be been on a case-mod-seeing virtual self-guided tour lately and came upon it again, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to post it. Wanting to improve the appearance of his iPod, ZapWizard decided to create a new custom face-plate for it. You can see his excellent write-up (with pictures) of how he created this beauty. Seeing this makes me weep for my lack of hand-skills.

wood-pod_crop.jpg This photo is snagged from the original article at Bit-Tech and cropped. Apologies for cutting off the bit-tech identifier, but I wanted a narrower pic for my site. I just want to make sure no one thinks I’m taking any credit for the image as posted. All respect to the original article hosts at Bit-Tech and the fantastic write-up for it by ZapWizard.


[tags]Wood iPod face replacement, WoodPod custom case mod[/tags]

Old-school gaming = hard to win

Most games these days are hard to lose.  Sometimes, though, you can find the simplest games are also some of the hardest.  Don’t believe me?  Check out all the ways to lose.

You have to be careful of the language, though.  You’ll get prompted several times to install Japanese language packs if you don’t have them installed and don’t have language pack prompting turned off.  If you don’t install the packs, your game will look a little different than what is in the above video.

[tags]Old school gaming – hard to win, A simple game that is very challenging[/tags]

 

The great Boston molasses flood

Well, I missed posting about this on the anniversary, but let’s look back in time as if I posted it on the proper day and remember The Boston Molasses Disaster in all its glor0y (additional sources at CNN and Damn Interesting). On January 15th, 1919, a massive silo, filled with approximately 2.3 million gallons of molasses exploded, releasing a 15+ foot tall tidal wave of molasses which spread at over 30 miles per hour. Keep that in mind when you label something as slow as molasses in January.

boston-molasses-disaster.jpg The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 kph) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft² (200 kPa).[3] The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway’s Atlantic Avenue structure and lift a train off the tracks. Nearby, buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet.

. . .

The Boston Globe reported that people “were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet” Others had debris hurled at them from the rush of sweet smelling air and a truck was picked up and hurled into Boston Harbor. On that day more than 159 were injured and 21 people and several horses were killed as the molasses crushed and asphyxiated some. After the initial blast the molasses choking the wounded people, horses and dogs became one of the biggest problems.


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