Links!
For your Friday reading pleasure.Oh, and thanks to Randy Graham (among others) for letting me know that This American Life is branching out into television, and the show debuts March 22 on Showtime.
First off, from Chris Meadowcroft, a link to a story about heat spreaders potentially being used in computers. Here's an excerpt about the technology from Novel Concepts, Inc.:
At its core, IsoSkin heat spreader technology uses what's known as a planar capillary. This planar capillary provides the necessary amount of liquid (usually water) to handle power densities of up to hundreds of watts per square centimeter...
"When you have a pan of water boiling on stove on a cold day, the vapor will start to condense on the closest windows in the room. The way this IsoSkin works is: in a vacuum, when the vapor leaves, it moves at sonic velocity because there's nothing to get in its way." So [with IsoSkin] vapor moves at speed of sound to any window, or in this case, the holes in the sheets. "It would be condensing on those windows instantaneously," Thomas said, "looking for the coldest spot instantaneously." This could reduce microprocessor core temperature much faster than any of today's methods.
Very interesting, and you can read about it here.
From MIT, an amazing invention: "A small, powerful rope-climbing device can pull a person up 30 stories in 30 seconds." Ten feet a second, in case you're wondering, and it only weighs twenty pounds. Read about it here.
Fisherman off the coast of New Zealand caught the largest colossal squid ever successfully landed--about 990 pounds. Read about it (with a picture) here.
Sylvester Stallone and his "crew" apparently tried to bring human growth hormone into Australia. The only reason I mention this (since it's no surprise, really) is that there's a picture taken from Stallone's website, and he's so 'roided out that it's funny. Take a look here.
From Brian Witte, a link to some fantastic NASA conceptual art from the 1970's. Donald Davis was commissioned to create them, and you can see them on his website here. Courtesy of BoingBoing.
Daniel Quock sent along another rocket video, this time taken from a camera positioned on the solid rocket boosters of the space shuttle. It's incredible footage, and you can see it here.
Finally, Tim Hibbetts sends along another amazing pilot survival story from World War II. Once again, a German pilot decides to let an American pilot survive (after pounding him for tremendous damage). Read about it here.
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