Clipmarks | Tylast's clips

Whale Oil Still Being Used in Space

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:58:53 GMT

clipped by: Tylast
clipper's remarks: Interesting.

But did you know that whale oil was used to send a man to the moon? I learned this weird but true fact during my sea travels...

Back in the day, NASA used whale oil as a lubricant in their space program, including the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) for expeditions to the Moon and Mars. Fast forward to the future and whale oil is still being used to lubricate spacecraft such as the Hubble space telescope and the Voyager space probe. Apparently spermaceti--or Sperm whale oil--doesn't freeze in sub-zero temperatures (quite important given space's super-chilly temps) and man hasn't yet found a suitable substitute for the natural lubricant.

Yahoo's new Calendar beta innovates, impresses

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:39:21 GMT

clipped by: Tylast

Clip Source: arstechnica.com

Offered today in five countries—the US, Brazil, India, Taiwan, and the UK—the new Yahoo Calendar is an opt-in beta. Besides a branded Zimbra Desktop office suite, the new Yahoo Calendar is possibly the first web-based product to benefit from Yahoo's acquisition of the Zimbra online collaboration suite just over a year ago. Beyond a major redesign with lots of new AJAXy polish, this is also a major compatibility push for Yahoo with support for the iCalendar and CalDAV standards.

Easily the most significant aspect of Yahoo Calendar's new UI is a sort of hybrid between month and single-day views. The first thing you'll see in this view is, of course, the traditional box layout for the month. But clicking on any day will invoke a "zoom-in" animation effect that scrunches the other days aside to make room for a time table of the day's events.

the truth is that there is some real innovation here in terms of new calendaring UIs and social media integration.

50 Consumer Technologies Developed by NASA in the Last 50 Years

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:34:58 GMT

clipped by: Tylast
clipper's remarks: Obviously I couldn't clip them all. Check out the original post!

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

Health and Medicine

Robotics Offer Newfound Surgical Capabilities

In-Line Filtration Improves Hygiene and Reduces Expense

LED Device Illuminates New Path to Healing

Transportation

Lithium Battery Power Delivers Electric Vehicles to Market

Advanced Control System Increases Helicopter Safety

Public Safety

Space Suit Technologies Protect Deep-Sea Divers

Fiber Optic Sensing Monitors Strain and Reduces Costs

Polymer Fabric Protects Firefighters, Military, and Civilians

Advanced X-Ray Sources Ensure Safe Environments

Consumer, Home and Recreation

Space Age Swimsuit Reduces Drag, Breaks Records

Immersive Photography Renders 360° Views

Outboard Motor Maximizes Power and Dependability

Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Battery Technology Stores Clean Energy

Computer Technology

Water-Based Coating Simplifies Circuit Board Manufacturing

Wireless Sensor Network Handles Image Data

Integrated Circuit Chip Improves Network Efficiency

Industrial Productivity

NASA Design Strengthens Welds

US Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:16:39 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.

The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.

The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.

The clock's owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.

Some economists believe the $700bn bail-out plan for ailing US financial institutions could send the national debt level to $11 trillion

Tags: economics

The largest freehand drawing on a dry lake - Amazing !

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:39:57 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "The drawing was transient, as all of Jim's work is: "It was completely erased in a rainstorm the next week."

Clip Source: www.jimdenevan.com

Jim Denevan makes freehand drawings in sand.

Clip Source: www.jimdenevan.com

recently made the world's largest freehand drawing on a dry lake in Nevada. How big is it? Three mile across. Jim walked for eight days, about 100 miles to draw the pattern. The drawing was transient, as all of Jim's work is: "It was completely erased in a rainstorm the next week... It felt strange to work so hard and not see tide come in. But rains did come which is sort of the same thing."

Clip Source: www.jimdenevan.com

At low tide on wide beaches Jim searches the shore for a wave tossed stick. After finding a good stick and composing himself in the near and far environment Jim draws-- laboring up to 7 hours and walking as many as 30 miles.

Clip Source: www.jimdenevan.com

New royalty agreement leaves Internet radio out in the cold

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:07:03 GMT

clipped by: Tylast

Clip Source: arstechnica.com

This afternoon, the Digital Media Association announced a new agreement with organizations that represent musicians and songwriters that will provide a streamlined licensing procedure for many models of digital music distribution. The new agreement doesn't apply to "download to own" music, but will apply to streaming services, including subscription and ad-supported music (think Last.fm and SpiralFrog). The agreement has been submitted to the Copyright Royalty Judges for approval.

Although Internet radio is left out of this agreement and there are clearly going to be further legal tussles among the parties involved, the deal could be significant in terms of providing new ventures with a picture of the sort of business expenses they need to be planning for, and will provide a level playing field for both new and established ventures. As long as some of the activities are well defined by the language of the agreement, it may let them plan for having reduced legal fees.

Color Photos from 1909

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:03:49 GMT

clipped by: Tylast

Clip Source: www.damninteresting.com

Clip Source: www.loc.gov

View of the Nilova Monastery

Clip Source: www.damninteresting.com

Color film was non-existent in 1909 Russia, yet in that year a photographer named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii embarked on a photographic survey of his homeland and captured hundreds of photos in full, vivid color. His photographic plates were black and white, but he had developed an ingenious photographic technique which allowed him to use them to produce accurate color images.

He accomplished this with a clever camera of his own design, which took three black and white photos of a scene in rapid sequence, each though a differently colored filter.

There was no means to develop color prints at that time, but modern technology has allowed these images to be recombined in their full original colors. The U.S. Library of Congress purchased all of Sergei's original glass negatives from his heirs in 1948, and in 2001 a beautiful exhibition was produced to showcase Sergei's photos, called The Empire that was Russia.

6 Stroke Self-Cooling Engine

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:54:56 GMT

clipped by: Tylast
clipper's remarks: Ohhhh, what happened to this guy?

Clip Source: www.damninteresting.com

His addition to the ICE design is simple in principle, yet a stroke of genius. After the exhaust cycles out of the chamber, rather than squirting more fuel and air into the chamber, his design injects ordinary water. Inside the extremely hot chamber, the water immediately turns to steam– expanding to 1600 times its volume– which forces the piston down for a second power stroke. Another exhaust cycle pushes the steam out of the chamber, and then the six-stroke cycle begins again.

Besides providing power, this water injection cycle cools the engine from within, making an engine's heavy radiator, coolant, and fans obsolete. Despite its lack of a conventional liquid cooling system, his bench engine is only warm to the touch while it is running.

Bruce Crower holds a patent on the new design– which he is still developing and tweaking– but he estimates that eventually his six-stroke engine could improve a typical engine’s fuel consumption by as much as forty percent.

The Most Remote Tree Ever

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:50:39 GMT

clipped by: Tylast
clipper's remarks: Sorry for the way I clipped the Tree of Ténéré, but it's a long story & I tried to get the main points.

Clip Source: www.damninteresting.com

Tree of Ténéré, an acacia tree standing alone in the vast, hostile expanse of the Sahara Desert.

individual tree is the most remote

1973 this tree met an exceedingly improbable end

millennia ago the tree was part of a sizable forest. Gradually, climate change reduced the area to a desert

only surviving tree in a 400 kilometer radius

winter of 1938-1939

French military coordinated the digging of a nearby well

truck at the site backed into the tree and broke off one of its main branches

tree managed to survive the impact

[t]he Acacia has become a living lighthouse." It appeared on large-scale maps of the desert as one of the sole reference points

1970s many of the passing caravans were trucks rather than camels

allegedly drunk - and despite the flat, wide-open expanse he lost control of his vehicle

second impact with an automobile

snapped from its trunk

estimated to have been 300 years old

The metal sculpture that replaced the Tree of Ténéré.

Where mathematic and art meet - Fractal art ..inspirational

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:37:55 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "A fractal is generally “a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole,”[1] a property called self-similarity. The term was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning “broken” or “fractured.”
-Wikipedia

Clip Source: www.fractalartcontests.com

Clip Source: www.colourlovers.com

The Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest is continuing efforts to promote fractal and algorithmic art

Clip Source: www.fractalartcontests.com

Clip Source: www.colourlovers.com

What distinguishes fractal geometry within mathematics is an exceptional and uncanny characteristic. Its first steps are not tedious, hard, and unrewarding, but playful and extraordinarily easy, and provide rich reward in terms of stunning graphics. To the mathematician, they bring a bounty of very difficult conjectures that no one can solve. To the artist, they provide backbones around which imagination can play at will. To everyone, a few steps in about any direction bring extraordinary pleasure. Nothing is more serious than play. Let’s all play.
—Benoit Mandelbrot

Clip Source: www.fractalartcontests.com

Clip Source: www.colourlovers.com

Fractals in Nature

Approximate fractals are easily found in nature. These objects display self-similar structure over an extended, but finite, scale range

Fractal Animations

[Video]

Only in Russia

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:26:10 GMT

clipped by: Tylast

Clip Source: www.oddee.com

Emperor's New Clothes: Palin Pork Public

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:12:30 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Over the last couple days, every newspaper and network in America has disproven Sarah Palin's claim that she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere. Yet just moments ago at a campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio, she repeated her familiar refrain on the bridge, claiming she told the federal government, "Thanks, but no thanks.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Over the last couple days, every newspaper and network in America has disproven Sarah Palin's claim that she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere. Yet just moments ago at a campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio, she repeated her familiar refrain on the bridge, claiming she told the federal government, "Thanks, but no thanks."

There appears to be no accountability here; the McCain campaign will trot out Palin to repeat her talking points no matter how many times the press reports that Palin campaigned for governor as a supporter of the bridge and only opposed it when it became obvious the federal government was going to cancel its funding.

Today, states receive roughly $50 per person in earmark funds from the federal government. Alaska gets a stunning $506 per person

small towns in Alaska never sought federal earmarks until Palin pioneered the tactic, even using an Abramoff-connected lobbyist to get them

Tags: palin, taxes, politics

Frequent Flyer Guy!

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:11:55 GMT

clipped by: Tylast
clipper's remarks: Punch Drunk Love by Adam Sandler was partly based from this guy's true story.

Clip Source: www.insideflyer.com

In 1999, David Phillips spent about $2,500 on 12,000 cups of Healthy Choice chocolate pudding and earned 1.25 million miles in the process. For his artful exploitation of the promotion rules, Phillips forever will be known as the "Pudding Guy."

Phillips' story, which first surfaced on FlyerTalk, was covered by publications across the world, including The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The London Times, USA Today, The New York Times and People Magazine. Phillips has also been featured on the Today Show, National Public Radio, CNN and on hundreds of other television news and radio programs. The pudding story even inspired a 2002 movie, P.T. Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, staring Adam Sandler.

Phillips currently has over five million miles in his various frequent-flyer accounts and has visited over 20 countries during the course of his travels. Phillips is a Civil Engineer by training and currently works for the University of California Davis as a utilities manager.

GPS devices save time, fuel for garbage trucks

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:05:37 GMT

clipped by: Tylast

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

Even before gas prices went to $4 a gallon, they were looking for ways for the city to save fuel on garbage collection. Trucks were burning gas driving around looking for big items too large to be collected on regular routes.

Oswald and Taji Richardson came up with the idea for a GPS device that would give drivers who handled the regular routes a touch screen on which they could note where the big items were located. Trucks picking up the large items would know exactly where to go.

"When we saw it, we said, Jim you've got a product here," Clemson City Administrator Rick Cotton said. Cotton says the devices, which went live in May 2007, are saving his small college town about 350 gallons of diesel a month.

"It seemed so simple we wondered why we didn't think of it before," he said.

"So this is paying for itself more than we ever anticipated it would when we were developing it," Oswald said, with diesel cost jumping by about $2 per gallon since then.

List of Books the right-wing would love to Ban (but not Palin, Oh,,noooos w

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:20:44 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: My apologies to clippers for not confirming story...but not for telling the truth about Sarah, the Queen of Lies and False conservatism. Shoot another wolf from a copturd, Queenie.

Clip Source: community.livejournal.com

Books (then) Mayor Sarah Palin tried to remove from Wasilla library. When the librarian refused to ban the books, Palin tried to get her fired. This information is taken from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library Board.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Blubber by Judy Blume

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

Carrie by Stephen King

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Christine by Stephen King

Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Cujo by Stephen King

Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite

Decameron by Boccaccio

The Living Bible by William C. Bower

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Color Purple by Alice Walker