Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Ice Highways

An article in the Seattle Times, of all places, describes the ice highways that are constructed across frozen lakes in the Canadian north to allow resupply of isolated communities and installations.

"Once you're on the ice, you're committed," said Pashovitz, 35. "You've got to keep going. If you stop, little by little, the weight of your truck would sink into the ice."

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Bridge Construction

An excellent blog post, with pictures, about the construction of the huge, and some would say magnificent, Millau Viaduct in the south of France.

via reddit

Monday, February 26, 2007

Another firefighter gadget

Technology Review has an article about another gizmo for firefighters. This one pulls them, and their equipment, up a rope. The article says it would be useful on Batman's utility belt but at 20 pounds it seems a bit heavy.

Followup: You can see a video of the device in action here. It is also easier to see how large the unit is. Still it moves pretty fast.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Nova at Night

The Astronomy Picture of the Day has a photo of a nova that could be seen with the naked eye. It isn't the most impressive of photos but I like the idea of it.

Monday, February 19, 2007

The Edison

A very interesting looking theme bar / restaurant in Las Angeles. Built in an old power station it has a steam punk / industrial feel.

The website is well done but a bit annoying in that it is just a giant Flash app.

via Brass Goggles

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Tissues in a Coffee Cup

I was in a store the other day and saw a huge display of tissue dispensers specially made (and priced) to fit into a car cup holder. Today I encountered this article on how to make your own from some tissues and a cup.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Victorian Tea Machine

A photo and article on a real Wallace and Grommet style machine. Clockwork powered, it will automatically make your morning cup of tea for you.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

A Knife for Firefighters

I've always liked special purpose gadgets. Here is an article reviewing a knife specially made for firefighers. In addition to being designed to be used while wearing heavy gloves, it has a spike for smashing windows and a hook cutter for cutting clothing.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

PCMCIA Wi-fi phone

A blog post about a cool looking gizmo. It is a wi-fi phone that charges inside the PCMCIA slot on your laptop. In the photo it looks like it would fit completely inside the card slot.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Make VOIP Calls from your Browser

Still on the VIP front, lifehacker has an article about a new Flash app from Gizmo that lets you make phone calls from your browser for free. Note that I haven't actually tried this out.

Fun with Gravity

Here is an amusing little Flash app that lets you play around with gravity. Basically you move the dots around and see what happens.

via reddit

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Google Maps Google Books

An interesting blog post from Google about a new feature from Google Books. They have generated maps from various books showing locations mentioned in the book.

A few examples: