Police officers are being ordered to send texts rather than speak on their radios because of the sums charged by the firm that owns the police communications network.
While chief constables face unprecedented cutbacks, the company that operates the system on which all the emergency services communicate has seen a massive rise in profits. Last year Airwave Solutions’ profit margin outstripped even that of mobile-phone giant Vodafone.
If you have not heard of Hatsune Miku before, you aren’t Japanese. Hatsune is big in the digital world, really big. She is a virtual avatar pop star appearing at live (if that is what you would call it) concerts in Japan in the form of a 3D-hologram. The hologram is accompanied by a live band and is selling out concerts across Japan. Look out all of you temperamental rock stars, you really can be replaced.
Noted Los Angeles food stylist Adam C. Pearson was settling into his seat aboard a Delta flight Saturday morning when the flight attendant tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to come to the front of the plane. His first thought? “I’m getting an upgrade!”
Not exactly.
It’s a river of people! Over 40,000 runners participated in the New York City Marathon last weekend. Thanks to time-lapse videography, you can watch most of them get started.
This is the desktop digital telescope that displays a magnified view on a computer monitor, so a roomful of young astronomers can simultaneously enjoy astral observation. A digital camera fits over a special eyepiece and connects to a computer’s USB port, enabling images or video of Orion, Ursa Major, or any celestial body seen through the telescope to be captured and saved.
The telescope has a 400mm focal length with four eyepieces (15X, 20X, 25X, and 35X) that can be changed simply by rotating the central turret. The telescope can be detached from the computer for traditional solo observation and the camera attaches to a separate stand to act as a web camera with 640×480 resolution.
This working Heron steam engine is propelled by the same pneumatic principles that powered Heron of Alexandria’s original steam turbine in the first century AD. A precursor to the jet engine, Heron’s steam turbine was the first of its kind to extract thermal energy from pressurized steam and convert it into rotary motion.
The desktop steam turbine is powered by an alcohol burner that heats a sphere boiler holding 2/3 oz. of water, evoking the metal cauldron that heated Heron’s original aeolipile. When steam is generated, it is expelled through two nozzles on the sphere pointing in opposite directions, generating thrust that rotates the sphere on its axis up to 2,500 rpm.
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