Tire Deflation Devices

Law enforcement tech isn’t something that I follow very closely (that is to say, at all), but I came across a piece of equipment that I know about, but to which I”ve never given much thought. So purely in the vein of “that’s kind of neat” let’s talk about tire deflation devices.

Say police are chasing a fleeing suspect by car. One of the fastest ways to stop or slow the car is to pop the suspect’s tires with a strip of spikes that gets manually rolled out across the road in the path of the vehicle. But what about the cars behind the suspects? The officer who deployed the device has to get whatever popped the suspect’s tires out of the way of oncoming traffic – namely the police vehicles in pursuit – without compromising her own safety. She has to pull the strips back quickly, and officers have died while attempting to remove them. Think about coordination of communication between the pursuing officers and the officer running the spike strips. And the stress for the pursuing officer about whether the strips will be off the road in time for them to safely pass. Continue reading “Tire Deflation Devices”

Tire Deflation Devices
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Patient Zero Rocks!

Yesterday JT posted about an Android app called Patient Zero. As a fan of both virology and social media, I immediately downloaded it and started playing. It’s a very passive “game”. Once you sign up, you just sit back and wait to infect or be infected. You can increase your infecting ability by traveling. Or by taking your phone to areas where lots of traveling occurs…I’m looking at you Minneapolis airport!

Continue reading “Patient Zero Rocks!”

Patient Zero Rocks!

Ringing Tattoos

Seen in the Star Tribune by Kristin Tillotson:

Sometimes, you feel a little tingle of anticipation when your cellphone rings. What if it happened every time?

Nokia has taken out a U.S. patent on technology used to create special tattoos that can pick up phone signals and send a “perceivable impulse” to your skin via magnetic waves from the ink, which contains iron. According to the patent, the tattoos could even allow you to customize sensations as if they were ring tones (a tickle if it’s your sweetie, a pinch if it’s your ex?). The patent also includes a temporary, stick-on tattoo option for those who aren’t too sure about the idea.

I’m in. I like tattoos, and I don’t like missing calls. But this is just an intermediate step. I’ll holding out for the brain chip that lets me control the internet and all of my media with my thoughts.

Ringing Tattoos

foursquaring for Vaccines

I use foursquare, which is part online game, part social media, part easy advertising for businesses. When I visit a place and “check in” I tell the world or just my circle of foursquare friends that I’m there, or that I’ve been there. foursquare seems to be great for local businesses – they can offer specials for checking in once (“show a cashier that you checked in and get $5 off your total at check out”), or offer loyalty programs (“check in here three times and receive a free Margarita”). foursquare is free for users, it’s a way for local businesses to advertise to their target market, and there’s a silly point program so you can compete with friends. From what I understand it’s similar to Facebook’s Places, but I don’t use Places, so I’m not sure how accurate the comparison is.

I’ve used foursquare to tell my friends when I’m visiting somewhere extremely cool or out of the ordinary (It was fun to tweet via foursquare that I was “checking in” to the sky deck of the Seattle Space Needle last month), and to get good deals ($5 mojitos at Stella’s Fish Cafe!). But yesterday I used it to SAVE LIVES!

I stopped at a Walgreens in South Minneapolis last night, and when I opened up Foursquare I was interested to see that Walgreens was offering a special. I stop at that particular store pretty often, but had never before seen them offer a special. I opened the tab and saw this:

I went online to learn more about the offer, and it turns out that through October 8th, Walgreens will donate one flu shot voucher for every valid foursquare or Facebook Places check-in. And you can go onto their Facebook page to vote for one of five groups that will receive a percentage of the flu shot vouchers (the organizations are Feeding America, the National Urban League, AmeriCares, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the American Diabetes Association).

How cool is that!? I love technology. And corporate giving. And vaccines. Win!

foursquaring for Vaccines

Omigod, I CAN haz camera!

Warning: there are more exclamation points in this post than any one post should be allowed. Also, there is some squeeeeeing.

I’m not the sort to whine about a situation and then ignore an opportunity when it becomes available.

I’ve been wanting a camera. A DSLR camera. And a zoom lens. For about a year now.

After speaking with friends who have DSLRs and salespeople at three different camera chains, and tooling around the internet I decided that I could be quite happy with a Nikon D3100, which goes for about $599 these days. But after adding in the zoom lens (zoom capability is one of the reasons that I want to get a better camera so it wasn’t even a possibility of getting into a nice camera without picking up a zoom lens), the carrying bag, the USB cord, memory card, sales tax, warranties/service plans…I was looking at about $1000.  That’s about $110/month…too much.

I was dreaming about having a DSLR, you guys. From my Facebook:

I love my friends.

I had it bad, but I just couldn’t figure out how to make it happen. And then I found out about Best Buy’s 18-month no-interest payment plan. That I could swing. So I did.

Squeeeeee! hyperventilate…and… Squeeeee!

I was so excited! As I was checking out I thought of my blog-friend, Jana, because earlier that day we had been grousing about our point and shoot cameras. My first picture is for you, Jana!

When I got home, I did the only thing a photo-obsessed gal could do – I took pictures of everything!

My swag

Everything opened! I left a few bits and pieces out of the pic, but this is all the really exciting stuff.

The lenses, with UV filters attached. The 55-200mm has the lens hood on, which makes it look all classy and shit.

The camera body without a lens attached.

The camera all put together with the kit lens attached.

My camera has pretty specs – 14.2 megapixels, shoots 3 frames per second, has 11-point autofocus and an ISO range of 100-12800. The kit lens is an VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G, my zoom lens is a VR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G. I still don’t have the uber-zoom lens or a ultra low f stop that would kick ass in darker environments, but one thing at a time! I know and embrace my sweet new camera’s limitations. Well, not really, but shhh…I don’t want to hurt it’s feelings.  My camera phone is already in the corner whimpering. It’s saying “But, I…I gave you 8-megapixels! How could you do this to me!?” I still love you camera phone, and you’re still my steady for shots on the go and twitpics.  C’mere, let me give you a hug.

Sad camera is sad and needs comforting.

I may be a little giddy right now.

I’m running off to a talk by PZ Myers in Minneapolis now (could this day get any better?). After that I have to stop by Best Buy to pick up a USB cable (srsly, how is that not included in the camera kit?) and an extra battery. And this afternoon the Hubby and I are driving up to Duluth/Superior along the river.  Helllloooo test drive of new camera.

Ciao!

Omigod, I CAN haz camera!

Love: A Sad Science Story

A nice woman named Amy was giving away postcards.  You receive the postcard, take a picture with it and then send the picture back to her. It sounded like kind of a fun pen-pal deal-eo and I decided to do it.

Here’s the postcard she sent me:

So I took a picture. Or six. And may have written a really stupid story to go with it. Caution – HUGE LAB NERDINESS AHEAD!!! 

They met in the park when the summer blossoms were in full bloom.  It was love at first sight, and they knew that they would never be separated.

As they spun together around the fountain, she felt dizzy and lightheaded. They spun around and around and around.

She felt care-free and weightless.

They both liked Victorian cosplay, but she was a modern, intelligent, tech-savy woman, so she of course did her research on him before fully committing her heart.

And was horrified to learn that he had a chemical addiction problem!

He tried to explain, but it was too late – all of his pleadings smelled rotton.  

 And so she reluctantly walked away from his toxic love.

The End.

Love: A Sad Science Story

Would you like some powdered water with that?

Dry Water!

Military Intelligence!

Honest Politicians!

Amateur Expert!

Living Dead!

You get the idea. 

How the heck does one make dry water?  Well, they cheat, sort of.  The powdered water is one drop of “wet” water surrounded by modified silica.  So the water itself isn’t powdered, but it’s stored in a way that keeps the water droplets from coalescing.

Did I mention that the headlines about this story are pun-ishingly horrible?  “Dry water making waves!” “Dry water could make a splash commercially”  *shudder*

I heard about this story on Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe (SGU – episode #267) in the Science or Fiction segment.  Several news sources have done a decent job of summarizing the American Chemical Society (ACS) presentation by Dr. Ben Carter (a researcher for study lead, Dr. Andrew Cooper) .  

According to Science 2.0 silica-encapsulated water was first discovered in 1968 by the cosmetic industry.  An article in Scientific American describes the “discovery” of a process to create dry water by coating water in a “hydrophobic powder” in 2001.  It sounds like the technology has been here for a while, but we haven’t yet figured out what to do with it. 

The current focus is on developing dry water technology for use in commercial applications and perhaps in carbon dioxide absorption, which could be useful for that little global warming problem we’re not dealing with.

From an ACS news release:

BOSTON, Aug. 25, 2010 — An unusual substance known as “dry water,” which resembles powdered sugar, could provide a new way to absorb and store carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, scientists reported here today at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

The powder shows bright promise for a number of other uses, they said. It may, for instance, be a greener, more energy-efficient way of jump-starting the chemical reactions used to make hundreds of consumer products. Dry water also could provide a safer way to store and transport potentially harmful industrial materials.

and later in the article:

Dry water was discovered in 1968 and got attention for its potential use in cosmetics. Scientists at the University of Hull, U.K. rediscovered it in 2006 in order to study its structure, and Cooper’s group at the University of Liverpool has since expanded its range of potential applications.

One of the most recent involves using dry water as a storage material for gases, including carbon dioxide. In laboratory-scale research, Cooper and co-workers found that dry water absorbed over three times as much carbon dioxide as ordinary, uncombined water and silica in the same space of time. This ability to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide gas as a hydrate could make it useful in helping to reduce global warming, the scientists suggested.

Cooper and colleagues demonstrated in previous studies that dry water is also useful for storing methane, a component of natural gas, and may help expand its use as a future energy source. In particular, they hope that engineers can use the powder to collect and transport stranded deposits of natural gas.

It sounds like things are proceeding along…

…swimmingly!

Would you like some powdered water with that?