Sunday, August 24, 2008

USS Enterprise NCC-1701 Flying RC Model Applauded by Fans

It's true. Every fan of Star Trek dreams of having a real Starship Enterprise built and flown. Well, it may still be a bit far from reality, but there's this next best thing. It looks like the Enterprise, it flies, and you are the captain! It's a sturdy foam toy replica of the original USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and it flies! It also comes with an RC-controller that looks like Captain Kirk's classic communicator.

Every fan (and even non-fan) of the series and movies will love to get their hands on this toy and it's likely they'll buy two - one for flying and the other for safekeeping. Who would have thought that the saucer-design chosen by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry can actually be made to fly? Make it a little larger with the right engineering and aerodynamics and who knows, maybe fans will soon be taking a ride in one at 30,000 feet!

Buy the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 RC Flying Model

Save gas! Turn your car into a water hybrid.

Flashlight Powerful Enough to Cook Your Skin Built by Hobbyist

A flashlight, or torch, as they call it in Europe, is used to help you see things in the dark. It was never meant to cook your skin (or your dog while walking him) with ultraviolet radiation, but that's exactly what this big homemade flashlight does (without the protective shielding). It's made by Dutch light hobbyist and optics engineer Ralf Ottow.

Ottow, used an ordinary flashlight casing and outfitted it with a mercury arc lamp, the kind where a tiny but powerful electric arc jumps between two electrodes to produce light, heat, and ultraviolet radiation. In fact, it is so powerful, it can literally give the user sunburn - which is why Otto added shielding to keep the UV radiation contained after he himself paid with the effects of unprotected tests - resulting in sunburns. Some say it could be used as a weapon.

Ottow's flashlight which has been called the Maxablaster (or Maxblaster), is carried around like a suitcase and can light up clouds at night. It's pretty useful in the dark when looking for objects 4 miles away. Don't bother to bring your dog along.

If Ottow's flashlight reminds you of a Star Wars lightsaber, then you'd most likely be also interested in this flashlight (below). It's really a lightsaber prop replica that plays a power up and power down sound effect used in the movies when switched on and off. Don't worry, it won't burn you with damaging rays because it uses only LED lightbulbs.











Save gas! Turn your car into a water hybrid.

3-D Entertainment within Your Reach at Home

3-D (or 3D) movies is the in thing in the 21st century. Who wouldn't want to watch a movie where the scene in front of you is seemingly real enough to grab? Yes, it's what's giving theater-release movies the crowd draw amidst rampant optical media piracy. After all, 3-D is something that you can only experience to the fullest in moviehouses and with the right equipment - like polarizing 3-D glasses.

But the at-home-movie-watching experience may not be far behind when it comes to enjoying 3-D. New technology now brings 3-D into your television at home, particularly with digital light processing (DLP) high definition viewing systems.

The 3-D DLP television system was first introduced in 2007. Just like in a 3-D movie, this displays two images - one for the left eye and another for the right one. They are combined for the viewer with special shutter glasses which are part of the synchronization process. Of course, you would still need graphics or video source content that's compatible with the format.

Save gas! Turn your car into a water hybrid.