Champion paper plane takes off
Martin Wainwright
Thursday November 24, 2005
The Guardian
A simple but ingenious paper dart was named Britain's best yesterday
after wafting through a Victorian university hall for almost seven
seconds.
Silently proving at least five laws of physics, the Spruce Moose
would have glided a fair bit further, had it not collided with a No
Smoking sign on one flight and a spectator's shoulder bag on another.
Modelled aeronautically on the F14A Tomcat fighter, its secrets were
revealed - though only after victory - by student designer Steve
Bond, who learned them at his high school in Bromley, Kent.
"The folds work so that the plane is tightly held and compact for its
flight up," he said. "Then they gradually open out as it peaks, so
that it glides gently down."
http://tinyurl.com/cfme6
FROM BOINGBOING:
Experiment: How hard is it to shoot off a lock?

A group of marksmen decided to see how hard it was to shoot a lock
off -- pistols and rifles didn't do the trick, but a shotgun tore it
to pieces. Link (via Charlie Stross)
posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:19:59 AM permalink |http://tinyurl.com/
dqeoo
Flat-pack refugee housing
A design company has announced a system for "flat-pack housing" --
long-term dwellings that sleep four and take up a quarter of a
shipping container.

The SHRIMP (Sustainable Housing for Refugees via Mass Production) is
an attempt to bring housing and other relief to large displaced or
homeless populations, especially those who have suffered in a natural
disaster. Providing shelter to a family of four, it folds up into 1/4
of a shipping container for efficient deployment.
Link (via Worldchanging)
posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:47:53 AM permalink http://tinyurl.com/
bqq8u
Holographic-memory discs may put DVDs to shame
A computer disc about the size of a DVD that can hold 60 times more
data is set to go on sale in 2006. The disc stores information
through the interference of light – a technique known as holographic
memory.
The discs, developed by InPhase Technologies, based in Colorado, US,
hold 300 gigabytes of data and can be used to read and write data 10
times faster than a normal DVD. The company, along with Japanese
partner Hitachi Maxell announced earlier in November that they would
start selling the discs and compatible drives from the end of 2006.
"Unlike other technologies, that record one data bit at a time,
holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read in
parallel with a single flash of light," says Liz Murphy, of InPhase
Technologies. "This enables transfer rates significantly higher than
current optical storage devices."
The discs, at 13 centimetres across, are a little wider than
conventional DVDs, and slightly thicker. Normal DVDs record data by
measuring microscopic ridges on the surface of a spinning disc. Two
competing successors to the DVD format – Blu-ray and HD-DVD – use
the same technique but exploit shorter wavelengths of light to cram
more information onto a surface.
http://tinyurl.com/c4jld
Bestmint by Ortek: A Disruptive Technology For More Than Tooth Decay
You can't put stuff like this in a SciFi plot. No one would believe
it when the dentist said "eat lots of this candy please". No fiction:
Ortek, Inc. is planning production of a candy that is reported to be
more effective than sodium fluoride at preventing tooth decay. The
active ingredient is an amino acid commonly found in nuts and whole
grains. Some plausible ourcomes from introduction of the Ortek
"Basicmints", assuming widespread popularity, include: a gradual end
to flouride drips at the public water supply; no more dental fluoride
treatments for kids; the phoenix-like "anti-fluoridation" movement,
which has periodicaly attracted support from either end of the
political spectrum, derails; toothpaste market shares are tossed in
the air and pasteless toothbrushing becomes fashionable; outlays for
filings are reduced; and, the need for one of the remaining consumer
uses of elemental mercury ...we're talking about amalgam production
by dentists... is reduced. While press coverage seemed to infer the
use of a "biotech" method in manufacture (whatever that means),
details are unclear. The meta-story is much bigger than an ingredient
list though. Brace yourself for many more such disruptive
technologies that confound and confuse our world views.
http://tinyurl.com/by8op
and the basicmints wweb site:
http://tinyurl.com/92wdd
More on business plans:
http://tinyurl.com/7umkm
Living camera uses bacteria to capture 100 megapixel photos
Up until now there’s been a slight gap in high-end digital cameras:
once your taste for megapixels surpassed the 16 that supposedly make
the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II better than film, and the 34 and 39
megapixels from Leaf and Kodak, respectively, your only recourse used
to be starting your own country or company to try building a
ginormous sensor of your own in the vein of Better Light’s 144
megapixel monster or Fermilab’s 500 megapixel beast. Well a team of
researchers at UCSF, lead by Chris Voigt, may have found a nascent
contender for the triple-digit megapixel market. Apparently they have
modified E. Coli bacteria to act as together as a de facto
photosensitive sensor and produce astounding 100 megapixel-per-square-
inch monochrome images. Before you get too excited, besides only
being capable of black-and-white photography, this living camera
needs four hours to take a photo and only works in red light.
Appropriately enough, one of the first pictures taken using these
primitive organisms was of the flying spaghetti monster, a character
used to mock proponents of intelligent design.
http://tinyurl.com/93tgc
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