Marshall Brain's Blog

The world's most advanced LCD TV - 56-inch and 3840 x 2160 pixels

This is the first time I've heard of QFHD: "a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and an astonishing 8.29 million pixels." We haven't even standardized HDTV yet, and already we are in the process of leapfrogging it.

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It is an interesting idea -- trying to reclaim all of the wasted heat in gasoline engine and use it to generate additional power in the engine:

BMW's Hybrid Vision: Gasoline and Steam

Two things: 1) It is interesting how complex the system is, and 2) it is interesting that it only recovers 15% more power. Given that something like 80% of gasoline's power is wasted as heat, it seems like you should be able to reclaim more than 15%. But obviously not.

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Biowar for Dummies

From the article:

Every hands-on gene hacker I polled during my project estimated they could synthesize smallpox in a month or two.

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Here are some more videos that people mailed in after seeing this post:

How to wheelie a motorcycle

Engine Build

ALBA Rocket Powered Yamaha Raptor

Rocketboard: Rocket Propelled Skateboard

Bathroom in Japan

Public restroom in Japan

Terrorist Guild Holds WoW Server Hostage

This article contains the terrorist manifesto:

Nobody remembers the fair and quietly intelligent people we meet in their daily lives, but everyone remembers those who ruin their day.

Fortunately this is, for the most part, not true. Look at the most famous people in history -- they are quitely intelligent. Einstein comes to mind, named Person of the century by Time magazine. There are a few dicks in the list, like Hitler. But the vast majority are quietly intelligent.

One thing society has pondered for a long time is the question of how to eliminate the power that is implied by the terrorist manifesto. Note that a person who straps on a suicide belt and blows himself up is forgotten almost immediately, despite what the manifesto claims. Yet, together, a hundred suicide bombers have some amount of power through the fear they create. How to eliminate it?

This article claims up to a 50% or so improvement in miles-per-gallon by adding 1 ounce of acetone to 10 gallons of gasoline. That seems kind of nutty. Can anyone bunk or debunk the claim?

Acetone In Fuel Said to Increase Mileage: "Complete vaporization of fuel is far from perfect in today's cars and trucks. A certain amount of residual fuel in most engines remains liquid in the hot chamber. In order to be fully combusted, the fuel must be fully vaporized.

Surface tension presents an obstacle to vaporization. For instance the energy barrier from surface tension can sometimes force water to reach 300 degrees Fahrenheit before it vaporizes. Similarly with gasoline.

Acetone drastically reduces the surface tension.... This results in a more complete vaporization with other factors remaining the same. More complete vaporization means less wasted fuel, hence the increased gas mileage from the increased thermal efficiency."

Here is another article by the same author that goes into more detail.

If you are installing a lot of audio and video equipment, you can spend a LOT of money on cables. Here's a way to beat the high prices:

Making High Quality A/V Cables

Make Your Own Audio Cables

Preparing Your Own DIY Speaker Cables

The Naked Truth about Speaker-Cables

Enjoy!

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This past weekend a friend sent me a "video care package." I thought I would share it. Do you have a favorite?

• iPod Flea
  
  
• Stunt city
  
  
• Oklahoma machine gun festival
  
  
• Ninja training camp
  
  
• Worst Job Ever
  
  
• Dry ice bomb
  
  
• Mentos and diet Pepsi
  
  
• Crash different
  
  
• Cool mini cooper
  
  
• Mastercard commercial
  
  
• MacGuyver commercial
  
  
• world record water rocket (wayyy too long. Use your mouse to find the good parts. What is interesting is the technology they use to reach the world record.)
  
  
• Trashed toyota pickup truck

There have been a number of stories this week like this:

Bush provides details on failed terror plan

and this:

Bush: U.S. Surveillance Helped Stop Attack

The stories contain paragraphs like this:

As the plot was described, the hijackers were to use shoe bombs to blow open the cockpit door of a commercial jetliner, take control of the plane and crash it into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, a 73-story building since renamed the US Bank Tower. In his remarks, Bush inadvertently referred to the site as "Liberty Tower." The president said the plot was derailed when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al-Qaida operative. Bush did not name the country or the operative.

Then you watch a video like this one:

Loose Change - The 9/11 conspiracy

The video is following a path laid out by a number of books and web sites. They all try to demonstrate that the 9/11 catastrophe was caused by the U.S. government, not terrorists.

It is a fascinating juxtaposition. Either the announcement this week is the truth, or the announcement is stacking lies on top of lies. Which is it?

I don't know why, but I spent a lot of time thinking about the cell phone film festival. The winners were announced here at the end of January:

CellFlix Festival

The official goal of the contest is described in this way:

If you’re a filmmaker, a storyteller and a dreamer of big dreams – and you could use an extra $5,000 to help make those dreams come true – pick up your cellphone/smartphone and get busy. You must shoot the story on your cellphone/smartphone, but you can edit it any way you choose. Produce the best 30-seconds of small-screen cinema, and walk away with the $5,000 grand prize.

The problem is, when you look at the 10 finalists, what is missing are compelling stories.

Where do you find interesting 30-second stories? In commercials. See, for example:

• This Fedex commercial
  
  
• This VW commercial
  
  
• This Sprint commercial

Are these commercials fine literature? No. But they are interesting and watchable. Both the VW commercial or the Sprint commercial could have been filmed with a cell phone. But none of the CellFlix videos really capture a story like that. Telling a good story in 30 seconds perhaps is an not as easy as it looks...