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Posts Tagged “

Heat

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hot stuff

MIT Thermoelectric Device Could Revolutionize Home Heating

With gas prices approaching "damn, I'm going to have to start walking more" levels here in the States, everyone's doing their part to increase efficiency and reduce energy consumption, and that includes the genius farm MIT. The institute already produces 80% of its own energy, courtesy of its on campus "cogeneration plant," but a few students have found a way to make the system even more self-sufficient using a new thermoelectric prototype. The great thing is the device has the potential for applications beyond the walls of MIT, and already the students are examining ways to apply it to the home heating industry in general. More »

11:00 AM on Sat Jul 26 2008
By Jack Loftus
11,230 views, 23 comments

Latest by Con Seannery: @RowenaOrpheus: Safe handling procedures, whoever opens the container once they seal up the dangerous stuff (if it stays there, I don't know about TE generators) is a dumbass. They get poisoned, the species gets smarter. more »

energy

Team Doubles Efficiency of Thermoelectric Material: Good News for Car Electrics

Scientists at Ohio State University have taken a thermoelectric material that's been used for decades to power deep-space probes, and worked out how to double its efficiency. That's good news: thermoelectrics convert heat directly into electrical energy. By catching exhaust heat, the new material may allow car alternators to be replaced... and that'll push up the efficiency of car engines. The team doped lead telluride with tiny amounts of thallium, which adjusts the crystal structure and increases its heat-electricity conversion efficiency from around 6% to over 10%. Even better, since engineers have years of experience of working with lead telluride, it should be easy to commercialize the product. Environmentalists will have to be pleased, and relax about the high toxicity of thallium, though. [Technology Review]

5:24 AM on Fri Jul 25 2008
By Kit Eaton
2,358 views, 14 comments

Latest by Red Right Hand: what was that great flick? A young poisoner's handbook or something? more »

weapons

Democratic Convention Protestors Will Be Blasted With Ray Guns and Sticky Goo

If you're unhappy that Hillary Clinton lost the nomination to Barack Obama, you better think twice before showing your displeasure at next month's Democratic National Convention. According to CNN, the city of Denver is purchasing tons of high-tech weapons to use on unruly DNC protesters, which may include goo-guns that shoot an impossible-to-escape sticky film, sonic ray guns that produce a blood-curdling blast of noise, and a microwave device that can make you feel like your skin is burning. The ACLU is suing the city to see what weapons will end up in the final arsenal, but if you're going to the Denver, be prepared; this could make the 1968 DNC look like a picnic. [CNN]

1:17 PM on Mon Jul 7 2008
By Benny Goldman
7,745 views, 90 comments

Latest by n/a: This is fucking insane. this reminds me of the Battle in Seattle - the WTO protests that went down there in 1999. It was a completely peaceful protest, with the exception of, at most, 200 anarchists who destroyed property - more »

electricity

Electricity Generator Gets Its Power From Waste Heat

Dallas' Southern Methodist University is now recycling energy with one of the first commercial electricity generators that use thermoelectricity—the act of drawing power from waste heat. The machine operates by using heat given off by other processes (such as manufacturing) to boil liquids, which then turn into steam, which then turns an electricity-generating turbine. More »

7:00 PM on Sat May 31 2008
By Elaine Chow
5,617 views, 33 comments

pants

Heat-Sensitive Knickers Don't Make Me Hot Today

Normally, I would get excited about these pants with a daisy that changes color when next to your hot hot skin. But it's Monday today, and Monday's the day I do the washing and the ironing. Tuesday is J.'s day for LEGO—he's currently attempting to do the Kama Sutra out of bricks, Wednesday we're watching all Flight of the Conchords episodes back-to-back, Thursday I'm teaching the dog how to mow the lawn, Friday is National Morris Dancers Day, Saturday I'm learning how to make a lava lamp using a paperclip, boogers, an old milk bottle and our bedside lamp. So, it'll have to be Sunday. Hang on, I've just seen the price. Thirty bucks? I feel a headache coming on. [Ethical Superstore]

6:50 AM on Mon May 12 2008
By AddyDugdale
4,330 views, 49 comments

Latest by Step666: @johnqamerica: 'p.s. oops I suck at this.' Yeah, a little bit. Still, nice imagery with the fish, the barrel and the whole floating at the top bit. more »

beat the heat

Nike PreCool Vest Is Heatsink For Athletes

Beijing Olympians can count on being cool as cucumbers in Nike's PreCool Vest, a specially designed piece of clothing that lowers the body's core temperature. Much like computers, muscles perform better when they're not dedicating most of their resources to cooling down. Used about an hour prior to a competition, it can help an athlete last up to 21% longer out in the field. The vest is made of two layers of material: the inner one is filled with frozen water and the outer layer is coated with aluminum to act like a thermos, trapping cold in while reflecting radiant heat. Unfortunately, the PreCool is only available for Olympic athletes, so us normal folk will have to find other ways to chill out this summer. [Newlaunches.com]

4:00 PM on Sat May 3 2008
By Elaine Chow
8,185 views, 49 comments

Latest by n/a: @shenanigans61: @shenanigans61: A study in 2003 done by researchers at the University of Georgia showed that wearing an ice filled cooling vest decreased 5K running times by an average of 13 seconds. You may think it doesn't help, more »

warmth

Swiss Swimming Pool Warmed by Surplus Server Heat and Alliteration

There's clearly something going on with the Swiss and hot water: first "extreme jacuzzi-ing" on top of Mont Blanc, and now they're going to use waste energy kicked out by servers to warm a swimming pool. It's a simple concept: take the heat from the server room air-conditioners at a new data center, and direct it through heat exchangers to the water in the town pool. The town, Uitikon, will get a hot pool and all they had to pay for was some of the connecting gear since the heat would otherwise have been vented. Cool! ... or rather, hot! Darn eco-friendly too. [Sydney Morning Herald]

5:57 AM on Thu Apr 3 2008
By Kit Eaton
3,552 views, 16 comments

Latest by n/a: Great idea! Especially considering the new mobile Data Center trend using ISBU modules (shipping containers). The ISBU Association reports that Sun Micro, RACK, Verari, Microsoft, even Dell and IBM are making mobile Data Centers using shipping containers. Just add a swimming more »

pcs

DIY Case Mod Turns Your PC Into a Gigantic Heatsink

Once PC case modder has taken his battle with heat to a whole new level using a design that is 100% passively cooled. That is to say, the entire case is one gigantic heatsink. Unfortunately, numerous problems were encountered during the project and in the end, a faulty motherboard and power supply issues made a proper test of the case problematic. So, even though the mod is flawed, there are plenty of ideas that can be gleaned from the process itself that could result in something a little more practical. Hit the link for instructions. [Metku via Hack n Mod via Gearfuse]

6:00 PM on Thu Mar 6 2008
By Sean Fallon
12,303 views, 36 comments

Latest by aaj111: I think I have a solution to my 360 overheating. more »

military

Heat Ray Causes Unintelligible Yelping from 60 Minutes Reporter

Remember the US Military ray gun that makes people feel like they're on fire? Well, 60 Minutes sent out a reporter to see if he could take the heat. Standing in plain view of the ray gun made his body feel like "scalding water," so David Martin attempted, with little success, to hide behind a piece of plywood and later a mattress. Some claim they can only take the heat ray 4 - 5 seconds, so when David tried it we think he only made it 2 seconds, even if he did say, "ONE ONE THOUSAND TWO ONE THOUSAND THREE ONEEEAAHHHHRRHHR" [CBS via TechEBlog]

3:00 PM on Fri Feb 29 2008
By Christopher Mascari
12,897 views, 91 comments

Latest by Pi-face: @FLskydiver: It was freaking awesome, except that people blame the cops. more »

gadgets

Super Soaker Inventor Working on Way To Harvest Heat From Humans Matrix-Style

Who didn't like Super Soakers as a kid? You pump it a lot, it builds pressure, then it shoots liquid. In many ways, they were very similar to humans, which is why Lonnie Johnson, its inventor, is looking for ways to use harvest waste heat from humans to power a tiny Johnson system. The full name is the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy System, and it could be up to 60% efficient (standard car engines are only about 30% efficient) at the right temperature. More »

3:30 PM on Fri Feb 8 2008
By Jason Chen
8,902 views, 30 comments

Latest by x23: @iguide: or you could use pathetic link spammers as batteries. a true benefit to society. more »

nanotechnology

Rough Nano-Wires Hold the Secret to Efficient Heat to Electricity Conversion

The latest edition of Nature magazine details a new method scientists have derived for converting heat energy into electricity, using silicon to instigate the conversion. Researchers have more investigations to carry out, but if preliminary findings are indicative of what is to come, appliances that charge using your own body heat may be on the horizon.
More »

7:25 PM on Sun Jan 13 2008
By Haroon Malik
5,267 views, 27 comments

heat vision

CES Attendees Getting Excited For AVN

Give it a minute.
gadgets

Hypercolor Heat-Changing Toilet Shows Who's Been Assing it Up

Even though we're comfortable with sitting on a toilet seat that someone just vacated (and vacated their bowels on), it still comes as a surprise just how warm that seat is—the ass must be a bit higher than 98 degrees. This thermochromic toilet seat, however, lets you know exactly how warm the seat is, with a bonus effect of showing you exactly which part of the seat was in contact with the previous occupant. As you can see from the picture, the man before was a widey. Almost as good as the hypercolor shirts of yore, which let us know of Kelly's extracurricular activities in a visual manner. [Canadian Design Resource via Boing Boing]

7:10 PM on Wed Jan 2 2008
By Jason Chen
4,692 views, 25 comments

Latest by deusdiabolus: This toilet seat contains the US Recommended Daily Allowance of WR0N9 and NO. more »

gadgets

Coffee Mug Knows When You're Going to Burn Yourself

Our father told us that the best way to test whether a steaming cup of anything was cool enough to drink was to just drink it. It wasn't until the fifth time we were in the hospital that we discovered that the man wasn't our father. If we had these heat-sensitive On/Off mugs, which change from the Off position when cool to the On position when hot, we'd still have our original tongues. However, as Joel from BBG points out, the heat-sensitive plastic lining has a tendency to wash off—leading to a scenario where a practical joker could paint the mug black and write OFF on the side, then pour in a cup of boiling hot coffee. [Charles and Marie via Technabob via Boing Boing Gadgets]

2:45 PM on Fri Nov 30 2007
By Jason Chen
4,239 views, 15 comments

Latest by foureight84: yea pretty bad design. they could have used "hot" or "cold" or a simple picture of a steaming cup or a plain cup. too bad. it would be a neat gift more »

usb

Thanko USB Heating Pad

The Thanko USB Heating pad has the unique position of being potentially useful as we enter the colder months. Then again, there's no way this thing puts out more heat than a modern CPU/GPU combo. Just put your notebook on your lap, and watch your man-bits. [Akihabara]

11:37 PM on Thu Nov 15 2007
By Brian Lam
1,956 views, 9 comments

Latest by greysky: one again i will point out that i have a wall socket not two feet away from my desk more »

cellphones

Helio Cuts All Phone Prices by $50, Flashes Some Leg, Winks

First they dropped their all-in plan to $99 a month, and now they've gone and slashed the prices of all their phones by $50. Helio really wants you to switch to them in a bad way, which could be a sign that they aren't doing so hot, or they may be paving the way for a new device to drop. Either way, now that you can get an Ocean for less than $200 and get an all-in plan for less than $100, I certainly wouldn't blame you for taking the bait, as that is as good a deal as you're likely to get in the cellphone world right now. [Product Page via Boy Genius Report]

10:40 AM on Thu Nov 15 2007
By Adam Frucci
3,015 views, 18 comments

Latest by Simpsons-Movie-ruled: I was wondering if I could get another Helio without activating another contract. more »

stay warm

Space Heater Might Warm You Up With Its Pretty Design Alone

There was a chill in the air this morning, and it made us start thinking about heating up the place. But who wants one of those metal space heaters that can burn the house down if it tips over when there's a designer space heater like this Plus Minus Zero model that's on its way in December? The $120 object is designed by Naoto Fukuzawa, winner of some such award that says he has designer chops, and it'll be available in these attractive colors. We're warming up to this design so much that it might just be worth it to shiver until December. [Tokyomango]

1:15 PM on Thu Oct 25 2007
By Charlie White
2,268 views, 2 comments

Latest by Zenbrane: Those look pretty ugly to me more »

pantsworthy

Body Heat Powers Gadgets

Those freaky scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute are always thinking up cool stuff, and now they've figured out how to turn body heat into electricity. It works by taking advantage of the difference between two temperatures, but until these Fraunhofer dudes got ahold of the idea, the required temp range was too great to use body heat. If you think about it, there's still quite a bit of difference between room temperature and 98.6°. We thought of an even better way to power up gadgets using this technology. More »

9:59 AM on Fri Aug 24 2007
By Charlie White
4,240 views, 28 comments

Latest by king_of_fools: Didn't people learn anything watching the matrix movies? You are handing over the technology to use humans as batteries to the machines. more »

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