Gizmodo: nitrogen

Air Force One Golf Clubs Use Compressed Nitrogen to Help You Hit Farther

Sean Fallon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:50:00 EST

Have you ever heard the adage that you can buy a better golf game? I really is true. Over the years my game has improved dramatically because of improvements in club design—but I never expected to be swinging anything like the Air Force One. On paper, PowerBilt's idea makes a lot of sense—by filling a clubhead with nitrogen at pressures of up to 150 psi, you can dramatically reduce the thickness of the face and increase the sweetspot because there would be no need for mechanical bracing. The result is increased flex in the clubface on impact which translates into greater distance.

PowerBilt is releasing their line of Air Force One drivers, fairway woods and hybrid clubs with variable face thickness—allowing players to tailor their club to their game. In other words, users with a low swing speed can opt for the thinnest face (for easier compression) while faster swing speeds would require a thicker face. Either way, PowerBilt claims that these clubs can add 10-15 yards of extra distance to your drive. That's remarkable if it is true, but what may be even more remarkable is that the clubs actually conform to USGA regulations—so you can avoid crippling cheater's guilt when you step up to the tee. The driver, fairway woods, and hybrids will run you $500, $350 and $250 respectively. [PowerBilt via DVICE and World Golf]

HDTVs Have Hidden Feature: Poison Gas

Matt Hickey — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:30:00 EDT

Did you know that your HDTV has a gas in it that could make you and your family sick and destroy the planet? It's true, a gas called Nitrogen Trifluoride, and it's bad stuff. Apparently thousands of times worse for the planet than CO2, it's a greenhouse compound that could significantly contribute to global warming. And it's bad to inhale, poisoning your liver and kidneys. It's not a real issue right now, but when landfills of the future start filling up with older HDTVs, it could be a problem. Luckily by then we'll have colonized another planet to mess up. [CrunchGear]

Weird Plasma Thingamachine Creates the Sleekest iPhone Ever

Haroon Malik — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:25:00 EST

Paul Knight uses this weird machine to change the appearance of iPhones and iPods into spy plane black titanium nitride-coated machines, which are quite more beautiful than the originals. It uses "plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition" to modify the nature of the surfaces, a complex chemical process used to coat objects like luxury watches, drill bits or aircraft blades. The finished gadgets are simply stunning.

Paul's iPhone Custom has a gold TiN Apple logo and a black TiAIN black front covering a variant of the TiN process described below. The back covers are replaced with black anodized aluminum to eliminate the contrast between the antenna cover and the usual silver colored backing. Another project involved a more minimalist black logo. Either way, they look stunning.

TiN is applied using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition tool. There is a block of titanium placed into a mahoosive machine similar to the one you saw above, nitrogen gas is flowed in, plasma is formed, things get ridiculously fast, atoms get embroiled in a turf war and fallen atoms end up providing the basis for the amazing coating. What does that mean? We have no idea; we were paraphrasing, my limited education only got me so far in high school. Fortunately, we know a spanking gorgeous iPhone when we see pictures of it, and the iPhone Custom is the best example we have seen to date. No figures were thrown about, but the mods were said to cost "a lot of $," which pretty much means we cannot afford it. We still want. We really, really, really want. Oh, our want hurts so bad. [Gigapascal via gen[m]ay]