Acidus wrote:

When they arrived at his crib, McClain allegedly tried to strike a cop with a four-foot sword. After missing, McClain retreated to his basement, where he donned a chainmail armored vest and leather gauntlets to protect his arms. He also added a giant wooden mallet to his arsenal and beckoned officers to come downstairs and get him. "I'm gonna crush your fucking skulls," McClain warned. Then, in a nice rhetorical flourish (for a lunatic, at least), he added, "I have a thousand years of power." That omnipotence, however, was no match for a police Taser, which felled McClain. He was then carted off and charged with felony assault and a misdemeanor count for failing to remain at an accident scene.

By the Power of Greyskull... I... HAVE... THE {ZZZAAAPPPPPPPPPPP}!

You know, this is funnier than the Reno 911 episode....

RE: Medieval loser tasered by cops.

I have it on good authority that Michael Lynn has shaved his head and joined a cult to avoid the US laws on grounds of religious persecution at the hands of Cisco and ISS.

I just got a look at this creature, and had someone walk by my cube when they did and they, very loudly, commented WTF as well. :)

Antennas that make you go WTF?!

k wrote:

The code name, Space Beast, was one they came up with in the wee hours of the night.
Tyler Lyon, Daniel Winegar and Chad Thornley were overtired and giddy as they tackled a science fair project. Their idea: Eliminate the use of Freon in automobile air-conditioning systems by relying on the Peltier effect - of course.

[ Call for research.

Mainly though, i want to know the details of this because the claim seems to be that taking the gasoline, converting it to electricity, and powering a stack of peltier devices is more efficient than directly driving a compressor for the ac. Presumably the same number of fans would need to be run electrically for either.

Peltier coolers are inefficent. It takes about three watts to move one watt of heat from one side, all of which then must be dissipated on the hot side. Typical air conditioners at home may run into 12:1 or 17:1 in the case of Japanese air conditioners, which is one watt of energy spent moving 12 or 17 watts of heat. I've seen portable air conditioners which consume 1KW and have an EER of 9 and cost $500. But that's a portable cooler or datacenter emergency bailout device.

It's a nice idea, but I don't think it's very practical.

RE: Salt Lake Tribune - Utah

Students that John Hopkins performed a brute-force attack on RFID, only to find out -- tada -- that it's 40 bit encryption. And now shipping on Ford vehicles.

RFID Cracked

In the wee hours of this morning, the house voted to extend and make permanent fourteen provisions of the sixteen provisions that make up the US Patriot Act.

Surely Ben Franklin is achieving in excess of 10,000 RPM as he spins in his grave.

-- Catonic

Patriot Act Extended

The FCC is seeking to remove the Morse Code requirement from all amateur radio license classes. In the past, the requirement had been removed for all operation above 30MHz, but the ITU no longer requires a code examination internationally for licensees below 30MHz.

FCC to remove Morse Code from Amateur Radio Licensing

This industrious gentleman has reconstructed the front panel of an iPod out of an African wood. The results speak for themselves.

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2005/07/05/wood_ipod_zapwizard/1.html

iPod modder in wood veneer

http://www.aibo-does-daftpunk.com/

'nuff said. :-)

(Requires flash/shockwave/useless garbage)

-- Catonic