Have you ever been in a snobby restaurant where when it comes to dessert time, the offerings include some highly unlikely frozen concoction like camembert sorbet? If so, chances are the dessert chef got a Pacojet for Christmas. This device is to blenders what a flame thrower is to kitchen matches, taking slicing and dicing into a whole new realm.

Take any type of food, whether it’s Mars bars, a whole lobster, a pile of anchovies, or yes, even a whole sea bass (take that Bass-O-Matic), freeze it solid, and then the Pacojet will whip it into a smooth and creamy frozen delight through a process they call Pacotizing. With more savory items, you can also create your own mousses and spreads (pickled onion topping anyone)?

The Pacojet is available now for $3450

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We’ve seen shipping containers that have been converted into small living or business spaces before, but now architects are getting serious about this novel solution to the US container glut. The problem is that as a country we buy so much cheap stuff from China, that the shipping containers are piling up near the ports of entry to the tune of over 5 million a year. I guess it must be cheaper to make new ones than to ship the old ones back empty.

Welding them together to form a house has a lot of advantages. They’re pretty much rot free (although I’d watch for rust), they should be pretty earthquake resistant, and they won’t light up like a bonfire the next time junior gets carried away playing with the stove lighter.

Several green friendly architecture firms now specialize in homes built from recycled containers.

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LED lights are far more efficient than standard light bulbs, using a half of the energy and burning five times longer than their rudimentary cousins. It’s a wonder, then, that we don’t see them used more. Ann Arbor, Michigan is the first city in America to replace all its streetlights with fancy, fancy LED lights, saving money and energy in the process.

By replacing every streetlight in their fair city with 1,000 LEDs, the Ann Arbor town fathers are putting their burg on the forefront of energy responsibility. It’s only a matter of time before other cities follow suit and we’re constantly lit by the efficient glow of LEDs. Bring it on, I say.

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We’ve heard of a white-hot spotlight, but this flashlight is ridiculous. Manufacturer Wicked Lasers calls this monster The Torch, and the 4100-lumen light packs enough punch to literally set the world on fire, starting up a pile of loose paper in a matter of seconds. Jeez, that’s hot stuff. To give you an idea, a 2000-lumen projector is considered exceptionally bright.

This 9-inch light has a big disadvantage, though. Its battery can only keep up that blinding illumination for 15 minutes. Let’s take a look at a video, proving that this thing is hotter than a two-dollar pistol (and costs a lot more, too):

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Great ergonomic strides have been made in the past few years in the field of pointing devices, but this Moldable Mouse design concept by Lite-On takes user-friendliness to its limit. The mouse is made of lightweight modeling clay with a flexible polyurethane and nylon fabric cover that lets you mold it into whatever shape is most comfortable for you.

If your hand gets tired of mousing in one position during a long day at work or play, just morph this pointer into an entirely different shape. You can even place the radio-frequency controlled stick-on mouse buttons and touch-sensitive scroll pad in different positions, too. This design concept was clever enough to win a 2007 Red Dot Design Award in the category of Productivity and Work.

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Sure, there are way, way, way too many Simpsons licensed products out there, from t-shirts and lunchboxes to grills and toiletries, but this one seems like a cut above the rest. It’s a webcam shaped like Mr. Burns! How could you go wrong with such a product?

In addition to looking like Mr. Burns sitting at his desk (accompanied by Bobo, his stuffed bear), it’s got a handy clip for hooking on to the top of your monitor. It can take 30fps video at a resolution of 640 x 480 and is, you know, a pretty standard webcam. But it looks like Mr. Burns! Stop trying to resist already!

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A large US spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials have said. The satellite, which is now out of control, could contain hazardous materials, and it’s unknown where on our planet it might come down.

Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council said, “Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation…Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause.”

He would not however, comment on whether it’s possible for the satellite to be shot down by a missile.
“The Andromeda Strain ” image courtesy of Universal Pictures

Scenes like this…could soon become commonplace

Such an uncontrolled re-entry could risk exposure of US secrets, director of the defense research group Global Security John Pike, told Associated Press. Spy satellites are typically disposed of through a controlled re-entry into the ocean so that no one else can access the spacecraft.

Pike also said it’s not likely the threat from the satellite could be eliminated by shooting it down with a missile, because that would create debris that would then re-enter the atmosphere and burn up or hit the ground.

It’s estimated that the spacecraft weighs about 20,000lb – roughly the size of a small bus – and might contain beryllium: a light metal with a high melting point that’s used in the defense and aerospace industries.

This isn’t the first uncontrolled re-entry for a NASA spacecraft: Skylab, the 78-ton abandoned space station, fell from orbit in 1979. Its debris dropped harmlessly into the Indian Ocean and across a remote section of Western Australia.

In 2002, officials believe debris from a 7,000lb science satellite smacked into the Earth’s atmosphere and rained down over the Persian Gulf, a few thousand miles from where they first predicted it would plummet. ®

The US Navy will astound the world tomorrow by test-firing a radical new weapon system at an unprecedented power level. The new piece of war-tech on trial is that old sci-fi favourite, an electromagnetic railgun.

According to the Office of Naval Research, which is in charge of the project, the electric cannon will deliver over ten megajoules of energy in one shot. The ONR say this is “a power level never before achieved” by a railgun, and already represents significantly more poke than a normal five-inch naval gun can put behind its shells.
Obliteration by velocity

Another triumph from the Office of Dodgy Mottos.

The designers hope in future to get the technology up to 64 megajoule muzzle-energy levels, able to shoot hypervelocity projectiles at a blistering Mach 7 and strike targets two hundred miles away – still going at Mach 5 – with pinpoint precision.

The US navy is interested in the kit for a number of reasons. For one, its next generation warships are expected to use electric drive systems, meaning that they will be have 80 megawatts or more on hand. If this power can be used to put violence onto the enemy as well as driving the ship, that’s good news for logistics and supply. The only ammo you need is solid shot with guidance fins; there’s no need for tons of high-explosive warheads and low-explosive chemical propellants for regular shells and missiles. These are replaced by nice simple fuel for the ship’s engines.

The lack of exploding warheads could offer a chance to deliver more surgical strikes, too. They could take out a single vehicle from far out at sea, perhaps, rather than pulverising a whole area like present-day cruise missiles. This kind of thing is very trendy nowadays in military circles, though the problem of getting the right vehicle remains a tricky one.

Furthermore, even the ritziest missiles struggle to get above Mach 3-4, especially over any distance; thus the railgun slugs would be quicker to arrive when bombarding shore targets. They might also be good for shooting down fast-moving flying things.

Indeed, if the cannon could aim quickly enough and the hyper-bullets could steer well enough in flight, lighter-calibre weapons might tip the balance of naval warfare back in favour of surface craft. Ever since the Battle of Midway, sailors have reluctantly been forced to accept that aircraft win sea battles, not ships. But railguns might demote aircraft carriers from their current big-dog naval status and bring in electric dreadnoughts as the capital ships of tomorrow, able to sweep the skies of pesky aircraft or missiles as soon as they dared show themselves above the horizon.

It’s easy to see why navies like the idea of electric hypercannons, then. But there are a lot of problems to be overcome. For one, the gun barrel tends to come apart after just a few shots. For another, packing a steady hundred-megawatt supply down into ultra-brief 64 megajoule pulses isn’t simple.

The railgun plan is, unsurprisingly, seen as a “high-risk” effort by the ONR. A long shot, in other words (*cough*). ®

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