Geekery

The awesomeness of laser fusion

Posted on 26. Feb, 2010 by Jake.

Laser fusion is going to be awesome!!! Science lovers take note, as this clip from New Scientist shows, researchers are one step closer to triggering a self-sustained fusion reaction.

As a post on Slashdot puts it:
“The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has performed their first controlled fusion experiments using all 192 lasers. While still not ramped up to full power, the first experiments proved very fruitful. The lasers create a lot of plasma in the target container and researchers worried that the plasma would interfere with the ability of the target to absorb enough energy to ignite. These experiments show that not only does enough energy make it through, the plasma can be manipulated to increase the uniformity of compression. Ramping up of power is due to start in May.”

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The known universe

Posted on 01. Feb, 2010 by Jake.

I was going to post one of the many YouTube clips I’ve seen today either dismissing the iPad as useless or proclaiming it to be the saviour of all mankind, but then I had a dramatic and monumental epiphane:

There is more to life than the iPad.

This clip takes you on an impressive and comprehensive tour of our known universe. It uses the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas, which is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.

Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.

The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

Most importantly, it offers a reminder that there are things that are bigger than us, and more important than us, and certainly bigger and more important than the iPad. Enjoy.

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The first ever review of the Apple Tablet…

Posted on 27. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Amidst the rumours and the speculation and the ‘leaked pics’ and the silly pun pictures of pills with Apple logos on, you would be forgiven for refusing to click on any link that mentions the mythical Apple tablet ever again. But, if you’re here right now, obviously the temptation was too much for you…

Forget the rest, and watch the world’s only reliable source of gadget-related journalism, Walt Mossberg provide us with the first review of the new Apple Tablet.

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Ninjas unbox the new Google Nexus 1

Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Ninjas are trained in ancient Eastern martial arts, not boxing.
But, while they don’t know all that much about boxing, they are very good at unboxing, as this cute new animated ad proves. If this doesn’t go viral I’ll eat my iPhone. Nice one, Google, this is the way forward if you want to promote your new phone!

Thanks to Engadget for the pic.

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Nevermind Bitly – here’s Su.pr

Posted on 22. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Check out this demo and screencast with Tim Ferris, which will introduce you to Su.pr, a URL shortener from Stumbelupon which will also help you promote your content and get more clicks.

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