Drive your way to a smoother head: the HeadBlade ATX

http://the-gadgeteer.com/2014/05/03/drive-your-way-to-a-smoother-head-the-headblade-atx/

http://www.headblade.com/

More video at:

https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=headblade / shave head hair bald balding razor blade four 4 blades replace replaceable lather grow stubble hair thin sparse hair looks awful grow growing grew long I shave my head stick razor shave my pate HeadBlade ATX ATV Zamboni rubber finger loop sporty wheels guide your head blade four-blade wider gaps between the blades pivots follow the terrain blades are removable and replaceable lather lathers good shave gel foam middle finger rubber loop shave wheels forward shaving back to front wheels in back front to back very quickly erasing erase eraze scalp /

Electricity used to refine petrol (gasoline) (video)

Elon Musk (Tesla Motors — Model S) said something similar a few years ago: "You have enough electricity to power all the cars in the country if you stop refining gasoline,” says Musk. “You take an average of 5 kilowatt hours to refine [one gallon of] gasoline, something like the Model S can go 20 miles on 5 kilowatt hours." — Business Insider, October 2011 — http://www.businessinsider.com.au/elon-musk-and-chris-paine-explain-how-the-electric-car-got-its-revenge-2011-10

This guy too:

"The USA ranks number 1 in the world: over 49,000,000,000 kWh. One electric vehicle, roughly speaking, will use about 3,000 KWh to travel about 12,000 miles."

"That means that the electricity alone that we use to refine petroleum each year could drive over 16,000,000 electric cars 12,000 miles each year. And that doesn't include the electricity used in oil extraction, pumping & transportation." — the43k on Youtube



It is sometimes claimed that because coal is burned to produce electricity, an electric vehicle is responsible for as much CO2 as an internal cumbustion engine vehicle. This is inaccurate, & electricity consumed to refine petrol is just one reason. More at:

http://hhg2t-long.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/why-does-electric-car-generate-less.html / energy coal electric electricity petroleum oil refinery refine power diesel hydrogen plastic hydrocarbon generate generation generator EV ICE electric vehicle EV ICE Tesla battery LiIon lithium ion charge gasolene /

Unique axe uses leverage to help split firewood faster & easier (video)

Credit: Shhhh...



Looks a lot faster & easier.

And this guy found the same thing: "... 4 guys on 2 wood splitters couldn't keep up to me ... Go Leveraxe" — Vipukirves axe owner

http://veryveryquiet.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/vipukirves-finnish-axe.html

http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/vipukirves-axe-uses-leverage-to-make-woodcutting-easy.html / popularity wood pellet stoves burning wood heat green heat with wood hard labour chop chopping wood improved axe-like tools make the job easier unique axe conventional axe lever leverage make woodchopping easierVipukirves axe Finnish inventor Heikki Kärnä lever wedge chop chopping wood Vipukirves translates lever axe swinging down axe cuts wood pushes it apart off-center shaft unique form shifts axe's center of gravity less force chop less dangerous physics hit hitting top log penetrate penetrating leading edge axe head axe blade widens sharply axe’s penetration mass axe head kinetic energy off line center of gravity rotate eccentrically down towards the wood rotational movement leading edge sharp edge blade turn lever action forcing a split force kinetic energy multiplied by the leverage of the axehead widening blade edge penetrate penetrating into the wood and getting stuck traditional axe tree firewood weighs 4 pounds heating with fossil fuels winter /

Toyota developing free-piston engine linear generator for electric drive vehicles

Credit: Toyota/Charged EVs

Generators make electricty by moving a conductor near a magnet. Or the other way round. Just so long as the conductor & magnet move relative to one another. Usually, a number of magnets are arranged in a circle & the coil spins on a shaft inside the circle of magnets.

Less commonly, a linear generator has a magnet moving back & forth inside a conductive coil.

A free-piston engine is an internal combustion engine (ICE) without a crankshaft. Without a crankshaft, there will be no rotary motion, but by incorporating a linear generator, an engine/generator with no rotary motion is produced.



By eliminating the crankshaft & separate generator, friction is reduced. Up to 40% efficiency has been claimed for the Toyota unit.

Laboratory measurements of ICE efficiency are not usually equalled in practice. This is substantially because outside a very narrow range of engine speed & load, ICE efficiency falls quickly. In an electric vehicle range extender, an ICE operating at a constant speed can build up a small cushion of charge in the battery to cope with changing demands for power without changing ICE speed. In this way an ICE range extender has the potential to operate at its peak efficiency all of the time.

Toyota is not the first to experiment with a free piston engine, but it's interesting to to see a major manufacturer, without an electric vehicle on the market, developing such a device.

http://chargedevs.com/newswire/toyota-developing-free-piston-engine-linear-generator-for-electric-drive-vehicles/ / Toyota Central R&D Labs developing development prototype Free Piston Engine Linear Generator FPEG SAE 2014 World Congress in Detroit internal combustion engine ICE propel propels drive shaft FPEG designed generate electricity directly two stroke two-stroke combustion chamber linear generator gas spring chamber piston moved combustion gas magnets attached linear coil converting kinetic energy electrical energy Toyota FPEG double piston system combustion chamber adjustable gas spring chamber returning piston combustion event power stroke kinetic energy piston stored gas spring extracted return stroke combustion chamber side magnetic mover mounted outer periphery piston linear generator permanently excited synchronous machine stationary coil mover neodymium-iron-boron magnets piston iron-core stator power electronics drive machine motor generator video animation of Toyota’s FPEG researchers achieved output power 10 kW 42% thermal efficiency B/C segment electric drive vehicles prototype cooling lubrication lubricating problems /

Awesome robot spider (video)

Credit: Robotix/The Daily Mail

Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame waxes lyrical & demonstrates his arachnobot & the custom case he created to hold & protect the fragile & expensive device. Truly amazing!

Warning: the video below is not for arachnophobes, but if you're OK with the image above, you're probably good to go with the video below.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2358219/Its-make-skin-crawl--The-ultra-realistic-robotic-spider-moves-like-real-thing-.html / Adam Savage 3D printer Mythbusters servo battery custom case calibration nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery charge arachnid robot remote control controlled arachnophobia /

Self cleaning paint from Nissan (video)

If the video didn't convince you, compare the two sides of the car below:


Credit: Nissan/Wired

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/self-washing-car/

http://www.dailytech.com/Nissan+Testing+SelfCleaning+Car+Through+the+Use+of+Oleophobic+Paint/article34796c.htm / washing wash car Nissan develop deveopment developing paint repel repels water oil self cleaning car paint developed engineers Nissan Technical Centre GB UK hydrophobic oleophobic repels water oil gunk goo stick sticks slides right off wax engineer surface finish Ultra-Ever Dry Nissan Note repel repelling rain spray frost sleet standing water mud literally slides right off hydrophobic oleophobic coating Rust-Oleum hydrophobic spray iPhone smartphone smart phone oleophobic coating reduce fingerprints screen test testing standard equipment option /

The surprising medical value of poop

Credit: luchschen/Shutterstock.com/Exact Sciences/SingularityHUB

http://singularityhub.com/2014/04/26/the-surprising-medical-value-of-poop/ / next-gen next gen DNA sequencing bio analysis Raymond McCauley Singularity University genetics track sequence prohibitive price point range health issues brute force tool price has continued to drop improvements sequencing methods researchers identify DNA versatile toolkit flush it down the toilet traces of intestinal lining blood stool sample cell-free DNA feces people colorectal cancer third most common cause of death in the United States leading cause of cancer deaths screening rates colonoscopy invasive patient fast sedation this shit is serious study The New England Journal of Medicine FDA committee hearing stool test Cologuard non-invasive screening colorectal cancer scientific findings food and drug administration FDA committee approve test Exact Sciences cancers pre-cancers FIT study blood painful probe analyzes hemogloblin DNA methylation markers mutations KRAS gene total amount of DNA in the stool sample pre-malignant polyps methylation markers diagnostic /