Oh the fractacality!

Not sure if fractacality is a word, but here are some nice lightning photos.

Lightning Photos

Fractal

Honda Bets Scientists in Secret Engine Lab Can Outsmart Toyota

Here's an interesting read about Honda. My favorite auto maker.
Side note: I hit 222222.2 back in 2003 on my 1988 Honda Accord.

Here are some excerpts from the article...

In 1973, junior engineer Takeo Fukui helped put Honda Motor Co. on the U.S. map with a Civic subcompact that met clean-air standards without a $1,000 tailpipe filter known as a catalytic converter. He was 28.

Today, as Honda's chief executive officer, Fukui, 61, is racing to repeat his triumph at a lab 68 miles (109 kilometers) north of Tokyo. There, engineers are building a diesel engine for 2009 that Honda says will meet both new U.S. limits and more stringent California rules on soot and nitrous oxide emissions and still use 30 percent less fuel than gasoline models.

...

Organic Soybeans

It earned the crown as the top organic soybean processor in Ohio after determining that shipping empty auto-part crates from U.S. plants back to Japan was wasteful. It hired local farmers to grow soybeans and now sends the crop home in once-empty containers.

In February, Honda started selling a dietary supplement made from fermented soybeans that helps dissolve blood clots.

John Mendel, Honda's U.S. sales chief, says the far-ranging research can appear haphazard. ``This is something that bugs investors, because they don't know where we're going,'' he says.

Investors will tolerate the strategy as long as Honda stays true to its values, he says. ``We want people to ask, `Will the world need Honda in the year 2010?' and we want them to answer, `Hell yes,''' he says.

...

Conservative vs. Crazy

Honda and Toyota need each other, even as they're grinding competitors into the dust, says James Womack, president of the Lean Enterprise Institute research group in Brookline, Massachusetts.

``Without Honda, Toyota would be too conservative, and without Toyota, Honda would be too crazy,'' he says.

Toyota sold 7.9 million cars and trucks last year, more than double the 3.4 million Honda sold. A big threat is that Toyota revs up production and its marketing machine, leaving Honda further behind.


Click here for the full article.

Blu-Ray is here!

The first Blu-Ray discs were released today.






Here are some reviews of the first movies and some articles...
Blu-Ray at HighDefDigest

And fot those interested, here are the HD-DVD reviews and articles...
HD-DVD at HighDefDigest

Methods and Means for Creating Anti Gravity Illusion

From the site...

Discover the secret behind the 45 degree lean in the Smooth Criminal video and in the live performance.
Michael Jackson and two of his costume designers obtained a US patent (US5255452) in 1993 on "Methods and Means for Creating Anti Gravity Illusion". The invention outlines how a special pair of shoes attaches to a stage to allow leaning forward beyond the centre of gravity of the wearer of the shoes. A case study of this patent is presented here.

Background and Prior Art Interesting stage designs, lighting, fog generators, laser light shows, and large video screens have been used by music entertainers and dancers to enhance the appeal of their live and recorded performances.

In the past Michael Jackson had incorporated dance steps in his recorded video performances, wherein he and other dancers would lean forward beyond their center of gravity, thereby creating an impressive visual effect. In the video this effect was accomplished by the use of cables connecting a harness around the dancer's waist with hooks on a stage, thereby allowing the dancer to lean forward at the required degree.

However, since this requires stagehands to connect and then disconnect the cables, it has not been possible to use this system in live performances. Moreover, the cables obviously restricted arm and body movements.

Description of the Invention

The present invention overcomes the above noted deficiencies of the previously employed cable system by providing specialized footwear and
a moveable hitch or post to which the specialized footwear can be detachably engaged to, allowing the footwear wearer to lean forward on the stage, with his or her center of gravity well beyond the front of the shoes, thereby creating the desired visual effect. The hitch or post protrude upwardly through the stage platform at a predetermined time.

Follow the link to the site with a video of the shoes in action also showing one of the dancers having trouble unhooking the shoe.

Smooth Criminal

I Can Hear the Ringtone

Here is a link to the ringtones that (supposedly) only kids can hear. Can you hear it?

Fork Ringtones

Click on Mosquito Tones and keep working your way to the right.

Using Salt to demonstrate acoustic resonance

This is a very interesting video that shows the patterns that salt forms while the frequency continues to get higher.



Direct Link