The next big thing?

I have been eyeing up those handy little camera phones that are showing up everywhere these days, and so, it appears, has everyone else. Hot on the heels of the weblog revolution, which you are obviously a part of if you are reading this, comes the phoneblog revolution. While it may turn out to be nothing more than a cheap reality series shot with an even cheaper camera, the potential is interesting, and in my mind, anything that allows people to easily and freely express their opinions to a global audience is usually a good thing.

Ever wonder how they make those little dots at Dippin' Dots? Ever wonder how to make ice cream in 30 seconds? Well, the answer to both is liquid nitrogen. Apparently, this is old news to the physicists out there, but it is still really cool stuff(no pun intended)!

For the dots, they basically just drip the sugared and flavored cream into a pool of liquid nitrogen, and the resulting flash-frozen drop becomes one of the famous dots. The do-it-yourself recipe looks like fun to make too, although possibly a little dangerous. Since the cream is frozen so quickly, the ice crystals formed are much smaller than those formed in normal ice cream, so the result is supposedly very creamy and delicious.

I will take no responsibility for your stupidity, but if you, like me, are itching to try this out, then you can usually find liquid nitrogen at your local welding or medical gas supplier for about $3-5/liter. Just make sure you take the proper precautions and wear some heavy duty protective gear.

It may not be in the realm of practical application yet, but this is, nonetheless, cool science. I have heard about some of the cool stuff coming out of robotics research lately, but they never seem to provide you with a view of the technology in motion. Well, over at the Ishikawa Hashimoto laboratory in Japan, some very cool footage has been so graciously provided. Pretty amazing that the motion is all being tracked in real-time, but at the same time, a little spooky how human and natural the motions appear to be.

Here is another little story from the 'I am not sure if this is really cool or really disturbing' files. Looks like they have been tinkering with the XBox over at my favorite, locally-unavailable channel, TechTV. Just follow these step-by-step instructions, and you too can have your own 20,000 volt XBox controller. I wonder how responsive your hand-eye coordination can still be after getting shocked a dozen or so times. Either way, anything involving electrocution gets a few marks for being cool in my book

A few months ago, you might remember my links to the mysterious Iraqi blogger, Salam Pax. Although his blogging had come to a halt following the initial phases of war in Iraq, it appears that he has recently resurfaced and has again started writing.

Well, for all you conspiracy theorists who believed that Salam was some sort of twisted CIA psy-ops operative, I have some bad news for you. His identity has finally been discovered by one of the astute journalists over at Slate. Turns out Salam was his interpreter while he was stationed in Iraq. An interesting read, and just goes to show how small the world is really getting as technology advances more and more.

In honor of one of my favorite childhood books, today we have a little Fun with Physics. First, I had heard of some research done on the subject of replicating a gecko's sticky toes, but now it looks like they are actually able to do this. No means of mass production yet, but the potential applications of this stuff will be very cool! And then, to celebrate a job well done, these scientists can use one of these devices to ensure that their beverages stay frosty and cool just like any decent beer should be. Hmmm, I might actually have to try this little hack out myself one of these days.