The Google Church Sign

I love these church signs, even though with the generators not all of them are "real"

Body heat could charge your cellphone

Remarkable research findings on energy conversion have been published in the most recent edition of Nature: Scientists believe to have discovered a much more efficient way to use silicon to convert heat into electricity – for use in a variety of products ranging from cars to portable electronics. Imagine a time in which you would not have to plug in your cellphone or iPod over night to recharge the battery. Instead you would power and charge a device simply by wearing it close to your body. The concept of converting waste heat into electricity isn’t exactly new, but it never really materialized due to efficiency hurdles. Now, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley think they may have found a key increase the conversion efficiency by a factor of 100. In contrast to previous silicon nanowire-based converters, researchers have used what they describe as “rough” silicon nanowires. The material is created in a process of “electroless etching” in which arrays of silicon nanowires are synthesized in an aqueous solution on the surfaces of wafers. According to the paper published, the “technique involves the galvanic displacement of silicon through the reduction of silver ions on a wafer’s surface”. In contrast to common silicon process methods, this technique results in vertically aligned silicon nanowires that apparently feature exceptionally rough surfaces. And it is that roughness that is believed to be critical to the surprisingly high thermoelectric efficiency of the silicon nanowires. “The rough surfaces are definitely playing a role in reducing the thermal conductivity of the silicon nanowires by a hundredfold, but at this time we don’t fully understand the physics,” said Arun Majumdar, a mechanical engineer and materials scientist with joint appointments at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley, who was one of the principal investigators behind this research. “While we cannot say exactly why it works, we can say that the technique does work,” he said. While the research is far from being completed, the scientists already believe that the results could allow us to use energy much more efficiently. Potential applications of this technology include DOE’s hydrogen fuel cell-powered “Freedom CAR,” and personal power-jackets that could use heat from the human body to recharge cell-phones and other electronic devices. “You can siphon electrical power from just about any situation in which heat is being given off, heat that is currently being wasted,” said Majumdar. “For example, if it is cold outside and you are wearing a jacket made of material embedded with thermoelectric modules, you could recharge mobile electronic devices off the heat of your body. In fact, thermoelectric generators have already been used to convert body heat to power wrist watches.” On a slightly larger scale, conversion modules could also be used to convert the heat from automotive exhaust into supplemental power for a Freedom CAR-type vehicle, or provide the electricity a conventional vehicle needs to run its radio, air conditioner and power windows. Above that, thermoelectric modules could eventually be used in co-generating power with gas or steam turbines, the researchers believe. The meaning of the discovery will depend on whether these rough nanowires will be efficient enough to make commercial sense. However, if we consider that nearly all of the world’s electrical power, approximately 10 trillion Watts, is generated by heat engines, giant gas or steam-powered turbines that convert heat to mechanical energy, we know that much of this heat worth another 15 trillion Watts of electricity is not converted but released into the environment. It doesn’t take much to see that there is an enormous potential of increased efficiency in this discovery.

chalkboard

another one of those image generators. i just love them.

Heroes 3 - Necropolis inside

I. Creatures - a weird mix of very strong and plain bad units; mid-level troops are some of the best in the game, but the rest can use a sympathy hug; mobility is good; attack/defense ratings are not; above-average over-all cost; potentially, the best growth (Skeletons); excellent specials make this army ... well, special; regardless, it is ill-suited for siege combat + troops: Skeletons can grow to astronomical numbers; Vampire Lords are scary; Lich area attack is awesome a/st living opponents; Dread Knights are a notch away from being (unupgraded) lvl 7 units - troops: Zombies should learn to stay buried ...; Wraiths are ok as long as they don't fight something that can fight back, i.e. almost anything; Ghost Dragons have a good special, but when the effects of that special can be reversed by a simple Cure spell, it makes them look even more like a failed creation important upgrades: Vampires, Liches, Black Knights, Bone Dragons II. Special buildings - excellent; possibly the best in the game, since they fit so well with the whole Necromancer theme; the Cover of Darkness gives players a great advantage in multiplayer games and even keeps unwanted computer attention away; the Necromancy Amplifier accentuates the Necromancer's best weapon; Skeleton Transformer - even more Skeletons!; and on top of all that, the Necropolis is one of the few towns which can sail the seas at will III. Magic - level 5 Mage Guild; spell restrictions: Bless, Cure, Destroy Undead, Fire Elemental, Hypnotize, Magic Mirror, Prayer, Water Elemental; earth magic is predominant in this town, naturally, since it enhances the undeads' performance on the battle field (yet another point of specialization for the Necropolis) IV. Grail building - +20% to Necromancy for all allied heroes; this is the cherry that tops the Skeleton pie V. Heroes - Death Knight: one of the most balanced hero in the game with special like 350 gold/day and Necromancy (can you say 100% Skeleton conversion rate?) Necromancer: the classic hero class returns with a vengeance and more balanced than ever; with a host of useful specials like Meteor Shower, Sorcery, Necromancy, and Animate Dead, this is a good class to develop VI. Resource requirements - lots of everything, especially wood, ore, and mercury; the high wood and ore needs of creature generators may interfere with the economical aspects of the town; some building dependencies VII. Best opponent - Inferno: the Skeleton/Vamp Lord/Dread Knight combo will win the day for the undead; with the Inferno armies forced to tie up the powerful Lich, the hordes of slow Skeletons and Zombies will play a significant role, while Vampires and D. Knights soak up (and dish out) a lot of damage; Ghost Dragons can successfully tie up enemy archers for a little while, until the heavy-hitting Devils and Efreeti are crushed under the weight of numbers VIII. Worst foe - Castle: the roles are switched as the Necromantic armies are the ones forced to advance; and unless the Teleport spell is put to use, this advance will come in two separate waves - Vamps/Knights/Dragons first, then Skeletons/Zombies and Wraiths - which will spell doom for the undead in most cases

here is a picture of what an inverter looks like.

here is a picture of hwat an inverter looks like.

Generators

Generators

Sketch Generator

sketch generator for photos

Independance Day - film

error in film# An object with one quarter the mass of the Moon, parked in geostationary orbit, would create tidal forces 25 times greater than the moon, causing earthquakes, flooding of coastal areas, and volcanic eruptions (although presumably, the invaders discovered a way to negate the gravitational pull of their ships, making it possible for them to be constructed in the first place).[5] # In the beginning of the film, when the mothership is shown heading over the Moon towards Earth, it appears to be flying no more than 50 feet from the surface. Later, when Hiller and Levinson fly towards the mothership in the alien fighter, large projections are seen at the bottom of the mother ship. If it was moving that close to the moon, the projections should have damaged the moon but it is possible that the projections could have been lowered later on by the aliens. # The newspaper Constance Spano holds in her hands during an early scene in the White House has a winter-time weather map on the back. However, the events take place in the summer. # Most nuclear weapons do not have a blast radius large enough to destroy even one of the alien destroyers, let alone a ship 1/4 the size of the moon. (Presumably, however, the initiation of a nuclear explosion inside the alien ship would have consumed alien power generators inside the ship and thus caused a chain reaction similar to the destruction of the city-destroyer ships when their primary weapon was damaged.) # When the destroyer arrives over Washington, D.C, the shadow it creates is going northwards, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol Building. In the next shot, the White House is shown with the shadow going over it from the lawn, even though the lawn is west of the Washington Monument, and the destroyer's shadow had passed the White House already. The shadow should have gone from the East Wing of the White House to the West Wing.