NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Flying Outhouses: Really?

Can An Outhouse Go Airborne?

The question is addressed on The Science Channel's new show, "Large, Dangerous Rocket Ships." Interesting query, I thought. Humans have proven we can cross the English Channel in a solar-powered blimp, decode our own genes and make robots vie for soccer glory. 

But can we turn a port-a-potty into a rocket and send it screaming into the wild blue yonder in a glorious burst of propulsion and fire?

See the video below for the answer, but it's pretty clear by the image that OF COURSE we can make a rocket-powered potty.

I'm just surprised it took us this long. Humans have been playing with rockets since at least 200 B.C. and using outhouses for hundreds of years.

To see what else gets fired up into the heavenly skies -- *cough* washing machine -- tune into the Science Channel on July 5 at 9 PM Eastern/Pacific.

Anti-Vuvuzela Software Appears

If you've seen one minute of the World Cup matches, you know what a vuvuzela is. If you're watching without sound, the video below is a primer on what they are and why they'll eventually annoy you:

 

Since vuvuzelas are loud enough to be heard during the broadcasts, a market has popped up to counter or remove the sound of vuvuzelas from the audio mix. There's even a website  - vuvuzelafiltering.com - dedicated to eradicating this buzzing from our ears.

There are essentially two methods being pitched for vuvuzela removal:

• The first method involves removing or lowering the actual frequency of the instrument using everything from your TV's built-in equalizer to running your sound through an audio filter. The audio filter technique is used by audio and video editors to remove hums and buzzes from soundtracks. It works by identifying an exact frequency and removing it. Most vuvuzelas apparently buzz away in the key of B Flat. Bach composed his Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. in the key of B flat and it sounded nice. When soccer fans make B flats it sounds like angry bees.

• The second method *apparently* involves noise cancellation. Found at antivuvuzelafilter.com, the idea is that you download an mp3 that directly counters the frequencies produced by the sound of the vuvuzela. You play it alongside the TV and the vuvuzela sound disappears. The makers explain it this way:

Our specially designed Vuvuzela noise-cancellation sound is a wave with the same amplitude but with an inverted phase to the original sound.

The waves combines to form a new wave, in a process called interference, which effectively cancel each other out - an effect which is called phase cancellation.

Depending on the circumstances the resulting soundwave may be so faint as to be inaudible to human ears.

How great would that be if it worked????  I excitedly downloaded the mp3 file, played it alongside Brazil v. North Korea on my computer and...

It only made the vuvuzela sound louder. Much louder. I tried emailing the creators for advice. The email bounced back: "Host or domain name not found."

So it appears you have three choices when it comes to the vuvuzela: Love it, lose it or mute it.

Bill Nye the Science Guy Visits the Friday News Feedbag

Bill Nye... yes... THE Bill Nye the Science Guy is on this week's show, talking about everything from the Large Hadron Collider to his "green-off" with Planet Green's Ed Begley, Jr. Listen to him on this week's Friday News Feedbag!! (Yes, I'm excited.)

If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag... we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and chat with fellow Feedbaggers on Facebook.

Once you listen to the show, please vote below for your favorite story.

Texting From Beyond The Grave

Generally a headstone conveys two very basic facts about the person interred below it: their name plus the two most important dates of their life. Thanks to some new technology, headstones can now provide much more that: a photo and note written by the deceased, delivered right to your phone.

The product is called RosettaStone and comes from a company called Objecs. If you were to purchase a RosettaStone, you'd receive what looks like a granite iPod with a few symbols visible on the outside and a microchip embedded on the inside. That device is then secured into your headstone so those symbols can be seen by visitors (each symbol represents an area of your life you want to share info on).

When your great-great-great granddaughter stops by sometime in the next century and wants to know who you were, she'll touch her NFC-RFID enabled cellphone (or whatever device we're using by then) to one of those symbols on the granite iPod-looking device on your headstone and she'll get your note.

NFC stands for "near-field communication" which is a subset of RFID - "radio frequency identification." You're probably using this technology already. RFID is what allows you to pay a toll while driving 30 mph by way of the little box stuck to your rearview mirror. NFC works in a similar way but only in extremely close proximities -- within just centimeters in this case.

By touching the RossettaStone symbols with her phone, your great-great-great granddaughter will activate the microchip via her phone's magnetic field. That small bit of power is enough for the microchip to connect the phone to a URL containing the note you typed up waaaaay back in the 2010s.

NFC technology probably isn't in your cellphone - yet. But it's likely coming soon since it would also allow you to pay for goods using a tap of the phone.

Photo: Objecs LLC

Could Christmas Lights Destroy Your Holiday?

Here’s some sour eggnog to go with your holiday cookies…

This week the European Commission came out with a report saying 30% of the Christmas lights they sampled in parts of Europe pose a “serious safety risk.” And by “serious safety risk” they mean “high risk of electric shock” and “overheating and fire.” THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR HOLIDAY CHEER.

The sampling of Christmas lights came from Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Netherlands. So what about the U.S.? How safe are our lights?

I asked Nychelle Fleming, Spokesperson for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission what the deal was. Here’s what she wrote back:

 - Indoors or outside, DO use only lights that have been tested for safety by a nationally-recognized testing laboratory, such as UL or ETL/ITSNA. Use only newer lights that have thicker wiring and safety fuses to prevent the wires from overheating.

 - Check each set of lights, new or old, for broken or cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires, or loose connections. Throw out damaged sets.

 - If using an extension cord, DO make sure it is rated for the intended use.

 - DON’T use electric lights on a metallic tree. The tree can become charged with electricity from faulty lights, and a person touching a branch could be electrocuted.

 - When using lights outdoors, DO check labels to be sure they have been certified for outdoor use and only plug them into a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protected receptacle or a portable GFCI.  

 - DO turn off all holiday lights when you go to bed or leave the house. The lights could short out and start a fire.

The safety commission is coming out with their own review of holiday related products next week, so stay tuned for more info on that.

Also – I asked her about the time my brother had so many Christmas lights hooked up to his outlets and various power strips that the entire house circuit would blow if someone turned on the bathroom light. She said don’t do that, either. Dangerous.

The house looked like one of these (click on the image):

Friday News Feedbag for November 13th, 2009

If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag...we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation. Below you'll find an audio link to a weekly podcast where you can hear three of us Discovery News folks pitching the 6 weirdest/most interesting/didn't-make-the-big-headlines science news stories of the week.

After you listen, you can vote on which story you like the best. Personally, I like James' stories the best because I'm James.

You can also subscribe to this show on iTunes and chat with fellow Feedbaggers on Facebook. Hope you like it and feel free to let us know if you do/don't by emailing pod_cast@discovery.com. Thanks!

November 13 - Friday News Feedbag

Rickroll'd By Your iPhone?

Say it ain't so! The first virus written for the iPhone is currently making the rounds in Australia. But here's the catch, according to The Security Fix over at WaPo:

The contagion, dubbed "Ikee," spreads only among iPhones that have been "jailbroken," a process that removes the device's software protection mechanisms and allows iPhone users to install applications that are not available through Apple's official App Store.

BTW - if you've never been rickrolled, you can find more information on that phenomenon here and here. Also here.

If you wanna see Rick Astley's reaction to 'rickrolling' in general, check out the clip below, at about the 1 minute mark.