…Turn a Disposable Camera Into a Reusable One (Just in time for vacation…), Microsoft’s Version of the iPod, a Couch Potato’s Dream, Nano Stuff and more.

The Materials Provoking July 4 ‘Ooohs’ and ‘Aaahs’
If you took time away from your binging and boozing to watch fireworks during your July 4 holiday, you may have wondered what the inside of an unlit firework device looks like. Well, there is indeed some strange stuff in there.

According to LiveScience, the handmade shell contains “a powdery concoction of chemicals that produce the bangs and the whistles, as well as the pretty effects.” Tubes, hollow spheres and paper wrappings work as barriers in the device, while complicated shells are divided into even more sections to control the timing of secondary explosions once the rocket is airborne.

Once used for flashes in photography, flash powder — a combination of fuel-like metal and a chemical that feeds oxygen to fire up the fuel — provides the “big booms and whistles.”

As for the array of sounds, different combinations of metals and oxides are at work.

Says LiveScience:

While ancient Greeks and Romans used bismuth in their beauty care products and coins, chemists add bismuth trioxide to the flash powder to get that crackling sound, oddly named “dragon eggs.” Ear-splitting whistles take four ingredients, including a food preservative and Vaseline.

The variety of color in a fireworks show depends on the mix of metals: copper for blue sparks; barium makes green; calcium burns orange; sodium makes yellow; and aluminum and titanium put the white stars in an aerial flag. To light up a red, white and blue flag, chemists lay out the emblem’s design on wax paper. (Daisuke Tomiyasu pic via digihound)

Whatever pattern you see up in the air mirrors the arrangement of the metals in the shell.

But if you watched fireworks on the Fourth and didn’t get pictures because you left your digital camera at home, there was a fairly simple solution for you…

Turn Your Disposable Camera Into a Longer-Lasting, Reusable One
Summer’s in swing. So if you wish to document your vacation but cannot afford a sweet new digital camera, spend $10 on a disposable digital camera and then use the instructions from DIY site Elephant Staircase to modify it into one that you can use over and over, advises Lifehacker.

The required-parts list is surprisingly short. You’ll need a Palm 3 cradle, and the Elephant Staircase shows you where you can buy one for five bucks.

Not at all bad deal, seeing as all you really need to possess are USB capabilities and contribute 10 bucks, electrical tape (or soldering iron), a $5 Palm cradle and little bit o’ sweat for a digital camera that takes surprisingly decent-looking pictures. (pic via Elephant Staircase Wiki)

Again Second to Market, Again a Few Years Late
Microsoft will begin selling a wireless digital music and video player to compete with Apple’s iPod by Christmas, reports Reuters this week. Record companies are expected to be receiving prototypes to test in the coming weeks.

The new player will let users download music and videos over the air, according to one source, a feature that would give it an advantage over the iPod.

Microsoft has also been showing a new media software, developing an application akin to Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod/iTunes integrated ecosystem, according to another source.

Thus Microsoft keeps up its reputation of coming to market just a bit later than its competition…and by “a bit” we mean “a few years.”

Further Ruling on the 5-Second Rule
If food hits the floor and you snatch it up in less than five seconds, is it really safe to eat? New questions have been raised about the so-called “five-second rule” regarding the safety of picking up dropped food before bacteria latches on to it.

The first attempt to verify or debunk the theory was done three years ago by Jillian Clarke during a six-week internship in the food science and nutrition department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, according to United Press International.

Yes, someone really has conducted a scientific study of the five-second rule.

To control the study, cookies and gummi bears — no wet foods — were placed on both rough and smooth sterile tiles covered with measured amounts of E. coli. They did pick up bacteria before five seconds had elapsed. In fact, they picked up “a large number of cells.”

Dry floors often carry less harmful bacteria because most pathogens — like salmonella, listeria, or E. coli — cannot survive without moisture. However, all bets are off when it comes to carpet, damp floors, gum or ice cream, as these were excluded from the study. (AP-CBS pic via WebMD)

Of course, having an arbitrary rule justifying the consumption of food dropped on the floor within a certain timeframe is convenient for the masses, especially when said food is a piece of chocolate…

Or maybe not…

Think About This the Next Time You Reach for Chocolate
Last week officials at the Chicago Public Health Department closed down the M&M Mars Inc. candy factory on Chicago’s Northwest Side after the sweet treats drew uninvited guests in the form of fruit flies and mice, according to The Chicago Tribune.

The factory had been warned after a June 21 inspection showed an “infestation” of fruit flies in the food production area as well as gaps in overhead doors that might allow rodent access to the facility, officials said.

The earlier inspection was prompted by a call to the city’s non-emergency 311 line. The caller said there were roaches at the facility that produces not only M&M chocolate, but also Snickers bars and other candies.

Last week’s follow-up inspection showed no action had been taken to fix the problem. In addition, inspectors found mouse feces in the food processing area and noticed several food items were stored on the floor instead of elevated, as required. Thus the plant was shut down.

The plant also faces fines of up to $1,500. A hearing is set for July 27.

A Couch Potato’s Dream!
“Voice-activated technology embedded in stand-alone devices is just about to become useful,” notes Gizmodo this week. Tell your TV what to do…without lifting a single finger.

Supposedly, you simply speak into this InVoca Voice-Activated TV remote from Brookstone and, with only the sound of your voice, your TV, VCR, DVD, cable and satellite will do as commanded. And the universal remote is supposed to respond to 54 of your voice commands, yells, screams, pleas and yelps. It claims to be able to understand four separate voices, and can also accept macros. (Brookstone pic via Gizmodo)

You can even perform multi-step functions with a single command, e.g., simultaneously switch the TV to channel 3 and press “play” on the DVD player.

According to the remote’s product page at Brookstone:

This remarkable remote changes the channels, controls volume, and more with just the sound of your voice. It’s a perfect solution for anyone who has difficulty seeing or dealing with small buttons…

…Or for anyone who loves their many home-tech toys but has difficulty leaving the coach.

Engineering Grad Students Create Nano-Flag
Recently we provided a photo of a massive World Cup-saluting England flag in Light Friday (Second to last item)…now we have a tiny American flag.

University of Texas at Dallas electrical engineering graduate students Jang-Bae Jeon and Carlo Foresca have created the likeness of an American flag so small it “would take more than 10 to span the width of a human hair,” reports The Associated Press.

The image of the flag — complete with all 50 stars and 13 stripes — is 7 microns tall, compared to the 100-micron width of a human hair. It was transferred onto a silicon wafer using a machine that follows the shape of any bitmap image file. The flag and its pole were cut using an ion beam (a microscopic version of a laser) and lifted to a standing position by a nano-manipulator.

While the work has so far been rejected by the Guinness Book of World Records, the electrical engineering grad students hope the process will lead to advances in nanotechnology.

Speaking of nano-size things…

Useless Creativity
A German scientist has created the world’s smallest soccer pitch field, reports Reuters. So minute is it that 20,000 of them could fit onto the tip of a human hair.

Created by (again) using nanotechnology, the imitation playing field measures 500 by 380 nanometers and can only be seen through a special microscope, said creator Stefan Trellenkamp. He said it took him a whole day to engrave the lines of a soccer pitch with an electron beam onto a tiny piece of acrylic glass.

“The only problem is that I really don’t know what to do with it. I can’t put it on show as no one can see it,” he said. “I guess it’ll just stay in my drawer for the time being.”

Note the picture of the nanofied playing field below.

—> <---

(What, you don’t see it?)

The Motorcycle Flies

While the idea of a gyrocopter isn’t necessarily anything new, it is timelessly cool. So we feel inclined to point out former test pilot Larry Neal’s “Super Sky Cycle,” a $25,000 cross between a motorcycle and an autogyro — a flying motorcycle. (pic via Neatorama)

The flying bike, according to Tech E Blog, goes as fast as 70 mph in the air and 60 mph on the road.

Cheers.