The heart of the cable car system is the Powerhouse located at the corner of Washington and Mason Streets. Each of the trolley lines—California Street, the Powel-Hyde, Powel-Mason, and their common section—all emanate from this terminal hub. Each line is independently powered by a 510HP (380 kW) DC electric motor and include speed-reducing gears and three large, self-adjusting pulleys called sheaves. The gears work to normalize the cable’s speed to 9.5MPH across all lines while the sheaves ensure the cables run through smoothly.

The cable itself is a 1.25-inch diameter steel rope … Read More → "Ever wonder how the cable cars in San Francisco climb those steep hills?"

Until this moment, I had completely forgotten about Flying Toasters. And Flying Windows. And, for that matter, the entire After Dark collection of cheesetastic mid-90s screensavers PC-based performance art.

Thankfully, the Internet was there to remind me. Mental Floss’s Chris Higgins has gathered a collection often of the most pixellatedly wondrous screensavers from the era when screens were so fragile that they … Read More → "Remember ‘flying toasters’? A journey through screensavers past"

Has everybody forgotten the “Gorilla Arm” ?

We hit this hurdle with lightpens in the 70’s and 80’s.

http://catb.org/jargon/html/G/gorilla-arm.html

Ten years ago on March 1, the European Space Agency launched an 8-ton satellite called Envisat that would deliver back to Earth some of the most beautiful images of our planet taken from space.

Since then, Envisat has orbited Earth more than 50,000 times and has lived twice as long as planned.

The satellite has more than seven instruments on board that can use radar to see through clouds, capture ocean color and … Read More → "10 years of gorgeous images of Earth from space"

Researchers at MIT have refined a software-based chip simulator that tests chip designs with large numbers of cores for flaws, adding the ability to measure designs’ potential power consumption, as well as processing times for tasks, memory access, and core-to-core communications patterns. The team from MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science is using the simulator to test possible designs for a new processor targeted for fabrication later … Read More → "MIT silicon simulator looks beyond 100-core chips"

via xkcd

In a small clean room tucked into the back of San Diego–based startup Organovo, Chirag Khatiwala is building a thin layer of human skeletal muscle. He inserts a cartridge of specially prepared muscle cells into a 3-D printer, which then deposits them in uniform, closely spaced lines in a petri dish. This arrangement allows the cells to grow and interact until they form working muscle tissue that is nearly indistinguishable from something removed from a human subject.

The technology could fill a critical need. Many potential drugs that seem promising when tested in cell … Read More → "3D printed muscle"

IDAPT‘s i1 Eco is an eco-friendly universal charger that is compatible with over 4,500 mobile devices and allows its user to charge up to two devices simultaneously. This compact charger is completely made of recyclable materials, meets Energy Star standards, and has an “auto off” system designed to prevent the waste of electricity. Additionally, no … Read More → "IDAPT i1 Eco universal charger cuts off vampire energy drain at the source"

Imagine measuring your body, combining it with everything that’s happened in your life – and then turning it into a beautiful data-based piece of art.

This is the work of Korean Minjeong An, whose art has been exhibited at the Strata data conference this week.

In her own words from the exhibit, she works like this:

I first measure each body part, including length, distance and angle, and then transfer the measured dimensions onto paper. In the process, even small moles, scars and pimples on the … Read More → "How to turn your body into data (and art)"