Oct 10
There’s nothing quite like the destructive beauty of fire. And that crimson chemical reaction is even better in slow motion.
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Oct 07
The dancing orange wisps of fire looks like choreographed chaos when seen in slow motion. It dances, it burns, it shines and it’s easy to get lost in it. But seeing burning fire is a lot different than actually holding it. The guys from Beyond Slow Motion used a nice little trick that never gets old to sprout fire from their bare hands. In slow motion.
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Oct 02
What if you are camping or find yourself in the wilderness and you need to use your phone? Chances are you will need a charge. Good luck finding a power outlet out there. But that’s okay. FlameStower has your back. This device uses the heat from fire to charge cell phones and other electronics via USB, making it perfect for camping or during emergencies due to power outages.
In the worst of situations, you can almost always start a fire. It will work over a cook stove, campfire or any fire source, and starts charging gadgets in seconds.
This project is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter through October 24th, and it seems like a worthwhile investment. A pledge of at least $80(USD) will get you your own FlameStower when it starts shipping this December.
[via Laughing Squid]
Sep 28
You think of water and fire as opposites, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re clever enough about it, they’ll get along together just fine. And there’s just always something so paradoxically cool about starting a fire with H2O.
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Sep 26
Charge It With Fire! FlameStower Turns Your Campfire Into A USB Phone-Charger
Posted in: Today's Chili
Charge your gadgets with fire! FlameStower, a startup that came out of Stanford’s StartX Summer 2013 class, has launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to get its alternative charger to market.
The gizmo lets you harness the heat from a campfire/gas stove/naked flame heat source to add some juice to a phone or other USB-charged device. It has a max power output of 3W and an average output of 2W, which its makers say can yield between 2 to 4 minutes of phone talk-time per minute of charge
The team behind FlameStower are targeting outdoorsy types, first and foremost, but also reckon their device could be a reliable back-up option to keep in store for use in power outages and storm scenarios.
In keeping with camping kit, the FlameStower folds down to a fairly flat profile so you can chuck it in your backpack.
And unlike the other outdoorsy/back-up option of solar-powered chargers, this bit of kit can work at any time of day — provided you have access to FIRE!
How does FlameStower work exactly? It creates and harnesses a temperature differential to generate electricity using its Thermoelectric Generator. The user exposes its metal blade to a flame to heat it up, while the other side is cooled by a small water reservoir that they fill with water. So really you need both fire and water for this to work. Oh and air, to fuel the fire. It’s elemental.
The hotter the fire, the more charge will be outputted. Albeit, the amount of energy generated is never going to match what you get from a wall outlet. FlameStower’s makers liken its output to charging via a laptop USB port. Which is to say slow and steady, giving you time to appreciate the great outdoors scenery.
The East Palo Alto team behind the device are hoping to raise $15,000 on Kickstarter to get the charger to market — and are around half way there, with 28 days left to run on their campaign.
They are offering the FlameStower to early backers for $70 ($10 off its expected retail price) and are aiming to ship in December.
Sep 07
In the predawn hours of August 28, a NASA video network consisting of five cameras located in the southeast United States recorded a massive fireball. The fireball was a meteor that entered the atmosphere of Earth over the Georgia/Tennessee border at 3:27 AM, moving at a speed of 56,000 mph.
NASA reports that the meteor begin to break apart the skies northeast of Ocoee, Tennessee at an altitude of 33 miles. By the time NASA lost track of the meteor, it had descended to an altitude of 21 miles and slowed to speed of only 19,400 mph. NASA estimates of the rock was about two-feet wide and weighed over 100 pounds.
Even cooler than the gigantic fireball streaking through the Earth’s atmosphere and getting caught on video is the fact that it briefly outshined the moon. Doppler weather radar in the area also reported a rain of meteor fragments falling to the ground east of Cleveland, Tennessee.
I wonder how long before we see this on an episode of Meteorite Men.
[via Space.com]
Sep 05
If you’ve made a trip down to your local Walmart, you’ll know just how harmless scooters can be so long as the person riding it isn’t making their way to the last box of Cookie Crisp. Scooters have increased in popularity as senior citizens and disabled people have relied on them to make their way through the world, which is why we’re not entirely sure why someone went through the trouble of equipping one with a giant flamethrower, but we’re happy they did. (more…)
Man Puts Giant Flamethrower On Mobility Scooter For The Heck Of It original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Sep 04
It is called Lord Humungous and it was created by 52-year-old Lance Greathouse from Phoenix, Arizona. “It” is a flamethrower attached to a mobility scooter. Lord Humungous cost about $1000 and a month of labor to create.
This deadly mobility scooter is made out of an electric golf cart, all terrain tires, and a helicopter seat. The flamethrower spits fire almost 10 meters away. It looks like it would fit right in during the apocalypse.
Greathouse Labs customizes wheelchairs for disabled people to reflect their personality, so that they don’t just have a boring ride. They also send out customized wheelchairs to the needy. Basically, everything they do is awesome. Fire! More fire!
[via METRO and Daily Mail via Damn Geeky]
Aug 30
Reminder: Fire is scary. Another reminder: It can also be very beautiful when it’s burning near one of the most beautiful places on this entire planet. Yosemite National Park just posted its time-lapse video that shows different perspective of the ginormous 2013 Rim Fire and reveals how it is burning up the wilderness.
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Aug 29
Last month, NASA successfully tested its first 3D-printed rocket injector. The test was successful and the pictures were great, but now we’ve got video. Nothing like a good science inferno.
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