Watch George Lucas photobomb documentary about nuclear waste!

Look!  A wild George Lucas sighting!

"Nuclear Waste: Fission Products & Transuranics from Thorium & Uranium" is sincerely fascinating in its own right.  A short documentary about the valuable materials often left in used-up fuel rods from nuclear reactors and how they might be extracted.  Very interesting if you're at all into nuclear engineering and chemistry in general.

But let's face it: most people are going to want to see the creator of Star Wars stumbling into view on a Chicago street as research scientist Bruce Hoglund explains pyroprocessing (using molten salt and electrochemistry to pull out the desired substances).

You can choose to watch it all, OR you can fast-forward (I recommend moving it to 13:00 to get the full effect):

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World's lightest solid material

Crazy buff for wild engineering that I be, this lil' news item just blows my mind...

A team of researchers from the University of California at Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology have come up with a metal lattice material that is the lightest solid yet discovered. As you can see in the photo above, a sample of it can be perched atop a dandelion without damaging it at all. This stuff has less density than the air surrounding it! It's also much stronger than aerogel: the previous "lightest solid" title holder.

It's stories like this, friends and neighbors, that still give me a reliable sense of optimism about the future. Who knows what the uses and demand for this stuff will end up being.

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LEGO robot solves Rubik's cube in less than 12 seconds

Mike Dobson - AKA Robotic Solutions - is known far and wide for his genius at cooking up contraptions with LEGO bricks and the LEGO Mindstorms robotics packages. Dobson has now applied his mad skillz toward his latest creation: the CubeStormer.

This thing looks scary. Sorta intimidating like the Voight-Kampff machine from Blade Runner. But set your faces to stunned y'all: the CubeStormer can solve any Rubik's cube puzzle on its own in twelve seconds or less, and sometimes even in less than five seconds!

Check it out...

Read more about the CubeStormer here.

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Army mecha-nic builds real exoskeleton

Carlos Owens is a mechanic in the United States Army living in Wasilla, Alaska. Five years ago and working without any blueprints, he started laboring on a real-life mechanical exoskeleton much like what we've seen in Aliens, BattleTech and a lot of other science fiction. Four years and $25,000 later, you can see his finished product on the right. It can raise its arms, move its lets and even do a sit-up. Owens is working on two more prototypes and hopes to soon see the day when real mecha will go at it against each other like demolition derby.

Mash down here for more of Carlos Owens and his awesome mecha at the Popular Science website.

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Rest in peace RCA Dome

I just read on TheForce.net that yesterday in Indianapolis, Indiana the RCA Dome was imploded by demolition crews. The previous home turf of the Indianapolis Colts, the RCA Dome adjoined the Indianapolis Convention Center. That was the site of Star Wars Celebration II in 2002 and Celebration III in 2005. I attended both. The events never went inside the RCA Dome, but as we walked past the glass doors that opened into the floor level of the arena, we got to oggle it plenty. I remember the Saturday morning of Celebration II, there was a wild rumor that they were going to open up the RCA Dome that evening for an advance showing of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones following the Star Wars concert. The showing didn't happen, but it was sure fun to imagine all those die-hard geeks assembled in the RCA Dome to watch it. Good times!

Here's video of the implosion. I love this kind of stuff! All those timed explosions going off just right, making it so the building falls in on itself from its own weight. There's a bloody science to implosions and... in its own way it's a profound thing of beauty.

By the way, in case you're wondering (which I was too) the Indianapolis Convention Center itself did not get destroyed also! This is making way for an expansion to the convention center (perhaps in time for Star Wars Celebration V?) and the Indianapolis Colts are now playing in the brand-new Lucas Oil Stadium.

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How does Chris spend a Saturday?

In no particular order, today I...

...saw the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace (it kicks seriously crazy cool boo-tay!!!)

...filmed a lot of footage for a commercial that I'm making for a new client.

...played Classic Battletech and had my derriere handed to me (especially after the legs were shot off my BattleMech).

...was told during rehearsal for the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Oliver Twist that I had a great British accent and that I was channeling the perfect persona for my role as Mr. Sowerberry.

...got to meet Cecil L. Cline, the project manager for the Saturn V rocket program (he also worked on the Polaris and Poseidon missiles and the C-5A Galaxy transport plane in addition to many other engineering marvels) and received an autographed copy of his book A Soldier's Odyssey.

Not too bad a way to fill up a Saturday, eh? :-)

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