Cool Pic Archive #14

Cool Pic Archive Pages

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These images have been chosen for their uniqueness. Subject matter ranges from historic events, to really cool phenomena in science and engineering, to relevant place, to ingenious contraptions, to interesting products (which now has its own dedicated Featured Product category).

Pamela Anderson wearing a T-shirt with a Smith Chart on it

Who would have guessed that Pamela Anderson had an interest in RF? Here she is wearing a T-shirt with a huge Smith Chart on it. Looks like pretty severe VSWR ripple in the shirt. Anyone know who the H+R name on it is? Here is more Smith Chart Art™.

The crop circles of England are legendary, with ever more sophisticated designs appearing all the time. Personally, I credit ingenious humans with their implementations - not aliens. This one made headlines recently, with an "interpreter" from North Carolina responsible for its deciphering. Take a look.

Alexander Stanhope St. George's "Telectroscope," a "device for the suppression of absence," has finally been completed more than a century after its commencement. It is a device that permits spectators in London and New York to view each other in real time at either end of this Atlantic-spanning optical viewer.

A zeptoliter pipette was developed by researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory for studying how small volumes of liquid metal freeze at different temperatures than their larger volume counterparts. The 10^-21 liter pipettes were made from germanium nanowires with a reservoir of gold-germanium alloy at the tip.

Here is the totally reconstructed "Bombe" tube-based computer, at its original location in Bletchley Park. Bombe decoded German codes enciphered by the famous Enigma Machines. Prior to decryption, U-boats wreaked havoc in the commercial shipping channels as well as against naval forces.

Here is the x-ray of a prisoner who swallowed a cell phone prior to being incarcerated. Accomplices swallowed a charger and spare parts. Based on where it got stuck, I'd guess if the plan had worked as envisioned, that homey would be talking some... well, you know.

RF Cafe: Cool Pic - Wind turbine blade for Maple Ridge Wind Farm

You just never know what spectacular sight you might happen upon when driving a U-Haul truck from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. Click of the image to see and read the details of my experience.

As if we RF engineers didn't already have a hard enough time shedding the nerd stereotype, the Tom Van Baak, at LeapSecond.com, had to exacerbate the problem by creating this chess set. All the pieces are made from different types of RF connectors. Thanks a lot!

The Art of Failure is a collection of images like this "evil gingerbread man," which is a FIB (focused ion beam) rendering of melted metal lines on an IC. A pyramid, frog, mummy, and dragon heads are among the other apparitions on display. If you have something similar from your work, please send it to me and I will publish it on RF Cafe.

You probably saw pictures of Rotating Tower in the news, but here are some details you might have missed. Dubai and Moscow each get one - Moscow first because of no regulatory obstacles. There will be 80 floors, 8 apartments on each of the first 70 floors, villas on the top 10 (villas get garages w/car elevators). Integrated solar cells and wind turbines power the building - excess to be sold to utility company. Modular components built at factory, shipped to site.

These images were e-mailed to me, and they were so unbelievable that I had to find them posted somewhere on the Internet. Supposedly, they are from India. I have seen similar images where families are living in alleys with this kind of snarl of wires overhead and running down the alley walls. Amazing and pathetic.

Since the cost of energy affects engineering, from transportation to powering industry, this U.S. National Gas Temperature Map should be of interest. Maybe the old saying that "Misery Loves Company" inspired the topic. Here is a version for Canada. Venezuelans pay about 20¢/gal, Iranians about 35¢/gal - less than what the government takes in taxes per gallon. U.S. crude oil suppliers: #1 is Canada, #2 is Saudi Arabia, #3 is Mexico.

What you see are the legs and feet of a genius who got stuck under a trash bin as he was trying to steal $10 worth of copper wire. He broke into a landfill to collect his booty, and ended up getting his booty caught. Mr. Cook had 12 hours of breathing garbage fumes to think about how embarrassing it would be when rescuers finally arrived.

While terrorists still stuck in the 5th century This tattoo has to be a real babe magnet. It appears to be scaled with inches, but surely a Euro version with metric graduations is available. There is no mention of a metrology certificate being issued. While you are on the website, note the embedded fingertip magnets - yikes!

Been wondering what to do with all those business cards in your desk drawer? Dr. Jeannine Mosley turned 66,048 of them into an origami Menger Sponge. The structure is 54 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. It was first publicly displayed in August 2006. For more tricks with business cards, try the Business Card Origami website.