You kind of have to see it to believe it – with the Prometheus Device you can shoot flames out of your hands:

In the video he says:

It uses a microcontroller to actuate a servo-controlled valve which is on top of this tank of a butane and propane mixture. It uses an arc generator to generate a spark across the arc gap in front of the burner. It uses a flexion sensor to determine how far back my hand is. The flame intensity corresponds to how far back my hand is.

If you look on this page you can see his notes, schematics and drawings for the Prometheus Device. It shows a good amount of creativity – a little like the main character in the Iron Man movie. Perhaps he will create himself an entire suit eventually.

See also:
- How to build a mini flame thrower
- How car flame throwers work
- How microcontrollers work
- How does the lighter in a BBQ grill work?
- How does a spark plug use voltage to ignite a spark in car engines?
- How grills work

This is surprising, in an OMG kind of way:

What Rich People Eat

According to the page:

This is an actual receipt from Nello’s in New York City. The customer was Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who had no problem dropping 47k on food and drinks for himself and five other people.

The receipt opens up several questions, the first being , “What is Nello’s”. It is an Italian restaurant in New York City, about two blocks away from the Apple store on fifth avenue:

View Larger Map

Here is a typical review:

Nello

While the food is excellent—not only those beets, perched delicately between sweet and savory, but also pastas like a penne rigate with brightly anise-flavored sausage—eating is not a particularly important activity. What counts at Nello is being seen at Nello: seen in your Chanel, your St. John’s knits, your tailored Italian suit; seen canoodling on the banquette with your co-star; seen escorting your grandson to a lunch he’ll ignore in favor of watching Spy Kids on his personal DVD player.

If you have ever eaten at a nice restaurant in New York City, the prices for the entrees are not extraordinary. So what is driving up the price? It’s the wine.

First there is the Tawny 40, which must be the Two Buck Chuck of the billionaire world. This page describes Tawny 40 as, “One of the most complex wines on earth the Taylor Fladgate 40 Years Old Tawny exudes aromas and flavors of vanilla creme decadent toffee and persistent dried raisins.” Apparently it was on sale or billed incorrectly at Nello’s, because it is $150 a bottle at wines.com.

Next is the La Tache Romanee Conti at $5,000 a bottle. It comes from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti vineyard in the Burgandy region of France. This page mentions that, “Old bottles of Les Gaudichots can also be found and sell for vast prices, such as US$ 88,125 for a case of the 1929 vintage.”

Chateau Petrus is “the world’s most expensive red wine” according to this page:

The Mystery of Château Pétrus

The reason?

What distinction allows the wines of Pomerol and Château Pétrus in particular to command such outrageous prices? Certainly the usual market factors play a huge role: There’s not much product and lots of wealthy wine lovers who will pay whatever these wines cost. But there’s more to it. The geography of the vineyard of Château Pétrus is unique, even among the vineyards of Pomerol and St. Emilion…

It’s a pretty interesting article. It actually has to do with the geology of the region.

Finally the Cristal Rose is a Champagne:

Louis Roederer Cristal Rose

One of the finest Champagnes I have ever brought to my lips, the 2000 Cristal bursts from the glass with fresh hazelnut and apple scents. Elegant, deep, and silky-textured, this medium to full-bodied beauty is immensely concentrated, pure, packed with apple flavors, and astoundingly long in the finish.
(Robert Parker 98 points)

What about the Truffle Tagiolini for $585? That appears to be a simple pasta dish, with the price driven up by the truffles. You can actually make it yourself if you would like to try it:

Tagliolini with White Truffle

Truffle tagliolini with local chanterelles

You can see on this page that white truffles from Italy are a bit pricey right now – $3,440 per pound.

And then there’s the last line on the bill – the tip. $7,328.20. Probably not a bad place to work if you are a waiter or waitress.

For more info see:
- How Winemaking Works
- How Tipping Works
- Roman Abramovich

[[[Jump to previous How To - How to dub yourself into a Hollywood movie – Yoostar]]]

A friend of mine showed me this:

Yoostar

It is a system that lets you dub yourself into scenes from Hollywood movies and TV shows. And it does a reasonable job without a lot of hassle, as seen in this demo video:

There is a gallery on their web site that lets you see the results of the process.

Possible Christmas gift for the budding actor/actress or narcissist in your midst.

See also: How Blue Screens Work

[[[Jump to previous How To - How to make homemade ravioli]]]

Ken Blocks’s Trax video presents a Suburu WRX that looks like it is outfitted for lunar exploration:

If you like the look and the capabilities, it turns out that you can do a conversion like this yourself. The company that sells the tracks is Mattracks.com. What you see in the video is a 105M1-A1 rubber track conversion. More info:

See Mattracks.com for details.

If you’ve been waiting for “space tourism” to really take off, instead of being something that is always in the future, here is the first sign of reality. It’s really going to happen – the first space hotel will open in 2012:

Space hotel says it’s on schedule to open in 2012

It will take a day and a half to reach the pod – which Claramunt compared to a mountain retreat, with no staff to greet the traveler.

“When the passengers arrive in the rocket, they will join it for 3 days, rocket and capsule. With this we create in the tourist a confidence that he hasn’t been abandoned. After 3 days the passenger returns to the transport rocket and returns to earth,” he said.

Fun facts:
- $4.5 million for a 3-night stay
- Price includes 8 weeks of training
- The hotel orbits at 280 mile altitude

The web site if you want to learn more: Galacticsuite.com