I’m saving my more thorough impressions of “300,” which premiered last night in this chunk of land my fellow citizens and I like to refer to as Panama, for my much-anticipated (by me) debut in SuperCine.net, but I can tell you one thing which I’ve said once, twice, thrice and will end up saying many more times throughout the course of the weekend: when the credits rolled, the feeling that overcame me was one that can only be described as being run over by a bus, sans the unfortunate outcome getting ran over by a bus brings. The sense of awe and borderline retardation that engulfed me is something I don’t get to experience often, and that’s why I like to be overwhelmed by it. And it wasn’t just because of the movie. This doesn’t mean that the movie doesn’t have its merits, because by all means and purposes (and with the risk of stepping on some toes for saying this so soon) I’m almost convinced that “300” will become one of the cornerstones of modern commercial cinema… the kind where every faction of the movie-going public can agree that this celluloid tale spins one hell of a yarn.

When I feel the need to talk about a movie afterwards in more than just a joking manner, when there is so much hype and have it justified one you’re in the dark room of the theater, I know this will become at least a geek/niche classic, and if there is justice in the world, a comic book creation can be right up there with the other modern classics as one that stands on its own as a spectacle. It’s a movie that deserves to be seen with an audience. The thought of a Frank Miller-inspired comic book movie hitting the mainstream and having people quote lines months in advance seemed sort of ludicrous 5 years ago, but now that it’s not only the reality of things but that in the grand scheme of it all the flick can mean so much more not just for event movies but for the way stories are told in cinema, I can’t help but feel a little sense of pride in that. It had been a while since I cheered and clapped and was rowdy in a movie theater like the one I was in last night. The excitement was palpable, the crowd was ecstatic and into the movie like no other comic book adaptation had managed to do before (not even in Episode III did so much energy channel through the room. Either that or the mainstream vibe is different from the geek vibe). Do yourself a favor and see this movie. If there’s any justice in the world, you’ll be beating yourself up about it later down the line if you don’t.

Since I’m riding the elation of my recent visit to Sparta, I was prone to do a blind buy this morning that I would like to share with you, since Jenny called me an idiot for purchasing it and I’m looking for validation and a pat on the head… behold: the Tinchilla.

Up to 240 times faster than a fridge the Tinchilla can chill a regular 350ml tin of soda from room temperature to frosty cold in an ice-blistering 60 seconds.

The Tinchilla is a simple device which utilizes the scientific principle of thermal conduction. By spinning the can at an optimized speed the metal of the can is rapidly chilled by exposing its surface to the ice cubes and water surrounding it. The spinning can is also given a slight wobble resulting in a whirlpool effect inside. This whirlpool allows as much of the drink as possible to be exposed to the now chilled surface of the can thus rapidly transferring the heat from inside to the surrounding water and ice.

In just 60 seconds nearly all of the liquid inside the can will have come into contact with the chilled metal and is therefore substantially cooled. Best of all, in spite of all that jiggling about, you can open it straight away without any spraying or frothing!

As a man who peruses the ThinkGeek digital hallways with drool at the sides of his mouth, the geek nerd in me felt compelled to purchase and give the contraption a try. I first found out about it a couple of months back through my habitual web surfing but never really made the leap since there’s no store in America that sells Tinchillas (the website that sells them is located in the United Kingdom. Jolly good, I say) but this morning I felt rather uncompromising and defiant, so I went ahead and ringed the sucker up. Though the site says it’s worth £4.99 the current exchange rates plus the Air Mail shipping charge ring it up to about $15 bucks. Add to that the 2-week wait I’ll probably have to endure while the thing flies across the globe for it get to me and you’ve got what can be amounted to a, in very politically-correct terminology, as an “impulsive buy.” That thing better cool my cokes in 60 seconds or I’m going to be pissed.

The device uses Newton’s principle of thermal conduction, which the girls at my office do not consider valid arguments for my purchase. I asked my digital god and savior about it and this is what she told me:

Heat conduction or Thermal conduction is the spontaneous transfer of thermal energy through matter, from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature, and hence acts to even out temperature differences.

It should be noted that heat can also be transferred by Thermal radiation and/or convection, and often more than one of these processes occur in a particular situation.

The law of heat conduction, also known as Fourier’s law, states that the rate, in time, of heat transfer through a material is proportional to the negative gradient in the temperature and to the area at right angles, to that gradient, through which the heat is flowing.

When heat is being conducted from one fluid to another through a barrier, it is sometimes important to consider the conductance of the thin film of fluid which remains stationary next to the barrier. This thin film of fluid is difficult to quantify, its characteristics depending upon complex conditions of turbulence and viscosity, but when dealing with thin high-conductance barriers it can sometimes be quite significant.

A related principle, Newton’s law of cooling, states that the rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings. This form of heat loss principle, however, is not very precise; a more accurate formulation requires an analysis of heat flow based on the heat equation in an inhomogeneous medium. This simplification can be applied so long as it is permitted by the Biot number.

Nevertheless, it is easy to derive from this principle the exponential decay of temperature of a body.

It’s science, bitches. Hell, this could all be a hoax and it’s as effective as the AB Slimmers you see on late-night infomercials. But nobody blogs about how great the Tinchilla is, right? Right? Oh my gawd I am spawning blog reactions here. We’ll see what happens. If this works I will never have to walk to the cafeteria for cokes again. The notion, much like “300” did, runs an electrical current down my spine.

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