Saturday, November 12, 2011

Sunday, November 21, 2010

steam. engine.

building charles babbage's analytical engine - links:

jgc.org
plan28.org
oreilly.com

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

cool tool

"golden mean calipers" - a misnomer, because they're silver and nice ;)

Thursday, January 21, 2010

huge Su27 model

Descriptions of the build process of this impressive model originally written in German, with reasonable English translations.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

21st century yak training

the airplane, not the animal

Thursday, November 5, 2009

marbles

the opposite of losing them...

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

lego project

a full size house

the only thing that would make this cooler is if it were built by a crew of the little yellow-head construction worker toys...

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

arches

timbrel vaults - lighter than roman arches

Monday, June 29, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Saturday, June 13, 2009

everybody sing

my name is potato!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

tank chair

beats hoveround

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

poets ranked by beard weight

not only does this list rank various poets by the weight (in both size and seriousness) of their beards, it includes the long-lost words "pogonomancy" and "chaetognaths".

judging from the examples given, i'd guess i'm a 38...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Saturn .V

World's largest amateur rocket launched: a 1/10 scale model of the Saturn V

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

cool tools

aviary - visual tools
hobnox - audio tool

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

neat rc hovering model

http://www.snelflight.co.uk/jumpjet.htm

Monday, December 8, 2008

Friday, December 5, 2008

diy spin art machine

i may try to make one of these someday...

the name says it all

unusual architecture

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

gear sculpture

heart



cube



wow

Friday, October 10, 2008

DIY

Hack N Mod

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Saturday, September 20, 2008

pie charts




(i tracked back a few links but can't find the original source to give credit.)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Sunday, August 31, 2008

the bell is cracked

...and may never ring again:
After six Nobel Prizes, the invention of the transistor, laser and countless contributions to computer science and technology, it is the end of the road for Bell Labs' fundamental physics research lab.

Alcatel-Lucent, the parent company of Bell Labs, is pulling out of basic science, material physics and semiconductor research and will instead be focusing on more immediately marketable areas such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and software.

The idea is to align the research work in the Lab closer to areas that the parent company is focusing on, says Peter Benedict, spokesperson for Bell Labs and Alcatel-Lucent Ventures.

"In the new innovation model, research needs to keep addressing the need of the mother company," he says.

That view is shortsighted and may drastically curtail the Labs' ability to come up with truly innovative discoveries, respond critics.
and anyone who can see the world past a spreadsheet.
"Fundamental physics is absolutely crucial to computing," says Mike Lubell, director of public affairs for the American Physical Society. "Say in the case of integrated circuits, there were many, many small steps that occurred along the way resulting from decades worth of work in matters of physics."

Bell Labs was one of the last bastions of basic research within the corporate world, which over the past several decades has largely focused its R&D efforts on applied research -- areas of study with more immediate prospects of paying off.
the phrase "penny-wise, pound-foolish" leaps to mind, just as "eating your seed corn" did to another commentor.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

stealth airplane

i can almost guarantee that this one won't show up on radar.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

TR2N

i remember seeing the original tron movie in the theater in amarillo. looks like there will be a sequel - tr2n - in the next couple of years. (i hope they won't wait until the 30th anniversary in 2012, but it might make marketing sense.)

Monday, August 25, 2008

birth of the smiley

this article almost takes the fun out of it.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

step aside chuck norris

or should i say swim aside... michael phelps facts

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Saturday, August 9, 2008

pray

without ceasing

Friday, August 8, 2008

Daniel Amos

Shadowcatcher

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Tip for the DCCCD

Perhaps your institution would seem more reputable if your TV spokesperson would pronounce your name correctly, instead of sounding like "dayis kamoodi kaalja".

Thursday, July 31, 2008

animated escher

in at least 4 or 5 dimensions

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

elementary

you think humans are carbon-based? i don't think sO!

;)

family photos

most people collect photos of their own family & friends. square america has a collection of other people's photos.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

steampunk links

http://steampunkworkshop.com/
http://etheremporium.pbwiki.com/
http://www.datamancer.net/
http://www.abneypark.com/
http://www.brassgoggles.co.uk/brassgoggles/

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

shape notes

those old hymnals might have been onto something...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

jeepers creepers

where'd you get those peepers?

Saturday, July 12, 2008

chinese homebuilts

apparently there are a lot of rusty propellers and chainsaw engines laying around china...

homebuilt plane

homebuilt helicopter

Saturday, July 5, 2008

the man-machine

illustrations of anthropomorphized machines

Friday, June 13, 2008

rebuilding

new fw-190s
new deloreans

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

industrial music

not what you're thinking - it's radiohead played on a sinclair zx, a printer, a scanner, and some old hard drives.

Friday, June 6, 2008

E=E?

maybe there's no such thing as mass?!?

Saturday, May 31, 2008

columns new and old

first, take a look at these pictures...

then look at this one...

then, try not to sing "stonehenge"... :)

Thursday, May 29, 2008

noisy neighbors

someone has a barking dog problem.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

procrastination

i don't think this guy is a real procrastinator - he gets waaaaaay too much done.

Friday, May 23, 2008

chess king

i have two minor quibbles with this article about chess king:

1) our local chess king went through a different "demographic shift" than the author recalls. ours, in non-pc terms, could be described as white-black-brown-yellow.

2) no mention of parachute pants...

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

automata

dug north

great pics & info, but translation is marginal

paper models blog of the flying pig creator

artoo, where are you?

ah there you are, projecting videos and playing xbox while there's an empire to defeat? how rude!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

pipe organ pic

this is impressive.

the controls on the right almost look like color samples at a paint store...

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

i feel the need...

the need for 1/4 scale speed!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

car logos

a rather comprehesive collection of car logos over the years