Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
If you can do a task in a more complicated and convoluted fashion than a normal person would then you should be acquainted with these devices. The Japanese call them pitagora souchi, but we call them Rube Goldberg machines.
My brother sent this link to me yesterday. These examples are quite fascinating, the use of household items like spoons and paper clips is very inspirational.
I can’t tell you how happy I am to see this toy once again, even if it is a simulator. Growing up in the heyday of the Apollo space program, any toy that gave you your very own CM (Command Module) to recover from the carpet sea was instant gold. I don’t know what I miss more, the Vertibird or the safety orange reminder of the space race. Who would have known that a toy that just flew in a big circle and hooked things off the floor would be so much fun. If your like me, you played with it on a carpeted floor. I think the instructions said that you should never use it on anything but a smooth non-carpeted floor because the drive shaft will get gummed up with fluff and will ground your Vertibird until your Dad comes home and takes the tweezers to it. That is unless you did it yourself and as a result gained and intimate working knowledge of how flex shafts worked. 🙂
I suppose that is you could build the power transmission in the base you could build your own. Everything was cable controlled. The direction of the Virtibird was done by applying a twist to the long support arm that pitched the nose either up or down. I’m not too sure how the power was varied, that might have been done with a potentiometer in the control unit. Might be worth it, it did take a bit of skill to pick things up, especially if you had an oscillating fan in the room to simulate gusting winds. If you would like to know more about building your very own Vertibird, take a look at the build your own project page. Or if your lucky you might be able to find one that has been retired by a science museum.
[via MAKE]
I was reading Metroblog Bangkok the other day and saw that a crazy guy went on a rampage and smashed the famous Erawan shrine. He didn’t get away, two street sweepers have been charged with second degree murder for beating him after he got hung up on a fence as he was trying to escape. I don’t think he was that crazy if he knew to escape after destroying the Hindu statue.
Man beaten to death after desecrating the Erawan Shrine
Hum, glasses with LCD ‘lenses’ in them that will auto focus and thus eliminate the need for bi-focals. This is so cool because I’m sure that in a few years I’m going to need them. I wonder if when they hit the street they will be featured in a movie. You know, one of those product placement deals where the item gets some serious closeups when the protagonist has pensive moments.
"…The dynamic glasses change focus using a 5-micron-thick layer of nematic liquid crystal, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Molecules of the liquid crystal reorient themselves when exposed to an electric field and the researchers used this to create a type of dynamic Fresnel lens.
In a normal Fresnel lens, concentric rings are carved into a piece of glass causing light to become focused in a similar way to a conventional lens. Dynamic glasses mimic the Fresnel effect using concentric circles of clear electrodes on the pieces of glass containing the crystal. Activating these electrodes causes the liquid crystal to align into rings and focus light passing through the lens…"
If there ever was a toy that screamed out "mod me, hack me, subvert my cuteness!" it’s this. What could be more fun to cram a camera into than a remote control flying Doraemon helicopter? I mean, it a robotic cat from the 25th century after all. It needs some mad video moves. With this you will be one step closer to ruling the world…
[via Oh Gizmo!]
Over at the new paper model blog Paper Kraft I saw this charming paper model of the star of the Japanese film ‘Tonari no Totoro‘. My kids have loved this film for years so I bet that they will love having a few of these.