String Tripod

String tripod

I love simple gadgets that for photography. With a simple a string and a wing nut that fits a tripod thread you can have yourself a quick way to stabilize your camera. By holding the string down with your foot and pulling up on the camera you create a ‘dynamic tension’ that dampens out small movements that can mess up your shots. Give it a try, I’m sure you will like the results

String Tripod

The Xtal Set Society

Xtal RadioAfter seeing this link to a clever crystal radio made out of a CD spindle over at Hack-a-day, I looked through some of my old bookmarks to find a few more ‘free radio’ links. The Xtal Set Society is like your one stop shop for parts and kits if your interested in learning about how to build crystal radios. If you didn’t know, a crystal radio is a radio that does not require any power source other than the AM broadcast signal itself to operate. Anyone that likes to tinker should build at least one of these, what’s cooler than something that works for free? Another great site for information is Crystal Radio Resources. I bet you didn’t know you could build a  crystal set to receive shortwave radio did ya?  Who knows, you might want to cheat a little and build a simple amp for your crystal set just to make it easier to hear over the noise of your computer.

Birds (feathered kind) Crash ATC Radar

radar 

Now this sends a chill up my spine…  Apparently a large flock of migrating birds were the cause of a systems crash at the St. Louis air traffic controller system. Everything turned out to be fine, the Kansas City airport was able to take over while the computers were being rebooted. The FAA is looking into the event.

Birds (feathered kind) Crash ATC Radar