Author: John

Classic DIY Rubberband Plane Kits

Hishou rubber band aeroplaneI remember building one of these from scratch when I was a kid. Much to my amazement it flew pretty well. I wonder if this kit was available back then, probably not.

This rubber band propeller airplane kit is from Yoshida in Japan. The Hishou, with its 2 reverse propellers, dates from 1911, when it crossed the Sumida River in a model plane contest. The kit uses balsa wood, ultra-light Styrofoam, rubber bands and 125mm reverse pitch propellers. Illustrated instructions and glue are included. The kit is packed in a box with appealing graphics in Japanese and some English.

There is also a version called the ‘Crow‘ that only has one propeller but it’s still a classic design.
 
via Better Living Through Design]
Rubberband Plane Kit, Hishou

Strange Creatures from the Deep

Football fishWho needs science fiction aliens when we have them right here. I mean, most of these critters look to have been drawn up by the best special effects designers in Hollywood.

On dry land, most organisms are confined to the surface, or at most to altitudes of a hundred meters—the height of the tallest trees. In the oceans, though, living space has both vertical and horizontal dimensions: with an average depth of 3800 meters, the oceans offer 99% of the space on Earth where life can develop. And the deep sea, which has been immersed in total darkness since the dawn of time, occupies 85% of ocean space, forming the planet’s largest habitat. Yet these depths abound with mystery. The deep sea is mostly uncharted—only about 5 percent of the seafloor has been mapped with any reasonable degree of detail—and we know very little about the creatures that call it home. Current estimates about the number of species yet to be found vary between ten and thirty million. The deep sea no longer has anything to prove; it is without doubt Earth’s largest reservoir of life.

[via science redigg]
The Deep

Pick it up on Amazon.com – The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss

Earth Like Planet Virtualy Next Door

Gliese 581 - European Southern ObservitoryI was reading Boing Boing this morning and saw that an Earthlike planet may have been discovered just 20.5 light years away from our very home.

"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid," explains Stéphane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland) and lead-author of the paper reporting the result. "Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth’s radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky – like our Earth – or fully covered with oceans," he adds.
"Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," avows Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University (France). "Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."

This could be the most remarkable astronomical find of our lifetimes. I hope that science will be able to resolve some details about the planetary body soon. Maybe it will be found to hold water.

Astronomers Find First Earth-like Planet in Habitable Zone

More information about the Gilese star system can be found here:
Gliese 581 – Wikipedia

Transform Maple Leaves into Roses

Transform maple leaves into rosesA very crafty-arttie project for those that live in places where trees have leaves that fall from them. Turn ordinary maple leaves into nice little faux roses. I think that this should be on the back burner as a fall project, I hope I remember to try it out when the season is upon me. I’ll have to order out for the leaves, I doubt that oleander trees would make a good substitute.
How to make roses from maple leaves