Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
But the big question is: If something is found, will they tell anyone?
When astronauts return to the Moon, they should keep their eyes peeled for extraterrestrial artefacts – pieces of technology from alien civilisations that have wound up on the lunar surface either by chance or design.
[via Futurismic]
Simple and not so simple mechanical toys from the engineers at Hitachi. The designs are quite clear and should tickle your brain to come up with ones of your own. The ‘south’ pointing car is a classic design that could have some use as a maze solving robot, or at least one that keep track of what was was south when it started.
[via MAKE fourm]
Add one part Sony PS1 LCD screen and one part SanDisk Digital Photo Viewer bake for half an hour in a slow oven and you get a sub USD$100 digital picture frame. (I’m kidding about the oven part). I have an TFT LCD screen that I wired up as a remote TV monitor a few years ago that would be perfect for this. I’ll have ro find one of those SanDisk Digital Photo Viewers and build one of these. Funny, I remember seeing one in a store and I thought that it would be the perfect thing to load up and send to the relatives for them to see pictures of the kids. Now I can add a screen and presto! Zero instalation (ok, grandma will have to attach the wall wart, but that’s pretty easy). With 32 MB CF cards costing next to nothing this might be fun to do.
[via MAKE]
Reader Eetu left a comment on my DIY light bulb page about building a ship in a 60 W bulb and I had to have a look at it. I have to say that that it is very cool. He has a few photos how he ran the rigging lines out of the bulb and held them in place with blutack while he worked on the ship.
This could be the next evolution of aircraft:
The Arc Wing VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) Airplane, is absolutely unique in being a true V/STOL as a fixed wing aircraft with the high cruise speed. This plane requires only the basic elements of fixed wing aircraft for VTOL or cruise flight, namely, full span flaps and high installed power usable in both VTOL and cruise. It has no need for heavy, costly, encumbering systems for conversion from one realm to another, no multiple rotors, no rotor folding devices, no cross shafting, no extra gear boxes, no “black boxes” for programming, no wing tip or tail jets, no tail rotors, no lift fans or lift engines.
[via Flight Nest]
As many of you might have seen I recently posted a project for gutting an old light bulb in order to make other things out of it. Well one of the great uses a resurrected light bulb has is as a small vessel to boil liquids in. As long as you don’t confine the gasses crated by the boiling you should be OK, the glass is thin and won’t take all that much pressure. This DIY camping stove would make a great heat source for boiling water in a light bulb. Plus, you can take it with you when your in the woods. How neat is that?
[via Google]