Gamer buys virtual space station
A virtual space resort being built in the online role-playing game, Project Entropia, has been snapped up for $100,000 (£56,200). Jon Jacobs, aka Neverdie, won the auction for the as yet unnamed resort in the game, which lets thousands of players interact with each other. Entropia also allows gamers to buy and sell virtual items using real cash. The space station is billed as a “pleasure paradise”. Last year, a gamer bought an island for $26,500 (£13,700). [via] Link.
Washingtonpost.com is offering its users video “podcasts” of select original video news programming. Users will have the ability to subscribe to existing and newly released video directly from washingtonpost.com or via such podcast listings as iTunes, among others. Video available for the launch include news and short-form documentary pieces on the preservation of New Orleans jazz after Hurricane Katrina, large scale evangelism events and updates on National Zoo panda cub Tai Shan. 
MAKE is nominated for “Best new title” and “Science/Technology coverage” in the Utne Independent Press Awards. There isn’t any voting, but wish us some happy thoughts – and thanks to everyone for making this a wonderful first year of MAKE. 
Jake writes “I make kerosene lamps from old electrical lamp parts. Much of the hardware in today’s electric lamps is actually descended from the days of kerosene and gas, the ubiquitous 3/8″ threaded rod for instance. It’s amazing how genuinely useful a good kerosene lamp is, it’s oh so easy to imagine a steampunk future where Mr. Edison’s electric light never came to be!” 
Interesting device built from a Sherline 5400 tabletop milling machine…information on a a portable, battery powered, electromechanical projectile launcher the author designed and built. It is a type of “centrifugal” launcher powered by a DC motor. The launcher fires primarily plastic spheres (or steel with some modifications) semi- or full- automatically that is more powerful than a typical airsoft gun. No compressed air or any other energy source besides the battery pack is needed to power the launcher, so it is capable of sustained full automatic fire. The device is called a “PEST”, or Portable Electromechanical Slug Thrower for short. *grin* The PEST has the following specifications…