HOW TO – Build a $1 compound microscope
“…construction of a very simple low-cost compound microscope. As shown in Figure 1, the microscope we describe is one that just about anyone can build and will produce a magnification of about 75 times. Microscopes may be thought of as very intricate and mysterious instruments but in reality, they are not as complicated as one may think. Building this simple instrument is not only a fun project, it will help you understand how microscopes work.” Thanks Rick! Link.
Readmechs are printable (8.5″ x 11″) little paper box creatures and novelties like UK Johnny, Astro Julie, Pal 9000, Papercut of death, Skeletron and other clever designs surely to delight a drab cubicle. 
Stunning collection of jewelry made from electronic parts. Capacitor necklaces, diode earrings, Cat5 bracelets – my fav “1.1MΩ Purple Resistor Necklace: Necklace created from 32 1.1MΩ resistors, their leads wrapped four times around a central ring to create this pattern, with additional resistors accenting the edges.” [
It’s really interesting to see the retro gaming characters start to appear in so many hip crafster projects lately. “mario and friends- for my weaving class we had to make a weaving about 5 yards long and 14 inches wide. we got to play around with weaving structures and what we used for our weft. i really enjoyed the technique brocade, so i decided to translate mario and some other characters into my weaving.” [
This site has a ton of free stencils to down, exacto out and use as you please. There are stencils for just about anything out there – Animals to Vegand & Vegetarian. [
Great photos from Nikon’s “Small World – Gallery” – The Nikon International Small World Competition first began in 1974 as a means to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photography through the light microscope. Since then, Small World has become a leading showcase for photomicrographers from the widest array of scientific disciplines… [
Here’s a really neat project that plays audio out of a PC serial port running Linux. It works by resampling audio to the baudrate of the serial port. Some comments on the site point out that this is a lot like the old days of TRS-80s, TI-85’s and Sinclair ZX’s when you wanted to get audio out of them. [