Monster NXT robot
This monster robot, according to the NXTStep, packs 9 NXT bricks controlling 16 Power Functions motors. Sweet!
Fun & Games
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
Google has a Great Glass Elevator; they call it “Liquid Galaxy”
.all of a sudden, flying around in Google Earth really felt like flying, and exploring the ocean trenches was like piloting a submarine. When you splashed through the sea surface you cringed slightly, expecting to get wet. You could even command your own lander down to the Moon or Mars…With the Liquid Galaxy, we could fly through the Grand Canyon, leap into low-Earth orbit, and come back down to perch on the Great Pyramid of Giza without even breaking a sweat.
Greeble-tastic Lego robot arms
Personally, I find the mark of a really gifted Lego artist is that his or her work makes you look twice and say, “Wait, that’s made out of Lego?” Renowned English builder Peter Reid (aka Flickr user legoloverman) consistently achieves that effect, for me, by obsessively permutating all those little Lego odds and ends that aren’t shaped like conventional bricks or plates at all–minifig arms, hands, and tools; Technic elements; pneumatic hose connectors; etc. These arms are part of a recent “assembly line” diorama of a future factory assembling his iconic “Turtle” robots. [via The Brothers Brick]
The Rocket Project
There is certainly lots to debate about corporate sponsorship of education and sponsored editorial content, in print and online. We have these debates all the time here at MAKE. And I’m sure educational organizations have equally tough choices to make in terms of getting the funding for great educational programs, money that companies are all […]
Sweater bike!
It’s too hot in NYC for a sweater bike, but it exists – no one knows who/why yet. Update: Some clues in the comments on CRAFT! Thanks Rachel!
This is not a real butterfly…
…but non-lepidopterists will probably be hard-pressed to figure that out just by looking at it. The video rates high on the jaw-dropping scale. The ChouChou electric butterfly is, in fact, a lepidoteroid robot, of sorts, from Japanese firm Tenyo Magic. It perches, flexes and flaps its wings, and flutters around its jar when disturbed. Preorderable now from JapanTrends.com. [via NOTCOT]
How-To: Restore the color of old Lego bricks
Turns out the yellowing of old ABS plastic is due to degradation of bromine-containing fire retardants which are added to the plastic during manufacture, which release elemental bromine, causing the yellow color. Shining UV light on the gel accelerates the decomposition of the fragile oxygen-oxygen bond in the peroxides it contains, generating reactive hydroxyl radicals which scavenge the free or loosely-bound bromine in the plastic that causes discoloration.