White Box Robotics
It looks like something is brewing over at White Box Robotics- they’re relaunching their site on May 10th with photos, documentation and prototypes of the 9 series. These might be what was shown off at Robonexus “The White Box 912. Tom was the brainchild of the 912, an affordable personal robot powered by an industry standard VIA Mini-ITX mainboard. This mainboard along with other hardware (hard drives, CD-Burners, DVD drives, web cams, etc.) are then installed in the White Box Robotics 912 mobile platform“. Link.
Neat history and photos of “art cars” in Pakistan. “This extraordinary tradition has it’s routes in the days of the Raj when craftsmen made glorious horse drawn carriages for the gentry. In the 1920’s the Kohistan bus company asked the local Michaelangelo, Ustad Elahi Buksh, a master craftsmen to decorate their buses to attract passengers. Buksh employed a community of artists from the Punjab town of Chiniot, who’s ancestors had worked on many great palaces and temples dating back to the Mogal Empire. It was not long before truck owners followed suite with their own designs”.
Here’s a site that shows how Mike made a working jet engine built from junkyard parts. The engine presented here is based on a used automotive turbo charger, lots of off the shelf parts, and only a few custom made components. Anyone with a little knowledge of engines, access to a reasonably well stocked workshop, some free time, and some excess cash should be able to make an engine…
Mad Physics Dot Com is a site created by a couple students/researchers to show how things work, some experiments and demonstrations. The experiments include: The Physics of Glowsticks, GIANT Hooke’s Law Demonstration and The Science of Fire Extinguishers. They also have a neat section called “Ask Mad Physics”. [Via
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Is there anything bamboo can’t do? Here’s a how to on making a bike frame out of bamboo. “I saw many amazing constructions made of bamboo and I always wondered, why such light, strong, stiff and elastic material is not widespread used for building of bicycle frames. Since I finished my carbon frame, I was thinking about using bamboo for my second frame”.