Want to study sharks? Build your own Tintin-esque sub – “The grandson of famous oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau believes the best way to learn about sharks is to become one. Fabien Cousteau, inspired as a child by the comic book Red Rackham’s Treasure, where the main character, Tintin, adventures underwater in a shark-shaped submarine, decided as an adult to build his own.” Thanks Saul! Link. Nation Geographic has an update on the story too.
Like VoIP hacks and all things telephony? Check out out O’Reilly’s new Emerging Telephony site – ETel for short – “…covering VoIP, Asterisk, voice and mobile applications, as well as the policy and regulatory issues that impact these important technologies. In addition to daily blogging and the exclusive in-depth articles you’ll find here, we’ll be spotlighting the new related O’Reilly books, like Switching to VoIP and Asterisk: The Future of Telephony and Skype Hacks. We’ll have these authors chiming in on the blog from time to time, too.” Link.
Here’s a detailed log of how to build a utility trailer. Includes a free AutoCAD drawing, materials list, parts list, as well as lots of pictures. Glen writes “I needed a trailer to haul around a snowmobile so I decided that I might get better use out of a general utility trailer instead of a snowmobile trailer. I checked the local trailer retailers and found that the going rate for a 5′ x 10′ utility trailer was around $1,300 Cdn. The trailers weren’t very strong and were made mostly from light angle iron. Always looking for a good project, I decided to build one instead.” Link.
Coming soon, edible MAKE? Mmmm, roboty… “A picture may be worth a thousand words, but is it dinner? At Chicago’s trendy Moto restaurant, it is: a 20-course tasting menu can begin with “sushi” made of paper that has been printed with images of maki and wrapped around vinegared rice and conclude with a mint-flavored picture of a candy cane. Should you fail to finish a course, Homaro Cantu, Moto’s executive chef, will emerge from the kitchen with a refund: a phony dollar bill flavored to taste like a cheeseburger and fries.” [via] Link. (Also check out The Year in Ideas).
We’re fans of PVC here at MAKE, from marshmallow shooters to our gift guide, we find uses for PVC for just about everything. PVC is a little like LEGOs for adults depending on how you use them I suppose…Imarunner2 just posted up a great Instructable on how to make a simple, cheap bike rack using PVC. Link.
BusinessWeek has a round up of the best products of 2005, lots of good stuff – “Wow, what a year! In 2005 the business world moved to the music of innovation. There were more revolutionary changes in more markets sparked by more breakthrough ideas than at any time since, well, the golden ’90s. Admit it: Despite being overworked and dog-tired, you had fun.” Link. MAKE made the list too!
The MAKE team is pleased to announced that we’ve teamed up with Instructables! What’s Instructables? It’s a convenient system for documenting any how-to project, it’s Wiki + Flickr + step-by-step collaboration. You can use images, text, ingredient lists, CAD files, and more. Read all about it here. Ready to start? Head on over, grab a free account and join the MAKE group. Link. We’ll be looking for cool MAKE projects and will have some giveaways soon, so start adding your projects!
