Green

Get your smash on at “sport” bottle recycling center

Get your smash on at “sport” bottle recycling center

When I was still living in Dallas, our local recycling center included a giant steel dumpster, open at only one end, with an elevated platform you could climb up to chuck your glass bottles in. I was in high school, then, and it was pretty common, when we were bored, to go down there on the weekend and pass an hour or so smashing glass bottles into the dumpster just for the fun of it. You’d see “grown-ups” there doing the same thing, and more than once perfectly “respectable” suburban adults would see what we were up to and join in, which inevitably put a big grin on everybody’s face. I’m sure this kind of impromptu bottle-breaking game happens naturally at recycling centers all over the world.

Maker Faire: Chick-in-a-Box

Maker Faire: Chick-in-a-Box

There’s certainly no shortage of high tech gadgetry and fantastical creations coming to this year’s Maker Faire Bay Area, May 22nd and 23rd at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. But the magic of Maker Faire is rooted in the variety of projects present, everything from science to craft to robots to food makers, and beyond. Take, […]

Bob’s 3D birdhouse webcam

MAKE subscriber Bob Alexander sent us info about his bird house with a 3D webcam inside: At the this URL, I describe how my bird house with an adjustable 3D web camera works. On the main site, http://bobsbirdblog.com, I post 3D videos (and 2D for those without glasses) of what’s happening inside the bird house. […]

Automatic coop door opener

The latest issue of MAKE, Volume 22, contains an automated chicken coop door opener project, by Alan Graham (Portland, OR). My geek BFF, Jeri Ellsworth, sent me a link to another, clever remote-controlled coop opener, put together by her friend “Slinky.” It uses a $5 power drill as the door winch and a Seeduino as […]