Hello Kitty chainsaw
This may be the end of civilization as we know it. [via Neatorama]
Toys and Games
Giant metal 12-sided die sculpture
The crazed DIY artisans and mischief makers at Philadelphia’s Tango Echo have a new video showing one of their members, Paul Carson’s, giant 12-sided die he welded together and then deployed in a vacant lot. More: 12-sided die as big as your head!
Dancing automaton powered by falling sand
Although the “look” of this dancing-girl automaton by English toymaker Ron Fuller is not personally to my taste, I could not resist the fact that it is powered by a stream of falling sand, which is a trick I’ve never seen before. Thanks to YouTuber greninmotion for the video. [via The Automata / Automaton Blog]
How-To: Make a three-pendulum rotary harmonograph
MacArthur fellow and MIT Media Lab alumnus Karl Sims brings us this great tutorial on how to build your own complex harmonograph (Wikipedia) for making cool…um…”geometric figures?” I’m looking for a 50-cent mathematician’s word (which may or may not exist) for these periodic spirally figures. Can anybody help me out? [Thanks, David!]
Retro Thing’s hackable USB joystick
Touchscreen and computer vision interfaces are slowly starting to replace the traditional game controllers in next generation systems. Today’s Wiimote will be tomorrow’s joystick. Speaking of joysticks, the guys over at Retro Thing are producing some pretty cool classic Atari-style joysticks using clear plastic and a USB interface.
Scratch-built R/C seaplane
Here’s a video of a scratch-built “foamy” R/C model of a seaplane that can actually take off and land on water. “Foamies” is the name given to the class of model planes built out of the insulation foam that can be found at home/hardware stores. ModelAero also sells a kit version of this build. Polaris […]
The Frustromantic Box: A reverse geocache puzzle
Mikal Hart’s original “reverse geocache” puzzle ended up making a big splash when we first posted about it last October. Now Russ Weeks has produced his own version using an Arduino, an HD44780 display, a servo, and an EM406 GPS.
