Musical instruments are lots of fun but boy, they sure ain't cheap. Dennis Havlena (the internet's true DIY instrument king) demonstrates some dedicated yankee ingenuity with his homemade alternatives (aka poor man's instruments). Dennis has created hundreds of hybrid, folksy instruments including bagpipes, banjos, psalteries, didgeridoos, hang drums, and dulcimers.
Remember the magical LED graffiti video "paint"? Here's another cool LED graffiti design by Aissa Logerot.
Make Magazine presents UC Berkeley's professor of architecture, Cris Benton.
Napalm Dragon has an incredible video of super slo-mo fire breathing. "There is no super imposing. This is 'as is' (Low Res) footage captured at 1,000 fps and 2,000 fps
Todbot offers instructions for making your own Arduino shifty-googly Halloween eyeballs. Perfect to pop inside a pumpkin or skull.
Forget the Segway, you don't even have to stand anymore thanks to Honda's U3-X. This self-balancing unicycle relies on an inclinometer instead of gyroscopes to keep the rider balanced. The personal transporter even allows the user to travel forward, back, left, and right thanks to the Honda Omni Traction (HOT) drive system. This automatic unicycle gives a whole new meaning to taking it easy. Check out this CNN video for a further demonstration of the Honda U3-X.
Playing Super Mario Bros 3 with a giant controller on a projection screen = nerd nirvana. Giant NES controller/coffee table/storage box made by Kyle Downes. This piece of furniture actually connects to the system, and works as a real controller. Scroll down for video demonstration and images.
Just like magic - incredible new project from Sweatshoppe in which video is "painted" onto a wall. Video demonstration below, (don't miss it! absolutely visually amazing).
What makes vortex cannons so super cool? Is it that they're the perfect blend of weaponry and science?
Ok, first there's the common practice of adhering false eyelashes, and moving quite a bit further from "the norm" is the
According to Wikipedia, "Sympathetic Resonance is a harmonic phenomenon wherein a formerly passive string or vibratory body responds to external vibrations to which it has a harmonic likeness."
What will they think of next? iDriver is an incredible iPhone application that enables the user to remote control a car (essentially drive an unmanned vehicle with your iPhone). The project is a collaboration between Spirit of Berlin and Appirion.
YouTube user Talapz has built a LEGO Pop-up Buddhist temple. Jaw dropping construction. Made from 4500 bricks, the structure is a representation of actual temple Kinkaku-ji (video below): Previously, Lego Mindstorms Puts the Fun Back Into Number Two.
The Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus is a project developed by Julius von Bismarck and Benjamin Maus. The drawing device illustrates a never-ending story through the use of 7 million patent drawings (linked by over 22 million references). Scroll past the instructions to go straight to the video demonstration.
Gliding + falconry = parahawking, a unique and exhilarating experience. Birds (vultures, eagles, hawks) are trained to "guide" a paraglider
Using a combination of technology and animation techniques, two students at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design have created a visual model of RFID fields.
There are many NES mods on the internet, but this one is pretty awesome. From Ben Heck forum:
UC Berkeley (funded by DARPA) has created cyborg beetles guided wirelessly via laptop. These spy beetles were created with the intent of bugging actual conversations, literally acting as the "fly on the wall". The beetles range anywhere from 2 to 20 centimeters.
Joshua Allen Harris' work is ingenious. An incredibly simple, common household item (garbage bag) makes use of disgusting subway toxins (exhaust) to create inflatable street monsters.
University of Tokyo and MIT join forces to create a high speed, three fingered, robot pitcher. From Pink Tentacle:
Dutch artist Theo Jansen creates incredible kinetic, wind powered sculptures, resembling the skeletons of ambiguous beasts.
A brand new Japanese prototype offers users the ability to manipulate real 3D forms, employing a touch interface with a squeezy, rubbery feel.
iRobot released their new soft blob morphing robot this past Tuesday. The amazing shape-shifter has the ability to squeeze
Allegedly the world's smallest model train, Stan's Trains' TY-Scale train is built at the scale of 1:900.
Whether you love Björk or you hate her, her Wanderlust music video is must-not-miss. Created by Encyclopedia Pictura, a California based production company, the video combines live action, puppets, scale models, and computer generated animation.
Beatboxing flutist, Greg Pattillo, burst onto the YouTube scene circa 2007, racking up over 20 million views for his performance videos. Patillo has garnered world recognition for his skills, as well as attention from the New York Times:
Created by a now discontinuted John Deere subsidiary Plustech in Finland, this walking tractor is weirdly alien-monster-insect-esque. Reminiscent of Big Dog and Little Dog, but way bigger... This belongs in a sci-fi movie, not a farm. Amazing. Several videos in the gallery below.
Real life transformer, OmniZero, can climb a ladder, perform somersaults, jump rope, crack eggs, battle other robots, and best of all, carry a person. Witness all of these actions of the various OmniZero prototypes in the video gallery below.
From Wildwood Survival, how to make fire with a condom and water. Okay, so article author Rob Bicevskis doesn't use a condom (he suggests any kind of "plastic wrap"), but I think a condom makes it a little more fun. Nicely photographed how-to, click through for the text steps. Additional fire-condom How-To video further down.
MIT scientist explains OLEDs by electrocuting a pickle. From Gizmodo:
Austrian composer Peter Ablinger has created a "speaking" piano. Ablinger digitized a child's voice reciting the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court to "play" on the piano via MIDI sequencer. Apparently, the computer is connected to the piano, which analyzes the human speech, and then converts it to key-tapping.
Instructables member Mike Galloway has constructed his own private planetarium: a fiber optic starfield ceiling for his newborn baby.
First thing's first. Remember Pee Wee's amazing breakfast machine? For those who missed out, watch (best YouTube version dubbed in Italian): Who dares compete with Pee Wee?
Nissan will soon release an electric car called the Land Glider, which hugs turns just like a motorcycle. Intended for urban mobility, this car has a bit more finesse that your average Smart Car. Futuristic, fast, and easy to park.
This past weekend Berlin celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall with a visit from France's Royal de Luxe street theatre company.
From ZDNet: "A group of students in China have created PhotoSketch, a project that does exactly what I just described: it takes a rough, hand-drawn sketch, scours the web for photos that match, and runs them through an algorithm, stitching it all together."
No joke. This is not an Onion headline. This coming Friday, October 9th, NASA is actually planning on bombing the moon in search for water. The missile, a Centaur rocket, will blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aiming at the moon's South Pole. Scientists will then analyze the debris from the explosion for traces of water ice or vapor.
Girls Gone Grabblin', the deep South's spin on Girls Gone Wild. Young girls diving underwater, sticking their hands into the unknown, and pulling up giant catfish. These have to be some of the coolest girls on earth.
Nerd out with Won Park's Star Wars/Star Trek dollar-gami. More images on DVice. Fold your own moneygami on WonderHowTo, or better yet, scroll all the way down to learn how to make your own origami Star Wars X-Wing Fighter from Fold Something.
British artist Richard Wilson's "Turning The Place Over" holds affinities to Gordon Matta-Clark's site specific "building cuts" from the seventies. Wilson created a rotating cut facade, which reveals the building's interior with each turn.
