‘The PimpStar is a huge leap forward in the evolution of the wheel. With the PimpStar’s built-in full color LED lights, microprocessor and more… wireless modem, you can display virtually any image, including text, graphics, logos, and even digital photos!’
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‘After a dot-com merger completed a company had 82 extra computers lying around. A couple of guys lined them up like dominos around the office and knocked them over.’
(1.8meg Windows media)
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‘Vampire Killing Kit
The accoutrements for the destruction of the Vampire
This box contains the items considered necessary for the protection of persons who travel into certain little known countries in Easter Europe where the populace are plagued with a peculiar manifestation of evil, known as Vampires… Professor Ernst Blomberg respectfully requests that the purchaser of this kit carefully studies his book. Should evil manifestations become apparent, he is then equiped to deal with them efficiently… Professor Blomberg wishes to announce his grateful thanks to that well known gunmaker of Liege, Nicholas Plombeur, whose help in compiling of the special items, the silver bullets,etc., has been most efficient. The items enclosed are as follows…
1. An efficient pistol with its usual accoutrements
2. A quantity of bullets of the finest silver
3. Powdered flowers of garlic (one phial)
4. Flour of Brimstone (one phial)
5. Wooden stake (Oak)
6. Ivory crucifix
7. Holy Water (one phial)
8. Professer Blomberg’s New Serum’
.. but he really wants the ball that’s floating in the pool.
(2.8meg Windows media)
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‘For the one-time gangster who built it, it is nothing less than “the eighth wonder of the world”. The less charitably disposed dismiss it as a glorified barn, fire hazard and eyesore.
But on one thing everyone agrees: Nikolai Sutyagin’s home is certainly different.
Dominating the skyline of Arkhangelsk, a city in Russia’s far north-west, it is believed to be the world’s tallest wooden house, soaring 13 floors to reach 144ft – about half the size of the tower of Big Ben.
The house that Sutyagin built is also crumbling, incomplete and under threat of demolition from city authorities determined to end the former convict’s eccentric 15-year project.’
‘Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert, according to reports.
The pop legend is currently understood to be living in the city, as he considers making a comeback after 2004’s turbulent child sex case.
It has now been claimed that his plans include an elaborate show in Vegas, which would feature the giant Jacko striding around the desert, firing laser beams.
If built, the metal monster would apparently be visible to aircraft as they come in to land in the casino capital.’
Using air from a scuba tank and everything. Crazy. 🙂
(771kB Windows media)
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How far do you think a car would fly if you stuck a couple of rockets on the back of it and launched it from a ramp?
Fair enough, I reckon. 🙂
(5.5meg Windows media)
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‘The clouded leopard of Borneo — discovered to be an entirely new species — is the latest in a growing list of animals and plants unique to the Southeast Asian country’s rainforest and underscores the need to preserve the area, conservationists said Thursday.
Genetic tests by researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute revealed that the clouded leopard of Borneo and Sumatra islands is a unique cat species and not the same one found in mainland Southeast Asia as long believed, said a statement by WWF, the global conservation organization.’
(12meg Windows media)
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‘The Lorentz Gun can direct a 15,000 Ampere plasma channel through the air along a straight trajectory, at grounded targets up to 35 ft downrange. The gun consists of 30 high pressure pneumatic dart stations, each capable of launching a tapered aluminum sabot that trails a thin ‘seed wire’ 0.008 inches in diameter. Cannon tilt and pan is pneumatic, and a sighting laser is located inside the cannon head. When a launched sabot contacts the target, the Marx-configured capacitor bank automatically fires and erects the bank to 110,000 volts, igniting a plasma channel along the vaporized seed wire. The plasma channel quickly intensifies, magnetically confined in the air by the Lorentz forces of its own current. Damage to the target can vary widely. Most spectators experience some degree of sinus discomfort after several firings, due to the high brissance of the plasma explosion. The capacitor bank is currently disassembled, and newer capacitors are being added to increase the bank energy to 250 kilojoules, and the range to 50 feet.’
You start 280m up, traven for 2km and reach a top speed of 160km/hr.
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‘Here is the future of the green amusement park: The Skycycle at Washuzan Highland Park in Okayama, a pedal-powered roller coaster. They clearly have some dramatic topography to take advantage of here, and it looks truly frightening. Most North American amusement parks are on pretty flat terrain but they often build artificial mountains- Demand a green ride like this on the Magic Mountain.
The side-by-side tandem pedal-powered carts have seat belts, and a cute pink basket.’
‘In this How-To we’ll show you how to wire up your own A/V switcher which you can expand and use any way you’d like, for composite, S-Sideo, component, even VGA signals. Sure, you can buy a newer, really expensive TV’s with multiple inputs (even component), but for those of us whose credit cards aren’t quite up to that challenge, more inputs for less cash would be rather desirable. Let’s get started!
For this project’s example we’ll be building a 3 input, single output composite video, left / right audio switcher. This will allow us to, say, switch between SNES, NES, and the God of War II adapter (aka PS2) using the single input on the back of the TV. Quality. We’ll also explain how to wire up a VGA or S-Video port as well.’
‘Simply pop two AAA batteries into the concealed pack, push a button and voila! Amazing animated glowing old skool gaming on your chest. The two automated computer players are very talented and never seem to miss a shot… but you might want to watch for several hours just to be sure.’
‘A dark red shadow crept across the moon, leaving only a silver, crescent-shaped sliver as a total lunar eclipse began late Saturday.
Around the world, amateur stargazers and astronomers watched the first total lunar eclipse in three years. Partly visible on every continent, residents of Europe, Africa and the Middle East had the best view, weather permitting. [..]
Residents of east Asia saw the eclipse cut short by moonset, while those in the eastern parts of North and South America found the moon already partially or totally eclipsed by the time it rose over the horizon in the evening.
While eastern Australia, Alaska and New Zealand missed Saturday’s show, they will have front-row seats to the next total lunar eclipse, on August 28.’
With a cool soundtrack to go along with it. 🙂
(25.1meg Windows media)
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‘Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported on Tuesday.
Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at Shandong University of Science and Technology said ther electrodes could command them to fly right or left or up or down, Xinhua news agency said.
“The implants stimulate different areas of the pigeon’s brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and force the bird to comply with their commands,” Xinhua said. [..]
The report did not specify what practical uses the scientists saw for the remote-controlled pigeons.’
‘Have you ever gotten up off the couch to get a beer for the umpteenth time and thought, “What if instead of ME going to get the BEER, the BEER came to ME???” Well, that was how I first conceived of the beer launching fridge. About 3 months and several hundred dollars later I have a fully automated, remote controlled, catapulting, man-pit approved, beer launching mini-fridge. It holds 10 beers in its magazine with 14 more in reserve to store a full case. It is controlled by a keyless entry system. Pressing unlock will start the catapult rotating and when it is aiming at your target, pressing unlock again will stop it. Then the lock button can be pressed to launch a beer in the selected direction.’
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This is how you turn a car into a space shuttle. Absolutely hilarious. 🙂
(24.2 and 22.1meg Flash videos)
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‘If you ever thought car security wasn’t dramatic enough, this Tesla-coil automobile protector should satisfy your desire for spectacle. Attaching a 4-inch coil to a boom on the roof of his car, Australian Peter Terren created what is no doubt the coolest-looking theft deterrent to ever be built into a motor vehice. Terren captured the photo above, showing the coil’s ring of electricity (which he calls the Eye of Sauron, after the character in The Lord of the Rings), with time-lapse photography.’
‘Defense contractors say that within the next 10 years they’ll have a solid state laser mounted on a Hummer that can put a hole in sheet of metal from several miles away. Well Dutch graffiti writers can pretty much do that now with this Hymermobil rocking a GRL L.A.S.E.R. Tagging System.
Find out from Agent Watson how this big fucking laser works and download the open source code.’
This is basically a big laser that lets you draw pictures on the sides of buildings.
(20.7meg Windows media)
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Follow up to: Human Slingshot
(715kB Flash video)
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‘Six blind patients have had their sight partially restored by a “bionic eye” surgically implanted on to their retina. Although it restores only very rudimentary vision, the device has proved so successful that its developers are about to begin a study of a more sophisticated version with between 50 and 75 patients.
If this trial goes to plan the device could be available to patients in two years, and one day it could be used to digitally enhance human sight. The bionic eye works by converting images from a tiny camera mounted on a pair of glasses into a grid of 16 electrical signals that transmit directly to the nerve endings in the retina.’
This stuff bounces for ages. It’s excellent. 🙂
If I could bounce this much I’d rule the world. And you’d all love it.
(3.6meg Google video)
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‘These guys pour gasoline down the barrel of a pneumatic potato gun and shoot it at small fire pit. The resulting explosion is pretty insane.’
(6.3meg Windows media)
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‘It sounds as if someone just dropped a tricycle into a meat grinder. I’m sitting inside a narrow conference room at a research facility in Bristol, Connecticut, chatting with Joseph Longo, the founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation. As we munch on takeout Subway sandwiches, a plate-glass window is the only thing separating us from the adjacent lab, which contains a glowing caldera of “plasma” three times as hot as the surface of the sun. Every few minutes there’s a horrific clanking noise—grinding followed by a thunderous voomp, like the sound a gas barbecue makes when it first ignites.
“Is it supposed to do that?” I ask Longo nervously. “Yup,” he says. “That’s normal.”’
‘The British start-up Quietrevolution developed a vertical axis wind turbine which is not only more aesthetic but is also better at gathering wind near and around buildings, which frequently vary in direction. The Helical wind turbine is also quieter because the blade tip speed is lower. [..]
According to quietrevolution the QR5 will generate around 10,000 kWh per year in a site with an average wind of 5.9m/s. This is equivalent to about five low-energy houses’ electricity demand, or the electrical needs of a twenty man office. Unlike other turbines which are usually noisy the unique shape of the quietrevolution turbine allows it to operate in near silent which is ideal for operating close to residential areas. [..]’
It armoured, has holes you can shoot out of, a fridge and a toilet.
Oh, grenade launchers too. 🙂
(6.3meg Windows media)
see it here »