Make your own Chemistry lab
How good were the old [chemistry] sets? They were certainly more exciting, stocked with iodine and nitrates good for making unstable explosives or homemade rocket motors. Chlorine and cyanide compounds could emit deadly gases. A few chemicals turned out to cause cancer.
Kits from the 1920s to the 60s might include radioactive uranium, deadly sodium cyanide, [...]
When life gives you lemons, build robots
I smashed my finger in my door today. It hurt like hell, and I need to make sure I didn’t hurt it again.
But I had to type! So I built a splint/typing claw out of a Lego NXT kit I had sitting around.
Obviously it’s a short step to building a mechanized exoskeleton for my finger. [...]
Evolutionary Root of Games: Natural Funativity
The essence of intelligence is the perception and manipulation of patterns. Tetris excels in letting us exercise this ability. In fact it was the observation of game designer Brian Moriarty (designer of Beyond Zork and Loom) that people love to find patterns in things which led me to this realization. Other games that excel at [...]
Brightstorm – An Online Education Startup
Brightstorm, a start-up, offers online courses to augment what teenagers learn in school and help with the ever-more-challenging process of honing their resumes for college.
The target audience is teenagers hoping to improve their grades and test scores to get into college, as well as their parents. Right now the site has 19 courses ranging from [...]
The Geek Atlas
The Geek Atlas.
I don’t know if I’ve posted this before, but it’s an amazing looking book that was written by a guy I known online. I’ve heard wonderful things about the book and can’t wait to get my copy!
Buy at Amazon
Super Mario Laser-etched Laptop
Chris Maguire (@revolvingdork) who was a co-founder of ETSY and now is working on a new start up called Waffl has etched his laptop with the level maps of the original Super Mario Brothers. Thanks to @Make. Would be a masterpiece if not for the “Eee” logo in the upper left hand corner.
via REPLICATOR » [...]
The 10 Geekiest Pieces of Furniture in the Universe
As a reminder of the coolest scene in the coolest Star Wars movie, the Han-Solo-Frozen-In-Carbonite desk is straight up awesome. Having this beauty in your office would leave even the most tangentially geeky person in awe of your furniture owning prowess. How could anyone say no to a person sitting across from them at this [...]
What we didn’t know about the moonwalk – Space- msnbc.com
What we didn’t know about the moonwalk – Space- msnbc.com.
After 51 years on the job, after covering every spaceflight flown by Americans, I can report that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — and Michael Collins, who kept stoking the home fires on board the Apollo 11’s command ship Columbia — were the best Earth had [...]
New York Public Library opens elegant room for Wi-Fi users | Technology | Los Angeles Times
New York Public Library opens elegant room for Wi-Fi users | Technology | Los Angeles Times.
If I was in NYC, this would be my vagabond office
What Are CCG’s Really About?
David Sirlin (one of my top inspirations for game design) recently wrote a great article about subtractive design and cutting down to the essence of what a given game really is about. He make lots of great points, one of which is that cutting out part of a game offends those who were attached to [...]
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