Chariot Skates

I saw something that looked similar to these Chariot Skates at a Cirque de Soleil performance a few years back. I came home that day and sketched out a few diagrams of how I might build a pair for myself. My thought was they would work better off the bike paths and on gravel or dirt paths then inline skates.  I never pursued the design and those diagrams are buried in a notebook somewhere. Never even thought of it again until I saw this post on dVice.

"According to creator Michael Jenkins, Chariot Skates are faster, handle rough terrain better, retain momentum longer and offer a more fluid and comfortable experience. We'll believe faster right off the bat, as these odd-looking skates boast a top speed of 24 miles an hour. "

Unfortunately, the cost will be around $1100 and so I won't be getting a pair anytime soon.  I like the concept though and am looking forward to hearing about some real world testing and results.

Check out the Chariot Skates home page for more details.


Testing 1st samples from new moulds in Sydney & China from Chariot Skates on Vimeo.

The second video shows how you can stop.  Always a good skill if you are traveling at speeds above 20mph.


Stopping from Chariot Skates on Vimeo.

[via dVice]

[Image captured from dVice:http://dvice.com/archives/2010/04/chariot-skates.php]

TED Talk: Dennis Hong on Robots

Dennis Hong from ReMeLa gives a facinating talk on robot research.  Lot's of good clips of some of the various robots under development. I  like how Hong describes (around 12:30) keeping a notebook by his bed to capture thoughts and images that he gets as he falls asleep.  He then types these up into something intelligible in the morning.  These images have been the basis of some of his grants and proposals.

Funny: The Process

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Hiding the Litter Box

My wife and I lived in a tiny apartment many, many years ago.  We suddenly went from one cat to three and the litter box couldn't be hidden away in a basement or back room.  I dug an old box out from the trash and using some leftover contact paper, I created the stylish litter box cover shown here.  It helped the cats with their modesty and helped control the smell.  Not completely....but some.  (I believe that is an air freshener on top of the box.)


I had just found this old picture of my litter box creation when I stumbled on the modern day version shown below.







Much more stylish.  Probably a lot more expensive.  Cat probably doesn't care.  My wife probably does.

[via Freshome]

[Image captured from Freshome: http://freshome.com/2010/03/26/kitty-litter-box-cover-that-looks-like-a-small-dresser/]

Moon Base Designs

Looking for some pictures that might get the creative juices flowing?  Here are 15 designs for Moon Base habitats.

Use them as a jumping off point for a design challenge for your students.  Or just use them to fuel your own daydreams.

[Image captured from Dvice: http://dvice.com/archives/2010/02/10-mind-blowing.php]

Making an Igloo

I've run across several posts about building igloos with all the snow we are getting this winter in various parts of the country. Cool Tools have reviewed several igloo making tools and  resources in the past.  Including the documentary on igloo building embedded below.

The Toy Report had a fun post recently about building an igloo as a family project.  They ended up using a plastic storage container to shape the blocks as they found the "toy" forms pretty much useless.  Their igloo is shown to the left.  One item I thought was interesting was that they discovered that they needed someone inside to build the walls stating:

"Do not attempt to get in or out of the igloo or build a doorway until the igloo is complete.  One person stays inside to place the blocks, the other makes the blocks."

If you watch the documentary below, that's exactly how the Eskimos built their igloos.  Including the last two pieces of the roof that were fitted from the inside out. 

[Image: Captured from Toy Report: http://toyreport.org/family-life/building-kids-igloo/]

Explaining Differential Gears with YouTube Videos

I've always had a hard time visualizing how a differential works. This hampers my ability to explain the concept to my students. Here are some videos that may help others who, like me, are differentially impaired.


How Differential Gears Work (instructional film from the 30's)



LEGO - Differential Gear





[Via Neatorama: This is the post that got me started...]

Flat folding table

Saw this table designed by Lodovico Bernardi and right away started thinking of ways I could build something like this into my camp box. Either a lid that becomes a table or a way to easily elevate the box to use as a table or workplace.

Couldn't find a closeup of how the leg mechanism works but from the picture, it looks like the whole leg structure rotates. Great idea!

[via CraziestGadgets]
[Images captured from CraziestGadget: http://craziestgadgets.com/2009/09/30/minimalist-flat-folding-table/]

Mobile Classrooms

In our district, when a school reaches capacity and there just aren't enough classrooms, mobiles are brought in. These things are essentially mobile homes with most of the interior walls taken out. You would think that something like this could be manufactured in such a way that would best meet the needs of a modern classroom. Well thought out storage. Lots of electrical outlets. Built-in computer drops. Adequate cooling and heating. You know, all the things you want in a classroom.

I've haven't seen a well designed one yet.

I was talking to our head custodian about mobiles the last time we had one brought in and he mentioned the price. At the time, we had just moved my mother-in-law into a brand new double wide manufactured home. Her three bedroom structure cost thousands of dollars less than the one we had just installed at our school. How could this be? I think it was a case of going with the lowest bidder without properly specifying features. Still, I always thought there was a lot of room for improvement with these things.

I was pleased to see that someone was thinking about mobiles in a different way when I stumbled onto this posting about prefab classrooms (pictured above). They don't look like mobiles, they are green, and the specs sound much better than anything I've seen.

[Image captured from Inhabitat: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/24/chartwell-school-unveils-new-prefab-classrooms/]

Green Wall

Getting close to putting a shed in my back yard. I spent much of the last month creating a spot for it and now am looking at pre-built or diy type sheds. Either way, I got to thinking a green-wall on at least one side of the shed would be neat. So, rather than weeding in the backyard, I slipped inside to my office and logged into Google. Found this site with lots of pictures and references for green-walls.

Gave me lots of ideas.

[Image captured from Gardenopolis: http://gardenopolis.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/growing-a-green-wall/]

Modular Refrigerator Design

Here's a clever idea for a refrigerator design. It takes the idea of a separate freezer and cooler section even further. Break the appliance up into even smaller units. Each unit takes less energy to cool and loses less cold air when you open the door.

We bought one of those fridges with the freezer on the bottom several years ago and love it. It made so much sense to put all the items on the top in the compartment that was opened the most often and the freezer on the bottom that is opened less often.



[Image captured from http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/07/22/flatshare-fridge-stackable-refrigerator-a-la-legos/]

Tree House

I love this idea. I've known for years about shaping the growth of trees for landscape design. The most common of these is the living fence. Prune and stake a tree out to take on the shape of a fence. A famous example of this (in USA) is the living fence around George Washington's garden at his home in Virginia. He did this back in the 1700's and the fence is still there.

So lets take it a step further and integrate a living tree into the structure of our homes using prefabricated forms to help shape the trees into the desired support structures. Even if the tree dies, you still have this framework that was grown to specs. I suspect it would be incredibly strong. Watch the video for a quick explanation by Mitchell Joachim.



Short animation of what this structure might look like.



[Image captured from Inhabitat.com: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/11/20/video-grow-a-living-treehouse-with-terreform/fabtreehab1/]

Space Station Piece by Piece

I was looking for a picture of the space station and ran across this video showing the station as each section is added.

There is a glossary on the side that lets you click on each part to get a brief description.

Cool.

Grate Art

This video gives a little background on the artist, Joshua Allen Harris, who creates those cool scultpures out of plastic bags that become animated when a subway draft fills them up.








[via Accidental Mysteries]
[Image captured from the video:Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Bag Monsters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xCT2aTSo]

Capturing energy from moving cars

Interesting idea. Cars move over plates that generate electricity. My understanding is that this will be used in a shopping center in the UK and the energy will be used to run the cash registers. What if you put something like this at every intersection. They already install pressure plates to help control the lights. With a little modification, you could also help keep the lights running. Add a solor cell and they might be self sufficient?

I had a similar idea while watching the students stream into school a couple of months ago. What if we attached generators to the entry doors. The movement of the doors opening and closing could generate power. I'm pretty sure the power generated as the kids rush out of school every day could light an entire city block!

[via DailyMail] [Image captured from the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1193070/Shoppers-cars-soon-able-power-supermarkets.html]

EarthTaniner: Self watering tomato planter

My wife and I are planning a small kitchen in our yard where we can grow a few tomatoes and other vegetables next year. We wanted to build in some self-watering pots so we wouldn't have to worry about the vegetables if we went on a short trip. She found the plans to this planter through TomatoFest and after looking over the diagrams and watching the video's I was impressed. Ray Newstead, the inventor of the system, put a lot of thought into the construction, including that every part is easily available to the average person. You can get everything you need at Lowes. (Buckminster Fuller would be proud!)

The plans are freely available for download. Ray only asks that you make a donation to Feed The Children organization. It's a little late in the season to be planting tomatoes here in Colorado and I don't quite have the area ready for the planter but I want to get a head start on next year. If I get one built, I'll post the results.

Cockroach Heart Design

This artificial heart is based on a cockroach heart. Seems that a cockroach has a twelve chambered heart compared to our four chambered heart. This built in redundancy helps to protect them from keeling over with angina as they are about to invade my pantry.

I was trying to figure out how this worked from the picture and it made no sense to me. The picture looks like a tennis ball with an aquarium pump inside of it. So, I went looking on the web for a diagram of a cockroach heart. I was unable to find a clear picture or diagram of the little critters ticker. I did eventually find this diagram of a insect heart that I think is similar to what you might find inside a cockroach. Still not clear to me how they can survive the failure of one chamber when they are in sequence like this?

Shoot me a note if anybody knows of a better diagram, picture or explanation.















































[via dvice]

[Image of artifical heart captured from dvice: http://dvice.com/archives/2009/06/indian-artifici.php] [Two images of insect heart captured from mathphysicschemistrybiology.com/circ.html]

Bacteria Based Computer

This interesting piece appeared recently in the Guardian Science Blog. Bacteria were used to create a working computer. They gave it the Hamiltonian Path Program which very simply is finding the best route that goes through a specific number of cities.

"[The] problem is surprisingly difficult to solve. There are over 3.5 million possible routes to choose from, and a regular computer must try them out one at a time to find the one that visits each city only once. Alternatively, a computer made from millions of bacteria can look at every route simultaneously."

The scientists did mention that programing the bacteria is pretty difficult.

An interesting side note to this story was the mention of a database of the basic biological designs for these types of machines called the Registery of Standard Biological Parts. I looked around this site for a while and it was facinating. It quickly went over my head, but all the parts and concepts that have already been developed was mind boggling. It's kind of like looking through an electronics catalog. You don't know what all the parts are for or how they are made, but you still look and wonder.

Link to the original article in the Journal of Biological Engineering.

[Image captured from http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/jul/24/bacteria-computer]

Snake Camera

I've seen a couple of these robotic snakes on the web before, but this is the first time I've seen them demonstrated in a real world situation.

Is there any kind of terrain a snake can't maneuver through? (I even saw a little bit on snakes that can glide the other day...ewwwwh!)

Beyond delivering a military payload, I think they could be extremely useful in searching/mapping environments that are difficult to navigate. For example, a collapsed building or a pipe/drainage system.



[via BotJunkie]

[Image captured from video]

button design

My web design students love to make buttons for their pages. They often don't put much thought into them, but they like to make them. The prettier. The flashier. All the better.

They hate modifying a button after it's been made. I suspect the same complaint is made by English teachers about getting students to revise/edit their work. The attitude seems to be do it once and it's done. Already done that once. Why do it again?

One of the questions I often ask when I'm looking at a design is "What does this button do?". Too many times I hear, "You click it to find out." (Which means in kid talk....I forget.) I then state that if I have to start clicking buttons just to see what they do, I'm probably going to move on to another web site. I then try to guide the discussion towards what is the best design for a button; an icon, text or both?

Here is a short article that gives the advantages of each choice. The bottom line according to this article: Text and image combination work best.