Nathan over at HAHA Bird has created probably the coolest car key ever.  He says he did it for practical purposes, I think he did it cause he wanted a legal excuse to jam a screwdriver into his ignition.

Either way, he has a detailed description of the process that all in all, looks like it will take you an afternoon.

First things first, you gotta cut the tip off of the screwdriver.  Well, actual first thing is to get a screwdriver that has some character to it.  That is, don’t go to Home Depot and buy one right now.  Go to a yard sale, or, if you can spare one, take something you’re not using anymore.

Then you gotta cut a slot into the shaft so that you can insert your key.  Also, it’s probably a good idea to round off the edges of the shaft so that you don’t stab yourself accidently.

After that, insert your prepared key, and solder it together.

Some steps that I missed, but that Nathan doesn’t:

•  Make sure you do this with a spare key
• You’ll probably have to grind down the key unless your hacksaw is exactly the same width as the key (not likely)
• If you have one of those fancy cars with a microcip in the key fob, this won’t work as easily

He also seems to be concerned about the weight that’s resting on the ignition, and that if you hit a bump, you could totally ruin the tumblers of the lock.  I don’t know, I’ve seen people with massive keychains that put more weight then that screwdriver and not have problems.

That being said, try using a stubby screwdriver instead of a full sized.

The above video chronicles the growth of a tree over the course of 5 years.  Something I’ve always wanted to do to be honest.

The below video chronicles the growth of the same tree, from a different angle, for an additional year.

{PetaPixel}

You know, my birthday is coming up soon, something like the above would be an excellent gift…

Apparently, this guy spent around $1,500 total on the whole system.  I love the pan-tilt he put on the Ken doll’s head.  And the hands that are just barely visible in some shots.  Very, very well done.

It really makes me want to try shooting fireworks at them now.  But then again, I don’t know if I’d be too keen on knocking down my $1,500 F-16 replica plane just to see it crash and burn.  I like the cheaper R/C plane dogfights better I think.

Video with audio:

{reddit}

Jurassic Park Car

It must be because of the 20th anniversary of Jurassic Park, but I’ve been seeing lots of Jurassic Park themed photos, and posts, and stuff lately.  This project takes the raptor shaped cake.

These 2 people turned a 33 year old Suburu into an ace looking Jurassic Park Jeep replica, Here’s what the car looked like when they started:

ugly car

Nothing to stare at, certainly ain’t gonna get any looks.

cleaning, and painting

It’s getting better, gotta scrub all the grime off it, and start with the base coat.

Marking the sides

Getting the Red accent marks along the sides.

Outlining the Logo

Hand outlining the logo, cause it’s just easier that way.  They also hand drew the Dino skeleton logo on the hood, and sides of the car, it’s just too detailed to do it otherwise.

All in all they did a pretty amazing job on it.

I’d like to say that they spared no expense, but It looks like they used spray paint, could have gone for electro-coating that shit, but hey, it’s a 33 year old car, it probably wouldn’t last long enough.

Take alook at the rest of their album, 43 photos in all, they really went all out on the process.

{reddit}

How many clicks does it take to get to the center of a LEGO brick?

Unlike the question this is modeled on, we have an exact answer - 37,112.

Well, almost exact.  You see, Phillipe Cantin tried LEGO Bricks from the 1970s.  His reasoning being he wanted to see how older bricks would fail, then switch to newer bricks.  Then change the brick type up, then add some Transformers into the mix*.

Anyway, over the course of 10 days, running constantly, Phillipe got his magic number, now in true scientific fashion, he has to repeat the process a couple more times, so that he can get some more data points, then publish it, and hopefully get a PhD out of it.  That’d be so ace.

*I made that up

{MAKE}

I like ponds, I like photography, I like time-lapses, tilt-shift I can live without, but it’s ok.  The above video combines all 4.

Now, this is a much larger pond then the ones I’ve built over the years, but that being said, if I had the space, I would totally build one this size, or better.

{PetaPixel}

Not just a snow slide, or snow sculpture, but more of a snow crop circle. That’s what Simon Beck makes.

Located in the French Alps, he makes these amazing snow crop circles by hand (or foot rather) because he walks around in snow shoes to make the patterns.  According to him they take anywhere from 3 hours to over 15, and spread out over multiple days.

That’s some dedication to work there, and trust in the weather.

I think that one might be my favorite, look at the detail on the edges, with the fractal, very Escheresque.

He tried to go for a 3-D effect here, I think he pulled it off pretty well, wouldn’t you?

I would call that the most Crop Circle like of them all.

Those were my favorites, I’m sure there are more that he’s done in the time since I wrote this, but I like those best, and I’m far to lazy to save this, and post it when actually intend to publish it.  But it’s not winter anymore (at time of writing), which is why I’m writing it now, and going to keep it until winter before I publish it.  I do that sometimes, deal with it.

{MAKE}

A coworker of reddit user jellatin spent around 600 hours making this custom designed and lasered Monopoly board. You can tell that serious time went into the making of this, look at the box, and the board, and the property cards.  They are all beautiful.  I wounder what he coated them with to make them so pretty?

Apparently this person works for a laser company, and this is what they do.  I gotta say, I would gladly spend many of my monies on something like this.  Except, I’d take Axis & Allies, or Risk.

I particularly like the lasered engravings of the money in each slot.  It’s a nice touch.

There’s plenty more photos in the Imgur gallery.

Those who know me know that I got my start in the internet from a Microwave.  Many an hour was spent looking for things to microwave and what would happen to them when they went in.  My friends.  I have never tried something this dangerous, partly because I wanted to keep my microwave at a research level, and partly because the areas we engaged in our experiments were never as secure as that garage.

That being said, when I eventually get back into the greatest underutilized of the sciences, I will be sure to make a few pressure vessels to test out the security of my lab.

{Hacked Gadgets}

The above video makes it seem easy to build one of those.  So naturally I must try building that.  I’m not sure what purpose it would serve, but I must build one, for Science!.

{MAKE}

I am going to assume this video is genuine, because that’s the only way to view the internet, understanding that everything you read is 111% verified true facts.  That being said, there are some pretty dangerous stunts in this video that make me question it.  Particularly the walking ontop of the falling 40 foot shipping containers.  Diving from tower to tower, and jumping out of a moving driver-less car onto a pole on one of the aforementioned falling shipping containers.

It’s still cool though.

{Hacked Gadgets}