Well, circular saws really, but who’s keeping score, it’s still a helicopter dangling a high speed wheel of death.  I’d almost be more terrified of one of these then of a black helicopter, almost.  The video speaks for itself, but in case you’re too lazy to watch it, and want to read, basically what happened is high voltage power lines over hilly, mountainous terrain were getting overgrown with trees, and it was too costly and time consuming to trim the trees from the ground, so an innovative company attached a series of circular saws to a pole and hung it from a helicopter.  Cause that looks soo much safer…

All I have to say is Yeah Science.

Below you can watch as they shrink a quarter.  Even using a proper High Speed camera, they only got 4 frames of the process.  That’s freaking fast man.  The whole process works by sending tremendous amounts of current through a coil of copper in which the coin is placed.  The electricity causes a uniform magnetic field to push the metal together, and evenly shrink the coin.  Now, because of the various metals that coins are made of, some work better than others.  But all of them are awesome.

It gets better too.  If you put 2 coins in at the same time, they get attaracted together and form a crazy Georgia Peach dome like thing.

And if you put square, or other non-round coins in, you get similarly cool shaped novelty items.  Take a look at the whole gallery of things, and learn some stuff about science along the way.

{nutraloaf}

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.

There are all sorts of levels of insane associated with this bridge.

At first glance it just doesn’t look real.  Like a render, or a cartoon, just something that doesn’t exist in real life.  But it does. It’s an overpass in the town of Sneek in The Netherlands.

Apparently it’s the first wooden bridge in the world that can support the loads it does.

Oh, and in case you didn’t think it was really made of wood, and that was all just a veneer, here’s a cross section:

I gotta say, that is one of the most amazing looking bridges I’ve ever seen.  And I used to be a civil engineer, this was almost my job.

{reddit}

I have waited a decade to see this book become a movie.  I have followed it’s tale long and hard as new scripts were written, new casts speculated, new director, new producer, new everything.  But finally, after my 10 year wait (which is nothing compared to the 30 year’s it’s been in print), the film is being made.

To be honest, I’ve been skeptical, and concerned, especially after the original cast was announced.

Oh well.  I’m gonna keep an open mind.  Not because I think they will ever make the sequels to the movie, those are much less action packed, and mass marketable than the first, but because I want to enjoy the film, and that’s hopefully what I will do.

On second thought, as cool as the R/C F-16 is, and the R/C plane fights, Charlene might be just the thing I’m looking for.

Yes, after carfull review of the documentary, I think that’s just what I need…

No, custom sharpened pencils.

Yea, that’s what this guy does…It’s weird.

Weird.

…Weird.

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}