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Small Paper Models

Paper Town
Collection of a month’s worth of models {Paperholm}

Just over 1 year ago Charles Young set himself a goal.  At times it seemed simple, other times it was excessive, but in the end, it was impressive.  Each day for one full year, he would craft a new unique paper model using 220gsm paper and glue.  On August 10, 2015 he finished his year long project, here are some of my favorites, but really, there are 365 of them to choose from, some simple buildings, others more intricate, detailed pieces.

Water wheel thing
Moving Water wheel thing {Paperholm}

It’s interesting to look through his archive and see the way his pieces have progressed in complexity and creativity as time went on.

Hanger
Hanger, from October.{Paperholm}

This is a simple hanger like structure, it’s nice, but there’s nothing that’s supposed to move, and it’s kind of boring to be honest.

Piranha Plant
Piranha Plant from June {Paperholm}
Treehouse
Tree House from just this past July {Paperholm}

This tree house isn’t the most intricate model he made, but it’s still got some detail to it, look at the ladder, and the pennant string.

 

{MAKE|Tumblr}

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Computer Control Panel

Control Pannel

Have you ever wanted a borderline useless master control panel for your computer?  You know, something that looks like the controls from Star Trek, or Star Wars.  Well, reddit user smashcuts has built his own.  Why, because he wanted to, that’s why.

Daylight Controls

If you ever wanted to hang something very heavy that served almost no practical purpose above your desk, this control panel is for you.  He used an electrical junction box as the container, and filled it with wires (duh, it’s electrical), and wood, and LEDs, and USB controllers and a fan or two.

mess of wires

Have you ever wondered where all the wires come from on Sci-Fi shows and movies when control panels inexplicably explode?  Well, now you can rest assured and know that not only is the mess of wires realistic, but the possibility of the panel exploding is all too possible.

control buttons

All the buttons he has, which number over 100, do something on his computer.  These control iTunes, the volume, and starting specific playlists.  Among some of the other buttons he has are links to YouTube videos, shortcuts to open most used programs, shortcuts to paste in canned text into IM windows, and random fun buttons because he had the space.

He has posted tons of photos of the build process on this imgur album, you should check it out.

{reddit}

 

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Grand Canyon Rafting

I’m back!

Well, I’ve been back for about a week now, but I’ve been busy, going through photos, cleaning up, going though videos, working, going through more photos.  Anyway, I think I’m just about finished (with The Grand Canyon photos that is), now, so I’m back, you can expect some more active posting in the coming days.  Chris said he was going to post something, then he got lazy, shame on him.

My favorite photos from the trip are of the Time-lapses I took each night on the river:

I set my camera up to take photos every 5 minutes for the entire night.  I them processed them in Lightroom, and combined them together to create the above Time-lapse.  I made 4 total time-lapses, two for each night, one processed, one original.  You can watch them here: Night Sky Time-lapses.

If you want to see some of the rafting photos I took, come take a gander over at the album I’ve put together: Rafting Trip.  Also, we had a camera set up to take video as we were going through the rapids, some of those are pretty cool, take a look at them below:

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Giant Water Rockets

The lovely people over at Rocket Fued have put together a set of 5 videos, (6 if you count the trailer), showing you how to build your own giant water rocket.  When I was a kid I remember spending hours on the weekend launching small 2 liter water rockets.  I’d fill them part way with water, then get out a tire pump and watch them go up.  My rockets weren’t anything as sophisticated as the above, I had cardboard fins tapped on, and no parachute.  But mine never made it much higher then the house, and when they came down, were just the empty soda bottle.

Eventually, I graduated to Estes model rockets, but never made anything as crazy as that V2.  The video is cool, and it’s a nice way to get teenagers interested in rockets.  I think it’s too complicated for anyone over 12 though.  Keep it limited to single stage rockets for them.

{Instructables}

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A Circle Plane?

Yes, you read that right, and your eyes aren’t lying to you, the people over at Flite Test have decided to make a circle plane, or tubular plane.  Basically, a plane with it’s wings arced up into each other to form a circle.  It looks ridiculously unstable, at first that is.

First the started small, and eventually scaled up.  When it’s flying, it’s pretty cool, and gigantic.  One of the games they played was flying smaller planes through the hoop.  It’s cool.  In a smaller test another plane got caught in the tail, but couldn’t manage to drag down the plane.  Eventually they had to hold it on a golf cart in order for it to take off.  It also looks pretty redundant, with a big chunk taken out of it’s circle it’s still flying very stable, but then again, it has a huge wing surface area, so it’s probably alright.

I think the coolest part though is watching the giant thing fly, and fly pretty slow with the quick nimble fighters flying all around, and through it.  Watching giant things fly real slow is cool.

{Hacked Gadgets}

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Alternate History Thursday: Little Boy is 70

Mushroom Cloud

In this alternate universe that is.  In our reality, Little Boy went down in a blaze of glory decimating Hiroshima and showing the true military might of the United States of America.

In alternate history land, Little Boy is the name of the (actual) twin bombs Big Boy and Little Boy.  Big Boy was used to put an end to World War 3 by the Axis powers on the Communist States of the Americas.  Only one bomb was needed, so the brother was put on display in Vienna.  It’s still very active and ever decade or so someone tries to steal it, or detonate it.  Luckily, nothing dangerous has ever happened with it.  Only some graffiti by the pacifists.

Still, today marks the 70th anniversary of the entry into the Nuclear Age in both realities.  In a 17th distant reality, the world has been a nuclear power for decades, but we’re not talking about that reality, only this one, the 3rd one from the main one of our current one.

Good day.

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TETRIS

There really isn’t much to this post except to go over Tetris, arguably the most addicting game in history.  Some of the things in the video above I knew, others I forgot, but still, it’s 6 minutes long, and it will make you want to play the game again.  Also, the song will be stuck in your head, you’re welcome.

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Milky Way Time-lapses

Time-lapses, they are so fun to watch when they are done well, and when National Geographic features one, you can bet that it’s superbly done.  Well, below you can watch a fairly long, 3.5 minute, time-lapse of the milky way rising and setting over various different places.

I’m really surprised about the first 30 seconds though.  The earthquake in L.A. that caused the blackout, that’s pretty interesting.  I don’t remember being able to see the Milky Way from the Blackout of 2003, but then again, I wasn’t really looking for it.

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The Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

It’s that time of year again, vacation time.  Specifically, The Grand Canyon, more specifically, rafting down it.  Yes, I’ve been to both Rims, and now I am going to be rafting down the canyon for 3 days.  It is most likely going to be some of the funnest times I’ve ever had.  In addition to this rafting trip, I will also be making sequel visits to Bryce & Zion National Parks.  It’s kind of annoying that I’ll be there durring the same exact time of the year as my first trip, but hey, I will never pass up a trip to a National Park.

This is a shorter trip then usual for me, but still, expect the same limited posting capabilities while in Vacation mode.  Unless chris takes over that is.  But I don’t think that will happen.

See you next week sometime.