Random Awesome Things

This made me lol:

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img812/7531/chatroulettetrollingmia.jpg

A passenger on a flight headed to South Florida caught a shot of the Space Shuttle Endeavor during liftoff out her window:
http://twitpic.com/4yg4ur

Nice. I think there's an oscilloscope that works very similarly:
http://labrigger.com/blog/2011/04/12/ipad-oscilloscope/

here is something pretty random:



I was digging in my box of legos, ( I love these things) and found one of my favorite creations! it's a 100% plastic battlebot!

It has a center hole measuring 5" wide X 1" tall. so, when i get my battlebot built, it should be able to fit snugly into that hole. or what i could do is use all the electronics for my battlebot, and add the big plastic sledgehammers as the weapon.. this would be great practice for me to see how gyro forces affect handling! it's symmetrical, so it should be pretty balanced.

and even at a hand cranking speed of about 300 or so RPM (grab from the top and twist), this thing can chuck stuff half its weight across the room!

Nice camden, I challenge your lego bar spinner with my lego pushy

first imma wait till summer, otherwise i'll be more distracted than i already am XD

I did realize you just pieced some random stuff together, but...I couldn't resist

I tried to create a replica with the pieces i had, and i beefed up your "pushy" so i thought it could withstand a medium speed hit... guess not.

and sorry for the blurry pic. i was chuckling when i took it

camden lego 1 : evan lego 0

post more pics of creations! i'll recreate em and fight em

Amateur Metallurgist develops new method of steel processing and a new variety of steel with interesting qualities
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/11/detroit-diyer-cooks-up-stronger-lighter-steel-shames-scientist/

it might not be able to hold an edge, but can it hold its shape on a battlebot?

Jeff, I normally like your posts on here but that. That was horrible. If I knew where you lived I'd slap you.

the control seems easy enough--with a clockwise motion (viewed from above), forward tilts to the left, reverse to the right, and turning right is tilts it forward and left reverse--pretty darn easy.

Also, we know that the minimum number of wheels for stability is 3, and we also know that 3 wheels also provides maximum normal force/traction on each wheel.

Hmmm--so how would 3 of these work? What about two wheels driven in the typical fashion (standard elevon mixing), and one like this?

How well would this work on a really heavy robot? Maybe isolate the motor and drive the hemisphere with a cable or a spring? (Never have to reverse the drive motor! Cheaper and lighter ESC's--maybe even just use a MOSFET "relay")

Good possibilities--I'm piqued.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwy6nY78sZk
Around 8 minutes in it gets really interesting.

thats y i love that show haha

Well, darnit! That's the second time I've linked something and then YouTube removed it. Sorry.

It showed a gigantic hummer-like vehicle, doing things like driving through brick walls and pulling a tow truck away. Eventually, they put explosives under a H2 (which blew it in half!), then used the same explosives under this behemoth, and it DROVE AWAY after the detonation!

Since I knew I would never even see one IRL, I didn't commit the name of it to memory, so no luck lookin' elsewhere for the vid.

Idk if as impressive but the nearby us pretty BA
http://www.swattrucks.com/news/vimeo.aspx

you know the drive system you guys mentioned has been implemented in robots! the first time i saw it i just thought it was genius!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0_tARpOo6g&feature=related

The truck on Top Gear was called The Marauder. It was awesome.
Here is some of the video, but cut up a bit, stupid copyright:

haha im about to do this

The current cutting-edge in prosthetic technology:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/gallery/2011-08/gallery-bionic-human-circa-2011

Dolphins are being observed in the middle of a major learning event: they've learned how to fish with conch shells, and it's spreading rapidly through populations around Australia:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-08/clever-new-fishing-method-conching-catching-australias-bottlenose-dolphins

SpaceX's new ridiculously awesome way to re-use nearly an entire Falcon 9. Simulations are complete (and promising), hence the rendering, and they are beginning to move on to physical tests of the systems to ensure they work as expected. My guess is it'll take at around another two years before this Falcon 9 variant is going through full flight testing.