How many cars do you have to totally destroy to get to this level of skill?

(more…)

A couple weeks ago, I got the itch to make some beer. I used to homebrew with my dad all the time, but it’s been years since we’ve made a batch. So I called him up and asked him to dig out all the equipment. In amongst it was the notebook he kept when we first started - the opening entry was dated 1992! So anyway, we got the ingredients, and set to brewing…

First, the steeping grains soak, until the water reaches 170 degrees.

(more…)

One of my co-workers, the intrepid David Wong, came across this scene of misfortune just a few blocks from the office. From the looks of it, the folding end of the lift broke off, and the car slid bass-ackward onto the pavement. The poor delivery guy apparently left in the back of an ambulance after riding the Aston to the ground.

Nitro-powered RC helicopters are breathtakingly expensive, noisy, hard to fly, and dangerous. So why not add a wireless video camera and a .45-cal 1911A1 pistol on the front?

It seems like you’d be better off with something in a smaller caliber with more magazine capacity and less recoil, like a 9mm Glock or even a .22LR, but I suppose that when one is working on a project like this, one uses that which is just laying around the shop at the time…

The next logical step here is to make this thing web-enabled so people from all over the globe can log in and fly it remotely!

For those who weren’t at the 2008 NMRA awards ceremony at PRI (or those who were, but want to see it again), here’s the video we shot:

When I was a kid, I used to beg my dad to hit stuff on the freeway, like cardboard boxes, styrofoam coolers, and so on. His response was always, “What if that box is filled with concrete?” I took his advice to heart, and I steer clear of the many ladders, patio chairs, hollow-core doors, and abandoned shoes that litter Interstate 5. But not everyone feels the same way. I don’t know if it was a case of Jeep owner arrogance (”I have a 4x4 and can drive over anything!”) that started it in the first place, but driving until the leaking gas tank finally forced this guy to stop and address the problem is definitely just stupidity. In any case, here’s what you get when you run over a mattress on the freeway…

From WranglerForum.com

In Australia, it’s not good enough to just get the tires hot with a burnout - you gotta rub the sides of the Ute on the pavement, too…