Wednesday Cool Links: The Flying Stuff, ...

Solar botics
March 20, 2013

Solarbotics and the Useless Box have been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article "Looking for Something Useful to Do With Your Time? Don't Try This"! It is dedicated to the historical overview of the uselessness starting with its invention in the 1950s to nowadays. The useless box can take many guises, names and materials to be made of, but the initial impulse for pure purposelessness keeps on fascinating " tinkerers and thinkers alike". It's an interesting read, check it out if you haven't already. And now to our traditional portion of links:

"Wings" by Dukno Yoon
Not sure whether these would qualify as jewellery, mobile or art piece, I think - a little bit of everything, but definitely these look cool. By using this mechanical structure jeweler and metalsmith Dukno Yoon explores the nature of movement of the wing, and the interactive relationship with the body.
This is What Happens When You Run Water Through a 24hz Sine Wave
First it might seem that the water stream is vibrating only because the hose is doing the same, but when you get to about 1:43 in the video, it gets almost eerie, as if the water is running upwards.
A Hovering Magnetic Cloud and Other Kinetic Sculptures by Laurent Debraux
Kinetic sculptures by artist Laurent Debraux using primarily magnets, ferrofluid and metal objects with a touch of vintage. More stuff on his youtube channel.
A million times (Time Dubai) by Humans since 1982
What happens if you orchestrate 288 clocks to wave their hands in a specific fashion? Pretty mesmerizing, I say...
Retrotechtacular: flying foot-soldiers are coming for you (sixty years ago)
Here's a remarkable piece of the 1950s experimental military technology- a single-rider flying platform. Two rotors are mounted underneath and provide enough lifting power to hover the platform above the ground.

Also, according to the Wall Street Journal Useless Box  has also been called a "green machine" as one of its inherent attributes is energy efficiency. Our links are also very… green! They last only until you click them, leave minimal environmental footprint, with the exception of, maybe, brain. But, you know, that regenerates, so grow some more neurons by the next time we'll see you here!

MORE POSTS

April 6, 2016
Wednesday Links: Transparent Aluminum, G...

Transparent Aluminum Well, technically not exactly aluminum, but aluminum-based ceramic called aluminum oxynitride. Still with quite magical properties. (Via Makezine) Concealed Layers of Product Life Renee Verhoeven's grad project explores the relationship between anatomy and mobility in the series of gloves, using laser cutting. (Via Mocoloco) Asian Snack Enamel Pins These lovely pins by giantrobot.com […]

January 20, 2025
Creality K1 Hot-End Comparisons

Let's play "Spot the differences"! We received some new inventory, and one of these things ...was not like the other (Sesame alumni, we are!). FYI, here are some differences between the K1 series of hot-ends. I don't believe them to be "OMG!" differences, but just worth noting. We've had good results with both styles, but […]

May 10, 2006
Solarbotics SolarSpeeder competition

The Western Canadian Robot Games are close at hand (umm... this weekend!), and in response to popular request, we're cranking up the SolarSpeeder contest again! Ever built a Solarbotics SolarSpeeder? Bring it down to the games, enter at our booth (free!), and we'll run a SolarSpeeder target race. Aim your racer at a 10cm (4") […]

May 14, 2015
Make Something Useless Useful Update

We've been trying to Make Something Useless Useful since 2012. In order to do that we've been donating a percentage of past sales of the Useless Box to Plan Canada. In year 2013 $5,000 went to Plan Canada' Gift of Hope School Construction in Honduras.

Solarbotics Ltd Logo
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.