Almost 2 years ago I made a short post about the 'Ultimate Casemod List'. At the time I thought the toaster - shown in the picture below - was the best modification.
 |  |
| BEFORE | AFTER |
That's the title given by the creator to this amazing case mod.
The videos can be found directly on YouTube here - or just make do with the one I've embedded below.
169 days to the Olympic Games in Beijing - at least it will be on the day this article is published.
Two things strike me about this.
That got me thinking about other interlocking rings.
The picture on the right shows 'Borromean rings'. Named after the rings on the coat of arms of the Borromeo family from Italy, although there are many examples of this arrangement much further back in time.
The interesting feature is that the rings do not actually interlock. The green ring is in front of the red ring, which is in front of the blue ring, which in turn is in front of the green ring. If you take away one ring the other two fall apart as well.
This symbol has been used across many cultures, often to represent a trinity of some sort, as for example happens in the Shinto belief-system with three realms - heaven, earth and the underworld.
 | Shinto temple north of Sakurai |
 | Temple detail - 1 |
 | Temple detail - 2 |
It can be seen in the computer game 'Guitar Hero' on scoreboards alongside the number 666 (supposedly the mark of Satan). If you turn the number 666 upside-down you get 999 and 13 divides exactly into 999,999.
The number 247 is the first whole number to be both divisible by 13 and have its digits add up to 13. Of course, 24/7 is a way of saying things go on all day and every day.
Let's hope that there's no real significance in all these numbers coming together this way.
Can't afford your own console yet - try this paper version of a Sony PSP.
Or perhaps you'd prefer a Nintendo - how about a nice minty blue DS Lite?
Happy half-term.
Are you still wondering what to do for the holiday?
The Stirling Engine is a very different type of engine to the internal combustion engine - the petrol or diesel engine in most vehicles.
In a Stirling Engine the energy comes from outside and the gases that do the work are sealed inside.
This German site - the link is to a translated version of their catalogue - is selling a papercraft kit of a Stirling Engine that works using a hot cup of tea or coffee.
There's a nice little video of the model in action.
Wikipedia has a detailed article about the Stirling Engine for those who want to know more.
The holiday is coming up and you might be at a loose end.
Why not try making this working model of a V12 internal combustion engine - only 1,978 pieces. The link is to a site with a nice gallery and some videos of it in action.
It is quite a feat of design for the people who produced this.
Wikipedia has a more detailed article about the internal combustion engine for those who want to learn about this.
An amazing electro-mechanical computer from the 1930's.
This site has pages scanned from a magazine of the time.
Not quite my colour for the strap but a cool timepiece all the same.
See more here - non-English text.
