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You can make plastic from potatoes, ref also bioplastics: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Potato-Plastic!/

Fertiliser and more: http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.ie/2007/11/314-peak-oil-and-fertilizer-no-problem.html

A hypothetical civilisation that didn't bother with oil would have had little difficulty finding substitutes, in my opinion.

I've used a Mont Blanc rollerball refill inside a G2 Pilot case effectively. I get an awesome result at a reasonable price. Article here on the tweak.

My only flame is I want to order more refills, but the Mont Blanc refill website is showing up with an expired certificate. Guys, renew! I want to throw money at you!

Oh, the robots can climb trees, there's an Instructable for that;
http://www.instructables.com/id/Tree-Climbing-Robot/

Sure.

Background: I hurt my arm pretty badly in 2010 after (of course) helping someone move. I developed tendinitis in my shoulder, elbow, and wrist, and did a serious re-evaluation of my ergonomics.

I built a standing desk out of 2 x 4s and my old desktop, a piece of cheap particle board I've been hauling around for a decade or so. I already had an articulated keyboard tray I'd salvaged from a previous employer, so I put that on it for fine adjustments.

I built a so-called "tie-fighter" keyboard out of an old Goldtouch. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-vertical,-ergonomic-tie-fighter-ke/

I also built a raised mouse platform to go next to it and screwed it to the keyboard tray, so that my arms would remain at the same height for typing and mousing.

I got an inexpensive ergo mouse. http://www.amazon.com/Vertical-Ergonomic-Optical-Mouse-Ergoguys/dp/B001FWKA7A/

I got an anti-fatigue standing mat, the kind which are used by cashiers and such. http://www.amazon.com/Crown-Comfort-Antifatigue-Zedlan-CK0023BL/dp/B000PTO8MW/

Probably the most expensive thing I did was buy a new, drafting-height chair. See other comments in this thread about bar stools; same idea.

The end result is an ergonomic workstation that is almost perfectly suited to my ergonomic needs. I no longer pronate my wrists; the only tendon that gets tensed is the one around the back of my elbow. My back doesn't hurt from sitting anymore and I have better circulation overall. I would say I sit down about 25% of the time when computing, though it varies from day to day. Some days I won't sit hardly at all, others I'll feel a bit lazy and sit maybe half the time.

I chose not to spend lots of money on a commercial standing desk or one of those movable ones. It seemed easy and approachable to do some simple carpentry and build one myself. The whole project increased my awareness of computing ergonomics, and I think my body is happier for it.

Burn the mother fuckers already, and get on with your life.

Yeah, but those of us who don't have a life can use half-dead Android phones as Arduino controllers.

  Or we could use them with AndroUAV to control our own drones.

http://www.amarino-toolkit.net/

http://developer.android.com/tools/adk/index.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Androino-Talk-with-an-Arduino-from-your-Android-d/

http://code.google.com/p/androuav/

If he has a son or friends and family he can joust with:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-design-and-build-a-combat-robot/# (PDF)

I'm not much of a sports fan myself. I'll watch an occasional baseball game or football game on one of the local digital OTA channels* but that's about it.

Anyhow, I've got a couple of Rokus and I've poked around the Channel Store to see what's available. The sports section has major league baseball, the NBA, the NHL, and others. The notes for the MLB channel state that the games it offers live are in HD. Don't know about the others.

So far as I know, the NFL still insists on only allowing access to streaming content through their own website, so that one isn't easily available. To my disappointment, the streaming live Olympics coverage from NBC is only accessible if you've got a cable or satellite TV subscription. Clearly, there are a few sports sources out there that don't quite get it yet. :-) Still, there are opportunities to watch streaming sports out there that look pretty decent.

* Side note: An interesting geek project if you have some patience is to build your own small fractal tv antenna for less than $50. I built a couple based upon the increased fractal layout that the article's author links to in the comments. They work pretty well. I'm pulling in several more channels with those than I could see through my Dish Network subscription.

I'm not much of a sports fan myself. I'll watch an occasional baseball game or football game on one of the local digital OTA channels* but that's about it.

Anyhow, I've got a couple of Rokus and I've poked around the Channel Store to see what's available. The sports section has major league baseball, the NBA, the NHL, and others. The notes for the MLB channel state that the games it offers live are in HD. Don't know about the others.

So far as I know, the NFL still insists on only allowing access to streaming content through their own website, so that one isn't easily available. To my disappointment, the streaming live Olympics coverage from NBC is only accessible if you've got a cable or satellite TV subscription. Clearly, there are a few sports sources out there that don't quite get it yet. :-) Still, there are opportunities to watch streaming sports out there that look pretty decent.

* Side note: An interesting geek project if you have some patience is to build your own small fractal tv antenna for less than $50. I built a couple based upon the increased fractal layout that the article's author links to in the comments. They work pretty well. I'm pulling in several more channels with those than I could see through my Dish Network subscription.

Google found: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-Substitute/

Why not build things that require big current / power stuff?

Rail gun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4pL2fZQBo&feature=related

Tesla Coil: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-Tesla-Coil/

Jacob's ladder: http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/212_spring2005.web.dir/kenneth_sweet/

You could totally over-build the stuff so it looks awesome and lasts a few generations!

Also, on a non-electrical note, these: http://www.en.boehm-stirling.com/ are totally awesome and come in kit form.

This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood.
Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact:

A piezo gas grill igniter with a bit of wire taped to the ground clip makes a high voltage/LOW AMPERAGE circuit killer which leaves _no visible burn marks_. I've used one of these shoved into a spark plug boot as a small engine spark plug tester for several years.

Link has good pics, but ignore the "taser" nonsense:

http://www.instructables.com/id/grill-ignitor-mini-taser/

It's a waste to argue with people when you can submit a situation which they can deal with simply. They expect customers who don't know anything, but being POLITE works a treat. Act mystified as to why the magic box doesn't work and the hard disk shows No Operating System.

"Hurf, derf, I dunno why it don't power on. I can has new one?" and you'll be the EASY customer who didn't CHALLENGE anyone!

Sorry, these are just "pretend" gadgets for gadget-buyers. Just the kind of overprized gadgets you can get for any hobby. Usually, they say things like "for the serious foo lover", or "for the real foo conoisseur". Bullocks.

And gadget-buyer and geek is not the same thing. Even though gadget-buyers are the kind of people who run around telling everyone that they are real geeks.

This is a geek barbecue

This is a geek barbecue

And so is this

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Bacon-Soap/

The problem with watches, really, is that they are so inaccurate. Virtually all watches are simply wrong all the time.

The problem is the technology. We over-engineer chronometers and this gets us ever-closer to the right time, but never really gives us a completely accurate timepiece.

This watch uses completely different technology to improve its accuracy to better than any other watch (really, it's phenomenal), and at the same time makes it able to withstand magnetic fields and shock:

Indestructable Watch

Here ya GO. Be sure and pick a spot where you can get at the reset button.

Josh wanted to make sure a couple of credits were given out that didn't make it into the video.

• The Unicorn design is from deviantART user Kholran.
• The crossbow design is from Chris Barnardo.

Pretty much this. http://www.instructables.com/id/Awesome-paper-plane!!/

5th picture in step 1.

The "Best" is going to greatly depend on lots of things including, but not limited to, how well you folded it, throw it, paper type, relative humidity, altitude, etc.

That said, I ran across this a few years ago:
http://www.instructables.com/id/KlineFogleman-Airfoil-1-Paper-Airplane/
It requires very accurate folding, but if done right with the right kind of paper and flown in good conditions it can be impressive. The airfoil turns some of the drag into lift and stability. The two guys that patented the airfoil wrote a book about it some years ago.

Also, there is a difference between making a plane for record distance and making a plane for record time aloft. The former needs minimal drag while the latter needs maximum lift.

For many years I made this plane during lectures. The stability of the flight down the lecture theatre was unmatched by any other designs I tried.

In a slightly different vein, but still made of paper, these "walkalong" gliders can stay up a long time. Longer than any conventional paper airplane thrown from the ground. See the video:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Indoor-Paper-Airplane-Walkalong-Glider/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Annular-Ring-Paper-Plane.

The key is to throw at just the right speed. Too fast and it cuts corners. Too slow and it will nose dive. Of all the paper airplanes I've thrown, the reward is the best when you get it just right. With a little luck of course.

As always, it depends on your goals. The Harrier (or Nakamura) is indeed an excellent plane if you're looking for aerobatic performance. A slight adjustment of the ailerons (and much practice) can have it doing barrel rolls, loops, or any combination of tricks. It is one of my favorite. For flight duration and gliding, I prefer a flying wing design similar to the Surfer with different winglet folds based on flight conditions. And for distance, the old missile or dart style airplane (probably the first paper airplane you ever learned how to fold) generally performs best. Get those folds nice and tight and throw as hard as you can at 45 degrees and then go chase it down.

I remember this from an old over 30 years ago.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-the-Barnaby-Paper-Aeroplane/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Awesome-paper-plane!!/

due to its erratic flight, it let you use the full gymnasium, much more exciting than anything that flew in a straight line....

My favorite paper airplane is the ring.

Not a total lack of upgrade.
http://www.instructables.com/id/apple-disk-II-Retro-ipod-charger/
http://recyclemac.wordpress.com/
http://retromaccast.ning.com/

Failing any of this, they will hold a door open in a moderate wind.

I recently saw an image of a Pi-Cake with the caption, "It's cake. But it's pi. But it's CAKE. But it's PI. BUT IT'S CAKE!!!"

After a little research, I even found a recipe for pi-cake. Pi-Cake
While an irrational pursuit, it looks to be a tasty one. Anyone thinking about making one?

Uh, OK. You may not be aware of this, but when a person donates a book, he no longer has the book!

You sure about that?

Are you sure the yellow pixels were just noise?
http://www.instructables.com/id/Yellow-Dots-of-Mystery-Is-Your-Printer-Spying-on-/?
I think they "finally fixed that problem" when the pixel counts got high enough that individual pixels were no longer visible.

No offence, but is there any good reason to use domain name shorteners when posting links in forums / blogs? Surely it's easier and quicker to just copy and paste the original url, which actually has the additional benefit of giving us a clue as to where it leads to? Or maybe you're interested in the click stats Goo.gl provides?

Having said that, I can see from your /. comments history that you're not an idiot so I did follow the link, which for anyone else interested, resolves to http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-Ball/.

Who doesn't have a toaster?

Though it might be slightly too expensive something like the usb business card below would be cool.
This device acts as a usb keyboard and will type text when activated (by pressing caps lock 3 times)

http://www.instructables.com/id/USB-PCB-Business-Card/

Here's a howto on that topic. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Fool-a-Fingerprint-Security-System-As-Easy-/

I have also heard that if you swipe any finger enough times it'll eventually accept it.

Does it count if you do it on a breadboard?
DIY SRAM

I prefer my vegetables grown in cages, especially my watermelons.

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-EyeWriter/

Yep. There's a few others out there as well. Low cost head mounted eye trackers are not novel anymore.

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-EyeWriter/

SparkleShare is a free open-source Dropbox-like GUI for GIT repos. Once setup using passwordless PGP keys, non-technical users see and use SparkleShare exactly as they would DropBox. While under the hood is tried-and-true GIT source code version control. You can even set it up as PCI DSS since it only uses your own infrastructure.

On Ubuntu I also installed Rabbit VCS which gave me a range of right-click GIT options (like check-in, merge, etc.) Seriously, I failed earlier attempts setting up either Bazaar or GIT, whereas trying to get SparkleShare setup I finally succeeded and wow, this is a seriously cool project.

http://sparkleshare.org/
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/03/set-up-sparkleshare-with-your-own.html
http://www.moosechips.com/2011/02/sparkleshare-testing-ubuntu/#comments
https://github.com/hbons/SparkleShare/wiki/How-to-set-up-your-own-server
http://is101507.students.fhstp.ac.at/?p=33
http://www.instructables.com/id/SparkleShare-for-OSX-a-Dropbox-alternative/

[Note: To 'remove' a SparkleShare client from the infrastructure pool, revoke the PGP keys at the server-level.]

Power consumption might show some major differences. The ARM chips sip power compared to x86 brethren, but the little Atmel chips sip even less. Plus, Arduinos can be simplified down to the chip itself, if you're prototyping and building custom devices... here's the best explanation of how simple you can go: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-RRRRRRRRRRBA-or-What-They-Dont-Teach-You-in-/

I don't think the Pi will be that cheap ($3), that low power-consumption, or that easily integrated into truly tiny custom devices.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-Flashlight-Hack!!/

Our front porch has a small crawlspace under it, so last year I planted a subwoofer under the porch connected to an mp3 player loaded with a series of deep animal growls (may have been from Alien / horror movies), separated by about 30 seconds of silence. So, it was silent most of the time, but would periodically catch a kid just has he was coming up the steps. Many of the little ones ran away before they even got to the door, and didn't come back!

Soon-to-be-wife was very displeased, and we had lots of leftover candy. This year the subwoofer will be repurposed to make a sweet Oobleck monster. We'll see if I can get away with putting out a jar of realistic fake body parts nearby for "feedings".

I've seen this kind of design before. In fact, you can make it yourself: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Build-A-Walking-Robot---Passive-Walker/

Some other prior art: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/shc17/Passive_Robot/PassiveRobot_photos.htm

Obviously this is probably much better in certain ways but it's tough to call this thing groundbreaking

At the bottom of this page, you'll find a $20 CNC project.
http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-technology/channel-cnc/

http://www.radiationnetwork.com/ (scroll down for details on Geiger counter model numbers)

You ought to participate here
http://enenews.com/
(wtf seems down at the moment??)

I used a CDV-700
(with the DU sample on the side)
http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/cdmuseum2/radkits/cdv700.html
Then I soldered together one of these.
Dollar Store Digital Geiger Counter Hack
http://www.pskl.us/wp/?p=289
Then pick a spot and do 10 minute tests.

The drawback is I wasn't measuring the "floor" before 3.11 so I have no low floor to compare against, but the best I can tell it's trending down currently, and if anything I am building my own floor.

I now have been measuring the floor long enough that I can tell which way the overall situation is trending. I started in the 850's June and it's currently down in the 550's October, we most assuredly got dusted by something.

Things I learned from all this?

I will never be able to detect hot particles with this equipment.

Stay away from the RAIN, as it brings the shit down out of the sky onto the ground, just like a water truck keeps a dusty road muddy and dust free.

If you have a whole house air filter which was installed before 3-11 I highly suggest you change it, when I tested mine it was literally a hot object, and let me just say that was an eye opener.

There's also some software that you could use if you can't find the dollar store pedometer parts. also, most pedometer's are similar so if you know electronics, it's a simple matter to modify from pedometer to pedometer.

There are a few others out there now helping people with analog meters.
http://www.imagesco.com/geiger/geiger-counter-accessories.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Ustream-your-Geiger-Counter/step2/Free-Counter-Software/

Some other CDV-700 mods
http://home.comcast.net/~prutchi/index_files/cdv700pro.htm

Free Counter / Scaler Software
David Honigâ(TM)s free âoeCDV Counterâ program
http://www.anythingradioactive.com/CDVCounter/help.html (wtf 404 for the software, no problem use the guide there and download from our ham radio friends who wisely have us covered. http://www.qsl.net/k/k0ff/CDVCOUNTERZIP/CDVcounter-zip/

There are some charging money for counting software, I don't know about these, they look legit, I guess it comes down to your own abilities and what you want.
http://www.geigercounters.com/Software.htm
http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/page3.html

Opinion: If I lived in Japan, I would have sold everything and done anything to leave months ago.

Hopefully someone will mod this up so you (and others) don't miss the information.

To believe that the TSA will only stop traffic in Tennessee is unreasonable. That the TSA is now stopping traffic on an Interstate highway means that ANY Interstate highway can be a target for their abuse of the 4th Amendment. The Tennessee experiment is just a trial balloon to see if the public will roll over and go back to sleep. It looks like they will, so you can count on the TSA stopping YOU sometime in the near future on ANY Interstate you travel. After that will come traffic stops on main traffic arteries in major cities, followed by stops set up at traffic nexus points in smaller communities.
"I have nothing to hide", you say? You'd better read:
http://www.aclu.org/drug-law-reform-immigrants-rights-racial-justice/know-your-rights-what-do-if-you
or
http://www.instructables.com/id/What-to-do-if-the-police-stop-you-1/

IF this is just a type of Federal work program, employing people as TSA agents, I'd rather have a restoration of the CCC. At least we'd get our infrastructure restored in the process.

I tried Google build your own laptop, but I didn't find the "three instructions" you mentioned. The closest I found to "six appropriate components" was this tutorial mentioning a "barebook", a bundle of a motherboard, case, screen, keyboard, and trackpad. One problem with buying a barebook and matching parts, or with mail ordering any laptop for that matter, is that you don't get to try the screen, keyboard, and trackpad before you commit to buying it. But it's worse with barebooks because most brick-and-mortar stores that I've been in don't appear to sell barebooks and thus don't have any completed floor models on display.

For bonus points, how about powering them from a small wind turbine like this one?

here's one: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Microbial-Fuel-Cell-MFC-Part-II/
You can google up a bunch of alternatives, and buy simple kits if your budget runs to that. But the ingredients are cheap, you could save money kitting up a bunch yourself.

Well I just spent this weekend trying to find some neat physics to pep up my interest in amateur radio.
I am also angling to pep up my resume so I can wiggle into a job where there is a particle accelerator.

Here is an introduction to quantum physics with an emphasis on modern gadgets that use quantum phenomena.
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl?Type=TOC

Here is a pretty reasonable home quantum physics project.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Quantum-Laser-Micrometer-Nestors-Microm/?ALLSTEPS

An introduction to the Planck Constant and emission spectra.
http://www.radio-astronomy.org/educ/tutor2.htm

As I master the math, I plan to write my own tutorial and computation scripts using this tool.
http://sagemath.org/