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It isn't for everyone, but Lindsay sells several books on how to convert or build alternative fuel cars. From my last catalog (not everyone is online, so get the dead tree catalog - every geek should have it anyway) I recall books on cars that run on Steam, Wood, Hydrogen, and Elctric. Some of the designs are more dangerious than you want to use, and some are obsolete, but they are still a good starting point. Convert your current engine to a new fuel, replace the engine with something else, or build your own horseless carrage.

Expiriment with weird things like the Atkinson cycle engine, tesla turbine, Stirling cycle engine. Make a solar charger with cells you build yourself. Make your own alcohol. Put a windmill on the roof and get free power (good luck overcoming some pesty laws of physics on this one). There is probable something about fuel cells in there too.

It is summer, between the boat, mowing the lawn, projects, and just playing with the dog, I won't be in very much except for work.

However I do plan on using some books as reference materials for various scientific expiriments. (get the full paper catalog, a lot of the good stuff isn't shown online). Someone in my neighborhood should make his own transisters for instance.

Although every one in a while there is a lazy rainy night when I wish I has some books to read, I do most of my reading in winter.

Check out Lindsay books. Make sure you get a dead tree catalog, not all their books are online. They have books on how to do a lot of cool things that you can apply. Glass, sheet metal, poured metal, pottery, Plastic (injection or vacuum) molding. All on a dot it yourself from scraps. Most of their books are from the early 1900's, so they are obsolete compared to modern mythods, but still useful. Note that you would have to be crazy to do some of what they will tell you how to do. It would still be fun to do it though.

Yahoo has a group of Hobbicast If you are interested in metal casting (my personal interest). I'm sure there are other groups for those interested in other materials.

Have fun!

Personally, I'd think that something like 30+Ghz line-of-signt microwave would work for connecting cities, but I doubt there would be enough people with the required knowledge to set that up in every city. That, and although the actual transciever equipment might not cost that much ($400 or so, homebuilt) the comm towers to put it on would be a lot more difficult/expensive.

Then again, maybe somebody will take a page from Dave Gingery's books and build the towers from pop-cans ;)

Personally, I'd love to be involved in such a project, but I'm so far out in the middle of nowhere that I'm not sure of the use. Although I do have a printed circuit board lab sitting around here, and it would be fun.

I didn't have Lego kits, I had a pile of Legos parts. I had a pile of resistors, caps, wires switches, motors, batteries, lights, some electrical tape, and a soldering iron. I built model rockets. I never bought a pre-made one.

First off, what you can do lies in your statement:

Quit shopping at Toys-R-Us. Give your kid a small hammer, some nails, and some scrap wood - let him build a tree house, a downhill racer, anything! Find things that he can take apart, and put back together (ok, at first he will be a "one-way-mechanic" - but teach him how to go both ways as time goes on). Get those resistors, etc - teach him how to build a motor, a telegraph, a generator, etc. Get your kid a copy of this book TODAY! If you have ever seen this book, you know that kids of yesterday were, by far, much more serious "self-starters" and experimenters than they are today.

You know what to do - so do it! As your kid grows older, teach him how to pull apart cars, computers, etc. If he wants to focus on software, let him - but try to teach him the hardware side as well - because knowing BOTH is very useful.

Encourage him to study his science, and to take shop classes, as well as drafting (CAD?) classes as he grows. Foster in him not just how to fix things, or how to build things - but how to design new things. Further, teach him how to work off-the-shelf stuff into new things (what I mean by this is learning the ability to look at an off-the-shelf item as a design object, rather than just the object itself, so that it can be incorporated into larger creations - like how to take a certain water valve, and use it and change it in ways for a totally new application).

Trips to the junk yard and yard sales become part finding expeditions! Don't neglect metalwork (my downfalling, until recently!) - heck, give him a welding rig or torch when he is 10 - but teach him proper respect - that it isn't a toy - but a tool that can cause harm, but can also cause much GREATER creation and invention! Build a gocart together! Or how about a wind generator (would go quite nice with the treehouse)? Convert a lawnmower to radio control! Build model rockets from gift wrapping tubes! Build a spud-launcher!

Want to foster creativity in him RIGHT NOW if he is less than 10 years old (hell, even if he is 10 years old or more)? Teach him how to make paper airplanes. Teach him how they fly, why they fly, how to "control" them (flaps, rudders, etc). Then, bring in origami folding techniques to make unique style planes (realistic tails, cockpits, and wing shapes are easily possible - especially once you know the swan folding techniques). Maybe build a hot air balloon with tissue paper?

The possibilities are endless - but I will end here. The gist of creative learning is to stop being extremely protective of your child (remember that book I refered you to? It shows how to make lead acid batteries! For KIDS!), and start being a parent and a teacher. The fact that you are bemoaning the loss of building toys reflects that you already know this. Take it to the next level...

Lindsay has republished this wonderful book. Some of the info is dated, but it is all interesting. (And an electric engine was never pratical, but it is still fun to build)

They'll love you forever if you leave the parts to assemble a simple mill machine in a back room.

Bah, just tell 'em how to make their own!

My experience comes from messing with recycling plastic on a hobbyist level - remolding plastic soda bottles and the like. It can be done very cheaply - see description for this book.

The description of the case - brittle, shinier than the original - sounds like plastic that has been remolded. I propose that the counterfeiters might be just remolding the original cases. Any plastics engineers want to comment?