|
|
Sunday, January 5, 2003
|
|
| |
If you have a pressing need for weaponry from the Lord of the Rings, Arms of Valour has been licensed by the Peter Jackson's movie to provide exact reproductions of the props.
It is unlikely that Sting glows in the presence of an Orc, but the prices seem reasonable for this sort of prop.
5:59:12 AM 
|
|
Elisha Gray came within a whisker of being known as the inventor of the telephone, but he did invent the musical telegraph.
It is interesting to note that Gray founded the parent firm of Western Electric - the manufacturing arm of AT&T when AT&T was an important force in technology. Even more curious is that he was associated with Oberlin College.
The Gray link comes from a listing of mostly obscure electronic instruments. Most of the pieces are terse (with the exception of the Theremin), but it gives the curious investigator a start.
The RCA Synthesizer is particularly interesting ... it was built by a company with a major stake in music with the intention of electronically creating marketable audio.
5:58:58 AM
|
|
At the risk of being labeled a bandwidth hog by your service provider you can look at short films from Endorphin Productions. Dozens of large (20 megabyte range) movies to watch of exotic cars, California locations (the Monterey Bay Aquarium for example) and a few events.
Bond fans may be interested in the Aston Martin Vanquish piece.
It is surprising to see this type of site these days as moving bits isn't cheap and the cost of ad space has fallen dramatically (each movie seems to have a leading ad).
5:58:41 AM
|
|
And for a bit of the obscure. Small gas turbine engines suitable for powering model aircraft have been mentioned here over the past few months. The problem is that these aircraft are exotic and you risk a massive investment in time and money. If you only want to play with the engine you can always follow the lead of this industrious Dutchman (the flying or frying Dutchman?).
Hopefully people with skis, snowboards and rollerblades won't follow the example.
5:58:28 AM
|
|
But there's more - and this is a good excuse for one of you (hi Dave!) to take some time off and fly to the motherland. Human powered vehicles can do quite a bit for moving folks around, but ice racing seems to push things a bit.
5:58:05 AM
|
|
|
|
|
