Sunday, July 26, 2009

The effects of light on root growth in mint. a pseudoscientific effort.

I am starting with six. cuttings of spearmint all from the same plant. I cut them to the same number of leaves and removed the bottom two sets of leaves. I then put them in two jars full of tap water. I then covered one with a opaque plastic bag. Hopefully these two sets are similar enough that we can see a difference if there is one in the growth of roots with and without light. One concern I have is a difference in temp caused but the bag. oh well I can think of no real simple way to control for that.


This needs tested because I have been making wine bottle hydroponics for mint that are clear. wine bottle hydroponic mint
For other mint thoughts check out: Making a good mojito.

Preliminary results DAY 3:
roots are sprouting in 5 of the six available spots on the roots in the light and 2 of the six spots on the roots in the dark. Surprising to me. was it heat? does light stimulate root growth. can anyone propose a better experiment to sort this out?

FINAL RESULTS day 14: no difference. the two are indistinguishable

Building a Blernsball Futurama pinball machine.

Long term project (read as will never happen).
Important features:
multiball.
hit ball here to win game.

There is one futurama pinball machine that I can find on google.

I would love to try it but there is a only one in existence and the link to the guys blog is dead.
(UPDATE: Futurama Pinball)

BTW what is Kang doing in there?

Preventing a MacBook charger from breaking




I have since figured out how to fix a broken macbook charger. Instructions here.



If there is anything that Apple does worse then making their products affordable it is building chargers that last.There were two points at which the old charger would break.

I went through two chargers on my old powerbook g4. Both places slowly lost the connection. I would bend them to make it and eventually they failed. I eventually bought an off brand one that was a little better and alot cheaper.

So I told myself that this time would be different. with my new MacBook I am using a piece of string wrapped tight around the cord. I am doing this under the assumption that the charger breaks because the cord is pulled to to tight an angle and this string will allow for a more gentle bend.

Any thoughts?



Now what I really want to know is how to fix macbook or powerbook chargers. I am sure there are some that could be fixed. See link in comment section

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Man sculpture cast in a bottle attempt

cast man in a bottle figure sculpture
Well this did not quite work.
I attempted to pour a lost foam man in a bottle. The trick was to use flexible foam that is used to insulate pipes. The copper pipe is used as the pour spout and the investment in normal play sand. This is an attempt because I did not pull the pipe out quick enough and the head got stuck. Gonna keep working on this technique.













Here is my next attempt still in the foam.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

how to make a great mojito



Basic premise: no one orders a mojito for the soda water.

However will need to buy soda water or make your own soda water.



Step one: Grow mint. This is a very important step. Mint at the grocery store is expensive and you will not put enough in if you are paying $3 a drink for the mint alone. Shown on the right are Curly Mint, Spear Mint, Irish Mint and Banana Mint.

Step two: pour two shots of white rum over a big hand full of mint leaves. Smash it up a bit with a fork.

Step Three: stir a large tablespoon of white sugar into the rum and mint mix.

Step four: Juice two small limes and cut a third into 8ths. Add the juice to the rum and pour the rum and juice over ice. Add 4 of the lime 8ths to the drink.

Step five: titrate with club soda to taste.

Curly mint and ireland mint.
curly mint
ireland mint










Banana mint and spearmint
banana mint
spearmint

Friday, July 3, 2009

rotometals coupon code 10%

10% off this weekend with coupon code "BANG"
This is where I get the zinc I use for my casting.
RotoMetals

Learn how to cast your own belt buckle.
or lost foam packaging peanut sculpture.

fish cast belt bucklelost foam packing peanuts bull

Current codes, if any, are always listed on the right sidebar of this page! So check back often.