A few fun things

First, if you didn't know, I'm a bit of a DIY (do-it-yourself) kinda guy. I'm not saying I'm great at any of it, but it's fun and worthwhile.

Well, I stumbled across a few great DIY websites. One deals with how to make your own wind turbine and a variety of other projects, including how to make solar panels (almost) from scratch. There's even a page about how to make your own turbo jet engine. (Of course, this made me conjure up all sorts of wild ideas, and I briefly pondered making a jetpack. Then I briefly pondered the natural consequence of any jetpack that I'd design: instantaneous death and I thought I'd forgo the idea.)

The other website is Instructables, which features how-to projects. You'll find everything here. From the strange and rather beautiful (turn an old suitcase into an ottoman!) to the rather damn helpful, just about every cool food idea ever.

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I also came across a link that intrigued me: a draft of the future, the interplanetary weather report. I've been trying to track down the temperature readings (if they are available) from the Opportunity and Spirit Rovers, as I'd like to make a little widget that tells you the current temp on Mars and then the temperature in a paradise like Fargo, ND, or my current hometown, Cambridge, MN. (Today's low was -13 F.) If anyone's interested, maybe I'll try to learn the code real quick-like.

Stephen Colbert and NASA, BFF

(image credit: NASA)

In case you hadn't heard, over the past few months NASA and friends have been tricking out the International Space Station, adding rooms, fixing the plumbing, and so on. During the course of this home makeover space edition, they've added a new nodule, or room, to the space station. Well, to get people excited, they decided to hold a contest to give it a name. NASA provided four options, Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture, but allowed write-ins too. Well, Stephen Colbert exhorted his viewers to stuff the ballot box, and they've done so. Colbert is now the leader, far and away, though it remains to be seen whether NASA will actually follow through with it. In any case, head over to the site and make your suggestion. And yes, I followed the crowd and voted Colbert. I love this sort of stuff.

And a side note: with the recent additions, the international space station is actually so bright it's pretty easy to spot from the ground with the naked eye. (According to the wonderful website spaceweather.com, it has an apparent magnitude of -4. In English, that means the ISS is about as bright as Venus.)

Even cooler, you can type in your zipcode and it will give you a heads-up of what will be....well...above your head on a given night.