Moonshiners’ cow shoes

Posted on May 14, 2012 by My shared feed

Cow Shoes

This is one of a pair of cow shoes worn by moonshiners during Prohibition to hide their tracks from prohibition agents. From a 1922 edition of The Evening Independent:

A new method of evading prohibition agents was revealed here today by A.L. Allen, state prohibition enforcement director, who displayed what he called a "cow shoe" as the latest thing front the haunts of moonshiners.

The cow shoe is a strip of metal to which is tacked a wooden block carved to resemble the hoof of a cow, which may be strapped to the human foot. A man shod with a pair of them would leave a trail resembling that of a cow.

The shoe found was picked up near Port Tampa where a still was located some time ago. It will be sent to the prohibition department at Washington. Officers believe the inventor got his idea from a Sherlock Holmes story in which the villain shod his horse with shoes the imprint of which resembled those of a cow's hoof.

I think I saw a woman wearing a pair of these on 6th Ave last week. (via nyer photo booth)

Tags: fashion   Prohibition   Sherlock Holmes

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F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Coding Standard Documentation

Posted on May 14, 2012 by My shared feed

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Stiq Figures, April 30 – May 6: SG-1000 edition

Posted on May 14, 2012 by My shared feed
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something - meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition.
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For most of us who've grown up outside of Asia, Sega's history as a gaming hardware manufacturer begins with the Sega Master System, released on North American shores in June of 1986 to the tune of $200. In truth, the Sega Master System was actually the Sega Mark III, which itself was the third iteration of Sega's real first foray into hardware design, the SG-1000.

The SG-1000 (an acronym of "Sega Game" 1000) was released in Japan on July 15, 1983 for ¥15,000, which at the time amounted to $62.48 USD, assuming an average exchange rate of ¥240.06 to the dollar. (Coincidentally, this was the also the day that Nintendo launched the Famicom.) Armed with a blistering

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Instantly Obliterating Data on Magnetic Media thanks to the Data Killer series

Posted on May 14, 2012 by My shared feed
At the Information Security Expo, Platform of Japan presented Data Killer, a device that can erase data instantly. Data on a hard disk is recorded using magnetic alignments. Data Killer obliterates data instantly, by using a strong magnetic field to change all the magnetic alignments to the same direction. “To put it simply, this is a device for wiping out magnetic data. Its strong magnetic field obliterates the data on a hard disk, so you can think of it as a “data crusher.” ...

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Pheromone by Christopher Marley

Posted on May 14, 2012 by My shared feed

Pheromone by Christopher Marley

We stumbled upon the work of Christopher Marley while at High Point Market this year and we’re sure glad we did. His Pheromone collection incorporates everything from insects, fossils, crystals, and even feathers. For 15 years, he has been collecting and arranging these pieces by hand. Each insect or object is laid out symmetrically and become studies in both color and scale.

Pheromone by Christopher Marley

Marley agreed to answer some questions about his work and the subject matter that he’s inspired by:

What drew you into the subject matter?

I started out working with insects and my fascination with them grew out of a lifelong phobia of them. Of course, I have now overcome it (with a vengeance!) but I used to travel extensively as a print and runway model and, being quite a nature buff, I was in the jungles every chance I got, usually looking for reptiles. The insects were my bane however. One day in Thailand I decided to face my repulsion head on and carefully observed some beetles. I shortly fell in love with them from a design perspective – so functional, so minimalist, so exquisitely adorned. Soon my phobia switched polarity and I couldn’t get enough of them.

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Defying gravity for new user interfaces

Posted on May 11, 2012 by My shared feed

[Jinha Lee] at the MIT Media Lab created a new interface allowing new ways to modify and play with 3D objects. It’s called ZeroN, and it’s nothing short of a futuristic device straight out of Star Trek.

ZeroN is simply a platform for levitating a small spherical permanent magnet in 3D space. It does this by mounting a hall effect sensor on an electromagnet. The hall sensor measure the strength of the magnetic field of the ball every few milliseconds and keeps the spherical magnet levitated. To move the object in 3D space, a few webcams track the ball over the platform and tell the electromagnet to move on a CNC-like x y table.

[Jinha] showed off a lot of cool stuff that is possible with the ZeroN; ping-pong is by far the coolest implementation, but it’s also possible to use the magnetic sphere to demonstrate n-body gravity or as a camera flying around a digital scene.

It’s a really amazing piece of work with an exceptional demo video. You can check that video out after the break. Thanks, [ferdinand] for sending this one in.

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Train horn attached to bicycle

Posted on May 11, 2012 by My shared feed

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201205080943 [Video Link] This fellow attached a train horn -- powered by compressed air in a scuba tank -- to his bicycle.


Honk And I'll Kill You: Train Horn Attached To Bicycle



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Whangapoua by Crosson Clarke Carnachan

Posted on May 11, 2012 by My shared feed

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Video: Homemade nine-cylinder radial engine is beautiful, short-lived

Posted on May 11, 2012 by My shared feed

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Homemade Radial Engine

Russell Sutton is a man after our own heart. The craftsman has spent the last four years building a nine-cylinder radial engine using a smattering of Honda XR600 singles for his airboat. After a little trial and error, Sutton discovered his creation is happier running off of liquid propane gas instead of gasoline. Years of hard work finally paid off when he recently started his monster creation for the first time. The elegant radial fires with a puff of smoke before before settling into a perfect hum. Unfortunately, the success is quickly marred by the sound of mechanical failure.

As it turns out, the cast piston sleeves Sutton used in his creation can't withstand the abuse of the radial. In addition, some of the pistons required shaving in order to work with the different stroke. Unfortunately, the shaving caused the pistons to delaminate their crown, causing further trouble. Despite the issues, Sutton seems to take the failure in stride and plans to correct the issues before firing up the engine one more time. We could all learn a thing or two from his resilience. View full article >>

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Look – someone added lightsabers to the goose vs. man video

Posted on May 10, 2012 by My shared feed

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[Video Link] It was funny already, but this takes it over the top.



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