LEGO Man in Space

On January 26, 2012, two ambitious 17-year-olds from Toronto, Canada, hatched an ingenious plan.  They spent a grand total of $400 on equipment: surplus weather balloons, dozens of tanks of helium, a GPS tracking system, and a small digital video camera.  What were they going to do?
Launch a LEGO man holding a plastic Canadian flag into the air attached to a weather balloon.  The boys (Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad) were clever.  The rigged the camera so you could see the LEGO ascending.  They filled the balloon with just enough air that it would pop once it entered the atmosphere so it would be within range to find it again.  They attached a GPS to it and tracked to the landing location.  They even sewed a little parachute for the camera so it wouldn't break on the way back down. Their plan succeeded without a glitch. The balloon reached the atmosphere.  The camera was retrieved and the footage was breathtaking.  The video is now up on YouTube-- and below!
Watch the flight of the LEGO man now:

Personalized Helicopter?!?!?!?

Please take note of these four links:

http://www.plansdelivery.com/furia4.htm
and
http://www.indianhelicopters.com/
and
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=123639
and
http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC%2020-27G.pdf

Also, remember that I first got the idea from the little ads in the back of old Popular Mechanics, "Build YOur Own Helicopter" kits, and, incidentally, I've found one of these ads in Googe Books.
Check it out!


INCOMPLETE POST: ONE LINK TO BE ADDED

The Mighty Lemon Drops!

Recently, I was at the library booksale and found a CD by a band called The Mighty Lemon Drops.  I had never heard of them before, but I liked their name, so I bought the CD (this time checking to make sure there was actually a CD inside) and listened to it-- and guess what: THEY ARE REALLY GOOD!  I'd reccommend them really highly.  Here is a link to my personal favorite song, My Shadow Girl.  Also today I've got a few sketches I drew some time ago but apparently haven't posted here before.  The first one is called Bobert Sees The World, and I have no idea what it's supposed to mean, but it's a cute little drawing.  You see the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and this bizarre helicopter creature thing; that must be what the world looks like.  The second is called Stopping to Say Hi While Walking His Cat, which not only did I like enough to put on a T-shirt, but it's just one of my favorite drawings I've done.  The third one is just one of these creepy baby things I used to draw a lot of.  I also have ANOTHER link, this one to the Deviantart page of my friend who does the creepy experimental films.  He is an artist, too, however, like his films, they're really creepy and gorey (some of them).  Check it out.  I have another friend, too, who recently made another song.  He's going to be sending me the CD soon, and then I'll post it here.
Random thought for the day:  I'm happy, because there is a Chipotle's burrito place coming to town!  I discovered them on the East Coast trip I went on over this past summer, and it's quite good, but I thought it was just an East Coast thing.  Apparently, though, it's not, so there is one coming in where the old Shoney's was that they tore down a while ago.  Yay!
Another random thought:  Currently I'm working on a list of my absolute favorite books of all time, for reference, and since a lot of them appeal to the nerd element, I'm going to post it here as soon as I finish it.
Yet another random thought: I want to make a small, one-person personalized helicopter based off of the designs in old Popular Mechanics so I can fly it to and from school and beat the traffic.  I think it's really sad magazines no longer contain blueprints to small helicopters that actually work, and so I'm going to make a statement with mine.  I will, of course, have to get FAA approval.