Engineering of the Day: Lego Bugatti Chiron


 
 30 Aug 2018     Auto, Awesome, LEGO, Video, Youtube

The latest publicity stunt by Lego to boost awareness of its Technic line is this – a 1:1 scale model of the Bugatti Chiron.  It took more than 1 million Lego pieces in 339 different types, including a few custom pieces because Lego didn’t manufacture the right type of piece in the right color.  It weighs in at 3,300 lbs., although there IS some metal in the build.

Due to the anticipated weight, the thing is actually built on a metal frame and roll cage with regular axles and tires.  A few other bits are metal as well – the removable steering wheel uses a regular steering wheel connector, and real seat belts connect to the roll cage.  There’s also a steel chain and driveshaft running the rear tires.  That’s pretty much the extent of the “cheating” though.  Virtually everything else is built from Lego.

That includes the engine – 2,304 individual Lego Technic motors across 24 individually replaceable motor packs drive 4,032 Lego gear wheels to transfer a whopping 5.3 horsepower and 68 pound-feet of torque to the rear tires.  The car can reach a top speed of about 19 mph, although the test driver here only took it up to about 12 mph.

Even with the cheats, all the little details are pretty freaking incredible.  Lego engines moving a 1.5 ton car, Lego pneumatics raising and lowering the rear spoiler, actual locking doors (all Lego pieces) – and no glue used to hold anything together – it’s 100% held together through traditional Lego attachment methods.  Most other models this size use glue to reinforce connections and keep the things from collapsing under their own weight.  I’m guessing a lot of the weight is distributed to the steel frame and rollcage though, so I can see why glue wouldn’t be as important here.  Overall, a fascinating, impressive project though.

 

Child Prodigy of the Day: Four Notes from a Hat


 
 28 Aug 2018     Awesome, Inspirational, Kids, Music, Video, Youtube

Alma Deutscher is a 12-year-old (maybe 13 by now?) music prodigy.  She started playing the piano at 2 years old, and the violin when she was three.  By age 6, she had written her first piano sonata, and composed a short opera called The Sweeper of Dreams at seven.  Between the ages of 8 and 12, she composed a full length opera, Cinderella, which has been performed in Israel, Austria, and the United States, to standing ovations and international critical acclaim.

Here, during a 60 Minutes segment, she took four notes pulled randomly from a hat, in order, and in less than a minute composed a short musical piece themed around the melody created by those four notes.  That’s pretty impressive if you ask me, even if she wasn’t an adolescent.

[biographical information via almadeutscher.com]

 

Schadenfreude of the Day: Upskirt Photographer Blows His Foot Up


 
 28 Aug 2018     Fail, Funny, Whoopsies

A budding illicit videographer had his career cut short when his shoe camera malfunctioned before he was able to actually record anything.  And by “malfunctioned,” I mean “blew up” – the battery exploded.

What’s great here is that after being seen at the hospital for minor injuries to his foot, the guy turned himself in at the local police station and filled them in on exactly what had happened, from his purchase of the camera, to what he intended to do with it, to his resulting injury.  Since he hadn’t actually gone through with recording any upskirt footage, no crime had actually been committed yet, so the police let him limp home with a stern warning on the felony charges he’d be looking at if he tried it again.

[via Motherboard | image via Adventure Time Wikia]

 

WTF of the Day: Verizon Throttled Fire Command Center


 
 28 Aug 2018     Awareness, Fail, News, Whoopsies, WTF

As I mentioned earlier, California has been on fire again, with dozens of fires throughout the state – enough that our county and many others have been drained to basically skeleton staffing as resources are sent to these major fires.  One fire (or set of fires) in particular – the Mendocino Complex – has soundly taken the record for the biggest fire in California history, having burned more than 400,000 acres and destroying several structures.  The 2017 fires caused much more damage to infrastructure though, destroying thousands of homes and killing dozens of people.  The Mendocino complex has been burning largely in unoccupied forest.

With the size of the fire, though, comes the need for solid communications and organization, which means bringing in communication vehicles.  One such mobile command center for the Mendocino Complex was pulled up from Santa Clara County; however, it suddenly found itself completely unable to do its job – Verizon throttled its data speed to roughly 1/200 of normal, making them effectively non-functional.

As soon as they noticed the throttling, fire department officials spent the next day or two begging, pleading, and even ordering Verizon to remove their bandwidth limitations, advising Verizon that they were actively impeding their ability to provide essential emergency services.  Verizon responded with a suggestion that the department pay for a data increase.  The department already had an “unlimited” plan, but Verizon apparently plays free and loose with the definition of “unlimited,” as they have multiple tiers of unlimited, and Santa Clara County Fire paid for the middle tier, and had apparently used up all of their “unlimited” limit for that month.  Verizon does not offer any service at all that is truly unlimited.

Verizon claims this was nothing but a customer service error – they regularly remove all caps on emergency service providers during major emergencies, and the caps should have been removed in this case regardless of what plan the fire department operated under.  Verizon admitted that it had not communicated clearly with the fire department about the terms of its so-called unlimited plan, and that they had not lifted the data restrictions for the fire department as is their practice for large disasters.

[via KQED]

 

Holy Schnikes of the Day: Orca Plays With Sailboat


 
 13 Aug 2018     Animals, Funny, Video, Whoopsies, WTF

So for anyone who wasn’t aware, California is on fire again (or still, if you want to get technical – I think the last year we had a single month without part of the state burning was like 2012).  I apologize for my absence again, but it’s been… busy.  Smoke is pretty much a natural component of the air now.  My availability to post will continue to vary along with fires in the area pretty much.

Anyway, one thing I ran across during some down time the past couple weeks was this video of a killer whale who decided an anchored sailboat was its plaything, and proceeded to drag it around by the anchor chain a bit – right around and into another anchored boat beside it.  I can just imagine the owners trying to figure out what happened when they came back and found the front of their boat crunched… and then trying to explain all that to their insurance.  I wonder if their insurance even covers “dragged straight into another boat by a freaking killer whale?”  Hopefully the damage wasn’t too severe, but that boat got moving at one point.  At least there’s video proof – for the owners of both boats.

There are no clean Youtube posts of this video unfortunately (only one I found had narration over the top), so just Google “killer whale drags sailboat” if you can’t view the embedded video or don’t want to feed Facebook clicks.

 

Prank of the Day: Got Your Ear


 
 31 Jul 2018     Funny, Kids, Prank, Video, Youtube

According to this barber (who apparently posted this video as well), this kid is something of a prankster, and scared him with a fake cockroach on his work counter the previous month.  The barber warned him he’d get him back, but the kid said the barber could never make him cry.  Of course, he absolutely got permission from the kid’s parents first, so they were in on it.  One latex ear and some fake blood later…

No children were irreparably harmed in the making of this video.  (And to the kid’s credit, he didn’t actually cry, although he came bloody close to it.)

 

Trailer Extravaganza


 
 23 Jul 2018     Movies, Trailer, TV, Video, Youtube

Since I haven’t posted any of these in a while, here are some recent trailers for some upcoming movies and/or shows I’m looking forward to, or that have at least captured my interest.

Kicking things off is the newest trailer for Alita: Battle Angel.  I was a fan of the anime and manga, and I’m looking forward to this, even though there’s every possibility they may “westernize” it the way they did with Ghost in the Shell.  I’m hoping Alita does OK in that arena, considering its story is more universal anyway, so hopefully there’s less reason to mess it up.  I also finally got an answer as to why they awkwardly swapped the title the way they did – it was apparently a nod to director James Cameron.  He’s been on a major kick in directing T&A movies… no, not that T&A… Titanic, Avatar, Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, and so on.  Putting Alita first allowed him to continue his streak of doing movies that start with either T or A.  Not sure that makes me any happier about it, but it’s a minor nitpick if they do OK by the source material.

Next up is a full official trailer for Aquaman.  We’ve known it was coming, and saw a brief teaser for it back in March, but here’s the first full-length trailer introducing some of the characters as well as the plot overview.  DC still hasn’t managed to match Marvel (in my opinion) for epic storytelling yet, but that doesn’t keep me from hoping it’ll be a good flick.

When the creator of Simpsons decides to tell a fairy tale, you know it’s going to be appropriately twisted and dark with plenty of social commentary.

OK, yeah, I’m also looking forward to Wreck It Ralph 2, largely due to the huge amount of pop/internet culture references and the “are you a princess” scene.  “Are you guys OK – should I call the police?”

Melissa McCarthy is not someone I envision as a terribly flexible actress – she plays essentially the same character everywhere.  Gilmore Girls, Spy, Bridesmaids, This Is 40, Identity Thief…  Self-deprecating humor is her go-to trope.  But in stark contrast to The Happytime Murders (basically a heavily R-rated Muppet adventure with… *ahem*… Silly String), she’s also starring in a true story about Lee Israel, Can You Ever Forgive Me?  And based on what I see in the trailer, she pulls it off wonderfully.

Another movie I’m keeping an eye on is the Fantastic Beasts sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald.  The first Fantastic Beasts was a fun, different take on the world of Harry Potter, and I’m interested in seeing what they do with the sequel.  I’m still not entirely sure what to make of Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, but so far it looks OK.