Patriotic paper pinwheel printouts
July 4, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Natalie at CRAFT points out an easy project for kid-friendly patriotic fun.
Just print, cut, fold and fasten - Patriotic pinwheels [via CRAFT:Blog]
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Instructables’ BBQ PDQ contest
July 4, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
In case you didn't know, Instructables has been running a BBQ/grilling contest. Deadline for entry is July 6, so if you want to entry, you'll need to hurry. You can see all of the entries to date at the link below.
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HOW TO - Make beer can chicken
July 4, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Want to make the best dang chicken you've ever eaten? Try a beer can chicken on the grill. It's pretty simple. You first cover the chicken with your favorite spice rub. I use Steven Raichlen's basic BBQ rub of brown sugar (1/4c), sweet paprika (1/4c), pepper (3tbs), sea salt (3tbs), garlic powder (2tsp), onion powder (2tsp), cayenne pepper (1tsp). Then, you shove a can of beer (you can also use a soda) up the chicken's butt with half of the liquid left inside. Poke extra holes in the top of the can and put a few spoons of your rub inside the liquid. The bird is then placed on the grill, resting tripod-style, on the base of the can and its two legs. And yes, it does look like it's sitting on the toilet, and yes, your guests, your kids will get a good laugh out of how goofy it looks (but they won't be laughing after they start eating).
Place the chicken on one side of the grill with the opposite side burners on (i.e. indirect heat). Cook for about 1-1/2 hours, or until 180-degrees internal. You'll need to turn the chicken around every 1/4 hr so so that it cooks evenly. Some people like to use a drip pan underneath to catch and revaporize all of the liquid. Also: If you're concerned about the aluminum can and its paint, etc., you can use a soup-type can with the paper label removed (just make sure it's the kind that doesn't have a white plastic lining).
Note: Some people stuff the neck cavity of their chicken with meats (sausage) or fruit/vegetables (onion, apple). To me, this diminishes the chimney effect that the beer can method is designed to take advantage of. The organic chickens I get usually have a big skin flap at the neck. I use that to close off most of the hole so that all of the juices don't vent away.
Below is one Instructable for beer can chicken. There are others and lots of other resources online about it. Everyone has their own variation.
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What MAKEs America great - Happy 4th of July from MAKE
July 4, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
I asked the authors of the MAKE blog what they thought made America great for this 4th of July holiday, here's what they has to say (and please post yours in the comments, I'll pick a few and send you out something awesome from the Maker Shed Store!).
Marc -
What makes America great? One word.....Jell-O!
Here are my top 10 reasons, and projects, that make JELLO a great American invention:
San Fran in Jell-O.
Rainbow Jell-O.
Jell-O Shots (Caffeinated variety).
Stapler inside Jell-O.
Jell-O Shots (Alcoholic version).
Jell-O - Inside a banana.
The Jell-O Museum.
Flickr Photo Pool of Jell-O.
Jell-O Body parts.
Tons of Jell-O recipes.
Jonah -
American flag DIY coffee table project!
Becky -
Strawberry rhubarb pie,
recipe is from the Joy of Cooking, another American classic.
Patti -
In his book, American Gods, Neil Gaiman wrote that in other countries, when people find what he calls places of power, they build temples, or cathedrals, or stone circles. But in the USA, when people find those places, they build roadside attractions. When I was thinking about what is great about this country, I was surprised to find that sometimes I really value our lack of tradition. At its worst, it leads to really shallow places in our culture, but at its best, it gives people the freedom to express their ideas and inspirations in really strange and wonderful ways. I love shrines and cathedrals, but I also love places like House on the Rock.
Brian -
It's the land of the weird. There's some kind of strange current that runs through the soil, rocks, and water here. Stand on the soil, climb the rocks, drink the water, and you'll be compelled to try something different.
Phil -
America, for me, is a place where anyone can do what they love if they're willing to work hard. Sometimes they're entrepreneurs, business owners, hobbyists, makers - it doesn't matter really, we have the freedom to create, build, succeed and even fail spectacularly. If we're lucky we'll do enough of each, it's more fun that way.
Oh, and cheese sculptures in Times Square.
Makers, post up what you think makes America great and we'll pick a few of the good ones and send you out some stuff from the Maker Shed Store!
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Throw a “kabob pit” party
July 4, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Here's an idea I got from Alton Brown on Good Eats that I sketched up in my Maker's Notebook. It's for throwing a self-serve shish kabob party using a temporary fire pit made from bricks, sand, and charcoal. You make the width of the pit so that your skewers fit over it and the handles rest on the bricks. You then have a table with skewers and all of the components and let people fix and cook their own.
For dessert, you can serve grilled fruit skewers over pound cake. In case you can't read my recipe for the dessert glaze, it's:
1 vanilla bean (stripped)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 - cup juice of lime
Pinch of salt
Heat until sugar melts. Let cool and transfer to squeeze bottle.
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Even more WALL-E News
July 3, 2008 Category: The Disney Portal No Comments »
Experts are predicting the 4th of July holiday weekend box office to be huge as families choose to stay close to home instead of taking the traditional road trip. The Will Smith superhero flick “Hancock” is predicted to do over $100 million for the holiday weekend. Pixar’s WALL-E looks likely to bring in $35 million. I plan to get out their and add my families $27 to the total.
Good stories about Pixar’s WALL-E continue to flow in. Remember that “I watch WALL-E” Youtube Video of the woman who cried while watching the the WALL-E trailer? Well the folks at Pixar saw that video too and were inspired by it. As thanks they sent a few gifts to her and invited her to the movie’s Wrap Party. How cool is that. She’s written up her experience on her blog. [ via Cinematical]
Remember that line from “The Incredibles” - “When everyone is special, no one is”. Columnist Paul Edwards sees elements of that same strong individualist message in WALL-E. Edwards takes an anti-liberal slant to his article, I think he might be confusing liberalism with lack of personal responsibility which can be found in every wash of life. There might be a few other facts wrong about the movie too.
Meanwhile, Christianity Today interviews Director Andrew Stanton about some of the religious themes in the movie. [ via CartoonBrew]
Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing humorously points out that WALL-E is a copyright criminal. Wait, wouldn’t the copyright have expired 700 years into the future? Maybe not if Disney gets its way in congress.
IO9, the sci-fi blog, has a long but somewhat pessimistic view of WALL-E in it’s review.
If you’re a fan of toys “Captain Toys” has reviewed a number of WALL-E Toys with more detail than you could possibly want.
Finally, Jason Kottke, whose opinion I find myself agreeing with alot, gave WALL-E a perfect 5.0 out of 5.0 rating.
Below the cut check out this great featurette on how close modern day robotics is to creating a real WALL-E.
<p><object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/koc6xhPM420″></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/koc6xhPM420″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object></p>
Originally posted on The Disney Blog.
Magic Kingdom Trip Report
June 30, 2008 Category: The Disney Portal No Comments »
I spent a long day at the Magic Kingdom Saturday. Summer crowds were evident, but it wasn’t oppressive. If anything it might have been a little lighter than usual. But that may be related to changed vacation patterns with the holiday weekend coming up.
Sadly, the park appears to be cutting back on some of the simplest maintenance. Many attractions were covered in litter. Splash Mountain was particularly bad with water bottles and gum on nearly every surface. We went on Splash 5 minutes after opening too, so there was no excuse not to clean up during the over night shift.
Ended the night with a viewing of Spectromagic. They’ve slowly been upgrading this old parade and last night I noticed a ton of new costumes. It’s still a great parade, but it could use some additional sprucing up and perhaps a new float or two. Technology has advanced so far since when it was created, you know there is some out of this world stuff they could be doing.
I’ve put a few photos down below and more up on Flickr for your browsing pleasure.
This little fellow was waiting for us inside our log. We were the first passengers for the day, so I felt a little like WALL-E and set the little fellow on top to enjoy the view during the ride.
Alas, by the end of the ride he had jumped ship. Always fun to look at Terri Hardin’s sculpture however.
A couple great shirts on the Haunted Mansion merchandise cart. I was surveyed after shopping the cart, but the questions were so pointless as to not really track anything interesting, such as the reasons I didn’t purchase anything or did I find what I was looking for.
Some of the WALL-E merchandise for sale in Tomorrowland. The markup didn’t appear to be too bad.
The new glass blowing demonstration was amazing. You either have to stumble on it or know it’s there. I didn’t see any schedule posted either. So ask at City Hall if you’re interested in catching this live. It’s worth it. If you have the money you can buy some of the pieces made right in the shop.
Some windows are now in and work on the walkway continues. Looks like the suspension elements will be added soon.
More photos from the trip over on Flickr.
Originally posted on The Disney Blog.
Why MOO Cards Look Stupid in a Suit [Video]
June 29, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
MOO.com, maker of the unique and stylish “MiniCards” that hit it big with the Flickr crowd, is going corporate: the company is set to launch standard sized Business Cards.
There’s high demand for the product, the company says; but isn’t bigger…kinda boring? I discuss with the aid of a small horse.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
YouTube Holiday Video Cards. Seasonal Viral Boost?
Get Your Personal Social Network Card At Zazzle
Leverage. Sounds Like a Holiday Gimmick to Me.
Make “Business” Cards from Your MySpace Profile
Moo Your Facebook Photos
Swap Mobile Trading Cards. Win $1000
YouTube Comments Don’t Need a Thumbs Up Button
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Sony to finish shrinking PS3 chips to 65nm this fall?
June 27, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Filed under: Gaming
According to Next-Gen, PlayStation boss and Kaz Hirai claims that PlayStation 3s have done the same with Cell chips since last holiday season, and that Sony intends to finish the process of shrinking its major chips to 65nm with the RSX graphics processor this fall. Die shrinkage will mean a lot less to PlayStation buyers than it did to 360 owners suffering from the red ring of death on Microsoft's less-reliable 90nm parts, but it still means Sony can save some cash on producing and cooling PS3s -- and you shave a bit off your power bill.[Via Joystiq]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Storm Worm invents fictional events to entrap victims
June 23, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
The mammoth StormWorm botnet has left off its usual strategy of using news headlines to lure people into clicking on badsite links that result in their computers being hijacked and added to the botnet -- now it is using intriguing fictional events to bait its hooks:
The emails contain such headlines as 'Eiffel Tower damaged by massive earthquake' and 'Donald Trump missing, feared kidnapped.'Tags: Boing BoingThe bodies of the emails contain links which claim to provide further information on the story.
However, the links direct to a page designed to resemble adult video site Pornotube. When users click on one of the supposed video links on the page, an executable is launched which installs the Storm malware.
"This clever social engineering technique plays on people's inquisitiveness about news of natural disasters and celebrities," said McAfee researcher Kevin McGhee.
"The emails also follow the simple format of some text and a link that looks fairly harmless to the uneducated user."
The emails mark a deviation for Storm from its usual tactic of spamming articles and videos of current events and holidays.
Link (via Beyond the Beyond)
