Robot Carnage

This is William Kamkwamba.  William lives in a small village in Malawi.  When he was 14 his parents could no longer afford the $80 per year tuition to send him to school.  They where farmers, and there was a drought.  Farming + Drought = Poor.  So what did William do?  Cry himself to sleep and throw a pitty party?  Hell no!  He decided he would go to the library and learn on his own.  When he was there he came across a book titled: Using Energy.  From the article:

Using Energy described how windmills could be used to generate electricity. Only two percent of Malawians have electricity, and the service is notoriously unreliable. William decided an electric windmill was something he wanted to make. Illuminating his house and the other houses in his village would mean that people could read at night after work. A windmill to pump water would mean that they could grow two crops a year rather than one, grow vegetable gardens, and not have to spend two hours a day hauling water. “A windmill meant more than just power,” he wrote, “it was freedom.”

Keep in mind that he had no money, no tools (aside from a couple of open end wrenches), and no supplies.  And to top it off he could barely read English.  He accomplished his task by studying the diagrams in the book and learning the terms associated with them, then going to a junkyard to find parts for his project.  The entire windmill was made of junk!  Not only did he build a windmill from scratch, he also build all the necessary switches, breakers and wiring from junk too.

William and his first windmill

After the success of his first windmill, he started to get noticed.  He now attends the Pan-African Leadership Academy in South Africa, and has co-written a book with Bryan Mealer called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.  The bottom line is that William is solidly brilliant and tenacious – nice work.

Read the full story at Gizmodo

This is an old commercial for Trigon BlueCross BlueShield, that a friend recently reminded me of.  This was one in a series of commercials created by The Martin Agency, and it won a bunch of awards and crap.  Enjoy.

Relationship Survival Guide: Pick Up Lines – Watch more Funny Videos

I’m pretty sure this is how my bother met his wife.

As you know from my previous posts – I loves me some bacon.  Apparently this little chubster-in-training loves his bacon too, and that mean lady is trying to take it from him!  This clip comes from that stupid reality show Wife Swap.

Forget those buckets of wheat and rice you have stowed away in your basement—dreading the day you might have to actually eat it. When the world is eventually overrun by merciless robot killing machines, I will be feasting like a king! Behold, I give thee canned bacon! Yes friends, you will not find me eating cracked-wheat slop in the end of days. I will still be the red-headed lard wad you know and love, right up to the very end. But don’t let me have all the fun, canned bacon can also be yours today—act now!

Dinner is served!

I love everything about this clock design by Vadim Kibardin. Simple, clean, and functional – they way everything on the planet should be designed.

“Digital clock: only figures, no case, only the necessary – only accurate time. Each figure has self-contained power supply and independent control, it can be fixed to any surface autonomously. A light sensor will switch the clock to an invert mode: the figures are white in the dark time of day and black at daytime.”

He is currently seeking a manufacturer to make this prototype a sweet dream come true. My wall awaits you, my darling wall flower.

I'm gross and dead

I was shocked when I heard the news. Mostly because I thought he died 20 years ago, and until yesterday, was some type of zombie monster.  My second thought was “who cares”.

Seems like all we here in the news these days are depressing stories of corruption and greed – so it’s always great to hear a story like this:

Pixar grants girl’s dying wish to see ‘Up’

Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old girl suffering from terminal vascular cancer, told her mom that she wanted to live to see Pixar’s Up. But before she could visit the theater, her condition became too unstable for her to be moved.

Colby’s family called Pixar, guessed a name of an employee to break through the automated operator and explained the situation to the first person they reached. A Pixar employee flew out immediately with a DVD, toys and posters in hand. From the OC Register:

Colby couldn’t see the screen because the pain kept her eyes closed so her mother gave her a play-by-play of the film.

“Do you think you can hang on?” Colby’s mother said.

“I’m ready (to die), but I’m going to wait for the movie,” the girl replied.

At the end of the film, the mother asked if her daughter enjoyed the movie and Colby nodded yes, Lisa Curtin said.

Colby died later that evening, hopefully fulfilled in at least some small way.  (from Gizmodo)

This is my most favorite live performance on Letterman ever.  It’s from a while back, but I was reading my friend Emily’s blog and was reminded of it (because they always have awesome music news). The band is My Morning Jacket, the song is Gideon off the album Z (iTunes link).  I can’t say i’m a massive MMJ fan, but this was exceptionally awesome.

Speed of the Puma

This is Jon. Jon is a deadly Ninja. Jon the Ninja is looking for work. When I saw this ad I got real excited because I have a long list of people I would like assassinated. However, it turns out that Jon will not “do any jobs that cause harm to people or property”. Well that’s just great, thanks for nothing Ninja Jon. Anyway, maybe  you have special trees that can only be trimmed with a sword or something. If so, Jon is your man.  Read the full ad here. Oh and if you live outside of Salt Lake City you are out of luck, since Jon only has limited access to his mom’s minivan.