Jump, Frog! Jump!

More accurately, it’s “Backflip, Frog! Backflip!”

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My sister had bought some of these toys for the purpose of distracting small children (with whom she works), and since I often play a small children on not-TV, I had to film it. Unfortunately I was lacking in the proper lighting equipment and it was raining, I made do with indoor lighting and my one lamp. Ergo, it’s a little dark (as far as the lighting goes. The plot is rather uplifting, I would say) though I was able to improve it a little with iMovie.

He's Gone Into B-fib. Get Ready to Shock Him! Clear!

How to revive dry Play-Doh

After months of tinkering, I have discovered the best and easiest way to restore dry Play-Doh to its perfect state (besides Hasbro’s former suggestion that you buy a new can).

Several decades too late to help me, which I assume is everybody’s first concern, but good to know nonetheless. Tinkering to systematically find the best method. That’s science, baby!

Four-er Flat Hinge-y Bits

A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families

Thousands of different Lego exist, yet when your seven-year-old asks for “a clippy bit,” you know exactly what to hand him. GILES TURNBULL surveys a caucus of children and determines a common nomenclature.

Back when I was a youngster, many of these pieces did not exist in our LEGO™ collection. (Can I have my curmudgeon certificate now?) Mainly it was the single- and double-wide pieces, of standard thickness and the thin plate pieces, and 4×4 roof pieces: angled, and interior and exterior corners. Not much more than that. I think I noticed the explosion of newer pieces with the introduction of the spaceship sets my brother got: hinged and rotating pieces, non-rectangular plates and real windows.

I've Gotta Get Me Some

Colored bubbles arise after 15-year quest

Zubbles

Standard food coloring or dyes have no effect; they simply run down the sides of the bubble, creating a drop of color on the bottom. Other dyes can stain bubbles, but when they pop they also stain clothes, dogs and eyes, as Kehoe discovered during one accident. Other tests, including one for a bubble dye that washed out, didn’t fare much better.

I don’t know about the food coloring running down the side — the dilution is so great that for amount I’ve added when I tried this, the effect is simply unnoticeable.

Slow Toys at Play

Trying out the new camera on some of the toys in the office. The trebuchet and the Zero blaster.

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Both filmed at 420 fps.

Time Sink

I’ve long since passed the point when celebrating a birthday is a big deal — the last party I had was for #30, where we all dressed in black to mourn the passing of my youth. Fortunately the rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated (at least the behavioral part). But I used this year’s birthday as an excuse to buy a high-speed video camera (Exilim EX-FH20). It arrived a few days ago and I’ve been playing with it a lot. Soon, perhaps, I’ll actually install the user’s manual from the CD and read it.

So expect some postings of things gratuitously shot in slow-motion, with no real point to them (in stark contrast to so many of my posts) other than some thing shot in slo-mo look pretty cool. I suspect that many of my belongings will end up broken, but that that the destruction of my property will be exceeding well-documented.

Here is an early attempt, lighting a match in a candle flame, at 1000 fps.

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