Julien’s Auctions has an original “nearly complete spacesuit” from 2001: A Space Odyssey up for auction. The starting bid is $50,000 and they expect it to go up to as high as $300,000. From the auction listing:

The spacesuit is an amalgamation of components worn by different actors and in many scenes throughout the film. This is highlighted by a helmet featuring four distinct layers of paint (a base of color of white, then green, then yellow, and lastly in its present color of white), indicating that it was used in different scenes by multiple actors and representing a number of characters . This nearly complete costume is of the lunar type in its present state (silver body suit, blue back pack, white helmet). This suit appears to be original in silver (never repainted). However, due to the layering of paint, the helmet appears to have been employed as a lunar type, then two of the four Discovery types (green and then yellow; the other colors/types being red and blue), then as a lunar type again. This helmet has a textured strip of tape inside with “HELMET A” written across in red.

Most notably, the base green layer of paint seen in chips, cracks, and green overspray throughout the helmet surface suggest that it may have been the very helmet worn by Keir Dullea, who portrayed Dr. Dave Bowman (the lead astronaut on the film’s Discovery mission to Jupiter) in the sequence in which he reenters antechamber of the Discovery surrounded by banks of circuit breakers leading to the “brain room” and logic center to “kill” HAL in one of the most famous science fiction scenes of all time (“Stop Dave. Stop Dave. I am afraid. I am afraid Dave.”).

$300,000 seems like a lot to be spending on a Halloween costume, but I’m all about authenticity. And yeah, maybe I went into crippling debt to get my Mr. Rogers costume just right last year, but I had the last laugh when my sweater was the perfect shade of red even though people just assumed I hadn’t dressed up at all.

Keep going for one of the iconic scenes of the spacesuit in action.

Source: Geekologie – An original spacesuit from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ is up for auction

An entrepreneurial YouTuber has designed an off-road “wheelchair” with his partner that he’s calling Not-a-Wheelchair. It’s fully electric and can reach 12mph with a range of about 10-20 miles and starts at $4,750.

Cambry and I decided to put our heads together, and build our own off road wheelchair. Something that’s quick and light with a super long range.

It looks capable enough to handle a hiking trail, but it’s not something I would trust beyond that. And if anybody is wondering why they’re branding it as “Not-a-Wheelchair” it’s because wheelchairs have to be regulated by the FDA and I’m assuming that’s something they want to avoid. The thing looks super fun and they probably don’t want to be sued when I eventually try to take it up Everest and die.

Keep going for a video of the thing in action.

Source: Geekologie – Wheee: The multi-terrain off-road ‘Not-a-Wheelchair’

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory put together this time-lapse of the Sun using 425 million high-resolution images (over 20 million gigabytes of data) which it gathered from over a decade of observation from its orbit in space.

With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 10-year time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer — the corona. Compiling one photo every hour, the movie condenses a decade of the Sun into 61 minutes. The video shows the rise and fall in activity that occurs as part of the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and notable events, like transiting planets and eruptions. The custom music, titled “Solar Observer,” was composed by musician Lars Leonhard (https://www.lars-leonhard.de/).

Kudos to anybody who watches the entire video, because it’s over an hour long and it’s just the sun spinning and glowing and spinning and glowing. There are a few notable moments like large flares or sunspots, but the most interesting is probably at 12:24 when you see Venus transit across the Sun. It’s not exactly John Wick, but it’s still pretty neat.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – 10-year time lapse of the Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

V1 Analytics put together this visualization of Blockbuster Video store locations in the United States between 1986 and 2019. At its peak there were 9000 Blockbuster stores globally, and now there’s only one left in Bend, Oregon. It’s kind of a strange thought, but there are people out there who have never even heard of Blockbuster Video. To them this might as well be a visualization of smallpox infections. Just some old-timey thing that came and went and now old people talk about to annoy them while they’re on TikTok.

Keep going for the full video. Some key years are 1997 when Netflix started their mail-in DVD service, 2002 when RedBox started their rental kiosks, and 2007 when Netflix started their streaming service.

Source: Geekologie – The rise and fall of Blockbuster Video stores from 1986 to 2019

Calculator musician @atarimae_400 noticed that Japanese railway stations sound similar to certain calculator tones and started playing some of the melodies on his own calculators.

I received comments that the sound that can be played from a calculator is similar to a station melody, so I tried to play it on a calculator!

“For those who live or have lived in the Kanto area, one is a collection of railway station melodies that I have never heard of.”

※ The number of calculators depends on the song.

Apparently there are more calculator musicians out there than you’d think, because if you’re anything like me you thought there were zero. My favorite remains this cover of the Game of Thrones theme being played on four calculators. I used to think the most impressive thing you could do with a calculator was use it to fail math and then spell out 80085. Actually, I’m pretty sure spelling out 80085 is still the most impressive thing you can do.

Keep going for the full video, along with @atarimae_400’s cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.”

Source: Geekologie – Guy plays railway station melodies on his calculators

It’s pretty ridiculous that this is even an issue, but people have been refusing to wear masks because they think it’ll lead to suffocation or carbon dioxide poisoning. And since common sense isn’t effective and these people think dentists and surgeons are dropping dead every day, a registered nurse from Oakland felt compelled to make this demonstration using a pulse oximetry sensor to show that wearing masks is completely safe. Even with three surgical masks covering his nose and mouth, his oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer remained normal, with no effects to his oxygen saturation levels or any buildup of carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately, this guy is trying to use science to persuade people who clearly don’t care about science. This is where I’d usually make a joke, but people politicizing a pandemic and refusing to do something as simple as wearing a mask to save lives just isn’t funny. A virus doesn’t care about your freedoms or political beliefs, and killing somebody because you’re too selfish to wear a piece of cloth over your face makes you a pathetic human being. Masks aren’t worn to protect you, they’re worn to protect other people. Surgeons don’t wear a mask because they don’t want to catch your cooties. They wear a mask so they don’t cough or sneeze into your open wound and kill you. Refusing to wear a mask is the same as a surgeon refusing to wash their hands before operating because of “their freedoms.” You’re not a hero or freedom fighter, you’re a joke and the entire world is laughing at you. Wear a mask.

Keep going for the full science-filled video.

Source: Geekologie – Nurse demonstrates that wearing a mask doesn’t affect oxygen levels or cause carbon dioxide poisoning

Twitter user @phi6 used fridge magnets to make this Super Mario stop motion animation with their 4-year-old son over the weekend. The result is pretty impressive for something thrown together over a weekend. It makes me wish I did fun projects like this with my own dad, but instead we just played a dumb game where I would wait in the living room while he went to the corner store to get cigarettes and then never come home ever again.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – Stop motion ‘Super Mario’ level made using fridge magnets

YouTuber Matt Denton used a 3D printer to create this life-sized LEGO go-kart. It would’ve been more impressive if he had used actual LEGO pieces instead of 3D printing giant versions, but it’s still an incredibly fun project and the result looks great. Plus it actually works. Now we just have to wait until somebody takes the idea to the next level and 3D prints a life-sized functional LEGO Death Star.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – 3D printing a functional life-sized LEGO go-kart

Researchers from the University of Chicago’s Human Computer Integration Lab have developed a way of simulating temperature in VR by using smells.

We explore a temperature illusion that uses low-powered electronics and enables the miniaturization of simple warm and cool sensations. Our illusion relies on the properties of certain scents, such as the coolness of mint or hotness of peppers. These odors trigger not only the olfactory bulb, but also the nose’s trigeminal nerve, which has receptors that respond to both temperature and chemicals. To exploit this, we engineered a wearable device based on micropumps and an atomizer that emits up to three custom-made “thermal” scents directly to the user’s nose. Breathing in these scents causes the user to feel warmer or cooler. We demonstrate how our device renders warmth and cooling sensations in virtual experiences. Participants rated VR experiences with our trigeminal stimulants as significantly warmer or cooler than the baseline conditions. Lastly, we believe this offers an alternative to thermal feedback devices, which unfortunately rely on power-hungry heat-lamps or Peltier-elements.

So basically they blast pepper into your nose to make you feel hot and mint into your nose to make you feel cold. It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard, but I can’t imagine breathing in pepper for hours at a time can be good for you. “But what about that time you shoved sliced jalapenos into your nose on a dare?” That was to earn the respect of my peers, and it failed miserably when I ended up lying on the floor crying.

Keep going for a video of the VR device in action.

Source: Geekologie – Creating temperature illusions using smells in virtual reality

According to the West Yorkshire Police, a $250,000 Lamborghini was wrecked just 20 minutes after purchase. The driver had stopped in the outside lane due to a mechanical failure and was hit from behind by a van.

So technically the Lamborghini owner didn’t crash it the way we all hoped they had and it’s actually the van’s fault for hitting them. Although I guess you could make the argument it’s the Lamborghini’s fault for breaking down immediately after purchase. Personally, that’s the reason I don’t own a Lamborghini myself. It’s not that they cost more than my house, it’s the, uh, poor reliability. Yup.

Keep going for one more shot and the original Tweet from the police departrment.

Source: Geekologie – Lamborghini wrecked 20 minutes after purchase

When we last wrote about Pokemon Grandpa in 2019, his bike rig was a measly 30 phones. And before that in 2018 it was a pathetic 9 phones. Well now the Taiwanese fengshui master Chen San-yuan has upped his Pokemon Go rig to an insane 64 phones. I’m honestly not sure how many more phones he can physically add to his rig, but I’m pretty sure by this time next here he’ll qualify as his own telecommunications company. And at this point he must have already caught them all, right? He must have already caught anything that can be caught, Pokemon or not. And by that I mean radiation poisoning. With that many phones he’s definitely caught that.

Keep going for more shots of the impressively unsafe Pokemon Go rig.

Source: Geekologie – Pokemon Grandpa’s insane 64 phone ‘Pokemon Go’ rig

Artist Steven Richter filmed this time-lapse of him sculpting a Thanos sculpture from scratch and then turning it into dust.

This sculpture didn’t last very long, 4 hours to sculpt and paint, 2 hours to animate it being destroyed.

This guy spent 4 hours making something I could never make and then destroyed it for 30 seconds of entertainment. And that is why I love the internet. If Leonardo DaVinci were alive today he’d film himself burning the Mona Lisa just to get some new TikTok followers.

Source: Geekologie – Stop-motion Thanos sculpture turned to dust

The Russian auto engineers at Garage 54 decided to replace the rear wheels of an old Lada sedan with metal legs because, hey, why not? Eventually the axles broke, but it did work for a few glorious moments. One can only imagine how beautiful this would be if they could get it working at relatively high speeds. Forget hovercrafts and jet-packs, I want to live in a future where vehicles walk and crawl everywhere.

Keep going for the full video, and skip to 12:00 if you just want to see the walking car in action.

Source: Geekologie – Russians replace rear wheels on car with metal legs

Robotics engineers at Georgia Tech have built a SlothBot for use in the Atlanta Botanical Garden, which mimics the low-energy lifestyle of real sloths for extended continuous observation.

Powered by solar panels and using innovative power management technology, SlothBot moves along a cable strung between two large trees as it monitors temperature, weather, carbon dioxide levels, and other information in the Garden’s 30-acre midtown Atlanta forest.

“SlothBot embraces slowness as a design principle,” said Magnus Egerstedt, professor and Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “That’s not how robots are typically designed today, but being slow and hyper-energy efficient will allow SlothBot to linger in the environment to observe things we can only see by being present continuously for months, or even years.”

There’s really no reason for it to look like a sloth except that it’s adorable. It clearly wouldn’t fool any actual animals into thinking it’s a sloth and it serves no functional purpose. If we’re just trying to make it look like a lazy slow-moving slob, they should’ve made it look like Tim from accounting. Seriously, Tim, get your shit together.

Keep going for a video of SlothBot in action. Spoiler alert: it’s not very exciting.

Source: Geekologie – The SlothBot is a slow-moving energy-efficient observation robot

YouTuber Ivan Miranda built a 30 pound robot using 50 miniature servos that writes messages in the sand.

I made a sand drawing robot with 50 miniature servos and a two half tanks, I use an Arduino Mega 2560 to read from an sd card a text file with the desired image and send the servo position data to another two Arduino Mega that then send the adequate signals to the servos. 5 DC to DC converters connected to a 6S LiPo battery provide enough power to support the stalling current of all the 50 servos at once. Two half tanks provide enough grip and torque to drag all the servos through the sand. The entire thing weighs around 14 Kg in working order (with the batteries on) so I had to build a tailor made trailer to cary the thing as there’s quite a walking distance to the test field.

This is the perfect invention for when you’re stranded on a desert island, which is why I recommend every single person always carry one with them at all times. Sure, it’s gigantic and weighs 30 pounds, but you’ll get the last laugh when your “Help” message is perfectly spaced and legible and your fellow strandees are using coconuts like a bunch of chumps.

Keep going for the full video of the robot in action, along with Miranda’s previous version, which was slower but had more contrast.

Source: Geekologie – Sand drawing robot draws in sand

Twitter user @AlfieDaye shared the life-cycle of a blackberry, sparking others to post their own versions of other berries. There’s something so satisfying about seeing nature laid out like this. Like seeing a larvae next to an insect or a stork next to a baby. Wait, what do you mean that’s not where babies come from? Why would my mommy lie to me?

Keep going for more.

Source: Geekologie – Visualizing the life-cycles of berries

If you’ve ever dreamed of sleeping in a beehive with live bees (and really, who hasn’t?), Horizontal Hive as free plans on their site for building your own bee bed:

Another great thing about horizontal hives: you can sleep in them. Do you still think that bees are for making honey? I thought so too until I built myself a bee bed. I call it Bed-and-Bees or B&B and it is a long horizontal hive where you are separated from the bees by thin planks and can bathe in their warmth and vibration and smells without any danger of being stung. It will change your life forever once you experience how relaxing and soothing and healing it is. It surely changed ours!

For the complete story about the effect sleeping-with-the-bees can have on your mind and body (and on the whole planet) see the article in the October 2015 issue of the American Bee Journal.

And here are the complete free plans for making your own bee bed!

So you’re not technically sleeping with live bees since there are some thin planks separating them, but no. I mean, just, no. What are we even talking about here? Clearly whoever is running Horizontal Hive has eaten too much honey and lost their mind. They act as if it’s perfectly normal to go, “Honey is tasty and all, but I bet what bees are really good at is snuggling.”

Keep going for one more shot of the bee bed.

Source: Geekologie – Make your own bee bed, a bed inside a beehive