Wednesday Cool Links: All Sorts of Odds ...

With the runaway success of the Useless Box, many of us here at Solarbotics can be assembling the kits in our sleep, even under a dose of tranquilizers, and be orchestrating the two lasers at the same time with no difficulty whatsoever. Just like I used to count transistors for the latest in Soviet Death Ray technology, which was the favourite past time of kids all across Russia in the 80's. Oh, the nostalgia... But as swamped with those fun activities as we are, we still are going to have a Wednesday Cool Links post for your viewing pleasure.

	Piranha Plant Circuit Board Keychain: For Your Key-sa-Mario Remember those plants that would rise from those green (or orange or gray) tunnels in the Super Mario video games and then hide back after a short interval of time? Here's a USB with a print of one of those. Just plug the keychain into your USB port and watch the light at the top of the plant’s mouth light up.
	The Bottlerobot.com blog These are pretty cool articulated robots made out of monochrome plastic bottle parts. Art + recycling + robots, what else could you want?! Check out the stop motion animation on May 2, 2012: these creatures are full of character.
	Walking paper Walking paper robot BIPED. If you can get past the jerky stop-motion assembly, it's an impressive build (walking starts at 3:15).
	BitBox's Battery Showdown It's always every year or so somebody out there does a really comprehensive analysis of the power-supplying capability of AA batteries. Here's a particularly detailed one, from BitBox.
	2012 Yeosu EXPO HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP - Hyper-Matrix We've been playing around with stepper motors on and off for years, but Hyundai knows how to do a PROPER stepper motor demonstration! (And enjoy the stepper hum!)
	The Popinator We're torn between fact/fiction on this project. Ever try to manipulate the bumpy, irregular, inconsistent surface of a popped kernel? Still, everything else in this video looks cool (and feasible!).
	Lakeview Computers Nominated for Top Small Business One of our awesome distributors is currently being nominated by Alberta Venture as one of the top small businesses in the province. If you appreciate their work, we encourage you to go cast a vote in their favour.

In other news, the outside weather is proving that the world is a  gloomy place. Cold and unwelcoming (to those who don't have a death ray on hand?). How about I retreat to the warehouse and build a Useless Box? Or hundred. If that’s not an option for you, stay warm, have a chai. Or a shot of vodka if you are so inclined.