Saturday Steam 7/2/11

I haven't done a Saturday Steam roundup of random whanot in a while, so prepare for an onslaught of steamy goodness!

First, a little bling:

Found by Lisa R., Astrolabe Necklace by dragonweave, $39.95

Astronomical jewelry? Yes, please!

- Hannah F. found a flash program I had way too much fun playing with: a steampunk "costume creator:"

It's kind of like virtual paper dolls, except everything is customizable, right down to the skin tone and makeup. Here's what I came up with:

Seriously: so fun.

The program was designed and created by DeviantArt user Ammotu, and you can play it here.

- Speaking of costumes, who wants to see Epbot reader Jason dressed as steampunk Buzz Lightyear?

Woohoo!! Rock on, Jason!

He tells me my photos of the steampunk Wizard of Oz gang helped give him the idea. Ah, I love having a part in inspiring greatness like this.

- Someone sent me this amazing short film, "Bird: A Decent Animal," but I've managed to lose said person's name. I'm sorry, someone! Anyway, the film is kind of like Bride of Frankenstein, only less B monsters and more haunting steampunk. It's beautiful, but also dark - and there's a brief surgery scene - so it's not for the extremely young or squeamish:

And as is the case with most short films, I was equally fascinated by the making of:

More info at the film's website.

And now for a little whimsy!

Eric found this DIY Steampunk Singing Bird over on Instructables, and I totally want to make one. Isn't it amazing? Kind of a clockwork Tim Burton vibe. Hit the link for in-process photos and instructions, and then visit creator Keith Newstead's site for tons of jaw-dropping automatons.

Which is a great segue to this:

- Gena C. found something for my fellow history buffs: Check out the world's only known surviving pair of singing bird pistols:

These jewel encrusted beauties aren't actually pistols; they're a form of automata. When you wind them and pull the trigger, a tiny bird pops out of the barrel and sings:

The bird's movements are astoundingly lifelike - if nothing else, go to 1:25 on the video below to see it in action. You will be amazed. Especially when you consider these were made in 1820.

The pistols sold last month at auction for over five million dollars. WOW. Visit Christie's for more info.

- And finally, there's a steampunk group planning an airship Nautilus float for the New York Mermaid Parade next year. Awesome, right? If you want to get involved (or chip in for supplies) head over to their Facebook page.

Well, I think that's enough for today - the rest will have to wait 'til next week. Hope you guys are having a great holiday weekend!

Geek Glee: Blasts from the Past

Dedicated geekery-finder Libbie A. recently shared these gems on the Epbot FB page:

Check out Dan's glasses! Clearly, he was hipster BEFORE there were hipsters.

And here's a goodie from the Atlantic's photo collection on the history of the space shuttle:

Wait. Scotty had a beard?

(Hit that link for tons of fabulous shuttle photos, too.)


And while we're sharing, here are a few more I've had kickin' around my hard drive:

Apparently there were some practical jokers on the set of Wrath of Khan.


This one interested me for obvious reasons:

CAKE! Originally it was so washed out you couldn't see much, so I tweaked the photo and zoomed as much as I could to read it. I believe it says,

To Lenny with love from "the gang of five."

(Lenny would be Leonard Nimoy, of course.)

There's also a cartoony looking guy riding one of the nacelles, with a speech bubble that reads
"Ho, Enterprise!" (John thinks "Go" would make more sense, but that doesn't look like a "G" to me.)

Anyway, anyone else find it interesting that Shatner wasn't one of the "gang of five?" I've read enough biographies to not find it too surprising, but this still seems an embarrassingly obvious exclusion.

And finally, one of my favorite photos OF ALL TIME:

So. Much. Win.


Happy Friday, everyone!

(And Happy Canada Day, Canada!)

All photos found via a rabbit trail of sourceless Tumblr links and/or disreputable content farms, so if anyone has original source credits, please let me know!

With Apologies to Canada

John and I have been sitting in the office all day, trying to figure out how to write a Sunday Sweets post honoring Canada that won't offend Canadians.

Not that Canadians as a whole are easily offended. It's just that over the course of several blog posts on CW my good-natured teasing managed to irritate a few. The worst instance was a misunderstanding: I posted some "improvised" lyrics to the Canada song that plays at Epcot ("Canadaaa! CanadAAAA! Oh, Caaanada!" you know, that one) and a few people thought I was making fun of the Canadian national anthem. Not many, but enough to warrant an apology and make us lay off most of the Canada humor since. (And place it on Texas, instead. Which also got us in trouble. But that's another post.)
Anyway, since July 1st is Canada Day, we thought we might switch things up a bit and feature that instead of July 4th Sweets on this weekend's Sunday Sweets. You know, a kind of peace offering.

The only problem is that Canada isn't all that different from the U.S., so finding uniquely Canadian things to spotlight via fabulous cakes isn't as easy as you might think.

We started with a list:

Moose
Black bears
Beavers
Beer
Royal Mounties
Hockey
Maple Leaves

John was worried. "It's all so...stereotypical. We can't let anyone think we're making fun of Canada."

So he did some research, and then wrote a painfully polite intro extolling Canada's great and various virtues, which he asked me to look over.

"Um...well, I think you're going so far the other way that people might think you're being sarcastic."

"Really?"

"You're talking about Justin Bieber and the guy who invented the microscope."

"Darn. What should I do?"

"Just...you know, write it like you're NOT trying to run for Canadian public office."

---a few hours later---

John: "I got 'nuthin. Besides, the cutest thing in here is the beaver cake."

Me: "Maybe we should just do all beaver cakes. You know, 'Here's a beaver, here's another beaver, here's a mountain cake that probably has beavers in it... Oh! and here's Justin Bieber...

"Jen..."

"...and here's some more beavers..."

"JEN."

"Now look at this dam cake. Beavers built it. Booya."

"You're. Not. Helping."

John was also completely unreasonable when I suggested Dudley Do-Right ("He's a Mountie!") and Rocky & Bullwinkle ("He's a moose!") so I gave up and wrote this post instead.

So, whatever goes up on Sunday, let me apologize, Canada. We tried.