Fraunhofer's 3D printed exploration spiders are intended for use "as an exploratory tool in environments that are too hazardous for humans, or too difficult to get to." They use hydraulic bellows to execute advanced maneuvers, including jumping:

With its long extremities, the spider has a range of ways to get around.

Back in the day, home versions of arcade hits were often disappointing: low-res screens, tiny sprites and tinny music. At the time, this was seen as the result of computers and consoles lacking the originals' cutting-edge tech. This is true enough; accurate living-room clones of coin-op hits weren't common until the 16-bit era. — Read the rest

Video Link, more about the project here. And read the investigative report that inspired this video "explainer" at ProPublica (* warning, major bummer alert).

A snip from the lyrics:

Fracking is a form of natural gas drilling

An alternative to oil cause the oil kept spilling

Bringing jobs to small towns so everybody's willing
People turn on their lights and the drillers make a killing

Water goes into the pipe, the pipe into the ground

The pressure creates fissures 7,000 feet down

The cracks release the gas that powers your town

That well is fracked…..

(Photo: Anders Krusberg/The Martha Stewart Show)

On Monday, May 18, I'll be on The Martha Stewart show. I'm going to demonstrate bunch of different projects from the pages of MAKE, and I'll also show Martha how to build a vibrobot. — Read the rest

Becky Stern sez, "I'm taking an introductory metalworking class, and for our first sample project I made this copper band-aid. I formed the strip on a hydraulic press (read: car jack in a steel frame) sandwiched between layers of acrylic (bottom) and flexible urethane (top). — Read the rest

For the last dozen years, Pierre Scerri of Avignon, France, has spent his free time, totaling 20,000 hours, building this 1:3 scale model of a Ferrari 312PB. "I wanted to make something like a dream, a Ferarri which we could have in the dining room," Scerri says in a video on the Fine Art Models Web site. — Read the rest

BigDog is a strange robotic pack mule that Boston Dynamics developed for the military. The .7 meters tall mechanical beast-of-burden is powered by a gasoline engine and, so far, has trotted at 3.3 mph and lugged around 120 lbs. The video is a hoot. — Read the rest

You submitted, we voted, and here are the results for Link Fu Too: Shaolin Webmonkey Beatdown.

(1) Susannah
Breslin says: "My first Link-Fu master award goes to Joe Ashear for the [[Jarvis
Products Corporation ]] website featuring meat and poultry processing equipment: Electrically Powered Bandsaw for Splitting Cattle, Pigs, and Sows, Ele
ctric-Hydraulic Powered Hog Head Dropper, and the unforgettable, no skilled-labor required Sow
Bung System. — Read the rest