I finally finished my doorbell color changer, a modification to a hardware store lighted doorbell using a single RGB LED and an AVR microcontroller. I'll have to write an article about this project later. For now, take a look at the pictures. The night shots really don't do it justice; maybe I'll take some better video as soon as I can track down a tripod.

The shifting hues promise further weirdness inside—ring the bell if you dare!

I competed recently in my university club's own divisional tournament. If you are ignorant of the noble science of fencing, thrill to the dramatic photos below! If you do know something of this sport, don't bother—I've already heard all about my lousy form from my coach...

I have added a new section to this site, intended to be a place to publish the results of all my smaller-scale one-day experiments, mostly involving explosions, destruction, and low comedy. These never really merited a entire page by themselves, so I'll be putting them all together onto this new page, named Bad Ideas as a not-so-subtle warning to the reader.

UPDATE: Not anymore! I should probably fold them into the main line of the blog.

Some of my wayward engineering friends paid me a visit on this weekend, an event always marked by pranks and mayhem simultaneously creative and destructive. This time, it took the form of exploding cans of hairspray.

This is seriously dangerous; nobody should ever perform this experiment. Shrapnel could fly out of the hairspray cans at high velocity, or you could get burnt by the flammable contents. I will repeat: DON'T TRY THIS. EVER.

Now, the standard thing to do with hairspray is simply to squirt some out and light it on fire, like a little flame-thrower. But what if you could get the entire can to come out in a fraction a second? Easy enough with an air-rifle.

Briefly, we placed two cans of hairspray (we initially did it with one, but two is even better!) in this Asian-looking garden shrine thing, thoughtfully left behind by some previous owner of the house (it has seen hard service since we took over!). Then we surrounded the cans with burning newspaper, stood at what we considered a safe distance (wearing eye protection, of course), and shot through both cans with one shot from the air rifle. This released all the gas at once, which was ignited by the newspaper and formed a massive fireball, as seen in the photo sequence above.

Another sequence of photos—note that some fuel remains for a few seconds after the initial blast, burning at a slower rate.

Concerned about hot post-election tempers and the fractured nature of the American polity (and always after an excuse to drink like mad), my roommates and I threw a smashing election party on the night of the 2nd. We invited our most radical friends from both sides, served drinks in red and blue cups (“party self-identification”), and nicely avoided stewing in front of the television all night cursing the other half of America in a blind rage. This was also a chance to display a healthy contempt for the political process and its probably irrelevant outcome by partying through the wearying hours of exit polls and electoral vote counts.

My vision: four years from now, election parties will spread across the land, partisans of all stripes will be brought together, and the jagged rift in our nation can begin to heal! People of America, please, please care LESS! Or at least, drink yourselves silly!