News and Updates from WonderHowTo: Page 187

What is it about the infamous colored smoke bomb that is so deeply satisfying, so beautiful? Well, first there's an explosion (always fun), which then yields beautiful billowing clouds of saturated color. Check out artist Olaf Breuning'sSmoke Bombs, 2008.

Beautifully constructed wooden SuperCar Maniwa manufactured by Sada-Kenbi. The wooden Japanese car goes for $44,000. Wow. That's a lot for a toy. However, this baby is street legal and can go up to 90km per hour (that would be 55mph).

Science geeks behold, the perfect dessert. The cupcake Periodic Table. Pretty simple to do-it-yourself. Start with basic cupcakes in a square mold and decorate!

Wait for it, wait for it... it happens really fast... at right about 1:05. Okay, maybe he's not a world champion, but a very cool party trick nonetheless.

That's right, cars aren't the only mode of transportation worth customizing. Dekochari, the Japanese art of pimping your bicycle:

My stomach is doing somersaults just watching this. Looks fun, albeit incredibly dangerous.

Beautiful LED sculpture made for the 2008 100% Design exhibition in Earls Court. Curious how it was made? Process images below the video.

As November was coming to an end this year, the "6th Robo-One Gate in International Robot Exhibition 2009" dance competition took place. The contenders are just a little bit creepy, to say the least. Particularly exhibit A, Britney Spears wannabe,  "LOVE & JOY, Yuhi Kimura", by Doka Harumi.

Whether you're inclined to love it or leave it, you've gotta admit one thing about JC de Castelbajac's LEGO fashion line- it's fun. More 80's pop culture revival: LEGO constructed hats and LEGO inspired prints set to cartoon blue skies. Scroll all the way down for JC de Castelbajac's  runway videos (one in LEGOmation, the second live footage of the actual runway show).

WonderHowTo loves pranks. So, naturally we're big fans of College Humor, particularly Prank Wars.

Neuroscience (live!) resumes its 50 hour slicing session 8:00 am PST this morning.

Rosemarie Fiore is badass. She makes art with pyrotechnics, amusement park rides, Atari, guns, and pinball machines. Though all of her work is cool, I have to say my favorite piece is Fiore's larger than life spirograph, made from an amusement park ride, entitled "Good Time Mix Machine".

Real life spiderman, Jyothi Rai of India, spends his time entertaining tourists by scaling walls of the Chitradurga Fort. The daredevil works completely harness free.

Wow, this robot has incredible movement.

Yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to eat a chicken wing. And yes, Obama likes chicken wings just like everybody else does.

Tom Friedman. One of my very favorite contemporary artists.

Cycling enthusiasts, behold. Fastest bicycle in the world, designed by VARNA of British Columbia. Pretty impressive.

Knitted delectable delights from Ed Bing Lee. Inspired? Gotta start somewhere.

Henna. Beautiful, fun, exotic... and best of all... Do-It-Yourself (with a little practice). Also, unlike tattoos, it's temporary. Henna generally lasts for 1-3 weeks. An ancient tradition, henna is believed to "bring love and good fortune, and to protect against evil."

Flickr user MR38 has posted a set of photos of bumper cars made street legal, as displayed at the annual Cruisin' Grand festival in Escondido, California. This mini cars were retrofitted with 750 cc Kawasaki motors. Cool auto mod.

Turkey day is over, and you have this nice Friday-Saturday-Sunday stretch before it's back the daily grind. Here's a project that inspires both young and old: LeGummies brick shaped gummy candies. Geeky LEGO bliss.

Tokyo art student, Wataru Itou, spent four long years crafting his meticulous paper city, entitled "A Castle On the Ocean".  The miniature papercraft city was constructed with "basic knives, scissors, hole punches and modeling glue." The structure has a "spectrum-spanning colored lighting system" and motorized paper trains.

So, I suppose we're going both redneck and Thanksgiving turkey twice today (Redneck Slingshot Chick + Extreme Thanksgiving Recipes). Something about home for the holidays inspires... and this is pretty darn great.

Well, maybe these folks aren't redneck. That is a pretty nice house, and that slingshot doesn't look too jery rigged. But the idea of a human slingshot is certainly redneck (and lotsa fun).

OK, so Halloween is over. However, I couldn't resist posting Michelle Phan's Sailor Moon/Manga makeup tutorial. Michelle makes incredible beauty tutorials (don't miss her Lady Gaga look!).

I'm not sure about the who, what, where, when or how...but man, this mountain climbing car is cool. More car customizations/mods: (HowTo).

Science geeks everywhere: the ultimate knitting pattern. Creator apinnick made this amazing sweater displaying the Periodic Table of Elements for her husband, a microbiologist working in the pharmaceutical industry. Click through to her blog for her periodic table knitting chart, to learn how to knit-it-yourself.

Jan Vorman has installed quick LEGO-fixes all over the world - from Italy to Germany to Israel to Holland.

Heatherwick Studio's London based rolling bridge is an engineering marvel. Lots of fun, and immensely satisfying to watch (via YouTube, assuming you can't see it in person).

Can't help but smile at this goofy, endearing nerd "master" (Vitalijus Rodnovas) guiding his copy-cat protege robot (coined Waldo). The rig allows Waldo to mimic Rodnovas' body movements in actual real time.

There, I Fixed It passes along an easy, redneck solution to grilling some dogs. All you need is a rake.

This low impact woodland home in Wales is the cream of the crop. The woodland home was built entirely of natural materials, and best of all - only took 4 months and $5000 to complete.

The EcoJet. No, it's not a economy-sized jet engine aircraft. It's Jay Leno's version of an eco-friendly car. A very, very fast eco-friendly car.

Need to find some directions? No problem, use Google Maps. Want to find some spy photos of yourself? No problem, use Google Street View.

Perpetuum Jazzile: a Slovenian choir that performs both jazz and popular music.

Forget video games. Go outside. Get some fresh air. Get out a little anger while you're at it. Play Boxwars.

Sure, you've folded paper airplanes before. But I bet they don't stay airborne for very long. But they will, thanks to this clever little hack.

This is no ordinary tractor. Nor is it an ordinary Fiat. Not by a long shot.

Move over Rubik's Cube, there's a new puzzle in town. The Petaminx.

LIGHTFAKTOR is a Cologne artists collective experimenting with the "possibilities yielded by bulb (long-term) exposure and painting."