newVideoPlayer("/legods_gizmodo.flv", 520, 312,""); Here’s a bunch of crazy Lego heads building the Lego Death Star diorama, probably the best Lego set available this side of the Millennium Falcon with 3,803 pieces, and 21 mini-figs–a stunning number for any Lego set–but definitely the most fun to play with, with 14 scenarios from the original movie.
Our friend Nannan Zhang from Brothers Brick is now in Chicago attending Brickworld, the annual convention for all things Lego. He was able to snap this cool video on the new US$400 Death Star diorama, showing how things move, including the working trash compactor. I still think they should make one to the scale of the Millennium Falcon, but I guess that could probably alter Earth’s orbit. As an alternative, they should release a Lego stormtrooper mini-cloning facility. [Brothers Brick]
Move over Millennium Falcon, because there’s a new Best Lego Set Ever in town: the US$400 Death Star. Almost 4,000 pieces of absolute nerdgasmic technological terror now available to order, showing 14 scenes that happened in the no-moon during the original trilogy. We have all the official information and three high definition photos that show every angle of this amazing set, with 21 amazing mini-figs, including Han and Luke dressed up as Lego Imperial Stormtroopers.
This is a shot of the interior of AT&T’s Death Star, their stunning global network centre in Bedminster, New Jersey—where they work to suppress good wireless reception and run their Random Billing Generator. It looks more amazing than NASA’s, but it’s not the only cool network operation centre running the intarwebs, as you will see in the gallery. Updated: with specs on the Death Star in New Jersey after the jump.
All AT&T’s flip-flopping between offering free wireless at Starbucks and then taking it away—turns out it was some peon screwing up after all. A spokesperson for the company told the New York Times that the confusion was due to a “human error.” But the day when iPhone users can definitively access the internet while sipping on frappuccinos will come, the PR flack assures, AT&T is just refusing to say when. Oh, come off it, AT&T. The cat’s out of the bag already, you might as well roll out the service now. I’m sure there will be plenty of secrets you can accidentally release before deadline in the future. [New York Times]
I got this picture from our Tips mailbox just after reading Wired’s article on Fanboys, Ernie Cline’s odyssey of a group of diehard Star Wars fans who break into Skywalker Ranch to steal a copy of Episode I before opening day. Reader Rye Clifton explained what it is, much to Addy’s disbelief:
This 521-foot-high hotel is coming to Baku, Azerbaijan, either to host a bunch of Imperial forces or obliterate the local population with a giant death ray. They call it “Full Moon” but they are not fooling us: this is a fully armed, fully operational battle station. And it shall be destroyed before it’s too late, with a bunch of small fighters that can escape its turbolasers and drop proton torpedoes down an exhaust port. Or maybe not, if you look at it from its side.
Future Retro’s Revolution Synthesizer R2 looks amazing; we completely have no use for a synthesiser, but we totally want one. With a complete aluminium construction, perfectly contrasting gun gray and white colours, as well as a smattering of blue LEDs all over, this synthesiser makes us moist in the most clichéd way possible. If that was not enough to get you interested, perhaps the circular sequencer interface, which allows single handed control; the ability to play patterns forwards, backwards, upside down and sideways, as well as remote pattern selection using MIDI program change messages will have you reaching for your anorexic wallet?
“If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory.” – Physorg
If that doesn’t amaze you, you need a slap. The HERCULES laser can produce that intensity instantaneously, and it is said to be the most intense known light in the universe.
Electronic House has this rad story of a home theater designed to resemble the control deck of the Death Star. The entire thing was designed by Doug Chiang, the lead designer on Episodes I and II. DVDs are tucked behind a hidden door replica of Han Solo in Carbonite, and the entire starfield is lit by fiber optics. One wonders what kind of person gets into a project like this.
