I was totally this kid when I was growing up. I used to build all kinds of crazy stuff with cardboard — but never on this scale. This kid, Caine found a problem and solved it on his own using really basic tools in a clever way. Something out of nothing in it’s truest form.
In a burst of science-is-fun educational invention, a Brooklyn dad built a carrier for an iPhone (the current model) and an HD video camera, out of a takeout box, tied it to a weather balloon, and let it go with the camera running. It reached a height of nineteen miles, or about 100,000 feet, which is high enough to show the earth’s curvature and a black sky above the atmosphere. At that height, the low pressure means that the helium expanded and the balloons burst, whereupon the little cushioned capsule came down, down, down — and landed 30 miles outside New York, signaling to its owners via the iPhone’s GPS, whereupon they went and picked it up. The resulting six minutes of rivetingly weird film are sure to make Mythbusters fans weep with joy.
So me and @calinative we’re sitting in a meeting yesterday when all of a sudden the sky went pitch black and the light rain that was coming down turned into heavy rain going up, down, left and right. Neither of us had any idea of a pending storm, but after checking Twitter we realized we were witnessing a Tornado. Anyways, on my bike ride back home from the meeting, I snapped a few pics of the damage.