Luke writes:

Sir,

I have no idea what your personal politics are, but I feel that purely from a creative and professional point of view, you might enjoy this.

We do indeed, Thanks Luke!

As far as our personal politics are concerned, we find Obama and Biden somewhat conservative for our tastes, but support them anyway.

Here is Part 2 of Jay's 1906 Stanley Steamer piece. Enjoy!

Here's a picture of the completed heart of The Burning One built by our own Meredith Scheff! This is a screen grab from the incredible Fullscreen Gigapan of the Man at Gigapan.org!

James writes from Hirakata, Japan:

Hey!  Big fan of the site and of anything and everything steampunk...Funny thing is, there are so many people who are straight-up steampunk without even knowing that such a cult underground exists.  For example, when i was a teenager, I modified a 13inch TV i had from the 80's to fit inside of a 1930's TV box that I found in an abandoned, half burned down factory near where I lived. [I did the same thing! -JvS]

Well, the same thing occurs throughout the world, I've found.  I live in a small town in Japan in a very rural area.  Upon exiting the supermarket the other day, I came across this steampunk masterpiece!  I waited for an hour for the presumed Japanese steampunker to come out with his goth gear on and his mohawk, but low and behold, an 85 year old man comes out, grabs his lighter from his scooter, and lights up.  I went over to him to complement him on his work, and with barely audible Japanese since he had no teeth at all and had very badly fitting dentures, started to explain how he put it together in the heaviest Japanese countryside accent I have ever heard.  Classic!

James is spot on, Steampunk is not a new thing but an expression of something that has been with us all along.  What's different is that people's dissatisfaction with what they are offered in the marketplace has more and more of them turning to DIY to make their own wonderful things and the advent of the 'net gives them immediate access to how to information and each other.

Thanks James!

We've seen this gentlemen before here at The Steampunk Workshop. He is Stephen Fry and in addition to playing the inimitable "Jeeves" in the ITV version of P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster he is a supporter of free software.

The GNU organization has, created, nurtured, and fought for free software for 25 years now and Stephen made this short film to commemorated that quarter century.

The Steampunk Workshop's servers as well as the workstations and laptop I use to upload this drivel all run on Open Source operating systems and we are eternally grateful to their creators and supporters!

I'm not sure how to categorize these two - also, I'm not a music critic so I just don't have the language.  Think Squirrel Nut Zippers with some Goth influence.  It's neat stuff, old timey but with a nice edge.

Have a listen here

It is my understanding that they have been bitten hard by the Steampunk bug and that an upcoming release in aught-nine will contain a bit of mad science!

The Cruise of the Alerte is one part travel guide, one part high seas adventure, and one part farce. It is the story of E.F. Knight, an English writer and lawyer in 1889, who receives a map that claims the location of buried pirate treasure and his subsequent adventure (if you could call it that) in following it. 

From what I can tell, it is a true story, written by E.F. Knight himself. Truthfully, this is confirmed by the book itself. It lacks the high adventure, harrowing thrills and dervish like plot twists that most fictional tails, especially those involving lost pirate treasure, contain. However, its true story label turns it from a dull tale into a droll and some times hilariously farcical yarn.

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WISIL HPVers is one of the best sites on the net for information about recumbent bicycles.  I've recently managed to get sir CodPeace of The BostoDelphia Blog interested in them and he sent this link to a review of a bike that I must have.

This bike was conceptualized in 2003 by a host of individuals as a breakaway from the current crop of recumbent bikes which were all compromised in some way or another to provide added comfort or perceived safety. This is truly a racing recumbent, using the latest in splitter plate design philosophy, and constructed from carbon fiber and Kevlar using a bladder in female mold process. This bike does not suffer the same issue with flex that the M5 carbon lowracer has, it's incredibly stiff. The NoCom weighs about 24lbs as shown, which is incredibly light considering the use of heavier components like a disk wheel and disk brakes.

In 1978 James Burke produced and narrated a series on the history of science called Connections. It's a wonderful series and I highly recommend you get a hold of all three seasons.

But right now, watch this video about technology traps.  You'll get the idea after the first ten minutes but feel free to seek out and watch the whole thing.

When the infrastructure in the city breaks down it would seem that the smartest thing to do is flee.  But that is not an option for many and anyway you have to see disaster coming to get out ahead of the swarm of humanity with the same idea. 

And where will you go?  When you get there, what will you do? Will you even know when to leave?

The apocalypse will come by inches, you won't know it's upon you until long after it's too late.  But if you have a copy of this book you may not notice it at all because you'll by comfortable, well fed and in a position to help those around you.

Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew of Austin's Rizome Collective have put together this book, Toolbox for Sustainable City Living on sustainable living, permaculture, aquaculture, energy production, bioremediation and many other subjects all designed with city dwellers in mind.  Subjects such as gardening, alternative energy and fuels are only touched upon as there are many resources already available.  However the information on Aquaculture and particularly bioremediation of contaminated land (brownfields) is extensive and unique.

The Apocalypse will be slow and boring - pay attention and prepare and you might not even notice it.

Rage drove me to it.  Our 2001 Toyota Sienna failed it's Massachusetts emissions test this year, the problem was with the evaporative emissions control system so I dropped it at the dealer to be fixed. 

You see, several years ago I decided I had  enough frustration working on cars and decided to focus on more fun pursuits. 

Several things have happened since then.  #1 - I have a much better shop and more capable tools.  No rusted nut or bolt can resist the hot wrench (mechanic's slang for an oxy/acetylene cutting torch) !  and #2 - I've become a radical Makepunk. 

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