Today we have a fine crop of choice links, hand picked at the point of perfection, for your viewing pleasure:

• First, a neat article from The Times Online about 3D printing, that gives a nice mention to the CandyFab 4000
• A Video Compilation of the short list of video finalists for the Phylm prize (of which we are among the judges).
• Suggested by Brian Gaut: the cartalator. That’s the shopping cart escalator found at Target and a few other big box stores. (I’ve seen them for years, but I’ll admit to thinking it was really cool when I first saw one.)
• Bookend snippets from the Japanese children’s program, Pythagoras Switch (suggested by an anonymous reader). These are Rube Goldberg machines based on rolling balls and you simply mustwatch these videos if you have not seen them– plan fifteen minutes where you don’t need to pay attention to anything else. The folks that make these videos have the coolest job in the world.
• Translations in many languages of that most useful of phrases, “My hovercraft is full of eels.”
• Seriously disturbing Lego, but made with remarkable talent. (Additional pictures in gallery.)
• There is actually a formula to compute actual size of a #6 (for example) screw!

We are also inducting several new Honorary Mad Scientists into the fold today:

• Graham Stabler who makes all kinds of amazing things including tiny flying machines and homebrew CNC machines.
• John Maushammer, who has among other projects, developed the Pong Watch
• Bruce Shapiro, whose motion control art installations are truly remarkable
• Christy Canida, who has made remarkable strides in instructing the world in good cooking and strange taxidermy– a combination that certainly qualifies for mad scientist status!
• Raven Hanna, a molecular biophysicist turned artist– our brand of Mad Science exactly. She now runs Made with Molecules (Go get your molecules on.)