“It’s a 13 ton two-wheeler devised by Ray Baumann, a man who used to make a living out of trying to stop his own living. He was a stunt driver who has also driven trains, among other lifestyle activities. Powered by a Detroit Diesel truck engine, mated to a 6-speed Allison automatic, this thing stands almost 29.5ft long and more than 9.8ft high. In fact, a full grown man doesn’t even stand up to one of the Monster Motorbike’s wheels. Caterpillar provided these wheels straight from their front-end loader, a beast on its own, used to terrorizing the earth in all manner of sorts.” — worldcarfans

“Will Herron, a businessman, dreamed of a huge thermometer for 25 years before he made it a reality in California’s high desert. The World’s Largest Thermometer is 134-ft.-tall, symbolic of the record high temperature in the US, in Death Valley — 134 degrees Fahrenheit in 1913. It juts up next to Bob’s Big Boy in Baker, a small town near Nevada, ‘Gateway to Death Valley.’ The site chosen for the thermometer was along the main drag through town, visible from the interstate, and next to Failing’s Bun Boy coffee shop (a popular eatery owned by J.O. Failing, rebuilt after a fire in 1990, and since closed). In 1991, Herron paid to have the thermometer constructed by Young Electric Sign Co. (manufacturers of many neon and bulb monstrosities of the Vegas strip). They used 33 tons of steel, and almost 5,000 lamps to render the three-sided digital display.  After strong winds broke the thermometer, smashing a gift shop under construction, it was rebuilt, and eventually filled with concrete so that it would survive anything short of a direct thermonuclear attack.” w/ photos

“When my first daughter was two and a half, she started showing interest in things with wheels. I was keen to get her started on a bicycle, but realized she didn’t have to coordination to balance and learn to pedal at the same time. I decided to build her a recumbent trike so she would be able to get around without the risk of wiping out. I used discarded 12″ kids bikes and some other recycled bits and pieces, including the rectangular tubing from an office desk for the main frame. Here are a couple of shots of the finished trike.” w/ photos

“A little robot, made by SkyNet, plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for your amusement.”