Yes, people back in 1910 really did think flying airships (and other things) were the future.

According to the postcards, the future included flying boats (but not anymore), chemical dinners (drugs as food), audiobooks via headphones (nailed it), robotic tailors (nope), overhead trains (almost), flying firefighters with bat wings (Hell no), motorized roller skates (somebody did that and got arrested), tanks (you betcha), electric machines building buildings (it’s real), video teleconferencing (nailed it), Radium fireplaces (What?), robot barbers (not yet), electric trains (duh), robotic makeup applicators (so 5th element), drive-up fast food for flying cars (1/2 right), helicopters watching us from above (got it), more bat wings on flying traffic cops to deal with flying cars (thank goodness not), and drive-in theaters but with flying cars.

Yeah, we got robbed on the flying cars deal.  But if you think about it, people can’t drive correctly in two dimensions.  Can you imagine some old bat-crazy lady who can’t see over the steering wheel or her Facebook Twittering grand-kid dealing with traffic in three dimensions?

See the rest of the art via DVICE.

Cute…  Steampunk Wonder Woman fighting for American “Liberty”.  Too bad she’s married.  Reminds me of a girl I once dated, her name was Liberty.  She cheated on me with a girl named Chasity.

I always wondered what the brain of a mouse looked like.  We’ve seen plenty of Steampunk mice before, but this one is a little more spooky than usual.

Somebody has a serious hobby.  Although, I’m not sure that’s a girl in there.  Still, it’s pretty cool.

Yes, it’s a real comic.  It was created by Antarctic Press and also makes President Evil, Time Lincoln, The Govinator, and others.  You can buy it from Things From Another World (TFAW) which is also where I bought my Firefly / Serenity comics.  Judging by the excerpts, it’s actually looking pretty well done.

Energy catastrophe has struck worldwide! Massive oil spills, nuclear meltdowns and more leave us desperate for viable energy sources to rebuild global society and technology.

Inspired by a little tea party, Sarah Palin hits upon the answer: steam power! She begins the ‘Steam Initiative’, touting geothermal energy as the cure for what ails ya. The heads of Big Oil and Nuclear Power are less than happy with this trend, and they send their agents to do in the Rogue Republican. Luckily, she comes prepared with a set of steam-powered armor! (Standard equipment, don’cha know.)

I have some “Independent” (Republican) friends who will love this…

Google is paying tribute to Jules Verne’s 183rd birthday by creating an interactive Google Doodle based on
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

If you missed it, you can check it out in Google’s Doodle History.  If you have an iOS device such as an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, you can move your device to change the angle of the viewpoint in the Doodle.  Traditional browser users can use the joystick to change the view.

It’s a steam-driven turn-table.  I wonder how good it is.  You see, I have an audiophile speaker business and I’m always into the high-end stuff.  I’d like to hook it up to my tube-amp and my Brodmann Acoustics Vienna Classic VC7 speakers ($26,000/pair).

Built by a New Zealand based steampunk artist called Asciimation, the turntable features a a small steam engine he built from spare bits he had in his garage, The platter speed is controlled by a servo which uses a coil to read six magnets under the platter, with everything controlled by an Anduino processor.

Somebody buy it for me and I’ll hook it up to my stuff and let you know.

Via: DVICE

UPDATE:  Project completed.  Giant drill penetrates man’s driveway.  Community shocked amused.  Halloween saved.  Dentists everywhere rejoice!  Good job Peter, we’re looking forward to next year.

11/1/2010 – We did it. It was probably the hardest project I’ve done yet, but with the help of a lot of very talented people, we pulled off an amazingly huge prop for Halloween last night. Here’s a shot from this morning to show what we built:  Amazingly, we built a bigger prop than the concept art showed. It’s massive. The drillbit alone is 11 1/2 feet long. From the tip of the drill to the base of the cylinder is about 25 feet. The tip reached very near the top of my two story house. There will be more photos and video over the next few weeks, but I just wanted to put this up to let everyone know we got the project done.

Most Halloweens are spent supervising young children as they muck about in their $5 plastic Darth Vader / Hannah Montana costumes collecting chocolate-coated razor blades balls of caffeinated sugar.  But not Peter Montgomery; oh Hell no.  The man has a serious Halloween hobby that makes your paltry 2-million Christmas light display dim by comparison.  This year’s theme is a Jules Verne-inspired Steampunk drill bursting out of his driveway.

“I’m calling the display “Journey from the Center of the Earth.”  It’s a giant, 18 foot tall, steampunk inspired earth drilling machine.”

If you watch the video below, you’ll see the man is a Halloween god.  And like any god, he needs money.  Pete needs to raise a mere $2,200.  At the time of this writing, he’s got $1,684 from 67 backers and 14-days to go (Oct. 14 deadline).  He’s using KickStarter (which uses Amazon payments) to fund his project.

I’ll be following up to see the real deal after Halloween.  While the animatronics Peter will no doubt provide is really cool, I fully expect a ride down the Well to Hell so that I can relish in the screams of all those Soviet Union souls condemned to burn in the lake of fire.

Apparently, this won the Marvel Costume Contest at New York Comic Con 2010.  Good job, high-5!

New and upcoming Steampunk comic book by Joe Benitez with fantastic art and story.  I’m a harsh critic, especially when it comes to comics; but this one is a winner.

I used to collect comics back in the ’90s.  X-Men, Spawn, Lobo, Crow, and a few others.  My collection is now limited to a handful of favorites.  So naturally, I am very critical of comics.  I feel they have to have great stories, fantastic characters, and beautiful art.  I’m looking forward to following Lady Mechanika.

With no memory of her captivity or her former life, Mechanika eventually built a new life for herself as a private detective, using her unique abilities to solve cases the police couldn’t or wouldn’t handle. But she never stopped searching for the answers to her own past.

Set in turn of the century England, a time when magic and superstition clashed with new scientific discoveries and inventions, Lady Mechanika is about a young woman’s search for her own identity as she solves other mysteries involving science and the supernatural.

Via: Official Joe Benitez Site