Abandoned trailer park in Los Angeles.

Here' an interesting project I did in just two days. I spent time chatting to Downtown LA's homeless a few weeks back. They make a small living redeeming aluminum cans for 2.5 cents each.

The Tiki is alive and well in the USA. My weekend in Palm Springs unearthed a treasure trove of Tiki-ness.

Making do in style in a 1977 Silver Streak RV.

Watched an interesting clip yesterday equating the robotic revolution to horses losing their jobs at the turn of the century.

I visited Staples today and was amazed at the possibilities of cheap 3D printers.

OK it’s not cardboard. But with all this fuss about the Tesla and how it’s the IT car in the Hollywood hills here. I thought I’d better shine some light on the NZ version of this invention. This one cost a little less than $US100,000K yet does the same thing but charged by the sun.

Before we committed money and design to the Little Legends story builder app I just wanted to try out the technology, get it in front of kids and see if it would work. Though the inventing theme I was convinced that if we give kids a tight brief like “Hey, invent a dog powered milk-shake machine or invent a rat powered bike” kids would run with it and draw up the maddest contraptions. The result…

I'm doing a weekly blog on making things with stuff you can find lying around the house. I've spent the last 10 years building amazing inventions for the TV show. But this is about making mad stuff with ice block sticks and a glue gun.