The Mary Sue

Re-purposed Vacuum Tubes Make Pretty Cool Decorations

by Eric Limer Oct 6th

There's nothing quite like hacked-together, nouveau-vintage odds and ends to give your domicile a certain air of "Boy, that sure is neat." Autuin of Free Geek Vancouver (the same guy who brought you the Wi-Fi, picture-stealing picture frame) knows this well, which is presumably why he decided to take some old vacuum tubes and fashion them into light fixtures. If you aren't intimately familiar with vacuum tubes -- and lets face it, you probably aren't -- they aren't actually designed to put out light. That being the case, Autuin rigged up the light fixtures to run at double the rated voltage, resulting in a nice little glow. And if vacuum tube lights weren't enough, he also put a modern day jump drive inside a vacuum tube. On his blog, he mentions that he thought it was sort of funny, putting millions of switches inside the body of one old one. I'm inclined to agree. Check out more pictures after the jump.

The Worst, Best, and Weirdest Chess Sets

by Max Eddy Mar 2nd

In the 12th century, someone somewhere in Scandinavia carved the Lewis Chessmen, a collection of nearly 100 chess pieces of a particularly unique and expressive style. It wasn't the first ornate chess set, but it's certainly a strange and unique set with its shield-biting berzerkers and worried looking royalty. Since the Lewis chess set, the Western world has continued to make stranger and stranger chess sets. Perhaps this speaks to the power of the game, and it's captivating metaphorical nature. More likely it speaks to the human desire to spend stupendous amounts of money. Regardless, chess set making has come to the point where it's no longer about the game but about whatever weird twist you can put on it. And trust us, they've come a long way from simple walrus ivory carvings. So whether your covet these gameboards, or laugh at those that do, please enjoy this humble collection of the least humble chess sets the Internet has to offer.