Young C. Park builds aluminum models of aircraft. [more inside]
posted by exogenous on Oct 13, 2011 - 12 comments

Francie Rehwald said she wanted a curved, feminine-shaped house for her Malibu lot overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so architect David Hertz designed her a home built from a scrapped 747.
posted by mattdidthat on Jun 28, 2010 - 41 comments

"I don't see any future for whale species except extinction." A report (pdf) released Thursday by Ocean Alliance noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. Concentrations of chromium found in some whales was several times higher than the level required to kill healthy cells in a Petri dish. Mercury in some whales was 16 times higher than a typical shark or swordfish, both known for their high mercury levels. Beyond whales, "You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species."
posted by stbalbach on Jun 24, 2010 - 68 comments

What do you do when your 40 year old, 1 of 377 351 343 ~350, vintage Japanese sports car's original body is too far gone to repair? If you are Shin Yoshikawa, the man who wrote the book on the 2000GT, you hand fabricate a new body (and some trim) completely from scratch in aluminum. [more inside]
posted by Mitheral on Jun 22, 2010 - 32 comments

The Gold prize in the Die and Mold machining section of Mori Seiki’s Cutting Dream Contest Awards 2007 was won by the Kawanami Ironworks Inc. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the company machined a jacket from aluminum. [more inside]
posted by prostyle on Feb 15, 2008 - 15 comments

Grills made of you are worn by sellers of drugs / You are used in cars, and great for spark plugs. A periodic table of rather bad poetry about the elements. Via This compilation of periodic tables.
posted by Wolfdog on Jan 30, 2008 - 17 comments

What to do once your beer is all gone All right, so you’ve finished your beverage. You’ve discreetly released the gas from your digestive tract via your mouth. And now you want to dispose of the empty can. You consider your options. Public-spirited as you are, you are too savvy to believe that you can redeem the pull tab for a wheelchair or a dialysis machine, or that an aluminum beanie will protect your brain from alien forces, and you are far too civilized to smash the can against your forehead. As a responsible, ecologically minded person you could recycle, but you’re also creative, and recycling would leave that artistic urge unsatisfied. So, perhaps you whip up a morning glory wreath for the front door. Or an airplane. Or a honeybee. Or the Starship Enterprise, a shark, a knight in shining aluminum armour, a piano, a hot rod, a Christmas tree, roses for your beloved, or Easter lilies for your mother. Or whatever else strikes your fancy. Then you have twin epiphanies: that you’ve entered the wonderful world of aluminum crafting, and that after emptying all those cans you urgently need to pee.
posted by orange swan on Nov 6, 2006 - 22 comments

How do we know he didn't invent the thing?
posted by kafziel on Oct 18, 2005 - 18 comments

Transparent aluminum is here. Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home: documentary?
posted by o2b on Feb 25, 2002 - 26 comments

Always use protection - the Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie protects your brain from most electromagnetic psychotronic mind-control carriers.
posted by kd on Sep 25, 2001 - 9 comments