Loving this Big Ben/centaur woodcut tee. Big Bentaur T-Shirt (Thanks, Scott!) Previously: Star Wars: Evolution of the AT-AT t-shirt - Boing Boing CCTV tees - Boing Boing...

Jeremiah Tolbert sez, "Dr. Julius T. Roundbottom, Steampunk Naturalist is a combination photography, fiction, and podcast project. Roundbottom is a naturalist studying the faeries and other creatures that dwell within the City Park. He documents them with photographs, recordings, and stories, as well as more supernatural events, such as the Steam Wraith and the Bird Queen. "It's a little fantasy, a little steampunk, a little clockpunk, and I hope a hell of a lot of fun. The comment community that has grown up around the site respond to the stories in their own characters, and the characters of the site have a dialog with them. The audience, through comments, influence the direction of the story, often introducing new concepts to the world building." Dr. Roundbottom: Scientist & Philosopher (Thanks, Jeremiah)...

Modofly -- who laser-etch designs into moleskine covers -- are hosting a contest for new designs for the next batch -- one of the themes is steampunk: Get your steampens and steambrushes (maybe steampunked computer?) ready artists! We are looking for steampunk art in a BAD way. We are really excited about this. We already have some of the hottest steampunk artists working with us, but maybe we don’t know about you, we have been trying to get you, or maybe this will be your first steampunk attempt. We are looking for artwork with airships, gears, steam engines, steampunk fashion, anything fun and retro-futuristic (we aren’t going to get too picky as long as its super cool). We can’t wait to unveil these books and showcase the artists, so make sure you have a shot at the action and send your stuff in today! Link See also: Dan Hillier's tentacle horrors -- now on moleskine notebooks!...

When I got back from my book tour earlier this month, I was delighted to discover that the handmade steampunk keyboard I'd ordered from Datamancer had arrived. I unpacked and connected it right away and I've been using it ever since, every day, here in my office. The action is great, a little like well-oiled manual, a little like one of the classic indestructible IBM clacky sysadmin keyboards. The keys are shaped like tombstones (I got to specify that) and the three little crystalline lamps on the top right corner light up for power, caps-lock and numlock. There are plenty of gracenotes, too -- like the heavy metallic keyboard cable and the legend "Aether" on the spacebar. It wasn't cheap, and it took eight weeks to arrive, but man, was it worth it. Link, Link to pictures of my keyboard in situ...

The Marginal Revolution blog poses the musical question, "If you were transported back to the middle ages, what would be the top strategy for thriving?" Given that most of us can't make gunpowder from scratch (and don't have up-to-date smallpox vaccinations), dreams of becoming a technological pre-Enlightenment billionaire guru are probably not realistic (stipulating that "realistic" is probably not a good word to use in respect of responses to hypothetical time-travel questions). First build grubstake by minstrelsy. I hope you remember some three chord Stones songs, or perhaps some blues. Next, I would suggest the magic of fractional reserve banking in a market town. Expand the banking operations to other market towns. Hire bodyguards. Loan money to the king. Loan money to the other king. Start a war. Loan money to the Pope, etc. Posted by: Rebunga at Jun 6, 2008 12:15:47 PM Link...

Steampunk maker Art Donovan has just finished a whole whack of fantastic steampunk lamp designs. These are illuminating in the extreme. Link (Thanks, Art!)...

Richard Morgan's "Steampunk: Remembering Yesterday's Tomorrow" is an excellent, long feature on the steampunk phenomenon that was commissioned by the New York Times, but ultimately cut. He's put the whole piece online anyway: Sara Brumfield, a software designer in Austin, Tex., agrees. “The Victorian home was a haven away from all the industrial changes. So machines would be invited into your home instead of just invading your home,” she explains, before admitting, “Look, I work with software all day. So much of the technology we have is not perfect at all; it’s just good enough to work. So we should stop worshipping it.” She keeps her home steampunk and heavy on antique styling. Her website, The Steampunk Home, recently gushed over the analog dials on Kenmore’s new PRO Series refrigerators. Her living room features a chemical flask as a vase, a brass steamship clock (a wedding gift), a three-foot-tall 1930s-era radio she found at a garage sale, an ornate brass lamp with red glass she bought at a bazaar in Istanbul, thick red velvet curtains, dark wood flooring, a dulcimer handmade by her husband’s grandfather and distressed Victorian floorlamps with frosted bowls. For a few dollars a pound, she scrounged a salvage yard for a sack of gears that she is using to replace the knobs on her bedside tables. Her bed itself is lit with a brass swing-arm lamp she bought at a thrift store for $10. Her pride and joy is a self-made sun jar in her kitchen, a shredded $6 solar light she put in a frosted hermetic jar to use as a nightlight (it charges during the day and glows at night). Link (Thanks, Richard!) See also: Steampunk in the New York Times...

Heather sez, "A new painting & print from the fabulous Suzanne R Forbes is on Etsy. $10 of each print purchase goes to the EFF. " Miss Eva G posed for me in her SOMA loft, dressed in her own fabulous steampunk finery, with an antique crossbow she brought back from China. The painting took several sittings with Miss E and then many hours of work painting in the detailed background. She is defending early implements of the computer revolution, Jacquard punch cards and IBM cards, a CDV of Ada Byron, and Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2. An apple core represents Turing, eaten up by the intolerance of his era. Also prominently displayed are so me wonderful modern creations- The Steampunk Laptop by Datamancer and the Steampunk Flatpanel and Keyboard by Jake Von Slatt- who were kind enough to allow me use their work in the painting. The packet-sniffing rat under the desk is a nod to the EFF’s most recent victory; the EFF logo appears among the luggage stickers on the trunk. I added the bullet shells at the last minute when I learned that Miss E. is a crack shot. Link (Thanks, Heather!)...

Jake von Slatt sez, "The inexorable march of technology has rendered my 4:3 aspect ratio 19" LCD mod and my pump-less water cooled PC obsolete, so when I saw at 24" wide screen monitor on sale for $299.00 I grabbed it with the intent on making a Victorian All-in-One PC." I connected the plastic top and bottom together with some lengths fo aluminum angle iron and then give them a coat of Krylon semi-flat black spray paint. When the paint was dry I masked off some of the trim using "FROG Tape" from Inspired Technologies - it works much better then regular painter's masking tape. I hand painted the trim with a brush and small pot of gold paint which I then proceeded to spill into my lap. The Lady von Slatt has taken to calling me Goldmember. Next I fabricated the back from perforated aluminum and pop-rivets. Link (Thanks, Jake!)...

Here's a great in-depth build report from a steampunk mouse project in Custom PC: I'd decided to use mahogany for the mouse body to give it a satisfyingly rich colour that would go well with the brass I'd be adding later. I bought a 1/4-in sheet of wood (picture 3), measuring 3in wide by 36in from a Hobbies shop. Using what was left of the mouse base and PCB as a template, I cut a hole in the wood with a fretsaw, and then sanded it for a snug fit. Sorting out the scroll wheel came next. It was constructed from clear plastic and illuminated by a blue LED (picture 4), which wasn't exactly appropriate for a Steampunk-themed design. I desoldered the LED and used 22mm copper heating pipe to fashion a new wheel. I cut a very short length of the pipe (around 7mm) and carefully smoothed the edges using emery cloth on a flat surface. The 'wheel' had to be gradually reduced in diameter until it was a snug fit, before using Araldite to glue the two parts together. I used a Dremel for most of this work, before sandpapering it to finish it off. Link (Thanks, Alex!)...