Eddie Abbondanzio’s scooter does little burnouts because its throttle used to be a power drill. He mounted a cordless drill to a Razor scooter, moved the trigger to the handlebars, and got it up to about 10 mph. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Trevor Warmedahl went looking for rare cheese and ended up living in rural Mongolia, milking yaks. He’d quit his cheesemaking job in Seattle to learn how people elsewhere make it. His travels have now taken him to more than 20 countries, including Georgia, where shepherds age cheese in inside-out sheepskins. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

How random are you, really? Pick numbers from 1 to 9 as unpredictably as you can, aloud or by typing. This game learns from your choices and tries to guess what you’ll pick next. Blind guessing would get about 11% right. Your challenge is to keep it from doing much better. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Could a computer fit into a lightbulb? The proposed device would fit into a light socket, project recipes onto kitchen surfaces and maps onto tables, responding to your voice and where you point. For now, the working prototype uses a Mac, a separate projector and a webcam. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Someone gave coding agents a virtual box of LEGO. LDraw Nova lets you describe a model and have an AI agent work out the parts and placements. It inspects its creation, checks for overlapping bricks, and revises the design. You get an editable 3D model to tinker with yourself. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Someone would like to know what the worms are up to (so do we). Earthworms help keep soil healthy, but following their movements underground is surprisingly difficult. Ben Stone explores what it would take to build a worm detector, from radar to buried probes, with the eventual goal of mapping worm activity across an entire field. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Tiny Brutalism lets you build the sort of concrete building people tend to have strong opinions about. Stack towers, connect them with walkways, add windows and greenery, and switch between daylight and night to see how it all looks. It’s a freeform sandbox, so the building doesn’t need a purpose beyond being something you wanted to make. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Claude Opus 5.5 is painting by writing code for each brushstroke. In Stillwet, the model works with simulated oil paint, brushes, and a linen canvas. It can mix pigments, apply paint, then look at the result and decide what to change. Some preferences keep showing up. Asked to plan a painting of its own choosing, Opus picked a jug with lemons six times out of six. You can watch the paintings take shape through live sessions and replays, with notes on recurring subjects, mistakes, and differences between models. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

The German military used Enigma machines during WWII to turn messages into strings of seemingly random letters. This 3D model lets you see how it worked. You can set the rotors, connect the plugboard, and type a message while following the electrical current through the machine. Cutaway views reveal the wiring and moving parts beneath the keyboard. news.ycombinator.com/item?id…