“There are zillions of people around the world doing this,” says Altman, referring to the swell of interest in do-it-yourself projects and hacking. “It’s a worldwide community.”

At the center of this community are hacker spaces like Noisebridge, where like-minded geeks gather to work on personal projects, learn from each other and hang out in a nerd-friendly atmosphere. Like artist collectives in the ’60s and ’70s, hacker spaces are springing up all over.

There are now 96 known active hacker spaces worldwide, with 29 in the United States, according to Hackerspaces.org. Another 27 U.S. spaces are in the planning or building stage.

Located in rented studios, lofts or semi-commercial spaces, hacker spaces tend to be loosely organized, governed by consensus, and infused with an almost utopian spirit of cooperation and sharing.

“It’s almost a Fight Club for nerds,” says Nick Bilton of his hacker space, NYC Resistor in Brooklyn, New York. Bilton is an editor in The New York Times R&D lab and a board member of NYC Resistor. Bilton says NYC Resistor has attracted “a pretty wide variety of people, but definitely all geeks. Not Dungeons & Dragons–type geeks, but more professional, working-type geeks.”

Papercraft Air Foce One — Build yours this weekend for Next weeks events!

Really want those that next term paper to pop? Check out this quick 88 second tutorial on how to make your own glowing ink for your inkjet printer.

How Make Glowing Printer Ink – video powered by Metacafe

An 1949 Popular Science article from gives instructions to make laughing gas. You may have seen a censored version of this on a recent episode of the Mythbusters. The site is incredibly slow right now, so I have mirrored the pages below for your viewing pleasure.

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(via make)