I went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo this weekend. I had no idea these things are so popular–so much so that I gave up the first time and returned in the early evening when there was more parking and a shorter ticket line. Think: Macworld Expo meets Burning Man meets MythBusters meets Woodstock. Here are a mere fifty pictures to show you what you missed. One thing is for sure, the Faire could keep Stuff White People Like busy for a month or two.

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There was lots of bikes made up of various other vehicle parts. For example, this is a lawnmower bike.

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A skateboard/bike hybrid.

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And a steering-behind-your-back bike.

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A tiger bike.

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This is the Unwheeldy tandem bike. The wheels are nine feet in diameter.

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Yes, these are cupcake vehicles.

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Perhaps venture capital firms can use this to replace their Mercedes, Porsches, and Ferraris.

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My favorite vehicle was the motorized Barcalounger.

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This is your basic 1956 Ford 100 converted to run on bio-diesel. The fuel tank is a 150-gallon drum.

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Our buddies from TechShop were there in full force.

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This is VW amphibious “car.” That’s Jim Newton from TechShop standing to the right of it–a safe distance from the propeller.

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This is a van with metal wings.

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Everyone should have one Lego Jeep for when you need to express yourself.

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This is the “Lift Ass It.” It helps people get off the toilet–kind of a vertical market if you ask me.

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This is an algae machine from theshipyard.org.

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This is the dinosaur-theme mini golf course.

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Geeks love to make huge statues of women–at least I think they were women. There’s some deep psychological meaning in this.

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This was some kind of robotic razor-looking ball called a Swarm.

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This is the “Robotic Warship Combat Arena.”

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Miniature boats do battle with each other by shooting BBs.

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The Loch Ness monster made an appearance too.

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This is the Savonius wind-power home generator.

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This is a table covered with sand on which a boll rolls and makes pretty designs.

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Ball in action using high-speed photography.

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And of course what’s a weekend without Powertool drag racing?

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These things were used to destroy mannequins.

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There is a large fascination with fire. This is the setup to create a bunch of large flames.

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This apparatus created hydrogen bubbles.

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Then people with electric prods exploded the bubbles.

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This is someone photographing the exploding hydrogen bubble exhibit from behind protection.

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No geek faire is complete without a Diet Coke and Mentos kit.

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This is the BlubberBot Blimp kit.

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Now this is an intriguing book title.

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