RoboRockers: Robots can do amazing things. They can build cars, save space-princesses (in ambiguously gay duos) and even vacuum your dusty floor. But did you know they can also play reggae music on a ukulele? At Middlebury College in Vermont—a hotbed of both reggae and ukuleles—two guys named Mike and Jarvis built a computer-controlled robot out of LEGO bricks that can strum the bassline for “Stir It Up,” “Trenchtown Rock” and “Rivers of Babylon” while accompanying itself with melodic bleeps. Start killing soundbwoys dead at http://community.middlebury.edu/~jlagman/mike_and_jarvis.htm.

Soviet street: Mark it off on your calendars—kustom kultur (umlauts optional) has finally hit the former Soviet Union, albeit in tuner form. Witness the Zestline Bomber, a tricked-out late-model Volkswagen minivan that’s equal parts A-Team and Blade Runner. It’s the product of Moscow tuner haüs (or should that be dacha) Zestline, which kind of sounds like a brand of fruit juice. Get ready for Brezhnev speed (from autoblog Jalopnik) at http://tinyurl.com/bbzgy.

Comments? Michael Citrome