Team 1899’s unique use of wood as a building material for their arm this year is featured in this Popular Mechanics piece about the
“Coolest Robots from 2011”
Also featured are teams 148, 1503, 195, 1444, 610, 1829, 1622 and 365
Congratulations! 
Very cool stuff. Unfortunately, the media still can’t correctly express whats going on in the competition. From the article:
“Most teams built long arms of aluminum to reach up and place the balloons on the pegs.”
lol.
oh dang, why didn’t we think of placing balloons on the pegs facepalm
There were a couple of beautiful creations made from wood that I saw this year. Of course 1899’s, I got several pictures of their arm in St. Louis. And there was a robot in San Antonio that had gears made out of wood.
There is just something in the beauty of wood that looks awesome on a robot.
Nice job, kudos to 1899!
Aside from general journalism mistakes, its actually really cool how much attention Popular Mechanics gives FIRST. I mean, its a little bit of preaching to the choir, but its still some awesome publicity.
Balloons…lolz. I love the article and the amount of people who will see the article 
Thank you to PM for doing these articles and the teams featured are always top notch.
That’s an interesting thought…
Here’s a previous thread on the article. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95002&highlight=popular+mechanics
Thanks, everyone!
Being featured in Popular Mechanics was a great way for us to end our best season yet.
And thanks again to 1983 for allowing us to use their practice field all season! =)