Instructables is a website specializing in user-created and uploaded do-it-yourself projects, which other users can comment on and rate for quality. It was created by Eric Wilhelm, a mechanical engineer, and launched in August 2005. Instructables is dedicated to step-by-step collaboration among members to build a variety of projects. Users post instructions to their projects, usually accompanied by visual aids, and then interact through comment sections below each Instructable step as well in topic forums.

While members of the Media Lab at MIT, Wilhelm and Saul Griffith founded Squid Labs, an engineering and technology company specializing in design and consulting. Instructables started as an internal Squid Labs project, which Wilhelm has since spun out as an independent company. He acts as its CEO, and regularly contributes to the site.

A prototype version of the site, complete with the initial content of electronics, cooking, kiting, and bicycle projects, was released in August 2005 at the O'Reilly Foo Camp conference.

Earl Benjamin "Ben" Nelson (born May 17, 1941) is the senior United States Senator from Nebraska, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Nelson entered politics in 1990, when he was elected the 37th Governor of Nebraska. He was re-elected in 1994 with 74% of the vote. Nelson ran for an open seat in the U.S. Senate in 1996, losing to Republican Chuck Hagel, and left the Governor's office in January 1999 due to term limits, after serving two full terms. Nelson was elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2000 election after incumbent Bob Kerrey retired.

On December 27, 2011, Nelson announced that he would not seek a third Senate term in 2012.

Nelson was born in McCook, in southwestern Nebraska. He is the only child of Birdella Ruby (née Henderson) and Benjamin Earl Nelson. He earned a B.A. in 1963, a M.A. in 1965, and a J.D. in 1970 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nelson made his name and money in the insurance industry. After graduating from law school, Nelson landed a job as assistant general counsel for Central National Insurance Group of Omaha. In 1975, he became state insurance director before going back to work for Central National Insurance as an executive vice president and eventually president. He won his first elected office in 1990 when he became governor of Nebraska.