“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”
-Arthur Ashe
I truly and sincerely love Maker Faire and all the great people we met there... and I want to share as much of their good works as I possibly can.
And I do this for free, for the love of education, science, art, family, expression, and sharing. I do not get paid. I do not advertise. This is Chickenblog, and I am just enthusiastic about stuff. And my house is a mess because of it, so please leave a comment, so my family will find this incredibly worthwhile and forgive me for neglecting them and our Bird House.
Hey, look it's Dave. He's got one of those funny "Herbie Mouse Bots from Solarbotics. The sensor in Herbie's nose leads him, like a mouse to cheese, toward light. Flashlight fun. Maker Faire fun.
Now really, I don't think I will ever recover from the amusement of seeing frosted cupcakes driving around, but what about the cake?
That's right, I went under the frosting to see what makes a cupcake move. And I will support any member of my family willing to design and build a cupcake mobile. They are too sweet.
I also approve of fire breathing dragons.
Somewhere at Maker Faire we saw the phrase: "Fun first. Safety third."
Okay. Just kidding.
But also, funny.
But seriously: Safety first.
When Saphira raised her head and did her fire thing, Sam de Rose and Alex Jacobson definitely had safety first in mind, and they kept everyone clear of Saphira's hot breath. As for us observers, it was totally fun!
At the controls, and monitoring the programming. I have so much faith in young people, students. They got it going on.
Geoff has some great slow-motion footage of Saphira breathing fire. We are going to post video soon.
Video will be great, because my words alone do little to describe the awesomeness of MondoSpider tap dancing her 1,200 pounds of steel across the fairgrounds. The mass. The coordination. The sound of her eight steel feet hitting the ground... marvelous! She really is a large, improbable, mechanical structure, built to explore our human relationship with energy.
"True to its mandate of "Energy Awareness Through Art", the eatART crew has implemented an electric drive-train in the Spider, making it the WORLD'S FIRST WALKING ELECTRIC VEHICLE!"
Plus, they were at Burning Man.
Brilliant.
DIY?
Do you like Do-It-Yourself?
Doing it your way, learning a new way?
If you need a plan, if you can share a plan, you may want to visit instructables They are an online community of do-it-yourself enthusiasts sharing ideas for making everything from a burger, to a moveable carport garden.
This is DIY-Awesome!
Also, it looks like they are hiring. Be sure to let us know if anything comes of this. Chickenblog has never found someone a job... it would be a cool first.
5 comments:
I love the mouse-bots. Think Em and Sam might appreciate them, too :-)
Seriously, that faire looks like an awesome way to spend a weekend!! So much nifty stuff, I don't know how you'd see it all. Those cupcakes! Oh myheck. : )
That would be fun! Unfortunate for Napa it seems there is little science going on here.
I often waste large amounts of Friday afternoons on Instructables...gosh it is so much fun!
Now you need to go to Burning Man (though that may not be a family event). I would love to go though and just see the madness and the fun and the creativity...holy smoley!
You probably already know about the Exploratorium in San Francisco, spent the day here and maybe even blogged about it but, if not, your recent trip up the coast for the Maker Faire reminded me of it. I haven't been here for ages but this would be right up your alley. If this wasn’t on your “to do” list of fascinating places to find lots of interactive, hands-on science projects for the family, it should be. Check it out at http://www.exploratorium.edu/
Zan
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