Link Roundup: Redpillers, Femme Solidarity, and Anime

Privacy Project: San Franciscans React to App Permissions on their Smartphones

Hayao Miyazaki’s 50 Recommended Books

1. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)
2. Il Romanzo di Cipollino – Gianni Rodari (1956)
3. The Rose and the Ring – William Makepeace Thackeray (1854)
4. The Little Bookroom- Eleanor Farjeon (1955)
5. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas (1844)
6. The Secret Garden -Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (1909)
7. The Treasure of the Nibelungs – G.Schalk (1953)
8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll (1865)
9. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1891)
10. A Norwegian Farm » Marie Hamsun (1933)
11. Конёк-горбунок – Пётр Па́влович Ершо́в (1834)
12. Souvenirs entomologiques – Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (1879-1907)
13. Toui Mukashi no Fushigina Hanashi-Nihon Reiiki – Tsutomu Minakami (1995)
14. Иван-дурак – Leo Tolstoy (1885)
15. Eagle of the Ninth -Rosemary Sutcliff (1954)
16. Winnie-the-Pooh – A. A. Milne (1926)
17. Les Princes du Vent – Michel-Aime Baudouy (1956)
18. When Marnie Was There – Joan G Robinson (1967)
19. The Long Winter – Laura Ingalls Wilder (1940)
20. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame (1908)
21. The Ship That Flew -Hilda Lewis (1939)
22. Flambards – Kathleen Wendy Peyton (1967)
23. Tom’s Midnight Garden – Ann Philippa Pearce (1958)
24. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain (1876)
25. Chumon no Ooi Ryouriten – Kenji Miyazawa (1924)
26. Heidi – Johanna Spyri (1888)
27. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne (1870)
28. The Borrowers- Mary Norton (1952)
29. Devatero pohádek – Karel Čapek  (1931)
30. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome (1930)
31. The Flying Classroom – Erich Kästner (1933)
32. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe (1719)
33. Treasure Island- Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
34. Двена́дцать ме́сяцев – Samuil Marshak (1943)
35. Tistou les pouces verts – Maurice Druon (1957)
36. The man who planted the welsh onions – Kim Soun (1953)
37. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio – Pu Songling (1740)
38. The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle – Hugh John Lofting (1922)
39. Journey to the West – Wú Chéng’ēn (1500~?)
40. Little Lord Fauntleroy – Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (1886)
41. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler -Elaine Lobl Konigsburg (1968)
42. Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn – Astrid Lindgren (1947)
43. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again » J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)
44. A Wizard of Earthsea -Ursula K. Le Guin (1968)
45. The Little White Horse -Elizabeth Goudge (1946)
46. Bylo nas pet- Karel Polacek (1969)
47. City Neighbor: The Story of Jane Addams – Clara Ingram Judson (1951)
48. The Radium Woman – Eleanor Doorly (1939)
49. The Otterbury Incident – Cecil Day-Lewis (1948)
50. Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates -Mary Mapes Dodge (1865)

E-Textile Particle Decay Embroidery

I got a notion in my head to embroider a bubble field – a representation of particle decay paths as they spiral off into oblivion. I’ve found them fascinating and beautiful.

If you’d like to learn more about them, check here for information on particle decay and here for information on detecting and gathering data on the particles.

I was without a frame to embroider, so I took this:

Cut out the racket strings:

Took these:

Clamped my fabric with the binder clips to the frame of the racket:

Using conductive thread, I embroidered particle decay paths ending in mini LEDs.

Finished product!

Now to frame it.

Bay Area MakerFaire 2012

I was at the Bay Area MakerFaire last weekend, and had a much different Faire experience than the previous two that I attended (last year’s Bay Area and Detroit iterations). It was… stale. Staged. Commercial. There were massive booths and displays reserved for companies that had nothing to do with makers or the maker movement. They were riding the wave of innovation that the community has fostered to hold a captive audience and misinform those who were being exposed to the world of making for the first time. There were phone companies and tech giants that, through massive amounts of cash, were able to gain priority over the hallmark agent of making: the little guy. The “hack-it-together with duct tape, spit, and hope” kind of tinkerer that is SUPPOSED to be in the spotlight. I was disgusted by some of the companies who were sponsoring crowd-sourcing projects to further their own R&D by taking the ideas of these innovators and KEEPING THEM. No rights are given to the progenitors of the illuminating inventions; a small check is cut as a prize while the company makes bank. It was tawdry, and I am disappointed in MAKE for allowing this to take place.
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I had to take a few minutes to cool down from my MakerFaire-incited soapbox rant before coming back to anything even vaguely related. I must, however, point out two excellent parts of the Faire that I encountered. The first is the Bizarre Bazaar, the market area of MakerFaire that is specifically geared towards craftsy artisan works. I saw beautiful work there, and I’ll be posting more on some of my favorite stuff from the Bazaar later on.

The second part that I was blown away by was the utterly orgasmic paella.

Now, I’ve had some good paella. I’ve had paella in a couple cities in Spain, for chrissakes. This, this stuff is better than anything I have ever had. MakerFaire invites Gerard Nebesky (who kicked Bobby Flay’s ass in a 2008 cook-off), to preside over pans bigger than most British cars.


image via Jack Sparx

The line for this addictive crack-food is an hour long AT LEAST. It is a good idea to send someone for beer at regular intervals.

As if allowing people to taste this veritable manna wasn’t enough, dude passed out the recipe:

I made this face:

Power Racing Series Promo Vid

Power Racing Series is gearing up again…. YESSSSssss. I just found out about the promo vid, and it is hilarious. Jim Burke knows me too well.

Race promo:

My full interview:

The rest of my team:
1. Jordan Bunker (fellow driver and “pretengineer”)

2. Patrick Calahan (team leader and “dad”)

Eeeeeeeee!

Power Racing Series Kickstarter!

I’m a part of a hackerspace here in Chicago, the oh-so-excellent Pumping Station: One. Two years ago, a member by the name of Jim Burke had the incredible idea of modding tiny children’s toy cars, putting adults in them, and racing around a track for the enjoyment of the public. Pumping Station: One Presents Power Racing Series was born.

Jump to now; the Power Racing Series is being featured in the October issue of Wired Magazine, with some amazing footage of the teams (including me!) zooming about the track with lots of crashing. There are Power Racing Series races at the Milwaukee Mini MakerFaire, Detroit and Kansas City MakerFaires, and you can also find some awesome videos on YouTube.

The Power Racing Series has become so popular that demand for it at more MakerFaires (and the possibility of a Chicago MakerFaire next year) has spawned a Kickstarter campaign. See the below video for all the details!

By the way, I’m the one on the cop bike with a billy club. Yeah. You’re jealous. I know.

Who wants to donate?! You get prizes…

Do it. The fate of absurdity depends on it!

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Follow the campaign/race scheduling progress on Twitter via @PPPRS and @PumpingStation1 for info on Chicago events and projects.