Atlanta Maker Faire

This weekend was, I believe, the third annual Maker Faire, a gathering of artisans and craftspeople from Atlanta and surrounding environs. I took a few pictures and some of them even came out okay. Here are a few



This is Kirigami, a variation on Origami in which you cut as well as fold the paper.









This is a 3-d puzzle made of cut wood. I don't know if all the detail rwally shows in the picture, but there was a lot of detail.





Kids preparing for a career in a Dickensian workhouse - I mean, learning how to use a loom.




Blacksmithing demonstration




This is an extremely complex um, thing. . . I don't know what t call it, but it's all powered by turning a handcrank. I have a short video clip which really shows how impressive it is, but Ihave to figure out how to upload it from my phone.






Kids learning how to weave.






The "un-lazy boy," a recumbent bike made out of a recliner.




Which of course made me think of this:



Speaking of bikes, these are art bikes made by kids. There's a great story about the basketball hoop bike, remind me to tell you the basketball bike story.





This one has a catapult mounted to the handlebars.





These are personal human-powered submarines. The wooden one in the foreground swims like a stingray and goes about 2 mph. The fiberglass one in the background has a tail that moves back and forth propelling it forward like a fish at about 5mph. They are both powered by foot pedals.





I forget the official name for this but it is essentially a fire oscilloscope. The play music into the tube and somehow the flames show the sound wave patterns.



This is a working hovercraft powered by a leaf blower.



Racing homemade go-karts



This guy makes woodcuts, inks them and prints them on to T-shirts.




This is from a Georgia Tech program aimed at getting kids interested in robotics.




This is a different program. Kids are building Lego robots.





Glass blowers




Blown glass.






More  blacksmithery.

Ask Wesley Snipes

Mr. Snipes, what do you think about the National League playoffs?

And Orange!  

Bad Ads - Cartier

Oh my Gawd!






So you're saying that your wristwatch is a Star Wars robot leopard? Because what I'm getting from this is Star Wars robot leopard.

Although, to be fair, if it was a Star Wars robot leopard, then it might make sense for the kid in the end to be gazing longingly at it it through the shop window.

I mean, how old is this fuckin kid, like 10? What kind of a piece of shit kid is gazing dreamily at a Cartier fucking wristwatch like it was the coolest new toy he's ever seen? What the hell is wrong with this kid? He should be wanting a new bike or a Playstation or maybe a puppy, but no. All this sad, dainty little aristocrat wants is a god damn Cartier wristwatch?

And how is his father encouraging this? Like "why, that's a fine ambition, son. You've quite an eye for the finer things in life. You'll make some wintry, soulless heiress a fine husband someday. After all, you're never too younbg to be a stuffed shirt!"

How does he not smack the back of this kid's head and yell "snap out of it, young Niles Crane! We're going to Toys 'R' Us?"

 

Or behold your future! 

Also, people buy things like Cartier wristwatches because they are status symbols. No one cares if behind the face beats the heart of a Star Wars robot leopard. Just make 'em fancy and expensive and you'll do just fine.

Good News, Bad News

Good News:

We were able to take a semi-spontaneous and not at all well-deserved long weekend trip to the Florida Panhandle.


Bad News:




Good News:

The place we rented had a Netflix account and they just added new episodes of "Call the Midwife!"



IUf you have not seen "Call the Midwife," you must immediately stop what you are doing, log on to Netflix and begin with Season 1, Episode 1.

  

Now! Or you'll face my stern disapproval!

To be honest, this really isn't the sort of show I would have expected to like. When it was recommended to me, I thought it sounded like one of those silly English sit-coms, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. It is not. Definitely not. 

What it is is a period piece, set in 1950s London about a group of nuns and nurses who provide midwifery services to the women of an impoverished East End neighborhood. Sounds like it could be corny, but it isn't. It touches on issues ranging from domestic violence to racism to the impact of crushing poverty without ever getting too "heavy." 

Fair warning, though, if you are, like me, squeamish about childbirth, you may have a bit of trouble watching some scenes. I tend to watch through my fingers shouting "tell me when the scary part is over!" Unfortunately, the Missus does the same, so we have to guess when it's safe to look again. 

 

Go watch it now.

Unless you are a baseball fan.

Then watch the Giants clobber the Pirates first.

3 People who feel entitled to their own numbers

1. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal:



Yeah. He got elected with that slogan.


     After many years of Republican governance, Georgia surprisingly ranks dead last in unemployment.

Georgia's unemployment rate jumped to 8.1 percent from 7.7 percent in July to the highest among all the states. It was followed by Mississippi at 7.9 percent.

So, naturally, Deal has questioned whether some mysterious  entity might be "influencing" the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“It’s ironic that in a year in which Republican governors are leading some of the states that are making the most progress, that they almost, without exception, are classified as having a bump in their unemployment rates,” he said in a clip circulated by the Democratic Governors Association. “Whereas states that are under Democrat governors’ control, they are all showing that their unemployment rate has dropped. And I don’t know how you account for that. Maybe there is some influence here that we don’t know about.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/georgia-nathan-deal-unemployment-data-111123.html#ixzz3EMtu84yA

 

Or maybe that's what they want you to think! 

Asked to clarify the governor’s remarks, a Deal spokeswoman pointed out that the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics had in previous years reported high unemployment rates in July and August only to revise them downward the following year.
“Given the increase in jobs we’ve seen this month, the BLS’ pattern of downward revision and the drop in unemployment claims, the number doesn’t make sense,” said the spokeswoman, Jennifer Talaber. “States with Republican governors across the country are also seeing spikes in their unemployment rates.”

Why, it's almost as if Republican economics don't work or something!

2: Paul Ryan



Pretty much "serious thinker" personified!

Whenever someone takes the time to look at one of Ryan's proposed budgets, the obvious thing that jumps out at them is that the enormous decrease in revenues will inevitably lead to even larger defecits.

So, rather than revise his numbers, Ryan would rather change how the math is done:

He tells Klein, “Those of us who live in the tax system want to lower everybody’s tax rates.” If you lower everybody’s tax rates, then everybody will be paying less in taxes, and then the government will have less revenue, right? That’s where Ryan’s solution comes in: He plans to press the government budget agencies to adopt the optimistic assumption he prefers, which is that cutting tax rates for the rich creates faster economic growth. Ryan spent much of the Bush years assailing what he called “static scoring,” which is the standard budget practice of measuring the fiscal impact of tax cuts as if they do not contain magic pixie dust.

 http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/paul-ryan-declares-war-against-math.html

Because if you're just going to assume that less money coming in results in having less money, then I just don't think we have anything left to discuss! Obviously cutting revenue decreases the deficit, because I really really want it to!

3: Me.



 As far as you know.

Because I know damn well that I weigh a nice even 200 pounds, no matter what the scale at my doctor's office says.