Telsa Coils, Quilts, and Fans

I recorded ArcAttack's stellar version of the National Anthem played with Tesla Coils at the Maker Faire. But I couldn't figure out how to save it as a Quicktime file (yes, I can build a computer*, but I can't save a video) so I was all bummed that I wouldn't be able to share it with you. But, then I found this!


Also, I'm making a quilt and I wanted to show you the "before" picture. It's for a baby shower we're going to next weekend. I know it looks a little wacky now. But, I'm hoping that by a week from today, it will have come together (Magically, perhaps? Or is that asking too much?) to make a really cute (but not too baby-ish) quilt.

*By the way, Jerry's PC (the one we built) was broken and we took it to a fabulous PC repair guy who was able to get it in working order. But guess what was causing the problem? Well, you know how I said I can build a computer? It's only partly true. I can build one, but not exactly the right way the very first time around. It turns out that we didn't install the fan correctly (it wasn't latched) and we didn't put the hard drive in the right slot (in front of the other fan), so the computer has been overheating all this time! The guy said he was surprised the mother board hadn't burned out. Luckily for us, we just needed to replace the hard drive. So it's up and working and now Jerry and I know how to properly install a fan and where to put the hard drive for the next time we build one. Ah well, live and learn!

Amazing Leopard Seal Story & Photos

Fun While We Wait. And Wait. And Wait.

I know I said I would post more about the conference but I've moved on in life and it's hard to go back. I'll just add that it's difficult to think of a way the conference could have been better and leave it at that. Oh, and I'll also add that it was probably wrong to say that the experienced unschoolers addressed their own doubts in their discussions. It wasn't doubt so much as worries, freak outs or moments of panic. They don't doubt that unschooling is right for them and their kids, they just have normal parenting worries and it was really great to hear them address those worries. I'm glad I got that off my chest because I was afraid I might have given the wrong impression with the whole "doubt" thing.

Anyway, we're still in Sacramento and that darned baby seems to be perfectly happy to stay curled up inside his (or her) mommy's womb with no intention of timing her (or his) birth to suit my schedule. Everyone is eager for the new family member to arrive. Especially Mom.It's very annoying. We need to be in L.A. for Video Games Live on Thursday at 8 so we really need to go home on Wednesday. At this point I'm pretty sure the baby will be born once we're about half way between Sacramento and Los Angeles.

We're having fun while we wait though. My parents had a full house on Sunday. My nephew, Carson, showed off his swimming skills
while his dad and sister, Cora, relaxed on a float.
My brother, David, and his partner, Irene, brought six-week-old Layla for a visit. Here she is with Great Grandma Ruthas the proud parents look on.That afternoon Carson, Jerry and I made silly putty out of starch (one part) and glue (two parts).Jerry and I made a Lego cake for dessert.
Here's a close up. It's supposed to be red.
Sunday was nice, but the highlight of the weekend was the Maker Faire on Saturday. I cannot accurately describe the absolute awesomeness of the Maker Faire. You just have to experience it. For a technology-minded kid like Jerry it's heaven.My friend Lindy met us there with her son, Anthony and Scott, her husband.Another friend that I hadn't seen in over ten years was performing at the Faire. She was there last year, too, and somehow we managed to miss her.
She and her husband had brought along their giant fire-spewing snail, The Golden Mean.

The life-sized Mousetrap game was back and this year we actually saw it in action.

But the best part of the faire for a kid like Jerry (and his mom, too!) is talking to the Makers. Jerry and Anthony spent about twenty minutes talking to a guy that was there with his 3-D printer. They peppered him with questions and he ended up giving them a couple of the objects the printer had copied. It turns out they sell 3-D printer kits that you can build. Jerry really wanted one but at $750 we decided to pass. We did buy a video game kit, though, and Jerry put it together with the help of it's creator and one of his friends, a guy who designs computer chips for a living.Here's Jerry holding the finished product.And this is the creator at his computer, downloading the programming onto Jerry's game.We came away with a beginners electronics kit, a book of electronics projects, other cool stuff, and lots websites and ideas to explore.

Our next electronics project will be the Drawdio.

And now I need to go visualize my sister going into labor this afternoon.

Try This At Home

This one is like magic. And this one's just cool.

Fossilized Whale Brain Photos

I love the internet. I posted about seeing a fossilized whale brain at the Natural History Museum, then wrote that I wish I had taken a photo. And, lo and behold, the very next day there were photos of the fossilized whale brain in my inbox! How cool is that!?

The photos came from Bob Mac Gillivray, the grandson of the man who found the specimen. In addition to sending the photos he was kind enough to tell me some of the story behind this amazing find. Bob's grandfather found it sometime between 1918 and 1948 at his old ranch in Los Olivos (about 2 miles from Michael Jackson's Neverland). In the late 70s-early 80s Bob's parents took it to the museum after several neurologists had said they were certain it was a brain. But the curator at the time told them it was just brain coral--apparently brain coral fossils are relatively common. The family remained convinced that they had something special but it wasn't until about five or six months ago, when Bob brought it out to show his wife's 11-year-old cousin, that he decided to try again.

The following Monday he took some photographs and did a bit of research on where he could find the foremost marine mammal expert in the United States. Time and time again Bob was directed to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. So, he wrote the staff a note, sent some photos and a week or later found himself in Los Angeles meeting with the entire scientific staff of the museum. It was during this meeting that Bob realized his grandfather had found something truly extraordinary. "These seasoned scientists had trouble staying in their chairs," he wrote. "Never before has anything like this ever been discovered. Before this specimen it was just accepted that soft tissue cannot fossilize."

The brain appears to be from a Miocene Sperm Whale that lived 10-12 million years ago. They estimate that it was about 80 feet long, which is really big for that time and enormous for our present time (nowadays a large bull will grow to about 60 feet). And to make the discovery even more exciting, a Miocene Sperm Whale had never been found in that particular strata before. They usually find baleen whales.

The scientist we met at the museum, the one who is working with the fossil, said the museum is trying figure out the value of the specimen now. As far as he's concerned, though, it's priceless.

Super Cool Science

Holly, at Unschool Days, had a great post on science the other day, so I thought I'd give you some links to a few of the super cool science links I've discovered recently.

Robert Krampf's Science Education. 

This is one of my favorite science sites. If you join his mailing list you get a different science experiment in your inbox each week. I recently discovered an experiment that related to a current topic of interest in our house--balloons. Remember when Jerry tried to fuse together two balloons with a flame and we ended up with two holey balloons and a very bad stench? Well, it turns out there is a way to put a flame to a balloon without melting it! A water balloon can sit over a flame until the water boils and it will not pop or melt because the water inside the balloon absorbs the heat. Pretty cool, eh? Check out the video here.

From Big Bang to Us--Made Easy

JJ linked to this series of videos  posted on the Homeschooling Freethinkers site, which by the way has some terrific resources including this list of recommended books on popular science. The video is a series in eleven parts about the big bang and how we got from there to human migration out of Africa. 

Secrets of the Dead: Witches Curse

This is something I discovered when we first started homeschooling last September. It explains the cause of the mysterious behavior that caused Salem's inhabitants to cry, "Witch." The culprit? A fungus found in rye flour--and it's linked to LSD. Far out, man!

The Algorithm March

This may have been famous before, but it was made fabulous by the Waynforth family at the Life is Good conference this year, when they recreated it for the talent show. Technically it's math but math and science are so closely linked I figure it's okay to include this in my super cool science page. And as long as we're talking about algorithms...

How to Solve a Rubik's Cube, Part One

How to Solve a Rubik's Cube, Part Two

The title says it all. Jerry loves these videos.

Why You Won't Build a Scale Model of the Universe, Part 2

Rolfe Schmidt and his family found a true scale model of the universe in Warnemunde, Germany! It's really, really big--like you'd-have-to-walk-for-miles-to-see-the-whole-thing big.

Make Magazine

I know I have a link to this in my sidebar but I just had to give it another plug because it's so darn cool. Be sure to check out the videos/podcasts. 

Fun With Science (Ice Bulb)

This is a link back to one of my posts from November of last year, describing one of the best science experiments ever. In the world. Really.

There you have it. If anyone has further suggestions for this list put a link in the comments and I'll add to it.

Discovering My Inner Scientist

I never did well in science classes. I hated biology. I don't think I ever took physics--it was for brainiacs. I'm sure I took chemistry but I have no recollection of the class beyond late nights spent struggling to memorize the periodic table of elements and wondering Why? Why? Why I was being forced to memorize something as mundane and useless as a conglomeration of letters and numbers scribbled across a creased poster taped to the puce colored wall of our classroom?

At the time I couldn't imagine anything more irrelevant to my life. If it didn't have to do with friends, dance, Adam Ant, acting, cheerleading, Duran Duran, friends, Depeche Mode, a good book, or how I was going to spend Saturday night it didn't have anything to do with me.

As a theatre major in college I managed to fill my science requirements with science-light: a geology class on earthquakes (as a California native I could relate to those) and some kind of lab (probably geology again) that I managed to slide through. As far as I could tell there were people who liked and were good at math and science and there were people who were creative. I was definitely in the second bunch.

Fast forward ten years or so to 2001. Six-year-old Jerry is home with a babysitter and I'm in my usual seat at the Mark Taper Forum, a theatre in downtown Los Angeles. As a season ticket holder I didn't always pay attention to the title of the play I'd be seeing until I sat down and opened up the program. On this particular night, as the aging audience adjusted their hearing aids (season-tickets to the theatre apparently come in a bundle with hearing aid batteries), I opened my program. It read, "QED."

QED stands for quantum electrodynamics. Ten years earlier a play with this title may have sent me screaming into the underground parking structure and back onto the crowded freeway. But, I'm happy to say that in the years between college and finding myself at the theatre that night, I had expanded my circle of "things that have to do with me." Actually, I guess  I was just more open to things outside of my circle. Because science was still out--but that was about to change. 

QED is a play about the late physicist, Richard Feynman. This line, delivered by Alan Alda as Feynman, completely changed my view of science:

"ALL of science is about trying to describe nature--whether it's biology or the known laws of physics. See, Nature is always out there, she's always doing what she does, and it's our job to try and trick her into revealing her secrets to us. It's a dance, because Nature doesn't always give up her secrets easily. You have to look closely at her; you have to experiment to really find out how she actually behaves!"

All of a sudden science started to look more, well, creative. There was an air of mystery to it. And it was about nature! I loved nature! 

So, if you're a nature-lover (and what's not to love about nature?) and you like to have a deeper understanding of the the things you love, but thought you didn't like science. Guess what!? You do! You love it! Let your inner scientist out! Then, go out and buy The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier. It's funny, fascinating and easy to understand. And it covers all the basics. 

If you're still not convinced contemplate this (it's Feynman again):

"You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."

I want to know something.

PC Building 101

We're gearing up for the big project: Building a Gaming PC. As I mentioned before, at the Maker Faire we bought a book called Building the Perfect PC. It walks you through the process of building several types of computers and offers step-by-step instructions with photos. But the book came out in December of 2006. So most of the parts are outdated by now and I've been in a state of paralysis, not knowing how to choose between the gazzilions of parts on the market. I tried a few online forums but most everyone was building super high tech (i.e., expensive) stuff. Then we went to our local Fry's to browse the PC components aisle, thinking we might get some ideas there. But I ended up feeling totally overwhelmed. 

We had to put the project on hold while I recovered. 

Today, however, is the deadline for the monthly article I pen for our neighborhood newspaper and well--I haven't started it. It's only a short piece--300-400 words. And I only just interviewed the guy yesterday so it's not like I could've written it before today. And "today" goes all the way 'til midnight tonight so that gives me, you know, like another six hours to get it done. So it seemed like the perfect day to start working on the PC. And then post about it on my blog. Heck, I might even clean out a closet or two before the day is over. But I digress.

Today I found two articles about building a gaming PC--both written in the last few months and they list components! This article lists parts for a $1000 PC. And this is more of a budget model at $500. (I'm leaning toward the budget model.) So thanks to today's discoveries I feel like we have a jumping off place. We're going to read both articles and compare the parts and prices, referring back to our book to figure out what exactly we're supposed to be looking for in each component because, unlike wine, PC components do not have beautiful, artistic labels to help in the decision making process. Also, they're slightly more expensive than wine. Some wine. The kind of wine I drink, anyway. Mmmm, a glass of wine would be good right now. 

Okay then. Wine. Clean out closets. Write article. 

Right. I'd better get busy.

Home At Last/New Projects

We're all back in L.A. now. Me, Jerry, Warren, the dog, the cats, the hermit crab (the cats and the crab never left) and all of a sudden I don't know what to do with myself! It's only been a day and a half, though. We just got back from my parent's place on Monday. It was so nice to hang out with family again. And Patsy was crazy happy to see us. 

The Maker Faire was great! Here's a video someone posted on You Tube that gives a good overview of the event:

We saw the diet coke and mentos guys do their thing. There was a life-sized Mousetrap game. We saw a self-propelled Victorian house on wheels. And my friend Zefra met us there with her family so we got to see friends too! On Sunday Jerry hung out with some cousins he doesn't see much of so that was an unexpected bonus in an already terrific weekend. 

I'm continuing my cleaning spree now that we're home. When in doubt I clean. Did I mention before that this type of behavior is highly unusual for me? Yesterday I cleaned out and organized under the kitchen sink. It was dark and scary under there but I persisted and now it's beautiful. Well, maybe not beautiful--it's still under the kitchen sink--but it's better. And I've finally got all my cleaning ingredients (I make my own cleaning supplies) together in one place so I don't have to hunt for them (which is never good because usually by the time I've found them the desire to clean is gone).

Yesterday Jerry and I tried our hand at robotics. We soldered together a Mousebot we had purchased at Maker Faire. We got one motor working but the second motor wouldn't run so we took it off and resoldered it but in the process I melted the on/off switch into a permanent off position. So. Now we have to go to Radio Shack and see if we can find another on/off switch. Up until that point we were doing pretty well though. 

Oh, and we have a new project on the horizon. At the Maker Faire we bought a book on how to build your own PC so we're going to build a PC!! We only have Macs in our house and there are a lot of games Jerry wants to play that aren't available on Mac so I told him I'd supply the parts if he wants to build one with me. I'm going to read the entire book first and then we'll whip out our lab coats and pencil protectors and get started. I don't have the slightest idea how computers work and whenever I try to understand it my brain feels like it's going to explode so this should be. . .interesting. Hopefully there's no soldering required.