Some fandoms have dedicated costuming groups, and that means plenty of reference material and tutorials are online for costumes. Star Wars is a perfect example. It seems like every outfit from the saga has been carefully documented at The Padawan’s Guide. They provide images, links to tutorials and resources, and so much more. I focused on Hoth Leia since that’s my favorite costume of the self-rescuing princess and ended up at Audrey’s blog. She documented everything from making the jumpsuit to the vest to the accessories and props. Here’s what she did to dye the jumpsuit to make it more closely match the white we see on screen in The Empire Strikes Back:
We spent hours dyeing trial swatches of the cotton blend suit and silk vest in taupe and tan dye. We started with a half-teaspoon of RIT powder dye in a large washer load of water, and were down to a quarter-teaspoon by the time we quit yesterday. I had no idea the stuff was so concentrated! Scott suggested we try the liquid dye to get more consistent color, since we were using such small amounts that there was no way to know if the color grains were evenly distributed. Today we started with half as much of the liquid dye, thinking it was twice as strong as the powder, but it turned out to be only half as strong. So we went back to a half-teaspoon. The color was a lot more even and less pink than with the powder, especially on the silk.
In the final load, we upped the amount of dye another “dash” (eighth-teaspoon; Pandora’s measuring spoons are actually labeled this way!) since there would be a lot more fabric in the load. It didn’t look like dyeing; it looked like washing clothes in well-water, tinted yellow from too much iron. Still, we ran an extra rinse (I think the “dash” may have been a “pinch” too much!) before drying the jumpsuit.
Read more about making a Hoth Leia costume at The Padawan’s Guide.
An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in several African countries has claimed the lives of at least 80 people. Frighteningly, it has now spread to a major city. Officials are now enacting measures to bring the outbreak under control, including the introduction of health and travel restrictions.
    
|
Just announced today, The Sand Storm is a short film directed by New York filmmaker Jason Wishnow that was shot completely under the radar in China, starring none other than dissident artist Ai Weiwei in his acting debut. How such an audacious and risky endeavor came into being is pretty mind-blowing given the heavy amount of surveillance surrounding the artist. The movie takes place in a dystopian future where Ai Weiwei plays the role of a smuggler in a world without water.
The existence of The Sand Storm was kept heavily under wraps while shooting in Beijing. Ai Weiwei has been closely watched by the government since his 2011 imprisonment and authorities still have yet to return his passport. While the short film has already been shot beginning to end, the filmmakers are raising a bit of money on Kickstarter to finish the movie and recoup some costs as crowdfunding beforehand was too risky. Had this been announced yesterday I would have assumed it was a hoax.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a new report on the state of the global environment. One of their most important messages is that we need to prepare for famines and water shortages in the coming decades.
|
|
Bunker.jordanHave not taken the survey yet, but it sounds interesting
As a finite resource, our time is a precious commodity. But determining the precise value it holds in our lives is not easy. But a new tool can now tell you how much money your time is really worth — and how to spend it more wisely.
|
|
The British cyberpunk thriller The Machine has gotten pretty upbeat reviews, with Kim Newman calling it "brimming with ideas" and other reviewers comparing it to Blade Runner. And now here's an exclusive clip from the film, in which you can see a hint of those big ideas for yourself.
|
|
Makers in Canada recently strutted their creative fashions at a show sponsored by Museum London and DHMakerBus. Blogger Shelley Long, posted some great pics and interviews on Forest City Fashionista. The piece above, by Laura Briscoe, included many computer parts, as well as a screen. Laura was very dedicated to her piece called “Mis Communication”.
It took hours and hours. The hardest part was prying the keys off the keyboards and then fusing them together with a blowtorch.
More glowing charm was found in the LED creations by Bernie Rohde and K La Luna. Their mini sculptures were voice activated.
One piece that got some chuckles was the LED kilt by Paul Graham. Forest City Fashionista had a chance to chat with him after the show.
He offered to create customized LED lighting I could attach to the crinoline I was wearing, and I was tempted to take him up on his offer; it would give a new meaning to the the word “flashing”.
Paula Johns had the most classic and surprising “Celluloid Dress”, which combined with other elements to create an installation piece.
The dress, which is in the style of a 1950′s cocktail dress, is made of approximately 250 feet of 16mm celluloid film and nylon mesh. Battery pack operated LEDs are sewn into the dress’s underskirt to light up sections of film. In the display, John’s film, “Becoming Marilyn” (of which the dress is constructed) follows a large loop through the projector, across the ceiling to feed down into the sewing machine, and then back across to the projector. The film, which depicts the artist making herself up to look like Marilyn Monroe, is projected onto a white wall positioned behind the sewing machine.
Finally, the FLORAbrella, of Adafruit fame, made an appearance with maker, Leslie Birch. She was clearly excited about the maker movement in London Ontario.
Sometimes the best inspiration comes from what is around you. What kind of materials or spare parts do you have sitting around? People are making dresses out of beer can pull tabs and necklaces out of old Scrabble tiles. Look at everything as a potential wearable and soon you’ll create an original. Then just expect to be featured on our Wearables show. 
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
Bunker.jordanCOPYCATS
To mark the one-year anniversary of its space program, North Korea has released a new logo for its National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA), and it looks unabashedly like NASA's iconic emblem — right down to the blue globe, lettering, and swooshed ring.
|
|
Remember Summertime
Scrap Tires
Sailing Hay Bales
Summer Toboggan Run
Isar Nuclear Power Plant
Stock of Wood
River Vils At Schalkham, Bavaria
Autumn In The Vineyard
Under Snow
Poplar Avenue
Wave Pattern
Surrounded
Clones
Technical Break
Perched at the window of his Cessna 172, photographer Klaus Leidorf crisscrosses the skies above Germany while capturing images of farms, cities, industrial sites, and whatever else he discovers along his flight path, a process he refers to as “aerial archaeology.” Collectively the photos present a fascinating study of landscapes transformed by the hands of people—sometimes beautiful, sometimes frightening. Since the late 1980s Leidorf has shot thousands upon thousands of aerial photographs and currently relies on the image-stabilization technology in his Canon EOS 5D Mark III which is able to capture the detail of single tennis ball as it flies across a court. You can explore over a decade of Leidorf’s photography at much greater reslution over on Flickr. All images courtesy the artist.
We’ve mentioned Festo’s nature-inspired robots before but this little guy is one of our new favorites.
With the BionicKangaroo, Festo has technologically reproduced the unique way a kangaroo moves. Like its natural model, it can recover the energy when jumping, store it and efficiently use it for the next jump.
Technical implementation of a unique form of movement
On the artificial kangaroo, Festo intelligently combines pneumatic and electrical drive technology to produce a highly dynamic system. The stable jump kinematics plus the precise control technology ensure stability when jumping and landing. The consistent lightweight construction facilitates the unique jumping behaviour. The system is controlled by gestures.
Mobile energy supply on board
Festo paid particular attention to the mobile energy supply on the artificial kangaroo. For this purpose, the team even developed two different concepts – one with an integrated compressor and one with a mobile high-pressure storage device.
"Woodhouse" is a beautiful, sad short film about a little girl who sees a monster in a London park. But it's also about why we long to find monsters — and the forces that crush our desires. Watch this lovely short and end your day in contemplation.
|
|
From the caves of memory to the castles of deception, by way of naughty neurotransmitters and giddy ganglia.
Scientists are only just beginning to understand how the brain works — from what transpires in it while we sleep to how to optimize its memory to what love does to it to how music affects it — and the rest of us fall somewhere on the spectrum between fascinated and confused when it comes to the intricate inner workings of our master-controller.
From British indie press Nobrow — who also brought us Freud’s graphic biography, those lovely illustrated chronicles of the Space Race and aviation, as well as Blexbolex’s magnificent No Man’s Land — comes Neurocomic (public library), a graphic novel about how the brain works. This remarkable collaboration between Dr. Hana Roš (and dog knows I love few things more than a female neuroscientist) and neuroscience-PhD-turned-illustrator Dr. Matteo Farinella, with support from the Wellcome Trust, explains the inner workings of the brain in delightful and illuminating black-and-white illustrations, covering everything from perception and hallucinations to memory and emotional recall to consciousness and the difference between the mind and the brain.
We take a stroll through a forest of neurons, then learn about neuroplasticity. (“This is the great power of the brain, it’s plastic!” they tell us in one of the most heartening and reassuring parts. “Once you learn something it is not set in stone, it’s continuously shaped by experience.”) We meet Pavlov and his famous studies of memory in 1897 Russia. We visit the haunting memory caves and the convoluted castles of deception.
This wonderful trailer for the film about the project, directed by Richard Wyllie, takes us behind the scenes of the duo’s marvelous collaboration and creative process:
Pair Neurocomic — which is gorgeous not only to behold but also to hold, bound in indigo fabric with silver-and-gold cover art — with the graphic biography of Charles Darwin, then dive deeper into the brain’s mysteries with the scientific riddle of left-handedness.
Images courtesy of Nobrow
Donating = Loving
Bringing you (ad-free) Brain Pickings takes hundreds of hours each month. If you find any joy and stimulation here, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.
| ♥ $7 / month♥ $3 / month♥ $10 / month♥ $25 / month |
You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount:
Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.
Brain Pickings takes 450+ hours a month to curate and edit across the different platforms, and remains banner-free. If it brings you any joy and inspiration, please consider a modest donation – it lets me know I'm doing something right.
Bunker.jordanI want some.
“At West Berlin’s Industrial Fair a US Information Service exhibit permits Berliners to try out “magic hands,” a device for handling radioactive materials that is so delicate that it can be used to pin a diaper on a doll.”
“Engelbert II of Nassau, Engelbrecht in Dutch, (17 May 1451 – 31 May 1504), was count of Nassau and Vianden and lord of Breda, Lek, Diest, Roosendaal, Nispen and Wouw. He was a soldier and courtier, for some time leader of the Privy council of the Duchy of Burgundy and a significant patron of the arts.”
- Wikipedia
Turn any inkjet printer into a circuit printer with this DIY kit
GigaOM
Turn any inkjet printer into a circuit printer with this DIY kit. By Signe Brewster. 2 hours ago Apr. 1, 2014 - 3:47 AM PDT. 1 Comment.
Bunker.jordanAt first I thought this was a game... and I wanted to play it.
Bunker.jordanwell, shit. conflicted...
I have owned this tool for approximately two years. It manually locks an inward opening door. Ideal for travelling, students or anywhere that you would want privacy and security and there is likely to be multiple copies of the door key in circulation. I am on the road most weeks and have been walked in on in several hotel rooms by people with duplicate keys. I did some research and came across portable door locks.
It will not stop a determined attacker, but that is not what it is made for. It stops someone sneaking into your room using a duplicate key or bypassing the lock. A lot of hotel rooms have security chains, but there are videos on the web showing how these can easily be defeated. It also works on doors with no locks, aslong as there is a recess in the door jam where the door catch fits you can use it.
I originally had a similar one to this that I lost. When I went to replace it they had stopped production. I tried having tried several other designs but was never happy, then came across the Calslock one. At the time I purchased they only appeared to be sold on eBay, which worried me, but having purchased one there was very good service and it is an excellent product. (Still on eBay and cheaper than their home page!)
What makes this a cool tool compared to other portable door locks is a combination of things:
- It is a very good design, slim enough to fit doors that have a very tight fit.
- Easy to operate quickly if you need to get out in an emergency.
- Very adjustable from the thinnest cheapest door to thick heavy fire doors, I have yet to come across a door that is outside it’s adjustment range.
- It is very simple, only two large parts so no small fiddly bits to lose or to go wrong.
- Finally it is cheap, only $9.95, including free postage in USA on eBay or $12.95 direct.
I have no affiliation with Calslock, but whole heartedly recommend their product.
-- Graham Simpson
Calslock Portable Door Lock
$10
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Calslock
This is one of the coolest versions of book binding that we’ve ever seen! Via Visual News.
Book binding has seen many variations, from the iconic Penguin paperbacks to highly unusual examples like this from late 16th century Germany. It’s a variation on the dos-à-dos binding format (from the French meaning “back-to-back”). Here however, the book opens six different directions, each way revealing a different book. It seems that everyone has a tablet or a Kindle tucked away in their bag (even my 90 year old grandma), and so it sometimes comes as a surprise to remember the craftsmanship that once went along with reading.
The book, which comes from the Rogge Library in Strängnäs, features devotional texts printed in Germany during the 1550s and 1570s (including Martin Luther’s Der kleine Catechismus). Each of the books is held closed with its own ornate metal clasp, and was probably far more decorative than useful. Just imagine finding where you left off! See more images of this book and other rare examples on the National Library of Sweden’s Flickr page.
For this spectacularly detailed series of architecturally influenced drawings, Toronto-based artist Mathew Borrett labored with 005 Pigma Micron pens to create networks of compartmentalized dwellings that appear to be carved into the face of a cliff or dug into the ground with isometric perfection. Titled Room Series, the drawings were created in 2003, and Borrett continues to explore imaginary landscapes that appear gently influenced by science fiction and fantasy. You can see more of his work in his website and he has prints available on Fine Art America. Borrett also has a self-published book spanning the last decade. (via Artist a Day)
Why does the zebra have stripes? It's not a riddle — scientists say they've actually found an answer. And no, it's not camouflage for hiding under a slatted roof. The stripes actually serve as an insect repellent.
|
|
A long-running study is re-affirming the life-extending benefits of calorie-restricted diets. It overturns a study from 2012 indicating otherwise. The 25-year experiment shows that rhesus macaques, when eating 30% less than normal, are twice as likely to live beyond those who could eat whatever they want.
|
|
Rapper GZA of Wu-Tang Clan promotes science education in this awesome TED Talk, from Time.
“Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green?”
The Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA, a.k.a “The Genius,” a.k.a. Gary Grice just gave a TEDxTeen Talk as the latest viral address in his campaign “to provide a model for students to communicate the information learned from their science teachers.”
As Wu-Tang’s dozen or so active members are busy finishing the iconically absurdist rap group’s 20th anniversary reunion album, it just so happens that GZA is also leading Science Genius, an “urban science initiative” that he cofounded with Rap Genius and Christopher Emdin of Columbia University’s Teachers College. The project weaves lyricism and artistic conception into the science curricula of 10 public New York City high school classrooms.
While many musical artists are known to promote public funding of arts education, GZA and his bandmates have long been obsessed with the many mind-blowing phenomena of the universe. “Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green?” he asks. “Why is metal a conductor of electricity, and wood is not; but you’re more likely to be struck by lightning when standing under a tree?”
“These are questions that require science to answer.”
Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!
An exciting new biodegradable battery unveiled by a team of scientists could have huge potential for biomedical devices. The tiny battery can be safely absorbed by the body within just three weeks and could be used in temporary devices intended to monitor tissue or deliver short term treatment. From Nature:
Their devices, described last week in Advanced Materials, use anodes of magnesium foil and cathodes of iron, molybdenum or tungsten. All these metals will slowly dissolve in the body, and their ions are biocompatible in low concentrations. The electrolyte between the two electrodes is a phosphate-buffered saline solution, and the whole system is packed up in a biodegradable polymer known as a polyanhydride.
Currents and voltages vary depending on the metal used in the cathode. A one-square-centimetre cell with a 50-micrometre-thick magnesium anode and an 8-micrometre-thick molybdenum cathode produces a steady 2.4 milliamps of current, for example. Once dissolved, the battery releases less than 9 milligrams of magnesium — roughly twice as much as a magnesium coronary artery stent that has been successfully tested in clinical trials, and a concentration that is unlikely to cause problems in the body, says Rogers. “Almost all of the key building blocks are now available” to produce self-powered, biodegradable implants, he says.
All versions can maintain a steady output for more than a day, but not much longer. The team hopes to improve the batteries’ power per unit weight — known as power density — by patterning the surface of the magnesium foil to increase its surface area, which should enhance its reactivity. The authors estimate that a battery measuring 0.25 cm2 and just one micrometre thick could realistically power a wireless implantable sensor for a day.
