At the recent International Conference on Robotics and Automation, MIT researchers presented a printable origami robot that folds itself up from a flat sheet of plastic when heated and measures about a centimeter from front to back.

Weighing only a third of a gram, the robot can swim, climb an incline, traverse rough terrain, and carry a load twice its weight. Other than the self-folding plastic sheet, the robot’s only component is a permanent magnet affixed to its back. Its motions are controlled by external magnetic fields.

“The entire walking motion is embedded into the mechanics of the robot body,” says Cynthia R. Sung, an MIT graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science and one of the robot’s co-developers. “In previous [origami] robots, they had to design electronics and motors to actuate the body itself.”

Joining Sung on the paper describing the robot are her advisor, Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; first author Shuhei Miyashita, a postdoc in Rus’ lab; Steven Guitron, who just received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT; and Marvin Ludersdorfer of the Technical University of Munich.

Fantastic Voyage

The robot’s design was motivated by a hypothetical application in which tiny sheets of material would be injected into the human body, navigate to an intervention site, fold themselves up, and, when they had finished their assigned tasks, dissolve. To that end, the researchers built their prototypes from liquid-soluble materials. One prototype robot dissolved almost entirely in acetone (the permanent magnet remained); another had components that were soluble in water.

“We complete the cycle from birth through life, activity, and the end of life,” Miyashita says. “The circle is closed.”

In all of the researchers’ prototypes, the self-folding sheets had three layers. The middle layer always consisted of polyvinyl chloride, a plastic commonly used in plumbing pipes, which contracts when heated. In the acetone-soluble prototype, the outer layers were polystyrene.

Slits cut into the outer layers by a laser cutter guide the folding process. If two slits on opposite sides of the sheet are of different widths, then when the middle layer contracts, it forces the narrower slit’s edges together, and the sheet bends in the opposite direction. In their experiments, the researchers found that the sheet would begin folding at about 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once the robot has folded itself up, the proper application of a magnetic field to the permanent magnet on its back causes its body to flex. The friction between the robot’s front feet and the ground is great enough that the front feet stay fixed while the back feet lift. Then, another sequence of magnetic fields causes the robot’s body to twist slightly, which breaks the front feet’s adhesion, and the robot moves forward.

Outside control

In their experiments, the researchers positioned the robot on a rectangular stage with an electromagnet at each of its four corners. They were able to vary the strength of the electromagnets’ fields rapidly enough that the robot could move nearly four body lengths a second.

In addition to the liquid-soluble versions of their robot, the researchers also built a prototype whose outer layers were electrically conductive. Inspired by earlier work from Rus and Miyashita, the researchers envision that a tiny, conductive robot could act as a sensor. Contact with other objects — whether chemical accretions in a mechanical system or microorganisms or cells in the body — would disrupt a current passing through the robot in a characteristic way, and that electrical signal could be relayed to human operators.

“Making small robots is particularly challenging, because you don’t just take off-the-shelf components and bolt them together,” says Hod Lipson, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, who studies robotics. “It’s a challenging angle of robotics, and they’ve been able to solve it.”

“They use digital manufacturing techniques so that the intelligence of the manufacturing is embedded in the material,” Lipson adds. “I think the techniques they describe would scale to smaller and smaller dimensions, so they by no means have reached a limit.”

For the last post in this series on dealing with large FBAs (for now), let’s talk about a subject that any sewist can use, regardless of whether she needs a large FBA or even any FBA: dart rotation. People talk about dart rotation a lot on sewing forums in fitting threads, but I’ve rarely run across a comprehensive discussion about the options for dart rotation, let alone a tutorial that actually shows you how to rotate a dart. The good news regarding all of this, though, is that dart rotation is actually pretty easy. In fact, if you can do a princess seam FBA, not only can you rotate a dart, you have a rotated a dart.

In this post, we’ll discuss why you might want to rotate a dart, go through a tutorial showing how to actually rotate a dart after performing your FBA, and talk about some of the location options and show some examples for dart rotation.

Why rotate a bust dart?

A sewist might choose to rotate a dart for two main reasons:

• To add or move a design element from one part of a bodice to another.
• To decrease the size of a large bust dart or remove a bust dart altogether. To learn a bit more about the issues caused by large bust darts, see my previous post: Large FBA Issues: Dealing with the Big Honkin’ Dart

How to rotate a dart

Before we go into all of the options of where you can rotate a dart, let’s walk through one example and show you how to actually perform this pattern alteration.

One of my favorite locations for dart rotation is the shoulder seam. This location can work particularly well if you’re altering a pattern that has a yoke detail at the shoulder, in which case you can change the dart into shirring. Shoulder shirring can provide the addition of both an unobtrusive, feminine detail to a blouse or dress and also provide additional shaping for the bust. If you’ve ever watched the television show Mad Men, pay attention to the costumes for the well-endowed Christina Hendricks’ character Joan Harris; many of Joan’s blouses have a combination of both darts and shoulder shirring.

To rotate a bust dart:

1. Perform your FBA as you normally would; however, pin, but do not tape the FBA “fill in” paper. (See Tutorial: A Full Bust Adjustment on a One-Dart Bodice for basic FBA steps.) Note the Big Honkin’ Dart.
   

   FBA with “Big Honkin’ Dart”

2. Fill in the gaps with paper. (For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll just partially fill in the gaps in the dart area that we’ll be manipulating.)
   

   Fill in your FBA with paper.

3. Draw a line from the pattern’s bust apex to wherever you want your rotated dart’s legs to start. For this example, we’ll draw a line from the bust apex to the shoulder seam:
   

   Draw a line from the bust apex to the new dart opening.

4. Starting from where the line ends at the edge of the pattern piece (in this case, the shoulder seam), cut until just short of, but not through, the bust apex. The remaining snip of paper at the apex will become your hinge for dart rotation.
5. Cut through and remove the paper filled in behind the horizontal bust dart. Stop just short of the apex, remembering that you want to create a hinge there.
6. Rotate the hinged part of your pattern piece to close the horizontal bust dart until that dart is a size that you’re comfortable with. You can even close the dart altogether, if your garment is a style where you’d rather not have a bust dart, such as in a knit top. As you close the bust dart, the cut that you just made from the shoulder seam to the bust apex will open up a new dart:
   

   Rotate the hinged part of your pattern piece to close the bust dart an open the shoulder dart.

7. Fill in the area behind the new dart with tissue or tracing paper and tape to secure the new dart. Notice how much more reasonably sized the horizontal bust dart is now!
8. True and re-draw your seamlines for the new and altered dart.
   

   Re-draw the seamlines for your new dart(s).

Dart rotation options and examples

If you’ve ever looked through Palmer-Pletsch’s Fit for Real People book, you might have run across a diagram similar to this one, which shows a variety of options dart rotation locations:

But when or why would you choose one dart rotation location over another? This part of the post will show examples of how a pattern piece might look with a rotated dart in each of the above locations and will discuss pattern styles that might lend themselves to having darts rotated to certain locations.

We’ll start with the armscye dart and work our way around the dart rotation diagram in a clockwise direction. Note that the examples in this section demonstrate a dart rotation performed after adding a fairly significant FBA so as to better illustrate what your pattern pieces might look like. I’m also leaving in the light yellow paper backing made to fill in the initial FBA to help you distinguish which paper was filled in when. Also note that when sewing one of these rotated darts, you’ll need to back the dart tip off from your bust apex just as you would normally do with a typical horizontal bust dart.

Armscye dart

An Armscye dart can help to reduce the size of a too-large armscye. I’ve found this location to work MUCH better in sleeveless rather than sleeved garments, but I know some women like this location for sleeved garments, as well. The great thing about rotating a dart to the armscye in a sleeveless garment is that a dart in this location can reduce or eliminate that gape that so many of us get at the armhole. As an example, the StyleArc Jodie dress incorporates an armscye dart.

Don’t forget that you can also use this location for raglan sleeves. The HotPatterns Daytona Hoodie incorporates bust shaping in this way.

Shoulder dart (or shirring)

As shown in the tutorial steps, a shoulder dart, especially when converted to shirring, can provide an unobtrusive way for a pattern piece to absorb a large FBA and can even add a design element to your bodice. I love this option for blouses and dresses that have a shoulder yoke. New Look 6374 (a blouse style that’s currently popular in RTW) incorporates bust shaping via shoulder shirring.

Neckline dart (or pleats or shirring)

If your top or blouse pattern already has shirring or pleats at the neckline, you can rotate your dart to this location and either just increase the shirring or number of pleats or deepen the pleats themselves. Many peasant-style blouses and dresses incorporate these design elements. For example, Simplicity 1315 has pleats at the neckline. Or, for the BurdaStyle 05-2015 #132 sundress, you could rotate the dart to the neckline shirring–just make sure to keep your finished neckline size the same as the original pattern, or you’ll end up with a too-wide, gaping neckline.

Center Front (CF) Bust dart (or shirring)

Look at Vogue V1447 and the HotPatterns Cote d’Azur dress. The Vogue incorporates a bust dart at the CF, while the HotPatterns dress has soft gathers in the same location. Both of these designs are based off of the same type of dart element but are just sewn differently. If your pattern has a CF seam, and you’d like to add an interesting dart or some shirring over your bust, this location might work well for you. However, a small amount of dart goes a long way in this instance, so if you need to rotate too much of your dart, either consider a different or an additional location.

Waist dart

Waist darts are probably the most common type of dart you’ll find after bust darts. If you’ve sewn more than a handful of garments in your sewing career, chances are that you’ve sewn a waist dart at some point. Waist darts are very effective at adding shaping to bodices at the waistline. Examples of patterns with waist darts include the famous McCall’s M6696 shirtdress and the Colette Crepe dress.

Curved French Dart

A curved French dart is similar to a bust dart, but the curved French dart starts near the waist or hip and curves up towards the bust point. This type of dart can be particularly flattering if you have a large difference between your bust and waist measurement or if you typically get diagonal draglines between your bust and hip in your woven blouses. While flattering, I, personally have trouble adding this type of dart without a fit buddy to help me get the dart placement correct on a muslin. You can see examples of curved French darts in the StyleArc Paris Dress and Marfy F3474.

French Dart

The French Dart is a slight variation on your typical horizontal bust dart in that a French dart starts below the bust (sometimes as low as the waist or high hip) and points upwards to the bust apex. French darts tend to add a bit more shaping and be a bit more flattering on a larger bust than straight horizontal bust darts (although with a less striking difference than curved French darts). You tend to see this type of dart in shift dresses, since they provide a somewhat unobtrusive way to provide waist shaping. You can see examples of French darts in the HotPatterns Plain & Simple Shift Dress and New Look 6145.

A Note About Princess Seams

If you paid close attention while scrolling through the pictures in this post, you may have noticed that by combining two darts in certain locations, you’ll have the start of princess seams. An armscye dart + waist dart starts to make up an armscye princess seam, while a shoulder dart + waist dart starts to make up a shoulder princess seam. If you find darts difficult to fit to your body because of your bust, consider taking the next step beyond dart rotation and converting them to princess seams.

Finally…

If you’ve been intrigued in the past by the idea of incorporating multiple darts into your pattern alterations, I hope you found this post useful! It might seem little scary at first, but with a little bit of practice, you’ll be confidently rotating darts all over your bodice patterns.

Throne of Blood (1957)

Dir. Akira Kurosawa

cryism:

Suspiria (1977), directed by Dario Argento

You know I love a matching set! My latest underwear patterns, the Montgomery brief and the Kingston thong were designed to go create a matching set for the Marlborough bra. With the introduction of the Boylston bra, I still *needed* a matching set.

Luckily with just a few pattern and construction changes, you can use fabric in place of the lace for the front panel for both the Kingston thong and the Montgomery brief to create a matching set for the Boylston bra!

To start, the front panel pattern needs to be altered to accommodate elastic. Now that we don’t need to have a straight edge to accommodate lace, we can also incorporate some curvature to the front.

To achieve both objectives, add an amount equal to the elastic allowance (⅜” for my patterns) above each side seam. At the center front, mark 3/16” up from the top of the pattern piece. Now just join the marks with a light curve taking care to be symmetrical from side to side. Next, draw in the grainline perpendicular to the stretch line. You can see the changes to the cutting lines illustrated below where the orange lines indicate the revised pattern for a fabric front (note I removed the seam and trim lines to make these changes easier to see).

In terms of construction, there is one key change. You do not attach the waist elastic until after the front and back are attached and that seam is finished. So after step 14 for the Kingston thong and after step 13 for the Montgomery brief.

You will also need to cut a longer length of waist elastic to accommodate the addition of the front panel. You will not be stretching the elastic across the front panel – remember these patterns were originally drafted for a rigid lace panel – so simply add the measurement of the front panel and subtract ½” (for the two ¼” seam allowances on either side) to the originally prescribed amount in the pattern instructions.

The elastic will still be stretched in the power mesh portion of the waist. For the details of that application you can follow the pattern instructions as written.

Now you can use the Kingston and Montgomery patterns to make matching underwear for your Boylston bra!

7.00 USD

High quality Japanese yarn dyed chambray jacquard

100% cotton.

Shirting weight. Perfect for garment sewing.

1/2 metre (50cm x 112cm, 19" x 44" wide)

If you would like continuous yardage please change the quantity at the checkout.

Parcels are shipped via small packet international airmail from Japan.

Japan Post does not provide tracking numbers for small packet airmail.

A shipping upgrade with a tracking number and insurance can be purchased
for an additional $5. If you would like to upgrade to registered small packet airmail
please let me know.

Thank you.

All images © Miss Matatabi

5.50 USD

* PRE-ORDER - this fabric is available for PRE-ORDER and will be shipped to you in JULY 2015. Please place orders for pre-order fabric SEPARATELY from in-stock fabric *

Honeymoon by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel

100% lightweight quilting cotton

1/2 metre (50cm x 112cm, 19" x 44")

If you would like continuous yardage please change the quantity at the checkout.

Parcels are shipped via small packet international airmail from Japan.

Japan Post does not provide tracking numbers for small packet airmail.

A shipping upgrade with a tracking number and insurance can be purchased
for an additional $5. If you would like to upgrade to registered small packet airmail
please let me know.

Thank you.

http://www.cottonandsteelfabrics.com/#/about

We all have stories we tell ourselves about who we are, about where we came from, and about where we’re going. We’re also very invested in other people buying into those narratives, and therefore not thrusting us, powerless, into their own. But here’s the thing: beyond that level of banal abstraction, our freedom to live out our stories as we see fit is not a universal entitlement. Some of us get to daydream on the way to work about who truly is our “deepest self.” Others have to be more worried about being twice more likely to be shot dead while unarmed if we get pulled over.

Murphy concedes that while Thomas Edison was a genius, he had a tin ear and seemed disappointed that his “talking machine” was being used for entertainment rather than as a stenographer’s aid; he thought of music lovers as “opera perverts”.

Ann Carrington a imaginé des navires entièrement faits de perles, de broches et de tiares. Rappelant les bateaux pirates, ces vaisseaux sont inspirés des manufactures de perles situées dans la zone industrielle de Zhuijang en Chine. Aussi étonnants par leur beauté que par ce qu’ils évoquent, ces navires en quête de richesses sont littéralement transformés en trésors.

enchantedgalaxy2018:

zaynspo:

sangfroidwoolf:

Patrick Stewart kisses Ian McKellen at the premiere of Mr Holmes, held at the Odeon cinema, Kensington, London, 10 June 2015.

also do you all see patrick stewart’s wife sunny ozell smiling directly behind them because that just makes this photo somehow ten times more gay i love it

But look at her hands, she is pushing them together.
Bless Her

The Toronto natives joined us in RadioBDC Studio B for a memorable three song set before playing their sold-out RadioBDC Presents show at Brighton Music Hall on Tuesday, June 9th. Alvvyas played three songs from their eponymous debut for the RadioBDC Sessions, sponsored by Shock Top.

What's his name again?

The condition seems to be most commonly found in cats along the East Coast of North America (in the United States and Canada) and in South West England, Wales and Kingston-upon-Hull. Polydactyl cats have been extremely popular as ship's cats. Although there is some controversy over whether the most common variant of the trait originated as a mutation in New England or was brought there from Britain, there seems to be agreement that it spread widely as a result of cats carried on ships originating in Boston, Massachusetts, and the prevalence of polydactyly among the cat population of various ports correlates with the dates when they first established trade with Boston.[4][5] Contributing to the spread of polydactyl cats by this means, sailors were long known to value polydactyl cats especially for their extraordinary climbing and hunting abilities as an aid in controlling shipboard rodents. Some sailors also considered them to be extremely good luck when at sea. Genetic work studying the DNA basis of the condition however indicates that many different mutations can all lead to polydactyly[1] and since samples from the UK and USA were shown to possess different mutations it seems likely that these cats have originated multiple times independently, rather than spreading from a single origin. Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway was a famous aficionado of polydactyl cats, after being first given a six-toed cat by a ship's captain. Upon Hemingway's death in 1961, his former home in Key West, Florida, became a museum and a home for his cats, and it currently houses approximately fifty descendants of his cats (about half of which are polydactyl). Because of his love for these animals, polydactyl cats are sometimes referred to as "Hemingway Cats".

sablerabbit:

violetimpudence:

Since we all knew that Death was too scared of Christopher Lee for Lee to ever actually die, the consensus on Twitter is that Death is actually stepping down and Sir Christopher is assuming the post.

Congratulations on your promotion, Sir Christopher. An excellent capstone to a life well-lived.

HEADCANNON ACCEPTED!

This? This I can accept.

spillintoflower:

Dress on show in the Biba and Beyond exhibition,The Royal Pavilion Art Gallery Brighton

SAN FRANCISCO—Saying that staying in its current location was no longer feasible, sources across San Francisco confirmed Thursday that the popular Northern California city would be shutting its doors at the end of the month due to rising rent.

Residents and business owners of the iconic West Coast metropolis, which has occupied the same peninsula for generations, told reporters that spiraling costs had reached such a level that remaining in its 47-square-mile waterfront space was simply beyond its means.

“The city’s in such a great area, but ultimately we just couldn’t find a way to make ends meet each month,” said San Francisco resident Jaime Gonzalez, speaking on behalf of the city’s 850,000 citizens, all of whom recently gave notice that they would be vacating the premises by July 1. “We’ve been here for so long, it’s hard to imagine this city anywhere ...

Original Source

tumblesheeb:

boredpanda:

Floating See-Through Dome Lets Fish Look At The Outside World

gaze into the Ｆ  Ｉ  Ｓ  Ｈ  Ｏ  Ｒ  Ｂ and let its inhabitants judge you

Actor to be reunited with her former Thick of It co-star Peter Capaldi in episode featuring the return of the Zygons

Rebecca Front will appear in the next series of Doctor Who reuniting her with her former Thick of It co-star Peter Capaldi.

Front will guest star in an episode featuring the return of the Zygons, although her role in the show is being kept a closely guarded secret.

Continue reading...

The veteran actor was best known for playing villains including Dracula and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings franchise

• Peter Bradshaw’s appreciation: ‘An actor of muscular intelligence’
  
• Obituary
• A career in clips

Sir Christopher Lee, known as the master of horror, has died at the age of 93 after being hospitalised for respiratory problems and heart failure.

Related: Christopher Lee: an actor of muscular intelligence with a staggering career | Peter Bradshaw

Continue reading...

And finally, there is the most salient sameness of all: like a prolific movie studio specialising in one particular genre, the greatest police brutality videos – in number and quality – are produced in the US.

My experience in cooking farro contradicts the instructions I've come across. In Italy, I was told to soak the grain overnight, then cook it for an hour or more. The results were mushy to my taste. In reality, farro requires no soaking and cooks to tenderness as quickly as rice. Here are some basic tips.

This pedestrian term is actually the key to my historical period.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
How to Take the Internet Back from ISIS
When Celebrities Tweet
Tweet, Memory

Mad Max: Fury Road without the special effects.

Watch the full behind-the-scenes footage.

boydswan:

Solaris (1972, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) // Nymphomaniac (2013, dir. Lars von Trier)

Listen to our discussion of Nymphomaniac.

SAY NO TO GENDERED CLOTHING, SAY YES TO WEARING SKULLS.

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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