Outing My Whovian Self

Well, guess I'm going to come out of the closet, err, Tardis, with this post but we are really stupid huge goofy Doctor Who geeks at my house. The Fandom runs deep around here. Even Big 'Un is nerdy- mainly because he thinks that Daleks are one of the Greatest. Things. Ever. He thinks we should "Exterminate" everything: Exterminate the lady bugs, exterminate the heat, exterminate the lawn mowing, exterminate the ice cream (which means eat it all). Honestly, it gets kind of old with him yelling "Exterminate" in his best (and very good) Dalek voice all the time. It is, of course, only a matter of time before we have some sort of Tardis replica at our house, sort of a Yard Tardis, if you will.





A life sized Dalek would score me some huge "honey points".



Plans to build my own Tardis? No problem. There's a PDF to be had for this from Relative Dimensions or any one of "a few" that will turn up with an Internet search.



Tardis Builders

 


Even my Zippy is a FanGirl. We've not decided which incarnation is our favorite Doctor Who since they all sort of grow on you but she did spend some time with her drawing pad the other day.

Not bad for a kid who has only recently decided that she loves to draw. OK, yes, I sort of gave her no choice but to take Art as an elective last year, but the kicking and screaming soon subsided and she has really begun to get in the flow. She carries her drawing stuff with her everywhere. She's just too creative a kid in so many ways not to take an art class in order to enhance other types of creativity.We've "done art" around here all of her life but she didn't think she was creative- this from the kid who has modified her swingset to the point where it is now a landmark when giving directions. "If you go past the house with the monstrous technicolor swingset sporting a wind vane and a mothra flag, you've gone too far." Seriously.

Anyhoo...

Doctor Eleven (above) is just plain ol' goofy fun. He's like the goofy kid we were embarrased to be friends with in high school until you realized that he's just a great guy. Nine (below) was dark and intense and sexy in an edgy, dangerous way...

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But Ten? He's cute and hysterical and menacing and goofy and sincere, just like all the others really, but then you hear David Tennant's natural Scottish accent (for those of us who don't hear it most days) and suddenly  you find yourself obsessed with men in kilts.





Slim and a little bit foxy .....
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It is the following video that has caused me to out myself as a goofball Doctor Who fan. Truthfully, Zippy-Gal and I have been having a blast with our new found freedom to roll around in the uninhibited expression of our geekiness. We were hesitant at first, back when geeks were, you know- geeky, and then we were shy about appearing to be jumping on the Geek Bandwagon. It's not such a bad thing after all, to fly the Geek Flag out front of the house.



What are you a geek about? I would love for you to share and we'll jump up and down together, clapping our hands and squealing like teenagers.



... sigh ...

Biomimetic Butterflies

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The Barbarian Group

 

Hi there! I know it's been a bit since my last post but life is getting, um, "full and busy" these days as things move forward. But I simply HAD to share these butterflies with you. These ravishing beauties were created in 2007 by The Barbarian Group, an interactive marketing firm, for the exhibit Interactivity at the McLeod Residence, a gallery in Seattle, Wa. The butterflies are laser cut from paper and are rigged up, through a system of motors, magnets, video cameras, and computer magic that I would be hard pressed to explain, to respond to observers by flapping their wings. The details of the installation and the creation of the wings can be found here, (it's pretty neat-o if you're a geek-nerd type so I'll see you there!) and you can check out the wing flapping happiness in the video below.

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The Barbarians designed seven "species" of butterflies for the exhibit using unique algorithms for each. It gets a tad "math-y" but you owe it to yourself to check out the families by going here. For example:

Circle Packing



Voroni



Cracking



                                                                                 Photo- Life As Art via Flickr

The Barbarian Group

Here is a video of the process of creating these wings posted by Robert Hodgin, one of the barbarians, on Vimeo. He says he used magnetic forces and voroni to create the patterns. Voroni is a type of mathematical dividing of a space with a certain specified point in each division. Math-y stuff, I know. Cornell University has an applet that let's you play around with making Voroni diagrams and once you do it, by clicking anywhere, you can easily see how it divides the space so that there is only one specified coordinate in each division. Go ahead, watch the video below and then go play at Cornell's site here.

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Easy, right? Then stick it in the laser cutter. Nerdy stuff really is pretty cool.

Another of Robert Hodgin's images of biomimetric butterflies.

What exactly is biomimetics? It is defined by Websters as "the study and development of synthetic systems that mimic the formation, function, or structure of biologically produced substances and materials and biological mechanisms and processes.' So it is the study of structure and function of biological systems, such as butterfly wings, to use in the design of structure, function, and materials of machines or devices. We touched in this in the post about pearls where we learned that scienticst studying the structure and compostion of pearls are using what they've learnedabout pearl nacre in applications for dental implants, artificial bones, and computer components. Anyway- it's biomimicry.

As for butterflies, scientists are using the new discovery that butterfly wings have cells that are natural solar collectors to improve solar technology or hydrogen gas- a green fuel- production. Or how about applying information about the structure and function of the wings and their reflectivity to improve display screens for cell phones, e-readers, and tablets. Cool shtuff, eh?



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Did I find other pretty butterfly things while working on this post? Oh you bet I did.



Photos: Bas Helbers, Giulietta Verdon-Roe



"We’ve seen chandeliers made from recycled bicycle parts and cultured crystal, but this imaginative take on fusing lighting and renewable energy generation must be the ultimate in solar-powered gadgets. Taking its biomimetic cue from real-life butterflies that use their wings to gather vital solar energy, this spectacular chandelier is made from 500 butterfly-shaped blue cesium photovoltaic cells, which in turn self-powers a large, hand-blown glass bulb in the center. Dubbed “Virtue of Blue,” it’s designed by Dutch artist-designer Jeroen Verhoeven and masterfully blends ecological design with art and functionalism." Source

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This video shows the slow-mo flight of an artificial swallowtail built by Hiroto Tanaka and Isao Shimoyama from Harvard University and the University of Tokyo, respectively, to test their hypothesis about flight. You can go here to read up on it if you would like.  How's this model for a delicate little bit of their craftiness?




Finally, since this is a rather black and white post, I'll leave you with a bit of color. Not that these butterflies have anything to do with biomimicry, necessarily, but they are colorful and pretty and, you know, made from sugar.

 

Image by SugarRobot via etsy.com

  

So I just found out that my niece, who is expecting in June, is decorating her nursery with a butterfly theme. OK, people, why am I just now finding that out? Anyway, after seeing the gorgeous laser-cut butterflies from The Barbarians, my exacto knife is itching and flittering a bit and I have a tiny egg of an idea for the newest addition to our family. Did I say egg?





Egg of Zebra Longwing Butterfly. Image via National Geographic.

See ya next time!