Talk - Camden School of Enlightenment
On the 13th September, I'll be giving a 20 minute talk on the Ant Ballet – the madcap road trip to Barcelona to shoot a film about tiny ants following suspicious-looking trails. It will also be the first public outing of the Ant Ballet film. What's more, it's free, and the other people talking are pretty interesting too.
Ant Ballet
An entomological adventure coalescing choreography from (somewhat) obstinate insects
More details here
Prison
I just found this prisoner ID card whilst clearing out old drawers. It's not mine – I found it whilst walking a dog near the prison a year or two ago. Obviously, it's blanked out so that he doesn't come and beat me up – which, judging by his physique and facial expression, would be no challenge...it all reminded me of the trip I took to prison in Iceland, an anecdote which will at some point be regaled to all who know me...
Hookah
I stumbled across this set of photos I'd completely forgotten about from when I used to live down an alleyway in Brixton.
We had a slight problem with that house. It was in the basement of a house on a side street. Besides the startling lack of light, we had a hooker infestation. They used to use the alleyway as a place to do their stuff. To 'hook', you might say. Which is unpleasant enough, but they also left traces of themselves there – generally in the form of used condoms. Whilst we admired their resourcefulnuss – this was the height of the recession, and they were merely cutting the traditional overheads of hotels – and it's also reassuring to think that the "safe sex" message has permeated all strands of society, it wasn't that pleasant to live with. We never caught anyone in the act, but just witnessed their traces every morning.
We put gravel down, thinking the cruching underfoot would make them self-conscious. We put up a gate, and a big fat chain. We had a security light fitted. No effect.
Clearly these were bold people. Something had to be done on a subliminal level. So I fitted a painting outside the front door. If physical deterrents wouldn't work, a painting instilling good old-fashioned family values and a sense of the British class system would. This one was a family scene, with a fox-hunting father admiring his son's bugle-blowing prowess.
It didn't work.
The next stage involved a bit of rope
and a boot. Everyone appreciates a bit of slapstick, not least of whom a hooker and her client.
(My favourite detail was the positioning above the aptly-named 'Home Safe' alarm system.)
I forgot to tell my flatmate about it, and she booted herself coming home that evening. I never got to see whether it actually worked at keeping other people out.
Shortly after we moved out. There were still condoms on the floor the day we left.
- Posted from Lambeth, United Kingdom
Protei update
Quick update on the Protei project I posted about a few days ago – the project is now fully funded on Kickstarter! The $30,000+ that is not pledged will go towards producing a new, high-tech prototype of the Protei craft.
In other Protei news, check out this article from yesterday's Guardian (UK), or peruse the press section of the project website.
Go Team Protei!
Protei - 7 days and $8,000 to go
On the day that Transocean declares 2010 "best year in safety performance in our Company's history" it seems apt to promote Protei, the open-source, swarming, oil-cleaning robot. There are 7 days left of our Kickstarter campaign and about $8,000 to go to reach our target, enabling the next-generation prototype to be developed. If you haven't seen the video yet, have a gander here:
If you'd rather give time and expertise to the project, consider joining the team!
Waterfall
For some reason this fairly old photo of mine has been picked up and set loose on the blogosphere recently. It's from my solo hitchhike around the country in 2006...
Which reminds me of this
