Such a cute (and technological) cake! | via Unplgged
From the collection of Such Pretty Things via Lovely Package | Designed in Europe, early C20th
I’m been spending a lot of my spare time these days reading up on a medicinal herbs and gardening, and there’s something about the design of these labels that reminds me of the whimsical past where simple plants, roots, flowers and even fruits or honey were used as remedies. The typology is lovely as is the line work and simple colors. Perhaps inspiration for a future bath and body products line?
It’s been something like 5 years since my competitive high school robotics years ended. But I still love seeing working robots making a difference in our human world. I remember when I was a kid, my parents took my siblings and I to see an IMAX about the Titanic called “Ghosts of the Abyss”. The documentary was based around filmmaker James Cameron and his exploration team’s efforts to uncover the mysteries of the Titanic in its final resting spot and bring to light some of the lost artifacts from the vessel. Yes, the hauntingly beautiful architecture of the ship and the ghastly shadows of the depths were interesting. But my attention was called to two little water treading ROV (remote operated vehicles) robots, Jake and Elwood.
At one point, one robot lost its cable tether and was stuck in an inner room of the ship and had to be rescued by the other. For some reason, that rescue still sits in my memory prominently. Something about robots working together to accomplish a task more efficiently and safely than human teams. Though they were not sophisticatedly connected through a network or artificial intelligence (they were operated using joysticks), I was awe struck.
About two days ago, I saw a this swarm robotics multitouch control interface by Mark Micire of UMass Lowell done on the Microsoft Surface. The simplicity of the controls and the ability to graphically organize large groups of bots in a swarm was nicely done.
And then today, I saw a practical application for the interface in SeaSwarm, an autonomous robot developed by MIT scientists to create an army of oil cleaning robots capable of quickly absorbing surface oil from a spill. What was impressive was the use of nano materials to absorb the oil and deflect the water. The swarm would ultimately be about to communicate via GPS and WiFi. With a fleet of 5,000 Seaswarms, a spill the size of Deepwater could be cleaned up in just a month.
Anyway, it’s pretty exciting to see these new developments in swarm robotics. Hopefully, someday I’ll be able to work with robots again.
It was just one of those documentaries on Netflix that popped up as a recommendation. I don’t even remember what other films I had seen before that the system would have used to know what I would have liked. But there it was with the same inner city vibes as “Mad Hot Ballroom” and conjuring the same earnest hope to glean something worth using in my hometown of Detroit. “Pressure Cooker” was incredible.
The documentary follows 3 high school seniors from northeast Philadelphia under the instruction of their culinary arts teacher Wilma Stephenson. At first she intimidated me with her loud voice and quick reactions to students negative attitudes. But the film did an excellent job of unraveling her true nature. While she’s assertive and sometimes even overwhelmingly blunt, she wants them to succeed. The prize? Scholarships for college educations through a citywide culinary competition at year’s end.
I really enjoyed seeing the lives of the students and their honesty, determination and successes. Fatoumata, an excellent all A’s student and African immigrant who is working hard to make a life for herself in the United States. Erica, the cheerleader who lives with her father and looks after her blind younger sister. And Tyree, the football player who looks after his mother and sisters.
The film starts off rather slowly with uncertainty but as it progresses and culminates to the compelling end, it’s a documentary worth seeing and sharing as an inspiration.
My sister was telling me the other day how one of her friend’s mom makes homemade yogurt, which sounded really neat. The last time I made yogurt was in a microbiology lab my sophomore year of college. It hadn’t occurred to me that that could be replicated in a kitchen. I guess being surrounded by bacteria, bits and pieces of DNA and rusted out bunsen burners took the appetizing aspect out of it. So, I did a little bit more research and found that you need to use a starting batch of cultures of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus (yeah, those are some very well titled bacteria with names that long) which can be done merely but using store-bought yogurt and milk to multiply the micro life forms.
But then I got to thinking back to our root beer experiments. It was probably around the time we did studies in yeast in that same lab. We didn’t drink the stuff and it didn’t foam and fizzle as much as it should have, but is it possible to make root beer at home?
Again, back to the research. Turns out, just a little bit of starting root beer and ingredients for the microbes to consume plus a little inoculation time can produce homemade root beer. Pretty much the same as yogurt. Somehow I missed that in lab lecture.
Now, the thought of craft root beer is appealing to me for two reasons. One, I don’t drink so it’s a nice option to have in lieu of beer-beer. Secondly, Detroit (where I’m from and go to school) is immersed in a rich craft beer culture with a lot of breweries and micro-brewers. I’ve always been more than a little envious of the fact that they can make and bottle their own in those brown glass bottles, stick a cool label on them and sell them to local restaurants and pubs. What better way to experience that but with root beer?
I’m waiting for a nice weekend where I can sit and experiment in my kitchen, but hopefully the process will be pretty awesome!
