Losing my way on Google maps

Yesterday, I was reading about the volcanic activity in Japan, then for hours, I was scanning North Africa continent ... how did I get there? I discovered this cool site about volcanos, Volcano Adventures, where I saw these weird and wonderful photos of salt flats in Dallol, Ethiopia ... Hottest Inhabited Place on Earth: Dallol, Ethiopia. Looks like the most inhospitable place on earth. I would love to visit there for a couple of hours. Just a skip and I was pouring over deserts in Egypt, imagining what how magical that would be. I love Google Maps!

Voewood revisited

I got a little present in my email this morning. Remember that incredible house in the U.K. I blogged about called Voewood? Amanda visited Voewood in person! and sent me detailed photos the butterfly curtains that had caught my eye. I have chills. I had some tears too. I want to run to the sewing room and try, just try to piece together something that would make me feel so giddy, glad, delighted. Oh, Thank YOU! Amanda for making me so happy this morning!

Click on image to get larger view!

The detail of the butterflies and moths looks incredible. Hand-stitched veins, looks like little fur is used. I really love the white ones with the little gray detail.

From Amanda Lewis

Biomimetic Butterflies

Worth blogging again, The Barbarian Group's Biomimetic Butterflies. Watching them move makes me want to cry every time!

"The Butterfly wings are made of laser cut, heavyweight drawing paper. After laser cutting, and some clean-up with an X-Acto knife, the wings are glued to a small piece of cotton to form a simple and delicate hinge. Using lightweight fabric keeps the overall look clean and creates a hinge with much less resistance than a more standard mechanical hinge. Each wing is fitted with two pairs of neodymium magnets by sandwiching the wing paper between each pair, making sure that the polarity on all magnets is consistent. To keep the Butterfly in place, we pin it to the mounting board with black insect mounting pins.

The wings are articulated by moving a large neodymium magnet oriented so that it has the opposite polarity of the magnets on the wings. For example if the magnets on the wings all have the south pole facing down, the large magnet will have south facing up. So when the large magnet is moved close to the wings, the magnets on the wings are repelled causing them to close. To move the magnet, it is mounted to a servo motor using a 2" plastic drum. The servo faces perpendicular to the central vertical axis of the Butterfly’s body. The magnet is mounted on the edge of the drum so rotating the servo causes the magnet to move away from the Butterfly, which in turn lessens its effect on the wing."

More Biomimetic Butterflies from Chandler McWilliams on Vimeo.