Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Paper Rocketry

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

There are lots of cool paper rocketry models to build.

And if you want to launch them, issue 15 of Make Magazine has the instructions on how to build a launcher or they even sell a kit.

A week and a bit redux

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Really this is meant to be ‘Two months redux’, but I still need to work out what I want to say about them, so here’s the last week instead, and hopefully we can work on getting on track, seeing as some of my adoring public are requesting updates :)

  • Played “Dominion”, and the Seaside variant. Pretty cool.
  • Finished Richard Morgan’s “Woken Furies”. I do like his stuff, but I’m reading it faster than he’s writing it…
  • 500Gb Western Digital Scorpio Blue is giving I/O errors. Fortunately looks like it may be still under warranty. Might go Samsung for a change this time though.
  • Movember morning tea raised some $100+
  • Tempura Fish and Chips in Mosman Park. Basa, white snapper, and red spot emperor. The red spot emperor seemed the favourite (IMHO as well) but of course is smaller and more expensive :)
  • Made it to team breakfast
  • Ordered some bearings for my reprap, thereby committing myself more to building one. Assuming they don’t go to Washington or Austria or something. Now all I need to do is find a source of the circuit boards who aren’t Makerbot supply constrained.
  • Buying more chook food, getting some freebie mulch, walking around Lake Monger, buying a replacement HD, getting annoyed by a JB Hi Fi salesdroid who suggested maybe I should buy something other than what I wanted.
  • Zoo visit with our generation of the family (and the next one, I guess :) Got to see the elephant (I’m assuming Tricia) get taken for a walk through the park at lunchtime, which was great
  • Astrofest at Curtin Uni. Puggle got to launch water and air rockets. Saw the Scitech guy get his arm sliced up by plastic shards when the LN2 demo exploded prematurely. Good thing he was wearing his safety goggles and didn’t get hit in the face. Don’t try this at home kids!
  • Excellent dinner at the Essex restaurant in Fremantle for our ‘kiddie dinner’ (ie no kids :) . I must remember not to order chowder, it’s rarely remarkable. The rest of the food was great. The French botrytis semillon from Saint Croix du Mont (Something de Pavillion) was astounding. Service was excellent.
  • Unfortunately Cygnet was upchucking so we didn’t get to linger over dinner and were recalled.
  • Cutting down the rat access paths to the roof. Unfortunately I think that means they’re now trapped in the roof…
  • Bunnings doesn’t look much good for Reprap parts, they either don’t deal in sizes that small or they don’t have the bits in the quantity I need, so Radio Spares it is.
  • Making lamb and spinach curry. Lacked something, not quite sure what
  • Cygnet is taking multiple steps. Bilby is playing the recorder. Puggle is playing the recorder, and is getting pretty good at associating new information with what he knows so far (frequently, in Latin :) . And both are speaking a lot of French vocab.
  • Not going to have much of a novel at the end of this NanoWriMo

World Solar Challenge 2009 – Darwin to Adelaide

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Once again teams are gathering in Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory to ready their solar powered vehicles for the challenge (not race ;) of driving 3000km to Adelaide in South Australia.

The big news so far this year is that the favourite contenders Nuna have had an accident that severely damaged their ($1.8 million) solar array and are having to use their backup.

Meanwhile Western Australian High School team Leeming and their car Hammerhead have arrived in Darwin and are preparing for scrutineering and the race.

World Solar Challenge 2009 – Darwin to Adelaide

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Once again teams are gathering in Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory to ready their solar powered vehicles for the challenge (not race ;) of driving 3000km to Adelaide in South Australia.

The big news so far this year is that the favourite contenders Nuna have had an accident that severely damaged their ($1.8 million) solar array and are having to use their backup.

Meanwhile Western Australian High School team Leeming and their car Hammerhead have arrived in Darwin and are preparing for scrutineering and the race.

World Solar Challenge 2009 – Darwin to Adelaide

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Once again teams are gathering in Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory to ready their solar powered vehicles for the challenge (not race ;) of driving 3000km to Adelaide in South Australia.

The big news so far this year is that the favourite contenders Nuna have had an accident that severely damaged their ($1.8 million) solar array and are having to use their backup.

Meanwhile Western Australian High School team Leeming and their car Hammerhead have arrived in Darwin and are preparing for scrutineering and the race.

BHP adopts 18 weeks paid parental leave

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

From news.com.au:

BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers said he believed there was a strong business case for paid parental leave.

“Providing a minimum global standard that is also highly competitive will help us to attract and retain the very best in the industry,” Mr Kloppers said.

“We also recognise that introducing a policy that actively encourages broad inclusion in the workplace will contribute to increasing the diversity of our workforce, which we believe will ultimately give us a strong competitive edge.”

Also includes same sex couples and adoptions. Hopefully the Rudd government will be announcing paid parental leave’s inclusion in the budget next week.

Australian net censorship + NBN = NPN

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Australian Government’s Internet Censorship + National Broadband Network = National Porn-banned Network

Perth Sun Fair 2009

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

A reminder (seeing as I forgot!) that the Perth Sun Fair’s on today (Sunday) at UWA.

The Horror!

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

From The Onion: Lovecraftian School Board Member Wants Madness Added To Curriculum:

“Fools!” said West, his clenched fist striking the lectern before him. “We must prepare today’s youth for a world whose terrors are etched upon ancient clay tablets recounting the fever-dreams of the other gods—not fill their heads with such trivia as math and English. Our graduates need to know about those who lie beneath the earth, waiting until the stars align so they can return to their rightful place as our masters and wage war against the Elder Things and the shoggoths!”

With thanks to Pete for the link.

The Weekend, redux

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
  • UCC’s Fresher Welcome, with added bonus UCC alumni Google guest
  • Nachos
  • Did some shopping in Mondo’s bulk store. Mmmm… must look up some goat curry recipes for winter
  • A chance to stop for a cup of coffee with the family
  • Prawn, mango and prosciutto kebabs.
  • Met up with a documentary film crew from the US and some other Sungroper team members to do some interviews and look at the Willetton car. The Sungroper chassis lives on, only all the other technologies bolted onto it have changed :)
  • Got a very pleasant chance for the kids to catch up with other kids whilst the adults did likewise. Looking forward to introducing them to Scrapheap Challenge