Re-Farm the City is an open-source hardware initiative aimed at creating low-cost tools for urban farming. I’ve been volunteering for Eyebeam resident Hernani Dias, who is here from Spain spreading the gospel of low-cost open-source urban farming tools.

Re-Farm the City will be hosting a two part workshop series @ NYC Resistor this weekend, Aug. 21, Aug. 22 from 12pm to 4pm.  The goal of the workshop is to give an introduction to Re-Farm’s open source tools and to have people build their own mobile urban farms. This includes soldering all the boards needed to control and monitor an urban farm and testing out different watering systems.  There will be a $50 lab fee to cover cost of the electronics and other materials. Only a basic understanding of electronics is necessary.

Click here to register on Eventbrite for the workshop!

Join us for Dan Steingart’s class on batteries. He’s a battery researcher at City College and is giving a free class about batteries at NYC Resistor this Wednesday, 8/18 7-9pm. Here’s how he describes it:

You’d like to sever that USB cable and let your device into the wild, but how will it survive? On batteries, of course! But before you let your little one go, spend a little time at Resistor and learn exactly what is going on inside the battery and how to make the best of it.

You’ll learn:
– What voltage really represents
– Why batteries are not getting much lighter
– How to maximize cycle life
– When to use primary vs. secondary cells
– Why batteries heat up
– Why batteries stop retaining charge
– How to mate batteries with energy harvesting devices
– What a battery looks like on the inside

Please bring questions!

Dan

—
Dan Steingart, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
City College of New York

Today in History, the United States became the only country in history to engage in Nuclear Warfare. 80,000 estimated Japanese died in the first attack, climbing to a possible 140,000 as a result of lasting effects of the bombing.

You probably have seen a billion and one great posts regarding the historic, gut wrenching, and generally awesome power of the nuclear weapons that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, up on through the terrifying surreal imagery of the Tsar Bomba test explosion. But, what you might not be aware of, or at least in my mind is not talked about very much is the Oak Ridge uranium enrichment plant. Above is a picture of the plant.

Prior to the outbreak of World War 2 Nuclear Boogaloo, there were only 3000 some odd residents of Oak Ridge Tennessee. It was just one of many normal quiet little towns spread across the United States vast landscape. But thanks in part to it’s proximity to railways and highways, as well as it’s low population Oak Ridge would become home to the dubiously named “Clinton Engineering Works”. By 1945, Oak Ridge would sport a population of 75,000 and be home to the largest building in the world. At one point in fact, Oak Ridge was consuming 1/6th of the entire electrical load of the entire United States. Of course, no one knew that this once aspiring hamlet had grown into a marvel of modern engineering. The entire town was surrounded by layers of fencing, and armed guard towers. Seven gates would have to be passed before anyone could enter the town. The work being done there was so secretive that most of the residents of the town had no idea what it was exactly they were doing until August 6th, 1945. Throughout the Manhattan Project Oak Ridge was simply referred to as “Site X”.

Oak Ridge, was where uranium enrichment was occurring. Without enriched uranium, critical mass could not be reliably achieved. Much of the uranium 235 used in Fatman came from reactors built in Oak Ridge. The Manhattan Project stands as one of the most expensive, and astounding human engineering projects in history. Much of the cost of the project was expended in developing Oak Ridge and the enrichment facilities there.

Apollo Program Total Cost: $170 billion
Manhattan Project Total Cost: $23.4 billion

DIY Bookbinding: August 14th from 3pm-5pm.

Learn everything you need to start making your own artist’s books or hand-bound journals! In this class, learn techniques and tips to make your own hand-bound books. We’ll go over a bunch of stitching methods, page-folding, and book cover options. Materials will be provided, if you want to bring some special paper or materials you have, we invite you to do so.

The cost is $60 and includes the materials fee.

Sign Up! http://diybookbinding.eventbrite.com/

Instructors:

Shelby Arnold is a paper engineer who makes pop-up books, origami, and artist books. She works for Robert Sabuda making children’s pop-up books and pop-up cards for his MoMA line. She has a degree in graphic design from Pratt Institute, which happens to be the same school Alicia went to as well.

Alicia Gibb is a recovering librarian. She has a degree in art education and loves little bits of paper. Alicia currently works as the Gadget Wrangler for Bug Labs. Alicia curates her own artist book collection and draws stick figures.

Tomorrow, Friday July 30, NYC Resistor [0], a local hacker collective, is graciously hosting a party for DebCamp attendees.

There will be a keg of delicious local beer [1] (for a modest charge of ~$3 per cup), but feel free to bring whatever you want to drink as well. Festivities will begin after 7pm.

NYC Resistor is located in downtown Brooklyn:

87 3rd Avenue
4th floor, above the MakerBot offices

It’s very near the red 2/3 subway lines (the 116th st. stop on the 1 is adjacent to the 116th st. and Broadway entrance to Columbia campus). Feel free to travel [2,3] there on your own, or join a group that will be leaving from the 116th st. and Broadway campus exit at 7pm *sharp*.

See you all there!

[1] http://sixpointcraftales.com/

Brewed only a couple kilometers from NYC Resistor!

[2] http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf10/TravelInfo

[3] subway directions