RanDome gets to Portland in the Nick of Time

Bucky' s daughter Allegra (Center) visits Lincoln Park after snowfall.
Photo by: Kim Waite

With the Nor'easter snowstorm approaching, RanDome inventor Dick Fischbeck knew time was short.  The snowfall predicted for Saturday night would leave dozens of Lincoln Park's occupants "out in the cold".  Only weeks earlier Dick's polyethylene RanDome shelter had made it's debut at MOFGA's Common Ground Country Fair. Early Saturday morning Dick strapped the still rolled up RanDome onto his car and drove to Portland.  The dome was rapidly unrolled onto the grounds.  It is serving as a community center for Occupy Maine.  Two more RanDomes have now been requested for that location. For more on this topic read the news article: Geodesic Emergency Shelter makes it to Lincoln Park in the Nick of Time. RanDome and Occupy Maine were honored by the visit of Allegra Fuller Snyder - Buckminster Fuller's daughter - on Sunday. Meet Dick in person at the Third Biennial Design Science Symposium (November 11 - 13, 2011) in Providence, Rhode Island.

Bucky Balls on Sale

For the next 24 hours you can sign into Fab and purchase a set of Bucky Balls for only 7 dollars.  With the 10 dollar credit you will get for signing up with this amazing and inspirational site the already low 17 to 27 dollar pricetag is slashed! Don´t miss out.  These magnetic balls allow you to use the sphere packing method to create amazing shapes.  Watch the many videos on Youtube to see what you can do. Bucky Balls usually cost over 40 dollars a set! Even if you are too late for the 10 dollar credit and Bucky Ball sale, join Fab so that you don´t miss future opportunities on inspirational design. This is not a toy for small children due to the very small size of the sphere shaped magnets which are a choking hazard.

Invention of Life Forms

Jitterbugs present themselves everywhere in nature.  Theo Jansen of Edinburgh in Holland has spent years "creating life" and has learned to truly appreciate the enormous task taken on by the creator of our universe. Mr. Jansen plans for his strandbeests to continue to walk the shores of Holland long after he is gone. See these and other strange and cool inventions on BBC's Wallace and Grommit's World of Invention.

Becoming an Inventor

Atari Tennis was a high-tech novelty in 1976

You are capable of inventing something that can change the world.  Don't think so?  Look at the inventors of the past. The late Steve Jobs created  the Atari Tennis game released in 1976 - hilariously simple today -  and would begin to revolutionize the way the rest of the world viewed computers.  Until that time the computer was a regarded by most people as a mega-complicated, high-tech device better left to engineers, mad scientists and science fiction writers.  "It is of no use to normal people." was the general consensus.  Earlier inventors met with similar attitudes:

• Daniel Schectman's quasicrystals were deemed impossible until he won the Nobel Prize for his discovery.
• Karl Gauss didn't tell anyone when he discovered non-Euclidean geometry because he was afraid they would make fun of him.
• Alexander Graham Bell was laughed at when he thought he could convert a homemade childrens' toy  into a communication  network. The toy was two tin cans with a string connecting them.
• Orville and Wilbur Wright were the center of jokes when they talked of their plans to test a flying machine they had invented.
• Buckminster Fuller was often called a "crackpot".

Here are some other  "Ridiculed Science Mavericks".
Watch these shows to get some inspiration on your journey to becoming the next inventor to revolutionize the world!
Building Big:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig
          Domes:   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/dome/index.html
Design Squad:  http://pbskids.org/designsquad
"When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign: That the dunces are all in confederacy against him." - Jonathan Swift