feelign too busy,. stated work at 6AM and just stopped at 11.. but I did get several hours of fun stuff in this evening. First I went to the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering (VASE) Spring meeting at UVM..  Tonight we got to visit with soem  of the teachers who received our Hands on Science  Grants  last year.. We got to talk with them and see their projects. It’s great to see the good these grants do. I think We’ve given away about $50K dollars by this point.

Heres a nice woman from VEEP with her wind generation test jig she uses in schools  along with Frank , VASE president. (I didn’t get anyones names tonight !)

 

here are two other projects.. (sorry I didn;t get more pictures.. was too busy talkign to the teachers 🙂

 

then we heard really great talks from our two new inductees. The first was by Prof Lesly-Ann Dupigny-Giroux. She is the state climatologist and a great advocate of STEAM education

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she showed us a small project developed by my freind mike that she uses with kids. you send it up in the air witha weather baloon and it sends back data.. it’s called a cricket.. because it sure looks like one 🙂

 

 

Our asecond inductee was Prof Jim Vigaro . Jim gave a great talkon the biology of flight in bugs. He showed how a single gene caused expressing of a protien that helped give flying insects wing miscles the resiliance they need.. It was really cool to show the process from the gene mutation   to the protein it expressed, tho the muscle fibre structue, and  the structure of the muscle itself . 

 

i love the VASE meetings.. they are just so fun and geeky !

 

Afterwards there was a ‘Big Maker’ event sponoserd by the Generator . It was held at Champlain college. The speaker wias Saeed Arida, An MIT Architecutre PhD. whos set up a design oriented school for high school kids in Cambridge. the school sounds SO cool.. everythign is taught in design studios.. lots of iterations.. everything hands on. It was an AMAZING talk.. made me want to go to that school

I saw many freinds at the talk including my buddy Peter.

 

now its lat and I have to sleep. FIrst call tomorrow is 6:30 am 🙂

nite all, nite sam

-me

ps. Saturday we are markign Sam’s Birthday with a 1PM hike up Bolton and a 5pm potluck here. Please coem join us if you’d like !

https://www.facebook.com/events/291874491152196/

quite day full of work.. so my contribution tonight is more of maxs cool pics from the trip..

hope you enjoy them as much as I do !

nite all, nite sam

-me

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Just a very short post tonight to say that after 4 weeks away, i’m loving being home. It’sfull spring here now.. the air is warm … even hot.. during the the day . the flowers are out .

now that its warm enogh, I cleaned out the tower and will be workign from there .. Im greatful for the beutiful place where we live

 

nite all nite sam

-me

Today I woke to the news that my good freind Helga Erol had died.

 

Frau Erol was my Hausfrau.. my landlady.. when I lived in Vienna as an exchange student 1979-1980. I lived in a room above her family at 43 Graf Starhembergasse in Vienna’s 4th district. Frau Erol was a great freind and mentor.. she was fun and strict at the same time. She ran a tight ship. I remember her forbidding me to go out on the street in my old torn jeans.. the ones I burned while trying to dry them in the oven. When I did not take her advice and wore them out one day.. , she let herself into my room and threw them away ..

She and her family made me feel so at home. they fed me, counciled  me.. put up with me for thta entire year.. She taght me more german than my professors at school. she was . we’ve stayed  close ever since.. though  sometimes years passed between seeing  each other, we stayed in touch.   She wrote me in mixed German  and  English.. and I wrote back in English and German.. I tired to go through Vienna whenever I could . I once showed   up in Vienna  at a resutrant as a suprise to Frau Erol’s 70th birthday..  Her husband  Necat died in 2009.  I’m still in touch with two of her kids.. Osman and Murat.. and even with some of her grandkids

Last time  I saw her  was 3  years ago.. We had a great visit.. walked around the city for hour. She was still playing basketball !

 

I’ll miss her very much. I’m sending my love to the whole Erol family

nite all, nite sam

-me