I had a very peaceful Saturday… Woke up worked out took a run… Then did chores around the house. Then I devoted several hours to getting a project done that I’ve been working on. It’s a speed camera that looks at the speed of all cars going each direction in front of our house. We believe that no one actually drives the speed limit there… So it’s been kind of a fun little project. I got most of it working yesterday… Still a few glitches her to be honest… I’m kind of encouraged that the vast majority people actually do drive the speed limit there are just still huge exceptions

Later in the evening I took advantage of the nice weather to go down and check out the “festival of fools” that my friend Woody helps organize. It was a bunch of singers and performers down in Burlington on main street and in the park. Our friends Chris and Kim and their cirque de Fuego troop we’re performing. I helped set up the perimeter I do a few errands for them… Was fun to be useful. The show was fantastic… As it always is with them

Afterwords we went to three needs… It was so fun just hanging out. I had brought a bunch of light up toys in my life jacket so we were playing with them at the bar and a whole bunch of people came up to check it out… One of them said I was the “summer Santa”…

That made my night night

Nite all, nite sam

-me

This afternoon we have the celebration of scott’s life… It was down at Button be in Vergennes… Right on the lake. Even though the day started rainy… The afternoon was beautifully clear and crisp. (Crisp not a word you usually associate with July)

Dasha and Veronika had spent a lot of effort making this event work. I was super happy to help. My friend Newt had let me an audio system… And a screen. I used the generators projector and we got to show Veronica’s slideshow and play her dad’s favorite music.… I gave a short talk and several other people gave their memories of Scott… He was such an awesome guy… It was great to hear that the theme of brilliance and mischief in everyone’s story…

The event had a really nice feel. After sharing stories everybody got to talk. It was a perfect sendoff for a really great guy…

For the record here’s what I said more or less

(Actually what I said had very little to do with what I wrote down here… But I’m just recording it so I can find it)

hank you..

and express my deep condolences .. , and appreciation for Dasha, Veronika and Thomass , Carol, John, Scotts brothers. hwo meant so much to Scott.. ad cared for him during his illness ..

He loved you all deeply.. we talked about that a lot.

scott was one of my oldest and best friends…

very different people.. united by a deep love of science, technology and mischief

I never have had a friend who had so many shared interests.

Scott was a natural born scientist .. mostly self taught.. with deep curiosity and passion for all types of science and technology.

I spent my career in industry and academia and I can honestly say Scott was one of the deepest thinkers I’ve ever met

Amazing depth and amazing breadth..

dug deep to understand.. read a ton.. and tried things with his hands to make sure he understood

Went back to school get his degree.. I remember him telling me he was worried about keeping up

NO trouble.. IN fact t the top overall engineering student for the last two years UVM…

favorite student of the two most respected and I have to say two hardest professors…

He loved spending time in his basement laboratory inventing elegant devices to explore the secrets of electricity, light, radio waves, and chemistry. ( mostly explosives – brought some.. we’ll give a try)

Scott was extremely generous with his talents and was always willing to help other’s with their projects which allowed him to inspire many other aspiring scientists. He also shared his talents with his many co-workers

* at Lam ,

* the University of Vermont where he was voted to be the top engineering student for his final two years — favorite student of Tony. Dale.

* United Technology Aerospace Systems (UTAS)

* generator

* online forums..

* at UTC>. worked on airplane safety

Last acto of generosity.. He deeply appreciated all the help that many of you gave him and finding homes for a lifetime of equipment . Chem science demos, , physics demos

We were a good team ..For 29 years Scott was the brains of our team . he loved making cool stuff.. and I loved using it to inspire people/kids. Are hard to know exactly how many but the Scott stuff has been in front of tens of thousands of kids at this point…

* chemical magic.. – sodium movie – blew up in neighbors yeards

* electrostatic devices – max story

* marx generators – dropped me in parking lot in Ef

<come to think of it>

* tesla coils – demo

I would often Call Scott I have some strange corner of the world as he would help me debug some piece of equipment minutes before I was supposed to give a talk…

He was always so patient and helpful… I realize now I should’ve called it more when I didn’t need something like that…

We had a chance to talk that through and those last days in hospice and I will be forever thankful with a deep conversations of those last few days

I always Imagined that Scott and I will go all together making weird stuff… Or more appropriately he’d make it and I break it… And we use it to entertain and educate the world together…

Now that’s not gonna happen… But I’m gonna do the best I can’t carry on his legacy…… and suggest we can all do that

Every time we see a spark I’ve got think of him because he let that spark in me and so many other people

Dasha, Veronika , thomas.. Carol, John, Brothers. .. scott loved you.. still loves you.. you can see all the people here loved scott.. we’re all here for you..

I am really missing you Scott… Rest in peace my friend

Note all, nite sam

-me

Super interesting day… It had all sorts of twists and turns. Work meetings that went well work meetings that Went not so well… I’m meeting with a fundraising lady from my graduate school, they say it show for 14 young ladies… (Wish I’d taken pictures)… More work meetings… And then ended up with a governors institute remote presentation… I really enjoyed that. Though I am absolutely sick and tired of remote meetings

One very cool thing about this remote meeting though is that one of the counselors was a kid I knew years ago… He made himself famous by eating a battery after watching me do a demonstration.… It’s a story I tell often… But never thought I’d meet the kid again.Nice to see you again Mr. Wagg

You never know What sort of coincidences life will bring your way

Nite all, nite sam

Me

Super, super busy day today… Lots of meetings that I’ve gotten stacked up while I was on vacation. Still overall it was a great day. I did break free in the middle to go move some of my equipment at global foundries where IBM used to be. They still allow me to store some of my teaching equipment there… And I had to move it few months back because they’ve had a water main break there and I filled everything with mud.

One of the things I had to move over was My big old tesla coil that Scott helped me build 29 years ago… Can’t believe it’s been that long. I’ve had this thing all over the state and even on airplanes before 911. It weighs about 150 pounds… It’s been dropped and rebuilt so many different times. I couldn’t resist sparking it up for Scott… I may bring it to his memorial service on Friday… But I think I’ll bring the smaller one day he built for me… It was great to see that thing later and Scott’s memory

http://johncohn.org/base/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/img_5178.mov

http://johncohn.org/base/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/img_5179.mov

It was pretty weird walking around the old IBM building… There was no one there because they haven’t really come back to work yet… I managed to get a picture inside my old office even though the door was locked because there was no door knob

One sad thing about the visit visit I didn’t know which badge to you so I showed them all my old ones and they wouldn’t give them back to me… For security reasons. I miss having these… But I understand

Around 630 I want to Nordic farm to help with the last bits of the giant flaming Covid virus they were building for fire and water…The thing is ready to burn

OK… That’s it for now.

Night all, nite sam

-me