feminism + engineering projects brainstorming

some off-the-walls brainstorming!
ideas list:
  • covering the ground around clinics in mobile robots (so there’s nowhere to step) that together display cute cat videos (to de-stress patients and employees) [3]
  • cute pop up robots, like in big hero six [2], that act as a wall of clinic escorts (automation is the future, after all) and project calming music / nature sounds
    • or project the stories of those who have had abortions and want to share their story, in a non-threatening and clearly automated way, so that if anti-abortion folks want to threaten anyway, they’re left threatening a cute robot. Maybe stick a gopro on them to tape the protestors violently taking down the robots, which it seems like they might be inclined to do so
    • punching bag for the really angry folks who could benefit to work off some steam
    • hand out survey cards to clinic bullies to collect their complaints and offer them cake and tea (remind them to be civil)
    • distract clinic bullies (or at least their kids) with cute cat videos projected onto the side of the clinic building
    • distribute pro-choice adorable plushies and toys to the kids there
  • water or chalk spray graffiti attachment to a bike for people commuting to promote civic action while on their way to work [4] [5]
  • light attachment for bike [6] [7]
  • birth control coffee kcup, many people easily remember to drink coffee every day at a regular time 🙂 might increase compliance
  • creating fashionable dresses out of feminine hygiene products with pro-choice slogans artfully worked into them [10]
  • selling pro-choice pasta [8]
  • a facebook plugin for people to easily show their support for choice / abortion, like the lgbt rainbow plugin [9]
  • hold a nail art party / saloon, or a fashion walk, or a hackathon, or a conference. fun and educational and empowering events, all day every day, next to the clinic(s). To make the contrast between hate-filled speech and things that make everyone laugh and have fun and let them just get on with their lives, even more clear
  • have a statue competition — build pedestals to stand on and get in makeup artists and so patients and employees are greeted with an interesting gallery of living art, like the performance artists who paint themselves like statues and hold really still, instead of hate and harrassment
  • hold feminist / women’s rights play/theater shows and documentary screenings next to the clinic
  • make it really annoying to be there.
    • Sell the protestors every day things, it must get really boring to keep talking about the same thing every day and they are the perfect captive audience.
    • Have a guy very persistently offer the male clinic bullies free makeup and perfume and lotion samples and manicures.
    • Have really annoying and loud teenager cellphone conversations in the middle of and completely ignoring the clinic bullies
    • Hold kids’ water balloon fights there in the summer! Maybe high school / university kids who know how to leave a clear path for patients and employees.
    • Set up mini water-dropping drones which hover over clinic bullies and give them their own personal rain cloud (or rainbow/disco spotlight + rick roll music).
  • Just make it extra super boring to be there. Like have a Speech / Toastmaster or high school debate competition outside near the clinic, or read the house codes / political bills non-stop for a while

[1] http://qz.com/435921/the-worlds-first-abortion-drone-will-deliver-pills-to-poland-this-weekend/

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/abortion-drone-crop.jpeg?w=1434

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hero_6_%28film%29#/media/File:Big_Hero_6_%28film%29_poster.jpg

A big white round robot.

[3] http://www.wired.com/2014/05/disney-invents-swarming-robots-that-create-animations/

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/disney-pixelbots-07.jpg

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/disney-pixelbots-07.jpg

[4] http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/12/nicholas-hanna5.jpghttp://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/12/nicholas-hanna5.jpg

[5] http://archive.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/04/kinberg_0410

[5]

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_Research_Lab

http://hackedgadgets.com/wp-content/Graffiti_Research_Lab_laser_Tag_4.jpg

[7] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/embrooke/blaze-bike-light

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130912121102-blaze-bike-light-horizontal-gallery.jpg

[8]  http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K87vdmx-qwc/VSnUfG1XaGI/AAAAAAAAE20/AIezRXtjXec/s1600/a4.jpg

http://pastamachines.com/ravmolds/dies/shapes/

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K87vdmx-qwc/VSnUfG1XaGI/AAAAAAAAE20/AIezRXtjXec/s1600/a4.jpg

[9]

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/were-all-those-rainbow-profile-photos-another-facebook-experiment/397088/

[10] http://thestir.cafemom.com/healthy_living/114448/5_Alternative_Uses_for_Tampons

http://cdn-ugc.cafemom.com/gen/constrain/500/500/80/2010/12/30/08/ds/fy/po5ad5eaok1ehm8.jpg

Personal projects status dump

Open Source CAD (CAD extensible toolkit): Backburner (eta re-opening: Nov 1, 2015)

Relationship / Sex Ed Prototypes: Backburner (eta opening: Jan 1, 2016)

  • Role-playing games to establish healthy, inclusive, non-judgemental models of asking someone out / responding to that / dealing with that response
  • Can it be not corny? Even if it’s corny, can it still be effective?
  • Filling whatever gap PUA fills for guys

6.01 robots: Backburner (eta re-opening: Oct 15, 2015) — potentially escalate to Sept 5th, 2015

Feminist Apparel: Backburner (eta opening: Dec 1, 2015)

  • Snarky tshirts, IUD/LED earrings, elegant dresses with feminist quotes, stickers, necklaces, henna art, nails, pocket sewing kits, feminist bread and cake,

Hobbyist-Priced Small Waterjet: Backburner (eta re-opening: Feb 1, 2016)

Grad school: Active

Swarmbuddy robots: Active

  • co-conspirators: Ethan B., Chris A.
  • shift to nrf51822 chip (breadboard the circuit)
  • new board: nrf51822, 1s battery, usb charging,
  • new mechanical layout: with actual wheels, cheaper continuous rotation servos (or steppers? for easier zeroing than using a screwdriver), and an origami case
  • servo with pot broken out? $$$?
  • App Inventor + Android programming
  • New Android application

Hack4Fem: Active

  • More workshops
  • More speakers
  • More participants

Boatwork: Active

  • hook up solar panel to small lead-acid for bilge pump
  • Sand and urethane the gunwhals
  • Attach stern pieces
  • Take underwater pictures
  • Test generator and bring on board
  • Cut hole in engine compartment to diagnose leak
  • Call admiral and Crystal about winter haul out to fix keel leak
  • Hook up small battery and solar panel to bilge
  • Machine rope clutches from picture, two
  • Machine running rigging blocks, around four
  • Buy spring line cleats for mid ships
  • Make a roller furler for jib out of bike parts
  • Climb the mast install weather station and Masthead lights
  • Find radar?
  • Install red lights and wiring
  • also make a solar cabintop! diy solar panel, ?diy charge balancer?, diy battery pack? (no, get lead acids)

Youtube Channel: (backburner, eta May 2016)

 

Things to learn:

  • more math: 18.06, more statistics
  • electronics: power electronics, 6.302
  • sewing / fashion (ask on craigslist)
  • drawing / animation / video work (ask on craigslist)
  • makeup / cross-dressing / cosplay (ask on craigslist)
  • how to make html5 webapps easily and quickly
    • skillswap
    • website for house (splitting rent, household items shopping reminders, utilities, landlord contacting, parties, guestbook reviews :])

Restarting Cinnamon after freeze without losing session information

Whoo! For some reason, cinnamon freezes extremely often (multiple times a day) on my desktop, and I had been resorting to “ctrl-alt-f1” to get to a terminal and running “killall cinnamon-session”, which brings me back to login screen. Fortunately, there is a better solution, aka “ctrl-alt-esc”.

Here’s the relevant excerpt from the Cinnamon blog (http://segfault.linuxmint.com/2015/06/cinnamon-2-6/):

Desktop freezes

In case of a freeze or if you need to restart Cinnamon for any reason, you can now do so via a keyboard shortcut. The default key combination is Ctrl+Alt+Escape. Pressing this combination of keys restarts nemo and cinnamon-settings-daemon in case they had crashed, and launches a brand new instance of the Cinnamon desktop. Unlike Ctrl+Alt+Backspace which terminates your session and brings you back to the login screen, Ctrl+Alt+Escape simply restarts Cinnamon itself, which means your session is exactly as it was, you don’t lose any work and all your windows and applications remain open.

 

projects blog (nouyang)