The amount of great photography in the MAKE Flickr pool keeps increasing, and our old seven-picture vertical format is feeling the strain. So this week, we’re trying something new! Click the link below to check out our new gallery-style format. And please let us know what you think.

[MAKE Flickr Pool Weekly Roundup - February 26, 2012]

Though there’s lots of inspirational cakeblogging out there, detailed tutorials are comparatively rare. And this is a pretty good one. It’s the work of Australian cakesmith Bernice Camlin, aka Smurfesque. [Thanks, Mom!]

How to Make a Death Star Cake

More:

• Space Shuttle Cake with Ice Cream Tank, Chocolate/Caramel Boosters
• Death Star watermelon
• Come to the charred side of The Force
• I made one of these Death Star cookies when I was five…

This Sunday, tomorrow, paper airplane wizard and Maker Faire presenter, John Collins will be attempting to set a new world record for paper flight. The world record attempt will happen at 9:45am PST. The throws will take place at McClellan Air Force Base (3028 Peacekeeper Way, McClellan, CA) in a hangar. The aircraft is designed by John and will be thrown by Joe Ayoob.

You can listen to a radio interview with John from earlier in the week here. And you can see the entire event, streamed live, tomorrow.

Things are looking great in practice flights. John writes:

The plane flew more than 230 feet yesterday. The best throw of the day was just a bit more than 233. For our practice purposes, that was a test throw and so didn’t count as one of our selected ten throws of the day. The best of the 10 were 227 and 225. In all, we beat the record 5 times with 3 planes on January 29th. We’re definitely on track to re-write the distance record on February 26th. Stephen Kreiger’s world record stands at 207 feet and 4 inches. It’s all just talk until we officially attempt to break it February 26th.

Godspeed, John Collins!

More:
Maker Faire Bay Area: The Paper Airplane Guy Interview

Check out “Alone in the Wilderness” featuring Dick Proenneke living alone in Alaska. It’s on our PBS affiliates a lot here (in Florida). He is a true pioneer, a 1960′s “maker” at work, building everything by hand, using tools he made.   He has no electricity. Shoots it all on his Brownie camera. Awesome techniques he demonstrates!

I especially like how he builds handles for his tools. Proenneke says that building a cabin in the wilderness was just “something he had to do” and by doing it test himself.   The YouTube video below covers ten minutes of the show and shows him building a cabin just before winter sets in.

According to an article about him in Wikipedia,

Proenneke remained at Twin Lakes for the next 16 months, when he left to go home for a time to visit relatives and secure more supplies. He returned to the lakes in the following spring and remained there for most of the next 30 years, going to the lower 48 only occasionally to be with his family.

He passed away in 2003.  The complete set of his videos are available.

Ever dream of living alone in the wilderness?  I have, especially after reading “Call of the Wild” but I would not be able to do it.  Now I can vicariously through Dick Proenneke, and idly sit by and watch him do it all.  Incredible.

Jonathan Brainin’s Pendulum Video is a mesmerizing video sculpture work-in-progress. A camera points at a video monitor which is displaying the image from the camera. When a second monitor swings in front of the first, it creates a beautiful repeating pendulum pattern across the screen. Check out Jonathan’s videos for a few other modes that alter the look of this slick installation. [via Triangulation Blog]

More:
Pendulum Pr0n

Very clever trick from next month’s issue of The Family Handyman, submitted by reader Joseph Johnson.

If you have “helping hands,” clamping wire leads against a washer, as shown, stabilizes the whole setup dramatically by connecting the two arms with a rigid member, so you can bear down a bit more with the iron without pushing things out of alignment. But the hole in the middle of the washer still allows all-round access to the junction.

If you don’t have helping hands, you can just use a washer, as shown, with a pair of alligator clips (or even small binder clips) as a pretty effective improvised workholding jig for this kind of soldering.

More:

• Retracting Key Ring Corrals Drill Press Chuck Key
• Tape Up a Coffee Filter to Catch Drill Dust

Welcome Officine Arduino Torino.

Last friday in Torino, Italy a new kind of company opened its doors.

Officine Arduino Torino is a combination of Makerspace, Fablab and an Arduino “office” dedicated to further the development of the platform and open source hardware.

Officine Arduino is born out of the experience of creating the first FabLab in Italy during an exhibition that lasted throughout 2011. We experienced the positive energy that came out of the encounter between the local community of makers, students, designers and our team based in Torino.

After the exhibition shut down we though that Arduino could act as an “incubator” to empower the people we work with to setup a company that would share our resources and equipment with the local community. Luckily we found the amazing people at Toolbox co-working  (http://www.toolboxoffice.it/) who provided us with free space within an old FIAT factory.

Officina means “workshop” and in Italian it has the vintage sound of the name given to those small companies that made amazing products with limited resources and a lot of ingenuity.

We wanted to see what comes out when you connect open source hardware and software, digital fabrication, maker culture, hands-on learning, open design, alternative business models, co-working and a great community.

Torino is the “template” for more Officine Arduino we would like to open around the world so that more people can hang out with us and build amazing stuff.

If you have the chance go to Torino and have fun at the officine.

PS: We’re looking for some people to help us in Torino:
PHP Developer 
Guest Blogger
Interns // Electronics Engineer

I visited the Arduino factory a month ago and Massimo from the Arduino team explained this vision, congrats – this is very cool, Arduino as an incubator.

Over 45 makers from Iowa, Indiana, and Missouri are converging on the Lindale Mall tomorrow, Saturday, February 25th, for the inaugural Cedar Rapids Mini Maker Faire.

The fair is being organized by Jim Jacobmeyer and other members of Epicenter (a Cedar Rapids makerspace), and the Cedar Rapids Habitat for Humanity Restore.  Epicenter was founded in 2011 as a resource for area do-it-yourselfers, creatives, entrepreneurs, inventors, and free-thinkers.

The Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity ReStore is a store for recycled, re-used, and re-purposed materials.  These two organizations share classroom space and tools, and have naturally become a gathering spot for makers in the larger Cedar Rapids area.

If you’re anywhere in the vicinity, get on out tomorrow to Lindale Mall between 10am and 4pm!

Also—Mini Maker Faire season has just begun!  Keep track of upcoming events at our Find a Faire page. If you don’t find a Mini Maker Faire near you, consider organizing your own.

Discotech + openFrameworks at OmniCorpDetroit

OmniCorpDetroit is happy to announce the following two events for February! We’ve been collaborating with organizations like Detroit Digital Justice Coalition, ArtServe Michigan, Emergence Media, Work Department and the international openFrameworks community to organize a blended Discotech/openFrameworks workshop and open conversation / lecture event.

The event will be held Saturday, February 25th and Sunday the 26th. See the event page for more information.

DIY Solar Power Presentation at HackPittsburgh

Join us on Friday (Feb 24th) when member Mark will present DIY Solar Power. Mark Barlow, an electrical engineer and solar photovoltaic (PV) consultant, will introduce solar technology that is ready for the Do-It-Yourself community. The talk will include information on solar cell testing, electrical hardware, mechanical hardware, safety code, and the new all-in-one rooftop solar PV kits by Westinghouse Solar. The combination of affordable pricing, along with the ease of installation makes Westinghouse Solar Kits an attractive solution for contractors and do-it-yourself (DIY) homeowners.

Free and Open to the Public.
Doors open at 7pm and the event will start shortly after that.
We’re at 1936 Fifth Avenue, in the garage around back on Watson.
Look for our flag over the door.

Eugene Maker Space Grand Opening

Congrats to the Eugene (OR) Makerspace on a successful event. Looks like a nice crowd!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to our grand opening event to support us! We had a fantastic time and we hope you will come again. Remember, we have open house nights every Friday night from 6:00PM to 8:00PM so feel free to drop by and see what we are up too. Or, bring a project and get some work done. We will be uploading photos from the event soon, but for now, we hope you enjoy this time lapse video of the grand opening event.

Cairo Hackerspace Re-Opening

Create, Innovate, Be a maker be a hacker. Join Cairo Hackerspace re-opening. Our new space is ready for hacking. New tools and cool stuff . Get ready for a big exciting day from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM on the 24th of Feb.

Soldering Workshop at Bloomington, IN’s Bloominglabs

February 28th marks the second session of Bloominglabs’ soldering class — this one focuses on soldering surface mount components.

• Second week is surface mount soldering and also finish-up of the first week’s kit if needed

• Both classes include a kit to solder, additional electronics kits available at additional cost
• Everything you need will be provided for you, but if you wish you may bring your own soldering iron and hand-tools
• Send an email to rsvp ]at[ bloominglabs ]dot[ org to sign up! RSVP early while seats are still available!

The class costs $20 for just the second session.

Ephemerisle Planning Session at LA’s Crash Space

Ephemerisle is a self-organizing gathering on the water. A temporary zone of boats, platforms, and floating art. It lasts for four days, filled with parties, futurist and special interest talks, and pickup collaboration between the very interesting mix of people who find themselves on the water.

For all those in the LA area going or interested in going to Ephemerisle, we’re hosting an intro and planning session at Crashspace.

Come and get an explanation of what Ephemerisle is, or plot with those already planning to go. Expect discussion of platform design, finding a bunk, the groups to meet up with, and kickstarters for community services.

The meetup is March 7th at 8pm.

Burlington, VT’s Laboratory B Opens

Congrats to the gang at the recently-opened Laboratory B hackerspace.

Laboratory B started organically growing out of DC802 meetings and the Burlington 2600 crowd. The idea of getting a space was tossed around at a number of meetings and emails started flying on the DC802 mailing list.

In December 20101 Lab-b acquired a small office in the Old North End. After a laborious process of drinking and debating we finally settled on the name Laboratory B. Turns out there was even a pretty cool historical connection with a Russian Nuclear Research facility by the same name.

Laboratory B had an initial roster of about 10 paying members and is still growing. We are looking for new people, new projects and new donated gear!

Our members include a variety of highly talented people with very strong cross disciplinary knowledge and we all have high hopes for what may come from this space.

Art Hackathon at Philly’s Hive76

For the second weekend in March, Hive76 is hosting a day of smashing, cutting, gluing, taping, painting, and general making and frivolity. We’re calling it “Art Hackathon“. Inspired by the Bravo TV Series Work of Art, and following closely in the footsteps of Art Hack Day, the event will focus on the rapid creation of meaningful works of art out of a provided supply of recycled materials.

Hive76 will provide massive piles of cardboard, tubs of glue, masking tape, tubs of spackle, box cutter blades, and a few cans of various colors of spray paint, to let every participating individual or team create a work of their choosing. The works will be based on a single theme, to be announced at the beginning of the event.

The event is split across two, four-hour days. While participants are free to use the time as they wish, the time is designed to provide time for planning on and a moderate amount of building on the first day, with some drying and curing time overnight before finishing up the next day.

A fee of $25 per person will be charged at the door, to cover the cost of materials and food that will be provided during the event for both days. Please RSVP for the event before March 6th by emailing smcbeth@hive76.org.

The hackathon will be held March 10th and 11th, from 3-7pm.

Open Hack at RaumZeitLabor in Mannheim, Germany

Severin of RZL mailed in details of their open nights:

We’re having an open night at our space every Tuesday, starting at 7pm. There’s usually 2-3 short talks, some cooking, and a lot of hacking and fun stuff going on. It’s a great mixture of members and new people, so the perfect night to check out our space. We put the details about talks and projects up on our calendar and out log the night before.

Tokyo Hackerspace Fundraiser

Tokyo Hackerspace is moving in July, and needs your help.

THS will need to move house in July!

We need to save up about 500000 yen (thats a bit over 4 grand, USD).

Why so expensive?

Typically in Japan, you need to pay equivalent to 3 months rent in deposits, guarantor fees, leasing agent fees etc. In addition, we need a bit of cash to pay for trucks, gas, and starting utilities.

If you would like to help us out, you can make donations in 500 yen increments. Its a bit under 5 dollars. Just add as many to the cart as you like!

[via The Creators Project]