Microcontrollers Libraries More Than Just Reading About MCUs

Libraries are places where people in a community go for information.

Some libraries are starting to provide more information about microcontrollers (MCUs) than just books for you to check out and take home with you to read. Around the USA, libraries in cities large and small are starting to offer hands on classes that involve working with MCUs, most often Arduinos.

Doing a search on Google News for libraries currently offering classes or workshop activities involving MCUs turned up eight libraries who recently had an article or a blurb about those MCU activities. The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN, has maker spaces at two of its libraries and the May 25 article about them mentioned an Arduino class, as well as two robotics classes and a circuit board class that likely involve MCUs. The Allen County Public Library got involved with MCUs and the maker movement with a mobile maker space a few years ago:

"The library has also had a partnership with TekVenture, a non-profit Fort Wayne company. TekVenture’s Maker Station mobile laboratory was moved to the library’s lot at Washington and Webster streets three years ago, where the staff provided laboratories and workshops for library employees and patrons. Georgetown is still in the process of growing a crop of makers, Georgetown Branch Manager Lisa Armato said. “Thus far, people are mostly just taking classes and then afterward some come to practice...Another boy, who was an avid gamer, designed and made 3-D copies of a device that attached to a smart phone and to free up the player’s fingers for easier game playing on the phone’s screen. “He printed off his design for $3, took them to school and sold them to his gaming friends for $10,” Gregg said...“Everyone is very excited about all the new learning opportunities,” Armato said. “All of our classes are filling up, and we have waiting lists for some. We are seeing all ages, from 9-year-olds to senior citizens, learning side by side,” she said."

Other libraries have smaller budgets or are just starting to get involved with MCUs via introductory classes. Two libraries currently in the news who are also offering Arduino classes are the Westport Library in Connecticut and the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The May 15 article about the Westport Library says:

"A workshop on how to use the Arduino board, a small programmable microcontroller board, will be taught in a six-session workshop at the Westport Library...The Arduino board is an open-source electronics platform used for robotics, and all kinds of other projects...The sessions are for anyone with an interest in electronic circuits and the ability to learn coding. Each session will focus on a new problem...participants who have an Arduino kit should bring it. There will also be kits for use provided by the library. The workshop will be using the Sparkfun Inventors Kit for the class, which is available at for purchase..."

The May 19 Sheboygan article says:

"“Wanna race?” 14-year-old Christian Henke asked as he elbowed his dad, Andreas, at the Mead Public Library on Saturday. The father and son had just sat down to try their hand at building their own self-driving robot car at the Sheboygan Connects activity day at the library...The simple robotic vehicle, which Christian and father worked on, had two large wheels and a rear caster. At the front of a robot, two sensors turned 180 degrees on a servo to determine which course was the least obstructed...The robot was controlled by an Arduino circuit board, a simple programmable electronic prototyping platform..."

The first step towards having libraries offer classes with Arduino or other MCUs is for local makers to talk to their librarians and offer to explain more about the small computing components and why the library might want to consider offering some classes or workshops with them (often with the local makers developing and leading the classes or workshops).

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The Destruction of US Wealth or All I need to know about stocks I learned from Trading Places

Well.... lets really take a closer look at this.

Chinese stocks DESTROY 45 billion in US wealth. That can mean a lot of different things, and this article itself is a glaring piece of fluff (Like most of the financial articles this week, lol). Most of the stocks mentioned in this article were pushed up in value at hyper speed since they started trading on the US market. Who made the money off of the inflation of the value of these stocks? Now,  "suddenly", their "value" is plummeting. Why? Because they are being sold off, or "dumped". So, who is making the money off of that? 

Now..... if the hyper inflated "value" of these stocks was bogus to begin with- and well use the example of the several "billionaires" that lost their shirts in China over the past 8 months when their companies stocks were hyper inflated and then dropped radically in reflection of their true value-  the questions is the same: who made money off the hyper inflation of the stock prices to begin with? And then who made money off the crashing of those stock "values"? And Note the use of the word "Value" and "wealth" in this article..... not money.

The US financial media is pushing the "China is the problem" envelope as an explanation for all the current apocalyptic crashing that is happening in the western (actually, global)  financial arenas. Yet who were the ones pushing everyone to "Buy buy buy" in the China markets just over a year ago? Who were the ones selling the propaganda that "Investing in the new untouched market is the gold mine of the year!", pushing middle and lower end investors who had already taken a beating in the US markets to "test their luck" in the china markets? Now what has happened?

....basically these guys lost their shirts. But again, the question no one answers is: to whom? If were talking about actual "money", it doesnt just disappear..... if someone "lost it" then it stands to reason that if was "found" by someone else. The question is: who found it nicely and neatly tucked into their pocket when they walked out of the trading arena?


Buy buy buy low.... Sell sell sell high..... then buy buy buy low again.....

All you ever needed to know about the current bullshit, you can learn simply by watching the movie "Trading Places".  Only......  its not the "good guys" or the "under dogs" that are winning this one.

d



ps:  This also applies to "climate change spending " and "National debts", etc -  If someone has to PAY  a hundred billion in funding climate change policies..... that means someone will MAKE $100 billion.  If countries "owe" Trillions of dollars in "debt"..... who do they owe it TO? ..... Just sayin

Chinese stocks destroy $45B in U.S. wealth

USA TODAY 5:49 p.m. EST January 7, 2016

There might be one thing tougher for an American than learning to speak Chinese: Owning Chinese stocks.
The 141 Chinese-based companies with shares listed on a major U.S. exchange have shredded $45 billion in market value - just this year, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Capital IQ. These stocks are already down 5.1% on average this year.
Its a stunning destruction in wealth that seems to only be getting started. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 7.3% Thursday before trading was halted after less than an hour of trading. Investors are braced for more selling to continue. Chinas pain is also spreading into U.S. markets. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 392 points to 16,514 Thursday and is off 4.8% this year.
Pain is already being felt - in a big way - by investors brave enough to buy into U.S.-listed shares of Chinese stocks.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/01/07/chinese-stocks-destroy-value/78421516/



Please note the bold quote below.... I just about fell of my chair laughing.  But, really.... what do you expect from American Media and Financial "Experts", lol

This isn’t a stock-market crisis; it’s an outright ‘selling stampede’

Published: Jan 7, 2016 2:13 p.m. ET

Jeff Saut says such stampedes tend to last 17 to 25 sessions

 

The market is currently in panic mode. Investors across the globe are wading in a sea of deep red, sparked by concerns about slumping global growth — otherwise known as China.....

Saut told MarketWatch he’s sanguine about the long-term prospects for U.S. stocks in the face of another plunge in China’s Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +1.97%  and the subsequent trading halt. Hours after the market closed, Beijing suspended its so-called circuit breakers (which come into play if the market falls by a certain measure), but it isn’t clear whether that move will serve to calm the markets.....


“The U.S. has solved many of its long-term problems,” Saut said. “Banks are less leveraged, the deficit is under control, balance sheets are strong.” ....

* me.... laughing so hard......*

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-isnt-a-stock-market-crisis-its-an-outright-selling-stampede-2016-01-07?dist=afterbell



Saut is "Sanguine" is he?  Interesting turn of phrase.  One might wonder if his optimism is due to his blood(line)?   Or is he just blushing profusely due to his outrageous lies that not even he can swallow?

sanguine

/ Sæ??w?n /

adjective

1.

cheerful and confident; optimistic

2.

(esp of the complexion) ruddy in appearance

3.

blood-red

Middle English: from Old French sanguin(e) blood red, from Latin sanguineus of blood, from sanguis, sanguin- blood.

OH and heres the only point worth paying attention to in this Zerohedge article- again, note the underlined Bold sentence: 

"It couldnt be worse," exclaims one manager who started his fund mid-year in 2015, blaming Chinas equity market carnage on its newly-created circuit-breakers (as opposed to the fact that the Chinese market trades at 64x P/E and there are sellers everywhere). "Panic will eventually turn into a buying opportunity," hopes one strategist while another proclaims "poorly-designed" circuit breakers need to be adjusted to 10% (seriously).

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-07/china-suspends-circuit-breaker-rule-insane-we-were-forced-liquidate-all-our-holdings

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Walk about the back

Just a quick walk around clip to show where we are up to...

 Will be spending the week planing the start of the spring patch lay out & setting up some new beds...
What Spring plans do you have ??
Have a great one...
: )»

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All About Nettles

  

 

 

Last weekend we ventured out to Marin for our All About Nettles class.  The weather was amazing, a perfect day to experience Lady Nettle in all her glory.  We hiked out to our favorite foraging spot and sat in a circle to discuss identification, how and when to harvest, nutrients, medicinal uses, energetic influences, preserving, recipes, companion plants and cultivation.  Then we visited the many different nettle communities to pay our respects and harvest this nourishing plant ally. Along the way students also gathered young fiddle head ferns to sauté for their evening meal and fresh cleavers to juice as a tonic for allergies and eczema. 

 

 

The week of a nettle harvest is always special, filled with fresh sparkling juiced nettles, delicious nettle soup, nettle quiche or frittata, green smoothies, then bundles and bundles of nettle leaves hanging in the kitchen to dry.  This year our preservation method of choice is to dry and powder as many of the leaves as possible and freeze them in small bags to use through out the year as our own local, deep green super food (in place of spirulina and chlorella). 

 

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Herbalist Michael Moore says in his book Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West…"Nettle powder is something  that you can gather yourself in places that you trust, and you can add it to smoothies and salad dressings, put it in your bread, add it to tea, home beer, and so forth.  It is green food your body recognizes, and can help build blood, tissue, and self-empowerment.” 

Definitely our number one go to herb for extra nutrition and nourishment when we are stressed or depleted, an easily absorbable form of iron, vegetable protein, spring cleansing and so much more.  Thank you lovely nettles!

 

 *pictures taken by Amelia Avila

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The Truth About Organic And Certification

We have been discussing the use of words to bind and twist, and the tangling of legalities knotted into the very meanings of the words we use daily.  Without realizing it, we use the very words that they ("they") have warped, not knowing that they no longer mean what we thought- what we were taught they meant.

The words "Organic" and "Natural" are prime examples of words that no longer have any meaning when used to advertise products.  I wrote this article for Our Gaias Garden, to express WHY  it is so important that I personally observe and verify every ingredient we will be using  in our products, and the processing of those ingredients.  So that I can give MY "certification", which is the only certification that I fully trust.

love d

The Truth About "Organic" And "Certification"

Words Are Used To Deliberately Mislead, And The Agencies Who Supposedly Are In Charge Of Insuring That Products Are Safe, Are Controlled By The Corporations They Purported Are Monitoring.... 

It is a sad state of affairs when a person can no longer trust any government agency to give them the truth about what is "safe" in any products that we are spending our money on  for our families.

The unfortunate truth is that ALL of the so called government(s) watch dog agencies are doing nothing to protect our families from the corruption that is rampant in the "Organic"  and "Healthy Lifestyle" companies.   Sadder yet is the fact that not only are these purported "safety agencies" NOT enforcing truth in the labeling of all the products that we thought were "healthy" or "good" for us, these same agencies are some of the very bullyboys who have forced truly "Organic" companies to bow to their pressure and deliberately pollute their products with GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), and chemicals. They have led the way to deliberately change the meanings of certain words used in advertising, such as:

"Organic"  & "Pure"

The FDA is a prime example of how language in labeling has been severely warped, and has led the way for lawyers to set precedents in court rooms that has now giving the green light for any company to use these words when in fact their products are not "Organic" nor "Pure".

There is currently a major battle going on in the USA in this arena.  Lobbyists for mega corporations like Monsanto (and their front companies) are paying huge sums of money to convince Congress to NOT force companies to label products that contain GMOs as having.... GMOs!   And when major players in the FDA are former Monsanto executives.... is that not a conflict of interest?

According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), its responsibilities include “[p]rotecting the public health by assuring that foods are safe, wholesome, sanitary and properly labeled.”  This responsibility entails regulating a large number of companies producing the nation’s food, making appointments to the high-level positions within the agency very important.

    "Over the past decades, at least 7 high-ranking employees in the FDA were employed with Monsanto."

Most high-level FDA employees have a background in either medicine or law, but one of the largest private-sector sources is the Monsanto Company. Over the past decades, at least seven high-ranking employees in the FDA have an employment history with the Monsanto Company.

http://ivn.us/2013/02/11/the-revolving-door-fda-and-the-monsanto-company/

Monsanto Controls both the White House and the US Congress

http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-controls-both-the-white-house-and-the-us-congress/5336422

The FDA has recently pushed through legislation to allow companies to use the word "Organic" even if the product contains GMOs.   This has directly created a legal loophole for companies to put the word "Organic" on their labels, even when the product is not even remotely organic.  The same legal precedents have been set with descriptive words such as "Pure" and "Fresh" and "Natural".

I personally went toe to toe with an advertising executive from a very well known "Natural" products manufacturer, when I discovered that "Pure Aloe Vera", did NOT mean that the product contained PURE ALOE VERA.  His response ?  "Well.... the aloe vera in our products is pure, its not fake, so therefore we can advertise it as "Pure"."      Now, just about every beauty and skin care product, and even "health" food products can have the words "Natural", and "Pure", and "Fresh", and yes, even "Organic" on their labels, knowing that they now have the legal ability to twist the meanings of those words.

We now live in a consumer environment where it is up to us to investigate everything ourselves.   If you really want to know what is in your shampoo, your skin cream or even your baby wash, I highly suggest you spend some time reviewing the "Skin Deep Database".  This data base is an excellent tool to decipher whats on your labels, what is actually IN your products and the information about the side effects, risks, and toxic background on every single ingredient.


Continue Reading on Our Gaias Gardens HERE

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