Five weeks of Geeky Goodness

Lazy Izzie hasn’t been lurking or posting much lately. So many distractions and delightful temptations not least of which is the annual charity book sale and a whole bunch of university open days where the public gets a chance to play with the prettiest toys.
Then there was a whole weekend where the city’s main museum, library and cultural centre was devoted to wonderful sciency stuff.
The open day at the Chemical Centre was the last of this feast of goodness so now it’s time to return to mundane normality.

A few weeks previously some of the toys on offer included magnets, monstrous ancient 1980s copper plates capable of holding a massive 2mb of data, strange spinning metal eggs and a views to a room containing magnetic gadgets so powerful that all metal objects were strictly forbidden under pain of possible death and certainly severe injury. Peg legs and pacemakers definitely not welcome within.


The same building also had some rather strange patterned tiles on its floor. There was a method to the madness and charts explaining the recent history of such quirky quasicrystals hanging on the wall.




It was instant addiction and an opportunity to indulge in much nostalgia. Some obsessions have a long past.
In the ancient days of the 1980s when photocopiers were either nonexistent or rare and extremely expensive to use, the only way to preserve pretty pictures in library books was to either commit the mortal sin of snaffling the desired images or painstakingly drawing or tracing them.

It was such a sense of deja vu. All those hours spent tracing geometrical tiling patterns from books of Islamic art were not completely wasted.

Some of these crazy quasicrystals are seriously trippy and others bear a remarkable resemblance to Aboriginal dot paintings. But the two obvious inspirations that come to mind are Escher's strange interlocked shapes and the dark art of Islamic geometrical tiling patterns.

Then there were the fascinating tours of the state forensic chemistry labs (with walls of glass keeping us curious creatures from wreaking havoc) and an assortment of other activities and all for free.

There's just no end to the geeky goodness
The Serpent Whisperer
He's all over Oz at the moment even on the radio.

Five weeks of Geeky Goodness

Lazy Izzie hasn’t been lurking or posting much lately. So many distractions and delightful temptations not least of which is the annual charity book sale and a whole bunch of university open days where the public gets a chance to play with the prettiest toys.
Then there was a whole weekend where the city’s main museum, library and cultural centre was devoted to wonderful sciency stuff.
The open day at the Chemical Centre was the last of this feast of goodness so now it’s time to return to mundane normality.

A few weeks previously some of the toys on offer included magnets, monstrous ancient 1980s copper plates capable of holding a massive 2mb of data, strange spinning metal eggs and a views to a room containing magnetic gadgets so powerful that all metal objects were strictly forbidden under pain of possible death and certainly severe injury. Peg legs and pacemakers definitely not welcome within.


The same building also had some rather strange patterned tiles on its floor. There was a method to the madness and charts explaining the recent history of such quirky quasicrystals hanging on the wall.




It was instant addiction and an opportunity to indulge in much nostalgia. Some obsessions have a long past.
In the ancient days of the 1980s when photocopiers were either nonexistent or rare and extremely expensive to use, the only way to preserve pretty pictures in library books was to either commit the mortal sin of snaffling the desired images or painstakingly drawing or tracing them.

It was such a sense of deja vu. All those hours spent tracing geometrical tiling patterns from books of Islamic art were not completely wasted.

Some of these crazy quasicrystals are seriously trippy and others bear a remarkable resemblance to Aboriginal dot paintings. But the two obvious inspirations that come to mind are Escher's strange interlocked shapes and the dark art of Islamic geometrical tiling patterns.

Then there were the fascinating tours of the state forensic chemistry labs (with walls of glass keeping us curious creatures from wreaking havoc) and an assortment of other activities and all for free.

There's just no end to the geeky goodness
The Serpent Whisperer
He's all over Oz at the moment even on the radio.