A blogsite not for me to bloviate; but for me to share my origami videos with the origami community. I am affiliated with the Westcoast Origami Guild, Pacific Ocean Paperfolders, Origami Paperfolders of San Diego, Origami USA, and the Origami Interest Group (Origami-L/O-List).
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have developed a variety of origami-inspired artificial muscles that can lift up to a thousand times their own weight — and yet be dexterous enough to grip and raise a delicate flower.
The devices, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer a new way to give soft robots super-strength, which could be used everywhere from inside our bodies to outer space.
Gatchaman Designed by 芦村俊一 Shunichi ASHIMURA Folded by Michael Sanders 6.9" x 6.9" Japanese kami
It's popular to bag on BotP as an inferior product to the original Gatch, but...Been browsing through episodes last night and today on YouTube and I must say, even the watered-down, sanitized version is a superior product to so much of what we were used to seeing in the States, as a kid back in the 70s and 80s.
I grew up on mostly BotP; but my mom being Japanese and us spending summer vacations in Japan throughout the 70s and 80s, I was also familiar with the original version of Gatchaman and Fighter. BotP still captured quite a bit of the flavor and has its own charm. (I abhor the other English translation/incarnations of the original- makes me shudder). I love the voice actors. Jason remains my favorite, as I had a bit of the sulking loner in me, if not the hotheadedness of Jason; feeling a bit like the number two man, growing up. I loved his whole look and personality and the storylines that focused on him. Since I wasn't fully fluent in Japanese, and only saw just a handful of episodes during my summer months in Japan, BotP filtered the stories and characters to me much more than Gatchaman did. I definitely knew even as a kid that the version I was watching back in the States was Americanized with animation that was totally different, as well as character additions (7-Zark-7); that the Japanese original was more violent.
I love the original music; but I think the BotP music by Hoyt Curtin is also very good.
When I was in Japan one summer, I wanted the soundtrack really badly and had my mom help me shop for the LP. What we brought home disappointed me at the time because it sounded nothing like what I was expecting; but over time, I really loved it (this was the Symphonic Suite).
I love both Gatchman and BotP. Total childhood nostalgia for me. My friends were always a bit jealous of me because I would come back from Japan with all sorts of cool toys and products while all we could get here were Shogun Warriors, micronauts, BotP lunch pails, BotP boardgame, and not much else.
Condor Joe is my favorite (Jason). I like Mark. But it's Joe/Jason, the number two guy, who resonated with me.
My favorite quick fold, at the moment. Lang's solution for getting the antennae and still not be an overly complex model is genius. Dr. Lang said that he likes the model well enough that it will probably see diagrams made and published, sometime, somewhere.
I only took two classes at PCOC: Robert Lang's Mary Anne's Butterfly and Beth Johnson's cardinal.
Inspired by local creator Jared Needle's appearance on Superhuman, origami game night at Saturday's banquet consisted of each table participating in a crease pattern challenge.
I know a number of people would have liked to have visited Yami; but schedules were so tight as to make it difficult to coordinate beyond a small group.
A handful of us were piled into the mikemobile V to be ferried to Torrance for an unexpected visit. Since Yami seldom ever answers his phone, warning him ahead of time is nigh impossible.
We made a short trip at noon, wading street traffic to be back at Convention in Redondo Beach by 2pm.
All the exhibits at PCOC were impressive! I posted photos on the Westcoast Origami Guild Facebook page. I just don't have the energy to upload on Snapfish (have to figure out the password, now) where I've been hosting photos for the past few years over Flickr.
