lifeasdaddy

H.M.A.S. Edward. Australia's newest submarine.

Kids just love playing with cardboard boxes and pretending.

For the past couple of years as my profile photograph in the top right hand corner of this blog I've used a pic of Edward sitting in a cardboard box.  Drawn on the outside is a Big Red Car.

Nowadays Edward is quite interested in submarines, so I thought I would make one for him.

Here's how to make a cardboard submarine.

I used a large cardboard carton which enclosed a table we recently bought.  I slit the carton along one length and folded it to create a flat base.  I drew the rough outline of a cigar shaped submarine  with conning tower on the parts of the cardboard sheet which would become the sides of the vessel. Then cut it out using a small pruning saw.  This is the best tool for cutting through thick cardboard.

Then I folded the sides upwards and secured them with tape across the top and around the nose area.  The back of the submarine was left open to give children easy access to the inside. 

A piece of excess carboard was rolled up to make a tube about 10cm in diameter for the periscope. In turn, the periscope was also taped in place.

Finally came painting.  As you can see, the classical cigar shape was emphasised with a black outline.  The writing is in red colour because that's Ed's favourite colour.  The green, red and yellow splotches are just to create some visual interest and break up the solid surface so it looks a bit less like a cardboard box from the outside.

The submarine was designated number B5 because it will be Ed's fifth birthday.  

H.M.A.S. was used because Edward understands they are the prefixes for all Australian Navy ships and submarines. 

And "Edward" - well all kids love seeing their names written on things.

As well as playing with boxes, kids also like making tunnels out of things, so by leaving the back of the submarine open and having the ceiling of the conning tower arching over the top a bit of a tunnel feel is created too.

A finishing touch is a tin foil cake pan at the top of the periscope to represent the lens.

John McCain and Barack Obama settle their differences like men.

The only way I knew that this video was faked, is because the real John McCain cannot raise his arms above his shoulders due to the permanent damage he sustained in his plane crash and subsequent PoW captivity.

Getty Images' Moodstream: pictures, video and music as you like it.

I was interested to see what some of the world's best photographers caught from the Olympics opening ceremony last night, and day One of competition today so I stopped by at Getty Images to check on their stable's pics.  And I discovered something new and interesting.

They've set up this thing called Moodstream which provides an automated slideshow of photographs, video clips set to music mined from their enormous back catalogue and you can use sliders to choose the stuff displayed according to your mood.  Or the mood you want to create.  There's slidebars to adjust for Happy/Sad, Calm/Lively, Humorous/Serious, Nostalgic/Contemporary, Warm/Cool.

There's a button to select any one of the scenes shown to your own preset mood board - and of course, all images and video area vailable for instant purchase under rights managed provision.

Coolness factor is off the chart.

And the Olympics?  Well, for the latest stuff check out the Getty Images Sports blog here.  And the Getty Images Editorial Sports Events Feed here.

And the Getty Images standard Sports page here.

ADDED:

And from The Big Picture blog, the best of the best of pics about the Opening Ceremony.  Plenty of symmetry.  Perhaps the most charming is the last pic in the series, not even taken near the stadium.

The Powerhouse Museum's electronic Swatchbook.

For one reason and another this week I've been spending a good deal of time checking out the Powerhouse Museum's website.

The website has got lots of features and cool things on it.  So many in fact that they are all fighting for space or real estate on the site.  It is very easy to navigate, but sometimes difficult to remember exactly where you saw that thing the day before that you wanted to come back to but didn't bother bookmarking.

I may mention a few of the cool things and a few oddball items in the collection over the next few days, but today, just check out the Electronic Swatchbook. 

"Through this site we are providing access to this rich resource for future generations of designers"

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"Swatches or small samples of fabric have been collected and compiled in the form of swatchbooks for at least 300 years. The Powerhouse Museum has several volumes containing thousands of bright, unfaded samples of fashionable fabric designs, braids and laces ranging from the 1830s to the 1920s.

The patterns on this site are in the public domain in Australia."

This screen shot hardly does justice to it:

  Included in this screenshot are swatches from the 1840s to the 1920s.

As well as being able to download and email swatches, you are also encouraged to use a submission window to help describe the swatches:

" We are adding the ability to search by colour, pattern, mood and other facts. Your submissions will be added to our search database."

The Powerhouse Museum is big into soliciting information from the public which adds to the knowledge they have about items in their massive collection.  I'll also give some examples of this in the next few days.

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Fun @ the Powerhouse Museum

Last week Edward asked to go to the Powerhouse Museum, which if I had to categorise it, I'd say is a museum of technology, science, decorative arts and design.  So today we made the trek to Ultimo and met up with Ben and Lauren and Edward's cousins Thomas and Eloise.

We especially got Ed excited about visiting the zero gravity simulator  which is part of the Space exhibition.

The Zero-G simulator is comprised of a stationary platform upon which the astronauts (kids) stand surrounded by a cylindrical shaped mockup of the inside of a space station.  The cylinder slowly rotates to simlulate a space like experience.  To the astronauts, nothing much seems to be happening, but when you walk out onto "earth" again, it is quite disorientating.  Thankfully there is a rest area, which I suggest you use.

On the way to the Zero-G experience, then kids also had the chance to be photographed looking like space travellers as they stuck their heads through the painted backdrop.  An oldie, but a goody.

Later the boys had the chance to dress up in astronaut costumes.  There were alien costumes too, but they didn't have the same attraction.

Apart from these obvious novelties, they had some great fun in the Experimentations area which displays pratical examples of some of the fundamental physics of electricity, light, and magnetism.  In this pic, Edward is using a hand cranked generator to power a toy electric train and send it around a small track in the enclosure.

I know that when Ed said last week that he wanted to go to the Powerhouse Museum, he had in his mind seeing the steam engines on display.  The museum includes on permanent display Locomotive No. 1, which was the first steam locomotive in Australia.  Made in England by the Stephenson works, it was transported to Australia by ship and put into use in 1855.  I see from the nameplate data, that it was in fact No. 958, as far as they were concerned.

There is also an engine built in 1882, Locomotive No. 1243 on display and Edward was able to stand on the footplate and operate a few controls.  the display is interactive, and as buttons are pressed the voice of a driver or fireman explain the workings.

There's a section called Zoe's House, which is a contruction and building activity for kids aged 3 - 6.  Ed, Thomas and Eloise all loved this.

The Powerhouse Museum is well set up to light the imagination of children, and as you can see has lots of things for them to do, see, and in which to be invovolved.

But there's also rareities to interest military historians like me.

This enigma machine is part of an exhibition, and was used to create coded messages by the German Army in World War II.

Breaking the codes made by these machines was a turning point of World War II.

There are two other known specimins of these machines in Australia.  One is held by the Australian War Memorial, and one held by the government information security (cryptological) agency Defence Signals Directorate; although both are owned by DSD.

To see inside an Enigma machine, you can check this series of photographs (not from the Powerhouse Museum)

The children all enjoyed taking a break in the courtyard cafe which has some state of the art play and climbing activites, including this giant climbing frame which can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, including this 40ish man who could not resist climbing to the top. 

I managed to control the climbing impulse.

Now, it wouldn't be a visit to a museum if we didn't manage to find an error in a curatorial plaque, and here's the result from today.

There's a display about the work of violin maker William Auchterlonie (perhaps part of the famous golfing family?) and the plaque says that," This page is open to 1924, the year the violin on display was made."

But it is clearly a page from 1934. 

He had been using a day-to-a-page diary from 1930, and the day for that page, Tuesday January 28th, 1930 is crossed out.  Auchterlonie's note begins, "Started in 1934 Beginning of November ..."

SUMMARY:

Edward asked to return to the Zero-gravity simulator, and the engine Locomotive No. 1243 - so I guess they must be the best things in the museum today.

My boyhood hero: World bantamweight boxing champion Lionel Rose.

World bantamweight boxing champion Lionel Rose in training, 1968, originally uploaded by National Archives of Australia.

Citation NAA: A1500, K18448

Lionel Rose won the title by defeating Fighting Harada in February 1968.

I remember watching the fight on television. We lived in Pascoe Vale South, not far from Essendon where he trained in the gym of his trainer and mentor Jack Rennie. What brought Rose even closer to home was his friendship with Maurie Greene who owned the butcher shop 3 doors down from our place in Anderson Street.

Mr. Rose was a regular visitor to Maurie's house behind his shop, as they were good friends and used to go on shooting trips together. I have vivid memories of Mr. Rose driving a huge (by then Australian standards) American car in and out of the laneway behind our place.

He wore army surplus greens for his hunting trips, and used to stop and chat with my brother and I. He would also sign autographs for we kids, and others in the neighbourhood who heard he was there. He also sometimes came into the shop run by my Mum and Dad, and Dad remembers him as a nice, quietly spoken man.

After his victory over Harada the enormous trophy, which was much bigger than I was, went on display in Maurie's shop and I remember my Mum taking me to see the trophy.

Like many pugilists Mr. Rose later fell on hard times - but he was my boyhood hero, and I still remember his kindness to my brother and I.

I've just looked up a photograph of the trophy, and it was every bit as big as I remember, here it's pictured in a Moomba parade float:

Mr. Rose was King of Moomba in 1973 and Australian of the Year in 1968.

  

Another Melbourne memory:  The headquarters retail store of the McEwans' hardware store in Bourke Street used to have a walk of fame, somewhat like Grauman's Chinese theatre, where famous Australians or visitors to Melbourne would be persauded to leave imprints of their hands and feet in cement.

Lionel Rose left his hand prints by pressing his clenched fists into the wet cement.  Later, I and I'm sure many Melbourne boys would go there and press our fists into the impressions to see how ours measured up to those of the great boxer. 

I understand that now that Bunnings have taken over the store that these have been moved to a wall inside the Bourke Street store.  I'll have to try them for size the next time I'm in town.

Added:  Here's a nice piece written in 2005 by that most Australian of writers Barry Dickens with whom I share a hero.

lifeasdaddy - Bag puppet craft

Today's craft activity at Playgroup was making a hand puppet out of paper baking cups and a brown paper bag.  Two cups are stapled onto the bag by an adult to make the eyes.  Then colouring in is completed by the child for hair, mouth, nose and ears.

If the cups are stapled through both the front and the back layer of the bag, then the space for insertion of the child's hand is made smaller and hence easier to operate as a puppet.

Ed liked his just fine.

lifeasdaddy - Ed on the DVR miniature railway

Yesterday lifeasdaddy was on the road in Melbourne.  Edward wanted to see the Daimond Valley Railway which is a miniature railroad.  It's in Eltham Lower Park in Main Road, Eltham.

It runs almost every Sunday, and you can get the low-down here.

This shows Edward in a carriage being drawn by locomotive S301, painted in the traditional Victorian Railways blue and gold livery.

Other locomotives running yesterday were Milwaukee Road, NSW SRA 81 Class, and an honest to goodness steamie called Tom Thumb. All in miniature of course.

Children under 2 years are free, all other passengers pay $3.

This is a great way to spend an hour.

lifeasdaddy - Some Fisher-Price toys recalled in Australia, USA and elsewhere due to lead coating

Here's the story about US recall.

Here's the story about Australia recall.:

Mattel Australia recalled 43,000 Fisher-Price toys today after characters including Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street's Ernie and Barney the Dinosaur were found to be coated in dangerous levels of lead.

Here's the Fisher-Price Australia product safety recall page, however the information does not yet include this latest recall - as at 3.45pm August 2, 2007.

IMPORTANT:

Here's the USA product recall site, with some relevant information.

lifeasdaddy - Edward the cardboard robot

Edward's cousins came to visit today. 

Fun was had. 

Edward's aunt made a cardboard box into a robot costume giving rise to robot Edward.

Later, Thomas and Edward changed a CD in the music player.