Red Bull Flugtag Tampa
Timelapse photo of The Florida Aquarium's Flugtag in flight
Take a 100,000 of your closest friends and watch as 39 teams launch home-made flying machines off of a 30’ platform at the Tampa Bay Convention Center. Sounds like a fun day? You bet it was!
This afternoon Red Bull Energy Drink returned to Tampa Bay for the only US Flugtag event to be held in 2011. Teams came from around the globe to show off their machines made of wood, foam, pvc, fabric and other basic materials. They formed these into crafts of all different shapes and sizes. Some of my favorite included a giant fork, the A-Team van, the biggest bra you will ever see, and even life-size Back to the Future DeLorean! In the three Flugtags events, and 6 crafts, I’ve helped build I have never seen the hangars as packed as they were today. I’m not sure if this was due to the layout of the hangars or the amount of attendees, but there was barely enough room to move through the crowed before the launches started.
Throughout the day weather was a bit of concern. Wind was definitely a factor throughout the event, but the rain stayed away until this evening. Weather wasn’t the only good luck had during the day. A big scare came when Little Evil, Dade City Motocross Dare Devil, appeared to be knocked unconscious and had to be taken out of the water on a backboard. Luckily he was checked out and up walking around before the next team was out of the water. Other than it seemed to be a fairly safe day in the skies and water of the bay, which is always good to hear after an event such as this.
If you missed this event Red Bull is holding a Kart Fight in Orlando on December 1st and there are rumors of another Red Bull event in South Florida during 2012. If you have a chance to attend Flugtag I would definitely suggest it, if you have the cans to built one I would encourage it. I’ve actually built 6 of them helped launch two. This go around I designed and helped build two, one for Fox 13 and one for Jana Water, so you have some catching up to do …get on it!
Get Your Mac On!
Although a few years old, this always makes me laugh. This version has pop-ups from the creator. …And I love that it has the original imac in it!
Transforming Halloween
Halloween is a fun time of the year – especially the costumes! Here’s a few examples of Transformers costumes I came across. Even though I gave the second movie a well deserved harsh review, these costumes are cooler than most.
This more homemade version has an cool way to close the hood:
And this one is just fun – sometimes kids rock:
The DISINTEGRATOR – When Office Supplies Turn Deadly!
Sorry kids, work is calling around the clock this week – you know, the paying kind – so I leave you with this video:
And now you know that rubber bands are for more than just keeping your blueprints rolled; office supplies never looked so intimidating – or cool! If you’re interested in how the gun was built, it’s specifications, or anything else you can check it out here.
Bambi’s Father – Recycled
Do you like the idea of hanging a trophy animal head on your wall, but don’t like a dead animal staring you in the face all the time? Enter Cardboard Safari.
Cardboard Safari “is a tiny little company located in Charlottesville, Virginia.” This may be true, but the tiny company is making a big impact. Their products are trophy animal heads made from recycled cardboard. The heads come as flat sheets that the consumer assembles, much like the thin plywood animal puzzles of our youth. They even have full-bodied Rhinos!
So what kind of “big impact” is Cardboard Safari making? They’ve been spotted in Canada’s Style at Home magazine, on HGTV’s ColorSplash, and they are even entered into the Art in Place competition in their hometown to make a larger-than-life Rambling Robbie out of plate steel.
The products don’t promote the killing of animals in any way, and are a true cradle-to-cradle product – It’s made of recycled materials, the waste materials can be recycled, and the whole product can be recycled at the end of it’s life cycle. The company also supports the International Rhino Foundation.
I don’t know about you, but I’m planning on buying a deer head, bison head, moose head, rhino head…
Photo Walk’n – Part 2
There’s less than a month to go until Scott Kelby’s Second Annual Worldwide Photo Walk! As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be doing the South Beach walk on Miami Beach July 18th.
The anticipation builds each day that we get closer to the event. According to the website there are now “over 17,000 people signed up for over 1,000 walks around the world…” To add to the excitement Nikon and X-Rite recently signed up as sponsors. Being a Nikon guy, this is great news – they’re giving away a D700 and 24-200mm lens as one of the prizes.
For the second annual walk, Towner Jones Photography created a special T-shirt. Not only is it special because it’s branded to the event, but $5 from every order goes to the Springs of Hope Kenya Orphanage.
I hope you all join a walk in your area; this is going to be a great event!
Where Is Bartleby? 