On September 19th Seattle's Jigsaw Renaissance is hosting a maker unconfernce with a focus on making within a budget. ThriftCamp is a one-day unconference discussing how to live well on a limited means. Living in a consumption culture that is destroying our limited resources and in tough economic times, I find this idea great. For those not familiar with unconferences, the main Idea is to bring smart people together and to share ideas in a semi formal series of sessions. A projector will be available if people have more formal starting points for session, but you do not need to be ultra prepared to help lead a talk. More info on registration (which is a pay what you want model!) after the jump...

Is steampunk about Victorian fashion and uber cool mechanical gadgets or is it also about something more?  This is a question I have been struggling with for sometime, I am a goth from the late 80’s and I associate that subculture with an aesthetic sense of beauty that embraces the macabre with values alienation and hedonism within a frame work of self reflection. Since becoming more involved with the steampunk subculture the question of philosophy has been gnawing at my mind. ...

Have you ever wondered how fast a steam car can go? You are not the only one.  The U.S. Land Steam Record (USLSR) Team is seeking to become the fastest steam-powered vehicle on earth at the famous Bonneville Salt Flats in early August 2011. The current record speed of 148 mph was set in 2009 by a British steam car, Inspiration, which broke the previous record of 129 mph which had stood since 1906.

The goal of the USLSR team is to blow the current record out of the water by creating a car that will travel at more then 200 mph.  The engine invented byHarry Schoell is called the Cyclone.  The Cyclone is "a compact, heat regenerative, external combustion engine that has been developed to achieve high thermal efficiencies and power-to-weight ratio. The engine operates on a Rankine cycle, and uses multiple heat recapturing processes off its cylinders, exhaust manifold and condenser to achieve thermal efficiencies reported at over 30%."  While the body of the car was designed by Chuck Williams the leader of the team and is extremely aerodynamic.  This will be Chuck's third steam car project. I wish him and his team the best of luck!

PS: The team is also looking for sponsorship.

Intro: Hello all, this is Brian Rowe, a Seattle based Hacker / Maker and member of Jigsaw Renaissance (JR) a non-profit maker space here in Seattle. JR is an collaborative community space that is open to the public that runs educational events several nights a week. 

When not blogging here or at JR's Blog I teach Information Privacy Law at Seattle University Law and run a volunteer organization that focus on Copyright & Patent Reform.  If you have interesting things you would like to see covered on the blog feel free to ping me at Brian <at> BrianRowe.org.

Image: The frame of the US Land Speed Record Teams Car, photographer unknown

It seems maker spaces are springing up everywhere. And that's really, really exciting. We're a part of a movement, a gathering force of change and hope. We gather at Faires, at Cons, at challenges. We make friends and learn from each other. We feel epic, because we do epic things.

It feels amazing... until a space opens in the same city, down the way. Then we feel threatened, because we're socialized to see participants as a zero-sum game. We think someone going to NotYourSpace is, well, not going to your space.

Datamancer has two new keyboards for you to see an his site: The Reliquary and the gleaming new Marquis picture here.

My understanding is that The Reliquary was made for a client but if you like the Marquis you can bid on it right now on eBay

Click through for a couple of more pics and a video of the gleaming sparkling wonder that is The Marquis!