Wish I’d found out about this earlier, but it just came across my inbox an hour ago. If you’re anywhere near the UW campus around 3ish today, then head down to the Electrical Engineering Building, room 105, to see Leah Buechley speak. Buechley is a post-doc researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder, investigating ubiquitous computing and e-textiles. She’ll be focusing specifically on a super-cool toolkit called the Lilypad Arduino, which allows everyday folks to build wearable “soft computers” by sewing differnet modules (microcontrollers, sensors, etc.) together with conductive thread. Drop whatever you’re doing, leave work and head down there right away!

There is a constant conversation going on right now about humanity’s impact on the environment. But what would happen if humanity just disappeared one day? How long would it take for our monuments and infrastructure to crumble? Alan Weisman will be offering his insights on the ecological debate from a unique perspective this Wednesday at Town Hall.