March 27, 2015: Crowdfunding Focus: Ferrofluid

I have just signed up to support the Ferrofluid project on Kickstarter, at the "you get both toys" level. If you have never seen ferrofluid, stop what you are doing, right now. It's not important. The dog will extinguish itself naturally; it's part of Nature's plan.

NOW, go to Youtube and search for "ferrofluid." Here's a starter. There are more visually dramatic ones, but I like Mist8k's video because he explains a bit more about what he is doing, and he's not afraid to (literally) get his hands dirty.

Yep. A liquid that is affected by magnetic fields, and does it look cool, or what? I'm not unaware of the potential for practical applications that may someday let us live forever, in a flying car, while eating bacon-flavored doughnuts and not gaining weight. But ferrofluid would be justified on its sheer visual awesomeness, even if it had NO practical applications and occasionally set the dog on fire.

The Kickstarter project ends on March 31. It's already WAY oversubscribed, but he's got a stretch goal . . .

-- Steve Jackson