Making Do: January 2021

The Bricoleur: Making Do

Claude Levi-Strauss used the term "Bricoleur", referring to a maker, of sorts, who makes do with the tools and materials at hand. Terry Frohm, principle technician at the CRRF Chuuk marine laboratory in Chuuk in the early 90s, used the term "Making Do" in reference to appurtenances and contrivances, innovations he cobbled together in creating a functioning laboratory, with a minimum of expensive and specialized equipment or hardware.

I recognized, in Levi-Strauss's descriptions of the Bricoleur, the Micronesian fishermen's use---of necessity---of available materials to solve their own technical problems: Marshallese fishermen used a piece of broken glass or a sharp piece of Aluminum beer can to clean a catch of fish on the beach; spears were fashioned of discarded heavy iron wire from water-tank bands, straightened and sharpened; their slings made from old airplane inner tubes. Goggles were carved from wood---using possibly a kitchen knife sharpened on a piece of pumice that had drifted onto the beach, their glass from a

relict World War II airplane. Gillette's study of Tuna fishing in Tokelau features a demonstration by a Tokelauan elder: trapping an air bubble in the hand cupped over one's eye to provide an air-water interface through which to see fish clearly.

This Blog cannot adequately honor the resourcefulness of those men, but I have borrowed the words of Terry Frohm, to describe the purpose of this proposed collection of solutions and innovations of various kinds. These solutions are embarassingly rich in their reliance on modern materials. The intention is to develop a repository of cheap and easy solutions to problems that are important to me. I I hope it can serve as more than a collection. Rather, by example, a reminder that solutions are often at arm's reach, and not in catalogs.

Friday, January 8, 2021

Instructions for DIY prescription diving mask

For years and years, minute invertebrates were pretty much off the table: given my minimal (at that time) visual deficiencies, I just could not see them clearly. Photographing them with the Canon poitn and shoot (in a case, of course) was an act of faith. IO just could not afford a dive mask costing hundreds of dollars, especially since masks are another perishable element, and with prescriptions changing over the years. I lived a life of simplicity.

Boloceroides sp.

Whatever the actual reasons, my studies of invertebrate life and other aspects of marine biology were limited.

As for 2020, orbiting into 2021, living in N. California I see (pun unintentional) little need to consider a prescription mask, at least now. There may come a time. A bucket list item of mine is to photographBoloceroides spp. swimming sea anemones with an excellent photographic rig. Of course, corners would need to be cut. And money that would be used for a top-shelf prescription mask might better be spent for some enhancements for my macro setup. This idea, from the instructables web site, appeals to me. I have wondered whether I can order lenses from Zenni or whereever, and glue them into an existing mask.

Here is the Instructable. I like this.

Monday, January 4, 2021

Good News on Open Access

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6524/16

In 2018, a group of mostly European funders sent shock waves through the world of scientific publishing by proposing an unprecedented rule: The scientists they funded would be required to make journal articles developed with their support immediately free to read when published.