a few cool things

Toorcamp 2009 was a success. Talks were had, badges were soldered, and silos were explored. I also managed to snag a partially-burned newspaper clipping (dated 1966!) from the launcher #3 equipment terminal. Many thanks to all my new friends, especially the Portland dorkbotters.

View the entire gallery here. Also, there is a separate gallery for stitched panoramas.
A few samples:

One of the problems, aside from the dust and heat, was Levitate. The owner and CEO of this company, Ryan Howard, is either the lesee or the outright owner (not exactly sure which) of the silo complex. Levitate exploited Toorcamp to further their business by claiming that the convention’s purpose was:

to solve some of the world’s most challenging issues through technology and to showcase a new large-scale renewable energy solution for the World. ^[screenshot]

Interesting, since I don’t recall ever seeing anything like that on the official Toorcamp site. Basically, Levitate claims to have invented some kind of trailer with hybrid wind/solar power generation and internal storage. They spent half the time setting up this dinky contraption:

Levitate Trailer (Thanks to James @ dawning.ca)

Toorcamp attendees were blackmailed into going to the music event, which was really just a corporate promotional video. The owner, Ryan, stated that if campers didn’t cooperate by attending the concert (essentially acting as extras) then no one would get access to the silo. This was a last-minute stunt pulled by Levitate — silo access was promised for the entirety of the convention.

All of this was compounded by the fact that Levitate’s product does not (and most likely cannot) work! The small gray structure on the left side of the trailer in the photo above is a wind turbine, believe it or not. It’s tiny and ill-designed. The blades are flat, resembling a paddle-boat wheel turned sideways. Any person with a high-school level of physics will understand that this type of design is utterly useless. Despite the high winds at the site, the stupid paddles barely moved. There were no solar panels.

Filming occurred for the entirety of the music event, which featured all three bands. Myself and a fellow camper saw one of the camera operators holding the camera with one hand, filming the turbine blades, while manually rotating them with the other hand off-camera. The bands regurgitated lines obviously fed to them by Levitate, talking about how this was a “green event” and how it was “off the grid”.

An air-conditioned trailer for the band members and a power-hungry stage with lights and massive speakers, all powered by two large diesel generators hidden behind Levitate’s trailer (which was placed so as to appear to be powering everything), is considered green and off the grid now? Wow, I must be out of the loop!

For more info read: Toorcamp 2009 Review @ dawning.ca