OPEN NEW YEAR’S EVE AND NEW YEAR DAY!!
THURS 1/2 – NATURE INSPIRED COCKTAILS
Biomimicry? Don’t know how many of you have heard of this incredible organization. I discovered it about 15 years ago and have been constantly astounded by their research and amazing projects. Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges — and find hope along the way. Biomimicry is about valuing nature for what we can learn, not what we can extract, harvest, or domesticate. Let’s make the act of asking nature’s advice a normal part of everyday inventing. Confused, here are a few examples: (1) Eiji Nakatsu, the Shinkansen 500 train’s chief engineer and an avid bird-watcher, asked himself, “Is there something in Nature that travels quickly and smoothly between two very different mediums?” Modeling the front-end of the train after the beak of kingfishers, which dive from the air into bodies of water with very little splash to catch fish, resulted not only in a quieter train, but 15% less electricity use even while the train travels 10% faster. (2) Materials researchers and engineers at Kansai University in Japan saw amazing potential in the structure of the mosquito’s mouth. They used sophisticated engineering techniques that can carve out structures on the nanometer scale. The result of this blend of materials science and biology was a needle that penetrates like a mosquito, using pressure to stabilize and painlessly glide into skin. Tests proved it worked flawlessly. (3) Dolphins are able to recognize the calls of specific individuals (“signature whistles”) up to 25 kilometers away, demonstrating their ability to communicate and process sound information accurately despite the challenging medium of water. By employing several frequencies in each transmission, dolphins have found a way to cope with the sound scattering behavior of their high frequency, rapid transmissions, and still get their message reliably heard. Emulating dolphins’ unique frequency-modulating acoustics, EvoLogics has developed a high-performance underwater modem for data transmission, which is currently employed in the tsunami early warning system throughout the Indian Ocean.
SAT 1/4 – 8:00 PM – SUNLIGHT DRIVE ACOUSTIC DUO – Mike Vilenski and Jim Burgard play a mix of Americana, Blues, Folk and Classic Rock songs spanning the 60s through today.
WED 1/8 – 7:00 PM – In the Company of Writers presents a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. The Chicago blues music of “Mr. Jimmy” welcomes you, continues during intermission and closes the evening. These inspirational gatherings will elucidate and entertain those attending. The second in the series, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 8, features Seasoned Poets of the Blue Ridge Helen Palmer, Gwyneth Owens Noble, and Elda Lepak, reading from their newest anthology, Embers, is available on Amazon.com. What began as a poetry class in 1994 grew to be a lifelong journey into studying, writing, and presenting readings and workshops. Following their entertaining reading and discussion there will be an open mic for those wishing to share their stories, with sign-ups from 6:30 until 6:50 p.m. Co-Sponsored by The Brandy Bar + Cocktails & North Carolina Writers Network. There will also be a sign-up link on The Brandy Bar + Cocktails web-site: https://thebrandybar.com/writers-open-mic/