Dust devil sends tent into air at Maker Faire
Gareth writes: "On Sunday afternoon at Maker Faire Austin, the lights went out. All power was lost in one whole area of the fairgrounds. It turned out that a dome tent from the camping area had taken flight in a dust devil and crashed into the power lines. Fernando Rizo got a couple of great shots of the tent moments before impact."
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Woah, Dorothy, you're definitely not in Kansas anymore.
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Goddangit I just used bbcode. Good job, me.
Enjoy this fixed link.
good un Challenger!
What is it about flying tents, balloons,kites, parachutes etc. that they invariably find the lone power line in an otherwise empty wasteland?
@Takuan:
Murphy's Law?
So the Gray Aliens have finally built a chameleon circuit into their saucers.
Now they just need to put appropriate objects into the image database. Tents fly right side up you noseless dorks!
Well, they said Maker Faire this year was going to be in tents.
Maybe somebody can Make a generator?
George Clinton predicted this would happen last time he was in Austin.
TJS: Well, if they can generate a maker, it stands to reason.
That's twice in 24 hours that I'm on Boing Boing. I think I might be over my quota, guys.
I was at the right place at the right time, like Zapruder. It's a shame about this photo, dramatic though it may be. If I had clicked the shutter less than a second later, I would have captured the little explosion the tent made as it hit the power lines.
Wait, so this dust devil of which you speak was nature right? Like a mini-tornado sort of thing?
Because when I first read it, I thought I read Dirt Devil and assumed somebody had figured out how to Make their tent levitate using a battery-powered vacuum cleaner, but things had simply gone wrong.
I was standing next to Fernando as it happened. It seemed like the tent had been lifted up on a wire straight up into the air, then made a right angle straight for the power lines. When it hit the lines it made this huge BANG and a couple Makers oozed out from under the barn to see what had happened.
I don't know why the tent committed suicide. It was a really fun weekend...
#12: It was simply a gust of wind. I saw the tent thing, and I'm jealous I stood gaping rather than grab my camera.
Dust devils are when a bunch of dirt gets blown up in the air and makes a whirlwind; also super cool to watch.
I was there for this, and just telling my co-workers about it yesterday.
I had my camera in my hand and could have shot video - but was just transfixed by the floating tent.
And the emcee who made the offhand comment "I hope my daughter isn't still in there..."
The tent subsequently landed on the wicked witch of the south-by-southwest. No one was hurt.
Well that's gonna be a hard one to top.
Was anyone in it?
It was the Rapture (Non-Impressive Version).
Hmm. Maybe they should work out how to *make* tent pegs?
A few years ago, a dust devil rolled through a star party in Eastern Oregon. It picked up a telescope tripod, badly injured a woman, and knocked over a tent - the type used for large gatherings. It was pretty astonishing to watch it all happen.