The comment below from a 13 year old from Pakistan was added to my "All of Us Are Makers" TED talk, showing the worldwide appeal of making.

Sep 8 2011: Hi, I'm 13 and in school and making is my passion.I live in a Pakistan I still manage to make with whatever I have.
So far i have won every science fair I've been in.
I recently participated in my countries (National Engineering Robotics Contest) and competed with college students.
And I make things now and then but i still have a lot to learn and i look forward to learning more as I hope to have a career in engineering and I really hope to be able to make with someone to help me in the future but I will always look forward to learning anything about making from little toy cars to giant cranes.

Thanks, Bob Kaehms, for calling it to my attention.

Pieces of Eight!

From the New York Times -- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/world/europe/in-berlin-pirates-win-8-9-percent-of-vote-in-regional-races.html

Memo From Berlin

Pirates’ Strong Showing in Berlin Elections Surprises Even Them

Hannibal Hanschke/European Pressphoto Agency

Members of the Pirate Party at the state parliament in Berlin on Monday. The party won 8.9 percent in elections in the city-state.

By NICHOLAS KULISH

BERLIN — With laptops open like shields against the encroaching cameramen, the young men resembled Peter Pan’s Lost Boys more than Captain Hook’s buccaneers when they were introduced Monday as Berlin’s newest legislators: They are the members of the Pirate Party.

Asked if they were just some chaotic troop of troublemakers, Christopher Lauer, newly voted in as a state lawmaker for the district of Pankow, replied with no lack of confidence, “You ought to wait for the first session in the house of representatives.”

"The future being created right now at Maker Faire, in TechShop, and at Startup Weekends is the leading frontier of our next era of economic prosperity."  This is the conclusion from an article by Dane Stangler titled "Do It Yourself: Creating a Producer Society" and published by the Progressive Policy Institute.   

Stangler writes that America needs to shift from being a consumer society to a producer society.   He's not calling for a return to factories and old-style manufacturing.  Maker Faire is signalling something new.  

A new producer society is already taking shape all across the country, driven by very real grassroots movements in tinkering, do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, entrepreneurship, and even manufacturing. This is not the producer society of auto assembly or equipment manufacturing.

Come see the future this weekend at Maker Faire.   More importantly, become part of that future by joining with others who see themselves "making the future."