The mistakes pointed out the problems with the project, pushing the maker to improve upon them.

I looked around the iTunes store and came across Dr. Moku’s Hiragana Mnemonics. Thirty minutes later I had memorized all 46 hiragana. Now my 9-year-old is learning them, and having a lot of fun.

Who else but the maestro of mathematical creativity, Clifford Pickover, to curate a museum of Strange Brains and write biographies of the scientific geniuses who formerly owned them? I’ll never look at a pigeon, a pearl, or a Wheatstone bridge the same way again.

Everyone’s crazy except you and me.

The maker movement is about people who want to gain more control of the human design world that they interact with every day. Instead of accepting off-the-shelf solutions from institutions and corporations, makers would like to make, modify, and repair their own tools, clothing, food, toys, furniture, and other physical objects.

The Cat Dancer is a 30-inch piece of wire with some little cardboard cylinders on the end. My cats go crazy for it. I stuck it on the wall with the adhesive mount, but I ended up taking it off so I could hold it and play directly with my cats.

The human-made world is mostly beyond our comprehension. Our daily survival depends on seemingly magical gizmos that provide our food, water, clothing, comfort, transportation, education, well-being, and amusement.

To be successful, you have to have quantity of quality.

Everyone's crazy except you and me.

Who else but the maestro of mathematical creativity, Clifford Pickover, to curate a museum of Strange Brains and write biographies of the scientific geniuses who formerly owned them? I'll never look at a pigeon, a pearl, or a Wheatstone bridge the same way again.