[Sponsor] Ikepod Watches of Switzerland have found a cool new home at Watchismo! Check out the Ikepod Horizon, whose unique dial creates an optical illusion of appearing convex, thereby emphasizing the three-dimensional volume of the Ikepod case. Then there's Marc Newson's latest creation, which sees the Australian designer interpret the most iconic timepiece of all as the Ikepod Hourglass. Each handmade hourglass comprises highly durable borosilicate glass and millions of stainless steel nanoballs. Finally, be sure to take a look at street artist KAWS' curating of a custom-designed Ikepod Horizon Wristwatch.
XOXO: Maker Love, Not Thwart Death on Mount Everest Peter Jackson puts the idea of directing an episode of Doctor Who into everyone's head, everyone dies XKCD's 14-foot-wide CLICK AND DRAG map TOM THE DANCING BUG: The God-Man YouTube Video! Beware of neuro-speculation Maggie on Virtually Speaking Science Court to hear argument on the privacy implications of "junk" DNA databases Apparently there is some drama involving Amanda Palmer and the payment of backup musicians Ubuntu Made Easy HOWTO be a good commenter Why not to hire a woman, Australia edition, 1963 Pattern for crocheted Panzer tank slippers Mentos + Coke + Condoms Automated system to identify and repair potential weak-spots in 3D models before they're printed Book trailer for "This Machine Kills Secrets," about Wikileaks Chat with Charlie Stross and Cory on the WELL and Tor.com "I am so goth, I was born black." New Sifl and Olly episodes from Liam Lynch Turing and Burroughs: a beatnik SF novel by Rudy Rucker Remembering Sean "Vilerat" Smith, killed in Benghazi 1971 anatomy book uses pornographic photos Excerpt from James M. Cain's lost final novel: The Cocktail Waitress Tim Biskup art show in Milan Elephant expresses disapproval of man at Berlin zoo (video) Sad celebrity/superhero impersonators Strangely adorable video of sea slugs eating a blue button jelly alive Searchable index of 350,000 US news broadcasts Toy soldier stop-motion animation Cassette To iPod converter XOXO: Maker Love, Not Thwart
By Glenn Fleishman on Sep 19, 2012 12:50 pm I have fallen in love with a building, hundreds of people, a MakerBot, a portable toilet trailer, food trucks, and two men each named Andy. Is it possible to fall in love with a conference? If so, I have. The organizers named the conference XOXO for hugs and kisses. This was presented without hipster irony or marketing-speak. They meant it. They delivered.
Read in browser Death on Mount Everest
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 19, 2012 12:32 pm Back in May, we linked you to the reporting of Outside's Grayson Schaffer, who was stationed in the base camps of Mount Everest, watching as the mountain's third deadliest spring in recorded history unfolded. Ten climbers died during April and May. But the question is, why? From a technological standpoint, as Schaffer points out in ...
Read in browser Peter Jackson puts the idea of directing an episode of Doctor Who into everyone's head, everyone dies
By Jamie Frevele on Sep 19, 2012 11:59 am Okay, now, before we all (present company included) get too excited, let me state that this is not an official announcement, but merely words said by people out loud to the press. Matt Smith, who plays the eponymous character in Doctor Who, said that he'd love to sail over to New Zealand and film an ...
Read in browser XKCD's 14-foot-wide CLICK AND DRAG map
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 19, 2012 11:57 am Today's XKCD, "Click and Drag," is a triumph. It's a tribute to House of Leaves, and it treats the punchline as a window to a ginormous, explorable world that you can see by clicking and dragging. Dan Catt puts the artwork at 46 feet wide, assuming it is printed at 300dpi. It's full of Munrovian ...
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: The God-Man YouTube Video!
By Ruben Bolling on Sep 19, 2012 11:45 am Today's
exciting episode of GOD-MAN! Read in browser Beware of neuro-speculation
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 19, 2012 11:43 am Between the downfall of Jonah Lehrer, and Naomi Wolfe's new book that claims chemicals in women's brains force us to demand our lovers shower us with roses and candy and refer to us as "goddess"*, there's been some growing backlash against the long-popular idea of better living through neuroscience. You know what I'm talking about ...
Read in browser Maggie on Virtually Speaking Science
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 19, 2012 10:08 am Today at 5:00 pm Eastern, I'll be talking to MIT professor of science writing Tom Levenson on the Virtually Speaking Science podcast. The show is recorded live, so you can call in and join the conversation. It also happens live in Second Life. Which means that I now have a Second Life avatar. Seems like ...
Read in browser Court to hear argument on the privacy implications of "junk" DNA databases
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 19, 2012 10:00 am The Ninth Circuit is hearing arguments today about the privacy implications of gathering and retaining "junk" DNA, which has been treated as merely identifying, like a fingerprint, and not unduly invasive. Modern genetics shows that it's possible to extract information about health, ancestry, and other potentially compromising traits. From the Electronic Frontier Foundation's blog: In ...
Read in browser Apparently there is some drama involving Amanda Palmer and the payment of backup musicians
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 19, 2012 09:29 am Whenever a female musician reaches some high point of success, particularly an indie artist, it seems—that moment of recognition is followed by a backlash of one sort or another. With this in mind, I was not surprised to see a wave of drama spread accross my Twitter timeline yesterday, focused on Amanda Palmer. Her wildly ...
Read in browser Ubuntu Made Easy
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 19, 2012 09:07 am The latest edition of Ubuntu Made Easy preserves all the best characteristics of the earlier edition I liked so much, but updates it substantially to cover the next-generation graphic interface Unity, and the cutting edge features that have been added since those days. Written by a member of the GNOME documentation project (Phil Bull) and ...
Read in browser HOWTO be a good commenter
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 19, 2012 08:22 am On John Scalzi's Whatever, a list of ten excellent rules for being a better commenter -- it's certainly stuff that I'll keep in mind the next time I leave a comment somewhere: 1. Do I actually have anything to say? Meaning, does what you post in the comments boil down to anything other than "yes, ...
Read in browser Why not to hire a woman, Australia edition, 1963
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 19, 2012 08:19 am An Australian Department of Trade document listing the reasons women should not be hired to be trade commissioners. "A spinster lady can, and often does, turn into something of a battleaxe with the passing years. A man usually mellows." (HT: @christinelhenry)
Read in browser Pattern for crocheted Panzer tank slippers
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 18, 2012 10:41 pm Etsy seller Miligurumis offers a knitting crocheting pattern for making your own Panzer tank slippers, a peaceful project to wile away the long nights on the Eastern front. PATTERN for Tiger 1 Tank - Panzer Crocheted Slippers (via Neatorama)
Read in browser Mentos + Coke + Condoms
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 18, 2012 10:08 pm Mixing Mentos and Coke is a thing -- well-parameterized and understood. But what if you tape a condom over the bottle-mouth before you make the fateful introduction? Sheer hilarity! Durex + Cola + Mentosy (via Reddit)
Read in browser Automated system to identify and repair potential weak-spots in 3D models before they're printed
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 18, 2012 07:51 pm "Stress Relief: Improving Structural Strength of 3-D Printable Objects," a paper presented at SIGGRAPH 2012 from Purdue University's Bedrich Benes demonstrated an automated system for predicting when 3D models would produce structural weaknesses if they were fed to 3D printers, and to automatically modify the models to make them more hardy. Findings were detailed in ...
Read in browser Book trailer for "This Machine Kills Secrets," about Wikileaks
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 18, 2012 07:10 pm Andrew Greenberg writes, Here's the video trailer for my new book "This Machine Kills Secrets" about the history and future of anonymous information leaks. The book, which started when I interviewed Julian Assange in London two years ago, aims to trace how the Cypherpunk movement used cryptography and anonymity tools to alter the act of ...
Read in browser Chat with Charlie Stross and Cory on the WELL and Tor.com
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 18, 2012 07:10 pm Charlie Stross and I are doing a public interview on The WELL's Inkwell.vue conference -- you don't have to be a WELL member to ask questions, either! While I'm on the subject, Charlie and I are doing a live online Torchat tomorrow, Sept 19 at 16h Eastern/13h Pacific.
Read in browser "I am so goth, I was born black."
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 18, 2012 06:55 pm At Coilhouse online, a feature exploring racism and goth culture in the age of Tumblr: "Is the goth scene unfriendly to people with dark skin? What do non-white goths think about the fetishization of paleness in the gothic subculture?" [warning: linked-to site contains boobage]
Read in browser New Sifl and Olly episodes from Liam Lynch
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 18, 2012 06:46 pm [Video Link] Oh, happy day. Genius weirdo video auteur Liam Lynch (@lynchland on Twitter) is making new episodes of "Sifl and Olly." The show originally ran on MTV from 1997-1999. Now, the Machinima YouTube channel is publishing a new version of the show, "Sifl & Olly Video Game Reviews." Twisted Junk has an interview with ...
Read in browser Turing and Burroughs: a beatnik SF novel by Rudy Rucker
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 18, 2012 06:44 pm Rudy Rucker has launched a new novel, Turing & Burroughs, which he describes as a "beatnik SF novel." It's available direct from his site as an ebook, or from the Kindle store, or as a print-on-demand book. What if Alan Turing, founder of the modern computer age, escaped assassination by the secret service to become ...
Read in browser Remembering Sean "Vilerat" Smith, killed in Benghazi
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 18, 2012 05:07 pm Zack Parsons, author and Something Awful moderator, writes, Sean Smith was one of the four men tragically killed in the consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya on September 11^th . He was a foreign services officer for the State Department. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. I knew him as "Vilerat" on the ...
Read in browser 1971 anatomy book uses pornographic photos
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 18, 2012 04:14 pm Street Anatomy reports on a 1971 textbook called The Anatomical Basis of Medical Practice, which uses pornographic photos of women as illustrations. You can snap up a used copy on Amazon for $479.99 The professors, Becker, James S. W. Wilson, and John A. Gehweiler, set out to write a textbook in an “easy-going, literary style ...
Read in browser Excerpt from James M. Cain's lost final novel: The Cocktail Waitress
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 18, 2012 02:50 pm Good news for James M. Cain fans (like me!) -- Hard Case Crime is publishing his lost final novel: The Cocktail Waitress. After the jump, an excerpt from the book. “Here, long after anyone would have expected it, is the voice of James M. Cain, as fresh and as relevant as ever. The Cocktail Waitress ...
Read in browser Tim Biskup art show in Milan
By David Pescovitz on Sep 18, 2012 02:08 pm Longtime BB fave Tim Biskup has a show of new paintings opening this Thursday at Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea in Milan, Italy. Juxtapoz has a preview of the exhibition, titled "Excavation."
Read in browser Elephant expresses disapproval of man at Berlin zoo (video)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 18, 2012 01:51 pm [Video Link] (Via Arbroath)
Read in browser Sad celebrity/superhero impersonators
By David Pescovitz on Sep 18, 2012 01:51 pm Last year, Nicolas Silberfaden photographed superhero and celebrity impersonators in Los Angeles. If they look bummed out, it's because Silberfaden asked them to "to manifest feelings of genuine sadness – honest emotions that are a consequence of our current times." Each photo, he explains, "is a somber, striking visual image that contradicts the iconic nature ...
Read in browser Strangely adorable video of sea slugs eating a blue button jelly alive
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 18, 2012 01:48 pm Yesterday, I posted a photo of Glaucus atlanticus — a strange little creature, related to mollusks, which floats through the ocean and eats (among other things) the jellyfish-like Portuguese Man-Of-War. In response, marine biologist Christopher Mah sent over this video, in which two specimens of Glaucilla marginata — a smaller relative of Glaucus atlanticus — ...
Read in browser Searchable index of 350,000 US news broadcasts
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 18, 2012 01:44 pm The Internet Archive has published TVNEWS, a searchable version of its index of 350,000 news broadcasts. Archive founder Brewster Kahle writes, "Today we launched a new service called TV News Search & Borrow. It lets you search through 350,000 news broadcasts to find programs that you may want to borrow for further research. One of ...
Read in browser Toy soldier stop-motion animation
By David Pescovitz on Sep 18, 2012 01:40 pm Chris Butcher works stop-motion magic with toy soldiers and flower buds. "Plot-oon"
Read in browser Cassette To iPod converter
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 18, 2012 01:38 pm This gadget will transfer cassette tape content to an iPhone. It's $80 at Hammacher Schlemmer, maker of stuff you'd swear was an April Fools joke. (Via Bag of Nothing)
Read in browser Meet SparkTruck, an “educational build-mobile” for the twenty-first century.
Dreamed up by a group of Stanford d.school students and funded through Kickstarter, SparkTruck is a mobile maker space currently traveling across the United States. At schools and summer camps and libraries around the country, the SparkTruck team offers workshops to help kids “find their inner maker” as they design and build projects like stamps, stop-motion animation clips, and “vibrobots.”
[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmRKXqDwieY&feature=plcp]
This might seem all shiny and new. And it is—but only in part. What’s so striking (and exciting) about SparkTruck is the way it combines old and new. It does so in the tools it gets kids using, which range from pipe cleaners to laser cutters. It does so in its educational approach, which combines cutting-edge (get it?) STEM and design pedagogy with the fundamentals of an old-school shop class. And it does so in its method, which combines the iconic, century-old technology of the bookmobile with the hot new form of the maker space.
In doing so, SparkTruck joins a growing number of libraries which are combining time-tested principles (like equal access to information) with new technologies (like 3-D printers), putting in maker spaces and media production labs alongside bookshelves and meeting rooms. As I’ve argued over on bookmobility.org, these combinations make sense because reading and making actually have a lot in common. They’re both creative processes that take existing materials and combine them in new ways. Getting people engaged in those kinds of processes—through imaginative thinking, contemplation, hands-on problem-solving, and collaborative learning—is what both maker spaces and libraries are all about.
Taking that commitment on the road with scissors and hammers and 3-D printers and a great big bookmobile-like truck, SparkTruck serves as a laboratory for new approaches, as well as a reminder that trying new things doesn’t have to (and probably shouldn’t!) necessarily mean tossing old ones out.
After all, what would those vibrobots be without classically crafty pipe cleaners and tongue depressors? And what would a library be without the creative, participatory, straight-up awesome experience of reading?
SparkTruck schedule [sparktruck.org]
How to arrange a visit from SparkTruck [sparktruck.org]
SparkTruck YouTube channel [youtube.com]
Signature: --Derek Attig, bookmobility.org
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