[Sponsor] The Alessi Grow Watch is a cool new timepiece designed by Andrea Morgante of Shiro Studio and now available at Watchismo! The watch concept is derived from the 'act of growing' which often results in forms and patterns which we can all instinctively relate to. The surface of the design features a rippled texture, much like the muscle fibers which lay below our skin. Perceived as a single entity rather than an assembly of multiple mechanical parts, 'grow' is an external manifestation of our bodies' qualities.
Great Graphic Novels: From Hell, by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell Thai vulva-bleaching product Oglaf on nipples A report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports Save the Canadian National Archives Pussy Riot's lawyers address NYU law How DRM screws people with visual disabilities: a report from the front lines HOWTO make a machete wrench Pharmaceutical companies deliberately mislead doctors into prescribing useless and even harmful meds HOWTO use a phone (1917) Molly Crabapple-illustrated Warren Ellis short story in five fits, limited edition Design Thinking for Social Good: An Interview with David Kelley A video in which a pig rescues a goat Great Graphic Novels: From Hell, by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
By Jay Kinney on Sep 23, 2012 12:30 pm Last month I asked my friends to write about books they loved (you can read all the essays here). This month, I invited them to write about their favorite graphic novels, and they selected some excellent titles. I hope you enjoy them! (Read all the Great Graphic Novel essays here.) -- Mark From Hell, by ...
Read in browser Thai vulva-bleaching product
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 23, 2012 10:47 am Thailand's skin-lightening craze (which includes products with such active ingredients as mercury) has reached new heights, with a widely advertised vulva*-bleaching product called Lactacyd White Intimate, made by the French company Sanofi Aventis, with an 80MM baht (approx USD26MM) advertising budget. The Guardian's Kate Hodal has more: "Products [have] evolved from face-whitening to body and ...
Read in browser Oglaf on nipples
By Rob Beschizza on Sep 23, 2012 09:45 am The punchline comes six panels later, and is no less perfect for its obviousness. Bitterfruit [Oglaf]
Read in browser A report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 23, 2012 08:51 am This year's IgNobel Prizes were a characteristically great bunch, but as a writer, I'm particularly excited to see that the organizers awarded a prize in literature this year. The prize went to the US Government Accountability Office, for Actions Needed to Evaluate the Impact of Efforts to Estimate Costs of Reports and Studies, or as ...
Read in browser Save the Canadian National Archives
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 23, 2012 02:47 am Readers will remember that Canada's national archives are in trouble: they've undergone a $9.6M cut, with more to come. The collections are being sold off to private collectors, many outside of the country. Now the Documentary Organization of Canada has weighed in: "Lisa Fitzgibbons, Executive Director of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), succinctly states ...
Read in browser Pussy Riot's lawyers address NYU law
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 23, 2012 12:41 am Here's a video of Pussy Riot's lawyers lecturing at NYU Law. Joly sez, "September 21 2012: Having in the morning received the John Lennon Peace prize from Yoko Ono on behalf of the band, Petya Verzilov, husband of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and the group's Russian attorneys speak at NYU School of Law." Pussy Riot's Russian Attorneys ...
Read in browser How DRM screws people with visual disabilities: a report from the front lines
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 22, 2012 11:38 pm ZDNet's Rupert Goodwins is going blind. Most of us will lose a substantial fraction of our visual acuity, should we live long enough. As a service to his readers, Goodwins is documenting the way that technology can be adapted for people with visual disabilities. It's a fascinating story: as he says, "there's never been a ...
Read in browser HOWTO make a machete wrench
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 22, 2012 10:31 pm EV Builder and friends were in the midst of refitting a vehicle to be of use in a zombie apocalypse when it occurred to them to turn a machete into a variable hex wrench. They liked the result so much that the published the HOWTO on Instructables. Perhaps one of the more useful tools I ...
Read in browser Pharmaceutical companies deliberately mislead doctors into prescribing useless and even harmful meds
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 22, 2012 08:02 pm Writing in the Guardian, Ben Goldacre reveals the shocking truth about the drugs that doctors prescribe: thanks to aggressive manipulation from the pharmaceutical companies and passivity from regulators, doctors often don't know that the drugs were ineffective (or harmful) in a majority of their clinical trials. That's because pharma companies set up their trials so ...
Read in browser HOWTO use a phone (1917)
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 22, 2012 06:05 pm The 1917 Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company publication "How to Use the Telephone, 1917" is a clear, sensible guide to managing your "delicately adjusted instrument," including useful tips like finishing your calls with "good-bye" so that the other party doesn't suppose that the operator has cut them off. How to Use the Telephone, 1917
Read in browser Molly Crabapple-illustrated Warren Ellis short story in five fits, limited edition
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 22, 2012 04:40 pm Molly Crabapple and Warren Ellis collaborated on "Ariadne and the Science," five short-short stories with accompanying illustrations. Each is available in a limited edition of 25 giclee prints, signed by Crabapple, for $100 each through Etsy. Here's number II (and here's a link to number I). There was lots of names for the thing Ariadne ...
Read in browser Design Thinking for Social Good: An Interview with David Kelley
By Avi Solomon on Sep 22, 2012 03:54 pm David Kelley is the founder of IDEO and the Stanford d.school. I asked him about design, process and people—and what it takes to be good at all three.
Read in browser A video in which a pig rescues a goat
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 22, 2012 01:35 pm Daww. (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
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
No comments:
Post a Comment