[Sponsor] Tendence watches now have fully mechanical automatic movements! Watchismo has the exclusive for the new Tendence Skeleton Watches, each with fully exposed 'skeletonized' mechanics seen both from the top of the dial and the see-through crystal of the caseback where the rotor can be seen revolving & generating power the old fashioned way -- with cogs, gears and hairsprings! A blend of form and function, the Tendence collection is a highly evolved concept, with extreme dimensions and three-dimensional numbers carved to stand high above the concave dial, itself cut from stainless steel, polycarbonate or titanium.s.
Possible burglar rescued from exhaust duct Sponsor Shout-Out The NFL ref strike is over, but The Daily Show still got to make jokes about it with Patrick Stewart Great Graphic Novels: From Inside, by John Bergin Stella Im Hultberg: exlusive preview of new paintings A Gumby moment, brought to you by Nicolas Cage Headline of the day: "Millionaire with cocaine habit so bad his nose collapsed is jailed after police find drugs stash in the folding roof of his Bentley" Lando Calrissian's law firm Morrissey at age 17: "Ramones are Rubbish" Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo - September 29, 2012 Bill Nye the Science Style Wondering why investors are pulling back from funding internet startups? Blame Facebook. Headline of the year: "Buddhist 'Iron Man' found by Nazis is from space" Romney avoided tax on 1999 dot-com riches with trust nicknamed, "I Dig It" The life and death of a 125-year-old tree (video) Contest to come up with a better "young women in science" video PSA than, "Science, It's a Girl Thing!" How to build a trippy meditation chamber, from PopSci 1970 archives The appeal of the Naked English Garden Cancer and the High Holy Days: Rethinking Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die 32 metronomes attaining spontaneous synchrony Murdoch's Times goes back to Google: please index us, just a little! Prime Minister of New Zealand apologizes to Kim Dotcom for letting spy agency wiretap him Hustler's MBA: a "modern curriculum" for four years of self-directed learning Second sleep: a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night Gweek 069: Ned Vizzini, author of The Other Normals and writer for Last Resort People from 0 to 100 years in 150 seconds (video) PSY foam-art The Pax Vaporizer: 'fropheads rejoice! Dirty translation of the Iliad, 1797 Rolling Stone interviews Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, and Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez at the same time Possible burglar rescued from exhaust duct
By David Pescovitz on Sep 27, 2012 12:57 pm Yesterday, Ashland, Kentucky police had to call in firefighters with an aerial truck to pull a juvenile trapped for nine hours in the exhaust duct of El Rancho Grande restaurant. He apparently slid down the vent at 2am the night before and encountered a "T" at the bottom that was too small for his body. ...
Read in browser Sponsor Shout-Out
By Rob Beschizza on Sep 27, 2012 12:49 pm Our thanks to Watchismo, sponsors of our daily email update. Watchismo exclusively offers the new Tendence Skeleton Watches with fully exposed, fully mechanical 'skeletonized' automatic movements. Seen both from the top of the dial—and the see-through crystal of the caseback—the rotor revolves and generates power the old-fashioned way: with cogs, gears and hairsprings. A blend ...
Read in browser The NFL ref strike is over, but The Daily Show still got to make jokes about it with Patrick Stewart
By Jamie Frevele on Sep 27, 2012 12:34 pm Monday Night Debacle-ball apparently was the last straw: Late last night, the NFL and the union representing the striking referees finally came to a tentative agreement, and the professional referees will be back on the field tonight. But since The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is taped earlier in the day, they were still making ...
Read in browser Great Graphic Novels: From Inside, by John Bergin
By Tiffany Lee Brown on Sep 27, 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 Inside, by ...
Read in browser Stella Im Hultberg: exlusive preview of new paintings
By David Pescovitz on Sep 27, 2012 12:24 pm When Brooklyn-based painter Stella Im Hultberg was working on her latest paintings, she read Haruki Murakami's novel 1QA4. Twice. The Japanese surrealist's writing has long been an inspiration to her. "I find that there are parts of any of his books where i feel he actually can describe some of my ideas for my art ...
Read in browser A Gumby moment, brought to you by Nicolas Cage
By Jamie Frevele on Sep 27, 2012 12:15 pm Last night, I was watching the 1986 movie Peggy Sue Got Married, about a time-traveling Kathleen Turner who goes 25 years into her own past, when she was in a budding relationship with her philandering husband, played by a very young Nicolas Cage. It's a great movie, but I could not get past the weird ...
Read in browser Headline of the day: "Millionaire with cocaine habit so bad his nose collapsed is jailed after police find drugs stash in the folding roof of his Bentley"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 27, 2012 12:12 pm The only way this Daily Mail headline could be any better is if the millionaire were from space. A millionaire cocaine addict who retired abroad at the age of just 36 after making his fortune has been jailed after police found a haul of drugs hidden in his luxury car. Property developer James Brown's habit ...
Read in browser Lando Calrissian's law firm
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 27, 2012 12:00 pm ZekeMahogany's "Law Office of Lando Calrissian" is a pretty cute little funnybit. The territory is well-worn (ISTR a union drive for aggrieved Death Star construction workers), but the execution is nice. Law Office of Lando Calrissian
Read in browser Morrissey at age 17: "Ramones are Rubbish"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 27, 2012 11:44 am A crotchety 17-year-old "Steve" Morrissey complained about the Ramones in a letter that ran in the July 24, 1976 issue of Melody Maker. Dangerous Minds: Morrissey at age 17: "Ramones are Rubbish"
Read in browser Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo - September 29, 2012
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 27, 2012 11:15 am I'm going to be at World Maker Faire New York this weekend, but if I wasn't, I'd be sorely tempted to attend MICE 2012, the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo in Cambridge. It's billed as an "event dedicated to independent and alternative comics, webcomics and zines." I would finally be able to meet Danny Hellman, who ...
Read in browser Bill Nye the Science Style
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 11:07 am [Video Link] HT: @astrojenny
Read in browser Wondering why investors are pulling back from funding internet startups? Blame Facebook.
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 10:53 am The disappointing stocks of Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga shares are causing some investors to hesitate on funding internet start-ups. More in the WSJ. "The frothy bubble is over," says one VC quoted in the piece. Investors valuing profitability over hype? Such complicated crazy talk.
Read in browser Headline of the year: "Buddhist 'Iron Man' found by Nazis is from space"
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 10:49 am The only way this Nature News headline could be any better is if the Nazis themselves were from space. A Buddhist statue brought to Germany from Tibet by a Nazi-backed expedition has been confirmed as having an extraterrestrial origin. Known as the 'iron man', the 24-centimetre-high sculpture may represent the god Vaiśravaṇa and was likely ...
Read in browser Romney avoided tax on 1999 dot-com riches with trust nicknamed, "I Dig It"
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 10:46 am Jesse Drucker at Bloomberg reports on how, back in pre-dotcom-crash 1999, a trust Mitt Romney set up for his children and grandchildren returned a 1,000 percent return on the sale of shares in Internet advertising giant DoubleClick Inc. "If Romney had given the cash directly, he could have owed a gift tax at a rate ...
Read in browser The life and death of a 125-year-old tree (video)
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 10:36 am Standing, and Falling, two short films by Casimir Nozkowski about the life and death of a big, beautiful, very old tree.
Read in browser Contest to come up with a better "young women in science" video PSA than, "Science, It's a Girl Thing!"
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 10:25 am Surely you recall that godawful "Science, It's a Girl Thing!" video atrocity created with EU funding and mocked the world over. There's now a contest to make a better one, with cash prizes and worldwide fame to follow.
Read in browser How to build a trippy meditation chamber, from PopSci 1970 archives
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 09:25 am "The Meditator," a personal isolation tank fashioned from 12 pentagons decorated with photo collages. "You may find the sensation akin to that mystical communion with nature that you experience when alone in a forest," according to Popular Science writer Ken Isaacs in November 1970. At popsci.com, they've republished a photo gallery with enough detail that ...
Read in browser The appeal of the Naked English Garden
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 09:21 am "You garden naked. Can we come and visit your garden naked, too?" Yes. (NYTimes.com)
Read in browser Cancer and the High Holy Days: Rethinking Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 27, 2012 09:11 am Cancer survivor Lani Horn, who helped me through some painful times during my cancer treatment, writes in a piece for kveller.com about anger, justice, and the search for deeper meaning in the Jewish holy days. She talks about a moment of clarity during a workshop for survivors, where she witnessed much talk about "making meaning ...
Read in browser 32 metronomes attaining spontaneous synchrony
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 27, 2012 08:55 am This Japanese video shows 32 metronomes set rocking on a wobbly surface. They begin in a state of chaos, and as they feed motion into the table, they begin to influence one another, until, 4 minutes later, they attain synchrony. It's quite remarkable (and a little sad for those of us with a nonconformist bent!). ...
Read in browser Murdoch's Times goes back to Google: please index us, just a little!
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 27, 2012 06:51 am An update from Rupert Murdoch's experiment in news publishing without search-engines: the oligarch has reversed his policy regarding the Times (which went paywall in 2009), and he will now allow Google and other search tools to index the first two sentences of each article. Of course, anyone who sees a Times article in her search ...
Read in browser Prime Minister of New Zealand apologizes to Kim Dotcom for letting spy agency wiretap him
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 27, 2012 06:37 am New Zealand Prime Minister John Key issued an official apology to Kim Dotcom for illegal spying conducted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) -- the NZ equivalent to the CIA, which is prohibited from engaging in domestic spying. Nevertheless, GCSB conducted a program of surveillance against Dotcom and his associates as part of the ...
Read in browser Hustler's MBA: a "modern curriculum" for four years of self-directed learning
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 27, 2012 12:23 am "The Hustler's MBA" is a modest proposal for a four-year alternative to university for recent high-school grads. Its proponent and originator, Tynan, suggests that four years spent learning to play poker, travelling, reading books for pleasure, writing daily, learning to program, socializing, eating well, chasing your curiosity, and starting a business is a "modern curriculum" ...
Read in browser Second sleep: a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 26, 2012 09:09 pm I just had dinner with my friend Emily Hurson, a talented actor, singer and all-round hoopy frood. When I asked her about her longtime struggle with insomnia, she mentioned that her life was much better since she embraced second sleep, a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night. According to its proponents, this ...
Read in browser Gweek 069: Ned Vizzini, author of The Other Normals and writer for Last Resort
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 26, 2012 09:00 pm Click here to play this episode. Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My guest this week is Ned Vizzini, an award winning author and television writer with a new young adult novel called The Other Normals. He’s written ...
Read in browser People from 0 to 100 years in 150 seconds (video)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 26, 2012 06:59 pm Kanaal van Filmersblog says: In October 2011 I started documenting people in the city of Amsterdam, approaching them in the street and asking them to say their age in front of the camera. My aim was to 'collect' a group of 100 people, from age 0 to 100. At first my collection grew fast but ...
Read in browser PSY foam-art
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 26, 2012 06:31 pm Redditor DivineBaboon posted an unattributed photo of an espresso drink with a beautiful PSY (of Gangnam Style fame) portrait in the foam. My friend ordered a cappuccino and this is what he got.. (i.imgur.com)
Read in browser The Pax Vaporizer: 'fropheads rejoice!
By Tyrone Slothrop on Sep 26, 2012 06:14 pm [Video Link] Have you ever wondered what J.R. "Bob" Dobbs smokes in his pipe? It's the dried flower petals of the Habafropzipulops plant! (Street parlance: 'frop.) 'Frop is not a drug, and as little as 100 microdobbs is needed to achieve desired results. From SubGenius pamphlet #2: Like to smoke a little of what's in ...
Read in browser Dirty translation of the Iliad, 1797
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 26, 2012 04:53 pm Nat sez, "Homer's Iliad set to bawdy verse. The Preface sings true, even today:" Good people, would you know the reason I write at this unlucky season, When all the nation is so poor That few can keep above one whore, Except the lawyers -- (whose large fees Maintain as many as they please) -- ...
Read in browser Rolling Stone interviews Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, and Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez at the same time
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 26, 2012 04:02 pm Who is this handsome bunch? Just four of the greatest living cartoonists on Earth: Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, and Gilbert Hernandez. They were interviewed simultaneously by Sean T. Collins in Rolling Stone. (Photo by Meredith Rizzo) Gilbert: It's funny: When Ghost World came out and Dan was nominated for the Oscar, I could ...
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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