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Great Graphic Novels: The Cereal Killings by James Sturm Fox News broadcasts a live suicide Boppo the Bad Breath Clown (vintage ad) Free/open math textbook written in a day Why can't pacemaker users read their own medical data? Vancouverites! Coming to Kidsbooks! TV news programs ignore false claims in the thousands of political ads that pay their bills Nude Psychotherapy (vintage seventies magazine ad) Mystical experiences without significance US naval analyst on science fiction space warfare Predictable, but reassuring news: Marc Webb signs on to direct The Amazing Spider-Man sequel Treasure Island Music Festival 2012: contest winner! iPad left at airport checkpoint ends up at TSA inspector's house AMC will stream the season premiere of The Walking Dead for Dish customers Pennsylvania police post perp pix on Pinterest "One Day," an animated short (video) The Star Trek-Psy parody you know you wanted: Klingon Style Outlaw auction includes Bonnie and Clyde's guns A classic work of entomology, available online in French and English This Friday, procrastinate with history! Help fund Diana Gameros album Great Graphic Novels: The Cereal Killings by James Sturm
By Bob Knetzger on Sep 29, 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 The Cereal Killings ...
Read in browser Fox News broadcasts a live suicide
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 29, 2012 11:51 am Yesterday, Fox News aired live footage of a man in Phoenix shooting himself in the head. According to the Times of India Fox got so excited about following a carjacking suspect in a high-speed chase that they forgot to cut the feed (which ran on a five-second delay) when he got out of his car, ...
Read in browser Boppo the Bad Breath Clown (vintage ad)
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 29, 2012 11:27 am Image Link. A cheerful, totally non-creepy ad from days of yore, scanned and uploaded to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by reader v.valenti.
Read in browser Free/open math textbook written in a day
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 29, 2012 08:47 am Here is a free/open upper secondary mathematics textbook written in a single day by a group of Finnish math teachers, working together in a "booksprint." Related news: California's passed a bill establishing 50 "open source" (CC-BY) textbooks for core lower-division college courses (though, as a poster on Slashdot notes, this still has to be funded ...
Read in browser Why can't pacemaker users read their own medical data?
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 28, 2012 11:08 pm In this ten minute TEDx talk, Hugo Campos explains his frustration with the fact that his pacemaker is designed to let his doctor read his biometric status, but to stop the patient from doing the same. As a result, Campos isn't able to use his pacemaker as a diagnostic tool to help make good choices ...
Read in browser Vancouverites! Coming to Kidsbooks!
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 28, 2012 10:17 pm As part of my Pirate Cinema tour I'll be coming to Vancouver's Kidsbooks on Oct 21 at 7PM. You've got to buy a $23.50 ticket, but it comes with a copy of the book, which normally retails for $25. Kidsbooks is one of the last independents standing in Vancouver, and they're a great store, so ...
Read in browser TV news programs ignore false claims in the thousands of political ads that pay their bills
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 28, 2012 08:49 pm Josh Levy from Free Press sez, "My colleague Tim Karr just released a report exposing the billions spent on political ads around the country -- and how that money is pocketed by local TV stations. Are these stations offering any local news coverage to debunk the lies in these ads? Are they exposing the deep-pocketed ...
Read in browser Nude Psychotherapy (vintage seventies magazine ad)
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 28, 2012 08:22 pm "Be the first on your block to know about nude psychotherapy." A 1970s-era magazine ad, scanned and shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by Boing Boing reader v.valenti.
Read in browser Mystical experiences without significance
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 28, 2012 06:23 pm Ed from Aeon sez, "The Scottish science fiction writer Ken MacLeod, (Intrusion, The Night Sessions) has a short essay in Aeon magazine exploring two strange sensations. Each one sounds like a mystical experience, but 'solves no problem, conveys no insight, and yet leaves me with an impression of significance'. Are they mere glitches in the ...
Read in browser US naval analyst on science fiction space warfare
By David Pescovitz on Sep 28, 2012 05:16 pm Foreign Policy magazine interviewed naval analyst Chris Weuve, a former US Naval War College research professor, about space warfare in science fiction. Has sci-fi affected the way that our navies conduct warfare? CW: This is a question that I occasionally think about. Many people point to the development of the shipboard Combat Information Center in ...
Read in browser Predictable, but reassuring news: Marc Webb signs on to direct The Amazing Spider-Man sequel
By Jamie Frevele on Sep 28, 2012 04:38 pm In Stuff We Knew Would Probably Happen, the director of this summer's The Amazing Spider-Man, Marc Webb, has officially been confirmed to helm the sequel. And it's a good thing, too, because it already had a release date of May 2, 2014! That would have been really awkward without a director. Mr. Parker/Spidey, Andrew Garfield, ...
Read in browser Treasure Island Music Festival 2012: contest winner!
By David Pescovitz on Sep 28, 2012 04:24 pm I'm pleased to announce that the winner of our Treasure Island Music Festival 2012 ticket contest is Russell Walks! Below is his witty winning Haiku, about The xx, who are playing at the festival. Along with the Boing Boing t-shirt that all three finalists scored, Russell receives a pair of VIP 2-Day Tickets to the ...
Read in browser iPad left at airport checkpoint ends up at TSA inspector's house
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 28, 2012 03:15 pm ABC News ran a sting against dirty TSA inspectors by leaving behind iPads (with tracking spyware) at ten airport checkpoints known for theft and following them electronically. One iPad, left at an Orlando checkpoint, moved 30 miles to the home of Andy Ramirez, a TSA inspector at the airport. Initially, he denied stealing the iPad, ...
Read in browser AMC will stream the season premiere of The Walking Dead for Dish customers
By Jamie Frevele on Sep 28, 2012 03:09 pm As they did for the season premiere of Breaking Bad this summer, AMC will be streaming the third season premiere of The Walking Dead online for all those frustrated Dish customers who still don't have AMC. It's only good for the one episode -- airing Sunday, October 14 at 9:00 PM EST) -- and then ...
Read in browser Pennsylvania police post perp pix on Pinterest
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 28, 2012 02:54 pm The Pottstown Mercury, a newspaper in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, recently started posting police mugshots of wanted criminals on Pinterest. Sounds crazy, right? Well, the novel use of a social networking site known best for nail art, cupcakes, and motivational posters with bad typography has become quite a success for local law enforcement. As you can see ...
Read in browser "One Day," an animated short (video)
By Xeni Jardin on Sep 28, 2012 02:41 pm [Video Link] A beautiful, Pixar-esque short from students at the French arts and media school Gobelins. More wonderful shorts on their YouTube channel. (via Short of the Week)
Read in browser The Star Trek-Psy parody you know you wanted: Klingon Style
By Jamie Frevele on Sep 28, 2012 01:54 pm This was destined to happen, and it's all in Klingon. What better way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the internet, all at the same time? (video link) (via Comediva)
Read in browser Outlaw auction includes Bonnie and Clyde's guns
By David Pescovitz on Sep 28, 2012 01:50 pm You could be the new owner of Bonnie & Clyd's personal pistols, Bugsy Siegel's Nevada Project Corporation stock certificate, or a subpoena signed by Wyatt Earp. This Sunday, RR Auction is holding an "American Gansters, Outlaws, and Lawmen" auction with those fine artifacts and many more criminal curiosities. "Bonnie and Clyde's guns go up for ...
Read in browser A classic work of entomology, available online in French and English
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 28, 2012 01:30 pm In 1879, Jean-Henri Fabre wrote a book about insects called Souvenirs entomologiques. Today it's considered a classic of entomology. An English translation, with some absolutely beautiful illustrations like the cicadas pictured above, was published in 1921. You can read the full book online for free. Yes, both versions. The original French work is available at ...
Read in browser This Friday, procrastinate with history!
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 28, 2012 01:14 pm Perhaps you will enjoy this in-depth analysis of the history of Roman charioteers, their sport, and their role in ancient Roman society. I haven't had a chance to read through this whole thing yet (because, you know, I have to work) but what I have read is fascinating. Be sure to check out the Appendix, ...
Read in browser Help fund Diana Gameros album
By David Pescovitz on Sep 28, 2012 01:04 pm Diana Gameros is a deeply talented singer/songwriter in San Francisco who creates soulful, passionate, and enchanting music infused with her Latin heritage. As I've written before, Diana, who was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, writes songs that reflect the 21st century experiences of a young indie artist at the borderlands between cultures, languages, and genres. ...
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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