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Seattle's mystery hum US Rep. Jared Polis's DNC speech Patrick Warburton has provided some deliciously vague non-hints about the upcoming season of The Venture Bros. 4chan gets real about software Charlie Stross and Cory at Brooklyn's MakerBot BotCave TONIGHT! Immortal Lycanthropes: Required reading for budding happy mutants and their grownups Dazzling, baffling Zardoz trailer Little Face Mitt launches video appeal Ubisoft drops its crappiest DRM, dodges all the interesting questions Prince Ea's song explains to Obama why he should end the war on cannabis Bill Barminski's cardboard art show Watch the Sun "burp" A long stripper pole Are pesticides evil, or awesome? White Sands Missile Range Museum and National Park Is Homestuck the Ulysses of the internet? Why SF movies make me insane Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at the library of the Royal Society Secret service code names Drew Friedman's portrait of Superman creators Siegel and Shuster Introducing Elfquest at Boing Boing! Army Day! Marshall home stereo CNN suppresses its own award-winning doc on human rights abuses in Bahrain; has commercial ties to the regime At sea for science Update: Jim Carrey has reportedly accepted the role of Colonel Stars in Kick-Ass 2 Del Close tribute in Los Angeles on Saturday Burning Man's Temple of Remembrance Model boats will explore contaminated New York City waterway Trailer for Dead Europe Seattle's mystery hum
By David Pescovitz on Sep 06, 2012 12:49 pm Residents of West Seattle are reporting on the return of a mysterious hum that was first heard several years ago. Apparently, the hum shifts in frequency, goes away and then returns. The West Seattle Blog, that first mentioned the intermittent hum back in 2009, has posted a recording of it. The site is investigating whether ...
Read in browser US Rep. Jared Polis's DNC speech
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 06, 2012 12:24 pm [Video Link] Here's Boing Boing T-shirt owner Rep. Jared Polis giving a great speech at the Democratic National Convention about respecting diversity. See also: Happy Mutant Congressman has at least two Boing Boing T-shirts in his wardrobe, Top US drug cop can't tell the difference between marijuana and heroin, "The Internet is For Porn" entered ...
Read in browser Patrick Warburton has provided some deliciously vague non-hints about the upcoming season of The Venture Bros.
By Jamie Frevele on Sep 06, 2012 12:00 pm Be still my Venture-fan heart -- Patrick Warburton, who voices career assassin-slash-bodyguard Brock Samson on Adult Swim's The Venture Bros., was approached at an event promoting the syndication of his sitcom Rules of Engagement about what was going to happen to his character in the upcoming fifth season of the show. And then he said ...
Read in browser 4chan gets real about software
By Dean Putney on Sep 06, 2012 11:25 am Illustration: 凌[Pixiv] 4chan, the Internet's long-time dumping ground and butt of many a joke, is getting serious about software by making their biggest public-facing code change in nearly a decade, introducing an API and a bunch of new functionality. Given its reputation, many commentators have already written this off with a shrug and a laugh. But 4chan ...
Read in browser Charlie Stross and Cory at Brooklyn's MakerBot BotCave TONIGHT!
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 06, 2012 10:31 am Hey, Brooklynites and assorted New Yorkers! Charlie Stross and I will be at MakerBot's BotCave TONIGHT at 7PM (MakerBot Headquarters, 314 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217)! There are party favors, exciting transhuman humor, and books! And 3D printers! There's two more stops on this tour: we'll be in Brookline, MA tomorrow night, and at RIT ...
Read in browser Immortal Lycanthropes: Required reading for budding happy mutants and their grownups
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 06, 2012 08:52 am Hal Johnson's Immortal Lycanthropes is a YA novel unlike any other. It's the story of Myron Horowitz, a horribly disfigured amnesiac orphan whose nice adoptive parents can't protect him from the savage beatings administered by the school bully every day. But then the bully is found bruised and battered and hurled through shatterproof glass, and ...
Read in browser Dazzling, baffling Zardoz trailer
By Jason Weisberger on Sep 06, 2012 03:21 am I remember watching Zardoz, but having watched this trailer I am now completely baffled as to what it was about.
Read in browser Little Face Mitt launches video appeal
By Rob Beschizza on Sep 05, 2012 11:48 pm FreezePaint made a video version of the Little Face Mitt meme. Sleep tight, America.
Read in browser Ubisoft drops its crappiest DRM, dodges all the interesting questions
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 05, 2012 10:12 pm Game maker Ubisoft has dropped its notorious DRM requirement that all games must be played on computers that are continuously connected to the Internet, even for single-player modes. This comes after many years of categorical statements to the effect that this sort of DRM is an absolute necessity, that it stops piracy cold, and so ...
Read in browser Prince Ea's song explains to Obama why he should end the war on cannabis
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 05, 2012 09:37 pm [Video Link] Tony Newman (director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance) says: I love people who can educate and politicize in creative and entertaining ways. Prince Ea -- hip hop artist, activist and founder of Make SMART Cool -- shows us how it's done with his soon-to-be-released song "Smoking Weed With The President." ...
Read in browser Bill Barminski's cardboard art show
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 05, 2012 08:55 pm [Video Link] The great Bill Barminski has an art show called This End Up: Cardboard Sculpture And Other Stuff. It opens September 8th, 2012 at Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. Here are a couple of my favorite pieces:
Read in browser Watch the Sun "burp"
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 05, 2012 06:50 pm Check out this great NASA video showing a coronal mass ejection—a burst of plasma thrown off the surface of the Sun—from several different perspectives. It happened on August 31 and it's really gorgeous. It's also rather huge, as far as these things go. Luckily, it wasn't pointed directly at Earth. Coronal mass ejections can affect ...
Read in browser A long stripper pole
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 05, 2012 06:47 pm Diplo - Set It Off feat. Lazerdisk Party Sex from Pomp&Clout on Vimeo. Illustrator Bob Staake says: "Thought you might enjoy taking at look at my son Ryan's new video for Diplo. Nice to see that all that RISD tuition I paid is helping to fund infinite stripper poles in space!"
Read in browser Are pesticides evil, or awesome?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 05, 2012 05:56 pm Are pesticides helpful things that allow us to produce more food, and keep us safe from deadly diseases? Or are they dangerous things that kill animals and could possibly be hurting us in ways we haven't even totally figured out just yet? Actually, they're both. This week, scientists released a research paper looking at the ...
Read in browser White Sands Missile Range Museum and National Park
By Mark Pilkington on Sep 05, 2012 05:41 pm Unknown Fields (UF) is a design studio, originating in London's Architectural Association, that "ventures out on annual expeditions to the ends of the earth exploring unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies." Mark Pilkington, author of Mirage Men and publisher of Strange Attractor, has just led this busload of architects, writers, filmmakers and ...
Read in browser Is Homestuck the Ulysses of the internet?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 05, 2012 05:27 pm [Video Link] Here's the latest video from PBS Digital Studio's excellent "Idea Channel" web series. It's about the 5,000-page (and growing!) webcomic Homestuck. You might not think that a 265,000+ word novel from 1918 and a webcomic started in 2009 would have a lot in common. But one trait they both share is that each ...
Read in browser Why SF movies make me insane
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 05, 2012 05:19 pm My latest Locus column is "Why Science Fiction Movies Drive Me Nuts," in which I propose that the reason the science in sf movies is so awful is that they're essentially operas about technology. The reason that SF movies command such a titanic amount of attention and money from audiences is because they are brilliantly ...
Read in browser Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at the library of the Royal Society
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 05, 2012 05:13 pm Wikipedia's entries on women in the sciences are lacking. The Royal Society has an extensive collection of original sources documenting the work of women in the sciences. On October 19, the nail will meet the hammer in the form of a group Edit-a-Thon and workshop. The event is especially aimed at fledgling Wiki editors, who ...
Read in browser Secret service code names
By David Pescovitz on Sep 05, 2012 05:08 pm According to GQ, Paul Ryan's secret service code name is Bowhunter and Mitt Romney is Javelin. Time magazine follows up with a selection of other secret service code names from political history. President Obama chose Renegade. JFK? Lancer. Nixon was Searchlight and Carter was Deacon. My favorite though is Ronald Reagan aka... Rawhide. "11 Great ...
Read in browser Drew Friedman's portrait of Superman creators Siegel and Shuster
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 05, 2012 05:04 pm Drew Friedman says: I just wanted to share my latest portrait of Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster, the creators of Superman. This is the latest in the series of portraits I'm creating of "Legends of the Comics." See also: Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster
Read in browser Introducing Elfquest at Boing Boing!
By Rob Beschizza on Sep 05, 2012 05:01 pm It's my great pleasure to welcome Wendy and Richard Pini to Boing Boing, where they'll be publishing the next chapter of their long-running fantasy epic Elfquest—online-first for the first time! You may also know Wendy from her anime-style retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's Masque of The Red Death — which even got her in trouble ...
Read in browser Army Day!
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 05, 2012 04:54 pm Keep an eye out for crocodiles -- the islands of the South Pacific are teeming with them.
Read in browser Marshall home stereo
By David Pescovitz on Sep 05, 2012 04:41 pm Marshall Headphones & Amplification have launched their first home audio product, an active loudspeaker that (surprise) looks just like a guitar amp. The Hanwell, named for the London location of Jim Marshall's first shop, has a wooden cabinet with the iconic Marshall vinyl wrapping and black/gold grill cloth. No word on pricing, or whether it ...
Read in browser CNN suppresses its own award-winning doc on human rights abuses in Bahrain; has commercial ties to the regime
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 05, 2012 04:19 pm CNN sent its investigative correspondent Amber Lyon to produce an expensive documentary on the Arab Spring, including human rights abuses in Bahrain. Lyon and her crew were violently detained by Bahraini security forces, but soldiered on and made "iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring," which went on to win awards and acclaim after its ...
Read in browser At sea for science
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Sep 05, 2012 04:14 pm The Joides Resolution is a large boat—more than 450 feet long and almost 70 feet wide. That's small compared to a lot of cruise ships, but big enough to house and feed and provide work space for 126 people. It's a floating city, with a movie theater, helipad, hospital, cafeteria, laboratories, and a giant drilling ...
Read in browser Update: Jim Carrey has reportedly accepted the role of Colonel Stars in Kick-Ass 2
By Jamie Frevele on Sep 05, 2012 03:33 pm In an update to a previous story, Jim Carrey is definitely going to play Colonel Stars in Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall. Apparently, according to Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar, informal talks with Carrey started about two years ago, and as a good friend of Nicolas "Big Daddy" Cage as well as a fan of ...
Read in browser Del Close tribute in Los Angeles on Saturday
By Jason Weisberger on Sep 05, 2012 03:31 pm This Saturday, September 8th 8PM, at the Fanatic Salon, Betty Thomas seeks to answer one of the enduring questions of improv: "Who was Del Close?" Every student of Del, myself included, has their share of stories about working with one of the greatest minds in comedy. Del, a member of the Compass, director of the ...
Read in browser Burning Man's Temple of Remembrance
By Cory Doctorow on Sep 05, 2012 02:50 pm Ian Alexander Norman contributed his long-exposure pic of this year's Temple of Remembrance at Burning Man to the Boing Boing Flickr pool. The Temple is a huge, ornate structure that burners fill up with their regrets, grief, memorials and testaments to their dead, their lost, and their sorrows. Last Sunday night, we burned the Temple ...
Read in browser Model boats will explore contaminated New York City waterway
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 05, 2012 02:10 pm The Newtown Creek Armada preview from Newtown Creek Armada on Vimeo. Nathan Kensinger is an artist "whose work explores hidden urban landscapes, off-limits structures, and other liminal spaces." He told me about a project that he, Laura Chipley, and Sarah Nelson Wright are working on called The Newtown Creek Armada: It's a public art installation ...
Read in browser Trailer for Dead Europe
By Mark Frauenfelder on Sep 05, 2012 02:03 pm [Video Link] Dead Europe, a new movie by Tony Krawitz, is premiering at the 2012 Toronto International Film on Friday. Dead Europe, from the producers of Shame and Animal Kingdom, is a tense and moody mystery set on the turbulent streets of contemporary Europe. The film follows a young photographer named Isaac (Ewen Leslie in ...
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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