Siri vs. Google Voice Search for iPhone How a multinational beer giant is making bank by destroying the world's beer and laying off the world's brewers Rave like it's 1997 Rot: makeup stop-motion of a body in the dark George Barris, the 87-year-old king of "kar kustomizers," profiled in LA Times Boy who shot neo-Nazi dad may have believed he'd go free, because TV Silicon Alley, running on diesel Many who were damaged by Sandy rent, and lack renters' insurance Hurricane Sandy, as seen from the NYT building Avian Realistic Roswell space alien autopsy tableau Giant PVC squid Bits of Freedom's annual donation campaign is today: defend digital freedom in the Netherlands! Hilda and the Bird Parade: high adventure kids' comic in the style of Miyazaki & Jansson Anti-scratch spray for device screens apparently works Russian beard tax token from the reign of Peter the Great MPAA tells court that Megaupload users shouldn't be allowed access to their own files BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Zombie Baby breaking out of womb The physics of the weird geometries of the corpse city of R'lyeh BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Spider and Plague Doc masks Free/open source programmer and Creative Commons activist Bassel Khartabil faces torture in notorious Syrian prison Downtown After Sandy: Walking 3 miles in blacked-out NYC, the night after the storm BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Mars and the Curiosity Rover Infinite Gangnam Style: realtime, beat-matched remix that goes on forever EFF's Open Wireless campaign: help your neighbors, improve anonymity, support innovation BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Tardis Dress Band that shut down LA freeway will serve no time Housekeeping: images in comments Dutch government scraps "weed cards" - foreigners will still be able to smoke weed in Amsterdam's "coffee shops" BB Readers' DIY Costumes: We are all Pussy Riot Siri vs. Google Voice Search for iPhone
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 12:56 pm The guys at Gizmodo did a side-by-side comparison of voice search on iPhone, using Siri vs. using Google Voice Search for iOS.
Read in browser How a multinational beer giant is making bank by destroying the world's beer and laying off the world's brewers
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 01, 2012 12:08 pm In "The Plot to Destroy America's Beer," Businessweek's Devin Leonard chronicles the rapacious AB InBev, a multinational, publicly traded giant corporation that is buying up American (and European, South American and Asian) family owned breweries, cutting them to the bone, lowering the quality of the ingredients used, shutting down breweries that have been running for ...
Read in browser Rave like it's 1997
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 11:52 am OOONSK OOONSK OOONSK OOONSK ÜNTZ ÜNTZ ÜNTZ ÜNTZ OOONSK OOONSK OOONSK OOONSK ÜNTZ ÜNTZ ÜNTZ ÜNTZ
Read in browser Rot: makeup stop-motion of a body in the dark
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 01, 2012 11:00 am "Rot" is
Erica Luke's stop-motion makeup animation showing a corpse's decay in a dark, enclosed space.
Read in browser George Barris, the 87-year-old king of "kar kustomizers," profiled in LA Times
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 09:51 am For 70 years George Barris has been "taking ordinary vehicles and mutating them into hell-for-leather roadsters," many of which are now part of automotive history. "Others have been immortalized on television and in the movies," writes W.J. Hennigan in the Los Angeles Times. "He turned a 1955 Ford Lincoln Futura into the Batmobile. He stretched ...
Read in browser Boy who shot neo-Nazi dad may have believed he'd go free, because TV
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 09:45 am In an LA Times story about the ongoing trial of a child who shot and killed his neo-Nazi activist father Jeffrey Hall, regional director of the National Socialist Movement: "According to the Press-Enterprise, the boy said he didn't think he would be pubished because he watched an episode of the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. ...
Read in browser Silicon Alley, running on diesel
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 09:43 am The Verge: "Post-hurricane, New York's internet industry runs on diesel." Sandy knocked out power to key data centers on which publishers like HuffPo, Gawker, and Buzzfeed relied.
Read in browser Many who were damaged by Sandy rent, and lack renters' insurance
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 09:41 am Many New York residents will beforeced to cover the cost of their their losses themselves: most households in NYC rent -- nearly 70 percent of them -- and fewer than a third of renters have renter's insurance. More at Marketplace.org (HT: Lauren Young).
Read in browser Hurricane Sandy, as seen from the NYT building
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 09:38 am Jim Roberts at the NYT tweets: "3-days of storm & aftermath compressed into 4:35-minute video, from rooftop camera." Video Link.
Read in browser Avian
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 09:14 am "Alien" meets eggs.
Read in browser Realistic Roswell space alien autopsy tableau
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 01, 2012 08:59 am John Whalen says, "My brother, Dan, cooked up this little quasi-historical tableau for his wife, Rose, in San Francisco."
Read in browser Giant PVC squid
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 01, 2012 08:50 am Designboom profiles Victorine Müller's beautiful, gigantic inflatable animals, including 'Ballon Stratosphérique' (a giant PVC squid). one example of her compositions is 'timeline', a performance in lucerne from 2005, which gives clear definition for most of her work. the piece is best described by the deployment and occupancy of a monolithic transparent elephant, illuminated by natural ...
Read in browser Bits of Freedom's annual donation campaign is today: defend digital freedom in the Netherlands!
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 01, 2012 07:44 am Ot sez, "Bits of Freedom is organizing its annual donation campaign today. Why? Because privacy and freedom on the internet are under threat and we need to defend our rights online. We can only do so with your help. If you want to help, you can write a blog, use one of our banners on ...
Read in browser Hilda and the Bird Parade: high adventure kids' comic in the style of Miyazaki & Jansson
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 01, 2012 07:38 am Hilda and the Bird Parade is every bit the triumph that the earlier volumes were, full of adventure and mystery.
Read in browser Anti-scratch spray for device screens apparently works
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 01, 2012 12:17 am Red Ferret reviewed
Liquid Armor, a "nanotech" spray that you apply to your mobile device screen in order to prevent it from scratching.
Read in browser Russian beard tax token from the reign of Peter the Great
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 01, 2012 12:12 am This is a Russian beard tax token from the reign of Peter the Great, who set out to modernize Russia by getting everyone to shave. Anyone who wanted to keep a beard had to buy one of these tokens (which bore the legend "the beard is a superfluous burden"). Costs varied by profession -- nobles ...
Read in browser MPAA tells court that Megaupload users shouldn't be allowed access to their own files
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 31, 2012 10:58 pm U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady in Virginia has scheduled a hearing to adjudicate a claim from Kyle Goodwin, a sports videographer in Ohio whose videos have been lost since the illegal raids in May on Megaupload, a file-locker service. The MPAA has asked to participate in the hearing in order to object, in principle, to ...
Read in browser BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Zombie Baby breaking out of womb
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 31, 2012 10:00 pm In our Epic Halloween DIY Costume thread, Boing Boing reader Laz Burke shares this awesome photo of a zombie baby breaking out of the womb.
Read in browser The physics of the weird geometries of the corpse city of R'lyeh
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 31, 2012 09:49 pm Theoretical physicist and mathematician Benjamin K. Tippett has posted a paper called "Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific," which analyzes the account of Gustaf Johansen, the author of the manuscript embedded in HP Lovecraft's famous story The Call of Cthulhu, and tries to account for the weird geometries that hide "the corpse ...
Read in browser BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Spider and Plague Doc masks
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 31, 2012 09:15 pm In our Epic Halloween DIY Costume thread, Boing Boing reader Celeste says, We've made masks again this year. My husband Jacob is a plague doctor. I'm a spider (ironically, my least favourite animal but I loved working on the mask!). More pics and a bit of info on how they were made here.
Read in browser Free/open source programmer and Creative Commons activist Bassel Khartabil faces torture in notorious Syrian prison
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 31, 2012 08:38 pm Bassel Khartabil, a Palestinian free/open source developer and Creative Commons activist, has been in prison in Syria since June, and his colleagues around the world have been agitating for his release. Now, the news gets worse: a recently released fellow inmate reports that Khartabil has been subject to harsh treatment and torture in Syrian custody. ...
Read in browser Downtown After Sandy: Walking 3 miles in blacked-out NYC, the night after the storm
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 31, 2012 07:49 pm Walking 3 miles from Mulberry Street to Grand Central on the night after Hurricane Sandy. Everything south of 38th street was dark.
Read in browser BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Mars and the Curiosity Rover
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 31, 2012 07:44 pm In our Epic Halloween DIY Costume thread, Boing Boing reader Shannon Stewart says, "My husband and I went as Mars and the Curiosity Rover. Had a ton of fun making these babies and the costumes were a huge hit everywhere we went!"
Read in browser Infinite Gangnam Style: realtime, beat-matched remix that goes on forever
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 31, 2012 07:43 pm With "Infinite Gangnam Style," Paul Lamere provides an infinite, intelligent remix of Psy's viral classic.
Read in browser EFF's Open Wireless campaign: help your neighbors, improve anonymity, support innovation
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 31, 2012 07:29 pm The Electronic Frontier Foundation is stepping up its open wireless campaign, which encourages people and businesses to leave their Internet connections open to the public, and offers advice on doing this safely and sustainably. As EFF points out, most WiFi networks are latent for most of the time, and there are a million ways that ...
Read in browser BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Tardis Dress
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 31, 2012 07:07 pm In our Epic Halloween DIY Costume thread, Boing Boing reader Chris Spurgeon says, "My daughter rolled her own Tardis dress!"
Read in browser Band that shut down LA freeway will serve no time
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 31, 2012 06:43 pm "Members of a band that staged an impromptu concert in the middle of the 101 fwy. in Hollywood will not get jail time for the publicity stunt that caused massive gridlock."
Read in browser Housekeeping: images in comments
By David Pescovitz on Oct 31, 2012 06:33 pm There is currently a problem with our Disqus commenting system preventing images from being seen in the threads. We have alerted Disqus of this issue. Until this is fixed, please link to any images you'd like to share in your comments! Thank you.
Read in browser Dutch government scraps "weed cards" - foreigners will still be able to smoke weed in Amsterdam's "coffee shops"
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 31, 2012 06:25 pm The new Dutch government has scrapped plans to issue "weed passes" to permanent Dutch residents, and require these passes in order to purchase cannabis products in Amsterdam's famed marijuana "coffee shops." Other cities will be free to ban foreigners from their own cannabis coffee shops, should they choose, but the national government will not impose ...
Read in browser BB Readers' DIY Costumes: We are all Pussy Riot
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 31, 2012 06:00 pm In our Epic Halloween DIY Costume thread, Boing Boing reader Becca Tarvin shares this photo of a gang of revelers dressed as Russian art-provocateur-heroes Pussy Riot.
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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