Walter Ungerer's experimental short film "Meet Me, Jesus" (1966) The kids dig minor keys: How pop music has changed since 1960 If you love Blade Runner and also fan art, there is a contest that might interest you Unhoaxing the famous bigfoot movie hoax 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year: Tesla S Evidence suggests: Don't bother brining your turkey Buy a wife from Vietnam for $6,000 Get ready, lovers of 8-bit everything: The Hit Squad is coming Stunningly surreal time remapping video Woman mows down husband with car for not voting Man ordered not to throw horseshit at Prince Charles Teller explains the psychology of magic Everyday Scientology Dream of Pixels: Tetris in reverse! Eyeball caught in a swirling drain Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The First Rap Group on SNL Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, 1942 Tower of London keys swiped Omar Rayyan's fantastic art Petraeus stars in new Call of Duty Who Bought Your Politician? Tune: Derek Kirk Kim's alien abduction romcom Light by MooresCloud: Kickstarter for open, net-controllable lightshow and mood lighting Gweek 075: Oliver Sacks' Hallucinations Wall Street is not made up of "numbers guys" Draw smokey patterns with Silk Empire I: World Builders - 1981 game for the Apple II How to turn Barbie into a Weeping Angel Lifelike robo-fish at Tokyo Toy Fair Math + Too Much Free Time = Walter Ungerer's experimental short film "Meet Me, Jesus" (1966)
By David Pescovitz on Nov 13, 2012 12:52 pm Meet Me, Jesus is a very strange 1966 experimental film by
Walter Ungerer.
Read in browser The kids dig minor keys: How pop music has changed since 1960
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 13, 2012 12:47 pm While 85% of Billboard Top 100 songs of the 1960s were written in a major key, that preference no longer holds true today. Minor key songs have become the majority, representing about 60% of modern hits. Scientific American's Helen Lee Lin delves into this, and other documented changes in musical preference. The research is totally ...
Read in browser If you love Blade Runner and also fan art, there is a contest that might interest you
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 13, 2012 12:46 pm My friends over at my old stomping ground, The Mary Sue, are currently running a contest that will award two lucky winners the very fancy-looking 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition Blu-ray of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. What do you need to do to win this? Fan art -- your best cosplay, drawings, anything that you create ...
Read in browser Unhoaxing the famous bigfoot movie hoax
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 13, 2012 12:41 pm Comparing the trailing shin angle between the biped in the Patterson Bigfoot film (73%) and humans (52%)
Read in browser 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year: Tesla S
By David Pescovitz on Nov 13, 2012 12:38 pm For the first time ever, the winner of the 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year is not powered by an internal combustion engine; it is the all-electric Tesla S. Not surprisingly, Motor Trend is also spinning the news as a big win for American innovation. "2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year: Tesla Model ...
Read in browser Evidence suggests: Don't bother brining your turkey
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 13, 2012 12:34 pm J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, the chief creative officer at the Serious Eats Blog, is a mad kitchen-science genius. Here at BoingBoing, we've posted about his past experiments demonstrating that there's no reason to waste money on expensive cleavers; that foie gras isn't necessarily evil; and that McDonald's hamburgers will, in fact, rot (under the right conditions). ...
Read in browser Buy a wife from Vietnam for $6,000
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 13, 2012 12:30 pm I hope this is a hoax. (Via Bits and Pieces)
Read in browser Get ready, lovers of 8-bit everything: The Hit Squad is coming
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 13, 2012 12:29 pm Behold! A brand new, independently funded and produced 8-bit movie!
Read in browser Stunningly surreal time remapping video
By David Pescovitz on Nov 13, 2012 12:10 pm "timeRemapExportHD" by
Adrien M / Claire B.
Read in browser Woman mows down husband with car for not voting
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 13, 2012 12:01 pm Arizona republican Holly Solomon, 28, was arrested Monday after running over her husband, Daniel Solomon, following his failure to vote in last week's presidential election. Solomon remains in critical condition, but his vote was not critical to the victory of Democrat Barack Obama.
Read in browser Man ordered not to throw horseshit at Prince Charles
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 13, 2012 11:53 am An Auckland resident was ordered Tuesday to stay away from Prince Charles and wife Camilla during their stay in New Zealand, thereby thwarting his plans to throw horseshit at the royal couple. Sam Bracanov, 76, was ordered by Auckland District Court to remain at least 500 meters from the future British monarch. Though he pleaded ...
Read in browser Teller explains the psychology of magic
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 11:44 am Teller had a great piece in last March's Smithsonian magazine, explaining the overarching principles behind all magic tricks. It's a great look at the way that our brains can be enticed to fool themselves. 1. Exploit pattern recognition. I magically produce four silver dollars, one at a time, with the back of my hand toward ...
Read in browser Everyday Scientology
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 13, 2012 11:36 am Stella Forstner grew up in the Church of Scientology, and wants you to understand what Scientologists actually believe. [The Hairpin] Growing up surrounded by the language and ideas of Scientology, I developed the capacity for linguistic register-switching: the ability to rapidly, even unconsciously, shift my language when I moved among different social domains. To this ...
Read in browser Dream of Pixels: Tetris in reverse!
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 13, 2012 11:09 am Dream of Pixels reverses time on the best game of Tetris you ever had: a grid of blocks lies already complete, and you have to unpack the tetrominoes that fell to create it. The iOS version is coming out on Thursday, but you can play the prototype—which lacks the full game's beautiful graphics‐for free on ...
Read in browser Eyeball caught in a swirling drain
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 11:05 am Liammmin, a redditor, caught this incidental eyeball in a swirling drain. The origin story has a good moral: "My friend said something around the lines of 'Liam, you take too many photos.' So I ran around the room taking photos of everything and showing him all of them, then this happened and we got spooked." ...
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The First Rap Group on SNL
By Ed Piskor on Nov 13, 2012 11:00 am Read the rest of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics!
Read in browser Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, 1942
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 13, 2012 10:55 am Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain is a fascinating and occasionally hilarious guide written for GIs headed to Britain—then half-ruined by war—in 1942. Subjects range from common-sense basics ("instead of railroads, automobiles, and radios, the British will talk about railways, motor-cars, and wireless") to subtle social pitfalls regarding race, sex and income. You can read ...
Read in browser Tower of London keys swiped
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 13, 2012 10:25 am Locks had to be changed at London's 930-year old fortress—and home of the crown jewels—after a man was found trespassing within the walls, keys in hand. [Reuters]
Read in browser Omar Rayyan's fantastic art
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 13, 2012 10:22 am As fond as I am of Omar Rayyan's marriage of Renaissance portraiture and weird fantasy (such as Contessa with Squid, above), I think I prefer the lighter derangements found in his childrens book-style work; prints are available on Etsy. [via Super Punch] Previously
Read in browser Petraeus stars in new Call of Duty
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 10:14 am Brian sez, "Talk about unfortunate timing: David Petraeus is the new Secretary of Defense in the brand new Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The new first-person shooter features the former general as the Secretary of Defense in the year 2025, serving loyally to female President who looks a whole lot like ...
Read in browser Who Bought Your Politician?
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 13, 2012 10:01 am Who do your politicians represent? Wired's embeddable widget made it easy to find out that my senators are Rob Casey (Comcast-PA) and David Christian (National Identity Solutions-PA).
Read in browser Tune: Derek Kirk Kim's alien abduction romcom
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 08:07 am Today, Derek Kirk Kim's online science fictional rom-com comic
Tune has been collected in the first of (I hope) many volumes, with
Tune: Vanishing Point.
Read in browser Light by MooresCloud: Kickstarter for open, net-controllable lightshow and mood lighting
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 09:03 am Mark Pesce writes, "What happens when an LED makes sweet love to a smartphone? You get the Light by MooresCloud, 52 full-color LEDs controlled by an embedded computer running Linux and connected to your tablet, smartphone and the Internet via WiFi. This 'lamp with a LAMP stack' takes the Internet of Things in a new ...
Read in browser Gweek 075: Oliver Sacks' Hallucinations
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 12, 2012 10:21 pm Dr. Sacks books are fascinating explorations into the way the human mind works, usually through studying abnormal minds and surprising ways in which they give us clues about perception, consciousness, and behavior.
Read in browser Wall Street is not made up of "numbers guys"
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 12, 2012 09:33 pm Chad Orzel's post, "Financiers Still Aren't Rocket Scientists" is a timely reminder that Mitt Romney and other Wall Street Types are not, by and large, superhero math geniuses with their fingers on the arcane numeric truths underpinning all reality. Some quants are genuinely impressive mathematicians, but the industry's reputation for "numbers guys," is just wrong-o. ...
Read in browser Draw smokey patterns with Silk
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 12, 2012 06:53 pm Silk is a website that lets you draw smokey shapes (with or without symmetry) by clicking and dragging.
Read in browser Empire I: World Builders - 1981 game for the Apple II
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 12, 2012 06:33 pm Last week I was at the Albuquerque Academy and I spent some time with the smart and friendly high school members of the rocketry club there. They had a lot of great stuff in their on-campus hackerspace, including an Apple ][ and a bunch of software for it. One of the games they had was ...
Read in browser How to turn Barbie into a Weeping Angel
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 12, 2012 06:03 pm The Mary Sue tracked down a new career for Barbie -- Weeping Angel. The DIY guide, originally found on Wich Crafting, shows how a simple Barbie (or a less expensive impostor) can become the fearsome Doctor Who villain using a few simple ingredients. (And also breaking Barbie's arms.) Consider this a suggestion for holiday gift-giving, ...
Read in browser Lifelike robo-fish at Tokyo Toy Fair
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 12, 2012 05:51 pm Next time my kid asks for a pet fish, I'll get her one of these instead. It's a million times better than the real thing.
Read in browser Math + Too Much Free Time =
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 12, 2012 05:46 pm Here is a detailed analysis of the amount of time it would take to ride a hypothetical elevator down through the Earth's core and back out the other side of the planet. Apparently, this has something to do with the remake of Total Recall. But it's interesting even if (like me) you have no intention ...
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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