Miles Davis vs. LCD Soundsystem Comprehensive book about Star Wars action figures American Ass. of Publishers trying to sabotage copyright treaty for blind and disabled people Earliest Hitchcock film now streaming Kevin Clash announces his departure from Sesame Street following sex scandal Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The First Day of MTV Intel CEO to retire Nutjob violates parole An art book celebrating 100 years of Tarzan The best airlines Chimps suffer mid-life crises Engadget apologizes to commenters for writer's opinion Beyond the public debt: making a wider case for openness Cocaine Halloween Nights Ultimate British tabloid headline Opera browser popular in Belarus Deer enter shop Burrowing into the gerbil rumors Buyer beware: Nintendo nukes $400 worth of downloaded content during DRM-fail migration to Wii U Snow White with hand-grenade Is our retro obsession ruining everything? Doktor A's immortality helmet Funny & profane guide to digital inking Charges dropped against man arrested for wearing an elaborate wristwatch Short documentary: Why Privacy Matters Amazing Mickey Mouse skull graffiti The climate change generation gap Peter Jackson responds to rumors of animal cruelty on the set of The Hobbit Cosmically speaking, we are over the hill Kickstarter to revive Glorantha, old RPG that was eclipsed by D&D Miles Davis vs. LCD Soundsystem
By David Pescovitz on Nov 20, 2012 12:16 pm Miles Davis vs. LCD Soundsystem. Uploader
Alessandro Grespan says, "No editing or other tricks, just 2 youtube videos played at the same time."
Read in browser Comprehensive book about Star Wars action figures
By David Pescovitz on Nov 20, 2012 12:10 pm Bring back memories of torn blister packs, fortunes lost, and legendary rocket-firing Boba Fetts with the new "
Star Wars The Ultimate Action Figure Collection."
Read in browser American Ass. of Publishers trying to sabotage copyright treaty for blind and disabled people
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 20, 2012 12:10 pm The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Carolina Rossini is at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, where American-led copyright industry trade groups are prepared, once again, to sabotage a treaty guaranteeing access to blind people and people with other disabilities. At the forefront of stopping blind people from having access to reading is the Association of ...
Read in browser Earliest Hitchcock film now streaming
By David Pescovitz on Nov 20, 2012 11:57 am You can now stream Alfred Hitchcock's "The White Shadow" (1924), the earliest surviving feature by the director. As I posted in 2011, the "lost" movie turned up in a New Zealand film vault. The film stars Betty Compson as twins, one angelic and one evil. Unfortunately, only half of the film's six reels were found, ...
Read in browser Kevin Clash announces his departure from Sesame Street following sex scandal
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 20, 2012 11:54 am Following last week's underage sex scandal, Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash has decided to step down from his 28-year position at Sesame Street. A statement was released by Sesame Workshop on Clash's behalf: "...Kevin Clash has helped us achieve [our] mission for 28 years, and none of us, especially Kevin, want anything to divert our attention ...
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The First Day of MTV
By Ed Piskor on Nov 20, 2012 11:00 am Read the rest of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics!
Read in browser Intel CEO to retire
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 10:53 am Paul Otellini, "a generally well-liked San Francisco native with an M.B.A. from Berkeley", is to retire after 40 years at chipmaker Intel. [NYT]
Read in browser Nutjob violates parole
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 10:48 am Anti-evolutionist and unilateral correspondent Dennis Markuze, harasser of scientists and journalists, has failed to resist the call of the pen despite his recent conviction. John Timmer writes: Within the last few weeks, several science writers (including Scott Johnson of Ars) started receiving disturbingly familiar messages via Twitter. Oddly, a tweet of mine about NASA's Space ...
Read in browser An art book celebrating 100 years of Tarzan
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 20, 2012 10:43 am Tarzan Centennial, by Scott Tracy Griffin, is a lavishly illustrated collection celebrating one hundred years of Tarzan. Exploring the 24 original novels and the many varied appearances on stage, screen and in print, this book features extensive commentary on all aspects of the Tarzan franchise, alongside rare comic strips, cover art and movie stills. Celebrating ...
Read in browser The best airlines
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 10:40 am The best international airlines are Singapore, Emirates, Air New Zealand and Virgin Atlantic. The best domestic airlines are Virgin America, JetBlue, Hawaiian, Alaska and Southwest. CNTraveler has the full lists.
Read in browser Chimps suffer mid-life crises
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 10:34 am Chimpanzees and orangutans experience mid-life crises, suggesting that the causes are "inherent in primate biology and not specific to human society." [Reuters]
Read in browser Engadget apologizes to commenters for writer's opinion
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 10:26 am Two weeks ago, Jon Fingas wrote an interesting opinion piece for Engadget about how Amazon and Google selling hardware at a loss--a classic anticompetitive strategy--reduces choice and hurts consumers. Spotless corporate idols thereby insulted, commenters were angry. So, Engadget apologized to them. MG Siegler: As the unnamed update editor tells it, the piece should have ...
Read in browser Beyond the public debt: making a wider case for openness
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 20, 2012 09:50 am My latest Guardian column is "Why all pharmaceutical research should be made open access," and it makes the wider case for open access, beyond the obvious truth that publicly funded work should be available to the public: One of the strongest arguments for public access in scholarly and scientific publication is the "public debt" argument: ...
Read in browser Cocaine Halloween Nights
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 09:24 am A gentleman in England "mistakenly handed out his cocaine stash to children" instead of Halloween candy, earning him 130 hours of community service and a fine. [Reuters]
Read in browser Ultimate British tabloid headline
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 09:20 am Alex Balk spotted the best Daily Mail headline in recent memory: "Love-rat dad of nine children to eight women who headbutted ex-girlfriend in row over cheese toastie jailed for just 20 days."
Read in browser Opera browser popular in Belarus
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 09:15 am Why is a boutique web browser so popular in Europe's last dictactorship? Opera's maximalist, ultra-fast caching keeps bandwidth use down when using crappy, metered internet. [The Atlantic]
Read in browser Deer enter shop
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 09:07 am The Cedar Rapids Gazette: "A doe and her two fawns tried to get a jump on the Black Friday sales in Coralville on Monday morning when they surprised the staff at Kohl's by entering through the automatic front doors."
Read in browser Burrowing into the gerbil rumors
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 20, 2012 09:04 am Jane Hu offers a stunningly exhaustive report on the urban legend of gerbiling and its connection to AIDS-era homophobia: "Gay sexuality as a realm plagued with abnormality, shame-inducing behaviors, and incomprehensible stupidity", when apparently not one documented case of the practice exists."
Read in browser Buyer beware: Nintendo nukes $400 worth of downloaded content during DRM-fail migration to Wii U
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 20, 2012 09:02 am On Ars Technica, Kyle Orland writes about his experiences trying to migrate his downloaded games from his old Wii to his new Wii U. This could be as straightforward as doing a local network transfer, or moving them around on SD cards. But Nintendo conceived of an insanely complex, slow, and ultimately nonfunctional DRM system ...
Read in browser Snow White with hand-grenade
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 19, 2012 11:23 pm Bad Apple is a sculpture and print by Goin and Mighty Jaxx, depicting Snow White cradling a hand-grenade, with a kerchief covering her face, bandit style. The trademark Disney signature logo appears across the kerchief. Discuss. ついに情報公開可、期待のBad Apple (via Super Punch)
Read in browser Is our retro obsession ruining everything?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 19, 2012 07:55 pm Ben Marks of Collector's Weekly says: In our latest interview, British author Simon Reynolds (“Retromania”) bemoans our culture's fixation on all things vintage and retro, particularly when it comes to music. Here's a snip: "I wonder why we’re so obsessed with the past, particularly in music, because that’s my thing. A lot of the other ...
Read in browser Doktor A's immortality helmet
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 19, 2012 07:54 pm Doktor A's beautiful immortality helmet was produced on commission and looks like a spectacular way to extend your lifespan: 1. Remove strap and leads from the storage drawer. 2. Place electrodes against forehead and tighten strap. 3. Attach bulldog clips to terminals in the jaw. 4. Set over-ride timer to desired duration. 5. Crank the ...
Read in browser Funny & profane guide to digital inking
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 19, 2012 07:42 pm On DeviantArt, Mayekoposted an indispensable and profane guide to digital inking called "Lie, cheat, steal your way to better art." The tl;dr is: work at very high rez (then shrink), and use texture brushes set to 100%. But the commentary is hilarious and convincing -- go read it. LIE-CHEAT-STEAL LIKE A FISH by *Mayeko on ...
Read in browser Charges dropped against man arrested for wearing an elaborate wristwatch
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 19, 2012 06:56 pm Yesterday Cory wrote that "Geoffrey McGann, a southern California artist, was arrested at Oakland airport for wearing an assemblage sculpture/watch he'd made." [UPDATE: I think this is the watch McGann was arrested for, not the one at the top. I'll bet McGann made them both, though.] Matthew says: I thought you might like to know ...
Read in browser Short documentary: Why Privacy Matters
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 19, 2012 06:26 pm Privacy International's 16-minute mini-documentary from DEFCON about privacy is a great, compact answer to the question, "Why does privacy matter?"
Read in browser Amazing Mickey Mouse skull graffiti
By David Pescovitz on Nov 19, 2012 05:47 pm BB pal Greg Long spotted this magnificent graffiti near the GAMA-GO world headquarters in San Francisco's SOMA. If you know the artist, please help me credit him/her! Commenters say it's the work of Goser! Thanks!
Read in browser The climate change generation gap
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 19, 2012 05:33 pm October 2012 was the 332nd month in a row with a global average temperature that is higher than the 20th-century average. Put it another way: If you are younger than 28, then you have never experienced a colder-than-average month. In your entire life. (Via Chris Tackett)
Read in browser Peter Jackson responds to rumors of animal cruelty on the set of The Hobbit
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 19, 2012 05:30 pm Accusations are flying that 27 animals died of mistreatment on the set of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, causing PETA to get up in arms and protest the movie. PETA will protest just about anything, but is there some truth to this story? Jackson and his fellow producers have responded (through an official representative), saying that ...
Read in browser Cosmically speaking, we are over the hill
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 19, 2012 05:10 pm This entire universe is nearing the point where it's time to throw it a party full of black balloons and cheap Grim Reaper decorations, according to recent research by an international team of astronomers. They studied the rate at which stars are born and found that that rate is declining. In fact, most of the ...
Read in browser Kickstarter to revive Glorantha, old RPG that was eclipsed by D&D
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 19, 2012 04:37 pm Glorantha is one of the oldest role-playing worlds in the history of the genre. Unfortunately, due to many reasons, the world never really found traction after D&D conquered RPGs back in the early 1980s.
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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