John Hodgman on the coming apocalpyse Extremely important news: Arrested Development will come to Netflix Canada Esplora - new Arduino device for learning and play She & Him's yule log app Man shoots girlfriend in fight over The Walking Dead Hello Kitty lunchbox guitar Snoot-Flute: make music with your nose! Dining with the Doctor Homemade Syrian rebel-tank with gamepad gun controller Elfquest: time to go You have better things to do than buy earbuds Monkey in a smart coat visits suburban Ikea "Posh burgers": what do you make of literary action movies? Underwater Welder: Twilight Zone-ish ghost comic from Jeff "Sweet Tooth" Lemire Video game controversies of 2012 How many people are in space? Why dictators (don't) shut down the Internet Congressman calls for ban on 3D printed guns Guts in sofas John Hodgman on the coming apocalpyse
By David Pescovitz on Dec 10, 2012 12:55 pm Our friend John Hodgman delivers an important message about the imminent apocalypse.
Read in browser Extremely important news: Arrested Development will come to Netflix Canada
By Jamie Frevele on Dec 10, 2012 12:53 pm Originally only intended to hit the U.S. market, Arrested Development will now hit Netflix in Canada the same day of the U.S. premiere. Boxing Day came early! (via The Hollywood Reporter)
Read in browser Esplora - new Arduino device for learning and play
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 10, 2012 12:49 pm Marc De Vinck says: The Arduino Esplora is a ready-to-use, easy-to-hold controller that lets you explore the infinite possibilities you have in the world of Arduino, without having to deal with breadboards or soldering. Shaped like a game controller, it’s designed to be used out of the box without extra parts since it comes with ...
Read in browser She & Him's yule log app
By David Pescovitz on Dec 10, 2012 12:32 pm The lovely and talented M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel have released a simple and fun free iOS app called "A Very She & Him Christmas: Yule Log." Cozy up to the fire and listen to "I'll be Home for Christmas" from their now-classic A Very She & Him Christmas album.
Read in browser Man shoots girlfriend in fight over The Walking Dead
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 10, 2012 12:32 pm Jarman Gurman, 26, had an argument with his girlfriend over "The Walking Dead" early Monday morning. So he shot her in the back with a rifle. [NBC]
Read in browser Hello Kitty lunchbox guitar
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 10, 2012 12:19 pm Jane's Hello Kitty lunchbox had a crummy latch on it -- it kept popping open and her lunch items would fall out. This weekend I made a guitar out of it for my 4-year-old niece. It's her Christmas present. It's the best sounding guitar I've made so far! I'm writing a project book for dads ...
Read in browser Snoot-Flute: make music with your nose!
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2012 12:00 pm Why this never caught on is beyond me. Snoot-Flute
Read in browser Dining with the Doctor
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 10, 2012 11:45 am Huge Doctor Who fan Chris-Rachel Oseland has created a dish to go along with each episode of the series since the 2005 relaunch and complied them into this cookbook! I have yet to try any in the kitchen but should I ever throw a Doctor Who theme party, this book will be the first I ...
Read in browser Homemade Syrian rebel-tank with gamepad gun controller
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2012 11:21 am The unfortunately named "Sham II" is a homemade Syrian rebel tank whose main gun is directed with an off-brand video-game thumbstick/gamepad controller.
Read in browser Elfquest: time to go
By Wendy and Richard Pini on Dec 10, 2012 11:00 am Enjoy
the latest page of Elfquest. First time reader? Catch up at the comic's
official homepage.
Read in browser You have better things to do than buy earbuds
By Dean Putney on Dec 10, 2012 10:10 am Busy people like you and I don't have the time nor the inclination to navigate the sea of earbuds out there, so I turned to Wirecutter to find out what they recommended as the best earbuds. They've got a fine recommendation in the $100 category, and now that I've got a pair of them I ...
Read in browser Monkey in a smart coat visits suburban Ikea
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2012 10:06 am A monkey in a nice coat escaped from a cage inside its owner's car, opened the car door, and strolled into an Ikea in North York, a suburb of Toronto. The monkey was removed shortly thereafter. I have been stuck in that Ikea and I can testify that whatever your feelings about the ethics of ...
Read in browser "Posh burgers": what do you make of literary action movies?
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 10, 2012 09:27 am Charlie Brooker offers ambivalent praise for the Batman-Bond trend toward smarter, more literary action movies. The Dark Knight Rises can't simply be a popcorn movie about a man who dresses as a bat and fights a bloke with a jockstrap on his face. No. It's The Seventh Seal in a cape. Skyfall isn't about a ...
Read in browser Underwater Welder: Twilight Zone-ish ghost comic from Jeff "Sweet Tooth" Lemire
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2012 09:23 am Underwater Welder is a stand-alone, haunting graphic novel from Jeff Lemire, best know for his work on Sweet Tooth, a graphic novel I greatly admire (Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It's the story of Jack Joseph, a deep-sea welder who works on an oil-rig off the coast of Nova Scotia. He's about to become ...
Read in browser Video game controversies of 2012
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 10, 2012 09:23 am Leigh Alexander tallies the year's most spectacular dust-ups in videogame land: "It's become clear more gamers than ever now have a zero-tolerance policy for prejudice, insensitivity and exclusionary attitudes witin our community." See also Frank Cifaldi's 5 events that shook the industry.
Read in browser How many people are in space?
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 09, 2012 11:17 pm How Many People Are in Space Right Now is a single-serving site that manages to be depressing and awe-inspiring at once. How Many People Are In Space Right Now? (via Making Light)
Read in browser Why dictators (don't) shut down the Internet
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 09, 2012 06:56 pm Warren Ellis's Vice column, "How to Shut Down Internets," looks at the phenomenon of Middle Eastern dictators shutting off their nation's Internet during moments of extremis. Here's the money graf: There are two reasons why these shutdowns happen in this manner. The first is that these governments wish to black out activities like, say, indiscriminate ...
Read in browser Congressman calls for ban on 3D printed guns
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 09, 2012 02:37 pm Well, that was predictable: days after a 3D printed gun fired a few rounds, Rep Steve Israel has called for a ban on of Wiki Weapons. The congressman points out (correctly) that all-plastic 3D printed weapons would not be easy to spot using traditional methods, such as metal detectors. However, what Rep Israel doesn't say ...
Read in browser Guts in sofas
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 09, 2012 01:23 pm A pair of sofas from Cao Hui's "Visual Temperature" series hint at a kind of biological secret life of soft furnishings. Visual Temperature — Sofa Visual Temperature — Sofa No.2 (via Richard Kadrey)
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
No comments:
Post a Comment