San Francisco: Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) to be interviewed live by David Pescovitz Edgar Allan Poe as an astronaut A wonderful radio program with old timey Yiddish Music from "rescued" 78s One year from today, we get Anchorman 2 Law of Superheroes: all of first-year law-school, seen through the lens of comic-book heroes How humans evolved to explore What to drink this winter — according to Smithsonian Eco-friendly stuffies and Postmodernist socks from American Apparel Why entertainment industry release windows drive piracy that we all have to pay for In which Santa helps remind us all of the importance of metadata Dinosaur Comics creator's Choose-your-own-adventure Hamlet beats all Kickstarter publishing records Steampunk mask-maker gets justice after being plagiarised Why Mayor Rob Ford belongs on Toronto's shitlist. Again. Dieselpunk sculptures from New Zealand Mark Crilley's how-to-draw videos Retroreflective Scarves by Diana Eng Amanda Palmer cancels part of her tour to care for a friend with cancer Round the World in 18 Songs: CDA's live musical performance to Google Maps accompaniment Spider-Man vs. Obama The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date, by Sam Arbesman - exclusive excerpt Topps Ugly Stickers! Ukrainian steampunk mask-maker gets plagiarized by Skymall stalwarts Design Toscano How to make a simple motor Solved! UChicago's Indiana Jones mystery package Spider creates "decoy" of self Pre-Holiday dinner mission: install LazyTruth Ko Xiny covers My Bloody Valentine 1953 photos of the chemistry teacher you wish you had Universal remote control pillow The Newtown tragedy and the virtual front stoop San Francisco: Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) to be interviewed live by David Pescovitz
By David Pescovitz on Dec 20, 2012 12:26 pm On January 31, 2013, legendary bassist Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order will appear at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco in an interview with Boing Boing's David Pescovitz.
Read in browser Edgar Allan Poe as an astronaut
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 20, 2012 10:58 am Courtesy of Zombie37 in the Boing Boing Flickr pool, a photo of a smashing pasteup of Edgar Allan Poe as an astronaut, by TOVEN at Station North in Baltimore. Poe Astronaut on Howard St.
Read in browser A wonderful radio program with old timey Yiddish Music from "rescued" 78s
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 20, 2012 10:31 am My brother
Carl, a crate-digger and
amateur ethnomusicologist of sorts, hosts a radio program on WRIR, an indie radio station in Richmond, VA.
The latest episode of his show is available here for download, and includes a batch of rare, wonderful Yiddish popular music from the '40s and '50s on 78 RPM vinyl, all of which he found at a thrift store in town. The show also features homages to Ravi Shankar and Dave Brubeck, legendary musicians who recently died.
Read in browser One year from today, we get Anchorman 2
By Jamie Frevele on Dec 20, 2012 10:27 am If there was any reason to look forward to this exact time next year (besides the fact that no one will be talking about the Mayans), it's this: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues will hit theaters on December 20, 2013. Let the year-long party start NOW. (via Vulture)
Read in browser Law of Superheroes: all of first-year law-school, seen through the lens of comic-book heroes
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 20, 2012 10:27 am In the The Law of Superheroes two lawyers called James Daily and Ryan Davidson do a magnificent job overview of the US legal system that manages to be extremely informative and incredibly entertaining, because, as the title implies, they tour the legal system as it would apply to comic-book superheroes. This is much better than ...
Read in browser How humans evolved to explore
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 20, 2012 10:03 am Boldly going where nobody's gone before. In a lot of ways, that idea kind of defines our whole species. We travel. We're curious. We poke our noses around the planet to find new places to live. We're compelled to explore places few people would ever actually want to live. We push ourselves into space. This ...
Read in browser What to drink this winter — according to Smithsonian
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 20, 2012 10:01 am Smithsonian's Food and Think blog has a (Northern-hemispherically biased) list of ideal Christmas/wintertime drinks — along with some cool history about where those drinks come from and how they're made. For example, Imperial Stout beer was invented in the late 1690s as a way to help delicious English stout beer survive frigidly cold Russian winters. ...
Read in browser Eco-friendly stuffies and Postmodernist socks from American Apparel
By Advertiser on Dec 20, 2012 10:00 am ADVERTISEMENT This post is sponsored by American Apparel: Stuff those stockings with stuffies and stockings! From the American Apparel/Boing Boing Style Gift Guide: • Scrappies: Environmentally friendly stuffed animals featuring 100% recycled stuffing, and an exterior made from reclaimed neon fabrics that, ordinarily, would have been destined for landfills. • Calf-High Memphis Sock: Inspired by ...
Read in browser Why entertainment industry release windows drive piracy that we all have to pay for
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 20, 2012 09:34 am My latest Guardian column, "Why the entertainment industry's release strategy creates piracy," looks at the weird entertainment industry practice of defending their right not to sell us the things we want to buy, and the rather more odious practice of asking the public to foot the bill for this strategy: In a real marketplace, the ...
Read in browser In which Santa helps remind us all of the importance of metadata
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 20, 2012 09:33 am Metadata is one of those things that is so important, it becomes easy to forget about. We often collect metadata without thinking about it. When we don't collect it — or if we collect it in a sloppy manner — we notice very quickly that something has gone wrong. But when someone says the word ...
Read in browser Dinosaur Comics creator's Choose-your-own-adventure Hamlet beats all Kickstarter publishing records
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 20, 2012 08:35 am Ryan "Dinosaur Comics" North writes in with the improbable tale of his amazingly successful Kickstarter for a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style adaptation of Hamlet, which has made him a fortune and prompted him to release the whole thing under a Creative Commons license: There's a little under two days left on the project for my chooseable-path version ...
Read in browser Steampunk mask-maker gets justice after being plagiarised
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 20, 2012 01:27 am Yesterday, I blogged about Bob Basset, the Ukrainian steampunk leatherworker, discovering one of his designs in the Design Toscano catalog without credit or royalty. The publicity that the Internet gave to Basset's cause caused Toscano to contact Basset and offer him a royalty, and they blame an unscrupulous supplier who claimed the design as its ...
Read in browser Why Mayor Rob Ford belongs on Toronto's shitlist. Again.
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 19, 2012 11:15 pm Torontoist's Christopher Bird explains perfectly why Mayor Rob "Laughable Bumblefuck" Ford belongs on Villain of the Year list for 2012, after appearing on so many such lists in years gone by: Rob Ford is a pathetic joke of a mayor, easily the worst mayor this city has ever had. He is a coward, a liar, ...
Read in browser Dieselpunk sculptures from New Zealand
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 19, 2012 08:50 pm Rob Murdoch sends us a link to his site, where he posts, "Science fiction themed retro looking sculptures of machines, animals etc all made from recycled machinery. Built in Dieselpunk fashion and of very high quality and design!" They are indeed super cool. Alas, there appears to be no way to buy 'em! Rob, if ...
Read in browser Mark Crilley's how-to-draw videos
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 19, 2012 08:41 pm Cartoonist Mark Crilley has made over 200 high-quality videos showing how to draw people and animals in a semi-manga style. My daughter Jane and I like to watch them and sometimes we draw along with him. Even if you don't draw along with Crilley, his videos are a joy to watch, because Crilley is a ...
Read in browser Retroreflective Scarves by Diana Eng
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 19, 2012 08:32 pm Fashion designer Diana Eng has created a beautiful retroflective scarf. She says: I love the lightweight scarves everyone is wearing indoors, outdoors, and in many different configurations. So I decided to create my own with subtle stripes of tiny retroreflective lenses on the fabric. What normally appear as grey stripes, illuminates with reflected light when ...
Read in browser Amanda Palmer cancels part of her tour to care for a friend with cancer
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 19, 2012 07:43 pm I think this post, and the decision and emotional commitment behind it, is a profoundly beautiful thing: "cancer. canceling. postponing. waiting. growing." I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Palmer recently, and we talked about cancer. What it's like to have it, and what it's like to lose someone you love to it, as my ...
Read in browser Round the World in 18 Songs: CDA's live musical performance to Google Maps accompaniment
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 19, 2012 07:39 pm A live performance at a private Google conference in Arizona earlier this year by Joe Sabia's
CDZA musical project.
Read in browser Spider-Man vs. Obama
By David Pescovitz on Dec 19, 2012 07:17 pm Spider-Man tangles with President Obama at the White House. Daily Bugle photograph by Pete Souza. (via Time)
Read in browser The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date, by Sam Arbesman - exclusive excerpt
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 19, 2012 06:50 pm Here's an excerpt from The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date, by Sam Arbesman. Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that Pluto was a planet. For decades, we were convinced ...
Read in browser Topps Ugly Stickers!
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 19, 2012 06:35 pm Zack sez, "Retronaut has a collection of the gloriously gross Topps Ugly Stickers from 1965. Just in time for the holidays!" These were my favorite thing in the world when I was a kid. Marc Lieberman and I used to go and collect empty beer-bottles left behind by teenagers under the bleachers at Vanier Collegiate, ...
Read in browser Ukrainian steampunk mask-maker gets plagiarized by Skymall stalwarts Design Toscano
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 19, 2012 06:30 pm Update: Design Toscano has apologized for this and agreed to pay a royalty to Bob Basset. They blame an unscrupulous supplier who presented the design as its own. Design Toscano, a wealthy, fast-growing company, is selling a leather steampunk mask that clearly plagiarises the work of Ukrainian leatherworker Bob Basset, a favorite around these parts. ...
Read in browser How to make a simple motor
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 19, 2012 06:03 pm I made this motor about 8 years ago when Jane was a baby (she's the one who keeps crying "Dad-dee! Dad-dee!" near the end of the video). I learned about it from this Howtoons cartoon, which appears in every issue of MAKE. It's very easy to make the motor. You need: -- 12" of hook-up ...
Read in browser Solved! UChicago's Indiana Jones mystery package
By David Pescovitz on Dec 19, 2012 05:46 pm Last week, the University of Chicago posted that they had received a curious package addressed to Henry Walton Jones, Jr. A student mail worker recognized that name as belonging to a certain Indiana Jones who, in the film trilogy, was a professor at UChicago. The envelope was packed with Indiana Jones ephemera, including a replica ...
Read in browser Spider creates "decoy" of self
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 19, 2012 05:10 pm Phil Torres: It turns out the master designer behind this somewhat creepy form is in fact a tiny spider, only about 5mm in body length, that is hiding behind or above that false, bigger spider made up of debris. After discussing with several spider experts, we've determined it is quite probable that this spider is ...
Read in browser Pre-Holiday dinner mission: install LazyTruth
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 19, 2012 03:56 pm Matt Stempeck of the MIT Media Lab created LazyTruth, a "Gmail gadget that surfaces verified debunks when you receive a chain email." He says: Each year, we gather around the table with large branches of our family tree. As the night wears on, family updates give way to dramatic retellings of the bizarre email chains ...
Read in browser Ko Xiny covers My Bloody Valentine
By David Pescovitz on Dec 19, 2012 03:24 pm The young, talented
Ko Xiny of Singapore covers My Bloody Valentine's "When You Sleep."
Read in browser 1953 photos of the chemistry teacher you wish you had
By David Pescovitz on Dec 19, 2012 03:19 pm This is Hubert Alyea, a Princeton University professor who clearly loves teaching science. "Grimacing with fiendish delight," LIFE wrote about Alyea in 1953, "he sets off explosions, shoots water pistols and sprays his audience with carbon dioxide in the course of 32 harrowing experiments dramatizing complicated theory." LIFE With Hubert Alyea: The Science Teacher You ...
Read in browser Universal remote control pillow
By David Pescovitz on Dec 19, 2012 03:14 pm If your remote control vanished as often as mine, you wouldn't dismiss this admittedly ridiculous Universal Pillow Remote out of hand. (Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)
Read in browser The Newtown tragedy and the virtual front stoop
By David Pescovitz on Dec 19, 2012 03:11 pm Over at Tweetage Wasteland, Dave Pell considers the firehouse of misinformation, theories, and bullshit that was instantly unleashed online and erroneously "confirmed" by the mainstream media after the Newtown massacre: Did you hear the shooter's name was Ryan? Isn't it shocking that his mother worked at the school where the shootings took place? Can you ...
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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