Unpublish old tweets with the Shame Eraser Over the river and through the woods Roast dinosaur for Christmas Elfquest: the Wavedancers' cove Lord Buckley recounts the life of Christ: The Nazz! The real end of the world How plants stay warm Are these the remains of ancient worm holes? Man with mechanical heart overdoses on Brussels sprouts Rhino horns aren't really horns Gary Gygax explains why Christians shouldn't celebrate Christmas Kid's Boing Boing doodle, 1976 1982 was a vintage year for summer blockbusters Pajamas that look like business suits Etsy seller's awesome, 3D printed nerdy cookie-cutters Unpublish old tweets with the Shame Eraser
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 24, 2012 12:52 pm Now that Twitter's finally made old tweets available, you might be inclined to nuke a few. Developer Benjamin Jackson created a tool that makes it seem easy: the Shame Eraser.
Read in browser Over the river and through the woods
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 24, 2012 12:28 pm We still don't know exactly what causes motion sickness. NASA has some working theories, though.
Read in browser Roast dinosaur for Christmas
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 24, 2012 12:26 pm Tired of turkey? Bored with beef? Maybe it's time to consider a more exotic roast this holiday season. At Popular Science, Erin Berger has taken the time to figure out what dinosaur would hypothetically make the best dinner for people (as opposed to the other way around). The analysis turns out to be surprisingly fascinating ...
Read in browser Elfquest: the Wavedancers' cove
By Wendy and Richard Pini on Dec 24, 2012 12:21 pm Enjoy
the latest page of Elfquest. First time reader? Catch up at the comic's
official homepage.
Read in browser Lord Buckley recounts the life of Christ: The Nazz!
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 24, 2012 11:40 am Earlier this month, I posted
his version of "A Christmas Carol". Now, here's "The Nazz," Lord Buckley's indispensible biography of Jesus Christ.
Read in browser The real end of the world
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 24, 2012 11:33 am Once again, Earth has not been destroyed in a fiery apocalypse. But, someday, our luck will run out. Be prepared! At The Guardian, Ian Sample and Alok Jha helpfully explain how our universe will one day (finally) be destroyed. The good news: By the time that happens, you'll already be dead. [Watch Ian Sample demonstrate ...
Read in browser How plants stay warm
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 24, 2012 11:26 am Plants and animals have to adapt to live in high latitudes and chilly mountain environments. With animals, we kind of instinctively know what makes a creature cold-weather ready — thick, shaggy fur; big, wide snowshoe paws. But what are the features of cold-weather plants? It's one of those really interesting questions that's easy to forget ...
Read in browser Are these the remains of ancient worm holes?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 24, 2012 11:12 am Here's a weird, great geological feature I spotted yesterday while out hiking in rural Oklahoma. We were out in a flat, flat plan that was dotted with a few tall, angular sandstone mounds and narrow sandstone canyons carved out by erosion. This rock was sticking out of the side of one of the mounds. It ...
Read in browser Man with mechanical heart overdoses on Brussels sprouts
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 24, 2012 11:04 am "Consultant cardiologist Dr Roy Gardner said: 'Patients who are taking anticoagulants are generally advised not to eat too many green leafy vegetables, as they are full of vitamin K, which antagonise the action of this vital medication.'" - BBC, via Arbroath
Read in browser Rhino horns aren't really horns
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 24, 2012 10:50 am Last week, I got to visit the Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma City. It's an amazing collection — well worth driving out of your way to see. I was expecting just a selection of different animal skeletons. The actual collection was a lot bigger and more awesome than I'd guessed it would be, and included ...
Read in browser Gary Gygax explains why Christians shouldn't celebrate Christmas
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 24, 2012 09:32 am Gary Gygax, co-inventor of Dungeons and Dragons, published this note explaining why Christians (like him) shouldn't celebrate Christmas. A note from Gary Gygax in the IFW Monthly of February 1969. A topical historical curiosity, yes, but what does it tell us about who Gary was back then? First of all, he strongly self-identified as a ...
Read in browser Kid's Boing Boing doodle, 1976
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 23, 2012 09:09 pm Eric Wolf says, "My mom found a 1976 calendar that I had doodled on as a kid. I was five or six at the time. I vaguely remember writing a few of the panels. My dad had made the squares for me. I laughed when I saw 'boing boing' written on one of the panels. ...
Read in browser 1982 was a vintage year for summer blockbusters
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 23, 2012 06:38 pm This 1982 preview of the summer's big science fiction movies seems to prove that things did, in fact, used to be better.
Read in browser Pajamas that look like business suits
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 23, 2012 04:37 pm I'm a serious pajama aficionado -- insert blogger-in-pajamas joke here -- but I tend to be a bit of a traditionalist (see what I mean?). Nevertheless, my heart skipped a beat when I saw "Suitjamas" -- silk pajamas that look like a business suit. Unfortunately, all the models are posed wearing buttoned shirts and ties, ...
Read in browser Etsy seller's awesome, 3D printed nerdy cookie-cutters
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 23, 2012 03:00 pm Wired profiles Athey Moravetz, a game developer who quit the business to raise her kids, who built WarpZone, a massively successful Etsy store selling 3D printed, nerdy cookie-cutters: While many homemakers have a secret cookie recipe, Moravetz has a small fleet of MakerBots. Her four MakerBot Replicators run simultaneously to keep up with the demand ...
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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