LOL is pro-Satan code Wild birds tweet by pecking at unsalted fat spread on an outdoor keyboard Blogger proves flaws in Ecuadoran security system by hacking president's identity Holiday music: "Twas the Night Before Hanukkah: The Musical Battle Between Christmas and the Festival of Lights" Robert Crumb writes a short, sad story about the career of MAD creator Harvey Kurtzman Free Coursera Calculus course with hand-drawn animated materials Awesome old school rap covers Overpriced gadgets Tallest possible Lego tower height calculated Follow up to the fabulous Look! a Book! by Bob Staake Quadcopter flight video Macklemore & Ryan Lewis in an NPR Tiny Desk concert The Return of the Best Damn Comics of the Year -- Boing Boing Edition Norwegian hotel calls cops on man because they got his name wrong and thought he used an assumed name; police arrest him in the nude; hotel charges him for the room Buffalo Bill Dance Unicorn Chaser Avi Solomon's Boing Boing interviews: the ebook Genderswapped, sexualized comic art Cards Against Humanity, Against Christmas Chronicle's Dane DeHaan will play Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Los Angeles Makerspace: A Family Friendly Innovation Hub Mustache transplants on the rise A museum of toilets at art museums This week's The Walking Dead recap is full of incredibly awkward reunions! [SPOILERS] UK home secretary says Britain needs more data retention, cites an example where a corrupt cop gave murdered victims' details to crime boss The Buffalo Bill Dance South Korea's toilet culture museum Bluetooth stickers help you find things when you lose them Ambulance given Denver boot during emergency response Atari Flashback 4 console Time magazine: the GOP is "full of it" and the press won't call them on it LOL is pro-Satan code
By David Pescovitz on Dec 04, 2012 12:47 pm This reportedly viral message generated a great thread on Reddit that I enjoyed while listening to the music of Knights In Satan's Service.
Read in browser Wild birds tweet by pecking at unsalted fat spread on an outdoor keyboard
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 04, 2012 12:45 pm Latvian magazine Ir created a Twitter account written by local birds by covering the keys of an outdoor keyboard with unsalted fat, and using the birds' pecking to generate 100 tweets a day to the @hungry_birds account. ///////2```P/PP``2///``2///////////1///////'/11/1//111111111/``//1'1`'111212;``////////////////////11/'1//111///11111//1/1/1/1/1// @irlv— Hungry Birds (@hungry_birds) March 17, 2012 Everyone has the right to be heard - that is ...
Read in browser Blogger proves flaws in Ecuadoran security system by hacking president's identity
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 04, 2012 12:40 pm Paul Moreno, an Ecuadoran blogger, discovered a flaw in the country's national online identity database, which he demonstrated by hijacking the identity of President Rafael Correa. He was briefly arrested, but was released after a vociferous Twitter campaign that prompted action from the president, who personally ordered Moreno's release. Moreno triumphantly announced his victory on ...
Read in browser Holiday music: "Twas the Night Before Hanukkah: The Musical Battle Between Christmas and the Festival of Lights"
By David Pescovitz on Dec 04, 2012 12:29 pm In their continuing fight against bad holiday music, our friends at the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation have released Twas the Night Before Hanukkah: The Musical Battle Between Christmas and the Festival of Lights. This new double-CD set explores "the relationship between (Hanukkah and Christmas) and their impact on acculturation and negotiations of personal, social, ...
Read in browser Robert Crumb writes a short, sad story about the career of MAD creator Harvey Kurtzman
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 04, 2012 12:26 pm (Click to see larger image) Harvey Kurtzman created MAD in 1952. It started out as a comic book, and the first issues mainly lampooned other comic books (Superman, Archie). It soon branched out to make fun of all cherised American institutions and I would argue that it was the beginning of modern humor that led ...
Read in browser Free Coursera Calculus course with hand-drawn animated materials
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 04, 2012 12:00 pm Robert Ghrist from University of Pennsylvania wrote in to tell us about his new, free Coursera course in single-variable Calculus.
Read in browser Awesome old school rap covers
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 04, 2012 11:45 am Yesterday Kottke.org shared a favorite Snoop Lion cover! This Dynamite Hack is near the top of my list...
Read in browser Overpriced gadgets
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 04, 2012 11:10 am Avram Pilch: "A truly superior product is definitely worth spending more. Unfortunately, sometimes tech companies think too much of their wares and too little of your intelligence." [Gizmodo]
Read in browser Tallest possible Lego tower height calculated
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 04, 2012 11:00 am The good folks on the most-excellent BBC Radio/Open University statistical literacy programme More or Less decided to answer a year-old Reddit argument about how many Lego bricks can be vertically stacked before the bottom one collapses. They They got the OU's Dr Ian Johnston to stress-test a 2X2 Lego in a hydraulic testing machine, increasing ...
Read in browser Follow up to the fabulous Look! a Book! by Bob Staake
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 04, 2012 11:00 am Hurray! Artist Bob Staake has a follow-up to his terrific kids' book, Look! A Book! It's called, Look! Another Book!
Read in browser Quadcopter flight video
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 04, 2012 10:00 am Quadcopters are easy-to-fly remote control vehicles that have four propellors.
Read in browser Macklemore & Ryan Lewis in an NPR Tiny Desk concert
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 04, 2012 01:19 am NPR's fantastic
Tiny Desk concert by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis has me going back through the entire series as it looks so wonderful.
Read in browser The Return of the Best Damn Comics of the Year -- Boing Boing Edition
By Brian Heater on Dec 04, 2012 12:20 am I realized that I promised you some stocking stockers for December, but then it occurred to me: why not just approach the whole thing Tom Sawyer-style, and get a few tastemakers from around the industry to help paint this year end fence by picking their top five books for 2012. We've got a couple of ...
Read in browser Norwegian hotel calls cops on man because they got his name wrong and thought he used an assumed name; police arrest him in the nude; hotel charges him for the room
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 03, 2012 11:00 pm Matt sez, Sorry, this is in Norwegian but it's definitively a story that deserves more attention. In summary, Norwegian Dagfinn Bjelland visits Clarion Collection Hotell Atlantic in Norwegian town of Sandefjord. The reception spells his name wrong, which then makes them suspicious he checked in under a fake name, because apparently no-one goes by the ...
Read in browser Buffalo Bill Dance Unicorn Chaser
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 03, 2012 10:55 pm Pursuant to this; as submitted by Boing Boing reader PhosPhorious.
Read in browser Avi Solomon's Boing Boing interviews: the ebook
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 03, 2012 08:46 pm If you've enjoyed Avi Solomon's interviews here over the years, you'll be interested to hear that he's collected them in an ebook called MetaHacks: The Boing Boing Interviews. Though it's not an "official" Boing Boing publication, we surely wish him all the best with it!
Read in browser Genderswapped, sexualized comic art
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 03, 2012 07:02 pm The Hawkeye Initiative is a Tumblr-wide fan-art genderswap extravaganza in which fan-artists redraw highly sexualized images of female superheros, swapping in male superheros and reproducing the original provocative pose (The Mary Sue has the backstory). There's some very good stuff here indeed. The Hawkeye Initiative
Read in browser Cards Against Humanity, Against Christmas
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 03, 2012 06:57 pm Cards Against Humanity, the snarky, funny card game, has done a name-your-price Xmas expansion pack, just in time to blunt the edge on your holiday cheer.
Read in browser Chronicle's Dane DeHaan will play Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2
By Jamie Frevele on Dec 03, 2012 06:42 pm Harry Osborn will be besties/worsties with Peter Parker in a Spider-Man movie once again, but this time, James Franco simply could not build himself a time-turner to make himself available. Instead, for Marc Webb's sequel, Dane DeHaan will take over the role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, set to begin shooting early next year. DeHann ...
Read in browser Los Angeles Makerspace: A Family Friendly Innovation Hub
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 03, 2012 06:17 pm Great news for LA-based families - Los Angeles Makerspace is here! I'm happy to be helping them in their Kickstarter campaign to get new equipment by conducting an Arduino workshop for the first 20 people who kick in $100 or more. The Los Angeles Makerspace is a non-profit community space for makers and tinkerers of ...
Read in browser Mustache transplants on the rise
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 03, 2012 05:40 pm Turkish plastic surgeon Selahattin Tulunay is performing 50-60 mustache implants every month, helping Middle Eastern men achieve thick, full mustaches. The procedure costs about $7,000. Pierre Bouhanna is a Paris-based surgeon who, for the past five years, has been performing increasing numbers of mustache implants. He says the majority of his patients come from the ...
Read in browser A museum of toilets at art museums
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 03, 2012 05:14 pm Fascinated with toilets as art, reader Ryan recommends checking out the Art Museum Toilet. This reminds me of the Happiest Potties on Earth.
Read in browser This week's The Walking Dead recap is full of incredibly awkward reunions! [SPOILERS]
By Jamie Frevele on Dec 03, 2012 04:55 pm In the aptly-titled mid-season finale of The Walking Dead, "Made to Suffer" introduced us to a new group of survivors and reunited a bunch of familiar ones. But if you're thinking about giant, relieved hugs after a triumphant run across a grassy field, you are going to be sorely disappointed. In summary: a moment of ...
Read in browser UK home secretary says Britain needs more data retention, cites an example where a corrupt cop gave murdered victims' details to crime boss
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 03, 2012 04:53 pm This morning saw the publication of an editorial in The Sun by Theresa May, the UK home secretary, defending her bulk Internet surveillance proposal, the Communications Data Bill, AKA the "Snooper's Charter." In the article, May cites a submission by by Peter Davies (Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre) as an ...
Read in browser The Buffalo Bill Dance
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 03, 2012 04:30 pm Welcome to YouTube, the stuff of nightmares. A sampling follows; the criteria are "video includes Q Lazzarus's Goodbye Horses" and "subject appears alone."
Read in browser South Korea's toilet culture museum
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 03, 2012 04:18 pm The fantastic story of Mr. Sim Jae-duck will not end here, but having his former home turned into a park honoring the hygienic history of toilets is certainly impressive!
Read in browser Bluetooth stickers help you find things when you lose them
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 03, 2012 03:45 pm StickNFinds are Bluetooth location stickers the diameter of a quarter (but thicker than a quarter). You attach them to television remote controls, pets, children, or other things that you need to locate. The batteries last about a year. The StickNFind smart phone application helps you find your missing items and life forms. It is also ...
Read in browser Ambulance given Denver boot during emergency response
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 03, 2012 03:41 pm A New Orleans ambulance was booted by a convenience store worker for parking in their space while responding to a call. WWLTV also reports the gent responsible has been issued a ticket and lost his job. Apparently the flashing lights were in the wrong language. Sidi Aleywa was fired for booting the ambulance, a worker ...
Read in browser Atari Flashback 4 console
By David Pescovitz on Dec 03, 2012 03:32 pm AT Games has released the new Atari Flashback 4 console, this time with wireless joysticks. It's loaded with Asteroids, Missile Command, Space Invaders, Jungle Hunt, Centipede and 70 more classics, but not E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Here's the menu: 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Adventure, Adventure II, Air·Sea Battle, Aquaventure, Asteroids, Backgammon, Basketball, Battlezone, Black Jack, Bowling, Breakout, Canyon ...
Read in browser Time magazine: the GOP is "full of it" and the press won't call them on it
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 03, 2012 02:35 pm A stirring editorial in Time by Michael Grunwald calls out the US press for failing to report on contradictions in the GOP's platforms (for example, condemning Obama for not cutting Medicare enough while also telling people to vote against him because he wants to cut Medicare). Grunwald cites many examples of this, and says that ...
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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