Fermi's Paradox, the tapeworm-and-anus versus Coca Cola's vitaminwater lawsuit defense: "reasonable people know we're liars." Glenn Beck is planning a $2 billion libertarian commune in texas Portrait made from typewriter parts Filabot: turn scrap plastic into 3D printer filament Resistor-code tattoo, with free/open design A visit to Makerkids, Toronto's makerspace for kids Expert witness describes Aaron Swartz's "crimes" Aaron Swartz's memorial service What is this thing mounted on a San Francisco building? Quinn Norton on Aaron Swartz Lessig on the DoJ's vindictive prosecution of Aaron Swartz Fermi's Paradox, the tapeworm-and-anus versus
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2013 12:48 pm Fermi's Paradox speculates that the fact that our civilization has not yet encountered evidence of alien civilization implies that such life must not exist. In "Tapeworm Logic," Charlie Stross brilliantly skewers this by looking at the version of Fermi's Paradox that a tapeworm-philosopher might arrive at: Our tapeworm-philosopher gets its teeth into the subject. Given ...
Read in browser Coca Cola's vitaminwater lawsuit defense: "reasonable people know we're liars."
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 13, 2013 12:26 pm "Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims… lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that 'no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.'"
Read in browser Glenn Beck is planning a $2 billion libertarian commune in texas
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 13, 2013 12:23 pm Popcorn time! "On his program last night, Beck revealed that his intention to 'go Galt' is quite literal, unveiling grandiose plans to create an entirely self-sustaining community called Independence Park that will provide its own food and energy, produce television and film content, host research and development, serve as a marketplace for products and ideas, ...
Read in browser Portrait made from typewriter parts
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2013 11:40 am Sculptor Jeremy Mayer writes, "This is my latest project- a portrait commission. The client, Mark Pelzner, came to me with 3 typewriters bequeathed to him by his late father, Marvyn Pelzner. Mark wanted me to take those typewriters and make a likeness of his dad that would be mounted on a box which holds Marvyn's ...
Read in browser Filabot: turn scrap plastic into 3D printer filament
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2013 11:25 am Filabot, "The Personal Filament Maker" is an ongoing open-source hardware kit project that aims to perfect a plastic grinder/melter that you can use to turn scrap plastic (including failed 3D printouts) into filament that can be fed into 3D printers.
Read in browser Resistor-code tattoo, with free/open design
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2013 10:21 am Jimmie P Rodgers shows off and describes the thinking behind his new tattoo, which provides a crib for resistor code, symbolizes the rainbow queer pride flag, and is also five inches long and can be used to measure lengths in fractions of that measure. It was designed in Processing, and Jimmy's posted the source so ...
Read in browser A visit to Makerkids, Toronto's makerspace for kids
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2013 08:31 am I'm in Toronto visiting my family with my daughter, Poesy. I was intrigued by Makerkids, a makerspace for children that does after-school and summer programs for kids who want to hack toys, use the woodshop, learn Arduino and electronics, use Minecraft to product Printcraft 3D prints on the Makerbot Replicator, and more. Andy Forest, the ...
Read in browser Expert witness describes Aaron Swartz's "crimes"
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2013 05:32 am Alex Stamos, a computer security and forensics expert, was one of the expert witnesses in US v Swartz, the vindictive case brought against Aaron Swartz for walking into an unlocked computer closet, and downloading a large number of academic articles from JSTOR, using MIT's network. Stamos has very good perspective on the "crimes" for which ...
Read in browser Aaron Swartz's memorial service
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 12, 2013 08:51 pm Here's a note from Aaron Swartz's family, with details about his memorial service in Chicago next week, and the charity they've nominated for donations in Aaron's name: Our beloved brother, son, friend, and partner Aaron Swartz hanged himself on Friday in his Brooklyn apartment. We are in shock, and have not yet come to terms ...
Read in browser What is this thing mounted on a San Francisco building?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 12, 2013 08:22 pm We are having fun in the G+ Boing Boing community. Our friend Rob Walker posted this photo and said: I was in San Francisco recently and walking from Market/8th to the SF CalTrain station I kept noticing these odd little things, mounted about 10 feet off street level, a few-inches-wide tire-like object often (but not ...
Read in browser Quinn Norton on Aaron Swartz
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 12, 2013 02:50 pm Quinn Norton, who was Aaron Swartz's lover, remembers him: We used to have a fight about how much the internet would grieve if he died. I was right, but the last word you get in as the still living is a hollow thing, trailing off, as it does, into oblivion. I love Aaron. I loved ...
Read in browser Lessig on the DoJ's vindictive prosecution of Aaron Swartz
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 12, 2013 02:21 pm Larry Lessig's remembrance of Aaron Swartz, the young activist who took his life last night, is beautiful and angry, and expresses an important insight into the vindictive, disgusting behavior of the Department of Justice (and the complicity of MIT) in hounding Aaron: But all this shows is that if the government proved its case, some ...
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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