Boiling water turns into flash-frozen snow at -33C Graphic designers illustrate bad feedback HOWTO shift any song into a major key Twitter launches video sharing app Worms a delicacy in Zimbabwe Urinal mint-scented soap Just look at this gilded banana. Ikea ad angers transgender group Gay gamers strike back at "Gaymers" trademark Globe and Mail runs loony screed against "hackers", Aaron Swartz, logic Tiffany glass lampshade of Master Chief's helmet Scottish nightmare food imports still banned in US Tim Wu: "Escape From Tomorrow" doesn't violate Disney's copyright Ads that depict the human body as a machine Guys, Robin Williams is on Twitter Visualizing the net worth of the world's richest people Dog vs. Horse Telcos' six-strikes plan could kill public WiFi National Day of Courage for the Rosa Parks centennial Ladies and Gentlemen, Fox News The Parable of the Ox: podcast explains the disastrous separation of financial markets from the real economy Valentines from Brian Ewing Ad agency thought patterns Aaron Swartz memorial in San Francisco at the Internet Archive on Thu DNA for data storage My favorite podcasts of 2012, Part 2 Technology is "killing middle-class jobs," screams alarmist AP headline Zombie teddy bear: Undead Ted No foodstagramming for you today, say chefs Morocco will change law allowing rapists to marry their victims to avoid prison Boiling water turns into flash-frozen snow at -33C
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 24, 2013 12:37 pm It was really, really cold outside today, so I decided to use the opportunity to show my kids what happens when you throw really hot (boiling) water in the air outside at this temperature.
Read in browser Graphic designers illustrate bad feedback
By Jason Weisberger on Jan 24, 2013 12:36 pm A number of Irish graphic designers got together and visually demonstrated some inane and hilarious client feedback. If you've ever worked in advertising you know these are tame. (via 22 Words)
Read in browser HOWTO shift any song into a major key
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 24, 2013 12:33 pm If you liked the REM's Losing My Religion shifted to a major key post, check out Eliot Van Buskirk's Evolver post on recreating the effect using Celemony Melodyne, a package that sells for $99 and up. "Losing My Religion" is in A minor. I want to make it A Major, the same way Major Keyed ...
Read in browser Twitter launches video sharing app
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 24, 2013 11:40 am Twitter's just released Vine, a video sharing app designed to make it easy to create and embed short snippets of high-quality, low-bandwidth video on the web. The shortcomings of animated GIFs, and the bloatedness of most web video, leave a poorly-served middle-ground that it intends to fill—but only, for the time being, if you have ...
Read in browser Worms a delicacy in Zimbabwe
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 24, 2013 11:26 am Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi writes: "In Zimbabwe as well as most parts of southern Africa, mopane worms are a staple part of the diet in rural areas and are considered a delicacy in the cities." [AP]
Read in browser Urinal mint-scented soap
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 24, 2013 11:19 am Other manly scents available from ManHands' Etsy store include leather, cash and bacon. [via Uncrate]
Read in browser Just look at this gilded banana.
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 24, 2013 10:20 am Just look at it. Katachi Golden Objects (Thanks, Jonni!)
Read in browser Ikea ad angers transgender group
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 24, 2013 10:13 am The title of this Ikea ad, "Forgetting to stay hidden", offers a tip-off to its content—Reuters reports that a transgender group called it "negative and stereotypical" and "a gross violation of human rights". Ikea is "drafting its response".
Read in browser Gay gamers strike back at "Gaymers" trademark
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 24, 2013 09:17 am Chris Vizzini registered the term "Gaymer" as a trademark, then sent a cease-and-decist letter to Reddit over /r/gaymers, the section of the site dedicated to gay gamers and their interests. The righteous backlash sees the targets teaming up with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to cancel the trademark. The term has been in use since the ...
Read in browser Globe and Mail runs loony screed against "hackers", Aaron Swartz, logic
By Jesse Brown on Jan 24, 2013 09:04 am Cory wrote on Monday about Ahmed Al-Kabaz, the Dawson College Comp Sci student who found a massive bug on his school's website that left total data on thousands of students vulnerable to an easy hack. Ahmed reported the bug to Dawson's administrators and later checked to see if it had been closed. He was then ...
Read in browser Tiffany glass lampshade of Master Chief's helmet
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 24, 2013 09:00 am Etsy seller Michael McLane made this smashing Master Chief Helmet Tiffany-style stained-glass lampshade, and is selling it for a mere $840. This is a full size Halo Master Chief Helmet made from Stained Glass. It is assembled in the Tiffany Glass Technique (Copper foil and solder). Over 40 hours went into construction and assembly of ...
Read in browser Scottish nightmare food imports still banned in US
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 24, 2013 08:55 am The BBC reports on how Americans with Scottish ancestry contrive haggis, a banned delicacy containing mashed sheep's lung, liver and heart, suet, oatmeal, etc., all boiled in a stomach: "There's always a certain level of trepidation because haggis has a reputation as not necessarily the tastiest of morsels. The US isn't known for eating all ...
Read in browser Tim Wu: "Escape From Tomorrow" doesn't violate Disney's copyright
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 24, 2013 02:29 am Last weekend marked the Sundance screening of Escape From Tomorrow, a guerrilla film shot without permission at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. It sounds like a fun film, but a lot of publications, including the New York Times have speculated that the movie would be impossible to release due to copyright problems. I said that ...
Read in browser Ads that depict the human body as a machine
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 23, 2013 11:52 pm On the Vintage Ads LJ group, the awesome Man Writing Slash has rounded up a series of old ads that use mechanical methaphors for the human body. One of my favorite ad tropes is the Body=Machine/Body=Factory idea, because the imagery is often more detailed and also more hilarious than in most ads. As a kid ...
Read in browser Guys, Robin Williams is on Twitter
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 23, 2013 10:52 pm This is my buddy, Leonard.Miss him when I'm on the road.#curlytailpugrescue twitter.com/robinwilliams/…— Robin Williams (@robinwilliams) January 23, 2013 Pug snapshots. His first tweet ever was published just eight hours ago, but it looks like he's got this Twitter thing down cold already.
Read in browser Visualizing the net worth of the world's richest people
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 23, 2013 10:49 pm "Bloomberg Billionaires" is an intriguing example of information design. The net wealth of the world's 100 most rich human beings, in an interactive display.
Read in browser Dog vs. Horse
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 23, 2013 10:42 pm A dog takes a horse for a walk.
Read in browser Telcos' six-strikes plan could kill public WiFi
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 23, 2013 10:38 pm As America's phone and cable companies roll out their "six strikes" plans (which they voluntarily adopted in cooperation with the big film companies), it's becoming clear that operating a public Internet hotspot is going to be nearly impossible. Anyone operating a hotspot will quickly find that it can no longer access popular sites like YouTube ...
Read in browser National Day of Courage for the Rosa Parks centennial
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 23, 2013 09:46 pm Lish from The Henry Ford Museum writes, "Henry Ford Museum in metro Detroit is hosting a National Day of Courage in honor of Rosa Parks' 100th birthday. We're encouraging folks to share a digital badge of courage that they want to stand up for. We'll also be unveiling the new Rosa Parks stamp from the ...
Read in browser Ladies and Gentlemen, Fox News
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 23, 2013 08:16 pm Photo by Joshua Hirst.
Read in browser The Parable of the Ox: podcast explains the disastrous separation of financial markets from the real economy
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 23, 2013 08:03 pm An excellent recent episode of the BBC Radio 4 math/current affairs show "More or Less" dramatized "The Parable of the Ox," a short article by John Kay originally published in the Financial Times (paywalled, alas, or I'd link to it available from Kay's site). Fans of James Surowiecki's Wisdom of the Crowds will know the ...
Read in browser Valentines from Brian Ewing
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 23, 2013 07:07 pm Boing Boing favorite Brian Ewing (Ghosbusters in a Rat Fink car, Anatomical Frankenstein) has a line of Valentine's cards with scratch-off secret messages: I collaborated with animator CRANKBUNNY to create a nerdy and awesome Valentine scratch-off card. The card reveals one (of four) secret messages* underneath a heart within a skeletal chest cavity. It can ...
Read in browser Ad agency thought patterns
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 23, 2013 06:55 pm Agency Wank collects the extra-inane slogans used by advertising agencies to advertise themselves. It's amazing how many of these sound like David Brent quotes. [via Joel]
Read in browser Aaron Swartz memorial in San Francisco at the Internet Archive on Thu
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 23, 2013 05:44 pm Carl Malamud sez, "If you are in the Bay Area, please come to the Internet Archive Thursday evening for a memorial honoring Aaron Swartz. The program will be streamed on the net."
Read in browser DNA for data storage
By David Pescovitz on Jan 23, 2013 05:20 pm Researchers have successfully stored information in synthetic DNA and then sequenced the DNA to read the data. Nick Goldman and his colleagues from the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) encoded all of Shakespeare's sonnets, an audio clip of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, Watson and Crick's paper on DNA's structure, a photo of ...
Read in browser My favorite podcasts of 2012, Part 2
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 23, 2013 05:09 pm Earlier this month I wrote about four of my favorite podcasts. I promised to follow it up with more of my favorite podcasts. It has taken me this long to live up to that promise. I think there will be at least The New Disruptors. This is a new podcast by our friend Glenn Fleishman. ...
Read in browser Technology is "killing middle-class jobs," screams alarmist AP headline
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 23, 2013 05:09 pm Yes, there's a recession, writes Bernard Condon and Paul Wiseman at the Associated Press. "Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers. They're being obliterated by technology."
Read in browser Zombie teddy bear: Undead Ted
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 23, 2013 05:01 pm Eclectech sez, "UK artist Phillip Blackman is creating fantasic and gruesome zombie bears (undead teds), including this excellent valentines bear offering you his heart." Valentine UnDeadTed offering you his heart (Thanks, Eclectech!)
Read in browser No foodstagramming for you today, say chefs
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 23, 2013 04:58 pm Guys, some proprietors of some high-end restaurants do not want you taking smartphone snapshots of your food and sharing them on social media sites and the New York Times is on it.
Read in browser Morocco will change law allowing rapists to marry their victims to avoid prison
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 23, 2013 04:55 pm A year after a 16-year-old girl in Morocco committed suicide after being forced to marry the man who raped her, the northern African nation's government announced plans to change the law to outlaw the traditional practice. Rape within a marriage is still legal there, and marriages can be arranged with females younger than 18. So, ...
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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