Black Mirror is back, and it's brilliant - best sf on TV Amanda Palmer: The Bed Song The creepiest kisses in film history Night Of The Living Dead (1968): 3 different prints at Archive.org Sponsor shout-out: The History League t-shirts A morbid Valentine, 1896: "I'll Love You While Life Lasts" Autodesk's 123D Creature lets you design and order 3D prints of monsters you design 400 Years: a game where you strategically wait in order to overcome obstacles To watch: NOVA's "Earth From Space" Cypherpunks: a conversation that both articulates and challenges the case for Internet freedom Amanda Palmer on Björk's failed Kickstarter to port Biophilia to Android/Windows 8 Photo of the Computer Science section at Barnes and Noble BlackBerry co-founder dumps stock Reviews for a Predator Drone toy Unusual papier-mache figure of German chancellor Tesla releases logs it says prove NYT reviewer faked review Official zombie warning was a hack, say officials Robots say the craziest things Cory in Cincinnati today! Newspaper editor on website that scooped it: don't trust them, we're the pros! Human condition, with email Economic recovery in the US actually made 99% of Americans poorer, top 1% captured 121% of gains American, US Airways boards OK merger to create world's largest airline Mr. Bubble, or Mr. Mxyzptlk? Cat nest, on forest floor Knight Foundation defends paying plagiarist $20k to talk about himself Arduino-controlled pelvic-floor strength-tester, with light-up penis Ideal woman, 1926 Amazingly realistic David Bowie dolls Homeland just made the New York Times bestseller list! Black Mirror is back, and it's brilliant - best sf on TV
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2013 12:59 pm As mentioned Charlie Brooker's science fiction TV show Black Mirror is back for another season. This is the second coming of the Twilight Zone: scary, trenchant, clever and sparing in its use of special effects and fully immersive in its storytelling. I've just watched the first episode, "Be Right Back," for a second time, and ...
Read in browser Amanda Palmer: The Bed Song
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 14, 2013 12:52 pm "The Bed Song," from Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra's new album, 'Theatre Is Evil.'
Read in browser The creepiest kisses in film history
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 14, 2013 12:48 pm From Filmdrunk, a mashup of the most disturbing kisses from film history
Read in browser Night Of The Living Dead (1968): 3 different prints at Archive.org
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2013 12:42 pm Archive.org has three different prints of George Romero's fantastic zombie movie, Night of the Living Dead. 1. Raw untouched video master - how the film has been seen on late night TV and PD video's and DVDs for years. 2. A remastered version of the film presented in HD. 3. Rare international widescreen theatrical release ...
Read in browser Sponsor shout-out: The History League t-shirts
By David Pescovitz on Feb 14, 2013 12:41 pm Special thanks to our sponsor Amorphia Apparel, makers of the wonderfully irreverent line of History League t-shirts. We've posted many times about Amorphia's witty t-shirt lines like "Teach the Controversy" and "Monsters of Grok" that replace iconic band name logos with scientists, and we're thrilled that Amorphia signed on as a Boing Boing sponsor! My ...
Read in browser A morbid Valentine, 1896: "I'll Love You While Life Lasts"
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 14, 2013 12:31 pm 'The Proposal. I'll love you while Life Lasts' - Photograph of two skeletons, one sitting and one kneeling, 1896. From the collections of The National Archives on Flickr.
Read in browser Autodesk's 123D Creature lets you design and order 3D prints of monsters you design
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2013 12:29 pm Autodesk's 123D Creature is an iPad app that lets you design a monster and then order a 3D print for home delivery. The app costs $2 and I just bought it. Looking forward to trying it out with Jane tonight! Create a skeleton Add joints and create limbs to build up your 3D character in ...
Read in browser 400 Years: a game where you strategically wait in order to overcome obstacles
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2013 12:18 pm 400 years is an adorable and clever browser-game where you play a kind of ambulatory stone pellet on a quest, wherein you overcome obstacles by holding down the spacebar to make the seasons fly past and the years go by, while a tree grows tall enough to climb, or winter arrives and freezes a pond ...
Read in browser To watch: NOVA's "Earth From Space"
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 14, 2013 12:06 pm A two-hour special documentary with space-based visions of our planet.
Read in browser Cypherpunks: a conversation that both articulates and challenges the case for Internet freedom
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2013 11:58 am Cypherpunks -- a quick, stirring, scary read -- transcribes a wide-ranging conversation between Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange, Jacob Appelbaum (Wikileaks/Tor Project), Any Muller-Magnum (Chaos Computer Club) and Jeremie Zimmerman (La Quadrature Du Net). Edited together in thematic chapters (The Militarization of Cyberspace, Fighting Total Surveillance With the Laws of Physics, Private Sector Spying), Cypherpunks exceeded ...
Read in browser Amanda Palmer on Björk's failed Kickstarter to port Biophilia to Android/Windows 8
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 14, 2013 11:57 am "i think this is sad: in a weird new twists of fate, the old guard of "celebrity" artists like her are now being attacked for using a platform that should be reserved for starving musicians only?"—Amanda Palmer on nerdrage directed at Björk.
Read in browser Photo of the Computer Science section at Barnes and Noble
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2013 11:48 am Shared by John Cook in the Boing Boing G+ Community. Facebook for Dummies might actually be useful, because Facebook confuses me.
Read in browser BlackBerry co-founder dumps stock
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 14, 2013 11:17 am Roger Cheng reports that BlackBerry co-founder and former co-CEO Jim Balsillie, one of the company's largest individual shareholders, has dumped his entire stake. [CNET]
Read in browser Reviews for a Predator Drone toy
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2013 11:07 am The reviews on the Amazon page for a toy Predator drone are pretty trenchant: You've had a busy play day - You've wiretapped Mom's cell phone and e-mail without a warrant, you've indefinitely detained your little brother Timmy in the linen closet without trial, and you've confiscated all the Super-Soakers from the neighborhood children (after ...
Read in browser Unusual papier-mache figure of German chancellor
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 14, 2013 10:39 am Ina Fassbender photographed this papier-mache figure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, suckling 'Greek', 'Spanish', 'Portuguese' and 'Italian' piglets at Cologne's Rose Monday carnival procession. Previously: Pixelhead masks that make you look like a pixellated German Secretary of the Interior
Read in browser Tesla releases logs it says prove NYT reviewer faked review
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 14, 2013 10:12 am Last week, Tesla's electric sedan reportedly died during a reviewer's road trip in cold weather; the firm's CEO, Elon Musk, said the review was "fake" and promised a data-driven takedown. Today, Musk published the logs and claims they reveal, among other things, that the New York Times' reviewer drove around in circles in an empty ...
Read in browser Official zombie warning was a hack, say officials
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 14, 2013 09:57 am Jim Finkle: Poor password security allowed hackers to broadcast a bogus warning on TV networks that the United States was under attack by zombies, broadcasters said, and one expert in the technology said the emergency channel they broke into remained vulnerable.
Read in browser Robots say the craziest things
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2013 06:21 am This morning, while hurrying down the concourse at La Guardia Airport, I tried to dictate a text message to my Nexus 4 while wheeling my suitcase behind me. It got the dictation fine, but appended "kdkdkdkdkdkdkdkd" to the message -- this being its interpretation of the sound of my suitcase wheels on the tiles.
Read in browser Cory in Cincinnati today!
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2013 04:55 am As I write this, I'm on my way to the airport, headed for Cincinnati, where I'll be doing an appearance tonight at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on the tour for Homeland, which hit the New York Times bestseller list last night. Tomorrow, I'll be in Miami and then I'll be in Chapel Hill. There's still lots more ...
Read in browser Newspaper editor on website that scooped it: don't trust them, we're the pros!
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 13, 2013 11:26 pm It's bloggers vs. newspapers time again! And on this occasion, we have the special soupçons of access-dependent local sportswriters, deranged editors, and Gawker's well-tuned nose for drama. On February 12, Deadspin broke the details of an incredible scandal: Toledo running coach Kevin Hadsell had a bad habit of bullying, threatening and banging his students. The ...
Read in browser Human condition, with email
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 13, 2013 11:14 pm Hidden in the tooltip for today's XKCD, a piece of important existential philosophy: A human is a system for converting dust billions of years ago into dust billions of years from now via a roundabout process which involves checking email a lot. Steroids
Read in browser Economic recovery in the US actually made 99% of Americans poorer, top 1% captured 121% of gains
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 13, 2013 09:11 pm "Striking it Richer," a paper by Emmanuel Saez (an economist at UC Berkeley) looks at the way that the dividends of the slow US "economic recovery" have been distributed. Saez finds that 121% of the economic gains since 2009 have been captured by the richest 1% of Americans -- in other words, despite economic growth, ...
Read in browser American, US Airways boards OK merger to create world's largest airline
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 13, 2013 07:47 pm The boards of AMR Corp and US Airways Group Inc separately met today and approved a merger that would value the combined company at around $11 billion, making it the largest airline in the world. [Reuters]
Read in browser Mr. Bubble, or Mr. Mxyzptlk?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 13, 2013 06:35 pm I don't know what's going on here, but I wholeheartedly approve. (Via Filled With Chocolate Pudding!)
Read in browser Cat nest, on forest floor
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 13, 2013 06:24 pm Reader Jon Siegel in Singapore shares this wonderful photo in the Boing Boing Flickr pool. "As far as I know, this one's the leader of a pack of these critters which hang out around my office," he says.
Read in browser Knight Foundation defends paying plagiarist $20k to talk about himself
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 13, 2013 06:10 pm At the Washington Post, Erik Wemple reports that the Knight Foundation defended its decision to pay journalistic fraud Jonah Lehrer $20,000 to deliver a speech. Alberto Ibargüen, the foundation's president, tells the Erik Wemple Blog that there wasn't a lot of dissension among decision-makers about the Lehrer speaking budget. ... "I was happy with it, ...
Read in browser Arduino-controlled pelvic-floor strength-tester, with light-up penis
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 13, 2013 06:03 pm Last September, Doctor Kristen Stubbs -- a roboticist who makes sex-gadgets for her Toymaker Project -- released a video (NSFW) demonstrating her prototype pelvic-floor strength-tester, called "The Hammer." The Hammer has a bulb that is internally inserted, containing a squeeze-sensor, and a penis-shaped, light-up readout that protrudes between the wearer's legs. The harder the wearer ...
Read in browser Ideal woman, 1926
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 13, 2013 05:45 pm From 1926, an "ideal" female body. 1926: The 1920s Silhouette
Read in browser Amazingly realistic David Bowie dolls
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 13, 2013 05:41 pm Elven Aesthetics makes stunning David Bowie dolls, but they are, alas, not for sale. Tara McGinley spotted that some are modeled on iconic Mick Rock portraits. [Deviant Art & Dangerous Minds]
Read in browser Homeland just made the New York Times bestseller list!
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 13, 2013 05:08 pm Indiebound list, too! Life is good where I am.
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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