Comic-Con tickets sold out in seconds? Video from my book tour: Cincinnati presentation Norway enjoys 12-hour TV special of a fireplace, with commetary Apple loyalty test rumor debunked Bunnies attack at Denver Airport When the stalked blame themselves Memoir of raising a child with autism who found himself with the help of Disney World Russian dash cams Cory in Chapel Hill today at 2PM BBC betrays the public, demands DRM for HTML5 Skateboarder backflips down stairs onto skateboard Freaky cute frog is angry Yet again, Tom Waits rules. Young pro-science/anti-Creationism activist wins TroubleMaker award Holmes scholar files suit to put Sherlock unambiguously into the public domain Calliope, March 2012 - February 2013 Future phone feature phone, with pink accents, in the key of Stanley Kubrick HadOneJob: photos of monumental cockups Jacob Appelbaum's 29C3 keynote on the out-of-control surveillance state Coin rolls on treadmill for an hour Mathematical knitting The flags really make this sign Insectile gas-mask from Bob Basset This is your fish on drugs: lowered inhibition, antisocial behavior, and munchies Mark Ryden's cover art for Tyler, the Creator's album "Meteoric Displays," coverage of a meteor fly-by in 1860 Phil "Bad Astronomer" Plait explains the Russian meteor incident Watch the DA14 asteroid flyby: live video stream Russian Meteor Q&A with Smithsonian meteor expert, and a peek inside a meteor clean room Watch Criterion films for free this weekend Comic-Con tickets sold out in seconds?
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 16, 2013 12:16 pm In 2011, the San Diego Comic-Con sold out in seven hours. Last year, in little over an hour. This time around, the online waiting room shut its doors within minutes. I emerged victorious. I clicked to get in at 9 a.m. exactly, and earned the #12,994th spot in line—but only after waiting several harrowing minutes ...
Read in browser Video from my book tour: Cincinnati presentation
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 16, 2013 12:00 pm Kevin Loughin came out to my Homeland tour-stop in Cincinnati on Valentine's Day and made a great video of the presentation and Q&A.
Read in browser Norway enjoys 12-hour TV special of a fireplace, with commetary
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 16, 2013 11:07 am Reuters' Balazs Koranyi: Norwegian public television plans to broadcast a burning fireplace for 12 straight hours from Friday evening, with firewood specialists providing color commentary, expert advice and a bit of cultural tutoring. "It will be very slow but noble television," said Rune Moeklebust, a producer for state broadcaster NRK, before its commencement.
Read in browser Apple loyalty test rumor debunked
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 16, 2013 11:05 am Derived from Adam Lashinsky's Inside Apple, rumors spread of "fake" engineering projects within Apple, crafted to expose leakers. Not quite, reports Jacqui Cheng: "Our own sources acknowledged that Apple may not tell an engineer what project he or she is about to work on until the time comes, which is what Lashinsky was talking about ...
Read in browser Bunnies attack at Denver Airport
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 16, 2013 10:54 am Bunny rabbits at Denver Airport have caused thousands of dollars' worth of damage to cars, having become fond of eating exposed wiring. The USDA is unable to remove them fast enough. [CBS Denver]
Read in browser When the stalked blame themselves
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 16, 2013 10:52 am "There is a new kind of bad thing in the world: persecution on the Internet by a clever, mentally unbalanced person. If you haven't experienced it yet, you may have trouble believing how upsetting and disorienting it can be. And you may be tempted to wonder if a sufferer like Lasdun hasn't somehow asked for ...
Read in browser Memoir of raising a child with autism who found himself with the help of Disney World
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 16, 2013 10:32 am Back in June, blogged about Ben, a young man with autism who had a fierce devotion to the Snow White ride at Walt Disney World, and who was the last person to ride it, after more than 3,500 turns on it. Ben's father, Ron Miles, has published a memoir of his life with Ben, in ...
Read in browser Russian dash cams
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 16, 2013 10:20 am Russia? Boston?
Read in browser Cory in Chapel Hill today at 2PM
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 16, 2013 07:49 am Hey, Chapel Hill! I'm headed your way today on the Homeland tour! I'll be at Flyleaf Books at 2PM. Tomorrow, I'll be in Decatur, and Monday it's a 5PM event at Square Books in Oxford, MS. I'm only halfway through the tour, too! Here's the rest of the schedule.
Read in browser BBC betrays the public, demands DRM for HTML5
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 16, 2013 07:05 am You may have heard that a group of batshit insane entertainment shills have asked the W3C (the standards body responsible for Web standards) to put "DRM" -- magic beans anti-copying stuff -- into HTML5. Shamefully, the BBC -- a publicly funded organisation, chartered to act in the public interest -- is one of the forces ...
Read in browser Skateboarder backflips down stairs onto skateboard
By David Pescovitz on Feb 16, 2013 02:17 am Adam Miller backflips off his skateboard down six stairs and lands on another skateboard.
Read in browser Freaky cute frog is angry
By David Pescovitz on Feb 16, 2013 02:09 am This here is a
Namaqua Rain Frog (Breviceps namaquensis) in Port Nolloth on the northwestern coast of South Africa.
Read in browser Yet again, Tom Waits rules.
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 16, 2013 01:47 am Open Culture shares this deleted scene from
Mystery Men. Read in browser Young pro-science/anti-Creationism activist wins TroubleMaker award
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2013 10:35 pm Zack Kopplin, the 19-year-old anti-Creationism/pro-science activist I
/boingboing.net/2013/01/16/meet-zack-kopplin-the-19-year.html">wrote about last month, has won the
TroubleMaker Award, which comes with a $10,000 prize.
Read in browser Holmes scholar files suit to put Sherlock unambiguously into the public domain
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2013 08:38 pm Matt sends us this, "Article from leading Sherlock Holmes blog about a recent civil action filed by a prominent Sherlockian (Leslie Klinger, editor of 'The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes') who also happens to be an attorney, against The Conan Doyle Estate:" A civil action was filed today in the United States District Court for the ...
Read in browser Calliope, March 2012 - February 2013
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 15, 2013 06:45 pm We should have had 14 years together. Today Calliope passed away of kidney and liver failure. She was 11 months old. I spent about a year alone. I knew I needed a dog but I was afraid of the commitment, newly living alone for the first time in a decade. I spent the strangest 6 ...
Read in browser Future phone feature phone, with pink accents, in the key of Stanley Kubrick
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2013 05:57 pm When I was eight, this is exactly what I believed all devices would someday resemble. The future is pink and dial-up.
Read in browser HadOneJob: photos of monumental cockups
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2013 05:05 pm HadOneJob.com is a collection of images showing massive, inexplicable cockups that appear to be the result of terrible negligence and/or deliberate sabotage. I laughed and laughed, and then I cried. Then I laughed some more. Been there, been bitten on the ass by that (as recently as yesterday, when the guy whose job it was ...
Read in browser Jacob Appelbaum's 29C3 keynote on the out-of-control surveillance state
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2013 04:13 pm Jacob Appelbaum's keynote from 29C3 -- last December's Chaos Communications Congress in Berlin -- is a riveting hour on surveillance, freedom, and the wild, criminal lawlessness of the NSA.
Read in browser Coin rolls on treadmill for an hour
By Dean Putney on Feb 15, 2013 03:22 pm Watching a dime roll for an hour on a treadmill is strangely satisfying.
Read in browser Mathematical knitting
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2013 03:10 pm Sarah-Marie Belcastro's long, lavishly illustrated article on the mathematics of knitting and mathematical knitting is a totally fascinating read: chewy, mathy, and inspiring. Makes me want to go and get some yarn. Over the years I've knitted many Klein bottles, as well as other mathematical objects, and have continually improved my designs. When I began ...
Read in browser The flags really make this sign
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2013 03:03 pm USA USA USA
Read in browser Insectile gas-mask from Bob Basset
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2013 03:02 pm This insectile "Green Art Gas Mask" is quite a departure for Ukrainian leatherworkers Bob Basset. I like it. A lot. Green Art Gas Mask
Read in browser This is your fish on drugs: lowered inhibition, antisocial behavior, and munchies
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 15, 2013 02:36 pm A forthcoming report in the journal Science finds that wild European perch exposed to the popular anxiety medication Oxazepam tend to be antisocial, wander away from the safety of their group, and devour food more quickly than peers, "all behaviors that could have profound ecological consequences." Further research is needed to determine whether oxazepam and ...
Read in browser Mark Ryden's cover art for Tyler, the Creator's album
By David Pescovitz on Feb 15, 2013 02:28 pm Master pop surrealist Mark Ryden painted the deluxe-edition cover for the new album by Odd Future's Tyler, the Creator. The record, titled "Wolf," will be released on April 2. That week, Porterhouse Fine Art Editions will publish a commemorative poster of the artwork, so keep your eyes peeled. (Thanks, Brad Keech!)
Read in browser "Meteoric Displays," coverage of a meteor fly-by in 1860
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 15, 2013 02:23 pm "It first appeared in the southeast, and presented the appearance of an ordinary rocket, but as it moved onward it grew in size until at the moment of its disappearance its apparent diameter was equal to the fall moon, The train or tail was not of great length, the whole resembling an elongated cone. All ...
Read in browser Phil "Bad Astronomer" Plait explains the Russian meteor incident
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 15, 2013 02:20 pm Over at Slate, @badastronomer Phil Plait examines what we do and do not know about the meteor incident in Russia today.
Read in browser Watch the DA14 asteroid flyby: live video stream
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 15, 2013 02:12 pm NASA TV at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA is following the Asteroid flyby, and you can watch their live coverage here. The asteroid is about 515,000 miles away from earth right now, and heading towards us. No big deal. Above: This animated set of three images depicts asteroid 2012 DA14 as seen on ...
Read in browser Russian Meteor Q&A with Smithsonian meteor expert, and a peek inside a meteor clean room
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 15, 2013 02:08 pm Inside the Smithsonian's Antarctic meteorite storage facility, all Antarctic meteorites in the national collection are kept under close security and tight airlocks.
Read in browser Watch Criterion films for free this weekend
By David Pescovitz on Feb 15, 2013 02:06 pm All of the Criterion Collection films on Hulu are free for viewing until February 18. (US only, unfortunately.) Time to stock up on Jiffy Pop, Gitanes, and Blue Bottle. "Watch the Criterion Collection films online" (via @criterion)
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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