Soviet TV advertisements from the 1970s and 1980s Cory in Decatur today Roger Ebert on one of the best bars Just look at this awesome banana Dalek cookie. Electronic salvage junkbots Guys, Williamsburg hipsters are moving to the NY suburbs and the NYT is on it Tesla vs. The Times: lies, damn lies, and untruths Nurse sues hospital over "No African-American nurse" note by request from baby's racist dad Seagulls: short film about drones and love Indian diploma mill uses Internet censorship to shut down critics Caturday: headphones kitten Slave Leo, A Genderbent Slave Leia Costume Fan Restoration of "Bambi Meets Godzilla" Hearings on sinking of HMS Bounty replica begin To do this Sunday: astronaut Chris Hadfield's Reddit AMA Open States: search legislative data in all 50 states Pizza and beer on Mars Soviet TV advertisements from the 1970s and 1980s
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 17, 2013 12:11 pm Here's 53 minutes' worth of Soviet commercials from the 1970s and 1980s, produced by what's billed as the USSR's sole advertising agency.
Read in browser Cory in Decatur today
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 17, 2013 09:20 am Hey, Decatur! I'm coming to town today on the tour for my new novel, Homeland; I'll be at the Decatur Library at 7PM. Then, on Monday I'll be in Oxford, MS, followed by Memphis on Tuesday. There's many more cities to go!
Read in browser Roger Ebert on one of the best bars
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 16, 2013 11:27 pm The Old Town Ale House in Chicago. Many storied. One of my favorite places too. Ebert blogs "I returned to the North Avenue drinking scene on New Year's Eve 1966, opening night of the legendary O'Rourke's, two blocks directly west. Its last call was 2 a.m. The Ale House had a 4 a.m. license, so ...
Read in browser Just look at this awesome banana Dalek cookie.
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 16, 2013 09:12 pm Just look at it. Banana dalek, Sylvia Toth's box of custom bitmap shortbread cookies, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Read in browser Electronic salvage junkbots
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 16, 2013 08:53 pm Marco Fernandes's R3bots are absolutely sweet little light-up junkbots made from electronics salvage. They're even poseable! They run about €350 each. R3bot series (via Colossal)
Read in browser Guys, Williamsburg hipsters are moving to the NY suburbs and the NYT is on it
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 06:24 pm Snipped from a New York Times piece that reads like an episode of Portlandia (or, like a parody of the Times): With an increase both in density and in the atmosphere of busy professionalism, Brooklyn no longer feels as carefree as it did, said Ari Wallach, a futurism consultant, who recently cut short a Brooklyn ...
Read in browser Tesla vs. The Times: lies, damn lies, and untruths
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 06:12 pm Tim Stevens at Engadget has published a thoughtful breakdown of the Elon Musk vs. John Broder Tesla review brouhaha.
Read in browser Nurse sues hospital over "No African-American nurse" note by request from baby's racist dad
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 06:04 pm A black female nurse is suing the hospital where she worked in Flint, Michigan over over allegations of racial discrimination: she claims she found a note in a patient's file stating, "No African American nurse to take care of baby." The baby's daddy made the request, and he reportedly wore a swastika tattoo.
Read in browser Seagulls: short film about drones and love
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 05:47 pm A
short film by
Mato Atom.
Read in browser Indian diploma mill uses Internet censorship to shut down critics
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 16, 2013 05:44 pm @kanwarsation sez, "Using a muzzling Court Order under India's badly written IT Act against the Department of Telecom, the IIPM has blocked articles critical of them, including satire on humour sites, and commentary on news sites as well. Most shocking, they have blocked the link to an official order declaring that they are not a ...
Read in browser Caturday: headphones kitten
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 05:11 pm "little cat enjoying music," shot by Viktoria Vitkovska of Kiev, Ukraine, and shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.
Read in browser Slave Leo, A Genderbent Slave Leia Costume
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 04:51 pm Photo: Angela Clayfield and Julia Hall Aaron Muszalski tells Boing Boing, Inspired by Skepchick's genderbent Star Wars costumes at last year's DragonCon, hobbyist armorsmith Ryan spent the winter creating a version of the iconic "Slave Leia" costume fit for a man. "I could just buy a Slave Leia Costume and wear it. In a lot ...
Read in browser Fan Restoration of "Bambi Meets Godzilla"
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 04:41 pm Aaron Muszalski tells Boing Boing, Coda Shetterly (@KindredCoda) made a frame-for-frame 1080p re-creation of Marv Newland's infamous animated short, "Bambi Meets Godzilla". Originally created in 1969, "Bambi Meets Godzilla" was a staple of animation festivals well into the 90's (especially "Spike and Mike's", who screened with near-religious reverence). The film was an early example of ...
Read in browser Hearings on sinking of HMS Bounty replica begin
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 04:32 pm Remember when the HMS Bounty sank during Hurricane Sandy? the hearings to determine why and how have begun. Mario Vittone analyzes the hearings at Gcaptain. (HT: @SFriedScientist)
Read in browser To do this Sunday: astronaut Chris Hadfield's Reddit AMA
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 16, 2013 04:12 pm Canadian astronaut and ISS commander Chris Hadfield speaks with fellow Canadian and space-lover William Shatner.
Read in browser Open States: search legislative data in all 50 states
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 16, 2013 02:41 pm The full Open States site with searchable legislative data for all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Read in browser Pizza and beer on Mars
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 16, 2013 01:16 pm Living on Mars time is making Katie Worth fat. The journalist is attempting to live, on Earth, as if she's operating in a Martian time zone and blogging about the experience for Scientific American. On the 15th day of her experiment, she writes about how Mars time has changed her eating habits ... and made ...
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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