Spider Duck Two videos of unfortunate events Fitbit Aria Scale Lessig's Harvard Law lecture: "Aaron's Law" The semiotics of Double Dragon Vote Hitler Cory in Austin tonight! How a Wired magazine story became Ben Affleck's "Argo" Black Panther torture "trial" audio recording surfaces Zendesk: "We've been hacked." Some Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest users affected. Profane commit-messages from GitHub RIAA you suck at SEO Depriving artists of sleep -- for SCIENCE! Panera's "pay what you want" cafes X-ray tees reveal internal family workings Winner of Boing Boing's Noise Pop 2013 contest! Robert Crumb comments on celebrities and artists Falling Still's new song: "Stupid Girl" Why you can go to jail for 5 years for unlocking your cellphone NYT: Google's in talks with online cheap hipster glasses firm Warby Parker, for Google Glass Long read on US health care woes in TIME: "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us" Video: TSA traumatizes child in wheelchair Bring in the cats.com Japan: "The Shocking True Form of Endometriosis!" Drones toss and catch inverted pendulum Watch the latest Boing Boing-curated videos in our video archive Corporations are people, so the city of Seattle can't have an opt-out policy for spammy phonebooks no one wants Bitblox: wooden alphabet blocks inspired by our pixelated nostalgia Nothing, just photos of adorable baby dachsunds, from a Boing Boing reader Cool Tools' new "Show and Tell" videocast and podcast Spider Duck
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 22, 2013 12:57 pm Scenes from a book-tour, part sqrt(-1): the SPIDER DUCK, at Austin's magnificent Toy Joy. Spider Duck, Toy Joy, Austin, TX, USA
Read in browser Two videos of unfortunate events
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 22, 2013 12:36 pm Chair lift mishap Sneak attack (Via What the Christ? NSFW)
Read in browser Fitbit Aria Scale
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 22, 2013 11:54 am I have worn a Fitbit activity tracker for a long time. I enjoy it and the calorie estimation based on my 'daily activity' is really helpful in managing my weight. I figured I should try out the Fitbit Aria, their wifi enabled scale. It is beautiful and does what it claims -- ONCE YOU GET ...
Read in browser Lessig's Harvard Law lecture: "Aaron's Law"
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 22, 2013 11:36 am Larry Lessig's Harvard Law address, "Aaron's Laws - Law and Justice in a Digital Age" is a riveting, bittersweet talk on the state of Internet law, and law in general, and, always, corruption.
Read in browser The semiotics of Double Dragon
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 22, 2013 10:00 am Finally, someone has written an in-depth article about the cultural ethos of classic 1980s beat-em-up Double Dragon. Dan Whitehead: Like its closest peers—namely Renegade and Streets Of Rage—Double Dragon represents the vigilante myth at its most naked and vicious. In brief: The hero is a square-jawed white guy, clad in a blue-collar uniform of wifebeater ...
Read in browser Vote Hitler
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 22, 2013 08:45 am Adolf Hitler is among candidates for office in Meghalaya, India. Adolf L. Hitler, that is. [Reuters]
Read in browser Cory in Austin tonight!
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 22, 2013 08:32 am Hey, Austin! I'm in town today, doing an event at Book People at 7PM, and then an EFF-Austin benefit. Saturday, I'm in Portsmouth, NH, then on Sunday I'm in Nashua, NH.
Read in browser How a Wired magazine story became Ben Affleck's "Argo"
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 12:46 am Nicholas Thompson in The New Yorker: "The climax of the movie Argo takes place at the airport in Tehran. Six Americans, having hidden in Iran for three months, are taking this one chance to get out of a country that's embroiled in revolution and anger. Their cover is that they're part of a science-fiction film ...
Read in browser Black Panther torture "trial" audio recording surfaces
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 12:41 am New Haven Independent: "In the basement of a New Haven housing co-op, tied to a chair at gunpoint, in a vain effort to save his life, Alex Rackley started giving up names after fellow party members poured pots of boiling water over him. Now you can hear what he said." (via David Carr)
Read in browser Zendesk: "We've been hacked." Some Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest users affected.
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 12:37 am Mat Honan in Wired News: "Customer service software provider Zendesk announced a security breach that allowed attackers into its system, where they could access data from three customers this week. Wired learned those three clients were Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr."
Read in browser Profane commit-messages from GitHub
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 21, 2013 10:44 pm Commit Logs From Last Night: highlights funny, profane source-code commit-messages from GitHub, as bedraggled hackers find themselves leaving notes documenting their desperate situations. Some recent ones: WHY THE GODDAMMIT WHY WHY WHY HAROGIHAROGIAHRGOIA FUCK ME render testing I DREW SOME LINES! reverted render panel to grew (white looks shit) Merge pull request #15 from ruvetia/font_awesome_is_fucking_awesome ...
Read in browser RIAA you suck at SEO
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 21, 2013 10:42 pm The RIAA says Google doesn't list the sites it likes highly enough on search result pages. Masnick on TechDirt nails 'em to the wall: "For everyone else in the world, if they're not satisfied with how the sites they favor rank in Google, they learn a little something about search engine optimization. But, noooooooo, not ...
Read in browser Depriving artists of sleep -- for SCIENCE!
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 21, 2013 10:14 pm Sean Williams sez, "Australia's #1 sleep research centre in conjunction with the Aust Network for Arts & Tech put #1 NYT-bestseller Sean Williams in a week-long sleep deprivation study with Maker/TechnoEvangelist Fee Plumley, artist Thom Buchanan and lit author Jennifer Mills to see what happened to their creativity without light cues, under constant surveillance, and ...
Read in browser Panera's "pay what you want" cafes
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 21, 2013 10:12 pm Panera has been converting some existing stores to a "pay what you want" model and it appears to work. "'They feel like every other Panera Cafe in America; they don't feel the least bit different,' says Ron Shaich, co-founder and co-CEO of Panera Bread Co. Well, there is one difference customers will see: There's a ...
Read in browser X-ray tees reveal internal family workings
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 21, 2013 09:15 pm Etsy's BabyTalkDesigns sells these x-ray t-shirts showing the contents of various family members' tummies (mix and match for added hilarity!). There's even a glow in the dark version (Go, Nigel, go!). BabytalkDesigns (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
Read in browser Winner of Boing Boing's Noise Pop 2013 contest!
By David Pescovitz on Feb 21, 2013 09:14 pm San Francisco's influential Noise Pop 2013 indie music, arts, and film festival kicks off its 21st year next Tuesday, February 26. The stellar lineup this year includes Califone, Yacht, Toro Y Moi, Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, DIIV (video above), and dozens more musical performers, along with documentaries, art shows, ...
Read in browser Robert Crumb comments on celebrities and artists
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 21, 2013 09:01 pm It's interesting to learn what Robert Crumb thinks about notable people. "Crumb on Others, Part Five," compiled by Alex Wood, was just published on Robert Crumb's website. (The black-on-red text is awful; thank goodness for Instapaper.) PETER MAX Robert: Peter Max [laughs]... he's a totally fucking jive character. I read an article about him about ...
Read in browser Falling Still's new song: "Stupid Girl"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 21, 2013 08:39 pm One of my lucky days last year was meeting Brett, the bass player for Falling Still when he came to my house with his van to help me move some heavy furniture (found him on Taskrabbit). Here's their latest song, "Stupid Girl." Good stuff!
Read in browser Why you can go to jail for 5 years for unlocking your cellphone
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 21, 2013 08:22 pm Nick Gillespie of Reason says: "We have an interview with Derek Khanna, the guy who got bounced from the Republican Study Committee last fall for publishing (with full approval by his boss) a memo critical of current copyright law and one of the folks pushing a White House petition to allow users to legally unlock ...
Read in browser NYT: Google's in talks with online cheap hipster glasses firm Warby Parker, for Google Glass
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 21, 2013 06:57 pm The NYTimes reports that Google "is negotiating with Warby Parker, an e-commerce start-up company that sells trendy eyeglasses, to help it design more fashionable frames."
Read in browser Long read on US health care woes in TIME: "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us"
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 21, 2013 06:53 pm A must-read by Steven Brill in Time on the brutality of medical bills in America, for cancer patients and others in need of medical care.
Read in browser Video: TSA traumatizes child in wheelchair
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 21, 2013 06:52 pm A three-year-old girl woth spina bifida "was reduced to tears by TSA screeners on her way to a family vacation in Florida earlier this month." Video at Gothamist.
Read in browser Bring in the cats.com
By Dean Putney on Feb 21, 2013 06:51 pm Sometimes you just need a fountain of cats set to rap music. HEY GRIFF, BRING IN THE CATS.
Read in browser Japan: "The Shocking True Form of Endometriosis!"
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 21, 2013 06:41 pm Matt Alt in Japan says, "You just can't make this kind of thing up. Snapshot from the NHK health/medical show "Tameshite Gatten" last night. I think this answers the question of "is anything NOT kawaii?" once and for all." Official link. Also spotted on Sean Bonner's feed.
Read in browser Drones toss and catch inverted pendulum
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 21, 2013 06:36 pm Ever see flying robots doing stuff that you never suspected flying robots could do? I have.
Read in browser Watch the latest Boing Boing-curated videos in our video archive
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 21, 2013 06:20 pm We've gathered fresh video for you to surf and enjoy on the Boing Boing video page. The latest finds for your viewing pleasure include: • Exchange students in Japan try popular local treat: ice cream in a condom. • Android developer fights evil patent troll. • Wasa: the psychedelic animated overlay that "Whassup?" needed all ...
Read in browser Corporations are people, so the city of Seattle can't have an opt-out policy for spammy phonebooks no one wants
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 21, 2013 06:12 pm Jeff sez, Seattle will spend $500,000 to settle a lawsuit it lost with phonebook companies over its sensible opt-out program for residents. Beginning in May 2011, Seattle began allowing residents to opt out of unwanted phonebook deliveries. The program was so popular, the city reports that more than 2 million pounds of paper are saved ...
Read in browser Bitblox: wooden alphabet blocks inspired by our pixelated nostalgia
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 21, 2013 05:49 pm BB reader Readblood shares this photo in the Boing Boing Flickr pool and explains, Bitblox are wooden alphabet blocks inspired by our pixelated nostalgia. While pixels continue shrinking out of sight on our digital screens, they live on in full chromatic and tactile splendor in these one-of-a-kind alphabet blocks. $45 a set, available at glyfyx.com. ...
Read in browser Nothing, just photos of adorable baby dachsunds, from a Boing Boing reader
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 21, 2013 05:43 pm In the Boing Boing Flickr Pool, BB reader Dan Bennett shares photos of Yogi and Bambi, two adorable Dachsund puppies who are growing up adorably. They have a fan page.
Read in browser Cool Tools' new "Show and Tell" videocast and podcast
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 21, 2013 05:12 pm I'm going nuts with podcasts. Here's the latest: Cool Tools' "Show and Tell" videocast and podcast. Last week, Kevin Kelly and I did a video hangout with Joshua Glenn and Michael Pusateri. We showed each other 18 different things we love, including books, kitchen tools, games, apps, and gadgets. Subscribe: RSS | iTunes. Listen on ...
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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