Amp made out of old brass instruments Cory in Portsmouth, NH tonight World's largest panorama: London Star Wars jewelry Mark's "World's Worst" book 99-cents sale on Kindle Secure documents US soldier shot in Afghanistan saved by his iPhone If you give a mouse a parachute ... What we can all learn from the Tesla data-journalism drama The Glif: quickly mount an iPhone to a tripod ZOMG, Esquire! "Obama's Brain Activity Map Could Be Mind Control" Amateur food porn must stop Apex predators have great chemistry Bees sense electric charge from flowers The Art of Harvey Kurtzman at the Museum of American Illustration: exclusive preview To This Day: a video manifesto on childhood bullying, by Shane Koyczan Man in Japan assaults airport inspectors over pudding CIA whistleblower Kiriakou gets party before prison From Seizure to Surgery: first-person account of what it's like to have a brain tumor One baby band A report from Webstock 2013: Jasmina Tesanovic Computer Jay's Omni Bent New in Boing Boing shop: Skullcap Moleskine Ruled Cahier Pocket Journals "How Not To Be A Dick To Your Fat Friends" Meet Pavlov's dogs The trial of a 14th century female doctor How to Cheat in the Leaving Certificate: controversial Irish caper film now on YouTube Taking on real reform in a post-SOPA world – let's start with cellphone unlocking Original art for 1973 Spider-Man cover has current high bid of $268, 875 Fantastic animated chalk art Amp made out of old brass instruments
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 23, 2013 11:51 am The Analog Tele-Phonographer is Christopher Locke's fantastic smartphone amplifier made from salvaged, chimeraed brass instruments. Each one is different, and each one is awesome in its own way. These devices are made from salvaged trumpets and other brass instruments, with assorted machine parts. Analog Tele-Phonographer
Read in browser Cory in Portsmouth, NH tonight
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 23, 2013 08:54 am Hey, Portsmouth, NH! I'll be at RiverRun Books tonight at 7PM (I'll also be at the Liberty Forum in Nashua). Tomorrow, I'm in Concord, before heading to DC. There's plenty more to come, too! Tell your friends!
Read in browser World's largest panorama: London
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 22, 2013 11:26 pm Jeffrey sez, "I spent the last 4 months stitching 48 THOUSAND images together into a single panorama which lets you see things up to about 15 miles away. This image is about 4 times larger than the previous world record image, a 114-gigapixel image of Shanghai (at the time incorrectly labeled as 271 gigapixels) The ...
Read in browser Star Wars jewelry
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 22, 2013 09:10 pm Etsy seller Rockets and Rainbows makes clever jewelry out of Star Wars and My Little Pony toys, including the Snow Speeder ring shown here. But you can't buy that one, because I just bought it as a surprise for my wife. Don't tell her, OK? RocketsandRainbows (via The Mary Sue)
Read in browser Mark's "World's Worst" book 99-cents sale on Kindle
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 22, 2013 08:31 pm I can't think of a better day than today to announce that my 2005 book, The World's Worst: A Guide to the Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, and Dangerous People, Places, and Things on Earth is on sale as a Kindle edition for 99-cents. It's a limited time offer! Bookstore shelves are lined with tomes dedicated ...
Read in browser Secure documents
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 22, 2013 05:45 pm More scenes from a book tour: SECURE DOCUMENTS! Secure documents do not enter sign, Pasadena High, Houston, TX, USA
Read in browser US soldier shot in Afghanistan saved by his iPhone
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 04:42 pm A US soldier with a unit in Eastern Afghanistan was shot in combat, and bled profusely, nearing death. Helicopters picked him up, medics inspected his injuries, cut off his clothes and looked through his pockets. They found his iPhone, with a bullet hole through it. "They said that the iPhone probably changed the trajectory of ...
Read in browser If you give a mouse a parachute ...
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 22, 2013 04:26 pm Humans brought the brown tree snake to Guam about 60 years ago. Since then, the reptiles have slithered their way across the island — devouring whole bird species as they went. The snakes are such a threat to bird life on Guam that authorities have decided to resort to drastic measures. Beginning later this spring, ...
Read in browser What we can all learn from the Tesla data-journalism drama
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 04:21 pm An excellent piece by Taylor Owen, for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia: "The principle lesson from the whole Tesla affair: Data is laden with intentionality, and cannot be removed from the context in which it was derived. We do not know, from these data alone, what happened in that parking lot." As ...
Read in browser The Glif: quickly mount an iPhone to a tripod
By Cool Tools on Feb 22, 2013 04:18 pm I use my iPhone to shoot video because the quality is excellent and I like the many different inexpensive video apps available for the iPhone (such as stop motion apps). I also like being able to email iPhone videos or upload them to YouTube directly from my phone instead of having to first transfer them ...
Read in browser ZOMG, Esquire! "Obama's Brain Activity Map Could Be Mind Control"
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 04:17 pm Esquire has published one of the clickbaitiest neuroscience articles in the history of all ZOMG-dom: "President Obama's proposed Brain Activity Map Project could lead to cures for Alzheimer's, autism, and schizophrenia. But members of Congress should read the fine print when the $3 billion proposal hits their desks next month — because the project might ...
Read in browser Amateur food porn must stop
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 04:14 pm "You and six friends after a long night of drinking." One of many reasons why amateur photographers should not be allowed to Instagram their foodz. Tumblr: "Amateur Food Porn Has Got To Stop." Below, Baby Seal Pizza. SEE ALSO: #prepoop (HT: Clayton Cubitt)
Read in browser Apex predators have great chemistry
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 22, 2013 04:12 pm What do top predators have to do with chemistry? Turns out, their presence (or lack thereof) can alter ecosystems, turning them from carbon sinks or carbon suppliers (and vice versa). Researchers from the University of British Columbia studied watery ecosystems in Canada and Costa Rica and found that, when the biggest fish were removed, carbon ...
Read in browser Bees sense electric charge from flowers
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 04:11 pm Scientists are studying another element that attracts bees to flowers, in addition to color and scent: the distinct electric field a flower emits.
Read in browser The Art of Harvey Kurtzman at the Museum of American Illustration: exclusive preview
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 22, 2013 04:09 pm Kurtzman's ground-breaking color rough for the cover of MAD #1 along with the printed cover (1952). “I think Harvey’s MAD was more important than pot and LSD in shaping the generation that protested the Vietnam War. . . . Kurtzman was the single most significant influence on a couple of generations of comics artists.” — ...
Read in browser To This Day: a video manifesto on childhood bullying, by Shane Koyczan
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 04:06 pm "My experiences with violence in schools still echo throughout my life but standing to face the problem has helped me in immeasurable ways."
Read in browser Man in Japan assaults airport inspectors over pudding
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 03:52 pm Asahi Shimbun reports that several pudding containers in the baggage of a Chinese man returning from Hong Kong were seized by airport screeners. In response, the traveler assaulted the security officer who done stoled his puddin. As @HubrisSonic noted, that must have been some damn fine pudding. Pudding will make you slap somebody.
Read in browser CIA whistleblower Kiriakou gets party before prison
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 03:49 pm Former CIA agent John Kiriakou, 48, is heading to prison for 30 months for whistleblowing on torture. "He seemed unbowed and almost content at the prospect of prison as he basked in the well wishes of about 100 supporters, who gathered for a posh send-off at the luxury hotel," writes David Montgomery at the WaPo. ...
Read in browser From Seizure to Surgery: first-person account of what it's like to have a brain tumor
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 03:46 pm Jess Hill has published the second part of a three-part series on what it's like to have a brain tumor diagnosed, then surgically removed. Read: Magical Realism: From Seizure to Surgery. The earlier installment is here.
Read in browser One baby band
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 03:43 pm By Joey Angerone, of his 9 month old baby Quentin.
Read in browser A report from Webstock 2013: Jasmina Tesanovic
By Jasmina Tesanovic on Feb 22, 2013 03:29 pm Photo: Bruce Sterling I've been to tech conferences all over the world, but this one may be the most radical: Webstock in Wellington, New Zealand. It's about web designers as both stars of "new media" and as futurist philosophers. These web people, who normally talk in their geeky way about algorithms, can't resist preaching some ...
Read in browser Computer Jay's Omni Bent
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 22, 2013 03:19 pm The track is from Computer Jay's
Savage Planet Discotheque. Jay has also written an
8-bit style video game to accompany the album and unlock a few hidden tracks.
Read in browser New in Boing Boing shop: Skullcap Moleskine Ruled Cahier Pocket Journals
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 22, 2013 03:15 pm Hot off the press: the Boing Boing Skullcap Moleskine Ruled Cahier Journal! • 64 lined pages! • Last 16 sheets detachable!! • Acid-free paper!!! • Inner pocket!!!! • Size: 3-1/2" x 5-1/2" (9 cm x 14 cm)!!!!! • Design: Sarina Frauenfelder!!!!!! Skullcap Moleskine Ruled Cahier Pocket Journals $5.95 View more Moleskine items | Boing Boing ...
Read in browser "How Not To Be A Dick To Your Fat Friends"
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 22, 2013 03:04 pm Marianne, at XOJane: "Because you are not an asshole, I feel like I can say these things to you, in the hopes that you will think about them the next time you hang out with a friend who might be fat—or even the next time you interact with a fat person that you don't know."
Read in browser Meet Pavlov's dogs
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 22, 2013 02:51 pm Ivan Pavlov had at least 35 dogs that were involved in his Nobel Prize-winning on behavior and conditioning. But only one of them was stuffed and preserved in the Pavlov Museum.
Read in browser The trial of a 14th century female doctor
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 22, 2013 02:45 pm In November 1322, Jakoba (or Jacoba) Felicie stood trial in her native Paris for the crime of practicing medicine without official sanction. Over the course of the trial, it became clear that her work as a doctor had been excellent. But Dr. Felicie was stuck in an unfortunate catch-22. She could not legally work as ...
Read in browser How to Cheat in the Leaving Certificate: controversial Irish caper film now on YouTube
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 22, 2013 02:39 pm Nineties Irish indie feature HOW TO CHEAT IN THE LEAVING CERTIFICATE was recently remastered, and the 1080p telecine created from the original camera negative and is now available in full on YouTube
Read in browser Taking on real reform in a post-SOPA world – let's start with cellphone unlocking
By Derek Khanna on Feb 22, 2013 02:30 pm Derek Khanna was a Professional Staffer for the Republican Study Committee in the House of Representatives. Khanna, 24, previously worked on Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign and in the office of Senator Scott Brown (R-MA).
Read in browser Original art for 1973 Spider-Man cover has current high bid of $268, 875
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 22, 2013 02:05 pm Live bidding on the Johnny Romita's cover art for Amazing Spider-Man #121 has commenced at Heritage Auctions. The loss of Gwen marked nothing less than an end to the carefree fun and offbeat innocence of the Silver Age era. Spider-Man and the Marvel Age of Heroes were never quite so merry after this story. John ...
Read in browser Fantastic animated chalk art
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 22, 2013 01:45 pm From chalk artist Chris Carlson (Via UniqueDaily)
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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