Akata Witch: young adult hero's journey of a Nigerian witch Baja in my Westy: ready to leave LA Supreme Court turns down ACLU bid to kill NSA warrantless wiretapping "Wouldn't it be nice if, instead of a dragon, the Dwarves found Fraggles in their mountain?" TOM THE DANCING BUG: Bad Fetus, in "Fetal Firepower!!" Man shot by dog? Game world created with photogrammetry Makers of The Hit Squad, animated comedy, seek funding Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein interviewed Help catch one of California's most violent killers TED2013: Interview with creators of Romo iPhone robot What schools should really teach Coming to Albuquerque today! "Put down" disabled children, says local councilor Invisible bank robber captured Watered-down booze bamboozles drinkers Dramatic apple cat Parltrack needs money to keep on turning PDFs and DOCs into usable data Articulated, flapping steampunk wings How many tweets are possible? Because it is rare, male breast cancer often diagnosed only at late stage CDZA: "The Beatles Argument." Django, in chains: Jesse Williams on Tarantino Video of "invisibility cloak" at TED David Bowie and Tilda Swinton Ocean swimming as meditation Bostonians: I need your small stickers! Pressure Printing prints by Daniel Martin Diaz What exploded over Russia? Space researchers explore, with infrasound sensors Akata Witch: young adult hero's journey of a Nigerian witch
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 27, 2013 12:51 pm World Fantasy Award-winning novelist Nnedi Okorafor's debut young adult novel is Akata Witch, a beautifully wrought hero's journey story about Sunny, a young girl with albinism born to Nigerian parents in America, and then returned to Nigeria, where she discovers that she is a Leopard Person -- a born sorcerer. The structure of Sunny's journey ...
Read in browser Baja in my Westy: ready to leave LA
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 27, 2013 12:15 pm I made it to LA with no problems and a little time to spare. The GoWesty 2.3L rebuilt engine is running beautifully. Having spent much of February breaking the engine in but unable to really apply full throttle, I've got to say her maiden voyage is feeling pretty darn good! As was noted in the ...
Read in browser Supreme Court turns down ACLU bid to kill NSA warrantless wiretapping
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 27, 2013 12:02 pm The US Supreme Court has dismissed Clapper v. Amnesty International, which sought to overturn the secret, mass surveillance of the Internet by the NSA. EFF has its own lawsuit, which is still proceeding: The court didn't address the constitutionality of the FAA itself, but instead ruled that the plaintiffs—a group of lawyers, journalists, and human ...
Read in browser "Wouldn't it be nice if, instead of a dragon, the Dwarves found Fraggles in their mountain?"
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 27, 2013 11:57 am "Friends", by euclase. [via Deviant Art Blog via @Aurich]
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Bad Fetus, in "Fetal Firepower!!"
By Ruben Bolling on Feb 27, 2013 11:47 am Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH our prenatal protagonist tries to purchase a weapon and gets wrapped up in red tape more tangled than an umbilical cord.
Read in browser Man shot by dog?
By Jason Weisberger on Feb 27, 2013 11:37 am Man shot by low IQ. "According to the police report, Lanier said he was driving along State Road 17 North when the dog kicked 'the unloaded .380 pistol.' It went on to say that Lanier was 'surprised' to learn not only that the gun was loaded, but also that it was actually a 9mm weapon, ...
Read in browser Game world created with photogrammetry
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 27, 2013 11:30 am Photogrammetry is a technique whereby two-dimensional images are automatically converted into three-dimensional models. Indie developer Skull Theater is using this method exclusively to develop Rustclad, its forthcoming computer game. The basic idea is that we build or find the objects that we want in our world, take a set of photographs for each object, and ...
Read in browser Makers of The Hit Squad, animated comedy, seek funding
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 27, 2013 11:25 am The Hit Squad, an animated comedy about a 1980s London synthpop band's attempted comeback, is headed to Kickstarter, where the producers aim to raise £5,000. "The movie is a tale of sex, skullduggery and synthesised music following sex-addict Roddy Stones, East-End thug Frankie Miller and brain-damaged Charles Whitecastle," writes Chris Blundell. "They get one last ...
Read in browser Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein interviewed
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 27, 2013 11:01 am Unsurprisingly, she has excellent taste in websites. [Adweek]
Read in browser Help catch one of California's most violent killers
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 27, 2013 10:40 am At L.A. Magazine, Michelle McNamara reports that one of the most violent serial rapists and killers in history may still be out there. In the March issue of Los Angeles magazine, true crime writer Michelle McNamara tracks the unsettling and largely unknown backstory of the Golden State Killer and what has prompted authorities to reheat ...
Read in browser TED2013: Interview with creators of Romo iPhone robot
By Carla Sinclair on Feb 27, 2013 09:39 am One of the biggest charmers at TED2013 so far has been Romo the Robot, who rolled and whizzed around the stage with one of his creators, Keller Rinaudo. With large bubbly eyes, four fang-like teeth, and a happy alien voice, it's easy to forget that this animated robot is actually just an iPhone mounted on ...
Read in browser What schools should really teach
By Dean Putney on Feb 27, 2013 09:30 am Why learning to program is about more than a job, it's a way to make your whole life better.
Read in browser Coming to Albuquerque today!
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 27, 2013 09:09 am Hey, Albuquerque! I'm at the South Broadway Cultural Center tonight at 6PM. Tomorrow, I'm in Lawrence, KS and then my final stop, Toronto. Come on out!
Read in browser "Put down" disabled children, says local councilor
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 27, 2013 07:25 am Collin Brewer, a local councilor in England, regrets having called for disabled children to be euthanazed: "I meant no offence by my remarks to you. I can see, in retrospect, that they were ill-judged and insensitive." [BBC]
Read in browser Invisible bank robber captured
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 27, 2013 07:20 am A bank robber who paid a wizard $450 to make him invisible was nonetheless detected and overpowered during his Tehran heist. [Metro]
Read in browser Watered-down booze bamboozles drinkers
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 27, 2013 07:08 am Beer drinkers filed a $5m lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch, accusing it of watering down Budweiser. Meanwhile, Makers Mark abandoned back plans to water down its signature tipple.
Read in browser Dramatic apple cat
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 27, 2013 01:52 am This video first made the rounds in 2011, but a kitten chasing apples on a bed, set to dramatic music, is timeless.
Read in browser Parltrack needs money to keep on turning PDFs and DOCs into usable data
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 26, 2013 09:12 pm Stefan writes, "Parltrack is free software that liberates a lot of hard to process data (like PDFs, Word docs, and HTML pages) as reusable open data and presents this as a kind of dashboard for activists, providing fresh and relevant data not only for the concerned but the curious citizen as well. Even pros from ...
Read in browser Articulated, flapping steampunk wings
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 26, 2013 06:33 pm "Fully articulated. the wings rise and fall, assisted by custom carved black walnut handles. The wings are affixed with bonded vinyl/leather straps."
Read in browser How many tweets are possible?
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 26, 2013 06:30 pm Randall Monroe's latest "What If?" explores the total number of possible English-language tweets: Based on the rates of correct guesses—and rigorous mathematical analysis—Shannon determined that the information content of typical written English was around 1.0 to 1.2 bits per letter. This means that a good compression algorithm should be able to compress ASCII English text—which ...
Read in browser Because it is rare, male breast cancer often diagnosed only at late stage
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 26, 2013 03:31 pm "About 2,240 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in U.S. men a year, compared with about 232,000 cases of invasive cancer among women," writes Laura Hambleton in the Washington Post. "And because male breast cancer is rare, most men with the disease do what Bogler did and ignore the symptoms: lumps in a breast, discharge ...
Read in browser CDZA: "The Beatles Argument."
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 26, 2013 03:25 pm "Anger, frustration, forgiveness, revenge: communicated in 17 Beatles songs."
Read in browser Django, in chains: Jesse Williams on Tarantino
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 26, 2013 03:12 pm "My personal biracial experience growing up on both sides of segregated hoods, suburbs and backcountry taught me a lot about the coded language and arithmetic of racism," writes actor and former history teacher Jesse Williams. "I was often invisible when topics of race arose, the racial adoptee that you spoke honestly in front of." With ...
Read in browser Video of "invisibility cloak" at TED
By Carla Sinclair on Feb 26, 2013 02:57 pm Yesterday I linked to a video of Baile Zhang's "invisibility cloak," which was demoed at TED2013. The video was hosted by Dropbox, which killed the link (too much traffic). Here's a YouTube version of the same video, courtesy of Ben Kellogg.
Read in browser David Bowie and Tilda Swinton
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 26, 2013 02:47 pm Together at last.
Read in browser Ocean swimming as meditation
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 26, 2013 02:28 pm I am in Hawaii, working and exploring and writing—and, for the first time in my life, swimming in the ocean. Not just playing in the water, but I mean, really swimming. Laps along the shoreline at gentle beaches like Lanikai, and yesterday for the first time in my life, swimming out a little further to ...
Read in browser Bostonians: I need your small stickers!
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 26, 2013 02:21 pm Update: Thanks for the stickers! Yo, Boston! I'm doing an appearance tonight at Harvard Books, and as luck would have it, I spilled a cup of coffee on my laptop this morning and killed it. Luckily, the twitters leapt into action and let me know that the Micro Center in Cambridge was well-equipped (and by ...
Read in browser Pressure Printing prints by Daniel Martin Diaz
By David Pescovitz on Feb 26, 2013 01:40 pm Pressure Printing, creators of the finest art prints I've ever seen, today issued three new intaglio prints by Mexican-American underground artist Daniel Martin Diaz. Each of the three works -- Atomic Man, Soul of Science, and Self-Aware Systems -- were handprinted in a limited edition of 25 on a Takach etching press, hand-stained in tea ...
Read in browser What exploded over Russia? Space researchers explore, with infrasound sensors
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 26, 2013 01:34 pm Piecing together what exploded in the skies over Russia, using infrasound sensors operated by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization
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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