Game of Thrones art exhibition Choosing the Right Seat: How not to get stuck next to someone that sucks Texas cop repeatedly tazes the Statue of Liberty Rock Band Land's "The Truth About Polar Bears" "The Rumor," a lithograph by A. Paul Weber Celebrate "Pi Day" by throwing hot dogs down a hallway Sponsor shout-out: ShanaLogic and leather cuffs Science extravaganza on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything" Transcripts of bullying voicemails left by porno copyright troll to ex-caretaker and alleged identity theft victim Shuttle Discovery, just chillaxin' at Udvar-Hazy (photo) Google shutting down Google Reader: where should we go next? Book of maps by storytellers and artists Game of Thrones 1995 Interview with Molly Crabapple Erin Brockovich: the real-life unhappy ending of Hinkley, California, and a tale of science for sale Rape suspect carries stun-gun past TSA checkpoint at JFK airport Trending right now on Yahoo (not) Myanmar: Villagers angry with Aung Suu Kyi over her support of copper mine A health update from Arijit "Poop Strong," cancer blogger and awesome guy Stupid Unix trick: why you shouldn't pipe yes into yes Dead Chavez helped Christ pick pope Tetrisoid slot sofa Impact of Manning case on media: "Death to Whistleblowers?" New moon Song about Torontonians' dismal obsession with Canada Goose parkas Cord-cutting wisdom from Nielsen to TV execs Why are we curious? In case you missed: Bradley Manning has a voice Arming Sisters: a crowdfunded campaign to teach indigenous women self-defense skills Daniel Kraus's horror masterpiece Scowler audiobook Game of Thrones art exhibition
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 12:53 pm "Mother of Dragons" by Jason Edmiston Mondo Gallery in Austin, Texas, has an exhibition of art inspired by Game of Thrones. My Modern Met has more images. "Margaery" by Audrey Kawasaki
Read in browser Choosing the Right Seat: How not to get stuck next to someone that sucks
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 12:44 pm Now people who think, "Oh shit, Frauenfelder is gonna be there," have this infographic to give them a fighting chance.
Read in browser Texas cop repeatedly tazes the Statue of Liberty
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 12:39 pm A Fort Worth, TX cop told a guy in a Statue of Liberty suit to move along from the road-median where he was advertising Liberty Tax Services. Lady Liberty did not immediately comply ("Get away from me! What are you doing? Go talk to my boss!") so the cop tazed the Statue of Liberty. Three ...
Read in browser Rock Band Land's "The Truth About Polar Bears"
By David Pescovitz on Mar 14, 2013 12:38 pm "The Truth About Polar Bears" was inspired by ideas that bubbled up in Rock Band Land, a San Francisco DIY "creativity school" where kids aged 4-8 write song stories together,
Read in browser "The Rumor," a lithograph by A. Paul Weber
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 12:31 pm I've never heard of artist A. Paul Weber until I came across this feverish drawing today called "The Rumor." See it in Gigapan here. From the Weber Museum: Weber was born in Arnstadt, Thüringen. In his youth he joined the Jung-Wandervogel, a movement interested in cultivating a better lifestyle and a heightened appreciation of nature ...
Read in browser Celebrate "Pi Day" by throwing hot dogs down a hallway
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 14, 2013 12:07 pm No, that's not a euphemism for anything. Buffon's Needle is an 18th-century experiment in probability mathematics and geometry that can be used as a way to calculate pi through random sampling. This WikiHow posting explains how you can recreate Buffon's Needle at home, by playing with your food.
Read in browser Sponsor shout-out: ShanaLogic and leather cuffs
By David Pescovitz on Mar 14, 2013 12:00 pm Thank you to our sponsor ShanaLogic, sellers of handmade and independently-designed jewelry, apparel, gifts, and other curious creations! Now available are these stylish Thin Leather Cuffs made from soft leather and sturdy metal loops and buckles. Available in three sizes for men and women! Shana says: Enter the code BOING to receive 10% of this ...
Read in browser Science extravaganza on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything"
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 14, 2013 11:48 am Later today, you can interact with some of the best science writers around — Carl Zimmer, Ed Yong, Virginia Hughes, and Brian Switek — in an epic science edition of "Ask Me Anything". They'll be taking your questions on everything from parasites to dinosaurs, beginning at 2:00 Eastern.
Read in browser Transcripts of bullying voicemails left by porno copyright troll to ex-caretaker and alleged identity theft victim
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 11:44 am If you've been following the sad saga of the porno copyright trolls Prenda Law, you'll know that Alan Cooper is the former caretaker of John Steele, who is apparently the man behind a spiraling series of ever-scammier attempts to get people to pay money in order to keep their names out of embarrassing court filings ...
Read in browser Shuttle Discovery, just chillaxin' at Udvar-Hazy (photo)
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 14, 2013 11:29 am Bryan Jones shot this lovely portrait of Space Shuttle Discovery at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. This companion site to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened in 2003, and is located near Washington Dulles International Airport. The shuttle arrived there about a year ago.
Read in browser Google shutting down Google Reader: where should we go next?
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 10:34 am Google has announced the imminent shutdown of Google Reader, effective July 1. I use Reader every day, often as the back-end for other RSS reader apps, like the excellent Newsrob for Android, and it's the core of how I blog and stay informed -- over the past several years, I've gradually shifted over from bookmarked ...
Read in browser Book of maps by storytellers and artists
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 10:21 am A Map of the World: The World According to Illustrators and Storytellers is a beautiful art-book of spectacular illustrated maps: From the publisher's site (where you'll find lots more images): Drawing a map means understanding our world a bit better. For centuries, we have used the tools of cartography to represent both our immediate surroundings ...
Read in browser Game of Thrones 1995
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 14, 2013 10:10 am I want it all, and I want it now. [Video Link]
Read in browser Interview with Molly Crabapple
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 14, 2013 10:00 am The artist (one of the creators behind the wonderful I have your heart) talks about the growing political dimension of her work. An exhibition of her latest series, Shell Game, opens April 14 in New York.
Read in browser Erin Brockovich: the real-life unhappy ending of Hinkley, California, and a tale of science for sale
By Miles O'Brien on Mar 14, 2013 09:45 am PBS NewsHour's Miles O'Brien travels to Hinkley, CA, the town whose multi-million dollar settlement for groundwater contamination inspired the movie "Erin Brockovich."
Read in browser Rape suspect carries stun-gun past TSA checkpoint at JFK airport
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 14, 2013 09:44 am The WSJ reports that a 23-year-old man sought by police on charges he raped his 19-year-old girlfriend and subdued her with a powerful stun gun "made his way through a security checkpoint at John F. Kennedy International Airport while carrying" that same 3,800K-volt stun-gun, "which is on the list of banned items for airplane travel." [WSJ]
Read in browser Trending right now on Yahoo (not)
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 14, 2013 09:44 am There are a bunch of these. By Sean Tejaratchi.
Read in browser Myanmar: Villagers angry with Aung Suu Kyi over her support of copper mine
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 14, 2013 09:43 am Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi "faced the wrath of hundreds of villagers on Thursday" in Myanmar, reports Reuters. They are angry over her defense of "an independent report that backed expansion of a copper mine they say was built on illegally seized land." [Reuters]
Read in browser A health update from Arijit "Poop Strong," cancer blogger and awesome guy
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 14, 2013 09:28 am Cory and I have each blogged about Arijit "Poop Strong" Guha, a 31 year-old sustainability PhD student in Arizona living with metastatic colon cancer. Arijit was an interesting guy before his diagnosis, but we wrote about a couple notable things in his life after cancer became part of it: first, his righteous battle with an ...
Read in browser Stupid Unix trick: why you shouldn't pipe yes into yes
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 09:27 am There's a GNU-coreutils program called yes whose function is to "output a string repeatedly until killed." M Tang tried piping the output of one yes command into another. It ended badly: Taking a look at the source code for yes, it looks like the single argument is being stored in a char array, then, in ...
Read in browser Dead Chavez helped Christ pick pope
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 14, 2013 08:49 am Venezuela's acting President Nicolas Maduro: "We know that our commander ascended to the heights and is face-to-face with Christ. Something influenced the choice of a South American pope, someone new arrived at Christ's side and said to him: 'Well, it seems to us South America's time has come.'" [Reuters]
Read in browser Tetrisoid slot sofa
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 13, 2013 11:14 pm Designer Matthew Pauk's "Slot Sofa" is pure doctrovian catnip -- a marvel of kentucky. Basically, I want to live in a Pullman car. Slot is a dynamic furniture piece. The sofa system finds new value and diverse functionality by blending the sofa, coffee table, and ottoman. It utilizes the common constructional gaps found between the ...
Read in browser Impact of Manning case on media: "Death to Whistleblowers?"
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 13, 2013 09:38 pm "If successful, the prosecution will establish a chilling precedent: national security leaks may subject the leakers to a capital prosecution or at least life imprisonment. Anyone who holds freedom of the press dear should shudder at the threat that the prosecution's theory presents to journalists, their sources and the public that relies on them." Floyd ...
Read in browser New moon
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 13, 2013 09:28 pm "C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS and new moon," a photo by Rob Pfile shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool. "Stack of 14 images, 1/10s @ ISO1600 and f/4. canon 200 f/2.8L and canon 60D," Rob explains. "Got lucky with a break in the clouds. alignment with FFTAlignment script. workin' miracles again."
Read in browser Song about Torontonians' dismal obsession with Canada Goose parkas
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 13, 2013 09:00 pm Torontonians are actually pretty well-dressed, but not in winter. In winter, everyone wears awful, identical Canada Goose parkas.
Read in browser Cord-cutting wisdom from Nielsen to TV execs
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 13, 2013 07:36 pm "Oh, don't worry about those people who have found something better and who are dropping your service in six figure chunks each quarter. We'll just observe them and be ready to act later." -Mike Masnick
Read in browser Why are we curious?
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 13, 2013 06:56 pm Another great ramble from the always-fascinating Venkatesh Rao entitled "The Dead-Curious Cat and the Joyless Immortal," considers several explanations for our species' curiosity, and asks whether our weird, ubiquitous artificial life-forms (corporations) share this trait, and why: Alone among the curious animals (though this seems like a conceit that more research might invalidate), we seem ...
Read in browser In case you missed: Bradley Manning has a voice
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 13, 2013 06:39 pm The Freedom of the Press Foundation (of which I'm a board member) this week released surreptitiously recorded audio leaked from the Bradley Manning military pre-court martial hearing at Fort Meade. For the first time, you can now hear Manning's statement in his own voice. I do not know who recorded it or leaked it, but ...
Read in browser Arming Sisters: a crowdfunded campaign to teach indigenous women self-defense skills
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 13, 2013 06:05 pm "Arming Sisters" is described as a "crowdfunded project on a mission to bring compact self-defense courses" to indigenous women, "arming them to fight back."
Read in browser Daniel Kraus's horror masterpiece Scowler audiobook
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 13, 2013 06:02 pm Yesterday, I reviewed Daniel Kraus's spectacular and terrifying horror novel Scowler. It turns out that Random House Audio has produced an audiobook version read by Kirby Heyborne (who also reads the audio edition of Little Brother), and they sell it as a DRM-free CDs direct from their site (a welcome alternative to Audible/iTunes, which requires ...
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
No comments:
Post a Comment