Castle for sale in upstate NY Thorium, fusion, and other energy miracles Geek A Week's Len Peralta Draws Your D & D and RPG Characters Kathy Lee topples untoppleable mug The scientific field with the best obituaries The physics of pull-ups HOWTO make custom cookie-stamps from salt dough The rise and fall of the personal car What are the chances of a large meteor destroying a city? Grapefruit + prescription drug = overdose Legal issues in Pirate Cinema analyzed by IP lawyer Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project: how you can help save historic space data Makies in Make: Weird probabilities of non-transitive "Grime Dice" Politician arrested after House of Commons brawl Aaron Swartz defense: prosecutor Steve Heymann deliberately withheld exculpatory evidence Glitched-out armoire Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peace live DJ sets: "f-ing bonkers" Dems to Obama: Be more transparent about drones, kill lists. Obama: Nope. Reuters employee charged with aiding Anonymous in website defacement eDrometer Digital Hydrometer for Brewers and Winemakers Video of the first Mat Ricardo's London Varieties show Air horn office chair prank Kickstarting a deep-sea documentary on the nuclear wrecks of the Bikini Atoll Photolettering app from House Industries Kickstarting a cheap, versatile, sophisticated 3D printed robotic hand Large format Adrian Tomine prints Chris Buzelli cover for Players magazine What is this mystery tool? Derren Brown's guide to overcoming awkward situations Castle for sale in upstate NY
By David Pescovitz on Mar 15, 2013 12:52 pm As Boing Boing has outgrown both our converted ICBM silo and air park and secret lair in the Alps we expect to purchase this stately castle in upstate New York, built in 1894 for the National Guard Amsterdam. It is quite a steal at $1 million although our planned improvements will be costly, starting with ...
Read in browser Thorium, fusion, and other energy miracles
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 15, 2013 12:48 pm There are existing solutions to our the energy crises facing us today, but they all suffer from being frustratingly imperfect, complicated, and not particularly easy to implement (at least not quickly). Some even require us to change our behaviors. And, most likely, we'd have have to use lots of these solutions all at once, further ...
Read in browser Geek A Week's Len Peralta Draws Your D & D and RPG Characters
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 15, 2013 12:43 pm Len sez, "A few years ago, you posted about my Monster By Mail project. Since then I've drawn a lot of things including Cory for my Geek A Week project. Now I am doing something similar to Monster By Mail with RPG and D&D characters. I'm drawing people's characters for their character sheets. They get ...
Read in browser Kathy Lee topples untoppleable mug
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 15, 2013 12:41 pm The Today Show presenter is taking no nonsense here.
Read in browser The scientific field with the best obituaries
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 15, 2013 12:40 pm Everybody dies. But naturalists — the people who study animals and plants in those species' natural environments — well, they die interestingly. Some recent causes of death in this scientific field include: Elephant charge, being eaten by caimans (assumed), and the plague.
Read in browser The physics of pull-ups
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 15, 2013 12:34 pm Some people are naturally better than others at pulling off the elusive pull-up, writes Kyle Hill at Scientifica American. For them, it's all about mass-to-arm-length ratio — ideally, you want a low mass and short arms to minimize the amount of energy it takes to pull your body upwards. But Hill insists that the less ...
Read in browser HOWTO make custom cookie-stamps from salt dough
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 15, 2013 12:24 pm On Alphamom, Lindsey "Filth Wizardry" Boardman shows how she and her kids made cookie-stamps out of salt-dough (they also make them out of polymer clay, but this is not recommended for use with things you plan on eating). The stamps let each kid customize her cookies, which resolves ownership squabbles and also adds aesthetic appeal. ...
Read in browser The rise and fall of the personal car
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 15, 2013 11:55 am "The replacement of the car is probably out there. We just don't fully recognize it yet." — a really interesting story on the historical patterns of technology adoption and decline, and how those patterns might apply to the things we think of as absolute and necessary as much as they applied to the steamship or ...
Read in browser What are the chances of a large meteor destroying a city?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 15, 2013 11:47 am Good news: This is probably not something you have to worry too much about during your lifetime.
Read in browser Grapefruit + prescription drug = overdose
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 15, 2013 11:45 am There are 44 prescription drugs on the market today that should never be combined with grapefruit. That's because the sour fruit (and some other, closely related, kinds of citrus) contain chemical compounds called furanocoumarins that prevent your body from metabolizing certain prescription drugs. Essentially, the grapefruit creates an artificial overdose where one tablet packs the ...
Read in browser Legal issues in Pirate Cinema analyzed by IP lawyer
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 15, 2013 11:18 am IP lawyer Stuart Langley wrote a fantastic analysis of the legal issues raised in my novel Pirate Cinema a guest-article for the wonderful Law and the Multiverse site. Langley does a very thorough job of looking at the real laws and legal problems behind the plot points in the book. The McCauley's internet access has ...
Read in browser Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project: how you can help save historic space data
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 15, 2013 10:14 am Space history buffs are racing against time to preserve historic lunar mission data stored on dusty old analog tapes. And they need your help.
Read in browser Makies in Make:
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 15, 2013 10:00 am The latest issue of Make: has a great profile of my wife, Alice Taylor, and the 3D printed toy-company she founded. They're going great guns, too -- just won one of the top prizes at the SXSW Accelerator! Makies are manufactured using a 3D printing technology called selective laser sintering (SLS), in which a laser ...
Read in browser Weird probabilities of non-transitive "Grime Dice"
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 15, 2013 09:18 am Michael de Podesta has been doing the math on "
Grime Dice" -- six sided cubes whose sides average out to 3.5, but whose face values are all radically different.
Read in browser Politician arrested after House of Commons brawl
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 15, 2013 09:13 am British Minister of Parliament Eric Joyce was arrested after a late-night brawl at a bar in the House of Commons, reports The Guardian. Joyce had already resigned from the Labour party after earlier headbutting two rivals in a previous Commons melee; he now serves as an independent.
Read in browser Aaron Swartz defense: prosecutor Steve Heymann deliberately withheld exculpatory evidence
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 11:10 pm According to Aaron Swartz's defense team, federal prosecutor Steve Heymann (star of Quinn Norton's extraordinary piece on the prosecution) illegally withheld evidence that would have exculpated Aaron: In the document, Peters argues that Heymann withheld exculpatory evidence. At issue was whether the federal government had properly obtained a warrant to search Swartz' computer and thumb ...
Read in browser Glitched-out armoire
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 08:54 pm Spocko sez, "This piece of furniture looks like an alien made it after looking at a frozen frame on a VCR." In his second year working with Fratelli Boffi, Ferruccio Laviani has created yet another fanciful world from the depths of his prolific imagination. A concept that goes beyond individual products, it combines the expertise ...
Read in browser Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peace live DJ sets: "f-ing bonkers"
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 14, 2013 08:52 pm Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich are planning a special series of live DJ sets for the Atoms for Peace album launch.
Read in browser Dems to Obama: Be more transparent about drones, kill lists. Obama: Nope.
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 14, 2013 08:22 pm In a closed door meeting, Democrats demanded that President Obama be more transparent about drones, secret legal memos, and "kill lists." He declined. In response to a critique by one lawmaker over the administration's failure to show congressional intelligence committee members memos justifying the use of lethal force against American terror suspects abroad, Obama said ...
Read in browser Reuters employee charged with aiding Anonymous in website defacement
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 14, 2013 08:02 pm Matthew Keys, 26, a social media editor for Reuters, has been indicted on charges that he helped members of Anonymous hack the Tribune Co. network in order to deface the Los Angeles Times website. "The editor was outed by the prominent former member of Anonymous known as Sabu who became a snitch for the FBI ...
Read in browser eDrometer Digital Hydrometer for Brewers and Winemakers
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 07:52 pm My cousin, Greg Lanham, and I have many similarities. We're the same age (born four days apart), we grew up in Colorado, and we went to Colorado State University at the same time and got degrees in mechanical engineering. The main difference is that I was a lousy engineer but Greg is a very good ...
Read in browser Video of the first Mat Ricardo's London Varieties show
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 07:45 pm The first episode of the 2013 season of Mat Ricardo's London Varieties is now up, online, for anyone to watch, completely free!
Read in browser Air horn office chair prank
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 07:19 pm You know those assholes who wake up their friends in painful and startling ways? They are coming to your office. Air horn office chair prank
Read in browser Kickstarting a deep-sea documentary on the nuclear wrecks of the Bikini Atoll
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 06:50 pm Wreck diver and videographer Adrian Smith has launched a Kickstarter project to fund an expedition to document the forgotten wrecks sunken by the Bikini Atoll atomic explosion in 1946.
Read in browser Photolettering app from House Industries
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 06:23 pm From our friends at House Industries: an iPhone app that offers different House-designed fonts to add text to your photos. Based on House's terrific (and cheap!) Photo-Lettering service. Photolettering - House Industries
Read in browser Kickstarting a cheap, versatile, sophisticated 3D printed robotic hand
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 14, 2013 06:16 pm Chris Chappell and Easton LaChappelle have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of a 3D printed robotics hand. The hand is currently aimed at makers and researchers, but the eventual market will be for prosthetics.
Read in browser Large format Adrian Tomine prints
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 06:02 pm One of my favorite illustrators, Adrian Tomine, has started offering prints of his work, including these two sublime New Yorker covers. They measure 18" x 24" and are gorgeous (I have "Missed Connection"). Adrian Tomine Prints See also: Adrian Tomine's New York Drawings: exclusive excerpt
Read in browser Chris Buzelli cover for Players magazine
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 05:42 pm Players is an Italian magazine about "the best of media, cinema, music, videogames, art, literature and
technology." Sounds great, and I love this Chris Buzelli cover. (Via Cover Junkie)
Read in browser What is this mystery tool?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 04:59 pm Over at Cool Tools, Bill Potter asks, "I came across this contraption in my dad’s tool collection after he passed away. He was an electrical engineer/computer science guy, so I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with his work. Any ideas?" Contraption in My Dad’s Tool Collection
Read in browser Derren Brown's guide to overcoming awkward situations
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 14, 2013 04:49 pm Boing Boing reader tw1515tw mentioned this essay by mentalist Derren Brown on how to overcome awkward situations. Most of Brown's strategies involve behaving irrationally to disarm the other person. Here's one of Brown's tips: How to handle aggressive situations This is simply about not engaging with your aggressor at the level they expect. I was ...
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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