HOWTO bake anatomical heart-bread Toothy tongue Grandmothers who are brilliant at technology As seen in Belgrade Sen Chuck Schumer took $100K from private prisons, now gets to help decide whether to send undocumented immigrants to jail Congressman boasts on Twitter about the money he got to support CISPA, then thinks better of it IRS apologizes for $60k Star Trek parody HOWTO bake anatomical heart-bread
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 24, 2013 08:52 am Here's a fun set of instructions for baking anatomical heart-shaped bread that you rip apart and gorge upon: Nothing says romance like ritual cannibalism. Use this anatomical heart pull apart loaf to pretend you're vampires feasting on the heart of that asshole in HR who gave a promotion to Brad. Alternately, you could engage in ...
Read in browser Toothy tongue
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 23, 2013 11:06 pm DeviantArt's Jengabean made Tonya, this wonderful, toothy tongue sculpture. Jengabean's whole portfolio is rather wonderful, and worth a look. There's word of an upcoming Etsy store, too. Tonya (via JWZ)
Read in browser Grandmothers who are brilliant at technology
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 23, 2013 08:58 pm A wonderful site called "Grandma Got STEM" profiles grandmothers who have accomplished marvellous feats of technology, and aims to drive a stake through the heart of stupid, thoughtless phrases like "How would you explain that to your grandmother?" or "So simple my grandma could do it." Shown above, Helen Quinn, "particle physicist, PhD from Stanford ...
Read in browser As seen in Belgrade
By Jason Weisberger on Mar 23, 2013 08:03 pm via the Boing Boing Facebook feed. Thanks Ian Cattell!
Read in browser Sen Chuck Schumer took $100K from private prisons, now gets to help decide whether to send undocumented immigrants to jail
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 23, 2013 05:43 pm Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is one of the key figures in the political wrangle over whether undocumented immigrants in the USA will be legalized or deported. He's also the recipient of over $100,000 in campaign contributions from the private prison industry, whose profits would skyrocket if his push for prison for all those people is ...
Read in browser Congressman boasts on Twitter about the money he got to support CISPA, then thinks better of it
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 23, 2013 02:39 pm CISPA is a bill before Congress that will radically increase the ease with which the government and police can spy on people without any particular suspicion. It is being rammed through by people like Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who received a small fortune in funding from the companies that stand to get rich building the ...
Read in browser IRS apologizes for $60k Star Trek parody
By Jason Weisberger on Mar 23, 2013 01:38 pm Seems in 2010 this training video got a green light. The Washington Times has
the details.
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