Man solves Rubik's Cube while juggling Slinkachu's "War Child" photos Top hat with a zoetrope inside Hooves Cops abduct 6-y-o for going to the store on her own, initially refuse to return to her dad Naked rambler charged over nudity Convict "sneaks back into jail" Biblical toilet rolls roil Scandinavia Batman arrests burglary suspect Elfquest: "Great Sun" Inside the prosecution of Aaron Swartz Reversible Hello Kitty Hamburger 3D printed railroad engine model kits made from insanely hi-rez scans What's the most utopian fiction of all? Smoothing 3D prints with acetone and without patent violations Wunda Weave carpets: 1963's must-have area rugs Kim Jong Un wants Obama to Call Him Maybe, says new bestie Dennis Rodman after Vice mag North Korea junket Man solves Rubik's Cube while juggling
By David Pescovitz on Mar 04, 2013 12:26 pm Ravi Fernando solves a Rubik's Cube while juggling.
Read in browser Slinkachu's "War Child" photos
By David Pescovitz on Mar 04, 2013 12:13 pm More "tiny people" installation photos by Slinkachu, whose work is compiled in several books including the recent Global Model Village. The pieces featured above and below were commissions for "20 Years of War Child," an exhibition at the British Music Experience museum running until March 28.
Read in browser Top hat with a zoetrope inside
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 04, 2013 12:04 pm For a mere $500 (which is truly a bargain here), Etsy seller Ramonpiper will make you a custom top-hat with a zoetrope inside it, whose moving images can be viewed through a porthole in its high cylinder.
Read in browser Hooves
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 04, 2013 11:21 am Etsy seller Oonacat makes custom fetish boots with hooves -- demon hooves, unicorn hooves -- that go for $900 a pair. Great for playing naughty podiatrist and agonized fetishist. There are also horns. These are my newest creations, and I adore these little monsters. These Hooves are created with durability, quality, and artistic kickass beauty ...
Read in browser Cops abduct 6-y-o for going to the store on her own, initially refuse to return to her dad
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 04, 2013 10:16 am Emily is six, and her dad wants her to be independent. The local law, not so much. When he let her cross the street on her own, a cop picked her up and detained her and her dad for half an hour, before admitting that it wasn't illegal to let a six year old cross ...
Read in browser Naked rambler charged over nudity
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 04, 2013 09:44 am Stephen Gough, England's "Naked Rambler", is back in jail after failing to abide by a court order to "at least cover his genitalia and buttocks." Gough, famous for walking the length of Britain naked, spent six years in prison on earlier charges stemming from public nudity; authorities in the UK have spent hundreds of thousands ...
Read in browser Convict "sneaks back into jail"
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 04, 2013 09:40 am Matthew Matagrano, 36, a former inmate, was charged saturday with impersonating a New York Department of Correction investigator. The convicted sex offender inveigled his way into Manhattan Detention Center and other lockups, according to officials, and handed out cigarettes. He also allegedly stole a radio. [Indy]
Read in browser Biblical toilet rolls roil Scandinavia
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 04, 2013 09:34 am A toilet paper maker has apologized for Biblical quotes, including the words of Jesus, which it "inadvertently" included on novelty wipes marketed in Scandinavia. "Bible verses do not belong on a roll of toilet paper," said Bishop of Tunsberg Laila Riksaasen Dahl. [Globe and Mail]
Read in browser Batman arrests burglary suspect
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 04, 2013 09:22 am A suspected burglar in Bradford, England, was arrested last week by Batman and subsequently charged with handling stolen goods. [Reuters]
Read in browser Elfquest: "Great Sun"
By Wendy and Richard Pini on Mar 04, 2013 07:50 am Enjoy the latest page of
Elfquest. First time reader? Read
the entire saga, free online.
Read in browser Inside the prosecution of Aaron Swartz
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 04, 2013 06:00 am Quinn Norton -- who was romantically involved with Aaron Swartz for a long time, and was also his close friend -- has written a brutal, honest, infuriating, and brave account of her dealings with Steve Heymann, the prosecutor who hounded Aaron over his downloading of scientific journal articles. Heymann is a terror among Aaron's friends. ...
Read in browser Reversible Hello Kitty Hamburger
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 03, 2013 11:04 pm Another awesome score from this trip is the
Hello Kitty Reversible 8" Plush: Hamburger, a plush Hello Kitty toy that inverts and forms a Hello Kitty hamburger. It's a thing, then it's another thing!
Read in browser 3D printed railroad engine model kits made from insanely hi-rez scans
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 03, 2013 08:56 pm Chris sez, "The oft-touted promise of 3D printing is of personalisation and customisation. There is an alternative use though which is that of mini and micro-manufacture, where production runs of things numbering hundreds and thousands are suddenly made possible and in some cases commercially viable. "We're investigating this space as a new way of manufacturing ...
Read in browser What's the most utopian fiction of all?
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 03, 2013 08:24 pm My latest column for Locus, "Ten Years On," looks back on my first decade as a novelist, and speculates about what a difficult utopia might be, and announces my next novel project: And then I realized I had no idea what novel I'd write next. I have notes for about five books, but none of ...
Read in browser Smoothing 3D prints with acetone and without patent violations
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 03, 2013 05:48 pm Austin Wilson and Neil Underwood from the North Carolina makerspace Fablocker invented a great, simple process for smoothing out 3D prints using evaporated nail-polish remover in a large jar. The process produces a beautiful finish and sidesteps a bunch of dumb patents for polishing 3D printing output. They're still experimenting with the details, and the fact ...
Read in browser Wunda Weave carpets: 1963's must-have area rugs
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 03, 2013 02:42 pm The world got a little less beautiful after 1963's Wunda Weave carpets went out of vogue. 1963 Wunda Weve Carpets
Read in browser Kim Jong Un wants Obama to Call Him Maybe, says new bestie Dennis Rodman after Vice mag North Korea junket
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 03, 2013 02:12 pm From "North Korea Has a Friend in Dennis Rodman and VICE." Not 'shopped; you can tell by the pixels. Argo 2.0? Former NBA star and noted weirdo Dennis Rodman told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos today that he returned from a trip to North Korea arranged by VICE with a message for President Obama from Kim ...
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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