Power Glove's Tumblr of 1980s vidgame/tech/action movies/etc. Documentary about magician Ricky Jay C3PO junkbot Guatemala: photos from the Rios Montt genocide tribunal Reddit co-founder calls Larry Page to get Google to join the anti-CISPA fight -- your help needed too! Cancer, the internet, and identity: my talk with Kevin Sites' Hong Kong Univ. Journalism and Media class Gloppy syrups gotta glop. Here's why. The fish with clear blood Russell Brand on Margaret Thatcher "North Pond Hermit" suspected of 1,000 burglaries in 27 years Storm approaches Pittsburgh SkullKerchief! Victorinox Swiss Army Manager Pocket Knife Gweek 088: Nick Harmer of Death Cab for Cutie Freak Brothers creator Gilbert Shelton's 1977 proposal for a "hurry tax" Life on the Moon as imagined in 1836 HOWTO spot a counterfeit Aeropress Limited-edition LP housed in a cast sugar box The New People: 1969 TV drama à la Lost and Lord of the Flies How cognitive blind-spots compromise security systems Power Glove's Tumblr of 1980s vidgame/tech/action movies/etc.
By David Pescovitz on Apr 11, 2013 12:42 pm Musical group Power Glove have a fun Tumblr of ads and images that would be right at home decorating a teenage boy's school locker in 1984 or so. Power Glove Tumblr
Read in browser Documentary about magician Ricky Jay
By David Pescovitz on Apr 11, 2013 12:19 pm A new documentary about esteemed magician, magic historian, and actor
Ricky Jay opens next week in NYC with screenings in many other cities to follow in May and June.
Read in browser C3PO junkbot
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 11, 2013 11:34 am This spectacular C3PO junkbot assemblage was made by junk artist Gabriel Dishaw, and sells for $800. Worth every penny, too. Mr Dishaw's got plenty of other wonderful pieces for sale, too. C3PO "Woody" (via Neatorama)
Read in browser Guatemala: photos from the Rios Montt genocide tribunal
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 11, 2013 09:42 am Fredy Peccerelli of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) testifying Wednesday, April 10; Rios Montt at the defense table in the background. I'm in Guatemala with Miles O'Brien, working on a report for the PBS NewsHour on the genocide trial of Jose Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala from 1982-1983, and Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, ...
Read in browser Reddit co-founder calls Larry Page to get Google to join the anti-CISPA fight -- your help needed too!
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 11, 2013 09:29 am If CISPA passes, every privacy policy on the web will be a total joke.
Read in browser Cancer, the internet, and identity: my talk with Kevin Sites' Hong Kong Univ. Journalism and Media class
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 11, 2013 09:15 am Xeni speaks to journalism students in Hong Kong about sharing her experience of cancer online.
Read in browser Gloppy syrups gotta glop. Here's why.
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 11, 2013 08:03 am Honey, maple syrup, all those delicious gooey, gloppy things have some really interesting physics behind them, says Adam Becker at New Scientist. Viscosity alone can't explain the way strands of syrup stretch and drizzle as you pour them. Instead, when we see a difference between pouring honey and pouring water, what we're really seeing is ...
Read in browser The fish with clear blood
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 11, 2013 07:58 am Ocellated icefish live deep underwater in the cold oceans surrounding the Poles. They have clear blood. If you remember your childhood biology classes, you should remember that this kind of makes no sense. After all, blood is red because of hemeglobin — the iron-rich protein that carries oxygen around in your blood stream. No hemeglobin, ...
Read in browser Russell Brand on Margaret Thatcher
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 10, 2013 09:45 pm Russell Brand's obituary for Margaret Thatcher is a beautiful and incisive piece of writing, and a good example of why he's not just another actor: When I was a kid, Thatcher was the headmistress of our country. Her voice, a bellicose yawn, somehow both boring and boring – I could ignore the content but the ...
Read in browser "North Pond Hermit" suspected of 1,000 burglaries in 27 years
By David Pescovitz on Apr 10, 2013 09:40 pm Christopher Knight, aka the "North Pond Hermit," has been living in the woods of Rome, Maine for nearly three decades. Last week though, a Maine Warden Service sergeant reportedly caught Knight burglarizing a campsite. According to police this was only the latest in more than 1,000 burglaries Knight is suspected of committing over the years. ...
Read in browser Storm approaches Pittsburgh
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 10, 2013 09:40 pm © Bri Anne
Read in browser SkullKerchief!
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 10, 2013 06:40 pm Here's Telma Costa's beautiful, knit skullkerchief -- perfect for staying warm, attending Misfits concerts, or everyday use. The SkullKerchief (via Make)
Read in browser Victorinox Swiss Army Manager Pocket Knife
By Cool Tools on Apr 10, 2013 06:33 pm The Manager Swiss Army Knife has been in my pocket for nearly 2 years. This compact tool has all the useful stuff you expect from the line of Swiss Army knives: blade, scissors, tweezers, file, bottle opener, and separate flat-head & Phillips-head screwdrivers. What makes it a must-have is the retractable ballpoint pen. It’s smooth ...
Read in browser Gweek 088: Nick Harmer of Death Cab for Cutie
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 10, 2013 06:28 pm David and I had a terrific conversation with Nick Harmer, bass player for Death Cab for Cutie. We talked about the state of home recording, great crime novels, the best places to use the toilet while on tour, and much more. Nick provided a list of enjoyable books he's read while on tour: A Darkness ...
Read in browser Freak Brothers creator Gilbert Shelton's 1977 proposal for a "hurry tax"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 10, 2013 04:54 pm When I read this as a 16-year-old I thought it was a brilliant idea. Decades later, I like it even more. (Giant size) (Via Meine Kleine Fabrik)
Read in browser Life on the Moon as imagined in 1836
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 10, 2013 04:45 pm In the old days, Mars was peopled by one vast thinking vegetable, and the Moon was peopled by stick-wielding bat-men and moth-winged moon maidens. From the Smithsonian Institute Image Collections: This portfolio of hand-tinted lithographs purports to illustrate the "discovery of life on the moon." In 1836, Richard E. Locke, writing for the New York ...
Read in browser HOWTO spot a counterfeit Aeropress
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 10, 2013 03:33 pm Adam P sez, "I first found out about the Aeropress on Boing Boing and it has dramatically improved my quality of life as an expat here in China. When purchasing another one online for a colleague, I was well titillated by the shop's 28 point photo guide to the differences between a real and fake ...
Read in browser Limited-edition LP housed in a cast sugar box
By David Pescovitz on Apr 10, 2013 03:26 pm The deluxe edition of dark IDM/R&B duo Beacon's new LP consists of rose-colored vinyl housed in an cast sugar box.
Read in browser The New People: 1969 TV drama à la Lost and Lord of the Flies
By David Pescovitz on Apr 10, 2013 03:00 pm A 1969 TV series about a group of college students whose plane crashed on a small island.
Read in browser How cognitive blind-spots compromise security systems
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 10, 2013 01:25 pm Tanya Khovanova has a fascinating and illuminating story about the blind-spots that can leave security systems vulnerable. She describes a clever one-way function using real-world tools: Silvio Micali taught me cryptography. To explain one-way functions, he gave the following example of encryption. Alice and Bob procure the same edition of the white pages book for ...
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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