Big pictures of small change Recording everyone's cursors as a music video Wooden chef's knives Baghdad burning, ten years later Detect your pulse with your webcam American oligopolies are the new monopolies More earthquakes in Oklahoma Austin Grossman's YOU: brilliant novel plumbs the heroic and mystical depths of gaming and simulation Interview with an expert in improvised explosive devices Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, Whodini: Magic's Wand Get information on loved ones in Boston with Google's emergency Person Finder Bras useless, says science "We keep running." Retro Unicorn Attack Priorities and privilege reign in Game of Thrones S3E3 Report: Boston marathon bombed -- two explosions, many injured, at least three dead Exclusive excerpt - Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas Barbie without makeup The Grifters, by Jim Thompson 12 million Americans believe lizard people run the USA Music with Children: Playing the Recorder (1967) Big pictures of small change
By David Pescovitz on Apr 16, 2013 12:49 pm Artist Martin John Callanan and the Advanced Engineered Materials Group at the UK's National Physical Laboratory used an infinite 3D optical microscope to capture 400 million pixel images of the lowest denomination coin from many currencies. "The Fundamental Units"
Read in browser Recording everyone's cursors as a music video
By David Pescovitz on Apr 16, 2013 12:38 pm Light Light created a fun page to "crowdsource" their new music video by recording visitors' cursor movements. "Do Not Touch"
Read in browser Wooden chef's knives
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 16, 2013 11:59 am I have no idea if FDRL's "Maple Set" knives are practical or even useful, but they are extremely beautiful. With this project we wanted to explore an alternative emotion to the standard kitchen knives you see every day. The focus is drawn to the high polished blade, while the rest of the knife's Maple wood ...
Read in browser Baghdad burning, ten years later
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 16, 2013 11:33 am In 2003, a blogger identified as a 24-year-old Iraqi woman began publishing a blog from Baghdad called "riverbend," about her experience in the war. She described her site as a "Girl Blog from Iraq," where readers were invited to "talk war, politics and occupation." In her first blog post, she described herself: "I'm female, Iraqi ...
Read in browser Detect your pulse with your webcam
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 16, 2013 11:17 am Thearn released a free/open program for detecting and monitoring your pulse using your webcam. The code is on github for you to download, play with and modify. If this stuff takes your fancy, be sure and read Eulerian Video Magnification for Revealing Subtle Changes in the World, an inspiring paper describing the techniques Thearn uses ...
Read in browser American oligopolies are the new monopolies
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 16, 2013 09:57 am Tim Wu sez, "I wrote something quick in the New Yorker about America's big blind spot when it comes to big business -- if its not a monopoly, its no problem, so highly concentrated industries can get away with whatever they want." This blind spot is of particular significance during an age when oligopolies, not ...
Read in browser More earthquakes in Oklahoma
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 16, 2013 09:34 am A 4.3 earthquake rattled Oklahoma City at around 1:00 am central today. You may recall that scientists have evidence connecting Oklahoma's sudden onset of small quakes to the disposal of liquid left over from gas and oil fracking operations.
Read in browser Austin Grossman's YOU: brilliant novel plumbs the heroic and mystical depths of gaming and simulation
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 16, 2013 09:20 am YOU is the second novel from Austin Grossman, whose 2008 debut Soon I Will be Invincible marked him out as a talent to watch. Now, with his second novel, he confirms his status as a major talent. You is the story of Russell, who tries to leave behind his nerdy, computer-game-programming high-school life to get ...
Read in browser Interview with an expert in improvised explosive devices
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 16, 2013 09:16 am At Scientific American, Larry Greenemeier has a piece about the science behind the three (possibly four) improvised explosive devices that killed at least three people yesterday in Boston. It might be easy to build bombs like these, but their DIY construction techniques also leave clues that help investigators find the people responsible.
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, Whodini: Magic's Wand
By Ed Piskor on Apr 16, 2013 09:12 am Read the rest of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics!
Read in browser Get information on loved ones in Boston with Google's emergency Person Finder
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 16, 2013 08:56 am If you're looking for loved ones in Boston and can't get through to them, try Google's Person Finder, a service designed to help produce good information in the wake of disasters (it's also one of Google's free/open source software projects, with code here for you to examine and/or improve). There's a good Reddit thread on ...
Read in browser Bras useless, says science
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 16, 2013 08:46 am "A little-known French sports doctor who spent 16 years studying the busts of about 300 women sent a scare through a country known for its love of lingerie this week when he suggested bras were useless." [Reuters]
Read in browser "We keep running."
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 16, 2013 08:43 am Reporter Nancy Chen tweets this photograph of writing on the sidewalk outside the home of Martin Richard, the 8-yo who was killed in the Boston Marathon bombing yesterday. For every person who runs marathons, writes Jeb Golinkin in The Week, the word "Boston" has a special meaning. And much more so today. A number of ...
Read in browser Retro Unicorn Attack
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 16, 2013 08:40 am PixelJam's Retro Unicorn Attack takes the Erasure-themed game and demakes it even better. Play it just for the fantastic chiptune version of Always.
Read in browser Priorities and privilege reign in Game of Thrones S3E3
By Leigh Alexander on Apr 16, 2013 08:26 am I've heard a lot of bewilderment across social media when it comes to keeping up with the ever-climbing number of characters in this show. Even fans of the books are having a bit of a tough time, since the written chronology is odd -- each character's arc is written separately, so you might read in ...
Read in browser Report: Boston marathon bombed -- two explosions, many injured, at least three dead
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 15, 2013 07:04 pm Two explosions at the finishing line of the Boston Marathon killed at least three people and left at least a dozen more injured, according to news reports. Law enforcement officials said they were caused by small, home-made bombs. Photos and videos posted within minutes by witnesses showed scenes of chaos and bloodshed, with emergency services ...
Read in browser Exclusive excerpt - Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 15, 2013 06:22 pm Here's a sneak preview of Primates, Jim Ottaviani's upcoming nonfiction graphic novel about the three most famous primatologists. It looks terrific! Jim Ottaviani returns with an action-packed account of the three greatest primatologists of the last century: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas. These three ground-breaking researchers were all students of the great Louis ...
Read in browser Barbie without makeup
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 15, 2013 05:40 pm Barbie without makeup, Eddi Aguirre. (Via Sociological Images)
Read in browser The Grifters, by Jim Thompson
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 15, 2013 02:04 pm I've read a number of Jim Thompson's excellent crime noir novels, but for some reason I'd never gotten around to reading The Grifters. I saw the movie when it came out (screenplay by Donald Westlake!) and enjoyed it, so when I found the book at a free book exchange in Rio Verde, Arizona a couple ...
Read in browser 12 million Americans believe lizard people run the USA
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 15, 2013 01:32 pm From Public Policy Polling: "Do you believe that shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies, or not?" Do 4% Do not 88% Not sure 7% (Via The Atlantic Wire)
Read in browser Music with Children: Playing the Recorder (1967)
By David Pescovitz on Apr 15, 2013 01:16 pm Here is some delightful music for a Monday morning: "Music with Children: Playing the Recorder" by music educator Grace Nash (1909-1990) and friends. (via Toys and Techniques) Documentary about the Langley Schools Music Project PS22 kids chorus sings The Cure
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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