Warren Buffet vs goldbugs Hairless Chewbacca costume Harrison Ford doesn't answer Star Wars questions on Kimmel San Diego cop smashes phone & beats up suspect: "Phones can be converted to a weapon. Look it up online." Rocket Robinson, a graphic adventure novel for kids set in Egypt in the 1930s Giveaway! 5 copies of Marijuanamerica Pac-Man hoodies How to hide small items inside a door Craig Thompson interviews French cartoonist Blutch - a Boing Boing exclusive Maslow XXI C. Guatemala: "Dictator in the Dock," video updates from Rios Montt genocide trial Don't miss Love & Rockets' Gilbert Hernandez's slideshow tour Sushi tuna model that decomposes into individual delicacies PopSci's Drug Week stories Vito Acconci's 1971 instructions in case he should die in a plane crash Saturday is Record Store Day 2013! Great free reading of Robert E Howard's "Conan and the Queen of the Black Coast" Vrillon Transmission: 1977 pirate TV message from space alien Ra Chand Citrus Press squeezes every last drop of juice from fruit World's Strangest Flowers Yodel-Oh! Math Mountain - fun math drill exercise disguised as a carnival game Sound of Oblivion Warren Buffet vs goldbugs
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 20, 2013 12:12 pm Warren Buffet thinks buying gold is dumb: specifically, he thinks that buying gold is speculation, not investing, because gold doesn't do anything productive. Here, he waxes eloquent on the subject: "If you put your money into gold or other non-income- producing assets that are dependent on what someone else values that in the future, you're ...
Read in browser Hairless Chewbacca costume
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 20, 2013 09:07 am Costume Craze's sold-out "Chewbacca Second Skin Star Wars Costume" is a great choice for cosplayers who don't like their wookiee suits too hairy. It's the sexy catsuit of the 21st century! Chewbacca Second Skin Star Wars Costume (via Kottke)
Read in browser Harrison Ford doesn't answer Star Wars questions on Kimmel
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 19, 2013 10:40 pm When Harrison Ford's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel switched to Q&A with the audience, Ford said that no Star Wars questions would be allowed. Whereupon Kimmel began (apparently) to troll Harrison rather hard.
Read in browser San Diego cop smashes phone & beats up suspect: "Phones can be converted to a weapon. Look it up online."
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 19, 2013 09:07 pm A San Diego cop beat up a man whom he was ticketing for illegal smoking, after the man refused to stop video-recording the experience.
Read in browser Rocket Robinson, a graphic adventure novel for kids set in Egypt in the 1930s
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 19, 2013 08:02 pm I loved Jonny Quest when I was a kid, and I think my 10-year-old (and I) will love Rocket Robinson, a graphic novel by Sean O'Neill, which reminds me of the 1960s cartoon. Get a taste of it by reading the webcomic, and then chip in to Kickstarter if you dig it. Rocket Robinson and ...
Read in browser Giveaway! 5 copies of Marijuanamerica
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 19, 2013 07:37 pm In honor of tomorrow'a 4/20 festivities, Abrams is giving away copies of Marijuanamerica: One Man’s Quest to Understand America’s Dysfunctional Love Affair with Weed, by Alfred Ryan Nerz (reviewed here) to five Boing Boing readers. If you are interested in getting a copy, please share your true dysfunctional-affair-with-weed story in the comments. I'll select five ...
Read in browser Pac-Man hoodies
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 19, 2013 06:39 pm From IfIndustries, an (apparently?) unavailable but rather clever line of Pac-Man hoodies (one ghost shown, all ghosts in set). Pac-man & Ghosts Hoddies (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Read in browser How to hide small items inside a door
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 19, 2013 05:41 pm In the latest issue of MAKE (Vol 34) Sean Michael Ragan shows you how to create a fantabulous doorstop stash out of a cigar tube, so you can hide things that Obama wants to take away from you (bullets, tiny Bibles) or the next Republic president wants to take away from you (RU-486 tablets, tiny ...
Read in browser Craig Thompson interviews French cartoonist Blutch - a Boing Boing exclusive
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 19, 2013 04:58 pm Craig Thompson, the award-winning graphic novelist who wrote and illustrated Blankets and Habibi, recently interviewed Blutch, the award-winning Alsatian novelist whose work influenced Thompson. Later this month PictureBox is releasing Blutch's So Long, Silver Screen, "a series of interlocking short comics that combine scholarly movie history with ribald romanticism, and feature a motley cast of ...
Read in browser Maslow XXI C.
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 19, 2013 04:58 pm Take that, Maslow. Basic Human Needs Pyramid: Fixed [Pic]
Read in browser Guatemala: "Dictator in the Dock," video updates from Rios Montt genocide trial
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 19, 2013 04:37 pm Skylight Films, the team behind "Granito" and "When the Mountains Tremble," have been filming the trial of General Efraín Rios Montt since day one, and they're posting video updates from here in Guatemala City.
Read in browser Don't miss Love & Rockets' Gilbert Hernandez's slideshow tour
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 19, 2013 04:05 pm Love & Rockets co-creator Gilbert Hernandez is on tour to promote his sublime Marble Season graphic novel (it's an all-ages story). Peggy Burns of Drawn & Quarterly (the book's publisher), had this to say: As soon as Gilbert sent us his list of images for his MARBLE SEASON tour slide show, it took EVERYTHING in ...
Read in browser Sushi tuna model that decomposes into individual delicacies
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 19, 2013 04:00 pm Francesco sez, "A Japanese company has released a plastic figure of a tuna fish. The figure is 33cm long and features a working table and the traditional 'Maguro bōchō' knife to cut the tuna. This figure costs ¥29,000 (USD292) in Japanese hobby stores." I love that it's themed for the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, ...
Read in browser PopSci's Drug Week stories
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 19, 2013 03:50 pm It's Drug Week at PopSci! They've reported on a 1884 PopSci writer's "dramatic first-hand account of marijuana overdose," a reporter's description of an LSD trip in 1967 ("He notes that under LSD, the sunset looks gorgeous, and bemoans the likelihood that he'll never see a sunset that stunning again."), and more. I especially enjoyed Paul ...
Read in browser Vito Acconci's 1971 instructions in case he should die in a plane crash
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 19, 2013 03:28 pm (Via The Museum of Modern Art Library)
Read in browser Saturday is Record Store Day 2013!
By David Pescovitz on Apr 19, 2013 03:11 pm Tomorrow (Saturday 4/20) is Record Store Day! Support your local independent record shops and score special Record Store Day exclusive releases! Here's the full list of special releases and guide to participating shops.
Read in browser Great free reading of Robert E Howard's "Conan and the Queen of the Black Coast"
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 19, 2013 02:25 pm I often listen to audiobooks when I'm falling asleep, and my favorite go-to for these is Librivox, the incredible collection of volunteer-read public-domain texts (I used to buy a lot of Audible titles, but the fact that they use DRM even when publishers and authors beg them not to has meant that I no longer ...
Read in browser Vrillon Transmission: 1977 pirate TV message from space alien
By David Pescovitz on Apr 19, 2013 01:56 pm The Vrillon Transmission of 1977, when a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command hijacked a UK television transmitter during the nightly news to share the above message from our space brothers and sisters.
Read in browser Ra Chand Citrus Press squeezes every last drop of juice from fruit
By Cool Tools on Apr 19, 2013 01:27 pm Living in Southern California, we have an abundance of citrus nearly year round — lemons, limes, kumquats, grapefruits, and more. I also have a household of beverage enthusiasts, from my kids who love to make lemon-, lime-, etc. -ades, or “kid drinks” as they call them, to my wife and I who are crazy about ...
Read in browser World's Strangest Flowers
By David Pescovitz on Apr 19, 2013 01:26 pm Sierra magazine selected "7 of the World's Strangest Flowers." Above is video of the Touch-Me-Not, native to Central and South America but now growing many other places: You might easily overlook this herb, with its dainty pink flowers and delicate, fern-like leaves. The mimosa pudica doesn't just look demure, though. Barely touching its leaves causes ...
Read in browser Yodel-Oh! Math Mountain - fun math drill exercise disguised as a carnival game
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 19, 2013 01:21 pm My 10-year-daughter Jane and I love Yodel-Oh!, an iOS target tapper game where you have to keep a Swiss mountain climber from falling off the edge of a cliff. The developer, Spinlight, just announced a spin-off, called Yodel-Oh! Math Mountain (iPad, iPhone) that adds the challenge of having to solve arithmetic problems. The game is ...
Read in browser Sound of Oblivion
By David Pescovitz on Apr 19, 2013 01:08 pm An excellent SoundWorks Collection interview with Oblivion director Joe Kosinski and the sound of his new movie.
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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