Chimp fight at the LA Zoo Review: Sam Adams' Spring Thaw beer pack Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic, a Kindle Serial Brace yourselves, tick season is coming Inner monologues — out loud Guatemala: Rios Montt genocide trial resumes amid legal uncertainty, polarized political climate Feynman graphic-novel biography out in paperback today RIP Number 10 Giant binder-clip handbag This history of the car in L.A. Review: Cenoire Eluo Sonic Toothbrush How to: Figure out what color dinosaurs really were Mars Attacks Invasion: exclusive sneak peek at new card series What ouija boards and military contractors have in common The world's first website What Google's self-driving car sees Future Tense: Neal Stephenson and Tim Wu talk future, sf and tech Gweek 093: Crime writer Duane Swierczynski Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, Russell Simmons Slowly Builds His Empire Necessary Evil - a triumphant end to the Milkweed Triptych where Nazi X-Men fight English warlocks Portable watermelon fridge Today is the anniversary of LSD inventor/discoverer Albert Hofman's death (*epilepsy warning) Hitler's food-taster: "Every day we feared it would be our last meal" How to barf in space Gold ring in the form of a dinosaur eating a chicken leg How much time should you spend automating a routine task? What's big, corrupt, terrifying and worse than ACTA? TPP. Here we go again! Minnesota taxman says real musicians don't tour or let their stuff be played on public radio Icelandic Pirate Party lands three seats in Icelandic parliament Guatemala: Genocide trial said to re-start Tuesday, April 30 Chimp fight at the LA Zoo
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 30, 2013 12:56 pm Daniel Richter makes an appearance at 0:57. (Via Unique Daily)
Read in browser Review: Sam Adams' Spring Thaw beer pack
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 30, 2013 12:37 pm Sam Adams sent over its Spring Thaw variety pack of specialty beers. It took us a while to get to them—they're already rare on the shelves—but I'm glad we did, because it's a fun lineup with only a single dud, and I'd like to encourage more of you to send us alcohol. The standouds are ...
Read in browser Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic, a Kindle Serial
By Jason Weisberger on Apr 30, 2013 12:23 pm Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic by David J. Schwartz is the first Kindle Serial I've tried. Serials are one time purchases that are then delivered as the author writes shorter installments. They hold the hope of performing like a radio drama for me.
Read in browser Brace yourselves, tick season is coming
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2013 11:59 am At Outside magazine, Carl Zimmer has a great long read on why the tick population in the United States is increasing — and why scientists are having so much trouble controlling both ticks, and the diseases they spread.
Read in browser Inner monologues — out loud
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2013 11:51 am At the Brainwaves blog, Ferris Jabr writes about a fascinating project. Anthropologist Andrew Irving talked random strangers on the streets of New York City into putting on a headset and speaking their inner monologue out loud as he followed behind them with a camera. The result is something that approximates what it might be like ...
Read in browser Guatemala: Rios Montt genocide trial resumes amid legal uncertainty, polarized political climate
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 30, 2013 11:35 am Ixil witnesses inside the courtroom, Tue. Apr. 30, 2013. At center, Maria Sajiq of Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala. Ms. Sajiq was among the survivors Miles O'Brien and I interviewed in Nebaj recently, for a forthcoming PBS NewsHour report. (Photo: Xeni Jardin) I am blogging from inside the Supreme Court of Guatemala, where Judge Jazmin Barrios has ...
Read in browser Feynman graphic-novel biography out in paperback today
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2013 11:33 am Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick's Feynman, a stupendous biography of Richard Feynman in graphic novel form that went to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, is out in paperback as of today! Here's my original review from 2011: Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick's Feynman is an affectionate and inspiring comic biography of the ...
Read in browser RIP Number 10
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2013 11:21 am Number 10 — a Yellowstone Park elk famous for fighting with other elk, grade-school volleyball nets, and R.V.s — has died. Estimated to have been between 15 and 18 years old, he apparently lost a battle with a vehicle.
Read in browser Giant binder-clip handbag
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2013 11:04 am Peter Bristol created this binder clip bag in 2007 and now he's looking for manufacturing partners: "The binder icon functions so well as a bag you can almost take it seriously. Constructed of wool felt and aluminum tubing." Clip Bag (via Super Punch)
Read in browser This history of the car in L.A.
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2013 10:52 am After living in L.A. for a year without owning a car — an experiment brought on by a lazy reaction to his car battery dying — Paleofuture's Matt Novak has written a fascinating piece about the history of Los Angeles transportation. It's a history that includes doomed monorails, oil derricks at Venice Beach, and a ...
Read in browser Review: Cenoire Eluo Sonic Toothbrush
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 30, 2013 10:52 am Cenoire sent over its Eluo Sonic Toothbrush, for some reason. It's compact, looks like a candy cane-colored mascara stick, and vibrates. Powered by one AAA battery, it has a proper on-off button to prevent accidental activation, a replaceable brush head, and claims 23,000 strokes per minute. In use, unfortunately, it's clearly not the same breed ...
Read in browser How to: Figure out what color dinosaurs really were
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2013 10:38 am Color is just a happy side effect of physics. So Canadian scientists are turning to The Canadian Light Source synchrotron, a particle accelerator in Saskatchewan, to help them figure out what color extinct duck-billed dinosaurs actually were. By putting a 70-million-year-old skull into the accelerator, they'll be able to figure out what molecules — from ...
Read in browser Mars Attacks Invasion: exclusive sneak peek at new card series
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 30, 2013 10:30 am To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its most infamous product, Topps is busting out the stops with an all-new Mars Attack trading cards series.
Read in browser What ouija boards and military contractors have in common
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2013 10:30 am The power of suggestion, your own expectations, and even your emotions can cause your body to move without you actively telling it to. This weird phenomenon is called the ideomotor effect. It's what makes ouija boards work and it's the mechanism behind $60,000 bomb-detecting devices that an American company was recently caught selling to the ...
Read in browser The world's first website
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 30, 2013 10:13 am Back up at its original URL courtesy of CERN: "Twenty years of a free, open web."
Read in browser What Google's self-driving car sees
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 30, 2013 10:10 am Charlie Warzel: "THIS is what google's self driving car can see. So basically this thing is going to destroy us all." [via Matt Buchanan]
Read in browser Future Tense: Neal Stephenson and Tim Wu talk future, sf and tech
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2013 09:58 am Slate, the New America Foundation and Arizona State University have kicked off a new podcast called "Future Tense," hosted by Internet scholar Tim Wu. The inaugural episode is an interview with Neal Stephenson wherein Neal and Tim talk about where the future has gone -- why we no longer seem to dream of jetpacks and ...
Read in browser Gweek 093: Crime writer Duane Swierczynski
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 30, 2013 09:30 am In this episode of Gweek, I talked to the terrific crime writer Duane Swierczynski. Duane has a new book out today, called Point & Shoot. It's the third and final novel in his Charlie Hardie series (see my review here). Next week, Dark Horse is releasing X #1, written by Duane. We talked about his ...
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, Russell Simmons Slowly Builds His Empire
By Ed Piskor on Apr 30, 2013 09:17 am Read the rest of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics!
Read in browser Necessary Evil - a triumphant end to the Milkweed Triptych where Nazi X-Men fight English warlocks
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2013 09:01 am With Necessary Evil, published today, Ian Tregillis triumphantly concludes his astonishing, brilliant, pulse-pounding debut trilogy, The Milkweed Triptych. Milkweed began in 2010 with Bitter Seeds, an alternate history WWII novel about a Nazi doctor who creates a race of twisted X-Men through a program of brutal experimentation; and of the British counter-strategy: calling up the ...
Read in browser Portable watermelon fridge
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2013 11:05 pm Tama-chan is a portable watermelon refrigerator on wheels. The Japanese device retails for 19,950 yen (about $200) and can handle watermelons or similarly shaped comestibles, such as poultry, roasts, or severed heads. The device itself weighs 6.3kg, and charges from a car lighter socket. ポータブル温冷庫/The Portable Watermelon Fridge — Could It Be The Perfect Gift ...
Read in browser Today is the anniversary of LSD inventor/discoverer Albert Hofman's death (*epilepsy warning)
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2013 10:24 pm TIP: mouseover to animate; don't mouseover if you have photosensitive epilepsy. Five years ago today, the man who first synthesized Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) died at 102 years old. There's an informative Wikipedia article here, and the Albert Hofman Foundation website is here. The 5-year anniversary is the one where you take 5 tabs. Rainbow ...
Read in browser Hitler's food-taster: "Every day we feared it would be our last meal"
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2013 09:54 pm "Margot Woelk was one of fifteen girls who spent two-and-a-half years testing Adolf Hitler's all-veggie diet to make sure it wasn't poisoned." When the Russians captured her (and the rest of the surviving food-taster girls), they raped her for two weeks. [barfblog]
Read in browser How to barf in space
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2013 09:52 pm "How do you upchuck if there is no up or down? ISS commander Chris Hadfield explains what astronauts do if they have to vomit." More information on this very important skill for space travelers here.
Read in browser Gold ring in the form of a dinosaur eating a chicken leg
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2013 09:43 pm Just what you always needed, but did not know until it existed, and it exists now: "A super detailed T-Rex eating fried chicken leg," which is available in dark oxidized silver or gold brass and sterling silver. Endorsed by Zach Galifianakis. Has crystal eyes (the ring, not Mr. Galifianakis). A hundred bucks. [verameat.com via @llaurappark]
Read in browser How much time should you spend automating a routine task?
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2013 09:28 pm Today's XKCD really tickles me. "Is It Worth the Time?" is a handy chart showing how much time you can invest in automating any recurring task in order to save time, on balance, over five years. I am an inveterate automator of recurring task, always looking for ways to shave seconds. On the other hand, ...
Read in browser What's big, corrupt, terrifying and worse than ACTA? TPP. Here we go again!
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2013 08:02 pm Remember ACTA, the terrifying, secret SOPA-on-steroids copyright treaty that the US government tried to ram down the world's throat? Well, it's back, only this time it's called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and it's limited (for now) to the Pacific Rim. The TPP negotiators are meeting (in secret, natch) in Peru to twirl their mustaches and cackle, ...
Read in browser Minnesota taxman says real musicians don't tour or let their stuff be played on public radio
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2013 06:56 pm Jon sez, "Minnesota Department of Revenue tells musical artist during lengthy audit: You clearly aren't interested in profit, as you've "allowed" your music to be played on Minnesota Public Radio, you have had enough years of touring, so there is currently no need for any further promotional touring, and you should be signed to a ...
Read in browser Icelandic Pirate Party lands three seats in Icelandic parliament
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2013 06:21 pm The Icelandic Pirate Party has won three seats in its national Parliament in the Pirates' best-ever showing on the world stage. They form a small part of the opposition to the "center-right" Independence Party (Americans, please note that the Independence Party would be considered socialists by present US mainstream political standards). One of the new ...
Read in browser Guatemala: Genocide trial said to re-start Tuesday, April 30
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2013 06:00 pm A brief update on the trial of former US-backed military dictator José Efrain Rios Montt and his then chief of intelligence Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez: word here in Guatemala is that the trial will re-open tomorrow in Judge Jazmin Barrios' courtroom. I will be present, continuing to blog the historic trial for Boing Boing. NISGUA ...
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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