Short video about latte portrait artist Mauro Ottolini & Sousaphonix music video Yep, Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot is just as scary as the dog This American Life's report on kids and disability claims riddled with factual errors Comics Rack: Boing Boing's comics picks for March 2013 Ultrarich tax cheats exposed Excellent 1970 jewel heist novel: The Hot Rock Thai crowd breaks Hula-Hoop record Best Amendment: a game that plays out consequences of fighting bad guys with guns with good guys with guns Bieber's pet monkey impounded Microsoft creative director "doesn't get" why always-on DRM upsets people, mocks rural internet users Studios regret sending Google a list of every pirate site on the Internet for publication American public schools in 9 states sharing every conceivable personal detail of their students with third parties Interview with Justin "The Viking" Wren about his work with the Congo's Pygmy people How to make a gravity puzzle How far away from Earth is Mars? How geeks can get involved in politics (and why they should) Wealth disparity in America: an inch of bar-graph for the 90%, 4.9 miles' worth for the top 0.01% Montreal police arrest young woman for instagramming photo of anti-police mural Life imitates "Fringe" with development of brain-to-brain interface Read mystery novels to learn chemistry When your heart was just a tube Roger Ebert, 1942–2013 Awkward science stock photography A cat video about the science of cats Paying patent trolls off makes you complicit in the next round of extortion How a differential gear works -- a-ha generating video Slowmo shattering of Prince Rupert's Drop glass Short video about latte portrait artist
By David Pescovitz on Apr 05, 2013 12:42 pm NYC barista
Mike Breach paints milk portraits in lattes.
Read in browser Mauro Ottolini & Sousaphonix music video
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 05, 2013 12:29 pm My friend Blind Lightnin' Pete pointed me to this fun video of his friend's band, Mauro Ottolini & Sousaphonix.
Read in browser Yep, Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot is just as scary as the dog
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 05, 2013 12:10 pm He's called "PETMAN". Used to test the performance of protective clothing designed for hazardous environments. The video shows initial testing in a chemical protection suit and gas mask. PETMAN has sensors embedded in its skin that detect any chemicals leaking through the suit. The skin also maintains a micro-climate inside the clothing by sweating and ...
Read in browser This American Life's report on kids and disability claims riddled with factual errors
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 05, 2013 12:10 pm A couple weeks ago, I listened to Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America an interesting program on the supposed rise in disability claims produced by Planet Money and aired on This American Life (where I heard it). The program raised some interesting points about the inaccessibility of certain kinds of less-physical ...
Read in browser Comics Rack: Boing Boing's comics picks for March 2013
By Brian Heater on Apr 05, 2013 12:06 pm First of all, I've finally caught up with the rest of the English speaking world and read Ellen Forney's Marbles. And yes, it's totally fascinating and deeply affecting, but I'm not telling you anything you hadn't already heard in December's Best Damn Comics of the year, so I'll save you that here. Also, it's worth ...
Read in browser Ultrarich tax cheats exposed
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 05, 2013 10:59 am ICIJ:"A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over." (Thanks, Lew!)
Read in browser Excellent 1970 jewel heist novel: The Hot Rock
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 05, 2013 09:30 am A few years ago I read the graphic novel adaptation of Donald Westlake's The Hunter, and loved it. It was my introduction to the prolific crime novelist's work. When I recently picked up his 1970 novel, The Hot Rock, I expected it to have the same grim tone as The Hunter. But the first scene ...
Read in browser Thai crowd breaks Hula-Hoop record
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 05, 2013 09:03 am The world record for most number of people simultaneously hula-hooping was recently broken at Thammasat University stadium, near Bangkok. The Thai crowd broke the previous record, held by Taiwan, with a new record of 4483 people hula-hooping for 7 minutes. The event was organized by the public health ministry to promote exercise and good health. ...
Read in browser Best Amendment: a game that plays out consequences of fighting bad guys with guns with good guys with guns
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 05, 2013 08:51 am The Best Amendment is a pay-what-you-like Mac/Win/Flash game that plays out NRA president Wayne LaPierre's infamous statement that "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." The first level is straightforward. You're a little white cone-shaped fella, and you need to go get the star ...
Read in browser Bieber's pet monkey impounded
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 05, 2013 08:43 am Having seized Mally, Bieber's pet monkey, German authorities now require the Canadian pop star to present health and license papers within a month if it is to be returned. [Reuters]
Read in browser Microsoft creative director "doesn't get" why always-on DRM upsets people, mocks rural internet users
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 05, 2013 08:27 am We no longer need to point out that DRM is an expression of contempt for one's own customers—Microsoft's own employees take care of that task all by themselves. [CNET]
Read in browser Studios regret sending Google a list of every pirate site on the Internet for publication
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 05, 2013 01:12 am The movie studios send a lot of takedown notices to Google, demanding that the search engine remove links to sites and files they don't like. Google publishes all the notices they receive, and this has Fox and other studios upset. Now, they're sending takedown notices demanding removal of their takedown notices.
Read in browser American public schools in 9 states sharing every conceivable personal detail of their students with third parties
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2013 11:03 pm Greg Costikyan sez, inBloom, a Gates-funded non-profit to harness data to improve grade school education, has partnered with New York and eight other states to encourage the development of apps to "further education" by using intimate data about students, without parental consent and with no ability for parents to opt out. Among the data shared ...
Read in browser Interview with Justin "The Viking" Wren about his work with the Congo's Pygmy people
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 04, 2013 10:08 pm Matt Staggs says: "Heavyweight UFC fighter and 'The Ultimate Fighter' star Justin 'The Viking' Wren has just taken on the fight of his life: Free the Congo's Pygmy people from oppression and slavery. How will he do it? Learn in this episode of the DisinfoCast, and then join the fight." DisinfoCast 50: Justin "The Viking" ...
Read in browser How to make a gravity puzzle
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 04, 2013 10:00 pm Here's a puzzle you can make, in which you have to balance 14 nails on a single nail head. (Thanks, Matthew!)
Read in browser How far away from Earth is Mars?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 04, 2013 09:35 pm D.S. Deboer says "Check this out! It's neat and really helped me grasp how far away Mars is. (Hint: It's really, really, really far away.)" How Far is it to Mars? (Ben shared this in the Google + Boing Boing Community. Join us there for fun link sharing and conversation!)
Read in browser How geeks can get involved in politics (and why they should)
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2013 09:31 pm Thomas Gideon, host of the Command Line podcast and technical director of the Open Technology Institute at New America Foundation gave a great speech at the Northeast Linux Fest. His talk, which is outlined in detail here, was about getting free software geeks involved in political activism, and was a thoughtful explanation of the differences ...
Read in browser Wealth disparity in America: an inch of bar-graph for the 90%, 4.9 miles' worth for the top 0.01%
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2013 09:02 pm Here's a rather graphic representation of the growth in income inequality in the USA since the 1960s; plotted on a chart where the income growth of the bottom 90 percent is represented by an inch-high bar; the growth of the top 10 percent needs a 163 foot-tall bar; while the top 0.01% need a 4.9 ...
Read in browser Montreal police arrest young woman for instagramming photo of anti-police mural
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2013 05:57 pm Jennifer Pawluck, a 20 year old woman from Montreal, was taken into police custody yesterday and questioned after she posted a photo of a graffiti mural on her Instagram. The mural showed a caricature of a Montreal police spokesman called Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière, with a bullet hole in his head. After she posted the image ...
Read in browser Life imitates "Fringe" with development of brain-to-brain interface
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 04, 2013 04:46 pm Scientists managed to link the brains of a conscious human and an anesthetized rat, allowing the human to wiggle the rat's tail with his thoughts. And all God's creatures said, "Holy shitballs!"
Read in browser Read mystery novels to learn chemistry
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 04, 2013 04:41 pm Deborah Blum — my favorite expert in the fine art of poisoning — writes a fascinating piece about the way mystery writers like Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers approached the chemistry in their stories with an almost mind-blowing accuracy. Not only did they get the symptoms of specific poisons correct, they were actually describe common ...
Read in browser When your heart was just a tube
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 04, 2013 04:32 pm I've been linking Double X Science a lot lately. That's because they're great. It's rare to get such smart, fascinating, science-centered discussion about female anatomy and reproductive issues that goes beyond the surface dressing we all already kind of know. Case in point: This piece by Emily Willingham about the development of the human heart ...
Read in browser Roger Ebert, 1942–2013
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 04, 2013 03:52 pm NPR: Roger Ebert, the legendary film critic, died today, his long-time employer, The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. Ebert had been wrestling with cancer for years. He had lost his voice and his jaw, but he still kept up an unrelenting pace, reviewing more than 200 movies a year for the paper. On his blog and ...
Read in browser Awkward science stock photography
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 04, 2013 03:33 pm A collection of evidence suggesting that the people who take stock photographs have absolutely no idea what the process of science looks like, beyond a vague understanding that it probably involves white coats (and also beakers full of liquid).
Read in browser A cat video about the science of cats
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 04, 2013 03:26 pm Interesting facts about how their adorable bodies work, and what's really going on when they interact with you.
Read in browser Paying patent trolls off makes you complicit in the next round of extortion
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2013 03:20 pm Joel Spolsky's editorial on patent trolls is fabulous. As he points out, the developers who pay relatively small sums to make patent trolls just go away are part of the problem, and complicit in the next round of extortion. Paying mobsters keeps them viable, and able to attack new victims: In the face of organized ...
Read in browser How a differential gear works -- a-ha generating video
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2013 03:12 pm I
posted this in March 2011, but as Kottke says, "it's so good, here it is again."
Read in browser Slowmo shattering of Prince Rupert's Drop glass
By David Pescovitz on Apr 04, 2013 02:27 pm Prince Rupert's Drops, unusual glass objects made by dripping molten glass into water, have a very strange shattering property.
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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