Buy my Green Man T-Shirt Asus readies 4K "ultra HD" monitor Court rules police must give Kim Dotcom his stuff back The making of a MAKE cover Usury in the UK Great covers of Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky' The Ur Roomba (1959) "Definitive proof" of Mars water British Telecom quits Yahoo! Judge to Google: comply with warrantless FBI data requests Kickstarting a spy film with heart about gamers, based on a true story Life in a chocolate factory versus life in a startup Comics Rack: Boing Boing's comics picks for May 2013 Today Show busts rent-a-disabled-guide/skip-the-lines services in Disneyland 15 weirdest things on wheels at Maker Faire 2013 HOWTO make a multi-book secret stash Adventure Time title cards as art prints Ergonomic advice from the 17th century Why lie? Open hardware effects pedal on Kickstarter Linda Stone on attention, computers, and education Dery does Buñuel Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod 35-Cent Money Clip Freestanding "street library" Well-styled vehicle Small batch artisanal high-fructose corn syrup Man leaves his handgun on a Disney World ride Thinnest gaming laptop BDSM aficionados better-adjusted than those who enjoy plain old vanilla sex, says science Buy my Green Man T-Shirt
By Rob Beschizza on May 31, 2013 12:48 pm The creators of
ElfQuest liked my artwork for our
interview with them so much, they put it on a T-shirt!
You should buy this t-shirt now: secrets from the
lost decade will be conferred upon anyone I meet wearing one of them.
Read in browser Asus readies 4K "ultra HD" monitor
By Rob Beschizza on May 31, 2013 12:24 pm Asus is readying a
31.5-inch display with 3840x2160 pixels, four times the pixel count of a standard HD display. The panel uses Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide ("IGZO") instead of silicon, which allows for smaller transistors and, hence, the greater pixel density.
Read in browser Court rules police must give Kim Dotcom his stuff back
By Rob Beschizza on May 31, 2013 12:02 pm Kirtsy Johnson: A judge has ordered the police to sift through all digital material taken illegally from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and to return anything irrelevant to their investigation- at their own cost.
By "at their own cost", she presumably means "at the New Zealand taxpayer's expense."
Read in browser The making of a MAKE cover
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 31, 2013 11:57 am MAKE projects editor Sean Ragan wrote about the making of the cover of our
special issue of MAKE.
After many hours of prep work, the lights were ready, the cameras were ready, the coil was ready, and ArcAttack front man Joe DiPrima was suited up center-stage in his grounded metal armor.
Read in browser Usury in the UK
By Cory Doctorow on May 31, 2013 11:57 am A UK Parliamentary committee blasted the Office of Fair Trading -- a consumer watchdog agency that is supposed to regulate moneylenders -- for doing effectively nothing to curb the growth of usurious, predatory moneylenders who attack poor and vulnerable people. There are 72,000 consumer credit firms in the UK, some chargin annual interest rates of 4,000%, but the OFT has never fined a single firm for breaking lending rules.
Read in browser Great covers of Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky'
By Rob Beschizza on May 31, 2013 11:54 am George Barnetts' on top, then San Cisco. And there are so many more at
Soundcloud. Great stuff!
Read in browser The Ur Roomba (1959)
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 31, 2013 11:50 am From
Shorpy:
"Anne Anderson in Whirlpool 'Miracle Kitchen of the Future,' a display at the American National Exhibition in Moscow." Kodachrome by Bob Lerner for the
Look magazine article "What the Russians Will See."
Read in browser "Definitive proof" of Mars water
By Rob Beschizza on May 31, 2013 11:46 am Mars' landscape was formed by flowing water, and
the proof is in the pebbles. [BBC]
Read in browser British Telecom quits Yahoo!
By Rob Beschizza on May 31, 2013 11:41 am Britain's largest ISP, British Telecom, has ragequit Yahoo! after learning that the internet giant had bought beloved microblogging site Tumblr. Just kidding! It's actually
sick of its customers' Yahoo-provided email accounts getting hacked. [Telegraph]
Read in browser Judge to Google: comply with warrantless FBI data requests
By Rob Beschizza on May 31, 2013 11:37 am A federal judge has
ordered Google to comply with the FBI's warrantless requests for user data, rejecting its claim that the demands are illegal. Google had requested that the court modify or discharge 19 National Security Letters, a form of request that bypasses the courts and which generally forbids the recipient from disclosing their existence.
Read in browser Kickstarting a spy film with heart about gamers, based on a true story
By Cory Doctorow on May 31, 2013 10:56 am Paul sez,
MLE is a wonderful 'spy film with heart' an simultaneously an undercover tribute to the videogame Portal, based on a true story. It's about the unfortunately-named actor Julie Robert, stranded in a foreign country when her only gig evaporates, and who ends up spying as way to survive.
Read in browser Life in a chocolate factory versus life in a startup
By Cory Doctorow on May 31, 2013 09:49 am Elaine Wherry took a break from working in San Francisco high-tech startups to work at
Dandelion Chocolate, the chocolate maker/cafe that her husband co-founded. She calls her tenure at the chocolate factory her life as "an oompa loompa," and in a fascinating post, she writes about the differences and similarities between working in data-driven startups and in physical, retail-based hard-goods business.
Read in browser Comics Rack: Boing Boing's comics picks for May 2013
By Brian Heater on May 31, 2013 08:55 am I’d like to use this intro to personally thank comics for helping me get through the last several plane rides, spending the sub-10,000 feet portion reading books like Victor Kerlow’s
Everything Takes Forever. Really, what better way to make friends with your seatmate than fielding questions about the weird book about the guy with a taco for a head?
Read in browser Today Show busts rent-a-disabled-guide/skip-the-lines services in Disneyland
By Cory Doctorow on May 31, 2013 08:40 am Remember the
New York Post story about disabled people renting themselves out to rich New York families in order to skip the lines at Walt Disney World? The Today Show followed up on this, investigating the phenomenon of rent-a-disabled-guide services across the country in California's Disneyland.
Read in browser 15 weirdest things on wheels at Maker Faire 2013
By Advertiser on May 31, 2013 02:50 am ADVERTISEMENT SPONSORED: This post is presented by the Toyota RAV4 EV. Because innovation can be measured in miles, kilowatts and cubic feet. Learn more at toyota.com/rav4ev
Maker Faire launched in 2006 as a place for makers to meet up and show off their stuff.
Read in browser HOWTO make a multi-book secret stash
By Cory Doctorow on May 31, 2013 02:00 am Here's a great Instructables for hiding a stash-box behind a wall of cut-away books. In some ways, it's a lot less fiddly than creating a single hollow book, though it does require you to use a scroll saw.
1. The height and depth of the books are the important dimensions of the book.
Read in browser Adventure Time title cards as art prints
By Cory Doctorow on May 31, 2013 01:00 am Nicole sez, "Fans of Adventure Time so look forward to seeing the gorgeous and imaginative artwork that appears at the top of each new episode in the title cards. Now, these beautiful designs featuring Finn, Jake, and the many off the wall inhabitants of the Land of Ooo are available as framable art prints from WeLoveFine.com.
Read in browser Ergonomic advice from the 17th century
By Cory Doctorow on May 31, 2013 12:28 am The 1611 treatise "
A Nevv Booke, containing all sorts of hands vsvally written at this day in Christendome, as the English and French Secretary, the Roman, Italian, French, Spanish, high and low Dutch, Court and Chancerie hands: with Examples of each of them in their proper tongue and Letter.
Read in browser Why lie?
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 11:15 pm Here's an excerpt from
Judge Alex Kozinski's opinion in US v Xavier Alvarez (PDF), in which the judge describes some of the reasons that people lie:
Saints may always tell the truth, but for mortals living means lying. We lie to protect our privacy ("No, I don't live around here"); to avoid hurt feelings ("Friday is my study night"); to make others feel better ("Gee you've gotten skinny"); to avoid recriminations ("I only lost $10 at poker"); to prevent grief ("The doc says you're getting better"); to maintain domestic tranquility ("She's just a friend"); to avoid social stigma ("I just haven't met the right woman"); for career advancement ("I'm sooo lucky to have a smart boss like you"); to avoid being lonely ("I love opera"); to eliminate a rival ("He has a boyfriend"); to achieve an objective ("But I love you so much"); to defeat an objective ("I'm allergic to latex"); to make an exit ("It's not you, it's me"); to delay the inevitable ("The check is in the mail"); to communicate displeasure ("There's nothing wrong"); to get someone off your back ("I'll call you about lunch"); to escape a nudnik ("My mother's on the other line"); to namedrop ("We go way back"); to set up a surprise party ("I need help moving the piano"); to buy time ("I'm on my way"); to keep up appearances ("We're not talking divorce"); to avoid taking out the trash ("My back hurts"); to duck an obligation ("I've got a headache"); to maintain a public image ("I go to church every Sunday"); to make a point ("Ich bin ein Berliner"); to save face ("I had too much to drink"); to humor ("Correct as usual, King Friday"); to avoid embarrassment ("That wasn't me"); to curry favor ("I've read all your books"); to get a clerkship ("You're the greatest living jurist"); to save a dollar ("I gave at the office"); or to maintain innocence ("There are eight tiny reindeer on the rooftop")….
Read in browser Open hardware effects pedal on Kickstarter
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 10:24 pm Martin sez, "Rebel Technology launches a Kickstarter to fund the OWL reprogrammable effects pedal: an open hardware, open source effects stompbox with a potentially unlimited library of effects written in C++ and powered by a powerful ARM Cortex M4 processor. It allows musicians to load any available effect or effect chain from their computer onto the pedal.
Read in browser Linda Stone on attention, computers, and education
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 09:12 pm Linda Stone, who coined the terms "continuous partial attention" and "email apnea" to describe some of the ways we unconsciously interact with our computers, discusses attention, education and computers with
The Atlantic's James Fallows:
LS: Let's talk about reading or building things.
Read in browser Dery does Buñuel
By David Pescovitz on May 30, 2013 08:35 pm BB contributor
Mark Dery wrote a fascinating rumination on the Spanish surrealist Luis Buñuel, best known for his 1929 short film collaboration with Salvador Dalí,
Un Chien Andalou. (Yes, the one with the infamous eyeball-slicing scene, above.) From Dery's essay at Thought Catalog, titled "
Thank God I'm An Atheist: Buñuel's Last Laugh":
Buñuel is a philosopher — a moral philosopher, to be exact, albeit one who makes his case with gleeful, Surrealist savagery, using images dredged from the depths of the unconscious.
Read in browser Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 30, 2013 08:34 pm Bob Self, publisher of Baby Tattoo, says: "I have a lot of fun publishing books by artists whose work I really dig, but I had extra fun producing Baby Tattoo's newest (and widest) book
Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod.
Read in browser 35-Cent Money Clip
By Cool Tools on May 30, 2013 08:24 pm After nearly a lifetime of getting Costanza’ed in the bottom by my wallet, I began to use this 35¢ tool and have never looked back, so to speak. It firmly clamps bills and even cards in place until use, is easily removable and has caused much envious conversation.
Read in browser Freestanding "street library"
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 08:20 pm The Little Free Library is a project from Stereotank: a freestanding, inverted plastic tank that you stick your head into in order to browse the books that are sheltered from the elements. It's been installed in New York's Nolita.
The Architectural League of New York partnered with Pen World Voices Festival to bring Little Free Library to New York City.
Read in browser Well-styled vehicle
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 07:54 pm (Click to embiggen) Here's a mystery Internet image depicting a vehicle that has been decorated in such a fashion as to inspire equal amounts of fear, awe and admiration. I am delighted.
Update: Oh, my dear sweet Zoroaster,
it's for sale.
Read in browser Small batch artisanal high-fructose corn syrup
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 07:19 pm Matt sez, "Maya Weinstein is an artist who just finished her MFA at Parsons, with the awesomest thesis ever:
a DIY kit for making your own High-Fructose Corn Syrup, the industrial sweetener that is, well, let's say problematic these days.
Read in browser Man leaves his handgun on a Disney World ride
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 07:01 pm A guy forgot his handgun on the Countdown to Extinction ride at Disney World's Animal Kingdom; it was found by a woman and her grandson, who turned it in. The man said that he didn't realize that concealed handguns were forbidden at Disney World, and that he assumed the (totally, demonstrably pointless) bag search was to prevent bombers, not shooters.
Read in browser Thinnest gaming laptop
By Rob Beschizza on May 30, 2013 05:42 pm Gamers sick of bulky laptops should take a peek at
the "ultra-portable" Razer Blade. Though not in the same cheesecutting league as a MacBook or Lenovo X-series, the slab is less than .9" thick and weighs 6.5 pounds, even with a 17.3"display and 2GB GeForce video card.
Read in browser BDSM aficionados better-adjusted than those who enjoy plain old vanilla sex, says science
By Xeni Jardin on May 30, 2013 05:37 pm Photo by Boing Boing reader
Captain Tim, shared in the
BB Flickr Pool. A provocative article from the Netherlands published in the
Journal of Sexual Medicine says people who like to participate in bondage-discipline, dominance-submission, and sado-masochism erotic play are "characterized by a set of balanced, autonomous, and beneficial personality characteristics." Practitioners of BDSM report "a higher level of subjective well-being" when compared to people who tend to have more boring forms of sex.
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
