Doing a tablecloth yank from beneath a dog in a dragon suit Little Mermaid's Ursula does the Haunted Mansion narration Videos of dead media devices Triple-nested Klein bottle Girl who was arrested for making a tin-foil volcano tells her story Sloth rings, made to order Super slo-mo fire-juggling BMW Concept 90 Google Glass photographers: the future looks awkward 15 year old dragged under car, killed defending gift iPad Photos: Throughout Latin America, protests demand justice for Guatemala after genocide trial overturned UK film student seeks steampunk props Doing a tablecloth yank from beneath a dog in a dragon suit
By Cory Doctorow on May 26, 2013 12:00 pm Mat Ricardo sez, "Here's what happened last time Piff The Magic Dragon (and Mr. Piffles the dog!) was a guest on Mat Ricardo's London Varieties. What's going to happen when he pays us a return visit, this Thursday night at London's Leicester Square Theatre?
Read in browser Little Mermaid's Ursula does the Haunted Mansion narration
By Cory Doctorow on May 26, 2013 09:45 am Ricky sez, "At Spooky Emipre's May-Hem convention in Orlando this weekend, Pat Carroll, the original and only voice of Disney's Ursula, read from The Haunted Mansion script that the Paul Frees originally spoke as the ride's ghost host. Of course, she perfectly performed it as her famous 'The Little Mermaid' character, complete with spine-chilling cackles."
Ursula voice Pat Carroll does The Haunted Mansion Ghost Host lines at Spooky Empire's May-Hem (Thanks, Ricky!
Read in browser Videos of dead media devices
By Cory Doctorow on May 26, 2013 08:50 am Don sez, "This guy has over a hundred excellent videos of Old School AV and other electronic equipment. The world's first Credit Card Calculator! The first (pre-BetaMax) VCRs! Wacky little tape recorders that they blew up on "Mission Impossible"! All that stuff that was once futuristic but is now only of the nostalgic future that was."
MKKIANI - YouTube
Read in browser Triple-nested Klein bottle
By Cory Doctorow on May 25, 2013 11:00 pm 
Here's glassblower Alan Bennett's astounding triple-nested Klein bottle, a beautiful thing:
A single surface model made by Alan Bennett in Bedford, United Kingdom. It consists of three Klein bottles set inside each other to produce, when cut, three pairs of single-twist Mobius strips.
Read in browser Girl who was arrested for making a tin-foil volcano tells her story
By Cory Doctorow on May 25, 2013 09:00 pm 
On May 1, Kiera Wilmot, a Florida high school student, was arrested for mixing toilet bowl cleaner with tin foil, causing a small, harmless explosion. Though she had a spotless school record, she was expelled and charged with a felony as an adult -- a harsh penalty widely ascribed to institutional racism (Wilmot is black).
Read in browser Sloth rings, made to order
By Cory Doctorow on May 25, 2013 07:21 pm 
Etsy seller CuriousBurrow will make you a sweet, sleepy sloth ring to order, in a range of colors.
Sloth Ring - Made To Order (via The Mary Sue)
Read in browser Super slo-mo fire-juggling
By Cory Doctorow on May 25, 2013 05:17 pm
Scott sez, "Here's a new video of me juggling fire in slow motion. 2000 frames per second. There's also a video there of me juggling and eating apples. It's pretty fun to watch. It doesn't look like I'm trying."
Juggling Flaming Torches in Slow Motion (Thanks, Scott!
Read in browser BMW Concept 90
By Jason Weisberger on May 25, 2013 05:00 pm 
Autoblog shares BMW's modern take on the iconic R90S.
I would buy this right now.
(Thanks, Dan Rodarte!)
Read in browser Google Glass photographers: the future looks awkward
By Xeni Jardin on May 25, 2013 04:26 pm Can't wait.
Read in browser 15 year old dragged under car, killed defending gift iPad
By Jason Weisberger on May 25, 2013 03:33 pm This is sad beyond words. A teenager lost his life defending the gift iPad his father struggled to buy him. "But Marcos wouldn't let go. He fought. As the truck sped off, the high school freshman was pulled beneath the wheels.
Read in browser Photos: Throughout Latin America, protests demand justice for Guatemala after genocide trial overturned
By Xeni Jardin on May 25, 2013 03:22 pm 
Photo: Daniel Hernández-Salazar.
Protesters in Guatemala and other Latin American countries gathered on Friday to denounce the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's recent decision to overturn the genocide trial and guilty verdict of Ríos Montt. About 1,500 people, mostly indigenous Maya from Guatemala, gathered in Guatemala City.
Read in browser UK film student seeks steampunk props
By Cory Doctorow on May 25, 2013 02:00 pm Ranjana sez, "I'm a Bournemouth University postgraduate student and I'm producing
a short but ambitious steampunk drama for my Masters project and I'm looking for a few props for our film: steampunk radio; wrist communicator device; steampunk guns; other general props.
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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