Microscale 3D printer Zombie work safety PSA made by high school students $10 gadget contains "the entire English Wikipedia with 3 million topics" Kickstarting an RPG for kids 8 and up Guatemala: Genocide trial starts then stops; State of Siege near US/Canadian mine continues Prenda law judge says porno copyright trolls are frauds, identity thieves; $80K in fines and disbarment pending Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Review: Pebble e-paper watch VR helmet Guillotine simulator Complex 90: Mickey Spillane's lost thriller (exclusive excerpt) Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong: YA graphic novel about robots, romance and school elections Meet Charles Ramsay, Internet Hero and Gentleman Wreck it Ralph cosplayers Tim Wu and Cory talk networks, policy and the future Real Stuff: Dennis the Sullen Menace Watch the latest videos in Boing Boing's video post archives Gweek 094: Director Chris Columbus and writer Ned Vizzini, authors of House of Secrets Guatemala: "An attempt to decimate the future," Ixil testimony at genocide trial 3D printed gun fires Cow is unwelcome visitor Why do US. Congress members get free airport parking? "Work & worry. Sickness and debt." -- last entries of F. Scott Fitzgerald's ledger Man who lost life savings on carnival game gets Taiwanese animation treatment Celebrity inventors Fake security cameras Two months aboard an Antarctic ice breaker, condensed to 5 minutes The trouble with Wernher Bee deaths and historical context Former FBI counterterrorism agent implies that US records all US phone calls Smuggled dinosaur bones returned to Mongolia Microscale 3D printer
By David Pescovitz on May 07, 2013 12:43 pm German start-up Nanoscribe is commercialized a 3D "micro printer" that uses a near-infrared laser to print tiny structures with features as small as 30 nanometers. (A human hair is roughly 50,000 - 100,000 nanometers wide.) The device uses an infra-red laser beam moving in three dimensions to solidify a light-sensitive material into the desired shape. ...
Read in browser Zombie work safety PSA made by high school students
By Cory Doctorow on May 07, 2013 12:42 pm Vincent sez, "Our high school film class from Oak Park High in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada made this zombie-themed PSA to spread the message about a worker's right to refuse unsafe work. It's a big issue. In Canada, in 2010, 1014 workplace deaths were recorded in Canada - that's almost three deaths every day! Between 1993 ...
Read in browser $10 gadget contains "the entire English Wikipedia with 3 million topics"
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 07, 2013 12:25 pm I don't have a Pandigital WikiReader so I don't know if it's any good or not, but I love the idea of a $10 hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. I ordered one just because it has a "Random" article button. if you have one, please let us know what you think of it in the ...
Read in browser Kickstarting an RPG for kids 8 and up
By Cory Doctorow on May 07, 2013 12:13 pm An illustrator and games publisher have teamed up to kickstart "Adventure Maximus!", a streamlined, cards-and-dice RPG aimed at kids eight and up (though there's an endorsement from a six-year-old on the site). The gameplay looks pretty clever and I really like the art. It's a minimum $35 pledge to get a finished game, though you ...
Read in browser Guatemala: Genocide trial starts then stops; State of Siege near US/Canadian mine continues
By Xeni Jardin on May 07, 2013 11:06 am Photo: James Rodriguez, a US-Mexican documentary photographer based in Guatemala since 2006, traveled to the State of Siege zone to document the conditions last week in Jalapa and Santa Rosa Guatemala. A brief update from Guatemala: The tribunal of General Jose Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala from 1982-1983, and Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, his ...
Read in browser Prenda law judge says porno copyright trolls are frauds, identity thieves; $80K in fines and disbarment pending
By Cory Doctorow on May 07, 2013 11:02 am Judge Wright has issued his long-awaited ruling in the case of Prenda Law, the notorious porno copyright trolls who used fraud and bullying to extort millions from Internet users by threatening to sue them for downloading pornography videos with embarrassing titles. Prenda used a combination of offshore shell companies, obfuscation, and even identity theft to ...
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
By Ed Piskor on May 07, 2013 10:17 am Read the rest of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics!
Read in browser Review: Pebble e-paper watch
By Brian Easton on May 07, 2013 10:05 am 69k backers. $10m in the can. But now that the Pebble E-paper watch is showing up on our wrists, was it worth it?
Read in browser VR helmet Guillotine simulator
By Cory Doctorow on May 07, 2013 09:42 am Disunion is a guillotine simulator that uses the Oculus Rift VR headset to bring you a realistic experience of being beheaded (this experience is enhanced by a strategic neck-chop!). It was created in two days at the Exile game jam by Erkki Trummal, André Berlemont and Morten Brunbjerg, who clearly enjoy making people feel like ...
Read in browser Complex 90: Mickey Spillane's lost thriller (exclusive excerpt)
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 07, 2013 09:30 am Below, an excerpt from Mickey Spillane’s lost Mike Hammer Cold War thriller, Complex 90, finished by Max Allan Collins. Mickey Spillane’s lost Mike Hammer Cold War thriller, completed by his friend and literary executor Max Allan Collins is finally making it to print for the first time. Though the crime novel had been announced for ...
Read in browser Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong: YA graphic novel about robots, romance and school elections
By Cory Doctorow on May 07, 2013 08:45 am Back in September 2012, I posted about Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, a fantastic YA graphic novel about robotics, cheerleaders, and school council elections adapted by Faith Erin Hicks (a favorite of mine, thanks to great comics like Zombies Calling, Friends With Boys) from a YA novel by Prudence Shen. Hicks and her publisher, the ...
Read in browser Meet Charles Ramsay, Internet Hero and Gentleman
By Xeni Jardin on May 07, 2013 12:58 am Charles Ramsey rescued three women in Cleveland Ohio today—women who had been missing for more than a decade. The interview he gave to local news after the rescue is a thing of beauty. Beauty and lulz. I predict he'll be auto-tuned and immortalized as a meme shortly. (via guyism)
Read in browser Wreck it Ralph cosplayers
By Cory Doctorow on May 06, 2013 11:06 pm DeviantArt's TwinFools snapped these photos of a pair of amazing "Wreck it Ralph" cosplayers at Sakura Con 8D. They are absolutely perfect! The Ballad of Calhoun and Felix (via The Mary Sue)
Read in browser Tim Wu and Cory talk networks, policy and the future
By Cory Doctorow on May 06, 2013 08:39 pm Slate's "Stranger Than Fiction" podcast has just aired its second episode: a discussion between Tim Wu (a cyberlawyer, Internet scholar and good egg) and me (MP3)! Future installments will include talks with Kim Stanley Robinson and Margaret Atwood (as well as others) -- the inaugural episode featured Tim in discussion with Neal Stephenson.
Read in browser Real Stuff: Dennis the Sullen Menace
By Dennis Eichhorn on May 06, 2013 06:53 pm "A few years ago I got busted for dealing acid and marijuana. The judge gave me three years in the Idaho State Penitentiary." From
Real Stuff #1 (Fantagraphics, December 1990).
Read in browser Watch the latest videos in Boing Boing's video post archives
By Xeni Jardin on May 06, 2013 06:39 pm Among the most recent video posts you will find on our all-new video archive page: • 2 months on an Antarctic icebreaker • Hannah Peel covers OMD's "Electricity" on an antique music box • DroneShield: crowdfunded, networked drone detectors • Homemade laser pops 100 balloons • Homemade Thor's hammer with an 80,000 volt Tesla coil ...
Read in browser Gweek 094: Director Chris Columbus and writer Ned Vizzini, authors of House of Secrets
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 06, 2013 06:35 pm In this episode of Gweek, I talked to Ned Vizzini and Chris Columbus about their new book, House of Secrets. Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling calls House of Secrets “a breakneck, jam-packed, roller-coaster of an adventure about the secret power of books.” Ned Vizzini is an award-winning author and television writer. He’s the author ...
Read in browser Guatemala: "An attempt to decimate the future," Ixil testimony at genocide trial
By Xeni Jardin on May 06, 2013 06:25 pm Skylight Pictures, the team behind "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator," and "When the Mountains Tremble," have been here in Guatemala observing and documenting the historic genocide trial against former dictator General Jose Efraín Rios Montt. Here is Episode #10 of their ongoing series of web updates from the trial, "An Attempt to Decimate the ...
Read in browser 3D printed gun fires
By Cory Doctorow on May 06, 2013 05:47 pm Yesterday, I wrote about Defense Distributed's 3D printed handgun, and asked whether it would fire, and how many rounds it could fire before experiencing stress fractures, melting, etc. Now, Forbes's Andy Greenberg follows up with a report of the successful firing of the gun -- though not its longevity -- and says that Defense Distributed ...
Read in browser Cow is unwelcome visitor
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 06, 2013 05:34 pm "If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow." -- U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater (Via Filled with Chocolate Pudding)
Read in browser Why do US. Congress members get free airport parking?
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 06, 2013 04:58 pm "Because they’re the ones making the rules." A video followup to Cory's post from last week. Free airport parking for Congress: a reminder that the rich write the rules
Read in browser "Work & worry. Sickness and debt." -- last entries of F. Scott Fitzgerald's ledger
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 06, 2013 04:51 pm The last pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ledger (Via World's Best Ever)
Read in browser Man who lost life savings on carnival game gets Taiwanese animation treatment
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 06, 2013 04:23 pm Brought to you by the fine folks at the hard-hitting Tomo News video site, here's an animated recap of the fellow who lost his life savings in an attempt to win a game console at a carnival bucket toss.
Read in browser Celebrity inventors
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 06, 2013 04:12 pm Margaret Thatcher invented Soft Scoop Ice Cream [Nope!]. Marlon Brando invented a drum tuner. Jamie Lee Curtis patented a diaper with sealed pockets. Charlie Sheen invented a Chapstick dispenser, which "allows users to apply Chapstick lip balm whilst in cold conditions, without removing their gloves." Learn about other celebrity inventions in Mark Champkins' article at ...
Read in browser Fake security cameras
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 06, 2013 03:41 pm Amazon sells lots of fake security cameras, but this one for $9 is my favorite. It would be fun to install them on telephone poles in neighborhoods, or even better, as Funk Daddy suggests, in inappropriate places like lavatories and pointed at hotel beds.
Read in browser Two months aboard an Antarctic ice breaker, condensed to 5 minutes
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 06, 2013 03:34 pm Featuring five different kinds of sea ice + penguins on fast forward
Read in browser The trouble with Wernher
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 06, 2013 03:15 pm Amy Shira Teitel has a nice essay about how we grapple with (and awkwardly avoid) the full legacy of Wernher Von Braun — father of the American space program and a Nazi whose rockets were once built by prison laborers.
Read in browser Bee deaths and historical context
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 06, 2013 03:09 pm We've talked before here at BoingBoing about how "Colony Collapse Disorder" is probably more than one thing, with more than one cause. Another important detail to keep in mind as you read media reports on bee deaths — the collection of symptoms that we call Colony Collapse Disorder is also probably a lot older than ...
Read in browser Former FBI counterterrorism agent implies that US records all US phone calls
By Cory Doctorow on May 06, 2013 02:35 pm Glenn Greenwald notes the alarming revelation from a CNN Out Front interview between host Erin Burnett and Tim Clemente, "a former FBI counterterrorism agent," where Clemente claimed that the FBI had access to recordings of every phone call made in America: BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can ...
Read in browser Smuggled dinosaur bones returned to Mongolia
By Xeni Jardin on May 06, 2013 02:32 pm A rare Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton has been returned to the government of Mongolia by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service. The specimen was looted from the Gobi Desert and illegally smuggled into the United States; a repatriation ceremony took place today at a Manhattan hotel. "The Bataar was seized in New York by ...
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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