Humble Ebook Bundle breaks the $1,000,000 barrier Full-size museum replicas from a MakerBot Thomas Jefferson: not an enthusiastic, brutal slaver Big Carrot tips its hand OMG, baby octopodes! Donate to help schools purchase science supplies Temple Grandin's brain doesn't just think differently, it is physically different When geology meets meteorology Boys might be hitting puberty earlier, too Cory at Vancouver Writers Festival today with William Gibson R2D2 hoodie that zips up all the way Identity thief's amazing disguise fails to fool bank, toddlers Clever bread flour storage Retro City Rampage Anti-traffic-cam countermeasure Everyone's talking about weird twitter Baby dressed as Gimli Building a computer from scratch: open source computer science course Math journal accepts computer-generated nonsense paper Disgraced Reddit mod Violentacrez on CNN San Francisco's Travelodge on Market Street accused of racism News reporter oblivious to cockroach on shoulder What it's like to be on Jeopardy Redesigned cereal mascots as creepy, wrinkled costumed characters Muppeteer Michael Earl has colon cancer, is uninsured; muppet fans raise funds for his care. Andrea Seabrook's DecodeDC To do in DC: "40 under 40: Craft Futures" at the Smithsonian Robin Cooper gives Obama advice on winning the debate Hey, so is that new heat-sensing bra concept the best way to find breast cancer? Humble Ebook Bundle breaks the $1,000,000 barrier
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 20, 2012 12:54 pm Just now, a few minutes before 10AM Pacific, the Humble Ebook Bundle crossed the $1 MILLION mark. Yes, it's an arbitrary round number, but it's a BIGGUN! For those of you who haven't clocked it, the Humble Ebook Bundle is a collection of 13 ebooks -- science fiction, fantasy, and graphic novels -- for which ...
Read in browser Full-size museum replicas from a MakerBot
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 20, 2012 12:41 pm These pieces were printed on a Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer, by artist Cosmo Wenman, who printed them in several pieces and then assembled them. MakerBot is justifiably proud of these extraordinary achievements, which have really pushed the limits on 3D printing using low-cost, home-model printers. Here's some of Wenman's description of his thoughts behind ...
Read in browser Thomas Jefferson: not an enthusiastic, brutal slaver
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 20, 2012 11:46 am Wagner James Au writes, "Annette Gordon-Reed, a Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning, African-American academic at Harvard, has a brutal takedown of the new Jefferson biography by Henry Wiencek mentioned last month in Boing Boing which purports to prove Jefferson was a brutal slave owner. According to Gordon-Reed, Wiencek's citations are highly misleading. Sample:" He then ...
Read in browser Big Carrot tips its hand
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 20, 2012 10:00 am In this rare ad from history, Big Carrot tips its hand and arrogantly advertises the moment where it climbed into bed with Big Fat. WHUT
Read in browser OMG, baby octopodes!
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 20, 2012 08:53 am National Geographic's Enric Sala took this photo during an expedition in Gabon. He and another researcher were using a remote operated vehicle to explore the ocean off the coast of that country's Loango National Park. When we picked up the shell from the ROV's arm, to our surprise, a small octopus came out of the ...
Read in browser Donate to help schools purchase science supplies
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 20, 2012 08:41 am From a rural Louisiana middle school that has never had a microscope, to a school in California that lacks basic laboratory safety equipment (think, nitrile gloves) — many schools in the United States aren't getting kids the resources they need to learn science. You can help by donating to these causes through Donors Choose. (Via ...
Read in browser Temple Grandin's brain doesn't just think differently, it is physically different
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 20, 2012 08:33 am This is kind of neat. Scientists conducted several psychological and neuro-imaging tests on Temple Grandin — the woman who has used her own autism as a model for designing better livestock control systems. What they found is that Grandin's brain looks different, structurally, from that of a neuro-typical person. Grandin's brain volume is significantly larger ...
Read in browser When geology meets meteorology
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 20, 2012 07:54 am Dust from the Sahara desert could leave Sweden soaked in red "blood rain" this weekend. (Via Kevin Zelnio)
Read in browser Boys might be hitting puberty earlier, too
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 20, 2012 07:51 am Several studies have now led to a scientific consensus that American girls are hitting puberty earlier. Now, a new study suggests that the same might also be true of boys. The New York Times has a very good article on this that gets into the nuances of the research and explains what this information might ...
Read in browser Cory at Vancouver Writers Festival today with William Gibson
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 20, 2012 07:36 am Hey, Vancouver! Quick reminder: there are still some tickets left for my appearance with William Gibson today at the Vancouver Writers Festival (the conversation with Margaret Atwood is sold out, alas), and I'll be around tomorrow at 7PM for a Kidsbooks event at the West Point Grey United Church, and then on Monday at 11AM ...
Read in browser R2D2 hoodie that zips up all the way
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 19, 2012 11:14 pm SuperHeroStuff's R2D2 hoodie is a $70 way to keep warm and look like a droid ($73 if you want to look like an XXL droid). I dig the way it turns into a droid-inspired fencing mask if you zip it up all the way, and the way that this makes you into something like the ...
Read in browser Identity thief's amazing disguise fails to fool bank, toddlers
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 19, 2012 09:09 pm Joshua K. Pinney is charged with attempting to defraud a Bank of America branch in Des Moines into issuing him a bank card in the name of a man whose wallet had been stolen. To help with his ruse, Pinney allegedly conceived of this clever disguise, including whitening his beard, hair and eyebrows, and swathing ...
Read in browser Clever bread flour storage
By Jason Weisberger on Oct 19, 2012 08:57 pm I was looking for a clever way to store excess novelty bread flours I'd bought to play with in my bread machine. Technician775 has one...
Read in browser Retro City Rampage
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 19, 2012 08:28 pm Retro City Rampage is a curious game. In development for a good decade, the resulting hodge-podge of genres, technologies and influences resulted in a kind of ultra-ironic 16-bit GTA, packed with a bonanza of weird subgames. The tagline says it all: "Carjack the 80s at 88 MPH". But is it any good? Alec Meer at ...
Read in browser Anti-traffic-cam countermeasure
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 19, 2012 07:03 pm NoPhoto is Jonathan Dandrow's electronic countermeasure for traffic-cameras. It's a license-plate frame that uses sensors to detect traffic-cameras, and floods the plate with bright light that washes out the plate number when the cameras take the picture. It's presently a prototype, but he's seeking $80,000 through Indiegogo to get UL certification and go into production. ...
Read in browser Everyone's talking about weird twitter
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 19, 2012 06:58 pm Read Nick Douglas for a human perspective; knowyourmeme for the tl;dr.
Read in browser Baby dressed as Gimli
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 19, 2012 05:41 pm Back in 2007 Sean Donohue dressed up little PJ as Gimli, Son of Gloin, and immortalized him in pixels: "PJ was Gimli the dwarf from Lord of The Rings for Halloween. Michaela's mom made the costume, Michaela fashioned the helmet, hair, beard and battle ax. It was my idea. Yes, I'm sick." Gimli, Son of ...
Read in browser Building a computer from scratch: open source computer science course
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 19, 2012 05:28 pm Here's an absolutely inspiring TED Talk showing how "self-organized computer science courses" designed around students building their own PCs from scratch engaged students and taught them how computers work at a fundamental level.
Read in browser Math journal accepts computer-generated nonsense paper
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 19, 2012 04:53 pm The peer-reviewed journal Advances in Pure Mathematics was tricked into accepting a nonsense math paper that was generated by a program called Mathgen. To be fair, the journal did note several flaws in the paper, such as "In this paper, we may find that there are so many mathematical expressions and notations. But the author ...
Read in browser Disgraced Reddit mod Violentacrez on CNN
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 19, 2012 04:30 pm The Reddit/Gawker/"jailbait" story has reached its likely zenith: an Anderson Cooper 360ยบ interview. A second part is here. But is Brutsch really a troll? I don't know that this is accurate. Posting disgusting sexist shit on the internet does not make you a troll if you're playing to the home audience: if the people who ...
Read in browser San Francisco's Travelodge on Market Street accused of racism
By David Pescovitz on Oct 19, 2012 03:28 pm My friend Jason Perkins, who owns several nightclubs in the San Francisco Bay Area and has an impeccable reputation, says that he and legendary guitarist Leo Nocentelli of The Meters were treated to some ol' fashioned hardcore racism last night courtesy of the Travelodge on Market Street near SF's Mission District. Jason writes: "I bought ...
Read in browser News reporter oblivious to cockroach on shoulder
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 19, 2012 03:20 pm [Video link] Los Angeles NBC affiliate KNBC 4 reporter Robert Kovacik handled this like a boss, or had no idea it was happening. (via ProducerMatthew)
Read in browser What it's like to be on Jeopardy
By Glenn Fleishman on Oct 19, 2012 02:40 pm A spam filter almost scotched my chance to be on television. I was scanning through the usual detritus of offers in July 2011 to enhance body parts and transfer large sums of money from people in distant lands, and spotted this subject line: "Jeopardy! Contestant Audition in Seattle"
Read in browser Redesigned cereal mascots as creepy, wrinkled costumed characters
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 19, 2012 02:40 pm Peruvian illustrator Guillermo Fajardo has taken a crack at redesigning some of the more iconic breakfast cereal mascots, uploading his excellent efforts to his Behance portfolio. There's the Trix rabbit, Tony the Tiger, Count Chocula (shown above), and Cap'n Crunch (right). Guillermo Fajardo on the Behance Network (via Neatorama)
Read in browser Muppeteer Michael Earl has colon cancer, is uninsured; muppet fans raise funds for his care.
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 19, 2012 02:36 pm BB reader Tony Teofilo says, Master puppeteer Michael Earl (he did The Muppet Movie, Sesame Street, and many others) has Stage 3 Colon Cancer and no insurance. Any chance you could let the happy mutants know via BoingBoing? Swazzle is having a benefit sale for him 10/20; there is also a donation page if people ...
Read in browser Andrea Seabrook's DecodeDC
By Glenn Fleishman on Oct 19, 2012 02:23 pm Andrea Seabrook had a brilliant career at National Public Radio (NPR), and spent the last several years covering Congress in Washington, D.C. If you listen to NPR, you know her voice, and likely perked up when the anchors threw it over to her to give insight into the latest federal nonsense. Seabrook recently walked away ...
Read in browser To do in DC: "40 under 40: Craft Futures" at the Smithsonian
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 19, 2012 02:09 pm Now through February at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, an exhibition of under-40 American craftspeople. Among them, Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching. Her work "La Llorona" is shown here, and is featured in the "40 under 40: Craft Futures" show.
Read in browser Robin Cooper gives Obama advice on winning the debate
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 19, 2012 01:27 pm Robin Cooper tells Boing Boing, "I called the White House with advice to Obama on how to win the next Debate."
Read in browser Hey, so is that new heat-sensing bra concept the best way to find breast cancer?
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 19, 2012 01:15 pm Nope.
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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