Slippery web designers at Apple hide court ordered apology perpetually below the fold Clocks, backward in time Bone conduction MP3 player in a grill Miguel Bloombito: the incredible Spanish of Michael Bloomberg Britain's free press cringes in anticipation of coming regulation; plutocrats and oligarchs celebrate Deconstructing Sandy Gweek 074: Lost at Sea with Jon Ronson Secret bookcase doors Tumblr The Shaggy DA: Star Wars edition Flying dino over Boston Slippery web designers at Apple hide court ordered apology perpetually below the fold
By Dean Putney on Nov 04, 2012 09:23 am Apple was recently ordered by a UK court to publicly display a notice that Samsung did not copy the iPad with their Galaxy tablet to undo the damage they've done by making that accusation. And like a scolded child, they're scuffling their feet and mumbling "sorry" to the ground. It's no surprise that their apology ...
Read in browser Clocks, backward in time
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 04, 2012 09:22 am Today's the day when Americans, Canadians, and others across the pond turn their clocks back (we in the UK beat you to it by a week). In honor of that momentous occasion, the Vintage Ads LJ group has a fine collection of clock ads from the past. Here are two of the best, found by ...
Read in browser Bone conduction MP3 player in a grill
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 03, 2012 11:35 pm Aisen Caro Chacin released this "Play-A-Grill," a homemade hip-hop grill with a built-in MP3 player that conveys sound via bone conduction.
Read in browser Miguel Bloombito: the incredible Spanish of Michael Bloomberg
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 03, 2012 09:33 pm After consultingo con el Runner de Calle club, los advisoros, y Captain Obviouso, yo decidero to que cancelo elmarathoño— Miguel Bloombito (@ElBloombito) November 2, 2012 The @ElBloombito Twitter account is a running -- and hilarious -- sendup of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's terrible Spanish. Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams profiled Rachel Figueroa-Levin, the mastermind behind the ...
Read in browser Britain's free press cringes in anticipation of coming regulation; plutocrats and oligarchs celebrate
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 03, 2012 06:28 pm Writing in The Spectator, Kirsty Walker describes the chilling effect the UK's Leveson Inquiry (which is investigating illegal phone/email interception and systematic harassment by UK papers, especially tabloids) is having on legitimate reporting. The UK is already the best place in the world for rich and powerful people who want to use libel law to ...
Read in browser Deconstructing Sandy
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 03, 2012 05:37 pm Yesterday, I got to have a great conversation on Minnesota Public Radio's The Daily Circuit. Host Tom Webber and I spent a good 45 minutes talking about Hurricane Sandy, climate change, and why it's so hard to talk about the connections between the two in an easily digestible, sound-bite format. In the meantime, he might ...
Read in browser Gweek 074: Lost at Sea with Jon Ronson
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 03, 2012 05:02 pm David and I spoke with Jon Ronson about his new book, Lost at Sea. Jon is the author of several first-person narrative books that David and I love: Them: Adventures with Extremists, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, and The Men Who Stare at Goats, (which was made into a movie by ...
Read in browser Secret bookcase doors Tumblr
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 03, 2012 03:44 pm Everything About Secret Bookcase Doors is a Tumblr that does exactly what it says on the tin. This is pure awesome. Image here from Stashvault Everything About Secret Bookcase Doors (via Bookshelf)
Read in browser The Shaggy DA: Star Wars edition
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 03, 2012 03:20 pm Josh Wood put together this delightful Shaggy DA Disney/Star Wars mashup in honor of the companies' merger. He notes: "Also on the docket: maybe a Pete's Dragon poster with Yoda as the Dragon? R2D2 as Herbie?"
Read in browser Flying dino over Boston
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 03, 2012 01:38 pm On Retronaut, Arthur Pollock's 1984 photo, "Delivering a dinosaur to the Boston Museum of Science." Pollock has a book, too. Delivering a dinosaur to the Boston Museum of Science
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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