While some braniacs write about skateboarding, others are using it to trick poor defenseless little kids into learning about math. Math and skateboarding just don’t mix. Ok, that’s not true. But since I can’t read this German public service advert about math, I have to make up something. Closer to home, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industryjust got a $2.9 million grant for a traveling exhibit called Access Algebra to stoke middle-school kids to “promote creativity and innovation and build math literacy… …focusing on math as a tool to create and invent everything from rap music to race cars to a skate park.” – Thanks to Dave Tobin for the tip. $2.9 million seems like a lot of dough. Maybe someone at the National Science Foundation needs to work on their math a little. The Germans are ahead of the game already. They’ve got a web site and a video trailer for what I guess is their math museum. I’ve heard they aren’t too good at math, all their answers come up Nien! (Sorry.)
[Source: Red Box via Skateboardgeruechte.de ]
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This weeks SOTW is Casey Mcmaugh at a hush hush backyard DIY spot in California. How hush? The Walrus wouldn’t even give up the name of city! Photo by the ubiquitous MRZ. Check out the larger uncropped version.
There’s no better way to combat a buzzkill than enjoying a session in some unseasonably dry and warm weather. if you can’t actually go out and skate today, you can still enjoy some photos from a session at Pier Park last Saturday.
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Are you trying to watch any of the skateboarding commercials and other media flotsam and jetsam that we posted? My user account has been unceremoniously and permanently disabled. The only notice I got was something about the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation complaining about the clip I had posted titled T Bag gets hit with a skateboard. It was about 15 seconds of the character T Bag from the Show Prison Break, getting hit in the head with a skateboard. I can understand how Fox or anyone else wouldn’t want entire episodes of their intellectual property put online where people can watch it for free and Fox doesn’t get the ad revenue. However, short clips? Why not? It doesn’t cost them any lost revenue, and it generates publicity for the show. I suspect that particular offense had less to do with copyright infringement and “the suits not getting it” than it did with the fact that Fox owns the YouTube competitor MySpaceTV.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I think I only had one other incident where a video was removed, and it was for reposting our appearance on Attack of the Show. They must have actually looked at the rest of the commercials and out takes I had uploaded. Users with suspended or terminated accounts are prohibited from creating new accounts so I guess my double secret probation is over. What I need is a good video hosting solution out in Sweden or wherever it is that they don’t get bent out of shape about this, a Pirate Bay equivalent of YouTube. Am I a hypocrite? By the strictest interpretations, yes. But I never posted entire episodes of anything, and I don’t think it’s the same thing to use it editorially. Of course, doesn’t matter what I think. GVK‘s are unaffected as Grover posted them under his account.
Are you pressing your own skateboard blanks with a vacuum press? If you are looking for a little less labor intensive method of constructing a mold, Ted over at Thin Air Press, home of the Roarockit has posted a lengthy set of illustrated instructions on how to make your own custom mold out of foam insulation. While his choice of shape and mold style may not appeal to you, the basic technique is still valuable if you want to make the next step in DIY skateboard construction with vacuum pressed boards. Sure beats the other method if you are still experimenting with your geometry. Check it out.
[Source: Ted on SnA comments]
My brother sent me these shots of Whistler Skatepark in Vancouver Canada.
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I got a tip about this Cisco advert and managed to catch it on my DVR without realizing it, but I accidentally deleted it before I could digitize it. I was waiting to catch it again but it seems like it only aired on one week. Cisco commercials show up, but it’s always a different one. Since then, discussions have popped up all over. So I finally decided to pull it of the Cisco web site. There are additional spots that didn’t air on TV. I’ve put them all together in one vid so you don’t need to wait through the intermissions. Where to start on this… it’s too easy. The main thing they are trying to sell is the fact that with Cisco Networks you can be in touch with everyone on a project almost instantly, no matter where they are. Ironically, the ad agency who put his together couldn’t have been more out of touch with skateboarding culture or history. – Thanks to Tracy Sigler and Paige for the tip.
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