Summary: It seems appropriate this Labor Day, a holiday that pays tribute to the American worker, to rediscover the lost talent of making stuff. So the Packetpushers pulled out their tricorders and went in search of the ultimate nerd haven, the hackerspace. If you aren't familiar with the term, according to Urbandictionary.com, a hackerspace is: A facility to incubate nerds and equip them with tools. Currently found in all major cities, hackerspaces exist to pool nerds' resources together and enable them to build and invent ever newer and better things. Most hackerspaces are equipped with rapid prototyping machines (3D printers, laser cutters, CNCs), metal milling tools, welding, electronics, and millinery. And in this Healthy Paranoia episode it's a nerdy, geeky delight chatting with a few heroes from the hackerspace front: Travis Good, co-founder of NoVA Labs, Ben Mendis of Project Byzantium and Brad Barr, president of HacDC. So fasten your seat belts, because this show is +1000 on the nerd meter!* Links Hackerspaces.org Instructables Hack a Day A Hackerspace Manifesto 10 Rules for Students, Teachers, and Life by John Cage and Sister Corita Kent Makezine Thingiverse Backyard Brains: Neuroscience for Everyone *Special thanks to Coverville for allowing the use of samples from "Smooth Federation," an instrumental jazz tribute album featuring covers of Star Trek music.
