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Paul Ryan's Halloween costume: Kevin Rose circa 2006 Fraud, failure, and FUBAR in science Anti-choice Tea Party Congressman pressured pregnant mistress to get an abortion Recording of a crying baby with the pitch dropped Trustworthiness of guitars poster Australian Attorney General says that public scrutiny of spying bill would not be in the public interest Tegaderm Cory in Evanston, IL tonight Rain room lets you walk between the drops Seattle cops want more drones to match the ones it doesn't use Verizon opts you in to advertiser tracking; here's how to opt out Pratchett's Dodger: Dickens by way of Discworld San Antonio students and parents upset at mandatory radio-tracking snitch-tags Fla. governor gives out sex hotline Coop's work in Taschen's The New Erotic Photography D10 engagement ring Gweek 071: Adrian Tomine Australian PM lances a sexist boil in Parliament Woman denies ownership of marijuana hidden in her genitals Sexy Sesame Street Halloween costumes SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully attaches to ISS UK website taken down by spurious copyright complaint regarding UK ultra-right groups Can D&D make a person confident and successful? [video] Should your tax dollars stop funding PBS? Billionaire timeshare CEO to employees: there'll be fewer jobs around here if Obama is re-elected Military court to consider requests to loosen secrecy in Bradley Manning case Yet another reason why I love Gravity Falls Illustration from a peer-reviewed research paper provides poignant commentary on the futility of life Bay Area law enforcement agencies eye aerial drones Spooky delicious pizza Paul Ryan's Halloween costume: Kevin Rose circa 2006
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 11, 2012 12:56 pm Time's photos of vice president hopeful Paul Ryan bear a striking resemblance to the BusinessWeek's 2006 cover of Digg cofounder Kevin Rose.
Read in browser Fraud, failure, and FUBAR in science
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 11, 2012 12:55 pm Here's an issue we don't talk about enough. Every year, peer-reviewed research journals publish hundreds of thousands of scientific papers. But every year, several hundred of those are retracted — essentially, unpublished. There's a number of reasons retraction happens. Sometimes, the researchers (or another group of scientists) will notice honest mistakes. Sometimes, other people will ...
Read in browser Anti-choice Tea Party Congressman pressured pregnant mistress to get an abortion
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2012 12:48 pm Tennessee Tea Party Rep Dr. Scott DesJarlais -- a serial philanderer who told a court he'd cheated on his wife four times -- calls himself anti-abortion. His website says, "All life should be cherished and protected. We are pro-life." He has consistently voted for legislation that restricted abortion. But when he got his mistress pregnant, ...
Read in browser Recording of a crying baby with the pitch dropped
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 11, 2012 12:44 pm Now we know what a concern troll sounds like! (Via Reddit)
Read in browser Trustworthiness of guitars poster
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 11, 2012 12:11 pm Chris Gregori says: A couple months back I worked with my friend Jeremy on a Trustworthiness of Guitars poster… an idea that was taken from Matt Mcinerney’s Trustworthiness of Beards poster. He runs a music giveaway site and asked his readers to do a poll that shares how they felt about certain guitars. Out of ...
Read in browser Australian Attorney General says that public scrutiny of spying bill would not be in the public interest
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2012 11:43 am The Australian government is following the UK, US and Canadian governments' examples and establishing a secretive, no-holds-barred snooping regime. The "data retention" bill that's been prepared by the Federal Attorney-General's Department requires ISPs to store all communications for two years, and grants wide access to those stored records, as well as allowing snooping on residents' ...
Read in browser Tegaderm
By Cool Tools on Oct 11, 2012 11:19 am Use this 3M material, called Tegaderm, for applying dressing over a bleeding injury. It's much better than adhesive tape or a big band-aid. Tegaderm is an air-permeable plastic film, as thin as cling film, but stronger and with an adhesive. I've found it adheres perfectly and because it is so thin it's unnoticeable, especially on joints. You don't even ...
Read in browser Cory in Evanston, IL tonight
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2012 10:37 am Hey, Evanston, IL! I'll be at the Evanston Public Library tonight, on the final stop of the Chicago-area part of my Pirate Cinema tour (if you're coming, you can RSVP here). Tomorrow, I head to NYC for appearances at Comic-Con and WORD Books in Brooklyn (here's our video remix contest), and thence to Philly, Bethesda, ...
Read in browser Rain room lets you walk between the drops
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2012 10:00 am The Rain Room, an exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London, is a room from whose ceiling torrential rain falls.
Read in browser Seattle cops want more drones to match the ones it doesn't use
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 11, 2012 09:29 am Seattle police want to spend at least $150,000 on more drone aircraft—even though they've got two they don't use. Beyond conducting limited training exercises, SPD has never deployed the two drones it purchased in 2010 for $82,000. Furthermore, SPD department has no clear policy outlining how drones can be deployed in the field. You just ...
Read in browser Verizon opts you in to advertiser tracking; here's how to opt out
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 11, 2012 09:19 am Matthew Panzarino at The Next Web. "The opt-out options are only available for 30 days after you've fired up a new line and they're located in the MyPrivacy section of Verizon's website. There are three categories of opt-out, each of which covers the sharing of a different flavor of personal information."
Read in browser Pratchett's Dodger: Dickens by way of Discworld
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2012 09:09 am Terry Pratchett's latest novel,
Dodger, isn't a Discworld book, except, well, it kind of is. Nominally, this is an historical novel, a fictionalized account of the fictionalized person who inspired Mr Charlie Dickens to create his much-beloved character The Artful Dodger. But as the story unfolds, the parallels between the early Victorian London of Dickens (and Mayhew) and the Ankh-Morpork of Pratchett's Discworld novels become sharper and clearer, so that by the end, we're reading a story that really could be set in either one of those fantastical places.
Read in browser San Antonio students and parents upset at mandatory radio-tracking snitch-tags
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2012 08:28 am Chris Matyszczyk on CNet rounds up a variety of reports on the outrage over the schools in San Antonio, Texas, which have insisted that their students wear radio-tag trackers.
Read in browser Fla. governor gives out sex hotline
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 10, 2012 09:47 pm "In an embarrassing mistake, Florida Governor Rick Scott gave out a phone sex hotline number to Floridians seeking information on a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak." — Michael Peltier, with Reuters
Read in browser Coop's work in Taschen's The New Erotic Photography
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2012 09:24 pm Congratulations to our artist friend Coop, whose photography is featured in The New Erotic Photography, published by Taschen.
Read in browser D10 engagement ring
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2012 07:58 pm Dragonslorefury posted this wonderful D10 RPG-player's engagement ring to DeviantArt, along with these notes: My engagement ring, designed by myself and a reality thanks to my amazing jeweller father. Yes that is a D10 (10 sided dice for those not used to the lingo XP), me and my partner are quite frequent roleplayers and I'm ...
Read in browser Gweek 071: Adrian Tomine
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2012 07:46 pm My co-hosts are Adrian Tomine, author of New York Stories, and Joshua Glenn, co-author of Unbored.
Read in browser Australian PM lances a sexist boil in Parliament
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2012 07:00 pm Australian PM Julia Gillard rose in Parliament to address a motion from the leader of the opposition Tony Abbott to dismiss the Speaker of the House for sending sexist text messages.
Read in browser Woman denies ownership of marijuana hidden in her genitals
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2012 06:31 pm Reason cited: she's a medical student.
Read in browser Sexy Sesame Street Halloween costumes
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2012 06:24 pm No, Fox News didn't start producing Sesame Street. These are Sexy Bert and Ernie Halloween costumes. (Via Geekologie)
Read in browser SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully attaches to ISS
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 10, 2012 06:20 pm At 9:03A ET, #Dragon was secured to the space station, its home for the next 2.5 weeks. twitter.com/SpaceX/status/…— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 10, 2012 For the second time in 2012, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has connected with the International Space Station. ISS expedition 33 crew members Akihiko Hoshide and Sunita Williams grappled Dragon and attached it ...
Read in browser UK website taken down by spurious copyright complaint regarding UK ultra-right groups
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2012 05:52 pm Richard Bartholomew maintains a thoughtful, well-informed British site about religion and religious extremists, as well as hate groups. His site was taken down last night, apparently in response to a US DMCA copyright complaint from Charlie Flowers, who had allegedly posted remarks about a debate between the English Defence League (a UK rightwing extremist group) ...
Read in browser Can D&D make a person confident and successful? [video]
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2012 05:33 pm Heath says, The latest episode of PBS Digital Studios’ weekly Web series Idea Channel suggests that table top fantasy games like Dungeons & Dragons, despite their repeated skewering throughout pop culture, can actually help make a person more confident and successful. Dungeons & Dragons players often have to endure a certain amount of stereotyping and ...
Read in browser Should your tax dollars stop funding PBS?
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 10, 2012 05:18 pm Chris Schmidt, a senior producer with the PBS program NOVA scienceNOW, responds to the GOP talking-point that the public broadcasting system should no longer receive federal funds. The network currently receives about 17% of its funding from the government. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney even name-checked Big Bird during a presidential debate, and proposed that ...
Read in browser Billionaire timeshare CEO to employees: there'll be fewer jobs around here if Obama is re-elected
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2012 05:14 pm David Siegel, the billionaire CEO of the highly profitable Florida-based Westgate Resorts timeshare company, has sent a letter to all his employees implying that they'll all get fired if Obama is elected. Concerning Mr Siegel, ThinkProgress notes "Siegel earned national notoriety this year for his quest to build the biggest house in America, 'a sprawling, ...
Read in browser Military court to consider requests to loosen secrecy in Bradley Manning case
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 10, 2012 05:12 pm Declan McCullagh reports on a military appeals court hearing taking place today: media and civil liberties groups are asking the court to "decloak the prosecution of Bradley Manning, an Army private accused of handing thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks." Court audio here. More via AP. And here's a late-hour update from today's hearing, at ...
Read in browser Yet another reason why I love Gravity Falls
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2012 04:13 pm Last night, my nine-year-old daughter Jane and I watched an episode of our favorite cartoon together: Gravity Falls. (See Jane's interview with the creator of Gravity Falls, Alex Hirsch, here.) In the episode, the kids break into a derelict 7-Eleven style convenience store and find out that it's haunted. Inside the store, 12-year-old Mabel discovers ...
Read in browser Illustration from a peer-reviewed research paper provides poignant commentary on the futility of life
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 10, 2012 03:57 pm I'm not sure even Chris Ware could have done it any better. In context, this illustration comes from a recently published paleobiology paper examining a cache of animal bones and pottery found in a sinkhole near China's Jiangdong Mountain. One of the key things the researchers are taking away from this site: The range of ...
Read in browser Bay Area law enforcement agencies eye aerial drones
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 10, 2012 03:54 pm Bay Area law enforcement agencies are considering aerial drones originally designed for military use "as a cost-cutting way to replace helicopters." The drones under consideration as crime-fighting, protest-eyeing, life-saving tools include "live-video-feeding capabilities and different features, like infrared devices" and can cost cities $50K to $100K and up. I'd presume that the string of news ...
Read in browser Spooky delicious pizza
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2012 03:54 pm Chef Mom's mozzarella ghost and olive spider Hallowe'en pizza literally made my mouth flood with saliva. Spooky, spooky drool. Slice the fresh mozzarella. Using a ghost cookie cutter cut out some ghost shapes. Place the ghosts on top of the pizza sauce. Using the finely chopped olives, place eyes on the head of the ghosts. ...
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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