Amazon should come clean about e-book policies TOM THE DANCING BUG: "...You Just Might Have Romnesia!" Trump "bombshell" turns out to be birther challenge: "I'll give $5m to charity if birth certificate yadda yadda" A possible medical diagnosis of zombies, just in case they end up being real How to teach kids classical music Tiny clip-on camera for lifelogging Dangerous Minds on Facebook's "bait and switch" for publishers: "I want my friends back" Neal Stephenson talks REAMDE with lawyers, security experts Orbital Habitat concept had supercomputer, dolphins Zynga lays off 100 staffers during Apple event GOP Senate candidate: Rape pregnancy is God's intent Windows Surface reviews Cory coming to Toronto, Boston Seismologists guilty in Italy: More on the L'Aquila verdict, and what it means for the future of science Accidental CC from wedding planner to couple reveals thriving English class snobbery Amino acid necklace spells out "we are star-stuff" ADELE (Boing Boing TV, 2008) Florence + the Machine (Boing Boing TV, 2008) Entropy versus warranty: how companies figure out how breakable their products are Louis Coulon and his 11-foot beard that holds his cat Former inmate's description of minimum security Federal prison: sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll Free To Be...You and Me -- a retrospective Solving Laugh Out Loud Cats #2100 NYPD officers beat homeless man to a pulp AirTracks: Kickstarter for an inflatable dollying system for SLRs Trailer Tuesday: new documentary about "The Central Park Five" iPhone 5 Panorama Original contract for Moby-Dick Nails painted with a printed circuit board motif Unusual choice of Halloween decorations for a retirement home Amazon should come clean about e-book policies
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 24, 2012 12:38 pm NBC's Joel Johnson on Amazon's remote deletion of a customer's ebooks: "You don't own your Kindle books, Amazon reminds customer If the world's governments determine that customers don't have the same right of ownership over digital goods as we do over our material goods, the least they could do is force companies Amazon to be ...
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: "...You Just Might Have Romnesia!"
By Ruben Bolling on Oct 24, 2012 12:30 pm Tom the Dancing Bug: "...You Just Might Have Romnesia," and ALL of President Obama's Hit Comedy Bits, now on DVD!
Read in browser Trump "bombshell" turns out to be birther challenge: "I'll give $5m to charity if birth certificate yadda yadda"
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 24, 2012 12:18 pm "We know very little about our president ... yadda yadda." The Onion: In a blockbuster announcement today, Donald Trump announced that he is a very sad man who has nothing to live for other than drawing attention to himself. "I'm a sad, pathetic human being and a complete waste of life." No-one alive is more ...
Read in browser A possible medical diagnosis of zombies, just in case they end up being real
By Jamie Frevele on Oct 24, 2012 11:43 am The Zombie Research Society has some information about medically diagnosing zombies that might interest you!
Read in browser How to teach kids classical music
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 24, 2012 11:38 am Here's a new way to teach young people about classical music: have them sing their favorite pop lyrics to the tune of classical compositions.
Read in browser Tiny clip-on camera for lifelogging
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 24, 2012 11:37 am The tiny clip-on Memoto camera takes two photos a minute. The Memoto app displays the GPSd photos on a timeline, so you can go back and see where you were at any point in the past. The camera has no buttons. (That's right, no buttons.) As long as you wear the camera, it is constantly ...
Read in browser Dangerous Minds on Facebook's "bait and switch" for publishers: "I want my friends back"
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 24, 2012 11:13 am Over at Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger writes about the damage to indie web publishers wrought by Facebook's ever-changing policies about who sees your content, and what it will cost you to get your content in front of people who've already signed up as friends/fans. Spring of 2012 was when bloggers, non-profits, indie bands, George Takei, ...
Read in browser Neal Stephenson talks REAMDE with lawyers, security experts
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 24, 2012 11:12 am A recent U Washington Law School panel discussion with Neal Stephenson regarding his video-game crime-thriller REAMDE.
Read in browser Orbital Habitat concept had supercomputer, dolphins
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 24, 2012 09:39 am Welcome to Bluestar, a ring of space laboratories that would have put a dolphin colony in orbit.
Read in browser Zynga lays off 100 staffers during Apple event
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 24, 2012 09:28 am Josh Constine at TechCrunch: Possibly trying to hide the grim news by announcing it during Apple's event, we've just independently confirmed that Zynga has shut down its Boston office and laid off 2/3s of the employees in its Austin office The staff had 2 hours to vacate their desks; it must have been tempting to ...
Read in browser GOP Senate candidate: Rape pregnancy is God's intent
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 24, 2012 09:23 am "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." — Richard Mourdock, Indiana Republican senate candidate. Remember, folks: they say it ...
Read in browser Windows Surface reviews
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 24, 2012 09:18 am Mat Honan at Wired: "This is a great device. It is a new thing, in a new space, and likely to confuse many of Microsoft's longtime customers." Joshua Topolsky at The Verge: "I wanted to love this device." Sam Biddle at Gizmodo: "Should you buy it? No. ... It's a tablet-plus, priced right alongside the ...
Read in browser Cory coming to Toronto, Boston
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 24, 2012 09:05 am Hey, Toronto! I'll be at the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors on Thursday and Friday nights, both times at 8PM. On Thursday, I'm reading with Larissa Andrusyshyn, Stuart Clark, Corey Redekop and Robert J. Sawyer; on Friday, I'm doing a double-act with China Mieville. From there, I head to Boston for the final appearance of ...
Read in browser Seismologists guilty in Italy: More on the L'Aquila verdict, and what it means for the future of science
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 24, 2012 09:05 am In a guest piece at Scientific American, David Ropeik argues that an Italian court's decision to charge scientists and a government official with manslaughter isn't about quake prediction per se, but a failure to communicate science effectively. Snip: But, contrary to the majority of the news coverage this decision is getting and the gnashing of ...
Read in browser Accidental CC from wedding planner to couple reveals thriving English class snobbery
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 24, 2012 12:20 am A couple in England have gone public with the news that a wedding planner at the Stoke Park country resort (used as a location in James Bond: Goldfinger) accidentally cc'ed them on an email where she advised her colleagues that they were not the "type of people that we would want" to get married at ...
Read in browser Amino acid necklace spells out "we are star-stuff"
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 24, 2012 12:01 am Colette Taylor is a molecular biologist and crafter who makes some rather lovely pieces, including the amino-acid inspired necklace shown here (which I saw in person tonight), which reads "We are star-stuff." There are certain phrases or ideas which sometimes need reminding. Just to keep us sane, to remind us what is important. This is ...
Read in browser ADELE (Boing Boing TV, 2008)
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 23, 2012 09:49 pm We may not have discovered Adele, but our old pal Russell Porter did introduce her to much of the Boing Boing community for the first time, in 2008.
Read in browser Florence + the Machine (Boing Boing TV, 2008)
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 23, 2012 09:28 pm Classic Boing Boing TV from our vaults: Russell Porter interviews Florence Welch of Florence+the Machine, at the UK Standon Calling festival in 2008.
Read in browser Entropy versus warranty: how companies figure out how breakable their products are
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 23, 2012 09:13 pm The current Wired has a long feature by Robert Capps on the significant changes in product testing and warranty service brought about by the combination of highly accurate computer modelling and disclosure laws that force firms to publish details of the costs of their warranty plans. The latter was most interesting to me, as it ...
Read in browser Louis Coulon and his 11-foot beard that holds his cat
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 23, 2012 08:39 pm Abraham Piper says: "I vote this guy for President of the Internet"
Read in browser Former inmate's description of minimum security Federal prison: sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 23, 2012 08:33 pm I recently started listening to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Wikipedia describes Rogan as an "American martial artist, stand-up comedian, actor, writer and color commentator." In the latest episode Rogan interviews Victor Conte. From Conte's Wikipedia entry: Victor Conte (born c.1950)is a former musician with Tower of Power and the founder and president of BALCO, ...
Read in browser Free To Be...You and Me -- a retrospective
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 23, 2012 08:21 pm Must-read longread about the origins of
Free To Be...You and Me Read in browser Solving Laugh Out Loud Cats #2100
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 23, 2012 07:00 pm Apelad sez, "I posted the 2100th Laugh-Out-Loud Cats comic last night. My kids had me print it out so they could cut out each panel to try and recreate the tunnel route. It's not easy!" Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #2100
Read in browser NYPD officers beat homeless man to a pulp
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 23, 2012 06:35 pm And it wouldn’t be a police beating without the obligatory charge against the victim for assaulting the police officer’s fist with his face.
Read in browser AirTracks: Kickstarter for an inflatable dollying system for SLRs
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 23, 2012 06:09 pm Tom Baker (no relation) has nearly funded his Kickstarter for "AirTracks: Inflatable All-Terrain Camera Slider" -- a dollying system for SLRs that will cost you about $275 in pre-support (assuming the project is successfully completed). Baker's product design experience is a little unspecific, but his prototype is impressive, and produces even-more-impressive videos. I can imagine ...
Read in browser Trailer Tuesday: new documentary about "The Central Park Five"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 23, 2012 05:48 pm The lesson here is clear: if you are a minority without a lot of money and a prosecutor wants to put you in prison, you will be imprisoned. The Central Park Five is the story of the five young men who were wrongfully convicted for the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park. It ...
Read in browser iPhone 5 Panorama
By Jason Weisberger on Oct 23, 2012 04:17 pm Here's a link to larger view of this panorama I just took with the iPhone 5. First try and it works pretty darn well. At full size you can see the camera trickery, especially in the center where the image washes out -- but it looks great just a little bit smaller.
Read in browser Original contract for Moby-Dick
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 23, 2012 03:58 pm Lowering the Bar has a copy of Herman Meville's publishing contract for Moby-Dick, made 161 years ago between Harper and Brothers of the city of New York, Publishers and Melville. Melville got 50% of the profits (which seems fishy to me, given that the publisher has near-total leeway in accounting for its expenses-before-profit on the ...
Read in browser Nails painted with a printed circuit board motif
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 23, 2012 03:36 pm My nine-year-old daughter would like to have her nails painted this way, I think. (via The Mary Sue)
Read in browser Unusual choice of Halloween decorations for a retirement home
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 23, 2012 03:34 pm (Via Reddit)
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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