Sign this We The People petition Sandman box set is out Is America getting less punitive? Knit muffler TOM THE DANCING BUG: Super-Fun-Pak Comix - Science Facts for the Internet-Addled, and MORE, MORE, MORE! College republicans nix Ann Coulter Mozilla's Popcorn Maker: a drag-and-drop tool for mashup interactive video Scathing restaurant review All Up In My Snatch Interview with Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Autistic gamers The dumbest pundits Google fiber offers 700 Mbps to homes Exiting Microsoft exec was "ruthless corporate schemer" Steven Levy on the patent wars Living creatures you can buy from Amazon Windows 95 tips Vampire ketchup-bottle lid Shadow Unit shared world book one is free and DRM-free Super-slo-mo egg-smashing Russian grandmother kills wolf with ax, bare hands EXCLUSIVE: David Petraeus Affair Photos World's oldest hacker radio show under threat Petraeus scandal: Jill Kelley ran a bogus cancer charity RIP, Kevin O'Donnell, Jr Anchorman 2 sounds promising, even though it derailed a Step Brothers rap album Dr. Strangelove: Gen. Buck Turgidson reacts to Petraeus scandal Was someone at CENTCOM fluffing for Jill Kelley on Wikipedia? Charles Babbage's dissected brain Petraeus scandal: This is the national-security establishment turning the surveillance apparatus on itself Sign this We The People petition
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 14, 2012 12:57 pm Only 24,979 signatures and President Obama will either have to do the hokey pokey, or explain to the American people why he refuses to put his left foot out. (This is probably the best response to all the secession petitions yet. Thanks, Kyle Whitmire!)
Read in browser Sandman box set is out
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 12:38 pm The massive, all-in-one, ten-volume slipcased Sandman box-set I mentioned last May is out and shipping! $125 cheap! w00t! Sandman Slipcase Set
Read in browser Is America getting less punitive?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 14, 2012 12:37 pm Radley Balko says: "In a new piece for Huffington Post, I look at a number of criminal justice related issues on this year's ballot, including marijuana, Three Strikes, and the recent defeats of several prosecutors who played a role in wrongful convictions. I also chat with a couple longtime criminal justice reform activists about whether ...
Read in browser Knit muffler
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 12:23 pm Etsy seller LoveandKnit (AKA Mine Kurtulmus) makes lovely alpaca wool accessories to order, including this great muffler, which looks like something that you'd see on in an anime adaptation of Fat Albert. In a good way. Womens Dark Grey Cowl (via Crazy Abalone)
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Super-Fun-Pak Comix - Science Facts for the Internet-Addled, and MORE, MORE, MORE!
By Ruben Bolling on Nov 14, 2012 11:45 am Tom the Dancing Bug, featuring a decapitation, a time-murder, an elephant not speaking Korean, a gambling debt unpaid and MUCH MORE.
Read in browser College republicans nix Ann Coulter
By Jason Weisberger on Nov 14, 2012 11:37 am Addicting Info shares that Fordham University's college republicans cancelled Ms. Coulter's speaking engagement after a passionate letter from their University president. "There are many people who can speak to the conservative point of view with integrity and conviction, but Ms. Coulter is not among them. Her rhetoric is often hateful and needlessly provocative—more heat than ...
Read in browser Mozilla's Popcorn Maker: a drag-and-drop tool for mashup interactive video
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 11:23 am Brett Gaylor from Mozilla sez, Sunday at the Mozilla Festival in London, Mozilla launched the 1.0 version of their new Popcorn Maker tool, a free web app that makes video pop with interactivity, context and the magic of the web. Popcorn Maker makes it easy to enhance, remix and share web video. Using Popcorn Maker's ...
Read in browser Scathing restaurant review
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 14, 2012 10:46 am Pete Wells' review of Guy Fieri's new restaurant is worth reading even if you would never dream of eating out in Manhattan or, indeed, have never eaten food at all. [New York Times]
Read in browser All Up In My Snatch
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 14, 2012 10:27 am John Aravosis quotes a very apologetic spokesperson from ABC Denver, where a staffer's search for a picture of Paula Broadwell's All In ended in failure: "When the 7NEWS reporter went on the Internet to get an image of the book cover, the reporter mistakenly grabbed a Photoshopped image that said, 'All Up In My Snatch.'" ...
Read in browser Interview with Geek's Guide to the Galaxy
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 10:15 am I did an interview with The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy, which they've published in both text and MP3 form. We talked about Pirate Cinema, Rapture of the Nerds, the Humble Ebook Bundle, the future of publishing, the Disney/Star Wars merger, and lots more: Wired: Do you ever get letters from kids who have been ...
Read in browser Autistic gamers
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 14, 2012 10:15 am Wired's Ryan Rigney on the double-edged sword that online worlds present for austists: "You might think you know World of Warcraft, but you don't know it the way Ian Bates does."
Read in browser The dumbest pundits
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 14, 2012 09:54 am Pundit Shaming collects some of the most spectacularly wrong election calls uttered in recent weeks by political pundits. "But the most entertaining fall-out will be the recriminations of pollsters and polling generally in the wake of Romney's 330+ electoral vote win next Tuesday." — Don Rasmussen I'm convinced that most of them knew it was ...
Read in browser Google fiber offers 700 Mbps to homes
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 14, 2012 09:40 am Internet users in Kansas City will never again need to leave the house. [Ars]
Read in browser Exiting Microsoft exec was "ruthless corporate schemer"
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 14, 2012 09:33 am The unexpected departure of Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky, previously tipped as an eventual replacement for Steven Ballmer, has ignited even more tech-biz kremlinology than Scott Forstall's exit from Apple. Both men seem like similar corporate beasts—brilliant but abrasive—who saw off boardroom rivals but could not challenge two of the most immovable CEOs in the business. ...
Read in browser Steven Levy on the patent wars
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 09:17 am Steven Levy's Wired magazine feature on the cancerous multiplication of patents has all the hallmarks of Levy's work: excellent, eminently readable, human-scale tech reporting that makes important issues comprehensible. The rise of trolls came as a result of a court system that seemed to favor them every step of the way. The vagueness of the ...
Read in browser Living creatures you can buy from Amazon
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 14, 2012 09:11 am Live from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm, these earthworms are just $29.95 for 2lb. And that's only the beginning: there are crickets sold by the thousand, highly expensive snails, delicious gutloaded mealworms, cockroaches and shrimp. (I like the way the word "Live" is placed in quotes for "Live" Lobsters.)
Read in browser Windows 95 tips
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 14, 2012 12:50 am I'm calling it already: Windows 95 Tips is Blog of the Year.
Read in browser Vampire ketchup-bottle lid
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 10:36 pm Perpetual Kid sells a $4.50 cartoon vampire ketchup-bottle lid called "Count Ketchup Spread." Affix it and squeeze the bottle, and the ketchup drips out of his fangs. There's also a mustard version: it's an alien head that oozes mustard out of its mouth. Barfstard! Our hard plastic Count Ketchup Spread Head is a universal cap ...
Read in browser Shadow Unit shared world book one is free and DRM-free
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 10:03 pm Elizabeth Bear writes, Shadow Unit is an ongoing, now five-year-old science fiction web serial about a mysterious "anomaly" that causes affected human beings to simultaneously develop superpowers and sociopathy--and about the law enforcement agents who struggle to contain the crisis. In more formal terms, it's is a semi-real-time semi-interactive shared-world hyperfiction narrative--which is to say, ...
Read in browser Super-slo-mo egg-smashing
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 09:32 pm Here's Slo-As-a-Mofo-Sho's two-minute long video of the super-slo-mo smashing of eggs, in a variety of improbable ways.
Read in browser Russian grandmother kills wolf with ax, bare hands
By Jason Weisberger on Nov 13, 2012 09:27 pm Metro Uk reports on a Russian grandmother's act of bravery while tending her flock of sheep. "Speaking from hospital with her hand bandaged, Mrs Maksudova said she was 'not even frightened' during the wolf attack."
Read in browser EXCLUSIVE: David Petraeus Affair Photos
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 13, 2012 07:57 pm This is a tumblog of greatness. "Everything you need to know about the CIA Director David Petraeus sex scandal. All photos and headlines are real." (HT: @itsmikerock)
Read in browser World's oldest hacker radio show under threat
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 07:57 pm 2600's Emmanuel Goldstein writes, In the midst of the biggest natural disaster to hit the New York metropolitan area in modern times, most of the staff of community radio station WBAI was prevented from broadcasting - not because of a power outage, but due to management decisions that put prerecorded programming over the airwaves instead ...
Read in browser Petraeus scandal: Jill Kelley ran a bogus cancer charity
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 13, 2012 07:44 pm Tampa military socialite and Petraeus scandal figure Jill Kelley ran the "Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation," which claimed on its tax forms that it "shall be operated exclusively to conduct cancer research and to grant wishes to terminally ill adult cancer patients." Huffington Post: From the records, it appears that the charity fell far short of ...
Read in browser RIP, Kevin O'Donnell, Jr
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 07:00 pm Science fiction writer Kevin O'Donnell, Jr died last week; the Science Fiction Writers of America has a sweet, sad obit for him, written by John Barnes and John E. Johnston III. Our condolences to his family and all those who loved him. (via Making Light)
Read in browser Anchorman 2 sounds promising, even though it derailed a Step Brothers rap album
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 13, 2012 06:51 pm Adam McKay is talking about the upcoming sequel to Anchorman, and if he's not using generous amounts of hyperbole, this movie might be as epic as Cloud Atlas, which I heard was pretty epic. But here's what we can take away from his latest interview with The Playlist: Anchorman: The Legend Continues will have songs ...
Read in browser Dr. Strangelove: Gen. Buck Turgidson reacts to Petraeus scandal
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 13, 2012 06:03 pm (Thanks, Bryan William Jones)
Read in browser Was someone at CENTCOM fluffing for Jill Kelley on Wikipedia?
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 13, 2012 05:55 pm Gen. John Allen, L, who is being investigated for "inappropriate communications" with unpaid military socialite Jill Kelley, R. (ABC NEWS) It's bad enough to learn that Marine General John Allen and CIA chief David Petraeus intervened in a custody battle involving CENTCOM socialite Jill Kelley's sister, and shocking to learn that Allen may have sent ...
Read in browser Charles Babbage's dissected brain
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 13, 2012 05:54 pm A paper in a 1909 edition of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London described the dissection of Charles Babbage's brain. The whole article is on the Internet Archive, from which the Public Domain Review has plucked it. Babbage himself decided that he wanted his brain to be donated to science upon his ...
Read in browser Petraeus scandal: This is the national-security establishment turning the surveillance apparatus on itself
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 13, 2012 05:47 pm From Patrick Radden Keefe, in the New Yorker: "The serialized revelations that have unfolded since Friday—when Petraeus, who left the military as a four-star general, resigned from the C.I.A. because of an affair—are, to say the least, honeyed with irony. In the decade following September 11, 2001, the national-security establishment in this country devised a ...
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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