Apparently, planets don't always orbit stars Petition for transparency in the selection process for the new BBC boss We will get our first glimpse at Star Trek Into Darkness when The Hobbit comes out I.Think.We.Are.Alone.Now. -- documentary about two men obsessed with pop singer Tiffany Small world, tracker music edition The Future of Outlook.com Spanish-language webcomic on piracy and distribution IRS sued for not enforcing campaign restrictions on churches Fitness tracking wristbands reviewed How experimental design can create conflicting results Omnishambles is word of the year Pong is better than... San Francisco nudists revolt Why doesn't MTV play music videos anymore? Speaking in London on Nov 24 about the Snooper's Charter Sad news: Glitch is shutting down Cufflinks that open hand-cuffs How to follow the Petraeus CyberClusterFuck: a flowchart Israel live-tweets Gaza offensive Airlines and obese fliers: is there a better way to handle seat space conflict? Petraeus biographer-lover Broadwell had "substantial classified data" on computer Panorama inside a washing-machine Shirtless FBI agent in Petraeus scandal revealed The Making Of Die Antwoord's "Fatty Boom Boom" video Open Source Ecology's "Build Yourself" You can listen to the entire soundtrack for The Hobbit right now The trailer for Iron Man 3, sweded Timothy Leary's papers return to Harvard, 50 years after they gave him the boot Exclusive excerpt from The Walking Dead novel - The Road to Woodbury Composite UK politicians Apparently, planets don't always orbit stars
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 15, 2012 12:40 pm Because sometimes nature just likes to mess with you, here's CFBDSIR2149. It's an object in space — a relatively nearby object in space, as evidenced by the fact that this is an actual picture of it — and scientists are pretty sure that it's a planet. If they're right, then CFBDSIR2149 is also a "rogue ...
Read in browser Petition for transparency in the selection process for the new BBC boss
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 15, 2012 12:32 pm Anthony from OpenDemocracy sez, "OurBeeb, hosted by openDemocracy, have launched a petition calling for all candidates to be head of the BBC to publish their vision and principles for taking it forward. They say the Trust must not carry on with its closed, old-boy secret appointments. If the BBC is to embrace new media and ...
Read in browser We will get our first glimpse at Star Trek Into Darkness when The Hobbit comes out
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 15, 2012 12:09 pm When The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits theaters on December 14, moviegoers will be treated to an unexpected preview. (Well, I guess it's not unexpected anymore, what with it being...announced.) Paramount broke the news this morning that the first nine minute of the highly-anticipated, stupidly-titled Star Trek Into Darkness will be shown on around 500 ...
Read in browser I.Think.We.Are.Alone.Now. -- documentary about two men obsessed with pop singer Tiffany
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 15, 2012 12:00 pm I had dinner with my old friend Dan Kimball last night. In the 80s we lived together in London and played in a rockabilly/punk band. He now lives in Santa Cruz, and he told me about a fellow he's gotten to know there named Jeffrey Turner. Turner was a subject of a documentary about two ...
Read in browser Small world, tracker music edition
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 15, 2012 11:38 am I love to hang out with online pal Cabel Sasser, founder of Portland software company Panic, whenever our paths cross in real life. But I only just realized that he was an early 90s tracker musician whose work I listened to in England as a kid, on my Commodore Amiga, decades before we met. One ...
Read in browser The Future of Outlook.com
By Advertiser on Nov 15, 2012 11:30 am ADVERTISEMENT This post sponsored by Outlook.com: By now you may have heard that Microsoft is retiring it's Hotmail service and replacing it with the new Outlook.com. If you're in the market for a new email service or simply curious to see what other options are out there, head to www.Outlook.com to sign up for your ...
Read in browser Spanish-language webcomic on piracy and distribution
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 15, 2012 10:52 am Javier sez, "This is a Chilean comic strip. On this strip the character tries to legally purchase some content and can't due to several explained reasons. Then on the last square some distributors complain that sales are low and one of them says that it is due to piracy." Juanelo 1680 – Accesible
Read in browser IRS sued for not enforcing campaign restrictions on churches
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 15, 2012 10:47 am Juidth Davidoff: "On the heels of a presidential election in which hundreds of preachers publicly promised to flout Internal Revenue Service rules by endorsing candidates from the pulpit, the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation filed suit against the IRS for failing to enforce electioneering restrictions against churches and religious organizations."
Read in browser Fitness tracking wristbands reviewed
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 15, 2012 10:34 am David Pogue reviews two fitness armbands, the Nike Fuel Band and the Jawbone Up. He prefers the former, but appears impressed by neither. The Nike band is polished and professional, it has that awesome screen and the wireless Bluetooth syncing is the way to go. This pony performs its trick brilliantly, but it's still just ...
Read in browser How experimental design can create conflicting results
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Nov 15, 2012 10:20 am Is coffee bad for you or good for you? Does acupuncture actually work, or does it produce a placebo effect? Do kids with autism have different microbes living in their intestines, or are their gut flora largely the same as neurotypical children? These are all good examples of topics that have produced wildly conflicting results ...
Read in browser Omnishambles is word of the year
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 15, 2012 10:11 am The Oxford English Dictionary has determined that "omnishambles", referring to situations shambolic in all possible respects, is word of the year. Coined by Armando Iannucci for BBC political comedy The Thick Of It, it has since been used in Britain's real-life parliament to refer to real-life omnishambles. [BBC]
Read in browser Pong is better than...
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 15, 2012 09:58 am Tim Rogers offers 10 games Pong is better than, including Angry Birds, Street Fighter, Madden, and, of course, Farmville.
Read in browser San Francisco nudists revolt
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 15, 2012 09:54 am Reuters: "Two dozen pro-nudity activists wearing little but their righteous indignation assembled on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday to protest a proposed municipal ban on public nakedness."
Read in browser Why doesn't MTV play music videos anymore?
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 15, 2012 09:53 am 
Read in browser Speaking in London on Nov 24 about the Snooper's Charter
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 15, 2012 06:14 am Hey, Londoners! I'm speaking at one of the Open Rights Group's meetings on the Snooper's Charter (the proposed new mass-scale network spying bill) in London on Nov 24. It's free, but they'd like you to register so they know how many to plan for.
Read in browser Sad news: Glitch is shutting down
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 15, 2012 05:46 am Here's some very sad news: Glitch, the innovative and playful virtual world from Stewart Butterfield and his friends at Tiny Speck, is shuttering. The letter from Tiny Speck is very bittersweet. This is a horrible day. This is a horrible thing to have to say: Glitch is closing. The live game/world will be closed on ...
Read in browser Cufflinks that open hand-cuffs
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 10:25 pm Coming soon from Sparrows Lock Picks: a $59 pair of cufflinks that integrate a set of handcuff keys. Yet another reason to regret the fact that none of my shirts have French cuffs. Upon first glance, The Sparrows UNCUFF LINK appears to be a standard pair of cuff links. However, a covert, hidden handcuff key ...
Read in browser How to follow the Petraeus CyberClusterFuck: a flowchart
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 14, 2012 10:21 pm Hilary Sargent Ramadei, investigator and chart-maker, is trying to make sense of the Petraeus scandal. So are we. So it was with great delight that we encountered her explanatory flowchart. LARGE: Download PDF, or JPG. (Headline HT: @joneilnyt)
Read in browser Israel live-tweets Gaza offensive
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 14, 2012 09:54 pm Brian Fung at the Atlantic writes: "Over the past six hours, Israel's military has been hammering Gaza with a barrage of missiles. The IDF's public relations team, meanwhile, has just as steadily been covering the offensive -- updating its Twitter handle, @IDFSpokesperson, with the play-by-play on Operation Pillar of Defense. Within moments of the opening ...
Read in browser Airlines and obese fliers: is there a better way to handle seat space conflict?
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 14, 2012 09:44 pm In The Economist, an essay on the challenges for larger passengers who often face humiliating and stress-causing treatment on commercial air travel. Air Canada has an interesting policy about heavier fliers: it treats obesity as a medical condition, and "provides overweight passengers with a free extra seat as long as they present a doctor's note."
Read in browser Petraeus biographer-lover Broadwell had "substantial classified data" on computer
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 14, 2012 09:41 pm Reuters reports that a computer used by Paula Broadwell, whose affair with CIA chief David Petraeus led to his resignation, "contained substantial classified information that should have been stored under more secure conditions," according to law enforcement and national security sources. "The contents of the classified material and how Broadwell acquired it remain under investigation, ...
Read in browser Panorama inside a washing-machine
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 09:25 pm Jeffrey sez, "Perhaps not quite surpassing his panorama inside a mouth at the dentist, 360Cities member and Impossible Panorama master Nico Roig created this panorama inside a washing machine." Inside a washing machine (Thanks, Jeffrey)
Read in browser Shirtless FBI agent in Petraeus scandal revealed
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 14, 2012 09:20 pm Ladies and gentlemen, meet Frederick Humphries. I am glad I haven't encountered the actual shirtless sexted photos, and hope to avoid such an occurrence. (NYT)
Read in browser The Making Of Die Antwoord's "Fatty Boom Boom" video
By Xeni Jardin on Nov 14, 2012 08:23 pm Ninja and Yo-Landi of Die Antwoord take you behind the scenes of the making of "Fatty Boom Boom."
Read in browser Open Source Ecology's "Build Yourself"
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 07:57 pm All the industrial machines you need to create a fully autonomous community.
Read in browser You can listen to the entire soundtrack for The Hobbit right now
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 14, 2012 06:52 pm Listen to Howard Shore's complete score for
The Hobbit.
Read in browser The trailer for Iron Man 3, sweded
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 14, 2012 06:40 pm When you like
Iron Man 3, but have no budget and lots of carboard, you swede the trailer!
Read in browser Timothy Leary's papers return to Harvard, 50 years after they gave him the boot
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 06:30 pm Lisa Rein from the Timothy Leary estate writes, Fifty years after being cut loose by Harvard for being too enthusiastic regarding the successful results of his experiments with psilocybin and LSD, the only complete collection of Timothy Leary's published works, including the papers of the original Harvard psychedelic research, has been acquired by the university ...
Read in browser Exclusive excerpt from The Walking Dead novel - The Road to Woodbury
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 14, 2012 06:14 pm Here's an exclusive excerpt from The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury, which is the sequel to The Walking Dead: Rise of The Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga. The zombie plague unleashes its horrors on the suburbs of Atlanta without warning, pitting the living against the dead. Caught in the mass exodus, Lilly ...
Read in browser Composite UK politicians
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 14, 2012 05:15 pm Shardcore sez, "I've built some generative politicians, they're nearly as hateful as the real thing... Their faces, and the words they speak are a blend of David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband. The text is generated from utterences made by the three Party Leaders in the House of Commons, harvested from Hansard via the ...
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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