A Thanksgiving Prayer by William S. Burroughs Texas student suspended for refusing RFID tracker Spacehawk: the complete collection of Basil Wolverton's space crusader Pacific island does not exist Bones boned Lazerwood wooden keyboard Social media gurus nailed in Onion parody YouTube briefly added to new Russian web blacklist Finnish police confiscate 9-y-o's laptop after she downloads a song from the Pirate Bay "Random" content tips for game devs Gold Christmas Tree Mystery of the deep-sea BLOOP solved Smells like freedom Barbie crashes and burns in China Counterfeiters counterfeit anti-counterfeiting notice Chevy Chase is off Community, effective immediately MakerBot opens a NYC store with a 3D photo booth Great kickstarter for 1970s interviews with notable people Expereal: iPhone app to rate/analyze your life via data visualization Gweek 076: I Want My Blackwing Dirt Candy Hacker steals entire nation's identity Apps for Kids podcast featured on NPR's Morning Edition Timothy Ferriss: Cheat Sheets for Everything Short film about Safecast, the hackerspace-created, crowdsource radioactivity monitoring project Fact-checking US patent-boss's defense of his job Fiona Apple cancels tour to care for dog Amanda Visell's handcarved Muppets Russian man reads longest word in English language Copyright troll tries to use TorrentFreak to intimidate victims, TorrentFreak changes the site to empower them to resist trolling Apps for Kids 33: DIY.org A Thanksgiving Prayer by William S. Burroughs
By David Pescovitz on Nov 22, 2012 12:00 pm We now bow our heads as Uncle Bill leads us in
A Thanksgiving Prayer.
Read in browser Texas student suspended for refusing RFID tracker
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 22, 2012 11:55 am A student in San Antonio, TX, has been suspended from school for refusing wear a RFID tracking device on privacy and religious grounds (she believes the tracker is somehow related to the "Mark of the Beast"). The school's funding is based on student attendance, so they use prisoner-style trackers to follow students' movements. A judge ...
Read in browser Spacehawk: the complete collection of Basil Wolverton's space crusader
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 22, 2012 11:51 am Spacehawk is Fantagraphics' recently published complete collection of Basil Wolverton's long-lost space-hero comics, published for a two-year run starting in 1940. In his introduction, Monte Wolverton (Basil's son) explains that Basil had always dreamed of having his own superhero book, and that Spacehawk was the realization of that dream. The character -- an 800 year ...
Read in browser Pacific island does not exist
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 22, 2012 09:23 am Sandy Island, a 20-mile strip of land in the Pacific between Australia and New Caledonia, easily found on Google Maps and many other charts, does not exist. The ocean at that point is in fact 4,620ft deep. That's what they're saying, anyway.
Read in browser Bones boned
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 22, 2012 09:13 am A woman was charged Wednesday with disturbing the peace of the dead after authorities found a full skeleton, a skull and a CD-ROM titled "My necrophilia" in a box in her home. [Reuters]
Read in browser Lazerwood wooden keyboard
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 22, 2012 09:07 am Wooden keyboards are usually too showy and incongruous for me, but Lazerwood's adhesive wooden key covers are a subtler option than, say, this. At $40 a set, they're not too pricey, either. They come in cherry or walnut, in sets for the U.S. Apple Extended Keyboard, Wireless Keyboard or the MacBook Pro. [via Uncrate]
Read in browser Social media gurus nailed in Onion parody
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 22, 2012 08:57 am "Social media eliminates the need to provide value to your clients."
Read in browser YouTube briefly added to new Russian web blacklist
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 22, 2012 08:52 am Not long after Russia's new kiddie porn internet blacklist went live, YouTube was added to it and blocked. Gabriela Baczynska writes, "Russian officials offered assurances they were not seeking to block access to YouTube on Wednesday, saying a technical error caused the popular video-sharing website to appear briefly on a register of sites containing banned ...
Read in browser Finnish police confiscate 9-y-o's laptop after she downloads a song from the Pirate Bay
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 22, 2012 08:50 am A nine-year-old Finnish girl's computer was confiscated by the police after she downloaded a track from the Pirate Bay. She was trying to preview the new album by Chisu (she later bought the album and went to the concert). The Finnish TTVK (Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre) demanded 600 Euros in summary fines from her ...
Read in browser "Random" content tips for game devs
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 22, 2012 08:47 am The Indie Games Weblog offers 5 tips for using procedurally-generated content--think fractals and L-systems--in game development.
Read in browser Gold Christmas Tree
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 22, 2012 08:42 am Reuters: The tree-like ornament is made of 88 pounds of pure gold, standing about 7.9 ft high ... It is decorated with pure gold plate silhouette cutouts of 50 popular Disney characters and draped with ribbons made of gold leaf. The price tag? A mere $4.2 million.
Read in browser Mystery of the deep-sea BLOOP solved
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 22, 2012 02:43 am Remember the deep-sea "bloop" noise that some people thought might be coming from a giant squid? Turns out it's an icequake. (Here's a WAV of it) The broad spectrum sounds recorded in the summer of 1997 are consistent with icequakes generated by large icebergs as they crack and fracture. NOAA hydrophones deployed in the Scotia ...
Read in browser Smells like freedom
By David Pescovitz on Nov 21, 2012 11:26 pm Photo by Jenn Shreve snapped at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon Inflation. (Thanks Koshi for the headline!)
Read in browser Barbie crashes and burns in China
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 21, 2012 11:25 pm The Chinese launch of Barbie has crashed and burned, after the multi-million-dollar Barbie flagship store in Shanghai's most fashionable district had to close its doors for lack of business after just two years. Here's Ken Voigt from CNN with an expert's postmortem: "Barbie spent a lot of money setting up a boutique in the most ...
Read in browser Counterfeiters counterfeit anti-counterfeiting notice
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 21, 2012 10:22 pm From MakerBot co-founder Zach Hoeken Smith's photos from Shenzhen, China, a counterfeit Mickey Mouse hat with a prominent anti-counterfeiting notice. (Thanks, Jeffrey!)
Read in browser Chevy Chase is off Community, effective immediately
By Jamie Frevele on Nov 21, 2012 10:10 pm While reports say that the decision was mutual, Chevy Chase has made a deal with NBC to leave Community and never come back. Chase had filmed the majority of the fourth season's episodes, but there is no word yet on how the absence of his character, Pierce Hawthorne, will be addressed. Everyone who enjoyed his ...
Read in browser MakerBot opens a NYC store with a 3D photo booth
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 21, 2012 09:19 pm MakerBot has just opened its first retail store on Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan -- a great neighborhood, by the way, and a perfect place for a 3D printing store. The store includes many wonderments, including a 3D photo booth, where you get your head scanned and then printed out. MakerBot and ShapeShot have joined ...
Read in browser Great kickstarter for 1970s interviews with notable people
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 21, 2012 08:41 pm This sounds amazing. But expensive! -- the box set costs $300, and the digital set of interviews cost $80. Between 1969–1972, Howard Smith recorded interviews with scores of rock stars and cultural icons. As a Village Voice columnist and radio personality on WPLJ FM, Smith sat down for revealing, personal conversations with Eric Clapton, Andy ...
Read in browser Expereal: iPhone app to rate/analyze your life via data visualization
By Jonathan Cohen on Nov 21, 2012 08:30 pm Expereal is a free iPhone app developed to help people better understand themselves, to feel even more connected to the world, and to, hopefully, make more informed decisions about their lives. The marketplace has social media platforms, physical measurement products and mood apps and sites, but nothing that simply helps answer the question: "How's my ...
Read in browser Gweek 076: I Want My Blackwing Dirt Candy
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 21, 2012 08:15 pm Discussion and reviews of comic books, science fiction novels, games, and apps
Read in browser Hacker steals entire nation's identity
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 21, 2012 08:15 pm A Greek hacker stole the personal data of about 9,000,000 Greek residents, which is approximately the same as the population of Greece itself. As Kevin at Lowering the Bar points out, this means that "If You're Greek, Someone Probably Just Stole Your Identity." Third, according to some reports, the files "appeared to include duplicate entries," ...
Read in browser Apps for Kids podcast featured on NPR's Morning Edition
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 21, 2012 07:53 pm My nine-year-old daughter Jane and I were interviewed about Apps for Kids on NPR's morning edition, which aired this morning. Thanksgiving is Thursday, and that means more than 43 million Americans will be on the road, driving to family gatherings. For many parents, the crowded roads can bring another challenge: Keeping a 9-year-old entertained along ...
Read in browser Timothy Ferriss: Cheat Sheets for Everything
By Advertiser on Nov 21, 2012 07:39 pm ADVERTISEMENT This post sponsored by Timothy Ferriss's The 4-Hour Chef: Timothy Ferriss's new book The 4-Hour Chef isn't just a cookbook. It's a choose-your-own-adventure guide to the world of rapid learning. Here's an excerpt: CHEAT SHEETS FOR EVERYTHING Any subject can be overwhelming. Magazines have to fill editorial space month after month with "new" recommendations ...
Read in browser Short film about Safecast, the hackerspace-created, crowdsource radioactivity monitoring project
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 21, 2012 07:37 pm Safecast is a global sensor network for collecting and sharing radiation measurements to empower people with data about their environments
Read in browser Fact-checking US patent-boss's defense of his job
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 21, 2012 07:09 pm This week, David Kappos, head of the US Patent and Trademark Office, gave a speech at the Center for American Progress where he dismissed critics of the patent system, telling them to "give it a rest already." He insisted that his office was doing a great job, and was the center of American innovation, citing ...
Read in browser Fiona Apple cancels tour to care for dog
By Jason Weisberger on Nov 21, 2012 06:07 pm Dogster has the full text of Fiona Apple's beautiful letter to her fans regarding her dog's illness and her inability to travel for the time being. "She's my best friend and my mother and my daughter, my benefactor, and she's the one who taught me what love is. I can't come to South America. Not ...
Read in browser Amanda Visell's handcarved Muppets
By David Pescovitz on Nov 21, 2012 05:13 pm Amanda Visell's new Muppet Show Wood Idols drive me wild!
Read in browser Russian man reads longest word in English language
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 21, 2012 05:03 pm Here's Dmitry Golubovskiy, CEO of Esquire Russia, reading the longest word in Englis. It's the chemical name for titin.
Read in browser Copyright troll tries to use TorrentFreak to intimidate victims, TorrentFreak changes the site to empower them to resist trolling
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 21, 2012 04:59 pm Prena Law, a notorious porno copyright troll sent out a blackmail letter to victims that included the URL of a TorrentFreak article describing one of the rare cases in which someone stood up to a troll and lost. TorrentFreak felt that this was misleading, and resented being used as part of a sleazy scheme, so ...
Read in browser Apps for Kids 33: DIY.org
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 21, 2012 04:52 pm We review DIY.org, an app and site for kids who want to make stuff and earn skills.
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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