Elementary school shooting in CT leaves "at least 20" dead We left the moon 40 years ago today. Will we ever return? Jimmy DiResta refurbishes an old hatchet Museum of Math opens in NYC The Web We Lost - Anil Dash on the social web's downside "Clouds," a song by 17-year-old osteosarcoma patient Zach Sobiech Copyright disappears books Mitch O'Connell's stupendously eldritch thrift store art collection The TSA is an irredeemable shitshow, part ten bazillion Obama on pot smoking in newly-legal CO and WA: "Bigger fish to fry" Job skills for the apocalypse Hawking, other scientists petition UK to pardon Alan Turing Death Star petition reaches 25,000 votes Elephants saved by vodka Pope sends first tweet, blesses hate monger Senate eyes "stalker" app ban Video: As The Pope Tweets Physical, sexual abuse documented at FL facility for autistic and brain-injured A Rule is to Break: A Child's Guide to Anarchy A letter from PKD after first seeing a TV preview of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" American Apparel style gift guide Global Voices and the Power of We: how global, collaborative, nonprofit journalism works Police want anarchists to remove files recovered from lost (cop?) thumb-drive Kids' soap opera, with a cameo by Nick Hornby: "Dead Ends" Super-high-end 5" Android phone from China's Oppo Woman smuggles 3lbs of cocaine in her breasts Sitegeist: mobile app mines public data to tell you about the spot you're standing in Using Kickstarter to fund an unthemed, all original horror anthology edited by legendary Ellen Datlow Carp with vintage car grilles for faces Class of 2013: artists whose work enters the public domain on Jan 1, 2013 Elementary school shooting in CT leaves "at least 20" dead
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 14, 2012 12:56 pm State police leading children away from shooting. Photo: Shannon Hicks, NewtownBee.com, December 14, 2012. More than 20 people have been killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. The number of dead is not yet clear, but at least 20 people have been shot. Most of the attack took place in a kindergarten ...
Read in browser We left the moon 40 years ago today. Will we ever return?
By Miles O'Brien on Dec 14, 2012 12:14 pm It was forty years today (at 22:54:37 UT) that human beings left the moon for the last time. Commander Gene Cernan's last words as stood on the moon were lofty, rehearsed and memorized:
"As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come (but we believe not too long into the future), I'd like to just say what I believe history will record: That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind."
Read in browser Jimmy DiResta refurbishes an old hatchet
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 14, 2012 12:13 pm Once every two weeks artist and craftsman Jimmy DiResta produces a new video for MAKE that shows his process of creating, fixing, or modifying something in his workshop. Instead of using music, Jimmy lets the sound of his power tools provide the soundtrack to his videos. Also, he rarely says anything in the videos. The ...
Read in browser Museum of Math opens in NYC
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 14, 2012 11:56 am Math is subject dreaded by many. A museum dedicated to math may seem counter-intuitive, but The New York Times has the story: The reason that there haven't been many math museums is that the enthusiasm the subject inspires is not easily communicated and not readily discovered. In the United States, where student math performance is ...
Read in browser The Web We Lost - Anil Dash on the social web's downside
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 14, 2012 11:50 am Anil Dash, in an insightful and resonant long-form post: "The tech industry and its press have treated the rise of billion-scale social networks and ubiquitous smartphone apps as an unadulterated win for regular people, a triumph of usability and empowerment. They seldom talk about what we've lost along the way in this transition, and I ...
Read in browser "Clouds," a song by 17-year-old osteosarcoma patient Zach Sobiech
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 14, 2012 11:33 am Zach Sobiech has advanced-stage osteosarcoma (bone cancer), with no known remaining treatment options. "Facing months to live, 17-year-old Zach is turning to music."
Read in browser Copyright disappears books
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 14, 2012 11:33 am Yesterday Cory shared this great piece on artists and authors whose work is re-entering the public domain. It reminded my friend Thom of this article in the Atlantic. A quick study showcases that copyright laws may have temporarily blanked out an entire period of American literature. The above chart shows a distribution of 2500 newly ...
Read in browser Mitch O'Connell's stupendously eldritch thrift store art collection
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 14, 2012 11:20 am Artist Mitch O'Connell says: Bad? Not really, I think they're so interesting and mesmerizing that I shelled out the big bucks (usually around $20) to have them hang on the walls of the M.O'C Manor. Btw, I've already willed everything to The Art Institute of Chicago, so don't waste your time throwing money at me ...
Read in browser The TSA is an irredeemable shitshow, part ten bazillion
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 14, 2012 11:16 am This time it's TSA at DFW, who detained a weeping 12-year-old girl with a genetic bone disorder in a wheelchair, separated from her family, on public display, for an hour. Her hands had tested positive for explosive residue, but it was a false alarm. No apologies from the TSA. Oh, and if she was the ...
Read in browser Obama on pot smoking in newly-legal CO and WA: "Bigger fish to fry"
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 14, 2012 11:07 am Photo: Shutterstock. "Young man eating leaves of hemp. Shoot in the field of marijuana." "We've got bigger fish to fry," Obama told ABC News' Barbara Walters, speaking about marijuana smokers in Colorado and Washington. In those two states, recreational use is now legal, but the DEA still has a hard-on for weed prohibition, as demonstrated ...
Read in browser Job skills for the apocalypse
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 14, 2012 10:51 am A Redditor asks the critical question, "What professions would be the most valuable in an apocalyptic world?", resulting in an entertaining thread. The tl;dr is "learn to fish, hunt and make tools"; Keytarists and SQL administrators concerned about the end of the world might consider night classes.
Read in browser Hawking, other scientists petition UK to pardon Alan Turing
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 14, 2012 10:47 am Alan Turing, heroic WWII code-breaker, was convicted of 'indecency' as a result of his homosexuality at a time when this was illegal in the United Kingdom. The government has apologized but never formally pardoned him. 11 leading UK scientists sent the government a letter seeking to change this. "In a letter to the Telegraph, Prof ...
Read in browser Death Star petition reaches 25,000 votes
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 14, 2012 10:38 am David Kravets: "A petition demanding the President Barack Obama administration build a Death Star like the one in Star Wars reached 25,000-plus signatures Thursday, a threshold requiring the government to respond whether it will build the fictional weapon capable of annihilating planets with its super laser." [Wired]
Read in browser Elephants saved by vodka
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 14, 2012 10:34 am In Russia, trainers served warm Vodka to freezing elephants to save them from encroaching cold. The animals were not intoxicated. [AP]
Read in browser Pope sends first tweet, blesses hate monger
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 14, 2012 10:32 am The New Civil Rights Movement reports on the Holy Roman Catholic Pope's first tweet and his blessing of a Ugandan politician promising to kill homosexuals for Christmas. Xeni shared video of the tweet earlier. "Pope Benedict XVI yesterday sent his first tweet from his new Twitter account, then turned around and blessed Rebecca Kadaga, the ...
Read in browser Senate eyes "stalker" app ban
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 14, 2012 10:32 am Joe Mullin: "If a bill being pushed by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) becomes law, mobile apps will have to ask a smartphone user's permission before they use any locational information." [Ars]
Read in browser Video: As The Pope Tweets
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 14, 2012 10:32 am The
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI sends
his very first tweet, on an iPad.
Read in browser Physical, sexual abuse documented at FL facility for autistic and brain-injured
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 14, 2012 10:18 am Investigative reports released under a court order to Bloomberg News show that caregivers at a Florida center for brain-injured and "non-neurotypical" adults physically and sexually abused patients, in a systematic and brutal manner. Caregivers "goaded them to fight each other and fondle female employees and in one instance laughed at complaints of mistreatment." At least ...
Read in browser A Rule is to Break: A Child's Guide to Anarchy
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 14, 2012 10:14 am A Rule Is To Break: A Child's Guide to Anarchy is a perfectly wonderful picture book about the spirit of anarchism and its utterly fitting dovetail with the joy of childhood. The book is full of excellent advice, wonderfully illustrated. Along with the pages reproduced in this post, there's such goodies as "Give stuff away ...
Read in browser A letter from PKD after first seeing a TV preview of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner"
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 14, 2012 10:06 am "Nothing that we have done, individually or collectively, matches BLADE RUNNER. This is not escapism; it is super realism, so gritty and detailed and authentic and goddam convincing that, well, after the segment I found my normal present-day "reality" pallid by comparison."—Philip K. Dick writing to Jeff Walker at the Ladd Company, after watching a ...
Read in browser American Apparel style gift guide
By Advertiser on Dec 14, 2012 10:00 am ADVERTISEMENT This post sponsored by American Apparel: Seeking stylish gifts for the happy mutants in your life? American Apparel has moved way, WAY beyond t-shirts and hoodies. Here's a fine selection of sweatshop-free items from the USA's most colorful and comfortable vertically-integrated manufacturer, along with some classic products from other iconic brands: • Casio Batteryless ...
Read in browser Global Voices and the Power of We: how global, collaborative, nonprofit journalism works
By Xeni Jardin on Dec 14, 2012 09:57 am There's an awesome explainer/infographic post at Global Voices that breaks down "how the 700-plus members of our diverse, global and entirely virtual community pull together stories." Each day, section leaders, editors and volunteer authors and translators "work together across borders, time zones and language barriers to amplify the best of citizen and social media, report on ...
Read in browser Police want anarchists to remove files recovered from lost (cop?) thumb-drive
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 14, 2012 09:16 am Someone (a newspaper report claims it was Mo Karn, an anarchist activist) found a thumb-drive full of Richmond, VA police data near a trashcan. Someone posted those files on the Internet and Karn linked to them from her collective's website. Now the Richmond police are suing to get her to remove the links, and to ...
Read in browser Kids' soap opera, with a cameo by Nick Hornby: "Dead Ends"
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 14, 2012 12:07 am Best-selling author Nick Hornby has a cameo role in a new soap opera, written by young people at the creative writing centre he co-founded in Hackney.
Read in browser Super-high-end 5" Android phone from China's Oppo
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 13, 2012 11:14 pm A high-end Chinese electronics company called Oppo has announced a super-deluxe, $500 5-inch Android phone called the Find 5, with some amazing specs: As the name suggests, the Find 5 has a 5-inch display with a 1080p display, something we saw on the impressive HTC Droid DNA. Inside of the Find 5′s sharply designed chassis, ...
Read in browser Woman smuggles 3lbs of cocaine in her breasts
By Jason Weisberger on Dec 13, 2012 11:05 pm Digital Journal has the story. "Wednesday, Spanish border police who arrested a Panamanian woman for smuggling cocaine at the Barcelona airport found 3 pounds of cocaine in her breasts." (Thanks, Leo!)
Read in browser Sitegeist: mobile app mines public data to tell you about the spot you're standing in
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 13, 2012 10:23 pm Nicko sez, "Sitegeist is a free Android and iPhone app from the Sunlight Foundation that helps you to learn more about your surroundings in seconds. Sitegeist takes public data about the people, housing, history, environment and things to do for any U.S. location and presents it in easy-to-view infographics. Just scroll and swipe your way ...
Read in browser Using Kickstarter to fund an unthemed, all original horror anthology edited by legendary Ellen Datlow
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 13, 2012 09:10 pm Bret sez, "Ellen Datlow is using Kickstarter to fund an unthemed, all original anthology of terror and supernatural fiction called Fearful Symmetries for Toronto-based ChiZine Publications. Ellen has won multiple World Fantasy, Locus, Hugo, Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, and Shirley Jackson Awards for her editing, and was recently honored with the Life Achievement Award ...
Read in browser Carp with vintage car grilles for faces
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 13, 2012 08:20 pm Bernardo sends us his "Unique sculptural mashup of beautiful Chinese Goldfish and Fabulous American 50's cars as produced by Bernardo. Each piece is handmade and hand painted by the artist." Carp! by Bernardo (Thanks, Bernardo!)
Read in browser Class of 2013: artists whose work enters the public domain on Jan 1, 2013
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 13, 2012 06:59 pm Adam from Public Domain Review writes, "The Public Domain Review (a site dedicated to showcasing the most interesting public domain material online) have done a special post on their top pick of artists and writers whose works will, on 1st January 2013, be entering the public domain in those countries with a 'life plus 70 ...
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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