The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. I do not think it means what you think it means... Better orgasms promised Long Live the Kings I'm coming to YOUR town* in February! Van Cafe at it again XNO's grotesque Jetsons Grand Canyon, the Google Street View version Journalists argue over which math equation killed Wall Street The Atlantic updates ad policy after Scientology flap Republican senator: "video games is a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people" 25 years of legal abortion in Canada Would you like to be a Marijuana Consultant? Mega file-sharing search engine launched World of Warcraft movie coming Dog finds whale vomit The Cave Singers - "Easy Way" (free MP3) Imagining a drone-proof city: an architectural proposal Steven Soderbergh has a new movie out, and he's on Twitter New York Times: we were hacked by China for last 4 months New Jersey, home of Hitler's toilet Google adds North Korean death-camps to maps TV made out of a grid of discarded remote controls Tentacle plunger Whitepaper on the 3D printing, patents, trademarks and copyrights In the shadow of the atom How science discovered the supertasters Extreme multi-purpose tarp -- great for casual Fridays How to Aeropress like a champ ISP blinkenlights synchronized to a sprightly piano Why put magnetic paint on ants?   I do not think it means what you think it means... By Jason Weisberger on Jan 31, 2013 12:39 pm Thanks, Dave Pasquesi! Read in browser Better orgasms promised By Rob Beschizza on Jan 31, 2013 12:20 pm "The University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is set to hold an event this spring designed to help its female undergraduate students achieve more and greater orgasms" Read in browser Long Live the Kings By Jason Weisberger on Jan 31, 2013 12:14 pm Long Live the Kings is a short film, shot entirely on 16mm film, that shares the joys and dreams of people who take motorcycle road trips. It is just beautiful. Read in browser I'm coming to YOUR town* in February! By Cory Doctorow on Jan 31, 2013 11:36 am Next Tuesday marks the publication of my latest YA novel, Homeland, and I'll be kicking off a month-long tour across the US on February 5 with a stop in Seattle, followed by Portland and San Francisco. From there, I swing to the southwest -- a region I've never toured! -- with stops in Salt Lake ... Read in browser Van Cafe at it again By Jason Weisberger on Jan 31, 2013 11:16 am Van Cafe packaging just rules! Back in December we shared photos of their Flaming Unicorn. Sir Sam, over on the Samba posted another beautifully decorated box of parts. This time the FSM and a VW emblazoned Squid. That said, my '87 Westy is now running again. Read in browser XNO's grotesque Jetsons By Cory Doctorow on Jan 31, 2013 10:25 am This grotesque-Jetsons illustration comes from the 1994 title Art? Alternatives Magazine. It's by XNO/Chet Darmstaedter, and there's also a dandy Flintstones/zombie illustration I've had a look at. (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) Read in browser Grand Canyon, the Google Street View version By Xeni Jardin on Jan 31, 2013 10:14 am A 360-degree view from the famous Bright Angel Trail. Street View imagery of the Grand Canyon is now available on Google Maps. Says a spokesperson, "Our team visited this spectacular national monument last October to collect the imagery, and after covering more than 75 miles of trails and surrounding roads, the panoramic views are now ... Read in browser Journalists argue over which math equation killed Wall Street By Xeni Jardin on Jan 31, 2013 10:05 am In the 2009 Wired mag article "Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street," writer Felix Salmon blames the Gaussian Copula Function for the financial meltdown in American markets. A SciAm article today by Chris Arnade argues that another equation is more to blame, and that it "requires nothing more than middle school algebra ... Read in browser The Atlantic updates ad policy after Scientology flap By Rob Beschizza on Jan 31, 2013 09:59 am After running Church of Scientology advertorial, The Atlantic has updated its advertising policy. They nail the problem, too. The Atlantic will refuse publication of such content that, in its own judgment, would undermine the intellectual integrity, authority, and character of our enterprise. After all, it was the advertiser, not the presentation, that most readers objected ... Read in browser Republican senator: "video games is a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people" By Rob Beschizza on Jan 31, 2013 08:54 am Kyle Orland, quoting Lamar Alexander, (R-TN) Speaking with NBC News' Chuck Todd this morning, Alexander responded to a question about universal background checks with this amazing non-sequitur: "I think video games is a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people. But the First Amendment limits what we can do about video games and ... Read in browser 25 years of legal abortion in Canada By Cory Doctorow on Jan 31, 2013 08:48 am On Torontoist, an appreciation of the 25th anniversary of R v Morgantaler, the court decision that made safe and legal abortion on demand the rule of the land in Canada: When police raided Henry Morgentaler's Harbord Street clinic in July, 1983, no doors were kicked in. "There was a policewoman and a policeman undercover who ... Read in browser Would you like to be a Marijuana Consultant? By Rob Beschizza on Jan 31, 2013 08:47 am Attention! The state of Washington requires a pot consultant with many years of experience in how cannabis is grown, dried, packaged and "cooked into brownies." It really is time we opened a job board for this stuff. Read in browser Mega file-sharing search engine launched By Rob Beschizza on Jan 31, 2013 08:41 am Mega Search is the first third-party index of Kim Dotcom's resurrected Mega file-sharing service. At Ars, Megan Geuss analyses the legal implications: 'Clearly, not all of this content is infringement (there are plenty of links to personal files and public domain items, Italian-language Agatha Christie books for example). But a quick glance at the front ... Read in browser World of Warcraft movie coming By Rob Beschizza on Jan 31, 2013 08:36 am Moon and Source Code director Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) is to direct a feature film version of World of Warcraft. Read in browser Dog finds whale vomit By Rob Beschizza on Jan 31, 2013 07:10 am Ambergris in Morecambe, England. [BBC] A man from Morecambe believes his dog has found a rare piece of whale vomit while walking on the beach. ... Mr Wilman said: "When I picked it up and smelled it I put it back down again and I thought 'urgh'. Read in browser The Cave Singers - "Easy Way" (free MP3) By Amy Seidenwurm on Jan 31, 2013 07:00 am Sound it Out # 41: The Cave Singers - "Easy Way "(MP3) I've gone on about my love for The Cave Singers here before. What's changed: They've added bassist & multi-instrumentalist Morgan Henderson (Blood Brothers, Fleet Foxes) and are now a 4-piece. The new record sounds lusher and includes some new sounds (background singers! reverb! flute solos!). ... Read in browser Imagining a drone-proof city: an architectural proposal By Xeni Jardin on Jan 31, 2013 01:31 am Sepoy at Chapati Mystery blog proposes an architecture for a drone-proof city in the Middle East: The idea for my final project, an architectural defense against drone warfare, came from the realization that law had no response to drone warfare. My own understanding of the ongoing [War on Terror pseudonym] as a civil rights issue ... Read in browser Steven Soderbergh has a new movie out, and he's on Twitter By Xeni Jardin on Jan 31, 2013 01:22 am I don't understand why I have to die but the scarlet medusa jellyfish doesn't. Although it does have to eat out of its own asshole.— Bitchuation (@Bitchuation) January 28, 2013 Director Steven Soderbergh has a new sci/psy thriller out next week: Side Effects, starring Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Psychiatrist Dr. ... Read in browser New York Times: we were hacked by China for last 4 months By Xeni Jardin on Jan 31, 2013 12:48 am The New York Times reported today that hackers inside China infiltrated its network over the course of at least four months. They obtained reporters' passwords, presumably to ID sources and gather intel on stories related to the family of China's prime minister. According to the Times exposé by Nicole Perlroth, the hackers first intruded on ... Read in browser New Jersey, home of Hitler's toilet By Xeni Jardin on Jan 31, 2013 12:37 am Hitler's toilet in Florence, N.J. (Photo: Hana Hawker/Tablet Magazine) In Tablet Magazine, a most unlikely profile of Greg Kohfeldt, who ended up acquiring a little something extra when he bought Sam Carlani's auto-repair shop in Florence, N.J. almost 20 years ago: a toilet that came off of Hitler's biggest private yacht, the Aviso Grille. Kohfeldt ... Read in browser Google adds North Korean death-camps to maps By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 10:42 pm Google Maps has added notorious, secretive North Korean prison camps to its maps of the country. The data is gleaned from user contributions, including a first-person account of Shin Dong-Hyuk, who escaped from Camp 14, a death camp where he was born and raised. Called Map Maker, Google's information for the country's layout comes primarily ... Read in browser TV made out of a grid of discarded remote controls By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 10:09 pm Artist Chris Shen made a TV out of 625 discarded remote controls, hacking their LEDs to light up in a grid, creating a low-rez moving image. Read in browser Tentacle plunger By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 09:36 pm From Art Lebedev studios, the "octopus" plunger, which creates the amusing illusion of a tentacled poop-monster's questing appendage reaching up out of the pan. Вантуз «Октопус» (via JWZ) Read in browser Whitepaper on the 3D printing, patents, trademarks and copyrights By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 08:04 pm Public Knowledge's Michael Weinberg, who wrote "It Will Be Awesome if They Don't Screw it Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology", a fantastic 2010 white-paper on copyright and 3D printing, has penned a followup. He sez, "As a follow up to It Will Be Awesome if They ... Read in browser In the shadow of the atom By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 30, 2013 07:21 pm For once, "shadow of the atom" is not just a poetic metaphor for the nuclear age. The black dot at the center of this image is, literally, the shadow cast by a single atom of ytterbium, magnified 6500 times. Via Discover magazine Read in browser How science discovered the supertasters By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 30, 2013 07:08 pm Supertasters are seemingly normal humans who have more bumps on their tongues — a difference that allows them to taste more intensely than average people and (as a side effect) to detect bitter flavors that most of us miss. And they were discovered by accident, when one scientists could taste the chemical dust released in ... Read in browser Extreme multi-purpose tarp -- great for casual Fridays By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 07:00 pm Finland's Varusteleka sells a multipurpose "Jerven Fjellduken" tarpaulin that you're meant to wear, sleep under, and sleep in. It makes you look like a well-camouflaged Nordic Nazgul. Jerven bag, those are almost words of power among hunters, outdoorsmen and soldiers the world over. Jerven has been making the Fjellduken since 1982, besides the obvious hunting ... Read in browser How to Aeropress like a champ By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 06:17 pm The winning recipes from the 2012 Aeropress championships give me the fear. Clearly I have not been paying enough attention to this. 17 grams of coffee (light roasted fresh crop washed Sidamo from Heart roasters) fine filter grind on a Mahlkönig Tanzania paper filter rinsed with hot water water from Maridalsvannet (brought in glass bottles ... Read in browser ISP blinkenlights synchronized to a sprightly piano By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 06:12 pm Here's a lovely video shot at the XS4ALL ISP data-center outside of Amsterdam, in which the many twinkling, blinking lights are synchronized to a sprightly piano score. Read in browser Why put magnetic paint on ants? By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 30, 2013 06:09 pm Messing with ants for fun (and scientific profit) 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 More to read:  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Sent by 2013 Boing Boing, CC. You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe immediately. Our mailing address is: Boing Boing 905 Wettach St Pittsburgh, Pa 15122 Add us to your address book  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. The Russians: "Human DNA can be changed and rearranged with spoken words and phrases" Three more Merchant Princes books due Introducing the 64GB 23GB Surface Pro Titanium multitool ring with five tools Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) interview streaming live tomorrow "I Give God 10%. Why Do You Get 18" TOM THE DANCING BUG: YOU Are a Computer Criminal! Blackberry Z10 reviewed Names for bands Child's "World War II evacuee" costume Makies custom 3D-printed toys, now in color! Apple launches new 128 GB iPad, in stores Feb. 5 Boeing knew of 787 Dreamliner's battery woes before jet crisis YouTube to launch paid subscriptions to video channels Watch the motorcycle marriage proposal that shut down a Los Angeles freeway Astronaut Chris Hadfield's otherworldly Earth landscapes, from space Color film of the Three Stooges from 1938 Chief game designer leaves Zynga Trailer for season 2 of Black Mirror, scariest/best sf on TV Stranger Than Science: "Astounding stories of strange events - all absolutely true!" Guide to this year's crop of 3D printers Portlandia just keeps getting better. Profess your love with a new Dodocase for his/her iPad Death Valley Dreamlapse at peak of 2012 Geminid meteor shower Brad Bird's new movie is called "Tomorrowland" California man who "sextorted" over 350 women online is arrested Insanely labor-intensive Gangnam Style flipbook animation video Kickstarting a free, open version of Livecode Knit scarf with a hidden TARDIS For sale: no-name Chinese attack drones   The Russians: "Human DNA can be changed and rearranged with spoken words and phrases" By Rob Beschizza on Jan 30, 2013 12:41 pm Telepathy, remote healing and Einstein-Rosen bridges: Our DNA stores data like a computer's memory system. Not only that, but our genetic code uses grammar rules and syntax in a way that closely mirrors human language! They also found that even the structuring of DNA-alkaline pairs follows a regular grammar and has set rules. It appears ... Read in browser Three more Merchant Princes books due By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 12:39 pm Here's a bit of good news: Charlie Stross has sold another trilogy in his fantastic Merchant Princes series, a highly original take on heroic fantasy, with the DHS and real-world economics thrown in for spice. " Read in browser Introducing the 64GB 23GB Surface Pro By Rob Beschizza on Jan 30, 2013 12:23 pm If Microsoft designed the world's greatest toaster, it would put full-bore Windows on it and call it the Oxidizing Thermodynamic Energy Transfer Platform for Bread Pro. CNET's Luke Westaway: Only a third of the available storage on Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet will be available to customers, with hefty software clogging up the upcoming tablet's hard ... Read in browser Titanium multitool ring with five tools By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 11:52 am Etsy seller boonerings has a $385 titanium "utility ring" with five in-built tools: "a working bottle opener, a straight blade perfect for cutting packing tape or fishing line, a serrated blade for tougher things like nylon strapping or those tough to open electronics heat sealed packages, a saw for cutting plastic and wood, and it ... Read in browser Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) interview streaming live tomorrow By David Pescovitz on Jan 30, 2013 11:50 am Tomorrow night, I'll be interviewing Peter Hook, the legendary bassist for Joy Division and New Order, live on stage at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Peter has a fascinating new memoir out titled Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division. As I previously posted, it's a well-written, deeply personal, informative, and quite witty story of ... Read in browser "I Give God 10%. Why Do You Get 18" By Rob Beschizza on Jan 30, 2013 11:49 am Gateflan posted this remarkable item to Reddit, where the hunt is on for the allegedly mean-spirited customer. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor. Haha, just kidding! Let them eat bibles. Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: YOU Are a Computer Criminal! By Ruben Bolling on Jan 30, 2013 11:30 am Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH you can receive helpful information about the fact that YOU are a computer criminal. Read in browser Blackberry Z10 reviewed By Rob Beschizza on Jan 30, 2013 11:20 am RIM's long-awaited Blackberry Z10 was revealed today. Reviews are up, too: "good enough to buy time" seems to be the general consensus. Joshua Topolsky : "The Z10 is a good smartphone. Frankly, it's a better smartphone than I expected from RIM at this stage in the game. It does everything a modern phone should do, ... Read in browser Names for bands By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 11:00 am Eric Andre offers the Internet-visiting public a compendium of up-for-grabs band names. Band names are the original Twitter: hyper-compressed witticisms meant to leap off a poster wheatpasted to a telephone pole and lodge in the mind forever. Here are some of my favorites from Eric's list: Jesus and the Christs Lionel Nitsche Polyamorous Brazilian Atheist ... Read in browser Child's "World War II evacuee" costume By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 09:48 am Here's a thing: a kid's WWII evacuee costume, including a little routing tag, which is just the thing if your kids want to cosplay the trauma of being separated from their parents, who might die in the Blitz. World War II Costume - Girls (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) Read in browser Makies custom 3D-printed toys, now in color! By Cory Doctorow on Jan 30, 2013 08:55 am Makies are the custom, 3D printed dolls that come from MakieLab, the company my wife Alice founded. The first couple revs of the doll were all bone white, due to limitations of the high-wearing, kid-safe plastics. But after a lot of R&D, the Makies have figured out how to do color, starting from today: Fantastic: ... Read in browser Apple launches new 128 GB iPad, in stores Feb. 5 By Xeni Jardin on Jan 30, 2013 12:06 am Apple announced a new update to its iPad line Tuesday: a 9.7-inch Retina iPad with 128 GB of storage, twice its previous maximum capacity. "Everything else about Apple's tablet is the same, including the dual-core A6X processor, 2 gigabtyes of RAM, and 10 hours of battery life," reports CNN. The 128 GB Wi-Fi model will ... Read in browser Boeing knew of 787 Dreamliner's battery woes before jet crisis By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 11:58 pm According to this NYT report, Boeing officials knew the lithium-ion batteries used on the 787 Dreamliners "had experienced multiple problems that raised questions about their reliability." Two battery failures led to the grounding of all Boeing 787 jets this month. Some of the issues could be compared to what happens if you leave your car ... Read in browser YouTube to launch paid subscriptions to video channels By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 11:42 pm Get ready for YouTube pay-per-view: the online video service is planning to launch paid subscriptions for individual channels on its video platform, reports AdAge. "The first paid channels will cost somewhere between $1 and $5 a month," and YouTube is also considering charging for "content libraries and access to live events, a la pay-per-view, as ... Read in browser Watch the motorcycle marriage proposal that shut down a Los Angeles freeway By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 11:36 pm Cyclists in Los Angeles effectively closed the 10 freeway in West Covina for about ten minutes on Sunday, as one of them proposed to his girlfriend in a cloud of pink smoke. Read in browser Astronaut Chris Hadfield's otherworldly Earth landscapes, from space By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 10:56 pm "Venezuelan valley framed by misty clouds - mysterious, beautiful and surreal."—Chris Hadfield As I've blogged before, Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield is currently living in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as Flight Engineer on Expedition 34 and he has been tweeting absolutely stunning photographs of Earth. Follow him on Twitter, for daily photo updates. ... Read in browser Color film of the Three Stooges from 1938 By Cory Doctorow on Jan 29, 2013 10:38 pm Amazing color footage from 1938. The Three Stooges at the Steel Pier, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Film by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann. Read in browser Chief game designer leaves Zynga By Rob Beschizza on Jan 29, 2013 08:52 pm Photo: Shutterstock Bloomberg, via @Cabel: Reynolds founded and led the Baltimore studio known as Zynga East, which produced the game "FrontierVille." Prior to Zynga, he earned acclaim as the lead designer of Sid Meier's "Civilization II," a strategy game developed by MicroProse Software Inc. Reynolds didn't respond to requests for comment. Zynga shares declined 8.5 ... Read in browser Trailer for season 2 of Black Mirror, scariest/best sf on TV By Cory Doctorow on Jan 29, 2013 08:35 pm Here's the trailer for the new season of Charlie Booker's Channel 4 science fiction series Black Mirror. Read in browser Stranger Than Science: "Astounding stories of strange events - all absolutely true!" By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 29, 2013 08:28 pm Yesterday I mentioned a book I'd read as a child called Strangely Enough, by C.B. Colby. It got me thinking about a similar book that I enjoyed as an 11-year-old called Stranger Than Science, by Frank Edwards. It was first published in 1960. I remembered that I still had a copy and found it in ... Read in browser Guide to this year's crop of 3D printers By Cory Doctorow on Jan 29, 2013 08:27 pm Brian sez, "At CES, someone told me that there are something like 15 consumer 3D printers on the market. Turns out that was a low-ball. Kits included, there are 24 in this roundup -- and that's not including some that didn't make the cut for a variety of reasons..." CES 2013 proved to be something ... Read in browser Portlandia just keeps getting better. By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 07:33 pm Portlandia's new season is just unbelievably, astonishingly good. Here are two standout clips from recent episodes: Nerds, and Fart Patio. Read in browser Profess your love with a new Dodocase for his/her iPad By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 07:13 pm San Francisco-based mobile device case company Dodocase has a handsome-lookin' iPad 2/3/4 case for Valentine's day. The "Vintage Love" DODOcase is handcrafted using traditional bookbinding techniques, and costs $ 84.90 (with optional personalization starting at an additional $ 9.95). More about the special edition case here. Read in browser Death Valley Dreamlapse at peak of 2012 Geminid meteor shower By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 07:01 pm A beautiful time-lapse of the starry, Gemenids meteor filled skies over Death Valley, California. Read in browser Brad Bird's new movie is called "Tomorrowland" By Cory Doctorow on Jan 29, 2013 07:00 pm A terse Disney press release announced yesterday that the new Brad Bird movie will be called "Tomorrowland," and star George Clooney. It's not clear what it'll be about, but I have hopes for something gloriously, Gerbackianally retrofuturistic. The Walt Disney Studios has announced that its live-action release previously known as 1952 will be titled Tomorrowland. ... Read in browser California man who "sextorted" over 350 women online is arrested By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 06:44 pm What, exactly, is "sextortion"? "It's a familiar script: boy chats up girl (or sometimes boy) online, hacks her or his e-mail, asks for or steals nude photos, and threatens the victim with the possibility of publicizing those photos, before eventually getting caught," Cyrus Farivar at Ars Technica writes. The latest online "sextortion" suspect has just ... Read in browser Insanely labor-intensive Gangnam Style flipbook animation video By Xeni Jardin on Jan 29, 2013 06:37 pm An incredibly labor-intensive animated flipbook version of PSY's "Gangnam Style." Read in browser Kickstarting a free, open version of Livecode By Cory Doctorow on Jan 29, 2013 05:34 pm The company behind Livecode has a Kickstarter up to create an open source version of Livecode with many improvements over the current closed version. Read in browser Knit scarf with a hidden TARDIS By Cory Doctorow on Jan 29, 2013 05:26 pm From Brilliant Knitwit's Tumblr, an optical illusion TARDIS scarf, knitted as a gift. From the front, it just appears to be a striped scarf; at the right angle, the hidden TARDIS heaves into view. Look at this scarf. Nothing here but stripes. Until you look at it from this angle…. (via Neatorama) Read in browser For sale: no-name Chinese attack drones By Cory Doctorow on Jan 29, 2013 04:24 pm Jeffrey sez, The algorithmic overlords of Alibaba are sending me astonishing stuff via their "suggested crapgadgets you might be interested in" hourly email. Wireless car key duplicators and GPS jammers came first. But today they have truly outdone themselves, suggesting that I might be interested in a "small attack UAV". Yes, you heard right. This ... 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 More to read:  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Sent by 2013 Boing Boing, CC. You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe immediately. Our mailing address is: Boing Boing 905 Wettach St Pittsburgh, Pa 15122 Add us to your address book  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences