RIP, Aaron Swartz White House quotes Vader Autobiographical D&D maps kickstarter: TWO HOURS TO GO! Woody Allen figurine from Bigshot Toyworks Sunset, Muir Beach R2D2 and Walking Dead surfboards spotted at Surf Expo One rescue puppy teaching another rescue puppy how to walk down stairs Judge rejects secret "no-fly" evidence barring ex-Stanford student from returning to US "Some future gadgets I'd buy," aka Brian Lam's only post from CES TSA again weighs possibility of using commercial data to profile air travelers Mexico: Protesters rally for release of 50 stray dogs blamed for human attacks Struggle for Catan: cutthroat card game for family fun/fights Mars needs seitan Drone strikes for dummies Second Twitter user in Kuwait gets multiple years in jail for insulting Emir China's health aid in Africa leads to flood of fake drugs Death of a Prisoner: short documentary by Laura Poitras on Guantánamo detainee Adnan Latif Hawk snatches released mouse Talking porcupine knows how to party: corn, champagne, unintelligible grunting Tarantino to interviewer: "I'm not your slave and you're not my master" Seven steps to learning to love US torture and detention policies, via "Zero Dark Thirty" Hunter Thompson's daily routine Top UK entertainer sexually abused hundreds, mostly children A fun thing to do at CES: wrap orange goo around your finger and whack it with a mallet Man vs. duck (or a bunch of little horses) Andy Warhol reveals the most exciting thing he's ever seen in his whole life Magic Castle on the Today Show RIP, Aaron Swartz
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 12, 2013 07:53 am This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. My friend Aaron Swartz committed suicide yesterday, Jan 11. He was 26. I got woken up with the news about an hour ago. I'm still digesting it -- I suspect I'll be digesting it for a long time -- but I thought it ...
Read in browser White House quotes Vader
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 11, 2013 10:03 pm Responding to a successful petition requesting the construction of a Death Star, the White House responds with "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For", an explanation of the station's formidable construction costs and poor bang-for-the-buck: "Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to ...
Read in browser Autobiographical D&D maps kickstarter: TWO HOURS TO GO!
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 11, 2013 09:42 pm You've got TWO HOURS to get in on Jeffrey Beebe's Kickstarter to produce limited edition prints of his maps of Refactoria, an autobiographical D&D style kingdom.
Read in browser Woody Allen figurine from Bigshot Toyworks
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 11, 2013 08:10 pm I'm bananas for this Woody Allen figurine from Bigshot Toyworks. Klim Kozinevich says: Here is a quick peek at something new. We were working with the amazing Stan Chow on this limited edition Woody Allen figure. Sculpted Digitally, printed on an Objet 3D printer, hand molded, cast, and painted. I think it turned out swell. ...
Read in browser Sunset, Muir Beach
By Jason Weisberger on Jan 11, 2013 06:35 pm January 8, 2013
Read in browser R2D2 and Walking Dead surfboards spotted at Surf Expo
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 06:07 pm My 17yo niece Katie Graef cruised the halls of the 2013 Surf Expo in Florida this week, and spotted two particularly Boing-y items: Above and below, boards shaped by Ricky Carroll and airbrushed by Josh DelRocco, of rickycarrollsurfboards.com. R2D2 and The Walking Dead. Oh, and Katie also spotted a bulldog on a skateboard. Photos: Katie ...
Read in browser One rescue puppy teaching another rescue puppy how to walk down stairs
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 06:06 pm An 8-week old foster puppy gets some training from a 6-month old foster puppy pal.
Read in browser Judge rejects secret "no-fly" evidence barring ex-Stanford student from returning to US
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 05:55 pm The SF Chronicle reports that a federal judge in San Francisco has "indignantly rejected" the Obama administration's attempt to use secret evidence to thwart the efforts of a former Stanford student to understand why she's apparently on a secret "no-fly" list. The government must stop its "persistent and stubborn refusal" to follow the law, U.S. District ...
Read in browser "Some future gadgets I'd buy," aka Brian Lam's only post from CES
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 05:47 pm Former Gizmodo gadget writer and chief editorial whip-cracker Brian Lam has covered many a CES in his time; since leaving Gawker media for ocean adventures and his Wirecutter electronics blog, I think his work has become much more interesting. He revisited CES this year, and produced exactly one post from it, highlighting interesting stuff he ...
Read in browser TSA again weighs possibility of using commercial data to profile air travelers
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 05:25 pm The ACLU points to the TSA's recently-issued "Market Research Announcement," "in which the agency expresses a desire to expand its Pre-Check whitelist program by allowing private companies to carry out risk analysis of Americans that would determine whether they are 'trusted' enough to participate in the trusted traveler program." If this comes to pass, it ...
Read in browser Mexico: Protesters rally for release of 50 stray dogs blamed for human attacks
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 05:17 pm "Free the dogs, arrest the criminals!," shouted protesters in Mexico City today—they say the 50-or-so feral dogs captured after five recent human deaths in a local park are innocent. Officials are testing the animals for human DNA, after human bodies including a baby were found with dog bites. Protesters believe humans killed them, and that ...
Read in browser Struggle for Catan: cutthroat card game for family fun/fights
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 11, 2013 04:57 pm A couple of weeks ago my family started playing the card game Anomia. We are enjoying our gaming nights so much that we started playing a new card game called The Struggle for Catan. It's similar to the Settlers of Catan, except there's no board, and no pieces to accidentally knock around (which is my ...
Read in browser Mars needs seitan
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 11, 2013 04:55 pm There will be no bacon on Elon Musk's Mars. UPDATE:Elon Musk would like you to know that he is not trying to be the Emperor of Mars and has no authority to ban meat there. (Thanks Carl Franzen!)
Read in browser Drone strikes for dummies
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 04:07 pm At ProPublica, Cora Currier has a useful and straightforward explainer piece up, outlining Everything We Know So Far About [US] Drone Strikes.
Read in browser Second Twitter user in Kuwait gets multiple years in jail for insulting Emir
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 03:49 pm Global Voices: "Seven months after the sentencing a Twitter user to five years in jail for defaming the Emir of Kuwait, another Twitter user Ayyad Al-Harbi was sentenced this Monday to two years in jail for the same charge.
Read in browser China's health aid in Africa leads to flood of fake drugs
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 03:45 pm At The Pulitzer Center website, a feature on the work of investigative journalist Kathleen E. McLaughlin, an American reporter working in Africa whose current work focuses on how China's health programs, hospitals and medical teams in Africa affect the health landscape. While they do "provide access to life-saving drugs, vaccines and medical care," supply chain ...
Read in browser Death of a Prisoner: short documentary by Laura Poitras on Guantánamo detainee Adnan Latif
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 03:31 pm Filmmaker Laura Poitras follows the tragic return home to Yemen of a Guantánamo Bay prison detainee, Adnan Latif.
Read in browser Hawk snatches released mouse
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 02:37 pm Spoiler alert: "Whiskers" dies.
Read in browser Talking porcupine knows how to party: corn, champagne, unintelligible grunting
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 02:29 pm "I think Teddy's had a happy new year," observes his handler.
Read in browser Tarantino to interviewer: "I'm not your slave and you're not my master"
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 02:08 pm During an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy of UK's Channel Four News about his new slavesploitation film, Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino said something really unfortunate. Face, meet palm. (HT: @ned_vizzini)
Read in browser Seven steps to learning to love US torture and detention policies, via "Zero Dark Thirty"
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 11, 2013 01:57 pm A waterboarding scene from the film "Zero Dark Thirty." Karen J. Greenberg, executive director of the New York University Center on Law and Security and author of The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First One Hundred Days, explains seven simple steps to making US torture and detention policies once again acceptable to the American public, as ...
Read in browser Hunter Thompson's daily routine
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 11, 2013 01:53 pm I hope those onion rings weren't fried in transfat! From Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson, by E. Jean Carroll. (Via World's Best Ever)
Read in browser Top UK entertainer sexually abused hundreds, mostly children
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 11, 2013 01:40 pm A long-awaited investigation of top UK entertainer Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011, reveals that he sexually assaulted hundreds at BBC premises and at hospitals where he performed charity work. The victims were mostly children. Savile, one of Britain's biggest TV stars in the 1970s and 1980s, abused youngsters at 13 hospitals where he did ...
Read in browser A fun thing to do at CES: wrap orange goo around your finger and whack it with a mallet
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 11, 2013 01:22 pm Popular Science visits a goo hawker at CES 2012. (Via Salon)
Read in browser Man vs. duck (or a bunch of little horses)
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 11, 2013 01:21 pm Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? President Obama refused to address this pressing question. But science has the answer. (Via Tim Maly and kottke)
Read in browser Andy Warhol reveals the most exciting thing he's ever seen in his whole life
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 11, 2013 01:05 pm "It's the best I've ever seen in my whole life. The most exciting thing." (Via Worlds' Best Ever)
Read in browser Magic Castle on the Today Show
By Jason Weisberger on Jan 11, 2013 01:02 pm The Magic Castle is celebrating its 50th birthday. It is one of my favorite places on earth.
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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