Petition asking MIT to apologize for pursuing Aaron Swartz; hackerspaces contributing to projects Aaron worked on In small midwest US towns, the fracking boom leads to a fracking boom, if you catch my drift Ohio: former school teacher sues because she has a phobia of children Indonesia: Social media outrage after aspiring judge says rape victims "enjoy it" Greenwald: Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann must be held accountable for prosecutorial abuse in Aaron Swartz case TOM THE DANCING BUG: Why is "Zero Dark Thirty" being unfairly singled out? Millions of mental health records missing from national gun sales database Venezuela: Man murders mom in sacrifice for health of Hugo Chavez Bigelow: "I'm a pacifist," so your "Zero Dark Thirty" criticisms are invalid Alleged chess cheat can't be beat Cheesecake Factory has 3,120 calorie dish "Aaron's Law" introduced, would change computer law so violating Terms of Service isn't a felony Meet Zack Kopplin, the 19-year-old who started winning battles against teaching creationism in Louisiana public schools when he was 14 Must-read report on maker-driven education Time's running out for comments on UK Parliamentary consultation on open science publishing Housing superintendent gets 6 years for sex with tenant's dog Welcome to Portlandia, John McAfee Cuteness break: Hey, how's that baby panda at the San Diego Zoo doing? During Bahrain's bloody crackdown, America continued selling Arms Is Scientology Self-Destructing? Did Syria drop hallucinogens on rebels? Towards Learning from Losing Aaron Swartz Aaron's Law Judge to AFP and WaPo: No, tweeted photos aren't just yours for the taking Woman with acromegaly dies at 34 A very special Onion advertorial, inspired by the Atlantic's Scientology kerfuffle Remixable video of Norway's four seasons from a train Japan Airlines and ANA to ground 787 Dreamliners. More like BadDreamliners amirite? Bowling Solitaire: a smarter solitaire game Tim Wu: what if we'd treated Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak the way we treated Aaron Swartz? Petition asking MIT to apologize for pursuing Aaron Swartz; hackerspaces contributing to projects Aaron worked on
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 16, 2013 12:04 pm Noah Swartz (brother of Aaron) writes, "The MIT society for open science has made a petition asking for an apology from MIT: (we understand that there is an investigation, but the thought process is to put more pressure on the institution) A number of hackerspaces are going to work on projects that Aaron worked on ...
Read in browser In small midwest US towns, the fracking boom leads to a fracking boom, if you catch my drift
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 16, 2013 11:33 am In the NYT today, a feature by John Eligon about Williston, North Dakota, a new fuel boom town situated atop rich shale oil formations. Migrant laboring men come here from all over, in search of jobs. And, sex. A growing number of female locals complain of sexual assault, and the sense that they are now ...
Read in browser Ohio: former school teacher sues because she has a phobia of children
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 16, 2013 11:29 am Maria Waltherr-Willard, 61, is a former high school teacher. In a lawsuit filed in Ohio, she accuses school district administrators of discriminating against her because of her rare phobia, which causes her to irrationally fear young children. Oops. (AP)
Read in browser Indonesia: Social media outrage after aspiring judge says rape victims "enjoy it"
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 16, 2013 11:24 am Responding to a question in his confirmation hearings about whether the death penalty should be applied to rapists, Indonesian Supreme Court candidate Daming Sanusi reportedly said, "Consideration needs to be taken thoroughly for the imposition of death penalty for a rapist because in a rape case both the rapist and the victim enjoy it." This ...
Read in browser Greenwald: Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann must be held accountable for prosecutorial abuse in Aaron Swartz case
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 16, 2013 11:18 am "As more facts emerge regarding the conduct of the federal prosecutors in the case of Aaron Swartz - Massachusetts' US attorney Carmen Ortiz and assistant US attorney Stephen Heymann," writes Glenn Greenwald, "There is greater and greater momentum for real investigations, accountability and reform. It is urgent that this opportunity not be squandered, that this ...
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Why is "Zero Dark Thirty" being unfairly singled out?
By Ruben Bolling on Jan 16, 2013 11:15 am Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Zero Dark Thirty's depiction of torture as an effective means of gathering information is defended.
Read in browser Millions of mental health records missing from national gun sales database
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 16, 2013 11:14 am The WSJ reports that "millions of mental-health records remain missing from the national database that gun dealers use to run background checks on potential buyers," according to new analysis of the federal data by a coalition of U.S. mayors. In the US, people who have been declared mentally unfit are not allowed to purchase guns.
Read in browser Venezuela: Man murders mom in sacrifice for health of Hugo Chavez
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 16, 2013 11:05 am A man in Venezuela "sacrificed" his mom in a brutal murder, as a spiritual offering for the health of President Hugo Chavez, who has advanced cancer. He hit his mother, who was 80; then he severed her hands and arms, and finally, burned her corpse.
Read in browser Bigelow: "I'm a pacifist," so your "Zero Dark Thirty" criticisms are invalid
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 16, 2013 11:02 am Kathryn Bigelow: 'Zero Dark Thirty' torture criticism is invalid, because "I'm a pacifist." The problem isn't so much that torture scenes existed; but that their presence in a faux-documentary made the case that real-world use of torture was justified. Argo helmer Ben Affleck has an opinion. (latimes.com)
Read in browser Alleged chess cheat can't be beat
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 16, 2013 11:02 am Is it possible for someone's chess ability to leap, suddenly, from mundane mastership to world-beating? Many are convinced that Bulgarian player Ivanov Borislav is cheating—but they cannot figure out how. They can, however, figure out which computer program makes the same moves.
Read in browser Cheesecake Factory has 3,120 calorie dish
By Rob Beschizza on Jan 16, 2013 10:39 am The Center for Science in the Public Interest's annual list of "food porn"--items that have more calories in them than one might expect--identifies Cheesecake Factory's Bistro Shrimp Pasta as a particularly bad offender. "It's like eating three orders of Olive Garden's Lasagna Classico plus an order of tiramisu for dinner," CSPI said. Some in the ...
Read in browser "Aaron's Law" introduced, would change computer law so violating Terms of Service isn't a felony
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 16, 2013 10:05 am Aaron Swartz killed himself two years to the day after he was charged with violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a controversial legislation that some courts have interpreted as making it a felony to do anything not explicitly authorized with a computer you don't own (for example, changing one character in a URL in ...
Read in browser Meet Zack Kopplin, the 19-year-old who started winning battles against teaching creationism in Louisiana public schools when he was 14
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 16, 2013 09:51 am IO9 profiles Zack Kopplin, a 19-year-old, five-year veteran of the fight against teaching creationism in Louisiana's science classes. Kopplin was a student when the a law came into effect allowing teachers to bring creationist material to class, and he took up the cause, winning a battle that prevented the exclusion of evolution from Louisiana science ...
Read in browser Must-read report on maker-driven education
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 16, 2013 08:40 am Mimi sez, A new research report released by the Connected Learning Research Network is a call for educators, parents, youth, media-makers, geeks, creatives and intellectuals everywhere to work together to make the learning riches of the online world accessible to everyone. The researchers provide evidence of the importance of making, tinkering, exploration, collaboration, and problem-solving ...
Read in browser Time's running out for comments on UK Parliamentary consultation on open science publishing
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 16, 2013 01:02 am David sez, "Last September, the UK parliament earmarked £10 Million pounds from the science budget to support open access scientific publishing. Earlier this week, the UK parliament announced that they are seeking feedback on this policy, including 'how the Government should address the concerns raised by the scientific and publishing communities about the policy'. The ...
Read in browser Housing superintendent gets 6 years for sex with tenant's dog
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 16, 2013 12:00 am The superintendent at a housing complex in suburban New York will go to prison for 6.5 years for "entering a tenant's apartment and having sex with a Labrador retriever." (NY Post)
Read in browser Welcome to Portlandia, John McAfee
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 11:52 pm "My life is sort of weird. I don't back off from things."—John McAfee, the newest weird resident of Portlandia. The software millionaire is on the run from police in Belize, and says he plans on staying in the Oregon town for "a few years." A local TV news station caught up with him for an ...
Read in browser Cuteness break: Hey, how's that baby panda at the San Diego Zoo doing?
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 11:48 pm Ken Bohn / San Diego Zoo The Los Angeles Times has a cute photo slideshow up with fresh shots of Xiao Liwu, the 5 1/2-month-old male panda at the San Diego Zoo, who has been receiving some health check-ups recently. The little guy was born at the zoo, and has been "on display" since last ...
Read in browser During Bahrain's bloody crackdown, America continued selling Arms
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 11:36 pm Even during and after Bahrain's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the U.S. "continued to provide weapons and maintenance to the small Mideast nation," Defense Department documents released to ProPublica reveal. "The list includes ammunition, combat vehicle parts, communications equipment, Blackhawk helicopters, and an unidentified missile system."
Read in browser Is Scientology Self-Destructing?
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 11:22 pm "Scientology leader David Miscavige has been trumpeting his church's 'milestone year,' but the mysterious religion is alienating scores of its most faithful followers with what they call a real estate scam. With anger mounting and defectors fleeing, this may be more than a fleeting crisis; it may be a symptom of an institution in decline."—Alex ...
Read in browser Did Syria drop hallucinogens on rebels?
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 10:58 pm "Something horrible happened in Homs on December 23. Exactly what that horrible event was still isn't clear," writes Noah Shachtman at Danger Room. There is some speculation today that Syria dropped the hallucinogenic chemical weapon 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate or BZ on rebels.
Read in browser Towards Learning from Losing Aaron Swartz
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 10:53 pm Jennifer Granick: "Towards Learning from Losing Aaron Swartz." Over the weekend, I learned that Aaron Swartz had taken his own life. I cried, and am still crying, for him, his family, for the close friends who loved him, and for our community. We lost a rare and special person, one who did so much in ...
Read in browser Aaron's Law
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 10:52 pm "We should prevent what happened to Aaron from happening to other Internet users," Rep. Zoe Lofgren announced today on Reddit. "I'm introducing 'Aaron's Law' to change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)."
Read in browser Judge to AFP and WaPo: No, tweeted photos aren't just yours for the taking
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 10:49 pm A US judge has ruled that Agence France-Presse and The Washington Post improperly used photographs that journalist Daniel Morel tweeted in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in January 2010. AFP argued the pictures were freely available because they were on Twitter. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan said Twitter's terms of service doesn't just ...
Read in browser Woman with acromegaly dies at 34
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 10:44 pm Tanya Angus, 34, was 7 feet 2 inches tall and weighed about 400 pounds. She had "gigantism." The Las Vegas woman who couldn't stop growing has died.
Read in browser A very special Onion advertorial, inspired by the Atlantic's Scientology kerfuffle
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 10:43 pm "SPONSORED: The Taliban Is A Vibrant And Thriving Political Movement." An Advertorial at The Onion.
Read in browser Remixable video of Norway's four seasons from a train
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 15, 2013 10:40 pm e filmed a train ride four times. One time for each season; winter, spring, summer and autumn.
Read in browser Japan Airlines and ANA to ground 787 Dreamliners. More like BadDreamliners amirite?
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 15, 2013 10:30 pm Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways today announced plans to ground their entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, after yet another one of the planes made an emergency landing in Japan on Wednesday local time.
Read in browser Bowling Solitaire: a smarter solitaire game
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 15, 2013 10:26 pm On Play This Thing, Sebastian Sohn writes about Bowling Solitaire, a "smarter solitaire" invented by Eurogame design legend Sid Sackson in the 1970s: The late Sid Sackson, a pioneer game designer, was making Eurogames before they were called Eurogames. He created Bowling Solitaire, a modern, intelligent Solitaire. Sackson did what Reiner Kniza does today, creating ...
Read in browser Tim Wu: what if we'd treated Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak the way we treated Aaron Swartz?
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 15, 2013 08:47 pm Tim Wu, Columbia law professor and technology law expert, has a very well-written piece in the New Yorker describing the point-scoring culture of America's prosecutors and its incompatibility with the kind of eccentric genius that America has always boasted about: The act was harmless—not in the sense of hypothetical damages or the circular logic of ...
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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