Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

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LAPD hunting Dorner shot at innocent guy in second mistaken identity incident
Instagramming the 2013 nor'east blizzard
Leaks are vital to democracy, drones controversy shows
Charlie Sheen to ex-cop fugitive killer Dorner: Call me maybe
"Knock knock." Who's there? "Snow."
Cory in Tempe, AZ today on the Homeland tour!
Air-powered 3D-printed robot tentacle
DHS watchdog: DHS can search all your devices within 100 mi of US border
Isaac Asimov's face used to shill in sleazy ad
Toddler sad because snow: the viral snowpocalypse crying baby photo
Huge black cat graffiti
Very enthusiastic child steals meteorologist's show on local TV news storm forecast
Gary Busey explains Hobbits
Instructables based on Little Brother and Homeland
Copying is Not Theft, the Barbershop edition
Insect Inspector leather mask
Crab misunderstands name of event
Star Wars easter-egg hidden in a traceroute

 

LAPD hunting Dorner shot at innocent guy in second mistaken identity incident

By Xeni Jardin on Feb 10, 2013 12:55 pm

Los Angeles police looking for ex-cop and multiple homicide suspect Christopher Jordan Dorner have opened fire in a second mistaken identity incident, this time shooting at an innocent guy who was just trying to sneak in some surfing before he went to work. David Perdue is white, the two newspaper delivery ladies the LAPD mistakenly ...
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Instagramming the 2013 nor'east blizzard

By Xeni Jardin on Feb 10, 2013 12:46 pm

The New York Times found a bunch of good snowpocalypse photos on instagram, so you don't have to trudge through the snow to find them.
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Leaks are vital to democracy, drones controversy shows

By Xeni Jardin on Feb 10, 2013 12:41 pm

Trevor Timm at the The Freedom of the Press Foundation blog writes: "This week, Congress finally started a substantive debate on the role of drones in US foreign policy, and more importantly, the Obama administration's secret legal rationale for why it believes it can kill American citizens overseas with no due process. But why is ...
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Charlie Sheen to ex-cop fugitive killer Dorner: Call me maybe

By Xeni Jardin on Feb 10, 2013 11:56 am

Noted crazyperson Charlie Sheen was noted in the online manifesto of noted crazyperson Christopher Dorner. "Charlie Sheen, you're effin awesome," Dorner wrote. The former police officer who threatened to "wage war" on the LAPD and is wanted for multiple murders, also praised Michelle Obama, Anthony Bourdain, and other celebrities in his manifesto. Now, Sheen has ...
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"Knock knock." Who's there? "Snow."

By Xeni Jardin on Feb 10, 2013 11:43 am

Josh Fitzpatrick, meteorologist with WSAZ TV, posts this photo (don't know who took it), with this factoid: "The deepest snow with the #blizzard of 2013 was 40" inches at Trumbull, CT! 7' foot drifts. " Here's another shot.
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Cory in Tempe, AZ today on the Homeland tour!

By Cory Doctorow on Feb 10, 2013 11:24 am

I'm heading to Tempe, AZ today for a 2PM appearance at Changing Hands Bookstore on my tour for Homeland, the sequel to Little Brother. Next I'll be in NYC for the Tools of Change publishing conference, then in Cincinnati for a romantic Feb 14 presentation at Joseph-Beth Booksellers at 7PM. There's plenty more stops on ...
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Air-powered 3D-printed robot tentacle

By Cory Doctorow on Feb 10, 2013 09:12 am

Matthew Borgatti has built a air-powered, 3D-printed robot tentacle that waves in a friendly fashion and lends a helping hand.
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DHS watchdog: DHS can search all your devices within 100 mi of US border

By Cory Doctorow on Feb 09, 2013 10:48 pm

The DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties -- a watchdog that's supposed to keep the DHS in check -- has concluded that it's fine for the DHS to stop anyone within 100 miles of the US border, without any suspicion or warrant, and search all the data on all their devices. But they ...
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Isaac Asimov's face used to shill in sleazy ad

By Cory Doctorow on Feb 09, 2013 08:44 pm

Scott Edelman sez, "I was surprised to spot Isaac Asimov's head bouncing around this morning in an ad for Pimsleur Approach. I don't recall him ever writing anything on that subject, or hearing him pontificate on it, and a Google search only turns up a single reference that connects the two -- and that's for ...
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Toddler sad because snow: the viral snowpocalypse crying baby photo

By Xeni Jardin on Feb 09, 2013 08:31 pm

News networks are scrambling to "curate" the best blizzard photos and Nemo videos and blurry vines from "citizen journalists," but here's the only crowdsourced analysis of #zomgsupersnowstormpocalypse2013 you really need. That's @jeremy_boston's adorable little girl.
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Huge black cat graffiti

By David Pescovitz on Feb 09, 2013 07:31 pm

Fantastic graffiti by 0331C, made in part using a fire extinguisher. (via @death_waltz_records)
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Very enthusiastic child steals meteorologist's show on local TV news storm forecast

By Xeni Jardin on Feb 09, 2013 07:07 pm

Young mister William Hallman steals the show when doing weather with Valley News Live chief meteorologist Hutch Johnson.
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Gary Busey explains Hobbits

By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 09, 2013 06:24 pm

Gary Busey says: "Ramping up a show about me doing short 1-5 minute Q&A's, Buseyism, and randomness. Wanted to share some things we have for you." Also: Inner Tubes (How to molest an Inner Tube), and Hobbits... Hobbits... And Witches
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Instructables based on Little Brother and Homeland

By Cory Doctorow on Feb 09, 2013 05:41 pm

The awesome people at Instructables have launched a series of HOWTOs based on my novel Homeland, written from the point of view of Marcus, the novel's hero. They previously posted 11 of these for Little Brother, and the new Homeland ones should be kicking off any day. Watch this space! m1k3y's Instructables
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Copying is Not Theft, the Barbershop edition

By Cory Doctorow on Feb 09, 2013 03:42 pm

Aaron Wolf's released a jim-dandy Barbershop Quartet arrangement of Nina Paley's song "Copying is Not Theft." The song is licensed Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 (as is my entire website). This means I have full legal right to do anything I want with it as long as I credit Nina and I license my version ...
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Insect Inspector leather mask

By Cory Doctorow on Feb 09, 2013 02:36 pm

The latest from steampunk/fetish maskmaker Bob Basset is the "Insect Inspector": "Leather, Brass, Glass, soviet gas mask parts." Insect Inspector. Steampunk art Leather Gas mask.
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Crab misunderstands name of event

By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 09, 2013 01:41 pm

"To Serve Crab"
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Star Wars easter-egg hidden in a traceroute

By Cory Doctorow on Feb 09, 2013 01:05 pm

The awesomesauce merchants at BeagleNetworks.net have engineered an appropriately epic set of internal routes, such that a traceroute to 216.81.59.173 produces the introductory crawl from Star Wars: TraceRoute from Network-Tools.com to 216.81.59.173 [fin] Hop (ms) (ms) (ms) IP Address Host name 1 0 0 0 206.123.64.42 - 2 0 0 0 64.124.196.225 xe-4-2-0.er2.dfw2.us.above.net 3 3 ...
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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

Sent by 2013 Boing Boing, CC.
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