What does the world look like when you're color blind? Homeless hitchhiker saves woman from attack with hatchet LEGO Macintosh model Surgeon Simulator 2013 game How bad research gets published (and promoted) The super history of supertasters "Touching," micro-fiction by David Gill How much caffeine is too much caffeine? Beyonce and the Illuminati Dan Lyons: Michael Dell goes to Hell NY Public Library internship: Timothy Leary Papers If Spiderman does whatever a spider can, then ... Bauhaus first two albums remastered and reissued Celebrity influence on naming babies Cory in Seattle tonight Interview with "involuntary porn" webmaster Deviant kids vs. dumb grown-ups Man claims GoDaddy canceled domains after transfer unlock U.S. bombed in North Korean propaganda video Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, Wild Style Pt. 2 FedEx's file-transfer capacity versus the Internet NYT, 1924: Hitler's tamed by prison, "no longer to be feared" Former pilot and 9/11 conspiracy theorist shoots and kills 2 teen children, then himself Humorless Washingtonian thinks GOES211 plate is about penis-length, not Spinal Tap Patent drawing for an X-Wing Tales of the Weird: Unbelievable True Stories - best bathroom reader ever? Video shows you how to jailbreak your iOS 6.1 device Acer Iconia tablet is UMPC-killer Parole board recommends release of 70-year-old Manson follower, in prison for 40 years, Grateful Dead Kennedys t-shirt What does the world look like when you're color blind?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 05, 2013 12:58 pm On the left is a picture of me with my bike, taken by my friend Laura Kling. On the right is the same image, as it would be seen by a person with protanopia — a relatively common (as in, still very rare) form of color blindness that affects the ability to see green, yellow, ...
Read in browser Homeless hitchhiker saves woman from attack with hatchet
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 05, 2013 12:50 pm A homeless hitchhiker saved a woman from a violent attack by killing her assailant with a hatchet. His TV interview is excellent.
Read in browser LEGO Macintosh model
By David Pescovitz on Feb 05, 2013 12:48 pm Exquisite LEGO model of the original Apple Macintosh by Chris McVeigh, aka powerpig on Flickr.
Read in browser Surgeon Simulator 2013 game
By David Pescovitz on Feb 05, 2013 12:37 pm Bossa Studios created the surgery game "
Surgeon Simulator 2013" in a weekend. It's somewhere between Operation, advanced medical training simulations, and splatterpunk films.
Read in browser How bad research gets published (and promoted)
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 05, 2013 12:37 pm In 2010, a group of scientists claimed to have found bacteria that could build its DNA using arsenic, instead of the phosphorous used by the rest of Earth's life forms. Within days, the research behind "arsenic life" was under serious scrutiny and we now know that it was totally wrong. But the work was peer-reviewed. ...
Read in browser The super history of supertasters
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 05, 2013 12:25 pm Last week, I posted a link to a story on the Atlantic, all about the history of research into supertasters — humans with the ability to taste a bitter compound called phenylthiocarbamide. It's a big part of why some people can't stand the taste of broccoli, and others love it. But that one piece isn't ...
Read in browser "Touching," micro-fiction by David Gill
By David Pescovitz on Feb 05, 2013 12:19 pm Overt at 365 Tomorrows, my friend Dave Gill of the "Total Dick-Head" blog posted a very short science fiction story that I found quite, well, touching. In fact, that's what it's called. From Touching: The voice woke Phil from a sound sleep. "There's a problem, Phil." He found himself in the midst of saying, groggily, ...
Read in browser How much caffeine is too much caffeine?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 05, 2013 12:12 pm To overdose on caffeine, you'd probably have to drink around 75 8oz cups of brewed coffee over the course of just a few hours. The effects vary from person to person, but that's a good estimate for a toxic dose. On the other hand, it doesn't take much caffeine at all to start experiencing negative ...
Read in browser Beyonce and the Illuminati
By David Pescovitz on Feb 05, 2013 12:08 pm At the Super Bowl on Sunday, Beyonce flashed the Illumanti triangle and it caused the stadium lights to fail. Either that or she was referencing her husband Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records "dynasty sign." I prefer the former. "Super PAC: Yes, Beyonce's Super Bowl Halftime Performance Was the Work of the Illuminati" (Thanks, Rick Pescovitz!)
Read in browser Dan Lyons: Michael Dell goes to Hell
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 05, 2013 12:04 pm At readwrite, Dan Lyons covers the news that Dell is going private in a leveraged buyout led by a private equity company. Back in the 1990s I used to cover Dell for Forbes, and I visited the company a few times. They were riding high then, and boy did they let you know it. They ...
Read in browser NY Public Library internship: Timothy Leary Papers
By David Pescovitz on Feb 05, 2013 11:59 am What a way to spend the spring: The (New York Public Library) Manuscripts and Archives Division is offering an (unpaid) internship to aid the Digital and Project Archivists for the Timothy Leary Papers for the Spring 2013 term to students from a Master's program in librarianship, archival studies, or preservation with an interest in the ...
Read in browser If Spiderman does whatever a spider can, then ...
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 05, 2013 11:56 am Horrible, horrible things. Blogger Bug Girl explains the finer points of male spider anatomy and, also, probably way more than you wanted to know about Peter Parker's personal life.
Read in browser Bauhaus first two albums remastered and reissued
By David Pescovitz on Feb 05, 2013 11:46 am The first two albums by seminal proto-goth band Bauhaus, have been reissued today on vinyl. (Video above from The Old Vic Theatre, London, February 24, 1982.)
Read in browser Celebrity influence on naming babies
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 05, 2013 11:43 am If you see a Farrah on a dating site listing her age as 29, she’s lying by six or seven years. (Via Sociological Images)
Read in browser Cory in Seattle tonight
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 05, 2013 11:30 am Hey, Seattle! Just a reminder that I'll be at the Seattle Public Library tonight at 7PM with my new novel Homeland. Come on down (and bring the kids!)! Portland, you're next, then San Francisco (and again!). Here's the whole schedule -- 20+ cities!.
Read in browser Interview with "involuntary porn" webmaster
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 05, 2013 11:11 am Craig Brittain is the most prominent operator of an operating "involuntary porn" site, publishing compromising pictures of unsuspecting women and generating extravagant removal fees. While lawyers work on how best to deal with such sites—victims, after all, can't take action without drawing attention to the images—Chet Hardin found Brittain more than willing to rationalize his ...
Read in browser Deviant kids vs. dumb grown-ups
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 05, 2013 10:46 am Molly Crabapple on the dangers of being a disruptive kid around hysterically risk-averse adults: In December, a New Jersey schoolboy was arrested for drawing in class. In the post-Sandy Hook rage to blame anything (guns, video games, internet-addicted youth) the easiest thing to blame is always the kid who fails at the blankly inoffensive ideals ...
Read in browser Man claims GoDaddy canceled domains after transfer unlock
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 05, 2013 10:15 am Asif Ali is the latest to find fault with shifty domain registrar GoDaddy. Me: "Why did you release a domain that belonged to me..the registration was still active. And two days before the domain expired, I renewed the .co domain at $30 for a year". Agent: "Since the domain was close to expiry so we ...
Read in browser U.S. bombed in North Korean propaganda video
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 05, 2013 10:04 am Please enjoy this North Korean propaganda video, which features dreams of happiness and space travel, a stirring instrumental rendition of We Are The World, and America engulfed in flames. [Video link: LiveLeak]
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, Wild Style Pt. 2
By Ed Piskor on Feb 05, 2013 09:12 am Read the rest of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics!
Read in browser FedEx's file-transfer capacity versus the Internet
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 05, 2013 08:24 am Today on XKCD's "What If...?", Randall Munroe runs the numbers of when and whether the Internet's throughput will ever exceed FedEx's sneakernet file-transfer capacity (one interesting note here: why not treat FedEx's trucks and planes full of hard-drives and SD cards as part of the Internet? After all, you book your FedEx pickup over TCP/IP, ...
Read in browser NYT, 1924: Hitler's tamed by prison, "no longer to be feared"
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 05, 2013 12:08 am From the Dec 20, 1924 issue of the New York Times: Adolph Hitler's rehabilitation is now complete, and he is "no longer to be feared." Hitler Tamed By Prison
Read in browser Former pilot and 9/11 conspiracy theorist shoots and kills 2 teen children, then himself
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 04, 2013 09:41 pm Slaying victims Alex and Macaila Marshall with their father, Phillip Marshall. Philip Marshall, 54, a career airline pilot who claimed to have once served as a contract pilot for the CIA and DEA during the Iran-Contra affair, shot and killed his two teenage children, and the family dog, then killed himself. The apparent murder-suicide was ...
Read in browser Humorless Washingtonian thinks GOES211 plate is about penis-length, not Spinal Tap
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 04, 2013 08:59 pm A man named Johnny Dixon complained to the Washington Personalized License Plate Committee about the Spinal Tap-homage vanity plate GOES211 on Tony Cava's BMW. Dixon thought Cava was boasting about his penis length. The DOL let Cava keep the plate. A man identifying himself as Johnny Dixon wasn't thinking "Spinal Tap" when he spotted the ...
Read in browser Patent drawing for an X-Wing
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 04, 2013 08:53 pm Avi Solomon popped this patent-drawing for a hypothetical X-Wing fighter patent into the Boing Boing Flickr pool. If Star Wars was a patent: X-Wing Fighter
Read in browser Tales of the Weird: Unbelievable True Stories - best bathroom reader ever?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 04, 2013 05:42 pm Tales of the Weird: Unbelievable True Stories is possibly the best bathroom reading book ever written.
Read in browser Video shows you how to jailbreak your iOS 6.1 device
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 04, 2013 04:57 pm This Cult of Mac video makes it look pretty easy to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad. What is a good reason to do it? If you have jailbroken your iOS device to do something cool that you couldn't have accomplished with a non-jailbroken device, please tell us about it in the comments.
Read in browser Acer Iconia tablet is UMPC-killer
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 04, 2013 04:56 pm Acer's $1,000 Iconia tablet runs Windows 8, weighs only 2 pounds, and packs in 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and a 1.7Ghz Core i5 CPU. Christopher Null put it through its paces: The bigger challenge, though, is the lack of a mouse. Yes, tablets are designed to be touched directly in lieu of an ...
Read in browser Parole board recommends release of 70-year-old Manson follower, in prison for 40 years,
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 04, 2013 04:45 pm Bruce Davis was 30 years old when he was convicted of participating in two murders at the behest of Charles Manson. Forty years later, the California Board of Parole Hearings sent its recommendation to Governor Jerry Brown that he be released from prison. If he is freed, Davis will go to transitional housing associated with ...
Read in browser Grateful Dead Kennedys t-shirt
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 04, 2013 04:18 pm I kind of want one. $20 (Via The World's Best Ever)
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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