Decision delayed on dangerous chemical in drinking water: part 2 of Erin Brockovich's real-life unhappy ending HTML5's overseer says DRM's true purpose is to prevent legal innovation Video of Obama's shape-shifting alien secret service Apollo F-1 engines recovered from Atlantic ocean floor by Bezos Expeditions CNN's coverage of the 2003 Iraq invasion, time-lapsed Chatting with Techdirt about Pirate Cinema Coop interviewed by Reason TV TOM THE DANCING BUG: Senator Portman Experiences Hunger; Now Opposes Spending Cuts A friendly reminder: if you like Boing Boing the blog, join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ Daily Beast: US to shift control of drone program from CIA to Pentagon Exposing public corporate cock-ups is not "hacking" The tweets you should follow in a crisis aren't necessarily the most obvious Genocide trial begins in Guatemala, for US-trained former dictator Rios Montt Amazing photos of 1946 nuclear weapons test Canadian government trying to launder secret copyright treaties into law World's largest space telescope now under construction in Utah Watch the latest hand-picked videos on Boing Boing's video page Shepard Fairey designs a mission patch for the ISS ARK1 Where old TV screens go to die Los Angeles is not full of self-driving pod cars (and other disappointments from a 1988 view of 2013) Evolution happens. Even in Oklahoma. More deadly and dumb Danish TV stunts at 2500 fps PDX event for "Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian And A Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into The Future of Technology" Gweek 086: Utopian for Beginners How to make a faucet night light Brian Krebs talks to hacker who may have SWATted him and attacked Wired's Mat Honan Lululemon recalls see-through pants Sinkane, Usher… and the Afghan Whigs National Counterterrorism Center is ascared of urban explorers Heinlein on Kirtsaeng Decision delayed on dangerous chemical in drinking water: part 2 of Erin Brockovich's real-life unhappy ending
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2013 12:57 pm What is a safe level of chromium-6 for humans to consume and why has the EPA stalled on setting a federal standard?
Read in browser HTML5's overseer says DRM's true purpose is to prevent legal innovation
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2013 12:29 pm Ian Hickson, the googler who is overseeing the HTML5 standard at the WC3, has written a surprisingly frank piece on the role of DRM. As he spells out in detail, the point of DRM isn't to stop illegal copying, it's to stop legal forms innovation from taking place. He shows that companies that deploy DRM ...
Read in browser Video of Obama's shape-shifting alien secret service
By David Pescovitz on Mar 20, 2013 12:14 pm A shape-shifting extraterrestrial was on President Obama's security detail during his APIAC speech on Sunday.
Read in browser Apollo F-1 engines recovered from Atlantic ocean floor by Bezos Expeditions
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2013 12:03 pm Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has exciting news out today. Apollo mission F-1 enginges have been recovered from the bottom of the sea.
Read in browser CNN's coverage of the 2003 Iraq invasion, time-lapsed
By David Pescovitz on Mar 20, 2013 11:59 am Experimental filmmaker Bob Jaroc's time-lapsed montage of CNN during the first month of the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Read in browser Chatting with Techdirt about Pirate Cinema
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2013 11:58 am My novel Pirate Cinema is the current TechDirt Book Club selection, and we're kicking it off today with a Google+ hangout in about five minutes. I've never done a Hangout before -- I don't have a G+ account because I object to its "real names" policy, but I've created a throwaway account for the occasion. ...
Read in browser Coop interviewed by Reason TV
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 20, 2013 11:53 am Our pal Coop is interviewed in the latest edition of Reason TV. Reason's Brian Doherty sat down with internationally renowned underground artist Chris "Coop" Cooper in Reason's LA studios to discuss discuss everything from intellectual property and censorship to the inspiration for Coop's radical art project. Cooper, who provided the cover illustration to the December ...
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Senator Portman Experiences Hunger; Now Opposes Spending Cuts
By Ruben Bolling on Mar 20, 2013 11:27 am Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Senator Portman (R, Oh.) experiences hunger for the first time, and reverses his position on social welfare spending.
Read in browser A friendly reminder: if you like Boing Boing the blog, join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2013 11:25 am Boing Boing is on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. Join us at the social network of your choice, or heck, all three of 'em.
Read in browser Daily Beast: US to shift control of drone program from CIA to Pentagon
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2013 11:14 am Daniel Klaidman spoke to three senior Obama administration officials who say the US may soon shift the CIA's drone program to the Pentagon. [The Daily Beast]
Read in browser Exposing public corporate cock-ups is not "hacking"
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 20, 2013 10:47 am Here's Ryan Tate, the first writer to cover AT&T's massive iPad data leak, on the "hacking" conviction of Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer for exposing it in the first place: "The scapegoating of Auernheimer is revolting for two reasons. One, it lets AT&T off the hook for exposing sensitive information to public view, shifting the blame onto ...
Read in browser The tweets you should follow in a crisis aren't necessarily the most obvious
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 20, 2013 10:27 am Some interesting research based on the Arab Spring uprisings suggests that the best people to follow on Twitter during a crisis are often not particularly influential on Twitter outside the crisis. Likewise, they aren't likely to have had many followers before the event. Essentially, it's evidence supporting the common sense idea that, if you want ...
Read in browser Genocide trial begins in Guatemala, for US-trained former dictator Rios Montt
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2013 10:27 am Efraín Ríos Montt. Photo: James Rodriguez. José Efraín Ríos Montt, a former de facto dictator of Guatemala who trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, is on trial for genocide. Photojournalist James Rodriguez covered the first day of this historic trial against Montt and former Intelligence Director José Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, who are ...
Read in browser Amazing photos of 1946 nuclear weapons test
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 20, 2013 10:21 am Baker was a 23-kiloton nuclear weapon that was detonated underwater at Bikini Atoll in 1946. The goal was to see what would happen to Navy boats if they were in the region where a nuclear bomb went off. The boats you see in this photo were unmanned, but there were sailors relatively close by, taking ...
Read in browser Canadian government trying to launder secret copyright treaties into law
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2013 09:54 am Michael Geist sez, "The Canadian Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology released its report on the Intellectual Property Regime in Canada yesterday. While most the recommendations are fairly innocuous, the report involves a classic case of policy laundering as the government has fabricated support for the Canada - EU Trade Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership ...
Read in browser World's largest space telescope now under construction in Utah
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2013 09:36 am Technicians complete the primary mirror backplane support structure wing assemblies for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope at ATK's Space Components facility in Magna, Utah. ATK recently completed the fabrication of the primary mirror backplane support structure wing assemblies for prime contractor Northrop Grumman on the Webb telescope. Photo: Northrop Grumman/ATK, via NASA. Aerospace contractor Alliant ...
Read in browser Watch the latest hand-picked videos on Boing Boing's video page
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2013 09:25 am We've gathered fresh video for you to surf and enjoy on the Boing Boing video page. The latest finds for your viewing pleasure include: • Improbable, destructive stunts recorded at 2500 fps. • Sinkane, Usher, and the Afghan Whigs, together at last. • Mozilla Foundation unveils amazing suite of Web-development tools. • Cory's Library of ...
Read in browser Shepard Fairey designs a mission patch for the ISS ARK1
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2013 09:18 am When the feds start commissioning space decor from graffiti artists turned global fashion brands, you know that cyberpunk has arrived: Artist Shepard Fairey may be best known for Obey Giant and his Barack Obama "Hope" poster, but his latest work will be conquering an entirely different realm: outer space. The artist has designed the patch ...
Read in browser Where old TV screens go to die
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 20, 2013 08:40 am Time was, we used to recycle old cathode ray tubes from TVs and computer monitors into new ones. Obviously, though, there's no longer a demand for new CRTs — or the specialized leaded glass they're made of. As a result, the last generation of CRTs is piling up into a "glass tsunami", filling storage units ...
Read in browser Los Angeles is not full of self-driving pod cars (and other disappointments from a 1988 view of 2013)
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 20, 2013 08:30 am In April 1988, the LA Times Magazine published a cover article predicting what the spring of 2013 would look like for the typical Angeleno family. In a story that is bound to give you disconcerting flashbacks to Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains", a family of four (and their automated house full of whirring ...
Read in browser Evolution happens. Even in Oklahoma.
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 20, 2013 08:11 am In Tulsa, Oklahoma, over the last 30 years, the number of cliff swallows killed by moving vehicles has drastically decreased. That change can't be accounted for by alterations in traffic patterns or swallow populations, say scientists. Instead, they think it's tied to the fact that the birds' wingspan is also decreasing. This adaptation — whether ...
Read in browser More deadly and dumb Danish TV stunts at 2500 fps
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 19, 2013 11:21 pm Here's a follow up to
Dumt and Farligt's 2012 video in which Danish show (its name translates as "Stupid and Dangerous") enacts a series of improbable, destructive stunts while recording at 2500 fps.
Read in browser PDX event for "Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian And A Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into The Future of Technology"
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 19, 2013 09:14 pm Hey, Portlandians! Brian David Johnson and James H Carrott are doing a talk and signing for their new book, Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian And A Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into The Future of Technology, a fascinating look at the historical significance of steampunk, and an exploration of what the popularity of steampunk today's means about ...
Read in browser Gweek 086: Utopian for Beginners
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 19, 2013 08:55 pm This was a fun episode! I spoke with John Glassie, author of A Man of Misconceptions, a non-fiction book about the unusual 17th-century polymath, Athanasius Kircher, and Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein, which recounts Joshua’s yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes.” In this episode: A Man ...
Read in browser How to make a faucet night light
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 19, 2013 06:22 pm Instructable user boston09 shows how to make a faucet night light.
Read in browser Brian Krebs talks to hacker who may have SWATted him and attacked Wired's Mat Honan
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 19, 2013 06:07 pm Last week, Brian Krebs (a respected security researcher and journalist who often publishes details about high-tech crime) was SWATted -- that is, someone defrauded his local police department into sending a SWAT team to his house, resulting in his getting confronted by gun-wielding, hair-trigger cops who had him lie on the ground and cuffed him ...
Read in browser Lululemon recalls see-through pants
By David Pescovitz on Mar 19, 2013 05:17 pm Lululemon Athletica has recalled 17% of the women's yoga pants in its stores because the latest batch were apparently too sheer. The quality control problem forced the company to cut its revenue forecast by $12-17 million and its stock price took it on the chin. "The ingredients, weight and longevity qualities of the pants remain ...
Read in browser Sinkane, Usher… and the Afghan Whigs
By David Pescovitz on Mar 19, 2013 05:09 pm On Friday, SXSW saw the unexpected combination of Sinkane, Usher, and the Afghan Whigs.
Read in browser National Counterterrorism Center is ascared of urban explorers
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 19, 2013 05:01 pm People who explore the urban ruins of cities are terrorist dupes! Wired: “Urban Explorers (UE) — hobbyists who seek illicit access to transportation and industrial facilities in urban areas — frequently post photographs, video footage, and diagrams on line [sic] that could be used by terrorists to remotely identify and surveil potential targets,” warns the ...
Read in browser Heinlein on Kirtsaeng
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 19, 2013 04:58 pm This really deserves its own post. In the comments on the post on Kirtsaeng -- where the Supreme Court just upheld the right to sell used goods, even if they were made abroad -- Shrikant quotes from Heinlein's classic short story Life-Line: "There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country ...
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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