Access files on locked, encrypted Android phones by putting them in a freezer for an hour Antique chili powder tin with terrifically devilish illustration Carrie Fisher reportedly confirms reprise of Princess Leia Dazed and Confused is 20! Medieval Europeans knew more about the body than we think Scrub your brain of these "folk neuroscience" misconceptions Sinkholes: Swallowing everything, including the kitchen sink Psych-rock from Thailand Meet Pando, the world's oldest living organism Capacitive gel turns any gloves into touchscreen tappers TOM THE DANCING BUG: Can Obama navigate budget battles and science fiction references in "STAR SE-TREK-STER"? Rocket engine test fire Welcome to the Ballroom, where Voguing is always in style Another look at Fukushima's legacy Everything you thought you knew is wrong TSA will allow small knives, golf clubs onto airplanes Bang bang: Science, violence, and public policy Lost Lectures in London Ant wars: Battle of the invasive species Fix the DMCA! Repeal anti-circumvention and truly own your devices The people of Tibet need help now Penguins: Now with more color Maggie at Science Night Minnesota MacLeod's dystopian masterpiece Intrusion in paperback Last day of fundraising for Parltrack - turning Parliamentary records into searchable databases Humans yelling like goats yelling like humans New Yorker: Larissa MacFarquhar on Aaron Swartz Morning star of Saturn: Cassini views Venus Fundraiser for the Public Domain Review Kaki King: "Cargo Cult," from the new album, "Glow" (and an upcoming BB Virgin America channel appearance) Access files on locked, encrypted Android phones by putting them in a freezer for an hour
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 06, 2013 12:42 pm This is alarming, if true: according to a group of German security researchers at the University of Erlangen, if you put a locked, encrypted Android phone in the freezer for an hour and then quickly reboot it and plug it into a laptop, the memory will retain enough charge to stay decrypted, and can boot ...
Read in browser Antique chili powder tin with terrifically devilish illustration
By David Pescovitz on Mar 06, 2013 12:42 pm Available from curiosity collector and reseller Invisible Brooklyn, this hotter than hell antique tin of chili powder. It's full too.
Read in browser Carrie Fisher reportedly confirms reprise of Princess Leia
By David Pescovitz on Mar 06, 2013 12:35 pm Carrie Fisher interviewed in Palm Beach Illustrated: Disney is going to continue the Star Wars saga, producing movies set to hit theaters starting in 2015. Can you confirm whether you'll reprise the role of Princess Leia? Yes.
Read in browser Dazed and Confused is 20!
By David Pescovitz on Mar 06, 2013 12:25 pm "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age." Dazed and Confused is 20 years old!
Read in browser Medieval Europeans knew more about the body than we think
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 12:17 pm Medieval Europe is generally known for its animosity toward actually testing things out, favoring tradition over experimentation and earning a reputation as being soundly anti-science. In particular, it's easy to get the impression that nobody was doing human dissections at all, prior to the Renaissance. But it turns out that isn't true. In fact, some ...
Read in browser Scrub your brain of these "folk neuroscience" misconceptions
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 12:04 pm There is no such thing as "left brained" or "right brained". You really and truly cannot break down rationality and creativity in that way. And that's not the only thing we all think we know about the brain that turns out to be totally wrong. At the Guardian Vaughan Bell writes about the rise of ...
Read in browser Sinkholes: Swallowing everything, including the kitchen sink
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 11:57 am If you were horrifically fascinated (horrafinated?) by the sinkhole that swallowed Floridian Jeff Bush and his entire bedroom a week ago, you might be interested in some sinkhole science. The US Geological Survey says that sinkholes are a geologic thing. Certain areas of the country are more prone than others (which you probably knew already). ...
Read in browser Psych-rock from Thailand
By David Pescovitz on Mar 06, 2013 11:56 am Incredible face-melting psychedelia of
Khun Narin Phin Sing from the Phetchabun Province in Thailand.
Read in browser Meet Pando, the world's oldest living organism
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 11:43 am Pando is 80,000 years old. Pando is grove of aspen trees in Utah. Tremble before Pando.
Read in browser Capacitive gel turns any gloves into touchscreen tappers
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 06, 2013 11:37 am The Red Ferret tried out
AnyGlove, a capacitive gel you can apply to your gloves or other clothing -- once coated, your cloth can be used to operate a touch-screen.
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Can Obama navigate budget battles and science fiction references in "STAR SE-TREK-STER"?
By Ruben Bolling on Mar 06, 2013 11:32 am Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Captain Obama must navigate tense budget battles and tricky science fiction references in an exciting episode of "STAR SE-TREK-STER."
Read in browser Rocket engine test fire
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 10:05 am Just what the headline says. Watch it burn.
Read in browser Welcome to the Ballroom, where Voguing is always in style
By Niall Connolly on Mar 06, 2013 10:00 am Mention the word "voguing" to people, and generally their first reaction will be "strike a pose, there's nothing to it". A dance fad made popular by Madonna in the early Nineties, voguing faded into obscurity as quickly as it popped up. It's good for nostalgic giggles, though: we've all seen that clip of "Vogue Boy" ...
Read in browser Another look at Fukushima's legacy
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 09:59 am Recently, I linked you to a report on the World Health Organization's estimates of the long-term risk of cancer and cancer-related deaths among people who lived nearest to the Fukushima nuclear plant when it went into meltdown and the people who worked to get the plant under control and into a cold shutdown. The good ...
Read in browser Everything you thought you knew is wrong
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 09:48 am The Van Allen Belts are donut-shaped rings of radioactive particles that encircle the Earth. They can damage satellites and pose a bit of a risk for human astronauts who venture outside our planet's protective magnetic field and into the regions of the belts. Back in high school, you probably learned that there were two of ...
Read in browser TSA will allow small knives, golf clubs onto airplanes
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 06, 2013 09:42 am In a rare, welcome moment of sanity, the TSA has announced that it will allow small knives, golf clubs, hockey sticks, wiffle bats, and similar items on planes. Given that you are allowed to bring on canes -- that is, clubs -- and 40-oz duty-free liquor bottles -- that is, long glass knives, this represents ...
Read in browser Bang bang: Science, violence, and public policy
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 09:39 am I was on CBC Radio 1's Day 6 last weekend, talking about some of the reasons why scientists can't answer key questions about guns — whether current gun policies do anything to reduce violent crime, for instance, or whether more guns cause less (or more) violence. In a related debate, you should also read the ...
Read in browser Lost Lectures in London
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 09:23 am The Lost Lectures are fascinating presentations given in secret locations around London and Berlin. If you sign up, you can get tickets (and the hush hush info) necessary to see them live — or you can watch them online from anywhere after the fact. I kind of wish I was in London on March 22nd, ...
Read in browser Ant wars: Battle of the invasive species
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 09:16 am There's a war on in America, pitting invasive ant against invasive ant in a fight to the finish. It's sort of like Alien vs. Predator, in a way, because whoever wins ... we lose. Argentine ants (the reigning champions) have wiped out native ant species in many of the environments they've invaded over the years, ...
Read in browser Fix the DMCA! Repeal anti-circumvention and truly own your devices
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 06, 2013 09:05 am Austin sez, "Last year the Librarian of Congress made it illegal to unlock your cell phone by changing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). This can lead to exorbitant costs to consumers traveling internationally and, perhaps more importantly, it is restricting our freedom in unfair ways. It also has odd implications like forcing the blind ...
Read in browser The people of Tibet need help now
By Ven. Thepo Rinpoche on Mar 06, 2013 09:00 am Sunday marks the most important date for all Tibetans; those inside Tibet as well as those in diaspora across the globe. March 10 is Tibetan Uprising Day, and we who live in the free world shall protest in front of Chinese consulates and other sites, to amplify our voices on behalf of all who are ...
Read in browser Penguins: Now with more color
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 08:56 am There's a whole gallery of these eerie, psychedelic penguins at Wired, part of Nadia Drake's article about new research based on infrared thermal imaging. Strangely, researchers found that the exterior surface of the penguins was actually colder than the surrounding air. This, despite the fact that penguins maintain a fairly stable interior body temperature that's ...
Read in browser Maggie at Science Night Minnesota
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 06, 2013 08:30 am Minnesota Public Radio is hosting a live Science Night on May 21st in St. Paul, featuring John Grotzinger, the head of the NASA Curiosity mission. And I get to join him on stage to talk about outer space, Mars, and all sorts of awesomeness. If you're an MPR member, you can buy tickets now. Otherwise, ...
Read in browser MacLeod's dystopian masterpiece Intrusion in paperback
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 06, 2013 07:35 am Ken Macleod's amazing dystopian novel Intrusion is out in paperback today. Here's my review from last March: Ken MacLeod's new novel Intrusion is a new kind of dystopian novel: a vision of a near future "benevolent dictatorship" run by Tony Blair-style technocrats who believe freedom isn't the right to choose, it's the right to have ...
Read in browser Last day of fundraising for Parltrack - turning Parliamentary records into searchable databases
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 06, 2013 07:26 am Amelia Andersdotter Pirate member of the European Parliament and members of European Digital Rights call for support and donation on the last day of the
Parltrack fundraising campaign.
Read in browser Humans yelling like goats yelling like humans
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 06, 2013 02:45 am Full circle, guys. Created by
Olde Payphone, a sketch comedy group from Los Angeles.
Read in browser New Yorker: Larissa MacFarquhar on Aaron Swartz
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 06, 2013 01:28 am "Aaron Swartz was brilliant and beloved. But the people who knew him best saw a darker side." A masterful profile of the late activist, through the testimony of many who loved him, written by Larissa MacFarquhar for The New Yorker.
Read in browser Morning star of Saturn: Cassini views Venus
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 06, 2013 01:24 am Dawn on Saturn is greeted across the vastness of interplanetary space by the morning star, Venus, in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Carolyn Porco, Cassini Imaging Team Leader and director of CICLOPS, writes: Every so often, our cameras on Cassini digitally record, either intentionally or incidentally, other celestial bodies besides those found around Saturn. ...
Read in browser Fundraiser for the Public Domain Review
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 05, 2013 10:46 pm Adam sez, "The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project dedicated to showcasing the most interesting and unusual out-of-copyright works available online. We've been featured on Boing Boing before. We have just launched our fundraising campaign to try and keep the project alive." Donate Now to Save The Public Domain Review!
Read in browser Kaki King: "Cargo Cult," from the new album, "Glow" (and an upcoming BB Virgin America channel appearance)
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 05, 2013 10:44 pm Kaki King's new album is a masterpiece of layered, melodic guitar, with accompaniment by a string quartet. It's her best work 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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