Short UK documentary about woman threatened with terrorism charges for videorecording cops while they stop-and-searched her boyfriend on the tune The men who tickle rats Guatemala: Montt Genocide Trial fate rests with Constitutional Court; remains in limbo (photos, video) Bookcase/staircase/slide! It should not be a crazy shock to learn that there are women who f&$*ing love science What you need to know now about H7N9 bird flu Perler bead Haunted Mansion wallpaper/pixel-art necklace Strange, wonderful, deep-sea creatures ... with googly eyes A spaceship that tastes like Grape-Nuts Inside a mile-deep open-pit copper mine after a catastrophic landslide No, Nike did not just release "Boston Massacre" t-shirts to mock Marathon bombing AMBIcon 2013, ambient music festival, May 3-5 in San Rafael, CA The Zine Scene in 2013 Fox sends fraudulent takedown notices for my novel Homeland Divinyls singer Chrissy Amphlett dies of breast cancer, MS Welcome A.J. Clemente, who will be joining the Weekend News team. Once. More Post-It Monsters Documentary on hidden victims of Greek austerity that's crowdfunded, free & CC-licensed Dear Abby: ice chewing and marital strife William Gibson tries the Google Glass Then-and-now photos of Disney Parks from early days and today Prediction: success from Boston surveillance in bombing manhunt will lead to more spying everywhere The Brothers Tsarnaev What legal rights should Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have? Covering the Coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings TSA finally seeks public comment on pornoscanners Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remembered by Twitter friends as "cool bro, average dude" with whom to "smoke blunts" Background: Chechnya How technology factored into the Boston bombing investigation Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev worked out, slept, partied after Boston Marathon attack Short UK documentary about woman threatened with terrorism charges for videorecording cops while they stop-and-searched her boyfriend on the tune
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 22, 2013 01:00 pm You wrote
a blog post about how I was assaulted by the police after filming my boyfriend being searched, back in 2009.
Read in browser The men who tickle rats
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 22, 2013 12:38 pm Apparently, if you tickle a rat it will respond with vocalizations that scientists have good reason to interpret as happy ones. Basically, it's the rat equivalent of laughter, only at ultrasonic frequencies that the human ear can't detect on its own. What's more, tickling rats on a regular basis appears to reduce the negative effects ...
Read in browser Guatemala: Montt Genocide Trial fate rests with Constitutional Court; remains in limbo (photos, video)
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 22, 2013 12:23 pm Protests outside a court in Guatemala where judges will soon rule on whether the trial of a former dictator accused of genocide can continue.
Read in browser Bookcase/staircase/slide!
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 22, 2013 12:21 pm Architects Moon Hoon designed a house in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, that uses a staircase as a slide, a library and a room-divider. My goodness, it is lovely. The basic request of upper and lower spatial organization and the shape of the site promted a long and tin house with fluctuating facade which would allow for ...
Read in browser It should not be a crazy shock to learn that there are women who f&$*ing love science
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 22, 2013 12:20 pm More importantly, it's not a compliment to make a Facebook page dedicated to talking about how you would totally bang a specific woman who f&#(ing loves science and it's definitely not okay to cut-paste her head onto softcore porn screencaps. I'm posting this because I want you to understand the distinction. We live in a ...
Read in browser What you need to know now about H7N9 bird flu
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 22, 2013 12:05 pm Looking for a quick rundown of basic information about the new strain of bird flu that's infecting people in China? The Toronto Star's Jennifer Yang has a great, one-page breakdown that will get you caught up on just about everything you need to know — including how scared you should be. For the record, the ...
Read in browser Perler bead Haunted Mansion wallpaper/pixel-art necklace
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 22, 2013 11:06 am Etsy seller MigotoChou created a lovely perler bead necklace-charm that depicts an 8-bit pixel-art version of the iconic Disney Haunted Mansion wallpaper motif. $25. Disney World Haunted Mansion Wallpaper Inspired Beaded Necklace Walt Disney World Disneyland (via A Swinging Wake)
Read in browser Strange, wonderful, deep-sea creatures ... with googly eyes
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 22, 2013 10:59 am Please enjoy this very serious, scientific Tumblr that posts exactly what it promises — pictures of the strange and fantastic creatures that live deep in the ocean ... with googly eyes photoshopped onto their bodies. The specimen above is an animal known as the pigbutt worm. Yes, seriously. With the googly eyes in place, you ...
Read in browser A spaceship that tastes like Grape-Nuts
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 22, 2013 10:49 am This morning, Marketplace Tech Report had a story on a new cellulose-based building material that could be made by genetically engineered bacteria — altered versions of the bacteria that naturally make stuff like kombucha. This tech sounds like it's got a long way to go from laboratory to the real world, but if they can ...
Read in browser Inside a mile-deep open-pit copper mine after a catastrophic landslide
By Tim Heffernan on Apr 22, 2013 10:43 am For the past few months I've been reporting a big story on the copper industry for Pacific Standard. It takes a broad look at how the global economic boom of the past decade, led by China and India, is pushing copper mining into new regions and new enormities of investment and excavation. (It'll be out ...
Read in browser No, Nike did not just release "Boston Massacre" t-shirts to mock Marathon bombing
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 22, 2013 10:31 am Eric Stangel, a producer with the long-running late-night comedy show Late Show with David Letterman was in a Nike Outlet store this weekend and spotted a shirt with a message that seemed bizarre and inappropriate, after last week's bombings. The phrase "Boston Massacre" has long referred to a 1770 attack led by British soldiers against ...
Read in browser AMBIcon 2013, ambient music festival, May 3-5 in San Rafael, CA
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 22, 2013 10:18 am Fans of Ambient/Space/Contemplative music will gather in the Bay Area May 3-5 for a "Music From the Hearts of Space" 40th Anniversary live event, AMBIcon 2013.
Read in browser The Zine Scene in 2013
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 22, 2013 10:04 am Chris Berube at the NYT: Zine makers face two types of questions when they disclose their hobby. The uninitiated wonder if a zine is similar to a magazine or if it's something different entirely. And people who are familiar with zines from their 1990s heyday wonder that anyone is still making them.
Read in browser Fox sends fraudulent takedown notices for my novel Homeland
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 22, 2013 09:57 am My Creative Commons licensed 2013 novel Homeland, the sequel to my 2008 novel Little Brother, spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and got great reviews around the country. But Fox apparently hasn't heard of it -- or doesn't care. They've been sending takedown notices to Google (and possibly other sites), demanding ...
Read in browser Divinyls singer Chrissy Amphlett dies of breast cancer, MS
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 22, 2013 09:46 am The charismatic lead singer of Australian new wave band The Divinyls, Chrissy Amphlett, has died of cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Read in browser Welcome A.J. Clemente, who will be joining the Weekend News team. Once.
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 22, 2013 09:29 am A brand new news anchor brings it at NBC affiliate KFYR. Do enjoy the apology: "Rest assured that something like this will not happen again." At The Huffington Post, Rebecca Shapiro reports that he was suspended. "It was Clemente's very first moment on air, and also his last." Previously, in San Diego.
Read in browser More Post-It Monsters
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 22, 2013 09:20 am I picked up John Kenn Mortensen's More Post-It Monsters at a comic-show in London and it's terrific. Mortensen draws beautiful and grotesque line-art monsters on yellow sticky notes, and, as with the first collection of these, Sticky Monsters, More Post-It Monsters reproduces them with a minimum of text (apart from a brief and charming intro ...
Read in browser Documentary on hidden victims of Greek austerity that's crowdfunded, free & CC-licensed
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 22, 2013 05:50 am Into The Fire is a film with a difference. Besides being a hard hitting documentary which shows the plight of refugees and migrants amidst a collapsing Greek economy, it's also an experiment in new film production and distribution techniques.
Read in browser Dear Abby: ice chewing and marital strife
By David Pescovitz on Apr 21, 2013 11:19 pm From today's Dear Abby: DEAR ABBY: My husband has ice water with every meal. During breakfast and dinner he loudly crunches all of the ice in his glass throughout the meal. I have asked him not to do it at the dinner table, but he thinks I'm being unreasonable. At breakfast, I usually eat in ...
Read in browser William Gibson tries the Google Glass
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 21, 2013 11:11 pm Technically, lending Bill these particular shades is a terms-of-service violation -- wonder if Google will revoke them? William Gibson, Google Glass
Read in browser Then-and-now photos of Disney Parks from early days and today
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 21, 2013 10:43 pm A monster photo-post from Imagineering Disney compares vintage shots of the Disney parks with contemporary shots. The only thing more remarkable than the dramatic shifts in some of these shots is the total lack of change in others. I'm particularly relieved by the restraint showed in modding the Tiki Room, which was born in a ...
Read in browser Prediction: success from Boston surveillance in bombing manhunt will lead to more spying everywhere
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 21, 2013 09:13 pm "The images captured in Boston are validation of a three-year project in St. Louis to link 150 surveillance cameras into a single security system throughout the city's central corridor, from the riverfront to Forest Park," reports Doug Moore at stltoday.com. This despite a statement by Boston's police chief that facial recognition technology system did not ...
Read in browser The Brothers Tsarnaev
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 21, 2013 08:55 pm "The digital era allows no asylum from extremism, let alone from the toxic combination of high-minded zealotry and the curdled disappointments of young men."—David Remnick in The New Yorker on the Boston bombing suspects.
Read in browser What legal rights should Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have?
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 21, 2013 08:47 pm Modified version of image from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's account on Russian social network vk.com. Below, an array of perspectives on what legal rights the 19-year-old American citizen suspected of co-executing the Boston Marathon bombings has, and whether law enforcement is obliged to honor those rights under the circumstances: • "If captured, I hope [the] Administration will ...
Read in browser Covering the Coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 21, 2013 08:46 pm In infographic form, Hilary "Chartgirl" Sargent breaks down the highs and lows of the media coverage of this week's attacks in Boston.
Read in browser TSA finally seeks public comment on pornoscanners
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 21, 2013 08:37 pm From Slashdot submitter Trims: "The TSA is now in the public comment stage of its project to roll out Advanced Imaging Technology (i.e. full-body X-ray) scanners. The TSA wants your feedback as to whether or not this project should be continued or cancelled. Now is your chance to tell the TSA that this is a ...
Read in browser Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remembered by Twitter friends as "cool bro, average dude" with whom to "smoke blunts"
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 21, 2013 08:10 pm Laura Griffin collected some tweets from apparent real-world friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev. The post-bombing tweets "from four people who know him, and old conversations they had with him" suggest that @J_tsar was a real Twitter account belonging to the 19-year-old suspect.
Read in browser Background: Chechnya
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 21, 2013 08:03 pm A memorial for victims of armed conflict in Grozny, the Chechen capital. Photo: C.J. Chivers, 2008. C.J. Chivers, New York Times reporter and author of THE GUN, a social history of the AK-47, co-wrote this "primer on the land from which the Tsarnaev family hailed." As the NYT piece notes, current Chechen leader Ramzan A. ...
Read in browser How technology factored into the Boston bombing investigation
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 21, 2013 07:53 pm If you read one article on the role science and technology played in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation, make it this one in today's edition of The Washington Post: Quickly, the authorities secured a warehouse in Boston's Seaport district and filled the sprawling space: On half of the vast floor, hundreds of pieces of bloody ...
Read in browser Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev worked out, slept, partied after Boston Marathon attack
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 21, 2013 07:48 pm According to his friends, University of Massachusetts sophomore Dzhokhar Tsarnaev worked out, slept in his dowm room, and hung out with fellow students on the same day of the attack on the Boston Marathon, after the bombs went off. One student quoted in the Boston Globe who did not want to be identified said she ...
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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