Are red flowers all red for the same reason? A Mother's Day memoir of a scientist who beat the odds 53 years of nuclear tests as electronic music How Anonymous got involved in fighting for justice for rape victims Bakersfield cops and CHP beat man to death while he begs for his life, then confiscate witnesses' footage Robocop statue awesome Slurring BBC radio presenter yanked from air Guatemala: Rios Montt supporters protest; court considers reparations for genocide victims Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor First vatburger is ready to eat Kickstarting solder-it-yourself junkbot kits Scientology sucks at photoshop Review: Disunion, the VR guillotine simulator Brave director slams Disney's sexy Merida makeover 3D printed guns and the law: will judges be able to think clearly about digital files when guns are involved? MC Frontalot's "I'll Form the Head" - crowdfunded voltronoid nerdcore Cake-topped parfait Are red flowers all red for the same reason?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 13, 2013 12:19 pm Science Buddies has an interesting, springtime-themed experiment in the chemistry of color that you can do at home, using plants you've gathered from your yard or a park. It looks like a great activity for curious folks of all ages.
Read in browser A Mother's Day memoir of a scientist who beat the odds
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 13, 2013 12:09 pm "To become a scientist is hard enough. But to become one while running a gauntlet of lies, insults, mockeries, and disapproval — this was what my mother had to do." Mother's Day was yesterday, but you'll still want to read this fantastic essay from 2002, written by journalist Charles Hirschberg about his mother, geophysicist Joan ...
Read in browser 53 years of nuclear tests as electronic music
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 13, 2013 11:53 am It's like a mash-up of the games Simon and Global Thermonuclear War.
Read in browser How Anonymous got involved in fighting for justice for rape victims
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2013 11:47 am Mother Jones's Josh Harkinson has an excellent piece on the history of KnightSec, an Anonymous offshoot that publicized the Steubenville and Halifax rape cases, galvanizing both the public and police responses to both. The piece includes an interview with Michelle McKee, who is credited with swaying a critical mass of Anons to participation in KnightSec. ...
Read in browser Bakersfield cops and CHP beat man to death while he begs for his life, then confiscate witnesses' footage
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2013 11:45 am Kern County deputies are accused of savagely beating a man to death while he begged for his life and then intimidating witnesses into giving up their cameras and phones in a coverup. The victim, David Sal Silva, was a 33-year-old father of four, and is alleged to have been publicly intoxicated in Bakersfield, CA, when ...
Read in browser Robocop statue awesome
By Rob Beschizza on May 13, 2013 11:34 am Detroit's Robocop statue, crowdfunded two years ago, is finally taking shape. And it's pretty damned amazing.
Read in browser Slurring BBC radio presenter yanked from air
By Rob Beschizza on May 13, 2013 11:15 am The BBC, in an unbylined report: "Paula White was removed after 30 minutes of her afternoon show on Friday, which was to be her last show in that slot. ... A BBC spokesman said she had been "unable to continue as she was under par". The spokesman would not say if any other action had ...
Read in browser Guatemala: Rios Montt supporters protest; court considers reparations for genocide victims
By Xeni Jardin on May 13, 2013 10:57 am Photo: James Rodriguez/mimundo.org. View his full photo-essay here. [Guatemala City] On Friday, a court in Guatemala convicted former US-backed military dictator Rios Montt of genocide and crimes against humanity, in an historic trial: this was the first time a domestic court in any nation has convicted a former head of state for these crimes. His ...
Read in browser Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor
By Andy Meek on May 13, 2013 10:02 am "The future of technology will be largely determined by citizens who will design, build, and hack their own"
Read in browser First vatburger is ready to eat
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2013 10:00 am After spending $250,000 worth of anonymously donated money, Mark Post from Maastricht University is ready to go public with his first vat-grown hamburger, which will be cooked and eaten at an event in London this week. Though they claim that it's healthier than regular meat, one question not answered in the article is the Omega ...
Read in browser Kickstarting solder-it-yourself junkbot kits
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2013 09:45 am A group of engineering students (with no stated manufacturing experience -- caveat emptor) are kickstarting a series of cute assemble-it-yourself junkbots called "D.Bug"s. You get a kit full of electronic components, instructions for soldering them into cute robots, and a display box for your complete project. They're on the pricey side ($35 for the cheapest), ...
Read in browser Scientology sucks at photoshop
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2013 09:24 am As Scientology's numbers and influence decline, the company religion is desperate to maintain appearances. Mark 'Wise Beard Man' Bunker managed to get shots and videos of this weekend's gala opening in Portland (despite a keystone kops runaround from the Portland cops, whom Scientology suborned to chase independent press away from the event), along with other, ...
Read in browser Review: Disunion, the VR guillotine simulator
By Dean Putney on May 13, 2013 09:00 am What's it like to be guillotined in virtual reality?
Read in browser Brave director slams Disney's sexy Merida makeover
By Rob Beschizza on May 13, 2013 08:16 am Paul Liberatore in The Marin Independent Journal: Marin filmmaker Brenda Chapman, who won an Oscar for writing and co-directing the animated feature "Brave," blasted Disney's sexy makeover of her movie's feisty heroine, Merida, as "a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money." ... "I think it's atrocious what they have done to Merida ... When ...
Read in browser 3D printed guns and the law: will judges be able to think clearly about digital files when guns are involved?
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2013 08:09 am My latest Guardian column is "3D printed guns are going to create big legal precedents," and it looks at an underappreciated risk from 3D printed guns: that courts will be so freaked out by the idea of 3D printed guns that they'll issue reactionary decisions that are bad for the health of the Internet and ...
Read in browser MC Frontalot's "I'll Form the Head" - crowdfunded voltronoid nerdcore
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2013 07:23 am MC Frontalot sez, "At long last, here's the third of three videos from my album Solved that were funded by fans via Kickstarter. It was directed by Carly Monardo and features my nerdcore rap compatriots ZeaLouS1 and Dr. Awkward. Lyrics and credits are on the youtube page. The single is out today, too, and it's ...
Read in browser Cake-topped parfait
By Cory Doctorow on May 12, 2013 03:23 pm A chain of Osaka cafes sells a crazy parfait, topped with a ginormous piece of cake: On a recent day out in Osaka, our reporter stopped by a café and ordered a truly hard-core parfait. It wasn't that the parfait was so big, and no, it didn't contain any shocking ingredients. What blew our minds ...
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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