FBI investigates fatal beating of man by deputies; video evidence may have been destroyed Sheet-metal Millennium Falcon model Guatemala awaits Constitutional Court rulings, defense continues legal challenges to genocide trial Watch the latest videos in Boing Boing's video post archives E-Stonia: where the free internet now flows like water TOM THE DANCING BUG: Super-Fun-Pak Comix, featuring Caveman Robot, and MORE! Canadian anti-piracy bounty hunters ripped off photos for their website The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek New Yorker launches new leak submission system, written by Aaron Swartz Prince Charles's housing charity gets into bed with torturing Bahraini dictatorship Man killed by truck while dribbling soccer ball to Brazil Rich New Yorkers hire disabled "guides" to Disney World in order to skip lines (according to NY Post, anyway) Odd Duck: great picture book about eccentricity and ducks What's the creepiest passage in literature? Scandalous euphemisms Back to the 60s with Star Trek sequel's sound designer Purse that looks like a bloody cleaver RiYL podcast 004: John Roderick Parker Jotter Pen: Lightweight, smooth-writing pen Canberra Skywhale: fanciful, breast-studded lighter-than-air cetacean Woman ejected from plane for singing Whitney Houston Poe's The Raven as a studio exec's lament Victoria Sanford: "It's Too Soon to Declare Victory in Guatemalan Genocide" Clayton Cubitt: "On the Constant Moment" US seeks internet's help in tracking child porn producer, rescuing victim of ongoing abuse Free Press launches citizen sign-on letter to US DOJ, Holder on AP phone records scandal My Little Pony fans successfully register a 501(c)3 charity for fannish good works 2,300-year-old Maya pyramid bulldozed for Belize road project "Poohenge" - Unusual inflatable sculpture graces Hong Kong park Terrifying celebrity video faceswaps FBI investigates fatal beating of man by deputies; video evidence may have been destroyed
By Xeni Jardin on May 15, 2013 12:52 pm The FBI has launched an investigation into the beating death of a man by sheriff's deputies in Kern County, California. Two cellphones that contained video evidence at one point no longer contain the videos that show officers beating David Silva to death with batons on the head, "even after he was lying motionless on the ...
Read in browser Sheet-metal Millennium Falcon model
By Cory Doctorow on May 15, 2013 12:50 pm The Millennium Falcon Metallic Nano Puzzle looks like a delight. It's one of those puzzle/models that you punch out of thin, laset-cut pieces of sheet metal and assemble with tweezers and pliers, and the finished model is quite a beauty. It's $15.30 plus shipping from Japan. It looks more complex than the models I've done ...
Read in browser Guatemala awaits Constitutional Court rulings, defense continues legal challenges to genocide trial
By Xeni Jardin on May 15, 2013 12:36 pm Jose Efraín Ríos Montt, moments after being declared guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity in a Guatemala City court, May 10 2013. Photo: James Rodriguez. At the Open Society Justice Initiative's riosmontt-trial.org blog, a good synopsis of the post-genocide-trial verdict legal hijinks in Guatemala. Snip: Since before the start of the Guatemalan genocide trial, ...
Read in browser Watch the latest videos in Boing Boing's video post archives
By Xeni Jardin on May 15, 2013 12:27 pm Among the most recent video posts you will find on our all-new video archive page: • Xeni on NewsHour: Guatemala genocide trial aftermath. • The amazed granddad, the restored portrait, and Reddit. • You cannot light a candle with a taser • It's a face! A skull! A mushroom! Psychedelic drawing lesson • Self-assembling foldable ...
Read in browser E-Stonia: where the free internet now flows like water
By Jasmina Tesanovic on May 15, 2013 11:59 am Photo: Bruce Sterling First things first: oh, you world travelers, for pleasure or for work, never, ever fly Baltic Airlines. First they will stiff you by making you pay sixty euros to carry regular-sized hand luggage. You will note their particular eagerness to pounce on innocent non-Baltic travellers, especially haplessYankees with credit cards. During the ...
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Super-Fun-Pak Comix, featuring Caveman Robot, and MORE!
By Ruben Bolling on May 15, 2013 11:56 am Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH various absurd situations are comically depicted under the banner of "Super-Fun-Pak Comix," such as the improbable construction of a robot by an early hominid.
Read in browser Canadian anti-piracy bounty hunters ripped off photos for their website
By Cory Doctorow on May 15, 2013 11:42 am Canipre, a Canadian company that helps the entertainment industry send legal threats to people alleged to have infringed copyright, has been caught using several infringing images on its website. Included in the art that Canipre appropriated for commercial gain without permission is a CC-licensed photo that they could have used legally simply by crediting the ...
Read in browser The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 15, 2013 11:28 am This is the third story in a multi-part series on taxonomy and speciation. It's meant to help you as you participate in Armchair Taxonomist — a challenge from the Encyclopedia of Life to bring scientific descriptions of animals, plants, and other living things out from behind paywalls and onto the Internet. Participants can earn cool ...
Read in browser New Yorker launches new leak submission system, written by Aaron Swartz
By Xeni Jardin on May 15, 2013 11:10 am The New Yorker today launched 'Strongbox,' a whistleblower submission system designed to allow anonymous leakers to digitally transmit important information to journalists. "The underlying code, called 'Dead-Drop,' is an open-source project and was written by the Internet pioneer and legendary coder Aaron Swartz, before he tragically died in January," writes Trevor Timm at a Freedom ...
Read in browser Prince Charles's housing charity gets into bed with torturing Bahraini dictatorship
By Cory Doctorow on May 15, 2013 10:38 am Prince Charles has joined with Formula One and CNN in supporting the torturing, murderous dictatorial regime in Bahrain. His Prince's Foundation for Building Community and the UK Foreign Office have signed a deal to advise the regime on housing policy, an area of particular contention (Bahrain's persecuted Shia minority majority are systematically discriminated against in ...
Read in browser Man killed by truck while dribbling soccer ball to Brazil
By Rob Beschizza on May 15, 2013 10:19 am Richard Swanson, 42, set off from Seattle on May 1 hoping to dribble a soccer ball all the way to Brazil. A truck hit him in Lincoln City, Oregon, less than two weeks into his trip. [BBC]
Read in browser Rich New Yorkers hire disabled "guides" to Disney World in order to skip lines (according to NY Post, anyway)
By Cory Doctorow on May 15, 2013 10:15 am The (awful and not usually very trustworthy) New York Post reports that rich New Yorkers pay thousands of dollars to an Orlando area service that rents out disabled people to accompany them to Walt Disney World in order to jump the lines. The article says that there's a word-of-mouth underground in New York's priciest private ...
Read in browser Odd Duck: great picture book about eccentricity and ducks
By Cory Doctorow on May 15, 2013 09:00 am Cecil Castellucci and Sara Varon have a new picture-book/kids' comic out from FirstSecond today called Odd Duck, and it's a delight (no surprise there, I never met a Cecil Castellucci project I didn't like). Odd Duck is the story of Theodora, "a perfectly normal duck" who likes her routine -- swimming, stretching, taking books out ...
Read in browser What's the creepiest passage in literature?
By Rob Beschizza on May 15, 2013 08:21 am At The Atlantic, Joe Fassler votes for an infamous passage from Cormac McCarthy's The Road: He started down the rough wooden steps. He ducked his head and then flicked the lighter and swung the flame out over the darkness like an offering. Coldness and damp. An ungodly stench. He could see part of a stone ...
Read in browser Scandalous euphemisms
By Rob Beschizza on May 15, 2013 08:08 am So many people know what "tired and emotional" means that it's surely now unfit for its original libel-skirting purpose. But if someone is "hiking the Appalachian Trail" or taking a "wide stance", would you be in on the gig? [BBC]
Read in browser Back to the 60s with Star Trek sequel's sound designer
By Rob Beschizza on May 15, 2013 07:57 am Tami Katzoff interviews Ben Burtt for MTV News: While researching the sounds from the classic series, Burtt discovered that they were created with a Hammond chord organ. "Going back and getting some organ recordings and playing with it, I was able to fashion some things very similar to the transporter, perhaps exactly the same way, ...
Read in browser Purse that looks like a bloody cleaver
By Cory Doctorow on May 15, 2013 07:50 am This bloody cleaver purse -- which hides the handbag cavity in the cleaver bag -- is $33 at Vampire Freaks. No idea if it's remotely practical, but it does look like a giant, bloody cleaver. Bloody Cleaver Clutch Purse (Thanks, Neha!)
Read in browser RiYL podcast 004: John Roderick
By Brian Heater on May 14, 2013 11:59 pm John Roderick's less inclined to play the role of the cross country troubadour in the heady days, but the indie rock elder statesman has slipped quite comfortably into the role of podcast philosopher. Come sit with us, on his leather couch. Your browser does not support the audio element. Subscribe to RiYL: RSS | iTunes
Read in browser Parker Jotter Pen: Lightweight, smooth-writing pen
By Cool Tools on May 14, 2013 11:36 pm Earlier this year I purchased a Parker Jotter stainless steel pen based purely on its cool factor as being the pen that James Bond used in the 1995 film Goldeneye, as I had seen on the Bond Lifestyle web page. I searched for it online and ended up purchasing one from my local office and ...
Read in browser Canberra Skywhale: fanciful, breast-studded lighter-than-air cetacean
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2013 11:00 pm Here's a beautiful gallery of publicity shots of the Canberra Skywhale, a lighter-than-air sculpture created by Patricia Piccinini to celebrate the centenary of the capital city of Australia. The Skywhale is a fanciful, breast-studded creature from a contrafactual alternate history: "My question is what if evolution went a different way and instead of going back ...
Read in browser Woman ejected from plane for singing Whitney Houston
By Rob Beschizza on May 14, 2013 09:38 pm ABC News: "An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing when a female passenger refused to stop singing Whitney Houston songs." Come for the rendition of "I will always love you", stay for the bogus and futile "DO NOT TAKE PICTURES ON THE AIRPLANE!" demands from the flight crew. [Thanks, Michelle Fox!]
Read in browser Poe's The Raven as a studio exec's lament
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2013 09:00 pm Torgo's parody of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven is a particularly well-done example of the genre, which has many entrants (it's the Harlem Shake of poetry!): Turning back, I saw them seated; feeling injured and defeated I approached and wanly greeted them: "Sylvester! Ms. Lenore! I sincerely hope you're thriving - had I known you ...
Read in browser Victoria Sanford: "It's Too Soon to Declare Victory in Guatemalan Genocide"
By Xeni Jardin on May 14, 2013 08:52 pm It's too soon to declare victory in Guatemala, writes anthropologist Victoria Sanford in a New York Times op-ed today. "There is serious evidence that the current president, the former military commander Otto Pérez Molina, who took office in January 2012, may have been involved in the same mass killings for which General Ríos Montt has ...
Read in browser Clayton Cubitt: "On the Constant Moment"
By Xeni Jardin on May 14, 2013 08:44 pm Photo: Clayton Cubitt. A beautiful and thoughtful essay by Clayton Cubitt on the changing nature of the art of photography. Snip: Henri Cartier-Bresson believed that the photographer is like a hunter, going forth into the wild, armed with quick reflexes and a finely-honed eye, in search of that one moment that most distills the time ...
Read in browser US seeks internet's help in tracking child porn producer, rescuing victim of ongoing abuse
By Xeni Jardin on May 14, 2013 08:35 pm A bulletin released online today from the US department of Homeland Security solicits the public's help in tracking down a child pornography producer suspect [shown here] who is seen in a series of videos in which a 7-9 year old girl is repeatedly sexually assaulted. "He appears to have what is commonly referred to as ...
Read in browser Free Press launches citizen sign-on letter to US DOJ, Holder on AP phone records scandal
By Xeni Jardin on May 14, 2013 08:24 pm Josh Stearns of Free Press sends word that the journalism organization has just launched a citizen sign-on letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder and the US Department of Justice about the AP phone records scandal. "We'll deliver these to both the DOJ and Congress and call for an investigation," says Stearns. "We also have ...
Read in browser My Little Pony fans successfully register a 501(c)3 charity for fannish good works
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2013 06:00 pm The Brony Thank You Fund spun out of a Reddit forum Indiegogo fundraiser for fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ("bronies" and "pegasisters"). After raising money to run an ad thanking the show's creators for doing such a great job, the organizers donated the hefty excess balance to Toys for Tots. The project ...
Read in browser 2,300-year-old Maya pyramid bulldozed for Belize road project
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 14, 2013 05:58 pm Matthew says: "Using backhoes and bulldozers to extract crushed rock for a road-building project, a construction company in Belize has destroyed a Mayan pyramid built over 2300 years ago."
Read in browser "Poohenge" - Unusual inflatable sculpture graces Hong Kong park
By Rob Beschizza on May 14, 2013 05:55 pm "Complex Pile", an inflatable sculpture by American artist Paul McCarthy, is displayed at the exhibition "Inflation!" on the grounds of a new park in Hong Kong. "The Park", as it will be called, will cover 14 hectares of landscaped public space devoted to the arts and culture. [Bobby Yip/Reuters]
Read in browser Terrifying celebrity video faceswaps
By Rob Beschizza on May 14, 2013 05:43 pm Come for Tom Hanks + Zooey Deschanel, stay for Mike Tyson + Michelle Obama, then run in terror from Sarah Palin + Honey Boo. The animated GIF has reached its apogee in Hybrid Celebrities, a collection of nightmarish video faceswaps at the distinctly NSFW DailyPicDump.com. [Thanks, Papa Fapa!] UPDATE: They're taken from this sketch. [Team ...
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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