Carl Zimmer's "The Girl Who Turned To Bone" Father, white, says he was accused by Walmart security of kidnapping his kids, who are mixed-race Salmon Confidential: documentary about Norway's fish-farming SIGGRAPH 2013 computer graphics technical breakthroughs Game designer creates a never-played-by-humans titanium boardgame and buries it for play 2700 years from now Manson disciple tapes analyzed Guatemala: protests condemn annulment of Rios Montt trial, while ex-president Portillo extradited to US New, cheap edition of Taschen's stupendous "Magic 1400s-1950" book Van Halen's "Eruption" guitar solo shredded by 14yo girl Apple "corporate tax evasion" product parody video: iRS Doc about Louisiana atheist seeks funding My Own Private Westeros: hand-made scale model of Game of Thrones map Hardwood Escher tesselated interlocking lizard tiles Why is Eric Holder in charge of reviewing Eric Holder's surveillance of journalists policy? How Edmund Wilson said NO The unsung heroes of early Tumblr culture Beautiful vintage jetpack-futurist car 3D printing: with 2D; with holograms; and all-in-one 3D scanning Monster money! Watch the latest hand-picked videos in Boing Boing's video archives Victorian-era multitool for women: the chatelaine 3D printed bio-absorbable splint saves baby with otherwise fatal impaired breathing McThanks Prosthetic tentacle How London cops use social media to spy on protest movements Luke Skywalker's pants sold for $36,000 Walktopus: 5' tall bronze Boards of Canada: Reach for the Dead (from "Tomorrow's Harvest," 2013) Crowdsourced advice with author A.J. Jacobs Full text of Obama's speech on national security, drones, and new promises to close GTMO Carl Zimmer's "The Girl Who Turned To Bone"
By David Pescovitz on May 24, 2013 12:58 pm In The Atlantic, science writer extraordinaire Carl Zimmer wrote a fascinating long article about fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), a rare medical disorder in which the sufferer grows a second skeleton. (Above, the skeleton of FOP-sufferer Harry Raymond Eastlack, on display at the Mütter Museum.) Beyond a tale of medical curiosity, it's a genetic detective story ...
Read in browser Father, white, says he was accused by Walmart security of kidnapping his kids, who are mixed-race
By Xeni Jardin on May 24, 2013 12:55 pm A man in Virginia says he was accused by security guards at a local Walmart of kidnapping his daughters. The father is white. The mother is black. They have been married for about 10 years and have three daughters: a 4-year-old and 2-year-old twins, all of whom are mixed-race. The incident happened last week on ...
Read in browser Salmon Confidential: documentary about Norway's fish-farming
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 24, 2013 12:50 pm Dave Asprey says: Unfortunately, because of the Norwegian-led fish-farming industry and modern pollution, its no longer safe to assume you're eating a nutritious, disease and poison-free fish… unless you know exactly where it came from. Long story short: Avoid farmed fish the same way you avoid industrial red meat, insist on wild-caught sockeye salmon, and ...
Read in browser SIGGRAPH 2013 computer graphics technical breakthroughs
By David Pescovitz on May 24, 2013 12:27 pm The Association for Computing Machinery's annual SIGGRAPH conference is where you will find many of the most incredible, edgiest developments in computer graphics research. Above is the video trailer for this year's "Technical Papers" program. SIGGRAPH 2013 takes place July 21-25 in Anaheim, California.
Read in browser Game designer creates a never-played-by-humans titanium boardgame and buries it for play 2700 years from now
By Cory Doctorow on May 24, 2013 12:17 pm Michael McWhertor recounts Jason Rohrer's extraordinary Game Developers' Conference presentation from last March; Rohrer used a set of genetic algorithms to evolve and play-test a board-game that no human ever played, then he milled it out of a piece of titanium and buried it, along with acid-free rules encased in Pyrex, and buried it in ...
Read in browser Manson disciple tapes analyzed
By Rob Beschizza on May 24, 2013 11:58 am Tapes of conversations between a Charles Manson acolyte and his lawyer have been handed to LAPD and may solve old murders: "A federal judge in Texas ruled in March that Charles 'Tex' Watson waived his right to attorney-client privilege when he allowed his lawyer to sell the eight cassette tapes." [AP]
Read in browser Guatemala: protests condemn annulment of Rios Montt trial, while ex-president Portillo extradited to US
By Xeni Jardin on May 24, 2013 11:34 am In Guatemala City and throughout Latin America today, protests are taking place to condemn the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's decision this week to effectively throw out the trial of Ríos Montt. On May 10, the former US-backed general was found guilty, and sentenced to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity. But just ...
Read in browser New, cheap edition of Taschen's stupendous "Magic 1400s-1950" book
By Cory Doctorow on May 24, 2013 10:49 am Back in 2009, I wrote about Taschen's amazing "Magic 1400s-1950s," which presently goes for about $300. Taschen is reissuing the book in a cheaper edition, which'll cost you $42.22 when it comes out on July 1. Here's a review on Crackajack, providing a timely reminder of what a stupendous book this is. And here's what ...
Read in browser Van Halen's "Eruption" guitar solo shredded by 14yo girl
By Xeni Jardin on May 24, 2013 10:09 am The guitar solo from Van Halen's song "Eruption" played by Tina, who is 14. More than 3 million video views in 3 days. She was taught and filmed by Renaud Louis-Servais, and she's playing a Vigier Excalibur Custom. Below, Eddie Van Halen performing the same, live.
Read in browser Apple "corporate tax evasion" product parody video: iRS
By Xeni Jardin on May 24, 2013 09:53 am The troublesome thing is that only about half of what's in this video is made up. From Sourcefed. Background: Apple, like many other large US corporations, does interesting things with money overseas to minimize the amount it must pay in taxes, and maximize the amount it can keep as profit.
Read in browser Doc about Louisiana atheist seeks funding
By Cory Doctorow on May 24, 2013 09:44 am Bill sez, "Husband-and-wife Berkeley filmmakers Jason Cohn and Camille Servan-Schreiber won a Peabody award for their documentary about design pioneers Charles and Ray Eames, 'Eames: The Architect and the Painter.' Now they want to make a film about Jerry DeWitt, a former Pentecostal preacher who went public about his loss of faith, then lost his ...
Read in browser My Own Private Westeros: hand-made scale model of Game of Thrones map
By Xeni Jardin on May 24, 2013 09:22 am [Click to enlarge]. Mikeal is making an incredibly labor-intensive scale model of the Game of Thrones Westeros map, and you can watch him build it at his tumblr: myownprivatewesteros.tumblr.com. 3D-printed castle models, walls of putty, hand-painted rivers and hills. This guy is serious. (Thanks, Tom Osborn)
Read in browser Hardwood Escher tesselated interlocking lizard tiles
By Cory Doctorow on May 24, 2013 09:09 am The Spanish firm Arbore offered these custom Escher-inspired floor tiles back in 2011; from the looks of things, they're still available. It's a very well-executed conceit, done in hardwood. Diseño geometrico inspiración Escher (via Geekologie)
Read in browser Why is Eric Holder in charge of reviewing Eric Holder's surveillance of journalists policy?
By Xeni Jardin on May 24, 2013 09:02 am During Obama's national security speech yesterday, the president unexpectedly mentioned the AP and Fox News press freedom scandals. "Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs," he said, adding that he is "troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable." Trevor Timm from Freedom ...
Read in browser How Edmund Wilson said NO
By Cory Doctorow on May 23, 2013 10:42 pm Update: Here's Mark's first post of this, from 2009 Here's literary critic Edmund Wilson's form-letter for turning down requests from strangers. As Tim Ferriss notes, Wilson wasn't a hermit or antisocial, but he maximized the time he spent socializing with the people he liked by not letting strangers gobble up his time: Edmund Wilson regrets ...
Read in browser The unsung heroes of early Tumblr culture
By Xeni Jardin on May 23, 2013 09:31 pm A good read in The Daily Dot about a "major piece of the puzzle" in Tumblr's origin myth that's often overlooked: "[Founder David] Karp wasn't the first person to create a tumblelog, the term used to describe the stripped-down blogging and content curation he has become known for. He wasn't even the second. The true ...
Read in browser Beautiful vintage jetpack-futurist car
By Cory Doctorow on May 23, 2013 09:28 pm On Super Punch, set of photos of a beautiful, enbubbled, betailfinned Los Angeles land yacht spotted on the 101. Hoo-ah. Saw a this on the 101 in Los Angeles today. It was caravanning with a bunch of classic cars.
Read in browser 3D printing: with 2D; with holograms; and all-in-one 3D scanning
By Cory Doctorow on May 23, 2013 08:38 pm Here's a video from last week's Maker Faire showcasing technologies for printing out 3D-ish objects using 2D printers: ModelBox turns a 3D model into a series of 2D images you print on acetate and set into a frame to cheaply and quickly prototype/simulate the 3D object; Zebra Images turns 3D models into holograms; and Lynx ...
Read in browser Monster money!
By Cory Doctorow on May 23, 2013 08:03 pm Google Translate says that the caption on this image is Japanese for "Bill of surprised frontispiece monster world." I can't really hazard any guesses beyond that, but hey, monster money! 『びっくり口絵 怪物世界のお札』 (via Crazy Abalone)
Read in browser Watch the latest hand-picked videos in Boing Boing's video archives
By Xeni Jardin on May 23, 2013 07:49 pm Among the most recent video posts you will find on our video archive page: • Conversations with my 2 year old: a web video series. • 3D printing saved a baby's life. • Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" music video. • New Boards of Canada video! • 3D printed shotgun slugs (suck). • Law Enforcement's Guide ...
Read in browser Victorian-era multitool for women: the chatelaine
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 23, 2013 07:04 pm Ben Marks of Collectors Weekly says: "Our Senior Victorian Accessories Correspondent, Hunter Oatman-Stanford, has just written a piece about the chatelaine, which was the killer hands-free device for women back in the Victorian era. For his article, he interviewed author Genevieve Cummins." Like a customized Swiss Army knife, a chatelaine provided its wearer with exactly ...
Read in browser 3D printed bio-absorbable splint saves baby with otherwise fatal impaired breathing
By Cory Doctorow on May 23, 2013 07:00 pm Elijah sez, "Recent news has been all about the commercial use of 3D printing - from food to weaponry. But recently, doctors at the University of Michigan used quick thinking and 3D printing technology to save the life of a 2-month-old child with a rare disease." The scaffold was made of a bioresorbable material, polycaprolactone, ...
Read in browser McThanks
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 23, 2013 06:59 pm Matthew says: "Charles Ramsay, the man who famously put down his Big Mac to help rescue three women held captive in Cleveland, is getting complimentary McDonald's for the next year."
Read in browser Prosthetic tentacle
By Cory Doctorow on May 23, 2013 05:37 pm Taiwanese design student Kaylene Kau created this motorized prosthetic tentacle for a class project: "For this project we were pushed by our Professor to push the boundaries of current upper-limb prosthetic design. Through extensive research I found that the prosthetic functioned as an assistant to the dominant functioning hand. The prosthetic needed to be both ...
Read in browser How London cops use social media to spy on protest movements
By Cory Doctorow on May 23, 2013 05:00 pm Juha sez, "If you're going to build a protest movement, it might be better to stay off Facebook and Twitter because the cops are fully tuned into social media these days. The Open Source Intelligence Unit at London's Metropolitan Police Service has a staff of seventeen who work seven days a week - to track ...
Read in browser Luke Skywalker's pants sold for $36,000
By David Pescovitz on May 23, 2013 04:32 pm Luke Skywaler's filthy Levi's worn in the original Star Wars just sold at auction for $36,100. The "sand-colored 'cotton drill'" Levi's were customized by famed London costume-maker Bermans & Nathans. "Lot #555: Mark Hamill's Screen-Worn Hero Pants in the Original 1977 ''Star Wars'' as Luke Skywalker" (via New York)
Read in browser Walktopus: 5' tall bronze
By Cory Doctorow on May 23, 2013 04:01 pm There's a lot of personality in Scott Musgrove's 5' tall bronze entitled "Walktopus." If that's a bit on the large side, there's a 20" version, too. Sculpture (Thanks, Scott!)
Read in browser Boards of Canada: Reach for the Dead (from "Tomorrow's Harvest," 2013)
By Xeni Jardin on May 23, 2013 03:41 pm A first music video from the long-awaited new album 'Tomorrow's Harvest' by
Boards of Canada.
Read in browser Crowdsourced advice with author A.J. Jacobs
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 23, 2013 03:04 pm A.J. Jacobs is the author of some of my favorite books. In his 2005 book, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, A.J. committed himself to read the entire print edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. In 2007 he wrote The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to ...
Read in browser Full text of Obama's speech on national security, drones, and new promises to close GTMO
By Xeni Jardin on May 23, 2013 03:04 pm Here is the full text of President Obama's May 23 speech on national security, as prepared for delivery today. The President was interrupted by Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, who challenged him on the urgency of closing Guantanamo Bay prison. He then spoke off script, allowing his heckler to speak at length, and he responded ...
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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