Help crowd-fund a court stenographer for the trial of accused Wikileaks source Bradley Manning Germany tests anti-graffiti drones Hairstyle archeologist proves crazy Roman 'dos were possible TSA random secondary screening is trivial to dodge Middle-Eastern cover of Radiohead's "Karma Police," by Shefy & Sabbah of Tel Aviv Sugar skull and bones "Revenge porn"-style fraudsters target sex offenders The last man born in the 19th century FDA clenches down on fecal transplants Viable Paradise sf writing workshop deadline Pendants carved out of old British coinage A children's guide to splattered bugs Screenshots of Despair: computers making humans sad Obama's trade reps and the MPAA are killing a copyright treaty that gives rights to disabled people Reporters kicked out of Amy's Baking Company after complaining of fly in drink Sheldon Cooper mask What does a $4,000 vinyl record sound like? Invisible Airwaves #41: a moody May Mixtape by Q-Burns Abstract Message Massive NYT feature on US gov's massive leaks inquiries Estimated lost economic value of America's war dead: $44.6 Billion Morning prayers at Guantanamo's Camp 5, where hunger strikers are held Nature's unattainable beauty: The art of Redd Walitzki Woman photographs purported UFO near historic Southern California farm We're breeding the nutrition out of our food US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates! Help crowd-fund a court stenographer for the trial of accused Wikileaks source Bradley Manning
By Xeni Jardin on May 27, 2013 01:00 pm The trial of Bradley Manning begins on June 3, 2013, and will have
profound impact on press freedom and the rights of future whistleblowers throughout the world. The
Freedom of the Press Foundation (I'm a board member) is crowd-funding donations
to hire a court stenographer to record trial transcripts.
Read in browser Germany tests anti-graffiti drones
By Rob Beschizza on May 27, 2013 12:07 pm German railway operator
Deutche Bahn is to target graffiti artists with surveillance drones: "The idea is to use airborne infra-red cameras to collect evidence, which could then be used to prosecute vandals who deface property at night."
Read in browser Hairstyle archeologist proves crazy Roman 'dos were possible
By Rob Beschizza on May 27, 2013 12:02 pm Hairstylist Janet Stephens was unable to replicate a Roman statue's complex bun in the salon,
leading her to solve the ancient mystery of how it worked: "I got deeper and deeper into it ... it took about seven years, and
my article was published in the Journal of Roman Archeology." [PDF]
Read in browser TSA random secondary screening is trivial to dodge
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2013 12:00 pm An anonymous reader of Dave Farber's Interesting People list has discovered a glaring flaw in the TSA's protocol for secondary screening:
today at newark airport i used a paperless electronic boarding pass on my cell phone (as i usually do). i got through the id check, stripped down to my skivvies (almost), and as i was about to walk through the magnetometer (they still have those at united newark), they were yelling out that they were checking boarding passes, take them along through the mag.
Read in browser Middle-Eastern cover of Radiohead's "Karma Police," by Shefy & Sabbah of Tel Aviv
By Xeni Jardin on May 27, 2013 11:24 am Rotem Shefy (vocalist) and
Leat Sabbah (cellist/arranger) describe this as "Our very own Middle-Eastern version" of Radiohead's 1997 hit "
Karma Police."
Read in browser Sugar skull and bones
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2013 10:40 am From November 2011, a set of photos documenting the creation of a sugar skull-and-bones set that can be served with macabre beverages, designed by Snow Violent and made by DR.HC.
Skull Sugar — from sketch to prototype. Part 1 (
via Crazy Abalone)
Read in browser "Revenge porn"-style fraudsters target sex offenders
By Rob Beschizza on May 27, 2013 10:37 am We all know about mugshot and "
revenge porn" sites, which publish compromising photos and target the victims for "removal fees". Here's a new twist: mining the public record for less sympathetic victims,
threatening to publicize sex offenders' personal info if they don't cough up cash.
Read in browser The last man born in the 19th century
By Rob Beschizza on May 27, 2013 10:26 am Last Thursday, Doc Sisnett of Barbados died at 113, leaving Japan's Jiroemon Kimura as t
he last living man to have been born in the 19th century. Twenty-one living women share the honor. [Sydney Morning Herald]
Read in browser FDA clenches down on fecal transplants
By Rob Beschizza on May 27, 2013 10:17 am An
effective cure for a brutal bacterial infection is gaining popularity, but there is a price to recognition:
the FDA is clamping down on the procedure while researching it as an "investigational new drug." Now that doctors have to do a mountain of paperwork, will it result in a black market for backstreet blendastools?
Read in browser Viable Paradise sf writing workshop deadline
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2013 09:54 am A reminder that you've got
3 weeks left to apply for the excellent Viable Paradise science fiction writing workshop on Martha's Vineyard -- a week-long, very intensive course taught by Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Debra Doyle, James D McDonald, Steven Brust, Sherwood Smith, Steven Gould, Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch.
Read in browser Pendants carved out of old British coinage
By Cory Doctorow on May 27, 2013 08:51 am London's Thornhill Jewellery takes old British coinage and laser-cuts
carves sweet/funny/silly designs into them. You can also get them made to order from the year of your choosing (to celebrate a birthday, for example). I saw several of these in person Sunday at Spitalfields Market and they're just great.
Read in browser A children's guide to splattered bugs
By David Pescovitz on May 27, 2013 12:25 am Excellent signage at a 76 gas station, via
Telstar Logistics' Instagram.
Read in browser Screenshots of Despair: computers making humans sad
By Cory Doctorow on May 26, 2013 10:53 pm Screenshots of Despair: a Tumblr that features shots of computers interacting with humans in ways that seem calculated to make them sad and angry. As Bruce Sterling
notes, "Somebody could teach a pretty good interaction-design course with this handy resource.
Read in browser Obama's trade reps and the MPAA are killing a copyright treaty that gives rights to disabled people
By Cory Doctorow on May 26, 2013 08:50 pm Jim Fruchterman, founder of the NGO Benetech, writes in frustration from the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, where the US Trade Representative is scuttling a treaty that will help blind people and people with other disabilities access copyrighted works, largely by making the (actually rather good) US laws the standard around the world.
Read in browser Reporters kicked out of Amy's Baking Company after complaining of fly in drink
By Rob Beschizza on May 26, 2013 07:37 pm Following a
spectacular public meltdown staged by a couple running a Scottsdale restaurant, reporters from the
Phoenix Business-Journal decided to see what all the fuss was about.
They were not disappointed.
Read in browser Sheldon Cooper mask
By Cory Doctorow on May 26, 2013 05:44 pm This is a Sheldon Cooper mask. It makes you look like a character from the Big Bang Theory. It scares and excites me. That is all.
The Big Bang Theory- Sheldon's Mask (
Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
Read in browser What does a $4,000 vinyl record sound like?
By Xeni Jardin on May 26, 2013 05:28 pm An interview with extreme audiophile Pete Hutchison, who has a massive vinyl hoarding habit. His
Electric Recording Company label reissues classic recordings such as one rare Mozart box set on seven discs, directed by Fernand Oubradous, limited to 300 copies, that will cost you £2,495 (around $4K). "I want to have the best-sounding records in the world," he says. "The first challenge was finding and restoring the equipment."
Read in browser Invisible Airwaves #41: a moody May Mixtape by Q-Burns Abstract Message
By Xeni Jardin on May 26, 2013 05:00 pm "Moody gear abounds on this latest installment of Invisible Airwaves as our two hour selection twists and turns through various sonic pathways," explains Michael Donaldson, aka
Q-Burns Abstract Message, about
the 41st installment of his regular mixtape program.
Read in browser Massive NYT feature on US gov's massive leaks inquiries
By Xeni Jardin on May 26, 2013 04:41 pm The New York Times' A1 feature today: "
Leak Inquiries Show How Wide a Net U.S. Cast." Sweeping investigations into leaks of secret information now involve hundreds of government employees, and have created a powerful chilling effect for press. A major blow to our right-to-know: government officials now fear being investigated for simply speaking with a reporter.
Read in browser Estimated lost economic value of America's war dead: $44.6 Billion
By Xeni Jardin on May 26, 2013 04:34 pm In
The New Yorker, Michael Gurriero crunches the numbers on the American military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the most expensive in US history.
The price tag is estimated by Linda J. Bilmes of the Harvard Kennedy School to total somewhere between four and six trillion dollars.
Read in browser Morning prayers at Guantanamo's Camp 5, where hunger strikers are held
By Xeni Jardin on May 26, 2013 04:04 pm At
Freedom of the Press Foundation, Jason Leopold writes about
this video he shot at the section of Guantánamo where the
hunger strikers are being held. What you hear around 3 minutes in is the a Muslim call to prayer being led by the leader of the hunger striking detainees, from inside his cell.
Read in browser Nature's unattainable beauty: The art of Redd Walitzki
By Xeni Jardin on May 26, 2013 03:55 pm Miroir Magazine recently featured artist Redd Walitzki on their cover, and they have
an interview with the artist here. Snip:
In her paintings, Redd Walitzki focuses on the balance between the inevitable entropy of nature, and the unattainable beauty invented through high fashion and technology.
Read in browser Woman photographs purported UFO near historic Southern California farm
By Xeni Jardin on May 26, 2013 03:49 pm In Santee, California (not far from San Diego),
a woman snapped a photo of what she claims is a UFO near the site of an historic barn. She did not want to show her face on camera, because "she was still spooked by what she captured," but she is wearing an awesome straw hat.
Read in browser We're breeding the nutrition out of our food
By Xeni Jardin on May 26, 2013 03:37 pm Image:
Machiko Munakata made this "Sweet Corn" and shared the image in the
Boing Boing Flickr Pool. 4.5 inches, hand-sewn, stuffed with polyfil. In the
New York Times this weekend,
wild foods advocate Jo Robinson writes about how we've "
been stripping phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000 years ago and became farmers." Engineering crops to be sweeter, starchier, less bitter, and more calorie-packed makes them yummier, but changes their nutritional profile, and in turn our health.
Read in browser US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates!
By Cory Doctorow on May 26, 2013 02:41 pm The hilariously named "Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property" has finally released its report, an
84-page tome that's pretty bonkers. But amidst all that crazy, there's a bit that stands out as particularly insane: a proposal to legalize the use of malware in order to punish people believed to be copying illegally.
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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