Rat dressed as mutton in China Free/CC kids' picture book: The Story of a Piece of Paper Easy win for publishing: network and systematize PR and marketing Homemade laser pops 100 balloons 8-year-old's invention for keeping books dry in the bath Homemade Thor's hammer with an 80,000 volt Tesla coil in it Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School Of Medicine's "White People and the Damage Done" Lawsuit: Warner Brothers a cat meme copycat Turkish Airlines bars staff from wearing lipstick OpenWorm: an artificial life sim of an earthworm Running on a long, deep pool of ooblek Mitt Romney urges grads to procreate like rabbits The return of Kids Guatemala: "San Rafael Mine State of Siege," photo-essay by James Rodriguez Guatemala: state of siege declared as Army, police crack down after protests against Canadian-owned mine Old ads for new underwear CISPA is not dead! It's coming back -- get ready! Molly Crabapple's SHELL GAME, free and CC A fantastic long read about activism and nuclear weapons What neuroscientists think of the BRAIN Initiative Evolution, pregnancy, and food Unboxing a mysterious trunk in the attic Guatemala: Rios Montt genocide trial struggles toward completion as confusion reigns in courtroom Colonial cannibalism What happens in a tiger shark's uterus stays in a tiger shark's uterus Gull eats starfish, auditions for role as LOL animal Tiny alien skeleton suspected of being human Tyler, the Creator punks PepsiCo with "arguably the most racist commercial in history." Mother missing for 11 years turns herself in Rat dressed as mutton in China
By Rob Beschizza on May 03, 2013 12:42 pm "More than 900 people have been arrested in China for selling fake or tainted meat in the last three months, state media say. ... In one case, the suspects made fake mutton from foxes, mink and rats after adding chemicals." [BBC]
Read in browser Free/CC kids' picture book: The Story of a Piece of Paper
By Cory Doctorow on May 03, 2013 12:41 pm Natalie Judd comes out to many of my events in Toronto with her charming kids, and while I knew she was an artist (mostly lovely mosaics), I hadn't had a chance to get a good look at her work until today, when she tweeted a link to "The Story of a Piece of Paper," a ...
Read in browser Easy win for publishing: network and systematize PR and marketing
By Cory Doctorow on May 03, 2013 12:31 pm My latest Locus column, "Improving Book Publicity in the 21st Century," addresses the lack of automation and management in traditional publishing an publicity, and suggests some simple and cheap ways that publishers could join up the way its editorial, marketing a PR departments communicate with reviewers and other publicity outlets to save money and score ...
Read in browser Homemade laser pops 100 balloons
By Cory Doctorow on May 03, 2013 10:32 am Scott A. Stevenson modded a Blu-ray laser flashlight to run at 500mW and used it to pop 100 black balloons. For science! 100 black balloons vs. Blu-ray laser! It is all over in under 8 seconds. The sound they make as they pop is a bit mesmerizing! Note: The laser used in this video is ...
Read in browser 8-year-old's invention for keeping books dry in the bath
By Cory Doctorow on May 03, 2013 09:45 am This ingenious technique for safeguarding books from falling in the bathtub was invented by redditor Crash-From-Space's 8-year-old daughter. The suction cup came from the plumbing aisle at Home Despot. Never drop a book on the bath again. My 8 year old daughters invention. (imgur.com)
Read in browser Homemade Thor's hammer with an 80,000 volt Tesla coil in it
By Cory Doctorow on May 03, 2013 09:27 am Not content with a "crappy plastic Thor's hammer," Caleb from Hackaday made himself a Tesla-coil-equipped Mjolnir with a tiny, 80,000 volt Tesla coil in its head. It shoots lightning! Lots of built photos on the Hackaday site, too. I had seen some videos of [Staci Elaan] showing off her battery-powered coils and I really liked ...
Read in browser Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School Of Medicine's "White People and the Damage Done"
By Cory Doctorow on May 03, 2013 09:17 am Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School Of Medicine's new album, White People and the Damage Done, is an artifact from an alternate reality in which the Dead Kennedys never dissolved in acrimony, and instead kept on gigging and recording, getting tighter and tighter, angrier and angrier, and yet, somehow, never aging. Jello Biafra's lyrics are ...
Read in browser Lawsuit: Warner Brothers a cat meme copycat
By Rob Beschizza on May 03, 2013 09:12 am Media companies have dirty hands when it comes to copyright infringement? Timothy B. Lee at Ars: Warner Brothers is facing a federal lawsuit for using two feline-themed Internet memes in a video game without their creators' permission. The authors of "Keyboard Cat" and "Nyan Cat" have sued the media giant arguing that the game Scribblenauts, ...
Read in browser Turkish Airlines bars staff from wearing lipstick
By Rob Beschizza on May 03, 2013 08:58 am Europe's fourth-largest airline said the ban was aimed at keeping crews "artless and well-groomed with makeup in pastel tones", reports Ayla Jean Yackley; Turkey's move toward a more conservative brand of Islam has secularists concerned. [Reuters]
Read in browser OpenWorm: an artificial life sim of an earthworm
By Cory Doctorow on May 02, 2013 10:48 pm Wagner James Au sez, "OpenWorm, as the name suggests, is a collaborative open source project to computationally create a simple artificial life form -- an earth worm -- from the cellular level to a point where it's sophisticated enough to solve basic problems. They're still in early stages, with the latest demo, a developer on ...
Read in browser Running on a long, deep pool of ooblek
By Cory Doctorow on May 02, 2013 09:05 pm This 2006 gameshow clip shows contestants running back and forth atop a deep pool of non-Newtonian fluid -- ooblek -- without sinking in. They run, they skip, they hop, and maintain admirable aplomb atop the surface. It gets especially nice when the host stops in his tracks and sinks down into the mucky depths. Non-Newtonian ...
Read in browser Mitt Romney urges grads to procreate like rabbits
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 02, 2013 08:34 pm Matt says: "In his commencement address to the graduating class at Southern Virginia University (a largely Mormon school), Mitt Romney urged the graduates to 'Get married, and have a quiver full of kids if you can.'" Mitt Romney went on to say: “I don’t think God cares whether you get rich,” he cautions. “I don’t ...
Read in browser The return of Kids
By Michael Schreiber on May 02, 2013 08:29 pm The good people over at Narrative.ly caught up with some of the surviving cast members of the 1995 film Kids. Written by Harmony Korine and directed by Larry Clark, Kids was a raw glimpse at life inside New York's early 90s skater and club scene. I remember the film for being both terrifying and making me ...
Read in browser Guatemala: "San Rafael Mine State of Siege," photo-essay by James Rodriguez
By Xeni Jardin on May 02, 2013 07:31 pm Photo: James Rodriguez of mimundo.org [Posted from Guatemala City] As reported previously on Boing Boing, the Guatemalan government has declared a 30-day State of Siege in 4 communities surrounding the Canadian-owned San Rafael Mine (aka Escobal Mine), following anti-mining protests that turned violent. Guatemalan photojournalist James Rodriguez of mimundo.org has published a photo-essay on Facebook ...
Read in browser Guatemala: state of siege declared as Army, police crack down after protests against Canadian-owned mine
By Xeni Jardin on May 02, 2013 06:10 pm Photo: Troops entering the region around a disputed mining site, shortly after the declaration of a State of Siege by the government of Guatemala. Photo: guatemala.gob.gt. Photo: Carlos Andrino. "Caserío los Lopez. Santa Lucia Xalapan. Jalapa." May 2, 2013, Guatemala. [Posted from Guatemala City] Residents of four towns east of Guatemala's capital woke up to ...
Read in browser Old ads for new underwear
By Cory Doctorow on May 02, 2013 06:01 pm This weekend's contest on the Vintage Ads LiveJournal is old underwear ads, and the group is filling up with some extraordinary pics. Here are some of my faves (click to go through to the original posts).
Read in browser CISPA is not dead! It's coming back -- get ready!
By Cory Doctorow on May 02, 2013 04:42 pm Evan from Fight for the Future sez, "All of your phone calls, emails, petition signatures, and tweets are working. The privacy-killing back-from-the-dead zombie bill CISPA is a bit stalled in the Senate, with over $605 million in lobbying spent on it already, it's bound to be back to haunt us in some form soon. So ...
Read in browser Molly Crabapple's SHELL GAME, free and CC
By Cory Doctorow on May 02, 2013 04:39 pm Robbo sez, "Molly Crabapple's first major solo show, SHELL GAME, closed last Tuesday. Yesterday she released hi-res versions of the works under Creative Commons Share-Alike Non-Commercial. In her words: "Without the support of hundreds of people online, Shell Game would never have happened. The internet believed in me, believed in the promise of my art, ...
Read in browser A fantastic long read about activism and nuclear weapons
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 02, 2013 03:30 pm Last summer, a nun, a drifter, and a house painter broke into the secure compound surrounding the Oak Ridge National Laboratory — the laboratory that made uranium for the Manhattan Project and continues to be a major part of America's nuclear infrastructure. Their goal: To put America on trial. Dan Zak has written an amazing ...
Read in browser What neuroscientists think of the BRAIN Initiative
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 02, 2013 03:04 pm In general, they seem to like it. But with reservations. The Obama Administration's highly touted brain-mapping program — pitched as a neurological analog to the Human Genome Project — might be approaching the problem of how the brain works in the wrong way. In particular, if the Initiative only focuses on mapping activity in the ...
Read in browser Evolution, pregnancy, and food
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 02, 2013 02:58 pm The populations at lowest risk for developing gestational diabetes — namely, ladies of European decent — come from cultures that eat (and have eaten, for thousands of years) dairy and wheat-heavy diets that would, normally, increase your risk. Meanwhile, writes Carl Zimmer at The Loom, Bangladeshi women, who have one of the highest risks for ...
Read in browser Unboxing a mysterious trunk in the attic
By Cory Doctorow on May 02, 2013 02:56 pm Reddit user Lumpytuna found a trunk of wonderful old junque in her attic and videoed the unboxing, as well as posting a great inventory set to Imgur. The ensuing discussion is lively and funny. Pics! Some of the more interesting contents of the chest in my attic. (imgur.com) (via Reddit)
Read in browser Guatemala: Rios Montt genocide trial struggles toward completion as confusion reigns in courtroom
By Xeni Jardin on May 02, 2013 02:03 pm A 1982 photograph by Jean-Marie Simon of Otto Perez Molina; he commanded the Guatemalan Army in Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala at the time, and is now President. Nebaj is part of the region at issue in a genocide trial against former head of state Ríos Montt. The military hat in this photo indicates status as a ...
Read in browser Colonial cannibalism
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 02, 2013 02:01 pm While starving during the winter of 1609, residents of Jamestown, Virginia likely ate at least one person, a teenage girl. Archaeologists found her skeleton last summer and it's riddled with cut marks characteristic of a body that has been butchered after death.
Read in browser What happens in a tiger shark's uterus stays in a tiger shark's uterus
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 02, 2013 01:52 pm Rob posted a link to a Discovery News story yesterday about shark embryos eating one another in the womb. Today, I read a second piece on this research that I have to share with you, for no other reason than this fantastic/horrific quote (and all the implications contained therein): "It's so voracious that at least ...
Read in browser Gull eats starfish, auditions for role as LOL animal
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 02, 2013 01:48 pm Writer Darren Naish, who blogs at Tretrapod Zoology, took this photo of a Larus gull attempting to chow down on an awkwardly shaped starfish. (And, really, are there any other kind of starfish? Especially when you're trying to fit them in your mouth whole?) You might remember Larus gulls from a recent piece I wrote ...
Read in browser Tiny alien skeleton suspected of being human
By David Pescovitz on May 02, 2013 01:25 pm This tiny skeleton, just 6 inches long, was found a decade ago in Chile's Atacama Desert. Scientists now report that DNA and other test results prove that it is human. Fox Mulder believes otherwise. "Alien-Looking Skeleton Poses Medical Mystery" (Discovery, thanks Syd Garon!) And here is more about this specimen's provenance and its unwitting participation ...
Read in browser Tyler, the Creator punks PepsiCo with "arguably the most racist commercial in history."
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 02, 2013 01:22 pm PepsiCo, in an attempt to appear hip, hired Tyler, the Creator to direct a series of Mountain Dew commercials. Tyler, the Creator took advantage of this opportunity to make an ad that was so over-the-top racist that it would have to be pulled. It's a triple win for Tyler, the Creator, who ends up getting ...
Read in browser Mother missing for 11 years turns herself in
By David Pescovitz on May 02, 2013 01:19 pm Eleven years ago, Brenda Heist of central Pennsylvania vanished. She had dropped off her kids, then 8 and 12, at school. Dinner was defrosting. Laundry was half-done. And then she was gone without a trace. There was a long investigation. Her husband was considered a suspect at one point. Eventually, she was declared dead. Then ...
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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