Apps for Kids 36: Archercat Wire-and-paper animation for Professor Kliq song Missing man walks into TV news shot Lightning Dust - "Diamond" (free MP3) No rear-facing camera on new iPod Man shot and killed during FBI interview was unarmed Miami police choke 14-year-old and hurt his puppy after receiving 'dehumanizing stares' Toronto mayoral disaster: illegal deletion of staffers' email? Missing shark found in South Dakota Schools and the cloud: will schools allow students to be profiled and advertised to in the course of their school-day? Schneier: The FBI's new plan to wiretap the internet is great. For criminals. First looks at Windows 8.1 Teju Cole on Image Search: Google's Macchia Living-room pipe organ CIA whistleblower's astounding letter about his prison life Science fiction story in the form of a Twitter bug-report 15 weirdest things on wheels at Maker Faire 2013 Dry-ice "explosion" results in Toontown evacuation at Disneyland The unfiltered history of rolling papers, plus Tommy Chong's big fat Jamaican vacation RIP, Henry Morgentaler, Canadian abortion pioneer Hey honey, we got a new phone book Settlers of Catan proposal EFF files formal objection against DRM's inclusion in HTML5 Texas to pass landmark email privacy law RIP, Jack Vance Update on small children being mercilessly punished for, e.g., gnawing a pastry into a gun shape at school IRS targets medical marijuana businesses in government's war on weed Singapore to individually license websites, require a $50K bond against bad taste Hemispherical Earth cake with crust, mantle and core The Economist's bizarre BuzzFeed ad Apps for Kids 36: Archercat
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 30, 2013 12:49 pm Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 10-year-old daughter, Jane. In this episode of Apps for Kids, we talk about
ArcherCat, a tower defense game for
iOS and
Android.
Read in browser Wire-and-paper animation for Professor Kliq song
By David Pescovitz on May 30, 2013 12:48 pm Patator Prod's fantastic wire-and-paper stop motion animation for
Professor Kliq's "Plastic and Flashing Lights."
(via Juxtapoz) Read in browser Missing man walks into TV news shot
By David Pescovitz on May 30, 2013 12:40 pm A TV news station in Portland, Maine was preparing to report on a man with dementia who had been missing when the fellow walked up behind the reporter. "
Elderly Man With Dementia Goes Missing in Maine, Found by Local News Crew"
Read in browser Lightning Dust - "Diamond" (free MP3)
By Amy Seidenwurm on May 30, 2013 12:36 pm Sound it Out # 47: Lightning Dust - "Diamond" (MP3) This song gives me an ache. A good kind of ache. I get a delicious tightening in my chest that can only be (temporarily) relieved by hitting PLAY again. Josh Wells and Amber Webber are
Lightning Dust.
Read in browser No rear-facing camera on new iPod
By Rob Beschizza on May 30, 2013 12:32 pm The
new iPod touch 4 features a 4-inch "Retina" display, 16GB of storage and a user-facing HD camera. There's no rear-facing one at all. Gone too is the old lanyard hook. There's a 21st Century datapoint for you: people take more photos of themselves than anything else!
Read in browser Man shot and killed during FBI interview was unarmed
By Rob Beschizza on May 30, 2013 12:25 pm Ibragim Todashev, an associate of the Boston Bombing suspects,
was unarmed when shot and killed during an FBI interview. Officials had earlier claimed that Todashev was armed with a knife. [WESH]
Read in browser Miami police choke 14-year-old and hurt his puppy after receiving 'dehumanizing stares'
By Rob Beschizza on May 30, 2013 12:16 pm Police in Miami-Dade slammed a 14-year-old child on the ground, then placed him in a chokehold. Why?
Because he gave them a "dehumanizing stare." When asked about his puppy, injured during the arrest, Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta told CBS: "We are not concerned with a puppy.
Read in browser Toronto mayoral disaster: illegal deletion of staffers' email?
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 12:01 pm More news from the embattled mayor of Toronto, Rob "Laughable Bumblefuck" Ford: after
two of his senior staffers walked out on him following questioning by Toronto homicide detectives, it appears that someone illegally ordered the destruction of their archived city emails and call-records -- as well as the archived electronic communications of Ford's former chief of staff, whom Ford fired under mysterious circumstances.
Read in browser Missing shark found in South Dakota
By Rob Beschizza on May 30, 2013 11:58 am "Rapid City police said an anonymous tip lead them to
the 12-foot shark that was found in an open field next to the old Pizza Hut in Box Elder." [Rapid City Journal via
Brendan Koerner]
Read in browser Schools and the cloud: will schools allow students to be profiled and advertised to in the course of their school-day?
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 09:52 am Kate sez, "Technology companies are moving rapidly to get tools like email and document creation services into schools. This link to a recent survey of schools in the UK shows that use of such technology is expected to bring significant educational and social benefits.
Read in browser Schneier: The FBI's new plan to wiretap the internet is great. For criminals.
By Xeni Jardin on May 30, 2013 09:25 am Bruce Schneier in
Foreign Policy magazine
writes about the new law proposed by the FBI that will make wiretapping the internet easier. "This law will result in less-secure Internet products and create a foreign industry in more-secure alternatives. It will impose costly burdens on affected companies.
Read in browser First looks at Windows 8.1
By Xeni Jardin on May 30, 2013 09:21 am An incrementally new edition of Microsoft's Windows operating system, the eighth pointh oneth version, launched today.
Mat Honan at Wired has a detailed hands-on, and Wilson Rothman at MSNBC
does a fine job at explaining the new features here.
Read in browser Teju Cole on Image Search: Google's Macchia
By Xeni Jardin on May 30, 2013 09:19 am "Google tried to do everything. It proved itself the deepest and fastest of the search engines. It stomped the competition in email. It made a decent showing in image hosting, and a good one in chat. It stumbled on social, but utterly owned maps.
Read in browser Living-room pipe organ
By Cory Doctorow on May 30, 2013 08:56 am Nora sez, "My father, a retired software engineer, amateur musician, and OG-maker, is building a pipe organ in his and my mother's living room. The project (which has involved moving to a new house, selected in part due to its organ-friendly design) is being documented on his blog.
Read in browser CIA whistleblower's astounding letter about his prison life
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 30, 2013 01:51 am A
fascinating letter about prison life, written by John Kiriakou, the former CIA agent who was sent to prison for blowing the whistle about the federal government's secret torture campaign.
Read in browser Science fiction story in the form of a Twitter bug-report
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 11:00 pm I like Tim Maly's short-short science fiction story, which takes the form of a Twitter bug-report:
"Yo @carzymoney," he said, "I think @timebot's got a bug in the link code. #learn2code" It was a post by Allison. Nothing special, something like "Mmmm tasty lunch" with an image attached.
Read in browser 15 weirdest things on wheels at Maker Faire 2013
By Advertiser on May 29, 2013 09:00 pm ADVERTISEMENT SPONSORED: This post is presented by the Toyota RAV4 EV. Because innovation can be measured in miles, kilowatts and cubic feet. Learn more at toyota.com/rav4ev
Maker Faire launched in 2006 as a place for makers to meet up and show off their stuff.
Read in browser Dry-ice "explosion" results in Toontown evacuation at Disneyland
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 08:57 pm Someone apparently put a sealed plastic bottle containing dry ice in a trashcan in Disneyland's Toontown yesterday. It made a loud noise (described by one witness as louder than a gunshot) and released some water vapor,
and sparked an evacuation, which Disney describes as being the result of "an abundance of caution." No one was hurt and no damage was done.
Read in browser The unfiltered history of rolling papers, plus Tommy Chong's big fat Jamaican vacation
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 29, 2013 08:38 pm Our pal Ben Marks from
Collectors Weekly says: "Here's our article on the history of rolling papers, from their humble beginnings on the streets of 16th-century Spain to their manufacture in the Spanish village of Alcoy. Our story includes an interview with Josh Kesselman, the founder of RAW Rolling Papers, which still produces rolling papers in Alcoy, as well as Tommy Chong, who knows a thing or two about rolling papers but confesses that he's more of a pipe guy.
Read in browser RIP, Henry Morgentaler, Canadian abortion pioneer
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 08:11 pm Doctor Henry Morgentaler, who pioneered safe, legal abortion in Canada at great personal risk and cost, died today at 90. Canada is a better place for the work he did. Here's a photo of me and Morgentaler when I was 4 1/2 years old.
Read in browser Hey honey, we got a new phone book
By Rob Beschizza on May 29, 2013 07:38 pm By
Michael Thomas. [Thumbnail courtesy of Shutterstock]
Read in browser Settlers of Catan proposal
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 07:01 pm Laura sez, "My sister, who works for how about we & is an avid gaming fan, got an amazing proposal from her now-fiance. Pete, with the help of a crafty friend, created a new development card and sat playing for 2 hours until he could purchase the 'proposal' development card and play it!
Read in browser EFF files formal objection against DRM's inclusion in HTML5
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 06:09 pm Regular readers will know that
there's a hard press to put DRM in the next version of HTML, which is being standardized at the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3), and that
this has really grave potential consequences for the open Web that the WC3 has historically fought to build.
Read in browser Texas to pass landmark email privacy law
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 05:56 pm Texas is on the verge of passing legislation that patches a hole in federal privacy law. Under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, no warrant is needed to spy on email once it has been opened, or if it is unopened on a server for more than six months.
Read in browser RIP, Jack Vance
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 04:57 pm Stefan Jones sez, "SF&F titan Jack Vance has died at age 96. He had a mighty good run, continuing to write for many years after losing most of his eyesight. I think I'm going to reread
The Eyes of the Overworld this week, in tribute." Sad news, indeed.
Read in browser Update on small children being mercilessly punished for, e.g., gnawing a pastry into a gun shape at school
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 03:51 pm Kevin at Lowering the Bar updates us on the Lego Gun Incident, wherein a six-year-old boy was punished for bringing a tiny, Lego-sized gun onto his Springfield, MA school-bus. The school initially demanded that the boy write a letter of apology and serve detention because the gun "caused quite a disturbance on the bus and that the children were traumatized." However, the same zero-tolerance-obssessed nutjobs at the school board also put CCTVs on their buses, and a review of the footage therefrom reveals that nothing bad actually happened.
Read in browser IRS targets medical marijuana businesses in government's war on weed
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 29, 2013 03:00 pm Ariel Shearer in HuffPost: "For the past several years, the Internal Revenue Service has been systematically targeting medical marijuana establishments, relying on an obscure statute that gives the taxing agency unintended power. The IRS has been functioning as an arm of justice,
employing the U.S. Read in browser Singapore to individually license websites, require a $50K bond against bad taste
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 02:51 pm A reader writes, "The Singapore government just announced an intention to begin regulating websites that report on the country, requiring a S$50,000 'performance bond' and compliance with any takedown notices from the government within 24 hours. The reason for this is apparently to regulate content which solicits for prostitution, undermines racial and religious harmony, or 'goes against good taste'.
Read in browser Hemispherical Earth cake with crust, mantle and core
By Cory Doctorow on May 29, 2013 02:27 pm This brilliant hemispherical cake depicting the Earth's surface and approximating its core was baked by Rhiannon of Baking Adventures in Melbourne, Australia. She baked a cake inside a cake, formed a crust of chocolate buttercream, and then applied the seas, continents and islands with marshmallow fondant.
Read in browser The Economist's bizarre BuzzFeed ad
By Rob Beschizza on May 29, 2013 01:48 pm The Economist. Bastion of a peculiarly British brand of rightward-leaning, leftward-winking centrism, it was first published in the autumn of 1843. Respectable.
August. A fierce advocate of intelligence in journalism. And now, author of
a perfectly inane listicle at BuzzFeed, part of the younger publication's advertorial program.
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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