RiYL podcast 005: Jesse Thorn Supreme Court: You can't patent (naturally occurring) genes Backstage at the Haunted Mansion Brutal police crackdown on protesters in Sao Paolo Little Brother remixes How the Russians pee in space Here's that Beastles album you've been waiting for! Whale steak ad David Rohde on the 'secrecy industrial complex' In Alberta, toxic waste spill may be biggest of all recent disasters in N. America Silicon Valley remains a tough place for women and brown people New #2 at CIA studied physics, used to read erotica at an independent bookstore she co-owned David Letterman, starring in the weirdest supercut video ever: Are Those Your Drums? Topsy Turvy World: surreal kids' picture book, now out in the USA Good Dog - graphic novel about the life of a stray dog (excerpt) Deep Lounge music version of Get Lucky is the last one you'll ever need Wired profiles NSA's Keith Alexander, the general leading America into cyberwar Jack Shafer: Edward Snowden and the selective targeting of leaks 3D printed bowtie Vintage futures: Next Stop Mars, 1952 Doctor Popular shares his favorite cellphone lens tips at Photojojo this week Verizon: Oh yeah, we can definitely hear you now. Mexico arrests 12 in murders of young women forced into prostitution Indiana: 14 year old rape victim impregnated by molester is slut-shamed by neighbors The IRS is in your internets, watching your financial transactions What some former CIA spies say they'd do to evade capture if they were Snowden Lessig: It's time to rewrite the internet to give us better privacy and security E3 management act like a bunch of babies, call LAPD on rogue Ouya booth across the street Rep. Peter King calls for prosecution of journalists covering NSA whistleblower story US congressman who introduced PATRIOT act says Obama administration's excuses over NSA spying are "bunk" RiYL podcast 005: Jesse Thorn
By Brian Heater on Jun 13, 2013 12:49 pm Courtesy Photo Jesse Thorn's tenacity may well be his defining characteristic. He graduated the same college the same year as me and kept right on doing what he had done all along.
Read in browser Supreme Court: You can't patent (naturally occurring) genes
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 13, 2013 12:12 pm In an unanimous decision,
the United States Supreme Court ruled today that companies can't patent genes, or parts of genes — at least, so long as that genetic material is identical to what occurs in nature.
Read in browser Backstage at the Haunted Mansion
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 13, 2013 12:06 pm A new tumblr, Haunted Mansion Backstage, consists of rare photos of the backstage areas of the Disney parks' Haunted Mansion rides not normally visible from the "Doom Buggy" ride vehicles.
Read in browser Brutal police crackdown on protesters in Sao Paolo
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 13, 2013 11:57 am Diego sez, "Protestors - mainly students - are taking the streets of Sao Paulo. The problem: the government just raised the bus fare from R$3 to R$3,20.
Read in browser Little Brother remixes
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 13, 2013 11:46 am Boys from Brett Wierzbicki's Sophmore Honors English class at
Cathedral Preparatory Seminary in Queens, NY have been reading my novel
Little Brother and Brett gave them the option of doing a book-remix instead of a traditional book-report.
Read in browser How the Russians pee in space
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 13, 2013 11:27 am I don't know if I can fully define human nature, but I'm pretty sure it includes a prurient and/or practical interest in how one uses the bathroom under strange circumstances.
Read in browser Here's that Beastles album you've been waiting for!
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 13, 2013 11:00 am Last weekend, I let you know that
a new Beastles album was forthcoming from djBC, who was reprising his mid-2000s project to mash up the Beatles and the Beastie Boys, which disappeared thanks to legal threats from EMI.
Read in browser Whale steak ad
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 13, 2013 09:51 am Here's a WWI-era advert for whale steaks. As Bruce Sterling notes, "There's heaps of whale meat here in the First World War.
Read in browser David Rohde on the 'secrecy industrial complex'
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 13, 2013 09:36 am "An odd thing is happening in the world's self-declared pinnacle of democracy,"
writes David Rohde at Reuters. "No one — except a handful of elected officials and an army of contractors — is allowed to know how America's surveillance leviathan works."
Read in browser In Alberta, toxic waste spill may be biggest of all recent disasters in N. America
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 13, 2013 09:33 am A
leak in Northern Alberta involving at least 9.5 million liters of toxic waste from an oil and gas operation is the third major leak in a region where "residents are now questioning whether enough is being done to maintain aging energy infrastructure." I'm gonna go with no.
Read in browser Silicon Valley remains a tough place for women and brown people
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 13, 2013 09:30 am Mother Jones features
three slides from Catherine Bracy's recent talk at the Personal Democracy Forum tech conference. Bracy ran Team Obama's technology field office in the 2012 campaign.
Read in browser New #2 at CIA studied physics, used to read erotica at an independent bookstore she co-owned
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 13, 2013 09:27 am "The former host of 'Erotica Night' at a Baltimore bookstore will be the first-ever female number two official at the CIA."
Perhaps the Daily Beast is trying to make us like Avril Haines less, but the more I read about her serving chicken tostadas to bookworm couples by candlelight on Anne Rice Night, the more she sounds like a Boing Boing reader who has since joined the dark side.
Read in browser David Letterman, starring in the weirdest supercut video ever: Are Those Your Drums?
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 13, 2013 09:19 am About this video: "A collection of clips of David Letterman asking drummers if their drums are rented. Also some guitars and French horns for good measure." [Thanks, Joe Sabia]
Read in browser Topsy Turvy World: surreal kids' picture book, now out in the USA
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 13, 2013 09:15 am Back in May, I
reviewed Topsy Turvy World, a beautiful, wordless surreal picture book from London's Flying Eye. At the time, it was only available in the UK, but it's out in the USA as of today!
Read in browser Good Dog - graphic novel about the life of a stray dog (excerpt)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 13, 2013 09:00 am Here's a preview of
Good Dog, Graham Chaffee's beautifully told and illustrated story of a stray dog's life.
Graham Chaffee returns to comics and uses a simple, charming story about a stray dog to examine larger issues.
Read in browser Deep Lounge music version of Get Lucky is the last one you'll ever need
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 13, 2013 02:17 am Everyone's going bananas for the
"Get Lucky cover for every decade" medley, but nothing in it matches
the languid splendor of Deep Lounge.
Read in browser Wired profiles NSA's Keith Alexander, the general leading America into cyberwar
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 10:59 pm Illustration for WIRED by Mark Weaver"Infiltration. Sabotage. Mayhem. For years four-star general Keith Alexander has been building a secret Army capable of launching devastating cyberattacks.
Read in browser Jack Shafer: Edward Snowden and the selective targeting of leaks
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 10:52 pm "The willingness of the government to punish leakers is inversely proportional to the leakers' rank and status, which is bad news for someone so lacking in those attributes as Edward Snowden,"
writes media critic Jack Shafer at Reuters.
Read in browser 3D printed bowtie
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 12, 2013 10:46 pm This 3D printed bowtie ain't cheap ($115), but it's got a clever little fitting (it buttons straight onto your collar-button), and it also looks like a fun project to recreate with your local hackspace's 3D printer.
Read in browser Vintage futures: Next Stop Mars, 1952
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 10:46 pm In the
Boing Boing Flickr Pool, reader
JMV shares this wonderful scan of a 1952 feature from the Vancouver Sun's "Weekend Picture Magazine" on the coming age of travel to Mars.
Read in browser Doctor Popular shares his favorite cellphone lens tips at Photojojo this week
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 10:40 pm Photo:
Doc Pop Doctor Popular, iphoneography master extraordinaire and jack of many wonderful creative trades, says:
This week, I'm teaming up with the awesome folks at Photojojo to share some of my favorite cell phone lens tips, like the one above.
Read in browser Verizon: Oh yeah, we can definitely hear you now.
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 10:35 pm Photo:
Verizon Can Hear You Now, a Creative Commons
Attribution (2.0) image from 60976844@N00's photostream, shared in the
Boing Boing Flickr Pool.
Read in browser Mexico arrests 12 in murders of young women forced into prostitution
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 10:25 pm Prosecutors in Mexico
have arrested 12 drug dealers, pimps, and small store owners for the murders of 11 women who disappeared when they were as young as 15, forced into sexual slavery in Ciudad Juarez.
Read in browser Indiana: 14 year old rape victim impregnated by molester is slut-shamed by neighbors
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 10:18 pm In Indiana, a
13-year-old girl was raped by a 17-year-old boy who is accused of having molested other girls. This victim, who is now 14, is from a conservative Christian family and chose not to have an abortion, but to bring the pregnancy to term.
Read in browser The IRS is in your internets, watching your financial transactions
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 10:03 pm Richard Satran at
US News has a scary little piece out about how The Internal Revenue Service collects more than your taxes: "It's also acquiring a huge volume of personal information on taxpayers' digital activities, from eBay auctions to Facebook posts and, for the first time ever, credit card and e-payment transaction records, as it expands its search for tax cheats to places it's never gone before."
Read in browser What some former CIA spies say they'd do to evade capture if they were Snowden
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 09:58 pm Edward Snowden was a technology contractor, not a trained operative.
AND Magazine talked to a few former CIA operatives about the tradecraft they'd use if they were in his much-sought shoes, and wanted to avoid ending up in a US court.
Read in browser Lessig: It's time to rewrite the internet to give us better privacy and security
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 09:47 pm Lawrence Lessig writes in the Daily Beast today about the relationship between the internet and civil liberties principles, in the wake of Edward Snowden's
NSA surveillance leak.
Read in browser E3 management act like a bunch of babies, call LAPD on rogue Ouya booth across the street
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 12, 2013 09:46 pm Ouya, the Android-based, kickstarted games console, rented a storefront across from the E3 games conference, hoping to catch the eye of the conferencegoers.
Read in browser Rep. Peter King calls for prosecution of journalists covering NSA whistleblower story
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 08:50 pm On the CNN program "AC 360" Tuesday night,
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said reporters who publish stories that reference leaked classified information should be prosecuted by the state.
Read in browser US congressman who introduced PATRIOT act says Obama administration's excuses over NSA spying are "bunk"
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 12, 2013 08:46 pm Rep.
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who introduced the
PATRIOT Act on the floor of the House in 2001, says excuses from lawmakers and the Obama administration about recent NSA domestic spying revelations
are "a bunch of bunk." He has previously said
the PATRIOT act should be amended to protect Americans' rights.
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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