Gas-mask dervish: #occupygezi What it's like to travel by commercial jet in Somalia How ransomware creeps cash out their payments Wednesday is Dead Duck Day You Can Do It! Clean the kitchen, that is. How atheists find meaning and joy in nature New Yorkers: help defend local libraries at June 8-9's Read In A collection of dire wolf skulls Vinland map, chart of Norse exploration of Americas, "proved" fake Prints of classic "The Land of Make Believe Map" OccupyGezi: the People's Bulldozer Doctor Who actor vs. fans (Update: not vs. fans) Three Friends, a Breakdown, and a Lawsuit Why Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects were more real than CGI Deluxe hardcover of Watchmen Gweek 096: Dave Finkel and Kevin Mack Roundup of #occupygezi Doctor Who poodle-skirt with K-9 Meet austerity's millionaires How markets allow people to violate their moral codes Fake CGI always looked cooler than the real thing Meanwhile, in London, badger women pursue fascists Genuinely funny response from a pharmacy trolled over its junk-mail US judge: Google must comply with National Security Letters, give user info to FBI on demand Protests ahead of Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks trial, which begins Monday Portrait made of candy: Mike Douglas as Liberace Consumer guide to drugs: Tripology Crowd-funded stenographers denied access to Bradley Manning Court Martial Julian Assange's NYT op-ed: The Banality of 'Don't Be Evil' Excellent advice for grads Gas-mask dervish: #occupygezi
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 03, 2013 01:00 pm Mathilda sez, "In this photo by Twitter user @joeman24, a gas-mask wearing Dervish dances in front of protesters in Turkey."
A gas-mask wearing Whirling Dervish shows support for protesters in #Turkey Read in browser What it's like to travel by commercial jet in Somalia
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 03, 2013 12:22 pm First you pray. Then, when you're in the air, you pray some more. If you land, you get a chance to pray again.
Journalist Hamza Mohamed describes a recent flight to Kismayu, Somalia that
begins with 150 people jockeying for the privilege of riding an airplane that spews black smoke from its exhaust.
Read in browser How ransomware creeps cash out their payments
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 03, 2013 12:00 pm Brian Krebs offers an in-depth look at a "cashout" service used by ransomware crooks to get money from their victims. Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts your personal files and demands that you pay a ransom for the key to decrypt them; the crooks who run the attacks demand that their victims buy prepaid MoneyPak cards and send the numbers for them by way of payment.
Read in browser Wednesday is Dead Duck Day
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 03, 2013 11:41 am Dead Duck Day — the annual memorial celebration honoring
the first recorded case of male homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck — happens this Wednesday in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The holiday will be celebrated with a speech in front of the window where one of the ducks in question met his fate, followed by a duck dinner at a local Chinese restaurant.
Read in browser You Can Do It! Clean the kitchen, that is.
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 03, 2013 11:37 am Heather spotted this remarkably sad ad from Swiffer, aping Westinghouse Electric's classic wartime poster,
We Can Do It! Adds Jason: "I love the clear tribute to an important historical image done in such a way as to piss on its legacy."
Read in browser How atheists find meaning and joy in nature
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 03, 2013 11:32 am There doesn't have to be a pre-ordained meaning to the universe in order for it to mean something. That's one of the fun things about being human — we get to make meaning for ourselves. With that in mind, please read this lovely essay by Brian Switek about
finding wonder and joy in the oft-denigrated idea of being "just" a product of time and chance.
Read in browser New Yorkers: help defend local libraries at June 8-9's Read In
By LibraryLab on Jun 03, 2013 11:23 am Libraries in New York City are facing
a potential $106 million cut to their budgets. Should these cuts go through, more than 60 neighborhood libraries will close. More than a thousand librarians and library staff will be laid off. Once again, for a fourth year, New Yorkers will be standing up for libraries at the 24 Hour Read In, which takes place from June 8th & 9th at the gorgeous
Brooklyn Public Library Central Library.
Read in browser A collection of dire wolf skulls
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 03, 2013 11:13 am This image shows fewer than 400 of the 1600+ dire wolf skulls found in the La Brea Tar Pits — natural seepages of asphalt that trapped thousands upon thousands of animals over centuries. Like most of you, I was familiar with what the tar pits were.
Read in browser Vinland map, chart of Norse exploration of Americas, "proved" fake
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 03, 2013 11:04 am Discovered in 1957 and hailed as the earliest map of the New World, the
Vinland Map charted Norse exploration of the Americas long before Christopher Columbus. After decades of controversy, however, an amateur historian may finally have demonstrated that it is a clever hoax:
the map occupies a sheet of parchment that was relatively unremarkable 120 years ago.
Read in browser Prints of classic "The Land of Make Believe Map"
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 03, 2013 10:51 am (click to embiggen) Zack sez, "Photographer Allan Rosen-Ducat is reproducing 'The Land of Make Believe,' a popular illustrated map by Jaro Hess that combines more than 50 classic fairy tales, nursery rhymes and more that was highly popular around the time of the Great Depression.
Read in browser OccupyGezi: the People's Bulldozer
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 03, 2013 10:00 am Two photos from the
OccupyGeziPics Tumblr show the "people's bulldozer" in action -- apparently a mechanical digger commandeered off a building site by protesters in Besiktas (one of my Twitter followers reports a rumor that it was a youth gang, and not portesters, though of course, youth gangs may be protesting too), and used to attack police barricades.
Read in browser Doctor Who actor vs. fans (Update: not vs. fans)
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 03, 2013 09:27 am Actor John Simm sounds fed up with the fans: "
I'm not the Master, I'm not that evil Time Lord who rules the galaxy, I'm just in Tesco with my kids. Leave me alone!" [Guardian]
UPDATE: On Twitter, Simm
said his remarks were presented out of context by
The Radio Times, and that the "interview" was cobbled together from old quotes.
Read in browser Three Friends, a Breakdown, and a Lawsuit
By James Siddle on Jun 03, 2013 09:20 am Two and a half years ago, I moved to London for a new job; in two weeks time, I'll be moving out to a small town in the country, defeated. I love London, and I'm not tired of it yet, but I am tired of trying to live in London.
Read in browser Why Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects were more real than CGI
By Ethan Gilsdorf on Jun 03, 2013 09:10 am The death of stop-motion animation pioneer Ray Harryhausen raises questions about the future of special effects.
Read in browser Deluxe hardcover of Watchmen
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 03, 2013 09:07 am The new
Deluxe Edition of Watchmen landed in my post-box today. It's a very well-made hardcover edition of one of the canonical modern graphic novels. Everyone should have at least one edition of
Watchmen on the shelf, and this is a pretty nice one to have -- the classy, matte-finish dustjacket goes over a set of full-color boards with the traditional Watchmen cover-image.
Read in browser Gweek 096: Dave Finkel and Kevin Mack
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 03, 2013 09:00 am In this episode of Gweek, I talked to Dave Finkel and Kevin Mack.
Kevin Mack is a pioneering digital artist and Academy Award winning visual effects designer. Kevin also uses science and technology to make psychoactive abstract art. His work is currently featured in the "
Imagined Realities in New Media" exhibit at the PS Zask Gallery in Southern California.
Read in browser Roundup of #occupygezi
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 03, 2013 06:30 am Mathilda writes,
Throughout the weekend, protests have erupted in Turkey in response to the brutal pacification of a peaceful sit-in in Istanbul. Over 1,700 people have been arested and there are multiple unconfirmed reports of people dying. The Prime Minister is blaming the entire protest on the social menace known as Twitter, which seems to be the only way for protesters to communicate (hashtag #occupygezi), as Turkish media networks seem to keep mum on the whole affair, and cell phone providers are pressured by the government to block communications.
Read in browser Doctor Who poodle-skirt with K-9
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 02, 2013 10:42 pm For last summer's sock-hop, PJ and her daughter K made a Doctor Who themed poodle skirt, sporting K-9:
Now, K is a fan girl and not a girly girl at all, so though she wanted to wear a poodle skirt, she was not interested in some fluffy pink poodle on a pearl leash.
Read in browser Meet austerity's millionaires
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 02, 2013 09:00 pm Britain's harsh austerity measures have produced a sharp decline in real income and quality of life for the majority of the country; but the number of people earning £1M+ has doubled and is at an all-time high.
Official figures reveal that 18,000 people now earn at least £1m – the highest number recorded by HM Revenue & Customs.
Read in browser How markets allow people to violate their moral codes
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 02, 2013 06:00 pm Here's a press-release describing
a paywalled paper in Science magazine, written by a pair of University of Bonn Economists. They conducted an experiment that showed how markets diffused responsibility for actions that ended up violating individual moral codes, so that people did things in market contexts that they had previously described as immoral when done individually.
Read in browser Fake CGI always looked cooler than the real thing
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 02, 2013 03:34 pm Neil Emmett writes about
fake computer graphics, as so often found in 1980s sci-fi movies and TV productions that were as inexpensive as they were ahead of their time.
Primitive digital imagery has had something of a resurgence across the past decade or so, to the point where pastiches of 8-bit pixel graphics have found their way into mainstream productions such as Wreck-It Ralph.
Read in browser Meanwhile, in London, badger women pursue fascists
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 02, 2013 03:22 pm Right-wing extremists, vastly outnumbered by opposing marchers on the streets of London, gathered Friday to whip up support. Both groups, however, were upstaged by campaigners fighting for a third cause: to stop Britain's brutal and scientifically-questionable badger cull. When the badger women sided against the fascists, writes the
International Business Times, they had no-where left to run.
Read in browser Genuinely funny response from a pharmacy trolled over its junk-mail
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 02, 2013 03:22 pm Andrew sez, "Sometimes I write silly emails to companies when I actually have a mundane request. Usually, they either ignore me or reply with boring customer-service talk (We apologize for... Thank you for shopping with...'). Recently I got a piece of mail from Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart that was addressed to someone who doesn't live here anymore.
Read in browser US judge: Google must comply with National Security Letters, give user info to FBI on demand
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 02, 2013 03:06 pm AP News reports: "Google must comply with the FBI's demand for data on certain customers as part of a national security investigation, according to a ruling by a federal judge who earlier this year determined such government requests are unconstitutional." The decision involves National Security Letters, sent by the thousands each year from the FBI to banks, telecom carriers, and other businesses.
Read in browser Protests ahead of Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks trial, which begins Monday
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 02, 2013 02:49 pm Some 2,000 protesters gathered this weekend outside of Fort Meade, where
the court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning is scheduled to begin tomorrow, Monday, June 3, 2013. He was
arrested on May 26, 2010, and has been held by the US in various detention facilities and military prisons in Iraq and the US since that date.
Read in browser Portrait made of candy: Mike Douglas as Liberace
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 02, 2013 02:40 pm Jason Mecier, a "pop impressionistic artist" based in San Francisco who works in mosaic, sends word that he has just completed this candy portrait of Michael Douglas as Liberace. The medium: Mike & Ike's candy, 4,000 of them, and it took over 40 hours to assemble.
Read in browser Consumer guide to drugs: Tripology
By Cool Tools on Jun 02, 2013 02:14 pm Because most psychedelic drugs are illegal, reliable consumer information about them is rare. For many years I have been looking for a comparative survey of available “head drugs” that would truthfully and simply provide basic info on each. What is it?
Read in browser Crowd-funded stenographers denied access to Bradley Manning Court Martial
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 02, 2013 02:11 pm Freedom of the Press Foundation recently
launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for hiring a court stenographer to provide transcripts of the unclassified portions of the Bradley Manning court martial. The US refuses to release the official government transcripts.
On Thursday, we learned that all three of our media partners – the Guardian, the Verge, and Forbes – were denied the media passes they requested in order to allow court stenographers to accompany their reporters into the media tent.
Read in browser Julian Assange's NYT op-ed: The Banality of 'Don't Be Evil'
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 02, 2013 02:09 pm In a
New York Times op-ed, Julian Assange of Wikileaks argues that "the advance of information technology epitomized by Google heralds the death of privacy for most people and shifts the world toward authoritarianism. "
Read in browser Excellent advice for grads
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 02, 2013 01:53 pm Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp, two sociologists (who also work on the excellent
Sociological Images blog) have advice for this year's college grads that goes beyond "find your passion, follow your dreams" (something that actually doesn't work for most college grads, statistically).
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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