Clarion Write-a-Thon: sponsoring writers to raise money for the Clarion science fiction and fantasy workshop PRISM and denials, what's going on? Another Top Secret leak: Obama's cyber-war hit-list She & Him on the Tonight Show Troubled San Onofre nuclear plant in Southern California to close Anonymous Steubenville Op leader raided by FBI, faces more jail time than rapists Rampage shooting and arson attack in Santa Monica: At least 7 dead, including shooter KALQ is the new QWERTY Burner Phones, shipped anonymously to your door Obama promised to end warrantless wiretaps in 2008 Google denies giving NSA back-door access to user data Vesper, an elegant note-taking app Night Stalker dead Weird Wheels trading cards from 1980 LEGO Star Wars Ewok Village set Archie, the live action movie Cold War missile silo converted to home on market for $750k Nine Inch Nails' new single, and all the prior ones too Short film about Intertidal ocean life Tintype stop motion animation of a circus "Just pretending you are using or playing your phone normally, BUT, taking pictures in 'redirect angles!'" Beautiful hand-carved woodcut print of The Moon Clarion Write-a-Thon: sponsoring writers to raise money for the Clarion science fiction and fantasy workshop
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 08, 2013 11:49 am I've just signed up for the Clarion Write-a-Thon, an annual fundraiser that brings in money to run the non-profit Clarion Writers Workshop, a kind of bootcamp for science fiction writers held every year at UCSD's La Jolla Campus. I'm a Clarion grad, volunteer board-member, and I'm back teaching the program this year, so I guess you could say I believe in it pretty strongly.
Read in browser PRISM and denials, what's going on?
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 08, 2013 08:37 am On Engadget, Richard Lawler paraphrases a
NYT theory on how the companies identified as participating in the NSA's PRISM program are able to deny participation without technically lying; this is followed up with
a quote from Google's chief legal officer denying this theory:
So why the quick denials about something the companies listed (including AOL, parent company of Engadget) may actually have ties to?
Read in browser Another Top Secret leak: Obama's cyber-war hit-list
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 08, 2013 04:19 am Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian have published details of another Top Secret US surveillance/security document. This one is a presidential order from Obama to his top spies directing them to draw up a hit-list of "cyber war" targets to be attacked by American military hacking operations.
Read in browser She & Him on the Tonight Show
By David Pescovitz on Jun 07, 2013 08:26 pm Mid-century AM radio-inspired joy from Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward (aka
She & Him) on The Tonight Show last evening. The track, "I've Got Your Number, Son," is from their fabulous new LP titled
Volume 3.
Read in browser Troubled San Onofre nuclear plant in Southern California to close
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 07, 2013 08:19 pm San Onofre.
Photo: Xeni Jardin. The
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (known to locals as The Giant Nuclear Boobies), which once supplied power to nearly 1.5 million homes in Southern California,
will be permanently retired. Edison International, which owns the operator that runs San Onofre,
announced the news today.
Read in browser Anonymous Steubenville Op leader raided by FBI, faces more jail time than rapists
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 07, 2013 08:15 pm If convicted of the hacking-related charges brought against him after an FBI raid, Deric Lostutter could get more jail time than the rapists he went after. Read more in
Mother Jones.
Read in browser Rampage shooting and arson attack in Santa Monica: At least 7 dead, including shooter
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 07, 2013 07:58 pm At least
7 people, including a gunman, were killed in a rampage shooting and arson attack near and on the campus of
Santa Monica College, in Santa Monica, California.
Read in browser KALQ is the new QWERTY
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 07, 2013 05:44 pm KALQ is a keyboard layout designed to replace QWERTY for thumb typing on a tablet. The creators of KALQ say that eight hour's use will train you to be able to enter text faster than you would be able to with a QWERTY layout.
Read in browser Burner Phones, shipped anonymously to your door
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 07, 2013 04:39 pm For $75,
Burner Phone will ship you a "completely anonymous" phone set up for 30 days of use. The only caveat: you then have to eat it. Just kidding, you can throw it away. The payment system, which requires a credit or debit card, seems a weak link.
Read in browser Obama promised to end warrantless wiretaps in 2008
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 07, 2013 04:35 pm "Under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to
leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and "wiretaps without warrants," he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans' phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.)" — Anne Broache at CNN.
Read in browser Google denies giving NSA back-door access to user data
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 07, 2013 04:30 pm Larry Page: "
Press reports that suggest that Google is providing open-ended access to our users' data are false, period." (
Previously)
Read in browser Vesper, an elegant note-taking app
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 07, 2013 04:22 pm Vesper is a simple note-taking iOS app named after a Bond cocktail. Unlike most such apps, it's well-designed and pleasing to look at, though you do have to cough up a fiver for the privilege. Moreover, it's for people who do everything on their phones: there's no sync feature, a drawback for which Federico Viticci knocks it in
his otherwise very positive review.
Read in browser Night Stalker dead
By Rob Beschizza on Jun 07, 2013 04:10 pm Serial killer and self-professed "satanist"
Richard Ramirez is dead at 53, reports the California Department of Corrections.
Read in browser Weird Wheels trading cards from 1980
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 07, 2013 02:59 pm Weird Wheels was a Topps trading card series issued in 1980, with art by
Norm Saunders (of Mars Attacks! fame) and Gary Hallgren. The delightful Karswell has scans of the entire series.
Weird Wheels Read in browser LEGO Star Wars Ewok Village set
By David Pescovitz on Jun 07, 2013 01:53 pm LEGO announced its Ewok Village, due out September 1. It consists of 1990 pieces including R2-D2 and 16 minifigures: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, 2 Rebel soldiers, 5 Ewoks, 2 Scout Troopers, and 2 Stormtroopers. Join in the celebration below!
Read in browser Archie, the live action movie
By David Pescovitz on Jun 07, 2013 01:37 pm Warner Bros. announced production of a live-action Archie film. According to the
Washington Post, "Glee" writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is working on the script that Jason Moore ("Pitch Perfect") will direct. And lest we forget the last time this was tried, here is a clip of the 1990 TV movie "Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again," which you can also watch in full
here.
Read in browser Cold War missile silo converted to home on market for $750k
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 07, 2013 01:27 pm It's 185 feet below the surface of Lewis NY, and comes with "Strangelove-ian clocks that show the time in cities around the world and gun-metal gray consoles covered with analog switches and dials for you to flip and turn while making blastoff noises with your mouth." You also get 8 acres with a "waterfront view." Asking price: $750,000.
Read in browser Nine Inch Nails' new single, and all the prior ones too
By David Pescovitz on Jun 07, 2013 01:27 pm Above,
Nine Inch Nails' new track "Came Back Haunted," from their forthcoming release Hesitation Marks to be released September 3. Below, listen to all of Nine Inch Nails' singles in order, starting with 1989's "Down In It," and culminating with the latest.
Read in browser Short film about Intertidal ocean life
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 07, 2013 01:12 pm PBS Digital Studios has launched a biweekly series called
Under H2O, and the first episode is called "The Intertidal." It's only five minutes long, and well worth watching.
'The Intertidal' features rare underwater footage of a part of the marine world that often goes unexplored by scientists and cameramen alike: the intertidal.
Read in browser Tintype stop motion animation of a circus
By David Pescovitz on Jun 07, 2013 01:09 pm Fine art photographer
Antonio Martinez combined more than 800 dryplate tintype photographs of a circus into this mesmerizing stop motion animation "Near the Egress." Absolutely stunning work.
(Thanks, Randall de Rijk!) Read in browser "Just pretending you are using or playing your phone normally, BUT, taking pictures in 'redirect angles!'"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 07, 2013 01:06 pm A gimmick lens from my favorite purveyors of craptastic plastic, Brando. It attaches to a smartphone camera lens so you can take photos at a 90-degree angle just like Weegee did! (Image from
photo.net)
Excellent for Your Spy Activities in taking pictures & video! Read in browser Beautiful hand-carved woodcut print of The Moon
By David Pescovitz on Jun 07, 2013 01:03 pm Tugboat Printshop hand-carved this lovely drawing of "The Moon" in 3/4" birch plywood and then pulled 200 limited edition 33.5" x 30.5" prints. You can read more about the intricate process at their site. "
The Moon"
(Thanks, Jason Tester!) 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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