Ben and Jerry's officially allowed to discount shareholders in favor of the public good RIP Stanford Ovshinsky — inventor with an eye on energy and communication Caturmonday: Caption this Peter Molyneux reloads Italian scientists guilty of manslaughter after failing to predict L'Aquila quake; face 6 years in prison (updated) ➚ reason.com Soon, AOL will "got mail" again Make a papercraft skeleton How a Haunted Mansion addict fell in love with the greatest ride on Earth Elfquest: the ways of insects Man "mistakes" girl for skunk, shoots Kindle user claims Amazon deleted whole library without explanation Cory in Vancouver and Victoria today, then Seattle, Toronto and Boston Sugar pills Excellent high-voltage warning glyph Ben and Jerry's officially allowed to discount shareholders in favor of the public good
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 22, 2012 12:49 pm Ben and Jerry's has reincorporated as a "B" corporation, "a new kind of corporate entity that's legally allowed to consider social good as well as shareholder good when making business decisions." (via Hacker News)
Read in browser RIP Stanford Ovshinsky — inventor with an eye on energy and communication
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 22, 2012 12:40 pm America lost a great Maker last week. Stanford R. Ovshinsky was a self-taught engineer and inventor who held more than 400 patents when he died on October 17th at the age of 90. The name may not be familiar to you, but his work is. Ovshinsky is credited with inventing key technologies behind flat-panel liquid ...
Read in browser Caturmonday: Caption this
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 22, 2012 12:07 pm "Segundo," a photograph shared in the Boing Boing Flickr pool by Boing Boing reader Bill of Providence, Rhode Island. It begs for image-macro-fication.
Read in browser Peter Molyneux reloads
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 22, 2012 11:58 am Game designer Peter Molyneux—almost as legendary for unfulfilled ambitions as for classics such as Populous and Magic Carpet—was inspired to quit and start over when a twitter doppleganger's merciless parodies of his grandiose plans started to remind him of himself. [Wired]
Read in browser Italian scientists guilty of manslaughter after failing to predict L'Aquila quake; face 6 years in prison (updated)
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 22, 2012 11:18 am A verdict has been reached in the trial of 6 scientists and a former official charged with manslaughter for failing to predict a 2009 quake.
Read in browser ➚ reason.com
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 22, 2012 11:18 am Police officer Edward Krawetz earned a 10-year suspended sentence for beating a woman on the street. But he didn't lose his job, because it's nearly impossible to fire a bad cop.
Read in browser Soon, AOL will "got mail" again
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 22, 2012 11:13 am America Online has developed a web-based email service called Alto (altomail.com), and early reports sure sound promising. Alto is not a new email provider (no @alto.com email addresses, at least not yet), but an inbox-replacement for your current email address(es). Read your Gmail, Yahoo, Mac, or other accounts; import Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter messages. Nicholas ...
Read in browser Make a papercraft skeleton
By David Pescovitz on Oct 22, 2012 11:02 am Over at Digitprop, a free PDF to make this delightful papercraft skeleton.
Read in browser How a Haunted Mansion addict fell in love with the greatest ride on Earth
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 22, 2012 11:00 am This post is sponsored by Disney's Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two the video game: I fell in love with the Haunted Mansion in 1977. I was six years old, and we'd gone to Fort Lauderdale to visit my grandparents. They lived in a seniors' condo complex called Century Village -- my dad called ...
Read in browser Elfquest: the ways of insects
By Wendy and Richard Pini on Oct 22, 2012 10:00 am Page 7 of The Final Quest: Prologue is published online-first for the first time here at Boing Boing. First time reader? You're a few issues behind.
Read in browser Man "mistakes" girl for skunk, shoots
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 22, 2012 09:12 am "Police say a costumed 9-year-old girl was accidentally shot outside a western Pennsylvania home during a Halloween party by a relative who thought she was a skunk." What, don't you go skunk-shooting at Halloween parties? [ABC News]
Read in browser Kindle user claims Amazon deleted whole library without explanation
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 22, 2012 09:08 am When your Kindle is wiped by Amazon without explanation, refund, or appeal, it's time to wake up and realize the truth: ebook readers treat you as a tenant-farmer of your books, not an owner. You have no rights, only a license-agreement that runs to thousands of words, and that you'll never fully satisfy.
Read in browser Cory in Vancouver and Victoria today, then Seattle, Toronto and Boston
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 22, 2012 08:25 am Hey, Vancouver and Victoria! Today I wrap up my Pirate Cinema tour weekend in Van with an appearance for the BC Civil Liberties Association and the Centre for Digital Media at 11AM at the Great Northern Way Campus, then I jump on a sea-plane and head to Victoria for a talk tonight at Bolen Books ...
Read in browser Sugar pills
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 22, 2012 12:41 am Eat Your Heart Out has got Popping Candy Placebos for sale: clear pill gels filled with little candy beads -- real sugar pills. EAT YOUR HEART OUT 2012
Read in browser Excellent high-voltage warning glyph
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 21, 2012 03:05 pm I'm having a pretty great time in Vancouver this week on the Pirate Cinema tour. Granville Island has lots to recommend about it, but I'm especially taken with the electrocution hazard glyphs on the access-plates set into the sidewalk. They even beat the lightning bolts that leap out of electric risers on the streets of ...
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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