Guatemala: Audio and video livestreams of genocide trial for ex-dictator Montt Clueless Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert can't get how Gmail ads work through his thick skull Some things I like about my Rolleiflex James Fallows doesn't trust Google not to kill each new product it spawns List of groaner clichés best avoided, from Washington Post editor J Dilla's vinyl collection USA Today editorial board: unlocking your cellphone should not be a crime Don't yell BINGO unless you mean it Twitter's Jack Dorsey confesses to criminal violation of CFAA on "60 Minutes" (sort of) Grumpy 1833 letter calls BS on car-maker's extravagant claims Snowflake electron microscope photos Mental Floss video: 50 common misconceptions 100 trillion dollar banknote from Zimbabwe, on sale for 90 cents Jawa birthday cake made from a teddy-bear cake mold Space probe Voyager 1 reaches outer edges of solar system At Guantánamo, hunger strikes are on the rise Deep Throat actor Harry Reems has died How the Digital Millennium Copyright Act punishes people with disabilities Gather 'round the Boing Boing video page for today's hand-picked clips! Science fictional, sculptural mask/helmets Bruce Sterling's closing SXSW keynote: disruption and destruction Steampunk DJ mask from Bob Basset The gel that stops bleeding instantly Happy birthday, Lee "Scratch" Perry! (and 1985 interview video) LEGO Star Trek Into Darkness trailer Is it worth spending half your profits "fighting piracy"? James Herbert, esteemed British horror/SF author, RIP The Owl is wise to the monumental mischief of the Terror Twins! 3D printing and law/policy conference in DC Bike headlight displays speed Guatemala: Audio and video livestreams of genocide trial for ex-dictator Montt
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 12:51 pm As noted in previous Boing Boing posts, former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt is on trial in Guatemala City this week, three decades after the army he presided over massacred Ixil Maya villages in the Central American country's highlands. Montt was trained at the notorious US Army School of the Americas, and celebrated and supported ...
Read in browser Clueless Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert can't get how Gmail ads work through his thick skull
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2013 12:49 pm Rep Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is an ignoramus, as is demonstrated by his questioning during this hearing on reforms to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
Read in browser Some things I like about my Rolleiflex
By Jason Weisberger on Mar 21, 2013 12:43 pm A few years ago I was bored with digital photography and started shooting 35mm film again. The results were beautiful but I was still not having the fun I was looking for! I decided to try medium-format photography but didn't want to just stumble into it, I wanted a
Rolleiflex.
Read in browser James Fallows doesn't trust Google not to kill each new product it spawns
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 12:19 pm "I have already downloaded the Android version of Google's new app for collecting notes, photos, and info, called Google Keep," writes James Fallows in the Atlantic. "This early version has nothing like Evernote's power or polish, but you can see where Google is headed. Here's the problem: Google now has a clear enough track record ...
Read in browser List of groaner clichés best avoided, from Washington Post editor
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 12:12 pm From JIMROMENESKO.COM, an excellent and long list of lazy phrases writers might avoid, courtesy of Washington Post "Outlook" section editor Carlos Lozada. At first glance, the list begs the question as to why observers, as a society, probe the narrative in that manner. Be that as it may, it is important to note that efforting ...
Read in browser J Dilla's vinyl collection
By David Pescovitz on Mar 21, 2013 12:10 pm In this new half-hour documentary, Fuse looks at J Dilla's life and digs into his record collection, currently in a Detroit storage locker.
Read in browser USA Today editorial board: unlocking your cellphone should not be a crime
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 12:05 pm "Get the Library of Congress out of the mobile business," writes the editorial board of USA Today. And more specifically, "take the Library of Congress out of the business of being the industry's contract enforcer."
Read in browser Don't yell BINGO unless you mean it
By David Pescovitz on Mar 21, 2013 11:53 am Austin Whaley, 18, was arrested last month for yelling "bingo!" in a Covington, Ky bingo hall when he didn't really have bingo. The crowd of mostly elderly people grew angry and when Whaley refused to apologize, he was arrested for disorderly conduct. The judge barred him from the bingo hall and ordered him not to ...
Read in browser Twitter's Jack Dorsey confesses to criminal violation of CFAA on "60 Minutes" (sort of)
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 11:42 am Firedoglake highlights the moment in Jack Dorsey's recent 60 Minutes profile at which the Twitter co-founder effectively copped to violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. According to some in the US gov, this makes the affable entrepreneur "a greater threat to America than Al-Qaeda." JACK DORSEY: I found a way into the website, I ...
Read in browser Grumpy 1833 letter calls BS on car-maker's extravagant claims
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2013 11:37 am Jalopnik's Jason Torchinsky discovered an 1833 letter to Mechanic's Magazine in which one "Junius Redivivius" spends two highly entertaining pages debunking the elaborate claims made by Dr. Church's Burmingham Steam Carriage Company about its forthcoming wares. If that drawing be a correct representation of the vehicle constructed by Dr.Church, it is in itself conclusive evidence ...
Read in browser Snowflake electron microscope photos
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 21, 2013 11:34 am Twisted Sifter has a great gallery of snowflake and ice crystal electron microscope photos. At this level of magnification, the ice looks like metal that has been machined by space aliens. 25 Microscopic Images of Snow Crystals
Read in browser Mental Floss video: 50 common misconceptions
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 21, 2013 11:22 am A weekly show hosted by John Green, where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. This week, John debunks 50 common misconceptions that most people have about topics such as vikings, exploding birds and peanut butter. (Via The World's Best Ever)
Read in browser 100 trillion dollar banknote from Zimbabwe, on sale for 90 cents
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 21, 2013 11:10 am In 2008 I mentioned that a one hundred billion dollar banknote was being auctioned on eBay with a high bid of AU$87. Today, you can buy a one hundred trillion dollar banknote on Amazon for US$0.90 (plus $4.94 shipping).
Read in browser Jawa birthday cake made from a teddy-bear cake mold
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2013 11:00 am This wonderful Jawa birthday cake was made by adapting a teddy-bear cake mold, garnishing it with chocolate fondant and adding mini-party-light LEDs from a craft store. It was created by the wife of Flickr user Fat Tony 1138 for their daughter's fifth birthday. Lucky kid! Jawa Birthday Cake (via Geeks are Sexy)
Read in browser Space probe Voyager 1 reaches outer edges of solar system
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 10:51 am Artist concept of NASA's Voyager spacecraft. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech The Voyager 1 space craft, which was launched in 1977 to explore outer planets, has entered a new region on its way out of our solar system. It's now more than 11 billion miles (18 billion km) away from Earth and it detected "two distinct and related ...
Read in browser At Guantánamo, hunger strikes are on the rise
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 10:33 am In the NYT: A collective hunger strike by Gitmo detainees held for years without trial now involves at least 25 prisoners. That "includes eight who are being force-fed a nutritional supplement through a hose snaked into their nose while they are restrained in a chair." [NYTimes.com]
Read in browser Deep Throat actor Harry Reems has died
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 10:30 am Harry Reems, the male star of the influential 1972 porno film "Deep Throat," has died. He was 65. Jeanne Sterrett Reems, his wife, tells the BBC he died in a Salt Lake City Hospital Tuesday, and that he had multiple health issues, including pancreatic cancer. [BBC News, thanks Antinous]
Read in browser How the Digital Millennium Copyright Act punishes people with disabilities
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2013 10:27 am Blake E. Reid's "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Is Even Worse Than You Think" is a potted history of the ways that the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has confounded the efforts of disability-rights groups to make media more accessible to people with various disabilities. The Copyright Office holds hearings every three years to ...
Read in browser Gather 'round the Boing Boing video page for today's hand-picked clips!
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 21, 2013 10:15 am We've gathered fresh video for you to surf and enjoy on the Boing Boing video page. The latest finds for your viewing pleasure include: • A 1985 interview with dub reggae great Lee "Scratch" Perry. • "Star Trek Into Darkness" trailer... IN LEGO. • Pop-up egg-on-a-stick cooking gadget, which looks awesome. • CNN's coverage of ...
Read in browser Science fictional, sculptural mask/helmets
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2013 09:21 am Bruce D. Mitchell is an amazing sculptor who works in the film industry; his "Conceptual Executioner" site showcases a series of gorgeous masks and helmets from 2010. He implies that they have been offered for sale at some point, though no prices are given, leading me to believe that it's one of those, "If you ...
Read in browser Bruce Sterling's closing SXSW keynote: disruption and destruction
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2013 10:50 pm In Bruce Sterling's barn-burning closing keynote for SXSW 2013, he confronts the realities of disruption -- that disruption leads to destruction. Our wonderful things destroy other wonderful things. The future composts the past. We roast the 20th century over our bonfire, let's not shamefully pretend that we did it by accident. Let's eat our kill. ...
Read in browser Steampunk DJ mask from Bob Basset
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2013 08:46 pm The wonderful folks at Bob Basset in Ukraine have a new piece up, the "Steampunk DJ Mask," of which I'm rather fond. New Steampunk DJ Mask
Read in browser The gel that stops bleeding instantly
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 20, 2013 08:35 pm This video is a bit gruesome, but it is demonstrating a remarkable substance that can stop bleeding almost instantaneously. Jack Millner of Humans Invent interviewed NYU student Joe Landolina, the creator of Veti-Gel. "In all of our tests we found we were able to immediately stop bleeding,” says Landolina. “Your skin has this thing called ...
Read in browser Happy birthday, Lee "Scratch" Perry! (and 1985 interview video)
By David Pescovitz on Mar 20, 2013 06:03 pm Interview with Lee "Scratch" Perry from the 1985 documentary "Jools in Jamaica."
Read in browser LEGO Star Trek Into Darkness trailer
By David Pescovitz on Mar 20, 2013 05:53 pm You may have seen the Star Trek Into Darkness trailer, but have you seen it... IN LEGO?
Read in browser Is it worth spending half your profits "fighting piracy"?
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2013 05:44 pm On TechDirt, Tim Cushing follows up on a WSJ story where filmmaker/indie distributor Kathy Wolfe says that half of her profits, about $30,000, are spent sending out DMCA takedown notices to fight piracy. Wolfe has an admirably successful and long-lived business, and Cushing tries to find out how Wolfe hit on the $30,000 figure as ...
Read in browser James Herbert, esteemed British horror/SF author, RIP
By David Pescovitz on Mar 20, 2013 05:29 pm Famed British horror/dystopian fiction author James Herbert has died at age 69. Herbert was the author of more than twenty scary, science fiction, and/or apocalyptic tales like the 1970s man-eating rodent classics The Rats and Lair, and also The Fog, about an insanity-inducing chemical weapon. "James Herbert: Master of British horror fiction" (The Guardian) James ...
Read in browser The Owl is wise to the monumental mischief of the Terror Twins!
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 20, 2013 04:22 pm Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman, wrote the script for The Owl #2 (1968). Be careful, Terror Twins -- the blades on your gyro-copters are too close! (Via Suddenly)
Read in browser 3D printing and law/policy conference in DC
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2013 04:05 pm Michael Weinberg from Public Knowledge sez, "We are bringing the 3D printing community back to Washington, DC for 3D/DC II. This time around, we are having a public reception in the Rayburn House Office Building on April 24th to give policymakers a chance to see 3D printing in person and talk to some of the ...
Read in browser Bike headlight displays speed
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 20, 2013 04:02 pm My friend Matt Richardson made a system for his bike that projects a spotlight with data onto the street. It's currently set up to display speed, but it can also be used to project other kinds of information (like turn-by-turn directions). He's going to write about it for MAKE so you can build one, too.
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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