Florida polo tycoon has difficulty marrying his 42-year-old girlfriend in order to keep assets away from bio-kids, ex-wife, family of guy he killed in a hit-and-run Eating out makes your children overweight Airlines should charge passengers by weight, says economist Listen to Neverwhere free online, then see it in person Grouching about Google When US money was nice to look at Watch the latest video posts in our Boing Boing video archives Groups across America call on Congress to fix DMCA Laotian all-women bomb clearance team, "most dangerous job in world," to speak in U.S. In photographs, North Korea "leaks" plan to attack US Kickstarter to save the brilliant zine store READING FRENZY How children become "cannon fodder" for Mexican drug cartels Bill Gold, the master of the movie poster Sri Lanka: crowd led by Buddhist monks attacks Muslim warehouse in Colombo Zombie houses: 300K+ in America How the amazing UK cover for Rapture of the Nerds came to be Last week to subscribe to Mark's 3rd Quarterly.co mailing Interview with Wrong director Quentin Dupieux Cory speaking in Bradford tomorrow Disneyland Dapper Day: when Disney fans dress up Songwriting podcast with Richard Sherman of Disney's Sherman Brothers FOUR MORE ASTOUNDING THINGS THAT BOING BOING READERS ARE DOING RIGHT NOW! LG Monitor Gives New Meaning to Color Precision Editorial board of Journal of Library Administration resigns en masse in honor of Aaron Swartz Equality What problem are we trying to solve in the copyright wars? TSA screener finds pepper spray on the floor, gasses five other screeners because he thought it was a laser-pointer Prisoners in Scotland are "watching too much TV" Mapping Twitter tongues of New York City Owner reunited with camera she lost in Hawaii after it washes up on Taiwan beach 6 years later Florida polo tycoon has difficulty marrying his 42-year-old girlfriend in order to keep assets away from bio-kids, ex-wife, family of guy he killed in a hit-and-run
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 29, 2013 12:54 pm A Florida polo tycoon named John Goodman has hit a hitch in his plan to adopt his 42-year-old girlfriend so that his kids and ex-wife won't be able to keep him from writing her into his will. The court says he failed to disclose important information, but there's no word on whether that will have ...
Read in browser Eating out makes your children overweight
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 29, 2013 12:54 pm The Center for Science in the Public Interest reports that most childrens' meals offered in U.S. restaurant chains contain too many calories, salt and fat: "Most chains seem stuck in a time warp, serving up the same old meals based on chicken nuggets, burgers, macaroni and cheese, fries, and soda," wrote CSPI nutrition policy director ...
Read in browser Airlines should charge passengers by weight, says economist
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 29, 2013 12:47 pm Reuters: "Bhatta put together three models for what he called 'pay as you weigh airline pricing.' The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for pounds (kg) per passenger so that someone weighing 130 pounds (59 kg) would pay half the fare of 260-pound ...
Read in browser Listen to Neverwhere free online, then see it in person
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 29, 2013 12:40 pm Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is one of my favorite novels; now you can listen to it free online on BBC Radio 4 and enjoy it in person at Robert Kauzlarik's stage production, which opens next month in LA after runs in Chicago and elsewhere. The story of a good-hearted Scotsman who finds a dreamlike alternative London ...
Read in browser Grouching about Google
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 29, 2013 12:17 pm Andrew Leonard has a tick-tock in Salon explaining how and when Google lost its cool. "Google Reader is gone. Google is banning ad-blocking apps. Google Alert doesn't work. The Google backlash is on." [SALON]
Read in browser When US money was nice to look at
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 29, 2013 12:12 pm US currency was beautiful, once upon a time, when it sported images of animals and symbolic statuary, rather than deifying its citizen-rulers by putitng presidents on the money as though they were kings. This 1901 $10 note (available on Wikimedia Commons in a 33.34MB, 6,454 × 5,784 JPEG!) is a case in point. United States ...
Read in browser Watch the latest video posts in our Boing Boing video archives
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 29, 2013 11:08 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: • Frank Zappa reads the dirty bits of Naked Lunch. • TIme-lapse of a particularly intense aurora borealis display. • The Shangri-Las perform "Out in the Streets" (1965). • Super 8 ...
Read in browser Groups across America call on Congress to fix DMCA
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 29, 2013 10:49 am Boing Boing is a co-signatory to an open letter (PDF) to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, calling on them to fix the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's ban on jailbreaking and unlocking your devices. This laudable effort was spearheaded by Public Knowledge: "It is important for Congress to remember that people are waiting on them ...
Read in browser Laotian all-women bomb clearance team, "most dangerous job in world," to speak in U.S.
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 29, 2013 10:44 am De-mining workers from Laos are speaking in the US about the urgent need for funding of bomb clearance and survivor assistance efforts in Laos.
Read in browser In photographs, North Korea "leaks" plan to attack US
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 29, 2013 10:29 am A map of the USA's West Coast, with caption, "Plan to hit US mainland." Photos in North Korea's state-run newspaper, taken at an "emergency meeting" Friday morning with Kim Jong-Eun and military advisors, show the leader signing an order for North Korea's strategic rocket forces to be on standby to fire at US targets. Behind ...
Read in browser Kickstarter to save the brilliant zine store READING FRENZY
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 29, 2013 09:59 am Reading Frenzy, the astoundingly great zine store in Portland, OR, lost its lease. They need to raise $50K to reopen.
Read in browser How children become "cannon fodder" for Mexican drug cartels
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 29, 2013 09:51 am Wired's Danger Room blog points to this new report [PDF] by the NGO International Crisis Group, which details how Mexican drug cartels recruit and coerce kids as young as 11 years old to kill. Narcos "have recruited thousands of street gang members, school drop-outs and unskilled workers" over the last decade, and the report claims ...
Read in browser Bill Gold, the master of the movie poster
By Ben Marks on Mar 29, 2013 09:32 am It's rare that any of us gets to start at the top: Brandon Crawford's first hit for the San Francisco Giants was a grand slam, Tatum O'Neal's first movie, Paper Moon, netted her an Oscar for best supporting actress at the tender age of 10. It happens, but not that often. Rarer still are those ...
Read in browser Sri Lanka: crowd led by Buddhist monks attacks Muslim warehouse in Colombo
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 29, 2013 09:25 am In Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, a group of Buddhist monks led a crowd of hundreds in an attack on "Fashion Bug," a Muslim-owned clothing warehouse. "The attack comes as hard-line Buddhist groups step up a campaign against the lifestyles of Muslims," according to the BBC. "Five or six" journalists covering the incident were injured, including ...
Read in browser Zombie houses: 300K+ in America
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 29, 2013 08:46 am A survey by RealtyTrac reports that America is home to 301,874 zombie houses -- houses that have been abandoned by their owners, but not foreclosed upon by the banks. They effectively have no owners, but their erstwhile owners are theoretically on the hook for maintenance and liability. Florida has the largest zombie infestation (90,556!), followed ...
Read in browser How the amazing UK cover for Rapture of the Nerds came to be
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 29, 2013 08:23 am I'm really impressed with the cover of the UK edition of Rapture of the Nerds, the novel I wrote with Charlie Stross. But it turns out that producing that cover was quite a journey. Designer Martin Stiff was kind enough to share his notes on the process, along with all the proto covers he produced ...
Read in browser Last week to subscribe to Mark's 3rd Quarterly.co mailing
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 29, 2013 08:07 am Quarterly.co is a subscription service for wonderful things. People can subscribe to a curator (such as Joel Johnson, Veronica Belmont, Tim Ferriss, Joshua Foer, Gretchen Rubin and others) and pay $25 per quarter to receive a box of surprise items selected by the curator. My first mailing included a number of "fantastic plastic" gadgets (shown ...
Read in browser Interview with Wrong director Quentin Dupieux
By Advertiser on Mar 29, 2013 08:05 am ADVERTISEMENT The following is a sponsored post: There's nothing quite right about this hilariously delirious clip from Wrong, which hits theaters throughout the country this Friday and is already available on iTunes, featuring a suspicious gardner explaining the impossible overnight transformation of an everyday Californian palm tree to an evergreen. Its one of the many, ...
Read in browser Cory speaking in Bradford tomorrow
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 29, 2013 04:35 am Here's details of the public event I'm doing in Bradford while I'm in town for Eastercon: I'll be at the 1in12 Club, as part of an event called "Can Technology Save the City?" that runs from 12-6. I'll be there around 1430h. Hope you'll come out!
Read in browser Disneyland Dapper Day: when Disney fans dress up
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 28, 2013 11:28 pm Disneyland fans have created many of their own theme days, some of which I've been lucky enough to happen upon or attend -- Bats Day (goths); Gay Days, and more. But I didn't know about Dapper Day, where 10,000+ people descend on Disneyland and Walt Disney World in natty outfits and style their way through ...
Read in browser Songwriting podcast with Richard Sherman of Disney's Sherman Brothers
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 28, 2013 09:18 pm Sodajerker, a British podcast devoted to songwriting, produced a great one-hour episode with Disney songwriting legend Richard M Sherman, half of the Sherman Brothers team that gave us everything from "It's a Small World" to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (and lots more). Hearing Sherman talk about his work is fascinating. As one half of The Sherman Brothers, along ...
Read in browser FOUR MORE ASTOUNDING THINGS THAT BOING BOING READERS ARE DOING RIGHT NOW!
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 28, 2013 08:09 pm Last week, I put up a post asking BB readers to tell us (and each other) about their projects. You-all upvoted your favorites, and herewith presented is a list of some of the coolest things you're up to (there's plenty that didn't make the cut but still fascinate -- have a look). There's so much ...
Read in browser LG Monitor Gives New Meaning to Color Precision
By Advertiser on Mar 28, 2013 06:15 pm ADVERTISEMENT This post is sponsored by LG Electronics. Discover the LG IPS Color Prime Monitor. LG's ColorPrime IPS LED Monitor is a must-have for anyone who makes a living or has a passion for graphic design, photography video creation, or any other design-related projects. That's because the 27-inch monitor has 99 percent coverage of Adobe ...
Read in browser Editorial board of Journal of Library Administration resigns en masse in honor of Aaron Swartz
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 28, 2013 06:13 pm The entire editorial board of the Journal of Library Administration resigned en masse. Board member Chris Bourg wrote publicly about the decision, and an open letter elaborates on it, stating that their difference of opinion with publisher Taylor & Francis Group about open access, galvanized by Aaron Swartz's suicide, moved them to quit. "The Board ...
Read in browser Equality
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 28, 2013 05:02 pm From the Boing Boing Flickr pool: "Equality," a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from Rich Renomeron's photostream.
Read in browser What problem are we trying to solve in the copyright wars?
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 28, 2013 04:13 pm My latest Guardian column is "Copyright wars are damaging the health of the internet" and it looks at what we really need from proposed solutions to the copyright wars: I've sat through more presentations about the way to solve the copyright wars than I've had hot dinners, and all of them has fallen short of ...
Read in browser TSA screener finds pepper spray on the floor, gasses five other screeners because he thought it was a laser-pointer
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 28, 2013 03:02 pm A TSA screener at JFK pepper-sprayed five of his colleagues at Terminal 2 on Tuesday, according to the New York Post. The screener, Chris Yves Dabel, found a pepper-spray cannister on the floor and believed it was a laser-pointer, so (for some reason), he aimed it at five other screeners and pressed the trigger. The ...
Read in browser Prisoners in Scotland are "watching too much TV"
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 28, 2013 02:42 pm The parliament's justice committee is concerned that inmates in Scotland's jails "have unlimited opportunity to watch television," and say "a reasonable amount of time to watch television is fair as part of a prisoners' relaxation time," but warns of the importance of establishing "guidelines regarding the appropriate amount of television viewing." [BBC News]
Read in browser Mapping Twitter tongues of New York City
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 28, 2013 02:38 pm 8.5 million geolocated tweets. Above: a map created by James Cheshire, Ed Manley, and John Barratt, who collected 8.5 million geo-located tweets between January 2010 and February 2013. Fast Company Design reports: "To build the image itself, they placed a point every 50 meters across the city. Tweets falling in close proximity were translated into ...
Read in browser Owner reunited with camera she lost in Hawaii after it washes up on Taiwan beach 6 years later
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 28, 2013 02:33 pm Lindsay Scallan of Newnan, Georgia took photos on her Canon PowerShot during a vacation on Maui in 2007, and lost her new camera (in its waterproof case) during a night scuba dive. "The seas were really rough. There was a lot of sand stirred up. It was hard to see," she told HawaiiNewsNow. Over the ...
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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