Apple can decrypt iPhones for cops; Google can remotely "reset password" for Android devices Bollard transformed into yarn Dalek Ghosts in the Machine: the tiny people who live inside your computers Official list of English words misused in EU documents What happens when you forget pizzas in the oven for weeks Rapture of the Nerds is a Campbell Award finalist Man with pince-nez & smart suit hurls trusses disdainfully Make bread by mixing ice cream with flour and baking Apple can decrypt iPhones for cops; Google can remotely "reset password" for Android devices
By Cory Doctorow on May 12, 2013 11:49 am Apple apparently has the power to decrypt iPhone storage in response to law-enforcement requests, though they won't say how. Google can remotely "reset the password" for a phone for cops, too: Last year, leaked training materials prepared by the Sacramento sheriff's office included a form that would require Apple to "assist law enforcement agents" with ...
Read in browser Bollard transformed into yarn Dalek
By Cory Doctorow on May 12, 2013 08:41 am Kevyn Jacobs snapped this knit (crocheted?) Dalek bollard cover at the corner of West Magnolia Street and Commercial Street in Bellingham, WA. No clue as to the manufacturer of said confection, but bravo. #Knitted #Dalek bollard cover (Thanks, Hagrid!)
Read in browser Ghosts in the Machine: the tiny people who live inside your computers
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2013 10:54 pm Mark Crummett sez, "For several years now, I've been working on a series of photos featuring miniature figures living and working in our computers and consumer electronics. These are the people who Make Things Work. I'm happy to say that wired.com is featuring my 'Ghosts in the Machine' at their rawfile photo blog. Shows many ...
Read in browser Official list of English words misused in EU documents
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2013 05:52 pm A brief list of misused English terminology in EU publications [PDF] is a fascinating look at the emerging dialect of English that is emerging out of the EU bureaucracy, in which odd bureaucratic language has to be translated from and to many languages. It's a good window into concepts that are common in one nation's ...
Read in browser What happens when you forget pizzas in the oven for weeks
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2013 05:44 pm A friend of redditor BigBoppinBill forgot some pizzas in the oven for "a few weeks." The result? A kind of glorious fungal jellyfish. This calls to mind the timeless wisdom of the Jazz Butcher's classic, loony, over-the-top song, Caroline Wheeler's Birthday Present: "Do you know what happens when you leave a fish in an elevator?/You ...
Read in browser Rapture of the Nerds is a Campbell Award finalist
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2013 03:59 pm Well, this is fabulous news: Rapture of the Nerds, the novel Charlie Stross and I published last year, is a finalist for the 2013 Campbell Award for best novel. It's in some truly outstanding company, too -- check out that shortlist!
Read in browser Man with pince-nez & smart suit hurls trusses disdainfully
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2013 02:38 pm They just don't make ads like this anymore. "Guy with pince-nez" is great visual shorthand for "Authority figure." Contest Entry.. Away with trusses!
Read in browser Make bread by mixing ice cream with flour and baking
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2013 01:49 pm It appears that you can make delicious (and fantastically high-carb) bread by mixing melted ice-cream with self-rising flour and baking it. I'm willing to believe that this is totally yummy but I'm not going to try it: 1 Preheat oven to 350 F 2 Let ice cream soften at room temperature for 10-15 minutes.< 3 ...
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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