Photos of ruined and rotting themeparks around the world Dr. Easy, a film by Shynola and Warp, based on Matthew De Abaitua's sci-fi novel The Red Men A map of Twitter use in the US on mobile devices Math textbook attempts to solve relationship drama Crowdfunded project to create "world's smartest robot" Interview with author of "The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything... Fast" (plus excerpt) The making of Family Restaurant, a short film for kids with LGBT parents by Andrea James Beastles get nuked by the RIAA - the merciless, indiscriminate boot of Big Content stamps on humanity's face, forever Book House of St Louis faces closure, seeks cash Alaa Wardi, YouTube music star in Saudi Arabia, releases pay-what-you-can record Evidence-based pregnancy and birth information Bats sing Batman theme Lies, damned lies, and big data: the dictatorship of data Brazil rises up: 2M march across 80+ cities, 110,000 in the streets of Rio London Varieties show: Jun 27, with Eddie Izzard Private jet to Iceland awaits Edward Snowden More NSA leaks: how the NSA bends the truth about spying on Americans while insisting it doesn't spy on Americans Saturday in SF: Cliff Winnig, Heather McDougal, and Cassie Alexander Phase-shifted torsos and impossibly acrobatic legs: the black-and-white tights dance Congressman gets a look at secret Trans-Pacific Partnership draft: "This agreement hands the sovereignty of our country over to corporate interests" Public Enemy releases a new song on BitTorrent, along with remixable tracks Flying bicycle The Teenage Liberation Handbook Serving Coke in ice-bottles Make profiles Jake Von Slatt Independently funded studies on the safety of GM food Outtakes from Roxy Music album photo shoots Watch the latest hand-picked videos in Boing Boing's video archives NSA boss wants companies to be immunized from liability if they follow illegal orders from the NSA Christian "gay cure" group apologizes Photos of ruined and rotting themeparks around the world
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 12:59 pm IO9's Vincze Miklós has collected a marvellous gallery of photos from abandoned and rotting themeparks around the world. Several of these have been featured here before, while others are entirely new to me.
Read in browser Dr. Easy, a film by Shynola and Warp, based on Matthew De Abaitua's sci-fi novel The Red Men
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 21, 2013 12:56 pm Filmmaker and discoverer-of-cool-stuff
Aaron Stewart-Ahn shares word
of this awesome video, above:
Shynola, one of my favorite little gangs of British filmmakers, are planning to adapt scifi novel The Red Men by Matthew De Abaitua.
Read in browser A map of Twitter use in the US on mobile devices
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 21, 2013 12:46 pm A map of mobile devices and Twitter use: "More than 280 million Tweets posted from mobile phones reveal geographic usage patterns in unprecedented detail."
Read in browser Math textbook attempts to solve relationship drama
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 21, 2013 12:25 pm The correct answer is that Brian and Angela just need to break up, already. From
Thanks, Textbooks — a fantastic Tumblr of supremely weird and hilarious textbook examples and questions.
Read in browser Crowdfunded project to create "world's smartest robot"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 21, 2013 12:12 pm Bill Scannell says: "I have a friend of mine who's put together a project to put an AI brain into a lifelike robot, the goal being to make it as smart as a stupid three-year-old, from which point it can begin to learn on it's own and develop consciousness." The robot is being developed by a team of roboticist rock stars, including David Hanson (who built the
Philip K. Read in browser Interview with author of "The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything... Fast" (plus excerpt)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jun 21, 2013 11:59 am Josh Kaufman is the author of the new book,
The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything... Fast. I interviewed him about the art of rapid skill acquisition.
Read in browser The making of Family Restaurant, a short film for kids with LGBT parents by Andrea James
By Andrea James on Jun 21, 2013 11:56 am Longtime friend and Boing Boing contributor
Andrea James has just completed a
Kickstartered short film for children from LGBT families. I saw it this week, and was blown away by how funny and sweet it was. I know how hard she's worked on this; a true labor of love. I hope kids (and grown-ups) far and wide have a chance to experience both the art and the message. For readers in the SF Bay Area, there's a screening on
Sunday June, 2013 in the Frameline LGBT film festival at San Francisco's Castro Theatre. Andrea writes in to Boing Boing with the backstory.—Xeni Jardin
Read in browser Beastles get nuked by the RIAA - the merciless, indiscriminate boot of Big Content stamps on humanity's face, forever
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 11:44 am Remember
The Beastles, the amazing Beastie Boys/Beatles mashup? Hope you got a copy on your hard-drive because the RIAA's gone on a totally predictable jihad against a piece of delightful, noncommercial creativity.
Read in browser Book House of St Louis faces closure, seeks cash
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 11:21 am Back in April, I
wrote about the impending demolition of the Book House in St Louis, MO, and the problems they were having with their fight to stay put.
Read in browser Alaa Wardi, YouTube music star in Saudi Arabia, releases pay-what-you-can record
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 21, 2013 11:14 am Alaa Wardi (
Twitter,
instagram) is an Iranian-born singer based in Saudia Arabia whose vocal harmonies and viral videos have become big hits throughout the world. Much of his music is sung in Arabic, and he has a big fanbase in the midease, but that hasn't stopped audiences in India, Europe, and elsewhere around the world from swaying and bobbing to his sweet beats.
Read in browser Evidence-based pregnancy and birth information
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 21, 2013 11:13 am A preggo info site that contains links to Cochrane Reviews, an evidence-based maternity care report, and evidence-based resource links for you and your doctor?
Read in browser Bats sing Batman theme
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 10:54 am What you will hear, should you click "Play" above, is the sound of frequency-shifted bats singing the Batman theme, by means of a sampler and keyboard:
Bats produce sounds that are not audible to human ears.
Read in browser Lies, damned lies, and big data: the dictatorship of data
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 10:22 am Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, co-authors of the excellent book
Big Data write in the MIT Tech Review with a good, skeptical look at the risks of relying on data to the exclusion of other factors in decisionmaking.
Read in browser Brazil rises up: 2M march across 80+ cities, 110,000 in the streets of Rio
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 08:37 am The street protests in Brazil have gained momentum, with huge crowds in the streets. At issue is a kind of corporatist corruption symbolized by two upcoming football tournaments that are to be held at enormous public expense, even as poor Brazilians find themselves struggling with substandard infrastructure and price-hikes for public services.
Read in browser London Varieties show: Jun 27, with Eddie Izzard
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 06:15 am Mat Ricardo writes in with news of his next London Varieties show:
It's the latest episode of Mat Ricardo's London Varieties – featuring Eddie Izzard, Piff the Magic Dragon, Original Street Dance and octogenarian one-liner king Michael Pearse!
Read in browser Private jet to Iceland awaits Edward Snowden
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 01:58 am An Icelandic businessman and Wikileaks supporter named Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson
has offered to fly Edward Snowden to Iceland by private jet, pending Icelandic Interior Ministry approval of asylum-seeker status for the NSA whistleblower.
Read in browser More NSA leaks: how the NSA bends the truth about spying on Americans while insisting it doesn't spy on Americans
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 21, 2013 01:41 am The Guardian has published two more top-secret NSA memos, courtesy of whistleblower Edward Snowden. The memos are appendices to "Procedures used by NSA to target non-US persons" (
1,
2), and they detail the systems the NSA uses to notionally adhere to the law that prohibits them from spying on Americans.
Read in browser Saturday in SF: Cliff Winnig, Heather McDougal, and Cassie Alexander
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 11:00 pm Next on San Francisco's excellent "SF in SF" science fiction reading series:
Cliff Winnig, Heather McDougal, and Cassie Alexander will present their work in an evening emceed by Terry Bisson.
Read in browser Phase-shifted torsos and impossibly acrobatic legs: the black-and-white tights dance
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 10:00 pm By Crom, what sorcery is this? These women with their motley tights have backdoored my brain's habitual human-recognition heuristics and keep fooling my eye into seeing impossible acrobatic half-humans with phase-shifted torsos!
Read in browser Congressman gets a look at secret Trans-Pacific Partnership draft: "This agreement hands the sovereignty of our country over to corporate interests"
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 08:56 pm Rep Alan Grayson (D-FL) is the first Congresscritter to get a look at the text of the super-secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership, currently being negotiated by Obama's US Trade Representative (the Obama administration, like the Bush admin before it, claims that the President has the authority to negotiate and enter into trade agreements without Congress's approval).
Read in browser Public Enemy releases a new song on BitTorrent, along with remixable tracks
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 08:03 pm The latest release from Chuck D and Public Enemy is the
Public Enemy BitTorrent Bundle, where you trade your email address for access to a torrent of "Get Up Stand Up," featuring Brother Ali, as well as "the song's music video, outtakes, and 37 multitracks." Public Enemy wants you to remix the track and upload and share your own mixes, too, and will reward the best remixes
with a variety of prizes ranging from an official PE release and studio equipment to an editorial feature on BitTorrent and some PE swag.
Read in browser Flying bicycle
By David Pescovitz on Jun 20, 2013 07:13 pm The XploreAir Paravelo is a flying bicycle. The front is a collapsible bike that docks with a trailer containing a flexible wing and a biofuel-powered fan with an electric starter motor.
Read in browser The Teenage Liberation Handbook
By Cool Tools on Jun 20, 2013 06:42 pm This book is radical. It tries to persuade teenagers to drop out of high school — in order to “get a real life and education” as its subtitle says.
Read in browser Serving Coke in ice-bottles
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 06:41 pm Ogilvy Colombia did a promotion for Coca-Cola wherein they dispensed The Black Waters of American Imperialism in rather appealing little bottles made of ice.
Read in browser Make profiles Jake Von Slatt
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 06:00 pm Make Magazine profiled the incomparable steampunk maker Jake von Slatt; he's got all kinds of great stuff to relate:
Two past mistakes you've learned the most from: 1.
Read in browser Independently funded studies on the safety of GM food
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jun 20, 2013 05:41 pm The Genera Project was started last summer to create an easily-searchable catalog of peer-reviewed scientific studies dealing with the risk, benefits, and safety analysis of genetically modified plants.
Read in browser Outtakes from Roxy Music album photo shoots
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 05:00 pm Here are some outtakes from Eric Boman's shoot for the classic Roxy Music album
Country Life, and the shoots for the covers of such albums as
Stranded and
For Your Pleasure.
Read in browser Watch the latest hand-picked videos in Boing Boing's video archives
By Xeni Jardin on Jun 20, 2013 04:05 pm Among the most recent video posts you will find on
our video archive page: • Cicada Mania! • Postal Service: new video and Colbert Report interview • Escaping python • HOWTO: DIY bike helmet LED nav to Citi Bike stations • Wireless restoration of sight to the blind (rats) • Enigma Variations
Boing Boing: Video archives Read in browser NSA boss wants companies to be immunized from liability if they follow illegal orders from the NSA
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 04:01 pm General Keith Alexander, who is in charge of the NSA, has asked Congress to pass legislation immunizing companies from liability if they break the law following NSA spying orders.
Read in browser Christian "gay cure" group apologizes
By Cory Doctorow on Jun 20, 2013 02:43 pm In a
public statement, Alan Chambers, the president of Exodus Ministries, apologized for his group's practice of offering cruel "gay cure" camps.
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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