On Feb. 20, PBS' long-running science series NOVA airs "Mind of a Rampage Killer," an hour-long documentary on the neuroscience of teen rampage shootings: Newtown, Aurora, Columbine, and on the list goes.

What makes a person walk into a theater or a church or a classroom full of students and open fire? What combination of circumstances compels a human being to commit the most inhuman of crimes? Can science in any way help us understand these horrific events and provide any clues as to how to prevent them in the future? As the nation tries to understand the tragic events at Newtown, NOVA correspondent Miles O’Brien separates fact from fiction, investigating new theories that the most destructive rampage killers are driven most of all, not by the urge to kill, but the wish to die. Could suicide–and the desire to go out in a media-fueled blaze of glory–be the main motivation? How much can science tell us about the violent brain? Most importantly, can we recognize dangerous minds in time—and stop the next Newtown?

Miles (who's also my boyfriend) showed me the rough cut. It's really a powerful documentary. Do tune in. NOVA "Mind of a Rampage Killer" premieres Wednesday, February 20, 2013, 9p.m. ET, as part of "After Newtown" special programming.

Above, an excerpt: Miles interviews Andy Williams and his father, Jeffrey. Andy was convicted of the 2001 shooting at Santana High School. In the shooting two students were killed and thirteen others were wounded. Andy is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years. Related: Miles talks with John Hockenberry about the doc, on the public radio program "The Takeaway."

]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/02/19/to-watch-on-nova-mind-of-a.html/feed 17 http://boingboing.net/2013/02/07/letters-to-newtown-digitally.html http://boingboing.net/2013/02/07/letters-to-newtown-digitally.html#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:01:51 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=211554

In Mother Jones, the story behind "Letters to Newtown." This project was instigated by Boardwalk Empire prop-master, freelance illustrator, and Newtown resident Ross MacDonald, and it serves to digitally archive some of the half million cards, letters, and drawings sent to the town of Newtown, CT after the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Jacques Hebert of Mother Jones, the magazine putting this all together with Tumblr, explains, "These messages of love, hope, and sadness have been on display in Newtown Town Hall, and have been viewed by many residents. To broaden access to these cards and preserve them as memories of what Newtown residents and the nation experienced on that tragic day, Mother Jones in partnership with Tumblr is launching the 'Letters to Newtown' project."

"The project will aim to digitally preserve these cards (the town of Newtown can't afford to store them any longer and many will be turned into ash for a future memorial site) by photographing them and uploading them to a special Tumblr for the world to see."

"We are overwhelmed," MacDonald writes in his post. "Residents like me, who were lucky enough to have our children come home that night; town leaders struggling to support the community and deal with the deluge of letters, toys, school supplies, and other donations sent to Newtown; and the volunteers who have been opening and sorting it all."

"In their shock and grief, people were compelled to make these intensely raw, personal expressions, and send them to a town they probably hadn't heard of before, not knowing if they would even reach us. They offered help, love, condolences, prayers. They came from children, parents, families, school classes, church groups, soldiers, mayors, survivors, inmates, and entire towns. The letters on display at town hall form a massive tapestry of a world's sorrow."

They're launching the Tumblr with 25 images, and adding 6 new ones every day.

(via Mike Mechanic)

]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/02/07/letters-to-newtown-digitally.html/feed 3 http://boingboing.net/2013/01/09/internet-crackpots-believe-new.html http://boingboing.net/2013/01/09/internet-crackpots-believe-new.html#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:38:22 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=204914 writes Alex Seitz-Wald in Salon. And they can tell by the pixels.]]>

"Yes, there really are Newtown truthers," writes Alex Seitz-Wald in Salon. And they can tell by the pixels.

One of them, OperationTerror, produced the video above explaining the latest prevailing conspiracy theory, which involves a Photoshop disaster.

Maybe you’ve already heard some of the others, like the one about fantasy ties between the gunman’s family and the LIBOR banking scandal and a related theory about the Aurora shooting and the “Dark Knight Rises.” Most of the theories are really pieces of a larger meta-theory: that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, perhaps by the Obama administration, designed to stir demand for gun control. In the latest angle, theorists think they have found “absolute proof” of a conspiracy to defraud the American people. “You reported in December that this little girl had been killed,” a reader emailed Salon in response to a story. “She has been found, and photographed with President Obama.”

Noted.

(Thanks, Miles O'Brien)]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/01/09/internet-crackpots-believe-new.html/feed 144 http://boingboing.net/2013/01/07/chris-wares-latest-new-yorke.html http://boingboing.net/2013/01/07/chris-wares-latest-new-yorke.html#comments Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:17:50 +0000 David Pescovitz http://boingboing.net/?p=204392 On December 14th, I helped chaperone my daughter’s second-grade-class field trip to a local production of “The Nutcracker,” where I spent most of my time not watching the ballet but marvelling at the calm efforts of the teacher to keep the yelling, excited class quieted down.]]> Ware writes:

On December 14th, I helped chaperone my daughter’s second-grade-class field trip to a local production of “The Nutcracker,” where I spent most of my time not watching the ballet but marvelling at the calm efforts of the teacher to keep the yelling, excited class quieted down. Teaching was not, I concluded at one point, a profession in which I could survive for even one day. Our buses came back to the school at midafternoon, and I and the other volunteer parents left our children for another hour of wind-down time (for us, not them) before returning for the regular 3-P.M. pickup. I came home, however, not to any wind-down but to the unfolding coverage of the Newtown shooting.

Photo credit: Victor Cruz on Twitter