The next SF-in-SF free science fiction event looks like a seriously fabulous evening: both Austin Grossman (author of
YOU) and Robin Sloan (
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore) will give a free reading and then take part in a discussion with host Terry Bisson.
It's on Sat May 11, and free (though donations to Variety Children's Charity are solicited).
— Cory
•
Alan sez, "The fine folk doing open-access science at PLOS are once again
crowd-sourcing their T-shirt design. They want something that 'appeal[s] to the
computational biology community and encapsulate[s] a recent advance or innovation in the field.' You have until May 14 to submit ideas for a shirt that will debut at their July meeting in Berlin."
— Cory
•
On May 14-15, Make is hosting its second annual
Hardware Innovation Workshop in San Mateo, CA. There's a pretty amazing speaker lineup, but perhaps most exciting is
a "Maker Pro Master Class" with Andrew "bunnie" Huang, one of the great hardware hackers of our age.
— Cory
•
Alan sez, "Demand Progress, part of Aaron Swartz's legacy, has been working for a while on
a collection of essays and thoughts by people including Aaron, Lawrence Lessig, Techdirt's Mike Masnick, and Kim Dotcom. The collection is now available in ebook and paperback form. You can even pay in bitcoins, if that's how you roll."
— Cory
•
The Guardian's Mike Power
investigated the "legal highs" industry and found a pretty disturbing world where you can get kilos of LSD, cannabis and MDMA replacement couriered to you for a pittance. But unlike the drugs they replace, these ones are potentially lethal, and sold interchangeably to unsuspecting neuronauts and punters.
— Cory
•
M Otis Beard sez, "You don't often hear about the deaths that happen at Burning Man.
Here is an overview that just might save your life." Be that as it may, Black Rock City has extraordinarily low mortality compared to comparably populated/sized areas in the USA.
— Cory
•
Tony from StarShipSofa sez, "StarShipSofa is hosting a
live writers workshop all in video with SF writers Mike Resnick and Paul Di Filippo.
StarShipSofa built its reputation by featuring science fiction from the best authors of our time, from living legends whose works have inspired generations to the rising stars of the genre. StarShipSofa's focus on quality science fiction has brought it an enthusiastic worldwide audience as well as the honor of being the first podcast in history to receive the Hugo Award. Who better to host a workshop for aspiring science fiction writers? If you wish to raise your fiction to the next level, join StarShipSofa and its special guests at this exciting workshop."
— Cory
•
Krzysztof Kietzman sez, "I studied American literature in Poland and published my Masters Thesis on cyberpunk and postcyberpunk
for free under a Creative Commons BY SA license. It is available online and covers the writers William Gibson ('Neuromancer') and Neal Stephenson ('Snow Crash', 'The Diamond Age') and the theme of innocence in cyberpunk fiction. This theme will be familiar to Boing Boing readers, as it appeared in the works of Mark Dery and John Barlow, among others. The thesis explores such topics as American individualism, escapism, religion and Rapture, 'the rapture of the nerds', AIs, etc. One chapter also covers cyberpunk in general."
— Cory
•
M Otis Beard sez, "The Nevada State Assembly has
passed a bill that forbids the counties from charging permit fees to Burning Man and other festivals. . . but has anything really changed?"
— Cory
•
Yoonseo Kang sez, "Open Tech Forever is a new open source hardware cooperative: a worker-owned R&D and education company that teaches others how to make hardware and start their own businesses. The Open Tech Forever team has recently launched their
Indie-gogo crowdfunding campaign to fund the construction and documentation of an open source R&D factory on their 40 acre site in Denver, Colorado, and runs thru May 13."
— Cory
•
If you haven't heard about the
insane letter sent around to a sorority by its concerned and
thoroughly awful social chairwoman, you're probably doing something right. Nevertheless, there is a gem of good in every wickedness, as Funny or Die demonstrates with this
dramatic reading of the letter in question [NSFW]
— Cory
•
From
Slashdot submitter Trims: "The TSA is
now in the public comment stage of its project to roll out Advanced Imaging Technology (i.e. full-body X-ray) scanners. The TSA wants your feedback as to whether or not this project should be continued or cancelled. Now is your chance to tell the TSA that this is a huge porkbarrel project and nothing more than Security Theater. You can comment at
http:///www.regulations.gov and reference the docket ID TSA-2013-0004." You've got until Jun 24.
— Cory
•
The Brit papers have been full of news about the Swedish daycare expert brought in to address Conservative MPs about the iron-clad, data-driven link between Sweden's universal daycare and the rise of teen mental health issues there. Jonas Himmelstrand was there to warn Britain that sending mothers to work and kids to daycare was bad for the family and the nation. Only one problem:
he has no formal qualifications to speak on the subject, and the scientist whose research he cited says he got it all wrong.
— Cory
•
My
feelings about cat memes are on record. But then there's
this: a cat in a shark-suit riding a Roomba chasing a baby duck.
— Cory
•
Muckrock Michael sez, "Today MuckRock's Mara Berg chronicles the saga of a particular public records request I put in for the following:
A copy of the backing track used during Beyonce's Inauguration performance, as well as copies of other backing tracks created in preparation for Inauguration events, whether or not they were actually used.
Unfortunately, while we received (some) of the requested documents, two outside legal experts and the U.S. Marines Corps have
warned us strongly against publishing what we have. The reason? Copyright."
— Cory
•
