Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, posts a personal essay called "Reading the dictionary," which describes the traditional school curriculum as equivalent to asking students to read the dictionary or an encyclopedia from cover to cover. He contrasts this with his own style of learning, "interest-driven learning" ("code for 'short attention span' or 'not a good long term planner'") and ruminates on what a curriculum designed for people like him would look like. — Read the rest
Philippe sez, "restorm.com launched rightclearing last week at the prominent Social Music Summit in NYC. The cloud-based music licensing platform provides artists and music professionals a simplified solution that enables them to monetize content through an automated licensing system. In the midst of all the SOPA, PIPA, ACTA rhetoric, and never-ending licensing chaos in the market, rightclearing is well-poised to provide a concise and compelling solution to the needlessly complex licensing labyrinth. — Read the rest
I traveled to Japan with PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien to help shoot and produce a series of NewsHour stories about the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters. — Read the rest
Since last fall, we've been talking at length to various creators about their CC stories–the impact Creative Commons has had on their lives and in their respective fields, whether that's in art, education, science, or industry.
The material documents the evolution of the tweedy middle-aged academic into a drug guru, international outlaw, gubernatorial candidate, computer software designer and progenitor of the Me Decade's self-absorbed interest in self-help.
RDTN.org is a website whose purpose is to provide an aggregate feed of nuclear radiation data from governmental, non-governmental and citizen-scientist sources. That data will be made available to everyone, including scientists and nuclear experts who can provide context for lay people.
[ UPDATE: Joi Ito has been blogging about lies, corruption, and safety breaches with TEPCO for nearly ten years. Links to a couple of his 2002-2003 TEPCO posts at the bottom of this Boing Boing item.–XJ ]
In the Wall Street Journal, news that critical early efforts to stave off crisis at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were delayed by the operator's concerns over damaging "valuable assets," and by "initial passivity" on the part of Japan's government. — Read the rest
Errol Morris is an academy award-winning documentary filmmaker. His films include Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line, A Brief History of Time, Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control, and Standard Operating Procedure. Roger Ebert said, "After twenty years of reviewing films, I haven't found another filmmaker who intrigues me more...Errol Morris is like a magician, and as great a filmmaker as Hitchcock or Fellini." Recently, The Guardian listed him as one of the ten most important film directors in the world.
Read The Ashtray, his five-part series on "meaning, truth, intolerance and flying ashtrays" in The New York Times.
Ever wonder what happens if you put gnocchi in a deep-fat frier? Steve from WebRestaurantStore discovered, the hard way, that they burst, flinging themselves high in the air in a shower of white-hot, hilarious grease.
I've been unable to nail down precisely why I don't like how WikiLeaks is releasing hidden, secret, classified, and other categories of U.S. government information. I don't believe the United States deserves the shroud of secrecy that protects incompetent, illegal, and malicious acts; neither do I trust Julian Assange's motives, presentation, or redaction. — Read the rest
Joi Ito took this short audio clip of prayer time at Dubai Airport. He says: "For a lot of people, the first time they hear the call to prayer at the airport it's a weird thing; once you get used to it, it makes you feel like you're actually in an Arab country. — Read the rest
I was in Oxford when the volcano in Iceland erupted last month; since I couldn't get home, I took a little detour to Dubai via Paris and came back to San Francisco ten days later than originally planned. Thousands of others were in the same boat, and a bunch of us — mostly those who had attended the Skoll World Forum and TEDx Volcano that weekend — met up at a bar in central London. — Read the rest
I have read a mountain of economics books that purport to explain the great econopocalypse in which we find ourselves, but none can hold a candle to John Lanchester's Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay, a British book that explains the macro- and microeconomic phenomena with a novelist's sense of plot and clarity (Lanchester being a novelist) that nevertheless refuses to sacrifice accuracy for accessibility. — Read the rest
A book called Crazy Wacky Theme Restaurants: Japan landed in my mailbox a couple of months ago. It's a beautifully-designed volume full of photos and essays chronicling author La Carmina's journey into the world of fetish restaurants in Japan. Carmina, who is from Vancouver, has a Gothic-Lolita Japanese fashion blog, and when she goes out, she wears Japanese street style-inspired attire. — Read the rest
Final post on BoingBoing. Would like to thank Joi Ito for the introduction and to Xeni, Mark and the rest of the BB team for having me. — Read the rest
A book called Crazy Wacky Theme Restaurants: Japan landed in my mailbox a couple of months ago. It's a beautifully-designed volume full of photos and essays chronicling author 
