The Latest from Boing Boing

Jared Diamond lecture on the evolution of religion Posted: 07 Apr 2009 10:31 PM PDT Here's a fantastic lecture by Jared "Guns, Germs and Steel" Diamond at the USC College Center for Religion and Civic Culture on the "evolution of religion" -- the evolutionary forces that shape religions and cause some to prevail and others to wane. The Evolution of Religions (via Kottke)

Distance to celestial objects chart Posted: 07 Apr 2009 10:28 PM PDT This beautiful old chart, headed "Unbelievable Time Required to Cover Immense Distances of Space", displays the time it would take to get to various "nearby" celestial objects, using an unspecified propulsion system. Does anyone know what that system was, or where the chart comes from? Unbelievable Time Required to Cover Immense Distances of Space (via A Whole Lotta Nothing)

Trippy high school yearbook cover Posted: 07 Apr 2009 10:28 PM PDT While conducting research for his Dork Yearbook project, Joel did a Google image search for yearbook covers. I think this cover for Rochester, New York's West High School 1968 annual is a psychedelic masterpiece that absolutely embodies the genre of high school stoner art.

Intimidatingly awesome science fair projects Posted: 07 Apr 2009 10:23 PM PDT I love this collection of award-winning science-fair projects -- I spent many a happy afternoon measuring surface tension, modelling DNA with plasticene, and so on: In the category of mathematics, 17-year old Sana Raoof of Jericho High School in Jericho, New York produced this mind-bender to win the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award and $50,000 scholarship in the 2008 fair in Atlanta. She chose Harvard, which no doubt feels privileged to have won the bidding for this brilliant young mathematician. Just in case you are having trouble recalling exactly what chord diagrams and singular knots are all about - having perhaps missed that particular sub-chapter in your high school math class - Greg Muller offers a passable introduction at his blog The Everything Seminar to refresh your memory. Basically, knot theory is about solving simple problems with advanced techniques. For those of us who don't like doing things the easy way... 10 Winning Science Fair Projects That Will Make You Feel Dumb (via Neatorama) Previously: Creationist dioramas at kids' science fair - Boing Boing Funny doctored science fair photos - Boing Boing Intel science fair semifinalist photos - Boing Boing Science fair project on dangers of BB guns rejected b/c BB guns ... Teen wins science fair with $300 spectrograph - Boing Boing Creation Science Fair - Boing Boing

Easter Bunny knit dissection Posted: 07 Apr 2009 10:20 PM PDT Describing this delightful Etsy item, Bill sez, "Apparently the Easter Bunny was killed in a tragic accident at a Peep factory and he donated his body to science. Finally, an answer to mystery of the origins of Easter eggs!" The Easter Bunny donated his body to science (Thanks, Bill!) Can't see the video? Click here

DoubleTwist lets you manage all your media from one place -- UPDATED Posted: 07 Apr 2009 10:46 PM PDT Jon "DVD Jon" Johansen sez, We just went live with the public Windows beta of doubleTwist. The Mac version went out a little more than a month ago and generated headlines like "doubleTwist may be the coolest universal media manager ever" We feel that just like you don't have to use a different browser for every web site you visit (Firefox to read the NY Times, IE to stream Hulu, Chrome to browse YouTube, etc) you shouldn't have to use iTunes for Apple products, Nokia software for Nokia phones, Sony software for Sony products, etc. The typical household today has many such devices and we are building a simple and powerful software that connects them. The new doubleTwist supports most major devices, from the BlackBerry and Android phones to the iPod/iPhone and Sony PSP. doubleTwist - Play, Sync & Send photos, videos and music for Blackberry, iPod, Android, iPhone, PSP, LG. Free download for Mac, PC. (Thanks, Jon!) Update: Jon sez, "One small correction: this version of doubleTwist does not have DRM support (it's finally gone from music anyway!) Our main aim is to provide a unified device management experience, including support for proprietary devices such as the iPod and the iPhone." Previously: DVD Jon launches doubleTwist -- move music without DRM hassles ... iPhone: DVD Jon claims to activate without ATT... T-Mobile for ... DVD Jon becomes iTunes Jon - Boing Boing DVD Jon selling Apple DRM to Apple's competitors - Boing Boing DVD Jon cracks Google Video in <24h UPDATED - Boing Boing DVD Jon creates DRM-free iTunes interface "PyMusique" - Boing Boing DVD Jon on VLC and Apple's iTunes singles - Boing Boing Li'l Jon meets DVD Jon - Boing Boing

Art from Basil Wolverton's Bible Posted: 07 Apr 2009 10:10 PM PDT Here's a preview of the artwork from old-school underground comix genius Basil Wolverton's The Wolverton Bible, which look appropriately groovy and sinister (compare with The Manga Bible and Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis -- the latter being very intriguing, though the publisher brushed me off when I asked to have my name put down for a look at an early review copy). Preview of 'The Wolverton Bible' (Thanks, Avi!) Previously: Basil Wolverton's Culture Corner -- HOWTOs for modern living from ... Exhibit of cartoonist Basil Wolverton's work - Boing Boing Powerhouse Pepper comic book stories, by Basil Wolverton - Boing Boing Basil Wolverton was a comic - Boing Boing Manga Bible -- Genesis to Revelation with giant killer robots ... Bible story comix featuring giant killer robots - Boing Boing

London cop's unprovoked attack on G20 protestor BYSTANDER who then has fatal heart attack Posted: 07 Apr 2009 11:13 PM PDT A London cop charged Ian Tomlinson, a G20 demonstrator an innocent bystander at the G20 demonstrations who was on his way home from work, who was walking peacefully with his hands in his pockets, clubbing him and throwing him to the ground without provocation. Shortly after, he suffered a fatal heart attack. Does anyone believe that Tomlinson was the only person who was attacked without provocation by the police that day? Dramatic footage obtained by the Guardian shows that the man who died at last week's G20 protests in London was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear. Moments after the assault on Ian Tomlinson was captured on video, he suffered a heart attack and died. Video reveals G20 police assault on man who died (Thanks, Dan and everyone else who suggested this!) Previously: G20 Welcoming Committee Gets Ready - Boing Boing London cops beating the shit out of peaceful G20 demonstrators ...

Women's sense of smell evolved to sniff out bad mates Posted: 07 Apr 2009 09:56 PM PDT A new paper in the journal Flavour and Fragrance points to an evolutionary explanation for women's superior sense of smell relative to men: they use it to sniff out genetic deficiencies in potential mates. "Women have a larger interest in reproductive events because they have fewer opportunities for passing on their genes than men," said George Preti, a Monell Chemical Senses Center organic chemist... "Men produce thousands of gametes every day, women just one every month," Preti said. "Their investment in a reproductive event is higher than men's, so they're more biologically attuned to who they're mating with." Preti and other pheromone researchers suspect that mammalian olfactory systems actually evolved to detect chemical traces of genetic incompatibility in the odors of potential mates. An Evolutionary Explanation for Sexual Smell Differences (Image: Someone Sniffs, a Creative Commons Attribution licensed photo from Orin Optiglot's photostream)

Referee warns soccer player for farting Posted: 07 Apr 2009 09:22 PM PDT The URL of this story - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/05/football-fart - is matched in greatness only by the content of the article. A referee gave a misconduct warning to a professional soccer player for farting as a player on the other team was taking a penalty shot. From The Guardian: The official deemed the act "ungentlemanly conduct" and booked the player responsible. However Chorlton Villa, who conceded a goal on the second take, went on to win the match 6-4 against local rivals International Manchester FC at Turn Moss in Stretford, Manchester, last Sunday. "Footballer given yellow card 'for breaking wind' during penalty shot" (Thanks, Carlo Longino!) Can't see the video? Click here

Radiohead's music videos: partial retrospective, by director. Posted: 07 Apr 2009 07:49 PM PDT Last week, I blogged about the "Radiohead Fanatic Fortnight" taking place over at IFC.com. That's continuing this week with a look at some of Radiohead's more memorable videos and the directors who shot them. The list includes Fake Plastic Trees, Just, Knives Out, Motion Picture Soundtrack, with work from directors including Jonathan Glazer and Michel Gondry. Above, the lovely Pyramid Song. One of my favorite videos in the set, from the unfairly brilliant animators and directors of Shynola, whose work I adore just as much as I do Radiohead. Previously: Fun with Radiohead on IFC.com - Boing Boing

Batteries built by viruses Posted: 07 Apr 2009 03:19 PM PDT Researchers have genetically engineered biological viruses to form the anode and cathode of a battery. MIT researcher Angela Belcher and her colleagues manipulated the genes of a harmless virus so that the bug coats itself in tiny iron phosphate particles and connects to highly-conductive carbon nanotubes. From Science News: Ions and electrons can move through smaller particles more quickly. But fabricating nano-sized particles of iron phosphate is a difficult and expensive process, the researchers say. So Belcher's team let the virus do the work. By manipulating a gene of the M13 virus to make the viruses coat themselves in iron phosphate, the researchers created very small iron phosphate particles. "We're using a biological template that's already on the nanoscale," Belcher says. Tweaking a second gene made one end of the virus bind to carbon nanotubes, which conduct energy well. The resulting network of iron phosphate-coated viruses and carbon nanotubes formed a highly conductive cathode, one that ions and electrons could move through quickly. "Viruses could power devices" Can't see the video? Click here

How To: Build Your Own Letterpress Posted: 07 Apr 2009 07:44 PM PDT Over at Boing Boing Gadgets, Steven Leckart looks at DIY letterpresses and how to build your own. Compared to digital printing, letterpress is just so much more... "authentic." How To: Build Your Own Letterpress

Pat Schrodinger's Kitty and other baby stuff for science nerd Posted: 07 Apr 2009 02:54 PM PDT Tiffany Ard creates "artwork and nursery decor for serious science nerds." Seen above is a spread from her book Pat Schrodinger's Kitty. From the description: Here are Paul Dirac and Enrico Fermi. They can do lots of things. You can do lots of things too! This parody of the children's classic Pat the Bunny is perfect for the babies in your life who are interested in physics. Pat Schrodinger's Kitty

Dog thought to be drowned found after four months Posted: 07 Apr 2009 02:50 PM PDT Sophie Tucker, seen here, fell overboard off the northeast Queensland cost of Australia. Last week, she was reunited with her human family. Apparently, Sophie had been living on an island for four months. From AFP: She was returned to her family last week when (Jan) Griffith contacted rangers who had captured a dog that had been living off feral goats on the largely uninhabited island, in the faint hope it might be their long-lost pet... Griffith said that when the dog was first spotted on the island she had been in poor condition. "And then all of a sudden she started to look good and it was when the rangers had found baby goat carcasses so she'd started eating baby goats," she said. Dog overboard found four months later

Podcast memoir: how an idealistic young Mormon missionary threatened to blow up a plane Posted: 07 Apr 2009 11:03 AM PDT William Shunn sez, In 2006 and 2007, over the course of about 30 episodes of my "ShunnCast," I serialized my memoir "The Accidental Terrorist," the story of how I, as a naive young Mormon missionary, came to be arrested for terrorism and permanently banned from Canada. The response was enthusiastic and overwhelming. Now I'm serializing the book again, but this time in its own dedicated podcast. Starting today and continuing throughout 2009, I'll post a chapter from "The Accidental Terrorist" every Tuesday morning. Fridays I'll post a "Setting the Record Straight" segment to discuss exactly how true the preceding chapter was. This just may be my favorite true-life amazing-but-true tale -- never has threatening an aircraft been funnier or more thought-provoking. Memoir-go-round (Thanks, Bill!) Previously: Xmas/Hallowe'en sf story podcast from Bill Shunn - Boing Boing Hugo nominees announced - Boing Boing Bill Shunn hasn't been excommunicated...yet. - Boing Boing Xmas/Hallowe'en sf story podcast from Bill Shunn - Boing Boing My pal Bill Shunn is - Boing Boing Bill Shunn, a New Yorker - Boing Boing William Shunn's short story collection - Boing Boing

Obama DOJ invents radical authoritarian theory to defend Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping Posted: 07 Apr 2009 09:42 AM PDT The Obama administration has filed a brief in EFF's lawsuit against the government for its program of illegal, mass wiretapping of Americans, defending the practice, arguing that the lawsuit should be dismissed, endorsing the Bush administration's invented "State Secret" theory, and augmenting it with a new theory, that "the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications." This brief was not written by Bush cronies left behind by the outgoing administration: this is an invention of the Obama administration. I don't expect the guy to walk on water, but I'd sure like it if he'd stop wallowing in the mud. Every defining attribute of Bush's radical secrecy powers -- every one -- is found here, and in exactly the same tone and with the exact same mindset. Thus: how the U.S. government eavesdrops on its citizens is too secret to allow a court to determine its legality. We must just blindly accept the claims from the President's DNI that we will all be endangered if we allow courts to determine the legality of the President's actions. Even confirming or denying already publicly known facts -- such as the involvement of the telecoms and the massive data-mining programs -- would be too damaging to national security. Why? Because the DNI says so. It is not merely specific documents, but entire lawsuits, that must be dismissed in advance as soon as the privilege is asserted because "its very subject matter would inherently risk or require the disclosure of state secrets." What's being asserted here by the Obama DOJ is the virtually absolute power of presidential secrecy, the right to break the law with no consequences, and immunity from surveillance lawsuits so sweeping that one can hardly believe that it's being claimed with a straight face. It is simply inexcusable for those who spent the last several years screaming when the Bush administration did exactly this to remain silent now or, worse, to search for excuses to justify this behavior. As EFF's Bankston put it: "President Obama promised the American people a new era of transparency, accountability, and respect for civil liberties. But with the Obama Justice Department continuing the Bush administration's cover-up of the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance of millions of Americans, and insisting that the much-publicized warrantless wiretapping program is still a "secret" that cannot be reviewed by the courts, it feels like deja vu all over again." New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ (via /.) Can't see the video? Click here

Newspapers are dumb to blame Google for their problems Posted: 07 Apr 2009 09:24 AM PDT Danny "Search Engine Land" Daggle has written a masterful rant about the newspapers' campaign to blame Google for all their trouble and to take steps to stop their material from being made available through a search engine. Earth to newspapers: if people aren't talking about what you publish, it's not news. We call that stuff a secret. Please get all your newspaper colleagues to agree to a national "Just say no to Google" week. I beg you, please do it. Then I can see if these things I think will happen do happen: * Papers go "oh shit," we really get a lot of traffic from Google for free, and we actually do earn something off those page views * Papers go "oh shit," turns out people can find news from other sources * Papers go "oh shit," being out of Google didn't magically solve all our other problems overnight, but now we have no one else to blame. ... The papers can't get coordinated on anything. Anyone remember Pathfinder, that was supposed to be the Time-backed portal for news. Yeah, that did well. What, a decade of the web, and none of the papers could put together their own version of Hulu? The only thing you can all agree on is that you hate Google News for "stealing" so much from you -- despite Yahoo News still being the larger news site. But Google makes a better target, plus I suspect some papers might have favorable placements with Yahoo that makes them not want to yell about the Big Y. Google's Love For Newspapers & How Little They Appreciate It (via Jbat)

Segway and GM's "car" Posted: 07 Apr 2009 09:24 AM PDT The PUMA is a Segway/car combination prototyped by Dean Kamen's company in collaboration with General Motors. More details and video at Boing Boing Gadgets. Puma: GM and Segway take a swing at a small car (Thanks, Jim Leftwich!)

Downloadable Soundtrack for a Book: How to Break Bad News Posted: 07 Apr 2009 12:49 PM PDT Eric Steuer (who you may know as creative director of Creative Commons), writes in with news about a personal side project he's been working on that launched this morning. My friend Tim Molloy and I put together a soundtrack for Tim's new novel, "How to Break Bad News" (Virgin Books), which is about a reporter who goes undercover at a fast food restaurant chain to expose labor abuses - but then finds he prefers working there to being a reporter. The soundtrack is being distributed for free by RCRD LBL and features 14 tracks by acts like Dirty on Purpose, Sam Champion, Michna, and CoCo B's. It's all here: "How to Break Bad News" soundtrack. There's a soundtrack release party at Hugs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Thursday. Tim will be reading from and singing copies of the book, while the guys from RCRD LBL will DJ sets that include songs from the soundtrack. Embedded soundtrack below, but you'll want to visit the rcrdlbl post for all the project details. Can't see the video? Click here

Fix CNBC: your signatures delivered in funny video Posted: 07 Apr 2009 09:07 AM PDT Adam sez, Last month, Boing Boing encouraged folks to "sign the open letter" at FixCNBC.com, which asked the network to hold Wall Street accountable instead of being in the tank for big corporations. This FixCNBC site was built by Rebecca Malamud and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz, and was a project of the new Progressive Change Campaign Committee -- which primarily helps elect strong progressives to Congress. Over 20,000 people signed the letter. The PCCC teamed up with some NYC comedians (including someone from the Onion) to deliver the letter to CNBC, and today the video of that delivery was released. It's good. Check it out! (And if you haven't signed the letter to CNBC yet, you still can) Message delivered to CNBC! (Thanks, Adam!)

BB Video: "Super Ed," by Subatomic Nixons (dir. Bill Barminski and Walter Robot / music video) Posted: 07 Apr 2009 09:22 AM PDT Download the MP4 here. Flash video above, click "fullscreen" icon inside player to view large. YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video. Today Boing Boing video debuts a new work from the multitalented multimedia artist Bill Barminski, whose animation and short films we've featured many times before. This one's a retro-kitschy flight of fancy for his music side project Subatomic Nixons, and features a character who looks a lot like television legend Ed Sullivan -- only, he's wearing a superhero cape and smiting rock bands. The video was produced by Walter Robot (= Bill Barminski and Christopher Louie). Here are previous Boing Boing video episodes featuring Barminski's work. Previously: Gnarls Barkley animated music video from Walter Robot S.E.X.Y. R.O.B.O.T., a Pinker Tones music video by Walter Robot ... BBtv - Bill Barminski animation: "Drive-In" - Boing Boing BBtv: Bill Barminski video for "Surfer's Point," by SubAtomic ... Best of BBtv - Bill Barminski (animation and short films) - Boing ... Bill Barminski and Chris Louie's Modest Mouse video - Boing Boing "Hazy Day," Subatomic Nixons: animated Barminski music video ... BBtv: Cockroach-controlled robot / Walter Robot - Boing Boing BBtv: Falco Stairs/Fuji Apple - Boing Boing

What you should be afraid of instead of terrorists Posted: 07 Apr 2009 06:19 AM PDT Are you an American who worries about terrorism? Stop. If you want to worry about something, here's John Goekler's Counterpunch article on the statistically likely killers that you need to fear: According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, between 310,000 and 580,000 of us will commit suicide by cigarette this year. Another 260,000 to 470,000 will go in the ground due to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. And some 85,000 of us will drink to our own departure. After the person in the mirror, the next most dangerous individual we're ever likely to encounter is one in a white coat. Something like 200,000 of us will experience "cessation of life" due to medical errors - botched procedures, mis-prescribed drugs and "nosocomial infections". (The really nasty ones you get from treatment in a hospital or healthcare service unit.) The next most dangerous encounter the average American is likely to have is with a co-worker with an infection. Or a doorknob, stair railing or restaurant utensil touched by someone with the crud. "Microbial Agents" (read bugs like flu and pneumonia) will send 75,000 of us to meet the Reaper this year. If we live through those social encounters, the next greatest danger is "Toxic Agents" - asbestos in our ceiling, lead in our pipes, the stuff we spray on our lawns or pour down our clogged drains. Annual body count from these handy consumer products is around 55,000... Imagine what the world could look like if we made a conscious choice to live out whatever time we have with courage, compassion, service and joy. Terrorism is an act of the weak. But so is walking through the airport in our socks. The Most Dangerous Person in the World? (via Schneier)

Recently on Offworld Posted: 07 Apr 2009 07:36 AM PDT Recently on Offworld we took a look at the four indie dev meets studio artist/illustrator games produced for Giant Robot and Attract Mode's Game Over/Continue? show that opened the final day of GDC. The games (above, the collaboration between Hellen Jo and Spelunky creator Derek Yu) made a one-night-only appearance, so if you missed the show, this is one of your best opportunities to take a closer look. We also played Enviro-Bear 2000: Operation: Hibernation, a 5-minute physics enabled journey starring the titular bear driving a sedan into trees and through ponds for some pre-hibernation sustenance (and one of the most charming indie games in recent memory), and took a first look at 8bitar Hero, a multiplayer game that procedurally generates Rock Band patterns from someone playing an emulated NES game, in real-time. Elsewhere we saw a real life Pip-Boy 3000 from Fallout 3 created with the help of an iPod Touch, saw the results of updating a NES Power Glove with modern day technology, and saw the first screens of the indie-created WiiWare game Super Meat Boy. Finally, we watched a 1993 home video from John Romero showing an early prototype of Doom, a disqualified but still fantastic Assembly 2003 demoscene music video from Melon Dezign, a laser cutter that can play the Super Mario theme, and paged through The Croopier, an experiment in creating timely and newsworthy games in Processing every week.

Free kids' book festival, London, April 25 Posted: 07 Apr 2009 05:37 AM PDT Alex sez, "I'm involved in a free Children's Book Festival in Crystal Palace, London, taking place on Saturday 25th April. There's a whole day of free workshops, including comic masterclasses, monster-drawing and horror writing. The aim was to make it as quirky and interesting for children, and get them involved in making stuff of their own. As well as the workshops, there's also an exhibition of illustration/comics at a local gallery, and in the local bookshop there will be readings and signings by authors throughout the day. Through twisting a few people's arms, I've managed to get some great up-and-coming people involved - all giving their time for nothing." The Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival (Thanks, Alex!) Can't see the video? Click here

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