Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing
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Delving into the psyche of men who buy exfoliant advertised for use after mother-daughter threeways

Posted: 03 Jun 2009 03:40 AM PDT

Sociological Images expertly dissects the new Axe exfoliant-for-men ad, which suggests that it's the perfect thing to use after sexual relations with "Jessica" and "Jessica's Mom":

The heterosexual male fantasy of being sexually serviced by two women is so common as to have become a cliché, but what about the less-frequently endorsed but still prevalent fantasy about those women being sisters (or better yet, identical twins!) or a mother-daughter pair? Is it simple attraction (i.e., if you're attracted to one woman in a family, it's likely you'll be attracted to other women who look/act like her)? Is it the taboo element? Or does the power to coerce women into an incestuous situation serve as it's own reward?

Still, Axe got one thing right with this product. When I think about a guy who would buy this sponge in the hopes of securing sexual relations with a woman and her mother, I can't help but think of him as a, well...tool.

Geez, what a tool!

Investing in litigation: beat the street by buying a share in someone's grievance against a big company

Posted: 03 Jun 2009 03:18 AM PDT

Investing in litigation is a gimmick from my next novel, Makers, coming next fall from Tor and HarperCollins UK -- the idea is that you can get rich by bankrolling people who have grievances against giant corporations in exchange for a piece of the award or settlement (this is something that plaintiff-side lawyers effectively do when they do work on contingency). I based it on a crusading lawyer I know who raised money from a philanthropist this way, but as far as I knew, that was the only case of it at the time.

No more: investing in litigation is now a sound business strategy, says the NYT:

Mr. Fields is chief executive of Juridica Capital Management. which runs a fund that invests in one side of a lawsuit in exchange for a share of any winnings.

"It's always a good time to invest in litigation," Mr. Fields said, though he added that the weak economy helped. "When the recession started to bite, the phones started ringing off the hook. Last year, we looked at 122 cases and we made 17 investments." A small but growing number of investors are exploring this idea, helping companies avoid some of the risks and costs of litigation in exchange for part of any money paid out when the case is settled or resolved by a court. After all, it can be costly to hire lawyers, who may charge close to $1,000 an hour at the most elite firms.

Credit Suisse has a unit devoted to this kind of investing. Juris Capital, a Chicago firm backed by two hedge funds, also does it. Several other hedge funds do, too.

Investing in Lawsuits, for a Share of the Awards (via /.)

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 11:42 PM PDT

Picture 1 23-37-51.png Today at Boing Boing Gadgets...

* Lisa tested out a high-end wetsuit to see if it would stave off cold NorCal water.

* Steven interviewed Mark Sponsler, the guy who decides when legendary surf competition Mavericks will take place.

* Steven also learned how to shape a surfboard.

* Joel showed us an Atom PC in a ceramic vase and Logitech's new flight simulator.

* Rob showed us QWERTY keyboard bike handles and a USB retro vacuum cleaner.

Also, don't forget to check out sex wax for surfboards and the world's first battery-heated wetsuit.

Geek Mafia 3: Black Hat Blues; a heist novel for hackers

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 10:25 PM PDT

Rick Dakan's third novel in his Geek Mafia, Black Hat Blues, is every bit as good as the two previous, rollicking volumes -- and shows the signs of a writer who's flexing new literary muscles with every book, getting better and better as he goes along.

The Geek Mafia premise is simple: a group of hackers have reinvented themselves as a crew of big-con grifters who use technology to exact elaborate revenge from the bastards who screw them -- and the world -- over. Oh, they pull straight-ahead cons, too; they're not philanthropists or anything. But they've got a (developing) ethic about who is and isn't fair game, and a lot of the tension in the books springs over disputes over this classing "honor among thieves" conundrum.

Black Hat Blues picks up where Mile Zero (the second volume) ended; the crew is in Key West, politicized and energized, and ready to kick ass. They decide to go after some very big game this time, a slimy DC beltway insider who richly deserves it -- but first they have to recruit some new talent from various hacker cons around America (these scenes are just fabulous, accurately portraying some of the weirdest events you'll ever attend). And things go well -- until they don't, and now the crew is in way over its head and the danger is dialled up to 11.

Clever, engaging, sexy, geeky -- Rick Dakan's independently published books are fantastic material, real heist/caper novels for the Happy Mutant set; as with the previous two volumes, the design is great (Rick's a graphic designer), but the book has an unfortunately high typo and copyedit-problem count, an occupational hazard of the self-published.

Black Hat Blues

Previously:



RFP: design open federal regulations

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 10:21 PM PDT

Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez,
Public.Resource.Org is pleased to announce an RFP for an Enhanced Code of Federal Regulations. The purpose of this project, which is funded by the Sunlight Foundation, is to "Incorporate by Inclusion" all technical standards that have been "Incorporated by Reference" into the regulations of the U.S.government.

Casual readers of federal regulations may be astounded by the scope of these "Incorporated by Reference" standards. They govern some of the most fundamental aspects of what is law, such as "how much lead is too much in a pipe?" and "is this life vest safe?"

This effort builds on last year's "Code City," which released public safety codes (building, fire, plumbing, boiler, elevator, electrical) for public use. These public safety codes, also incorporated by reference, are the counterpart at the state and local level of the current effort to open up federal law to make it open and transparent for all.

Codes is law.

RFP: Enhanced Code of Federal Regulations (Thanks, Carl!)
Previously:


No-plugin open video coming to a browser near you

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 10:16 PM PDT

Jonico sez, "Dailymotion is working converting their video library to open video formats -- Ogg Theora. Currently they are working with Firefox to get it working correctly on Firefox 3.5 Beta(they include a link with some demos) and soon on other browsers that support HTML 5. This is one of the biggest video sites to begin to offer their video in open video formats (Ogg+ Vorbis)."

Watch Video...without Flash

Previously:


What shall we do with a carpet sample?

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 10:13 PM PDT


Craft ran a contest to see who could come up with the coolest uses for carpet samples, and the winners came up with some jim-dandy ideas. I remember getting books of these as a kid and spending days making stuff out of them.

Carpet Sample Project Contest Winners

Nintendo Entertainment System in a shoe

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 10:10 PM PDT


I'm guessing that this Nike Air/NES mashup is nonfunctional, but how cool would it be if you had a working Nintendo in your shoe?

Sneaker Pimps Nintendo (via Dvice)

Wikimedia's picture of the year

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 10:08 PM PDT


Voting has closed on the Wikimedia Commons photo of the year competition; the winner and runners-up are stunning. And they're all free as in beer and free as in speech.

Commons Picture of the Year 2008: Results

Horses on Bianditz mountain, in Navarre, Spain. Behind them Aiako mountains can be seen.

(via MeFi)

Stabbing pen, the competition

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 10:05 PM PDT

The Tuffwriter: a pen for stabbing people with (not to be confused with the the KZ Xtreme Defense Pen) (also for stabbing people).

From Marines hunting terrorists in burning deserts, SAR expeditions in bone chilling mountains, SWAT officers executing high risk warrant service, EMTs functioning in extreme conditions, or a civilian working in a non-permissive environment. All of these special operations groups have something in common - they all require a pen that they can depend on...

Q: What exactly is a tactical / defense pen?
A: It's a pen designed to be as reliable and durable as the people using it. A writing implement as well as a last ditch defensive tool that you can bring virtually anywhere and have with you at all times. The Tuff-Writer tactical / defense pen is an essential piece of gear for anyone who needs tools that they can depend on.

Tuffwriter (via Beyond the Beyond)

Tienanmen Square erased

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 11:09 PM PDT

In the Atlantic, James Fallows describes how thoroughly erased the Tiananmen Square atrocity is from the memory of young Chinese people. Censorship apparently works.
I have spent a lot of time over the past three years with Chinese university students. They know a lot about the world, and about American history, and about certain periods in their own country's past. Virtually everyone can recite chapter and verse of the Japanese cruelties in China from the 1930s onward, or the 100 Years of Humiliation, or the long background of Chinese engagement with Tibet. Through their own family's experiences, many have heard of the trauma of the Cultural Revolution years and the starvation and hardship of the Great Leap Forward. But you can't assume they will ever have heard of what happened in Tiananmen Square twenty years ago. For a minority of people in China, the upcoming date of June 4 has tremendous significance. For most young people, it's just another day.
Lost memory of Tiananmen (via Kottke)
Previously:


CARDIAC paper computer unboxing

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 09:53 PM PDT

Tom sez, "Tired of boring unboxing videos? When I purchased the 1960's era CARDIAC computer learning aid recently I decided to do an unboxing video. Yesterday the UPS man reintroduced me to the cardboard wonder that I last used over 30 years ago. As my tripod has been hidden by the house teenager the camera work here is less Touch Of Evil and more Blair Witch..be warned. For those also inflicted with a love of this cardboard wonder I have started a FaceBook group. My son and I are panning on doing a set of video tutorials over the summer, they will show up in this group when they are done."

My first computer was a CARDIAC and it totally blew me away. I still see it in dreams, sometimes.

(Thanks, Tom!)

Previously:


Secret US Nuke Site List Accidentally Published Online by US Gov.

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 08:35 PM PDT


A "highly confidential" 266-page report with details on hundreds of American nuclear sites and programs was this week discovered to have been accidentally published online by the federal government.

Each page is marked "HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL SAFEGUARDS SENSITIVE" in all caps on the top of the page. The document also contained maps with the locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons.

Steven Aftergood's (excellent) Secrecy News ezine picked it up first, and re-published the PDF. Snip from NYT story by William Broad:

As of Tuesday evening, the reasons for that action remained a mystery. On its cover, the document attributes its publication to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. But Lynne Weil, the committee spokeswoman, said the committee had "neither published it nor had control over its publication."

Gary Somerset, a spokesman for the printing office, said it had "produced" the document "under normal operating procedures" but had now removed it from its Web site pending further review.

The document contains no military information about the nation's stockpile of nuclear arms, or about the facilities and programs that guard such weapons. Rather, it presents what appears to be an exhaustive listing of the sites that make up the nation's civilian nuclear complex, which stretches coast to coast and includes nuclear reactors and highly confidential sites at weapon laboratories.

Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, revealed the existence of the document on Monday in Secrecy News, an electronic newsletter he publishes on the Web.

Mr. Aftergood expressed bafflement at its disclosure, calling it "a one-stop shop for information on U.S. nuclear programs."


U.S. Releases Secret List of Nuclear Sites Accidentally (NYT)

FAS.org still has a copy of the PDF up at the time of this BB blog post.

Where is Keyboard Cat? This Requires the Playing of Off.

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 09:34 PM PDT


Video Link. Disturbing in a number of respects, and includes black-bar-censored manbuttocks. Metzger says, "They will be making a 'Play Him Off Keyboard Cat' of this quite soon, I predict... As seen on Graham Linehan's Twitter feed." Update: an unofficial PHOKC version.

Online Personal Narratives from Patients of Murdered Late-Term Abortion Provider

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 08:19 PM PDT

Salon's Kate Harding has collected a number of first-person accounts from women (and families) who were patients of the recently murdered Dr. George Tiller. As I understand it, he was one of only three providers of late-term abortions in the USA, and widely considered the most expert practitioner in this extremely controversial area of health care. Snip:
Susan Hill, President of the National Women's Health Foundation, who knew Dr. Tiller for over two decades and referred girls and women to his clinic, said in a phone interview, "We always sent the really tragic cases to Tiller." Those included women diagnosed with cancer who needed abortions to qualify for chemotherapy, women who learned late in their pregnancies that their wanted babies had fatal illnesses, and rape victims so young they didn't realize they were pregnant for months. "We sent him 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds who were way too far along for anybody [else] to see," said Hill. "Eleven-year-olds don't tell anybody. Sometimes they don't even know they've had a period."

Since the news of Dr. Tiller's murder broke, personal narratives from people who used his services have been appearing around the Web. A commenter at the blog Balloon Juice told the story of finding out in the eighth month of his wife's pregnancy that she was carrying conjoined twins. "Conjoined twins alone is not what was so difficult but the way they were joined meant that at best only one child would survive the surgery to separate them and the survivor would more than likely live a brief and painful life filled with surgery and organ transplants." They chose to terminate the much-wanted pregnancy, rather than bring a child into the world only to suffer and die. "The nightmare of our decision and the aftermath was only made bearable by the warmth and compassion of Dr. Tiller and his remarkable staff."

A commenter on Metafilter tells a similar story: "My wife and I spent a week in Dr. Tiller's care after we learned our 21 week fetus had a severe defect incompatible with life. The laws in our state prevented us from ending the pregnancy there, and Dr. Tiller was one of maybe three choices in the whole nation at that gestational age." He went on to share his memories of Dr. Tiller. "I remember him firmly stating that he regarded the abortion debate in the US to be about the control of women's sexuality and reproduction. I remember he spent over six hours in one-on-one care with my wife when there was concern she had an infection. We're talking about a physician here. Six hours.... The walls of the clinic reception and waiting room are literally covered with letters from patients thanking him. Some were heartbreaking -- obviously young and/or poorly educated people thanking Dr. Tiller for being there when they had no other options, explaining their family, church, etc. had abandoned them."

Where will women go now? (Salon, via @zephoria)

Also by Harding, in today's Salon:  "Protecting abortion providers: A friend of George Tiller's says the doctor knew something bad was coming. Why couldn't anyone stop it?"

Image of Dr. Tiller taken from a Wayback Machine cache of drtiller.com. Site is now offline.

Fox spokesdouche Bill O'Reilly produced a number of hateful, incendiary stories about Tiller. Here's an AP item about that. And here is another piece in the NYT.

Michael Moore: Nine Suggestions For Transforming GM

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 07:05 PM PDT


(Image: "'62," (cc) TW Collins, via Flickr)

At the deathbed of General Motors, says Michael Moore, "the company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with—dare I say it—joy." As the federal government and courts "reorganize" the auto giant, Moore proposes a plan to President Obama "for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole." Here's the first of those nine steps:

Twenty years ago when I made Roger & Me, I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:

1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the president must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass-transit vehicles and alternative-energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks, and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war—a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford, and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true—that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.

Goodbye, GM (Daily Beast)

Damien Walter's 2009 parkour free running showreel

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 06:19 PM PDT



Check out parkour free running master Damien Walters's latest showreel. (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

Previously:


Yahoo's Make-It-Green project

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 03:14 PM PDT

Yahoo has a contest site for makers called Make It Green. You can submit you own green DIY projects and the inventors chosen by the winner judges get "$2,500 and a share of the sales, and possibly appear on the Everyday Edisons TV show."

So far, 51 ideas have been submitted. My favorite idea so far is for a home mulch maker. I wish the site had more details about how it worked. It takes a lot of energy to chew up a tree and the wood chipper I bought a couple of years ago ended up choking on all but the puniest of branches when the blades became just a little dull. Make it Green

Yellow Oleander - another "Least Favorite Plant"

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 02:36 PM PDT

200906021432

My friends Kelly and Erik at Homegrown Evolution have an interesting post about another one of their least favorite plants -- the poisonous Yellow Oleander.

Thumbing through a book of toxic and hallucinogenic plants, I finally manged to i.d. the neighbor's shrub that looms over the staircase to our front door. The popular name given for this plant in the book was "suicide tree", so named for its use in Sri Lanka, though I've found other plants with this same moniker. The scientific name is Thevetia peruviana, and it's also known as "lucky nut" (can we change that to unlucky nut please), Be Still Tree (presumably because you'll be still if you eat any of it), and yellow oleander (it's a relative of Southern California's favorite freeway landscaping flower).
Yellow Oleander - another "Least Favorite Plant"

Previously:


What the world needs now is more shiv cosies

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 02:30 PM PDT

200906021427

Gascoyne Bowman makes and sells this useful and attractive shiv cosy at her Criminal Crafts Etsy store.

A stylish hands free carry all for your concealed weapon of choice. Polar fleece sheath, will hold a blade five inches in length with a two-inch width. The outside is embelished with rinestone strand and skull and daggers trim. The sequined garter is elastic and should fit most leg sizes, keeping your little secret safely tucked away.

Book: Kevin Dart’s "Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7"

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 02:21 PM PDT


Drawn! has a review of Kevin Dart's cool new art book about a 1906s Japanese spy girl, Yuki 7, called "Seductive Espionage"

The concept: creating a "globe-trotting female superspy" set in the mid-60's through fictional movies, complete with posters, lobby cards, and trailers—all with the look and feel of the 1960's Bond era, with a dash of extra influences as well. Kevin what inspired him for the project on his blog:

I combed through some folders of reference I had collected over the last few years, immersing myself in campy Euro-spy film posters, 1960's Thai pop music album covers, and mid-century modern architecture. I went back and re-watched some of my favorite spy films like "You Only Live Twice" and discovered new ones like "Deadlier than the Male". A world slowly started to form in my head and I could feel hundreds of backlogged ideas and unfinished stories suddenly collide into one cohesive mass. Later on, I realized Yuki 7 had been building for years even though she arrived in a flash of insight.

Book: Kevin Dart's Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7

Everything you need to know about Sony's E3 press conference

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 02:47 PM PDT

sonymotiontennis.jpg Over at Offworld, after Sony's marathon two hour E3 press conference, I've summed up the most important highlights which -- surprisingly, after recent rampant leaks -- did have some secrets in store, including: * a new PlayStation 3 motion control setup to rival Microsoft's Natal and Nintendo's enhanced MotionPlus Wii controller * a fresh lineup of third party PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable exclusives from GTA creators Rockstar, Square Enix with a new online Final Fantasy, and Konami's Hideo Kojima with a new PSP exclusive Metal Gear Solid sequel * more PSP as music/video media center integration * and new additions to its overarching socially-enabled 'play, create, share' lineup See E309: the 5 things you need to know about Sony's press conference for the full details.

China Blocks Twitter, Many Social Media Sites, Ahead of June 4 Tienanmen Anniversary

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 12:46 PM PDT

I first heard about it through @rmack, more here on Mashable, many other media reports coming out now.

Maker Faire videos by Scott Beale

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 12:48 PM PDT

200906021246

Laughing Squid's chief cephalopod Scott Beale took a bunch of great short videos and photos of Maker Faire this year.

Maker Faire 2009 time lapse

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 12:40 PM PDT


It's fun to watch the ebb and flow of the crowd in this time-lapse video of Maker Faire 2009, shot by Bill Sherman.

BB Video: "Tank Tour" - One of World's Largest Collections of Historic Military Technology

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 02:21 PM PDT


(Download MP4 / Watch on YouTube )

In today's edition of Boing Boing Video, guest-host Todd Lappin explores a massive collection of historical military vehicles tanks collected by an eccentric Silicon Valley multimillionaire. The recently-departed Jacques Littlefield amassed one of the world's largest and most significant collections of this type, and his collection is now overseen by the nonprofit Military Vehicle Technology Foundation. Snip from their description:

Our goal is to acquire, restore, and interpret the historical significance of 20th and 21st century military vehicles. Domestic and foreign combat vehicles such as tanks, armored cars, self-propelled artillery, and other technically interesting mobile platforms are the focus of the collection. We also maintain an extensive technical library that describes many vehicles down to the part level. Aside from the vehicles, there are towed artillery, antitank, and antiaircraft guns. Military support equipment, inert ordnance, and accessories round out the collection.
The foundation is supported by public donations, and you can make one at their website if you dig what they do. To make arrangements for tours, you can email tours.mvtf at gmail.com. To arrange access to the collection for commercial purposes: permissions.mvtf at gmail.com.

The "tank tour" BBV shot for this episode was organized by BB pal Karen Marcelo and Dorkbot SF. They put on interesting events like this every month! Karen says,

June, 2009 is the 7 year anniversary of dorkbotSF. We have two cool events coming up, hope the some of the Boing Boing readers will come out for them! First one is jun 3 - at Greg Leyh's lightning lab. A live demo of scaled-down model of greg's 12-story Tesla coils, debut of Marc Powell's new software, and cool light printer from Jonathan Foote.

Then Jon Sarriugarte is hosting a big bash on the 20th! snail car, muffin cars, tesla roadster makers, fireworks, omega recoil's tesla coils, blacksmithing, etc. and he said more surprises he doesnt want to mention in advance!

Where to find Boing Boing Video: RSS feed for new episodes here, 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.

(Thanks to Boing Boing's video hosting partner Episodic, and to shooter-producer extraordinaire Eddie Codel and to our host Todd Lappin.)

Socotra Island: the “Galápagos of the Indian Ocean.”

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 12:23 PM PDT

200906021220
Photo of dragon's blood tree by Piotr Kot.

The LA Times has a neat photo gallery of Yemen's Socotra Island.

Isolated from continental land masses for 18 million years, Yemen's Socotra Island showcases an alien-like landscape with unusual plants and animals, such as the blood dragon tree, pictured, and desert rose. Its high degree of biodiversity has earned it the name the "Galápagos of the Indian Ocean."
Socotra Island's beautiful and bizarre landscape

Chickens killed by poisonous snake bites taken off menu

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 12:13 PM PDT

"Although nobody has been poisoned, this at the very least is an irregular way of slaughtering poultry," said a health official in China about a restaurant that has been forbidden from serving meals prepared from chickens killed by poisonous snake bites.

I couldn't bring myself to watch the video of the chef killing a chicken with a snake bite, but here it is if you are interested.

Snake-bite chicken 'off the menu' (Via Arbroath)

Lovely animated video for CC-licensed song

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 11:24 AM PDT

John from the CC-friendly music label Vosotros sez,
Learning Music is a band from Los Angeles. They write and record an album every month. In partnership with vosotros, all of their music is licensed under Creative Commons and offered via a subscription series called Learning Music Monthly. Subscribers can receive a CD every month in their mailbox - or donate any amount for digital access to the band's entire catalog. They also post mix stems and handwritten sheet music on their "contribute" page to encourage remixes and covers.

But the fourth issue, called Geochemistry, is more than just an album of songs. It's a collection of music videos from ten different Los Angeles filmmakers. Unlike the process for most music videos, these songs were written after the films were completed, creating sounds to fit the images, rather than the other way around.

This month's video single, "All In A Summer's Day", features brilliant animation by Tony Moore.

All In A Summer's Day (Thanks, John!)

Guest blogger: William Gurstelle

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 11:10 AM PDT

Bill Portrait Small

I'm really looking forward to what our next guest blogger, William Gurstelle has in store for us. I met Bill a number of years ago when he started writing how-to articles to MAKE and since then he's become a good friend and inspiration.

He's one of those people who is curious about everything under the sun, and the only way he can satisfy his curiosity is by rolling up and sleeves and getting his hands dirty. For MAKE, he's written about potato cannons, Tensegrity towers, ornithopters, Stirling engines, giant whistles, bullwhips, taffy pullers, gunpowder, mast photography and dippy bird science. He also appears on Make: television as a host and technical consultant.

Bill says:

Absintheandflames I'm very pleased to be your guest blogger for the next couple of weeks. I guess I'll begin by introducing myself.

I'm a engineer, a writer, and I give talks, sometimes on cruise ships. (It's good work when you can get it.) I like to write and talk about technology, especially if it the fun sort of tech that shoots, flies, flops, or goes boom. I spend a lot of time in my workshop out back which I like to call the Barrage Garage.

In 2001, I wrote Backyard Ballistics, which is a book of PG-13 science projects, all of which go whoosh or boom at some point in their fabrication or operation. It's a weird little niche I concede, but by golly, it's my niche and I try to make the most of it.

My other books include The Art of the Catapult, Whoosh Boom Splat, Building Bots, and Adventures from the Technology Underground, all of which tread inside my strange little space of book store real estate.

I'm also a contributing editor at MAKE Magazine (I wrote, among other projects, the Jam Jar Jet Engine, The Hamster Powered Night Light, Orly the Ornithopter, and my personal favorite, the the Taser Powered Spud Gun.) That led to a stint writing for and appearing on air on Make: television, the national television show that's carried on most PBS stations.

And today, my sixth book comes out. It's entitled Absinthe and Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously. I'll describe in more detail in post to follow shortly, but it's the kind of book that the world needs more of.
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