The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Damien Hirst chargest teen art-rival with theft of £500,000 for removing box of pencils from installation
- Irate Chinese gamers block re-launch of classic game by blockading the gates to its cities
- Kenyan blacksmiths make bellows from cement sacks
- How the UK gov't spun 136 survey respondants into 7m infringers
- High-larious steampunk remixes from B3ta
- Award-winning assembly-language animation running on a classic Mac
- Canadian Copyright Consultation shows Canadians overwhelmingly support moderate, fair copyright
- Google goes Fortean
- What the world will look like if/when the oceans rise.
- Nuclear transport trucks in US look surprisingly like regular old trucks
- Tupac in Kazakhstan
- Ashcroft may be held liable for those wrongfully detained after 9/11
- Spreadsheet of every TED talk as of 9/2/2009
- San Francisco: art.tech at The LAB
- Skeleton Dance cartoon from 1929
- Film decors by the Brothers Quay
- Locus column: Special Pleading, the dirty rhetorical trick used to disqualify all open publishing successes
- Why the Mt. Wilson Observatory was worth saving
- Interview with author of Introvert Power
- Microgravity science experiments
- Bones salt & pepper shakers
- Stretch limo gets stuck
- Teen cries true blood
- Speed-trap-happy cops shoot complaining fire-chief in court
- British musicians -- Paul McCartney, Elton John et al -- speak out against disconnecting accused infringers
- Free Frontalot/JoCo single: "Diseases of Yore:"
- Pears grown in the shape of the Buddha
| Posted: 05 Sep 2009 12:26 AM PDT A teenaged artist who was forced to stop selling his collages when Damien Hirst sent threats to his gallery (the collages incorporated ironic images of Hirst's diamond-encrusted skull sculpture) is now facing a possible jail sentence because he took a box of pencils from a Hirst installation as a prank and offered to return them only if Hirst would let him go back to displaying and selling his art. Hirst claims the box of pencils -- Faber Castell Mongol 482s from 1990 -- is worth GBP500,000, making this one of the gravest modern art thefts in British history. Taking revenge, Cartrain took the box of pencils that were part of Hirst's sculpture, Pharmacy, which was being shown as part of its Classified exhibition that closed at the end of last month.Damien Hirst in vicious feud with teenage artist over a box of pencils (via We Make Money Not Art) |
| Irate Chinese gamers block re-launch of classic game by blockading the gates to its cities Posted: 05 Sep 2009 01:15 AM PDT Chinese gamers shut down the relaunch of "Hot Blooded Legend," a beloved, classic game, by massing their avatars at city gates and stopping others from entering. They were upset that the relaunch didn't do justice to the original. The Legend Returns |
| Kenyan blacksmiths make bellows from cement sacks Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:47 PM PDT Afrigadget has a wonderful post on two ingenious blacksmiths in Lamu, Kenya, whose bellows have been improvised from cement sacks. Cement-bag Bellows in Lamu Previously:
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| How the UK gov't spun 136 survey respondants into 7m infringers Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:43 PM PDT Glyn sez, "The British Government's official figures on the level of illegal file sharing in the UK come from questionable research commissioned by the music industry, the BBC has revealed. The BBC then went on to show how 136 people saying they used file-sharing software was turned into 7 million illegal file sharers - the figure now being used by the government to justify a proposal to disconnect internet users based purely on accusation, no evidence required." The Advisory Board claimed it commissioned the research from a team of academics at University College London, who it transpires got the 7m figure from a paper published by Forrester Research.How UK Government spun 136 people into 7m illegal file sharers (Thanks, Glyn!) Previously: |
| High-larious steampunk remixes from B3ta Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:33 PM PDT   Holy awesomesauce, there is some incredibly fantastic stuff in the B3ta steampunk remix challenge. Shown here, "Fornication Sidearms" by The Great Architect) and "Amazon 1821" by Tonsil. Steampunk Challenge (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) |
| Award-winning assembly-language animation running on a classic Mac Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:28 PM PDT The winner of this year's "oldskool demo competition" at the Assembly 2009 (a festival of low-level assembly programming) is this sweet animation, "3½ inches is enough" by Unreal Voodoo, which is apparently running on some kind of monochrome 68K classic Macintosh. |
| Canadian Copyright Consultation shows Canadians overwhelmingly support moderate, fair copyright Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:26 PM PDT  The Canadian government's copyright consultation has received over 4,000 submissions from Canadians (it's not too late to send yours!). Of these, the overwhelming majority are in favour of more liberal copyright, against extending the term of copyright, against stiffer penalties for infringement (only three submissions advocated this) and against US-DMCA-style rules protecting DRM. There have been three recent attempts to reform Canadian copyright law without public consultation, and each one provided for stricter copyright enforcement, protection for DRM, stiffer penalties, etc -- in other words, each one tried to implement a law that was the opposite of what the Canadian public asked for, when it was given a chance. So now what? What kind of copyright law will the Canadian government introduce now that the public has spoken? Copyright Consultation Submission Summary: Over 4,000 Posted Through August 31st Previously:
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| Posted: 04 Sep 2009 09:48 PM PDT  I got a kick out of the special Google logo I just spotted on their home page. It links to a search for "unexplained phenomenon." |
| What the world will look like if/when the oceans rise. Posted: 04 Sep 2009 06:31 PM PDT  Interactive Flood Maps show us how familiar land contours will change as the oceans rise. (via Tim O'Reilly) |
| Nuclear transport trucks in US look surprisingly like regular old trucks Posted: 04 Sep 2009 06:13 PM PDT Over at Wired's Danger Room blog, news that an environmental nonprofit has obtained photos of the Department of Energy's "specially designed trucks" used to transport nuclear material around the United States. They pretty much look like any other transport truck, which is a little creepy, considering what they contain while they're rollin' down the highway. Just this week, a similar vehicle carrying missiles overturned -- so, safety concerns are in the air right now. Snip: Here's the original news on the Friends of the Earth website. |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2009 03:00 PM PDT Joe Sabia says "I drove 10,000 miles from England to Mongolia this summer in a piece of shit Fiat Seicento (.899cc engine). I filmed this in Kazakhstan: "Tupac in Kazakhstan." Dozens of real Kazakhs, pieced together in the most inspirational video ever created." Pretty neat. Maybe they should rename the place Tupacstan, now. |
| Ashcroft may be held liable for those wrongfully detained after 9/11 Posted: 04 Sep 2009 02:40 PM PDT Today, a federal appeals court ruled that former Attorney General John Ashcroft may be held liable for the wrongful detention of people held as witnesses after the 9/11 attacks. The ACLU filed the lawsuit. Snip from New York Times: In a harshly worded ruling handed down Friday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called the government's use of material witnesses after Sept. 11 ''repugnant to the Constitution and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history.''Appeals Court Rules Against Ashcroft in 9 / 11 Case (NYT) The court also ruled that the federal material witness law can't be used to "preventively" detain or investigate suspects. The ACLU represents al-Kidd in the case, al-Kidd v. Ashcroft. Snip from their press release: Writing for the majority in today's decision, Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr., wrote, "Framers of our Constitution would have disapproved of the arrest, detention, and harsh confinement of a United States citizen as a 'material witness' under the circumstances, and for the immediate purpose alleged, in al-Kidd's complaint. Sadly, however, even now, more than 217 years after the ratification of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, some confidently assert that the government has the power to arrest and detain or restrict American citizens for months on end, in sometimes primitive conditions, not because there is evidence that they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wishes to investigate them for possible wrongdoing, or to prevent them from having contact with others in the outside world. We find this to be repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history."Ashcroft Can Be Held Accountable For Post-9/11 Wrongful Detention, Court Rules (ACLU) |
| Spreadsheet of every TED talk as of 9/2/2009 Posted: 04 Sep 2009 02:26 PM PDT TED is an annual conference where speakers are given about 15 minutes to present something amazing they've done or know about. I've been to the last few TED conferences and I find them to be both awe-inspiring and humbling. Most of the talks area available for viewing at the TED site. Here's a spreadsheet someone put together that lists every TED talk available for viewing. It includes a short summary of each talk. While browsing it, I found one talk I missed: Eames Demetrios presenting a history of the work of his grandparents, Charles and Ray Eames. Spreadsheet of every TED talk as of 9/2/2009 (Via Economists Do It With Models) |
| San Francisco: art.tech at The LAB Posted: 04 Sep 2009 01:29 PM PDT San Francisco experimental art space The LAB is hosting a 3 day art/tech festival this weekend. The festival features art exhibits, lectures, DIY workshops, demos, and a variety of performances. The whole program looks terrific! The Lab's Michael Delong pointed me to several interactive videogame sessions that he's especially jazzed about: The LAB's art.tech festival |
| Skeleton Dance cartoon from 1929 Posted: 04 Sep 2009 01:18 PM PDT The Skeleton Dance is a delightful 1929 cartoon directed by Ub Iwerks for Disney. A close friend/collaborator of Walt Disney for many years, Iwerks is arguably the "true creator" of the Mickey Mouse character. He later took a job at Columbia and reimagined The Skeleton Dance in color as Skeleton Frolic (1937). I much prefer the original. I posted about it a few years ago, but the video I linked to then was yanked. Bastards. (Thanks, Takuan!) |
| Film decors by the Brothers Quay Posted: 04 Sep 2009 01:43 PM PDT  The Brothers Quay are hypertalented stop-motion animators whose incredibly surreal, moody, and macabre work is influenced by Cezch and Polish animators and puppeteers from the early 20th century and writers like Franz Kafka and Belgian playwright Michel de Ghelderode. Parsons the New School for Design in New York City is currently exhibiting set, propos, and characters from the Quays' films. The show, titled "Dormitorium: Film Decors by the Quay Bros.," runs until October 4. Morbid Anatomy's Joanna Ebenstein visited the exhibit last night and took a series of lovely photos that posted on her blog. From her post: "Dormitorium" is much more than just a collection of props and artifacts; instead, the "décors" you see on view here are something of a revelation, leading one to a greater understanding and appreciation of the Quay Brother's artistry. Having the luxury of time to study these décors in their static state allows the viewer to see things impossible to grasp amidst the thrust and drive of the films; namely, the obsessive and beautiful detail in the source materials. The more one looks, the more one comes to realize that this attention to detail and minutia is what gives the Quay's work so much of its character and mise en scène--at least as much as their lurchy, atmospheric, uncanny stop-motion animation technique. Details such as exquisite and varied typography and calligraphy, a judicious application of dust and grime, the seductively hand-made feel of the materials, and wall hangings, hidden figures, archaic signage and other easy-to-miss details adorning the spaces; of these elements is the Quay's compelling and absorbing universe composed."Dormitorium: Film Decors by the Quay Bros. (Morbid Anatomy) Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers, a career-spanning retrospective of their films, is available in a two-disk DVD set for $30 from Amazon. |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2009 12:07 PM PDT My latest Locus column, "Special Pleading," talks about the damned-if-you-do/ damned-if-you-don't nature of free ebook scepticism. When I started out giving away my print novels as free ebooks, critics charged that it only worked because I was so obscure that I needed the exposure. Now that I've had a book on the NYT bestseller list, a new gang of critics claim my strategy only works so well because I'm established and can afford to lose sales to free ebooks. The arguing tactic is called "special pleading," and it's a dirty rhetorical trick indeed! The Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom experiment really pissed people off. It was denounced as a breaking of ranks with authors as a class, and as a stunt that I could only afford because I had so little to lose, being such a nobody in the field with my handful of short story sales and my tiny print run -- at least when compared to the big guys. Free samples were good news if no one had heard of you, but for successful writers, free downloads were poison.Special Pleading |
| Why the Mt. Wilson Observatory was worth saving Posted: 04 Sep 2009 12:01 PM PDT  Joshua Bearman of the LA Weekly re-posted a story about his trip the the famous Mt. Wilson Observatory in Los Angles, which came close to being destroyed by the fire. Many thanks to the firefighters who worked so hard and risked their lives to save it! With the fire threat to Mt. Wilson seemingly abated, I have taken enough of a deep breath to go back and look at one of my favorite early LA Weekly stories, about an awesome trip I took up to the Mt. Wilson observatory and inside the massive, revolving dome of the 100-inch Hooker telescope, the largest in the world for the first half of the twentieth century. (And still a functioning, important facility.) Did you know that the Hooker's 9,000-pound optic was blown at a bottleworks in France, remains the largest such piece of glass, and was carried up the mountain by donkey in 1915? True! And it was there, as you surely know, that Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding, and by extension, the Big Bang. But did you also know that a few years earlier, it was also Hubble who first discovered that there are galaxies at all? True! Before 1922, it was believed the Milky Way was the whole kit and kaboodle. Hubble sat up there above Altadena night after night and said "Eureka!" Even Einstein had to rethink things and came up for a visit.Addendum: Here's The LA Times' Tim Rutten on Mt. Wilson Observatory's place in history. (Thanks, Xeni!) |
| Interview with author of Introvert Power Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:51 AM PDT Sophia Dembling of Psychology Today interviewed Dr. Laurie Helgoe, author of a book called Introvert Power. Helgoe says while 57% of Americans identify themselves as introverts, most of them pretend to be extroverts because the culture in the United States frowns on introverts. SD: What do you think is the most troubling general misconception about introverts?Interview with author of Introvert Power |
| Microgravity science experiments Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:19 AM PDT  New Scientist put together a slideshow of interesting experiments in microgravity, like you would experience on the International Space Station (ISS). (Of course, my favorite microgravity experiment is depicted in the the classic 2003 video where astronaut Don Pettit "eats" High Tea on the ISS with chopsticks.) Here's the description of the images above, from New Scientist: Microgravity tends to produce rounder, cooler flames, as this comparison of combustion in normal gravity (left) and microgravity (right) illustrates. Unlike on Earth, hot, less-dense air does not rise in microgravity. As a result, other processes, like the diffusion of particles from a high temperature to a low temperature area, dominate."Giant crystals and spherical flames: science in microgravity" Previously: |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2009 09:53 AM PDT  I dig these Bones Salt & Pepper Shakers by designer Chris Stiles. They're $30 from Matter.Bones Salt & Pepper Shakers (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!) |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2009 09:42 AM PDT  David Markland of Metblogs Los Angeles was driving in the Hollywood Hills when he came across this stretch limo that had gotten stuck, completely blocking traffic. "My usual shortcut around Highland traffic was impeded by this limo," writes David, "whose front fender had gotten stuck on a curb. His attempts to back out of the trap only caused the back tires to spin and burn rubber." I wonder how they got the limo unstuck? |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2009 09:28 AM PDT Tennessee teen Calvin Inman has a medical condition that causes him to cry tears of blood. The only context in which I've ever seen or imagined this is vampire novels and TV shows, like the HBO series "True Blood." I had no idea this happened in real life to non-vamps. Via CNN, here's the related CNN segment video on YouTube. |
| Speed-trap-happy cops shoot complaining fire-chief in court Posted: 04 Sep 2009 08:32 AM PDT Matt sez, "This story has it all: a tiny, flyblown town rising up against their own draconian police force, a gang of cops shooting a fireman in front of a judge, it's utterly unbelievable. I'll never drive through Jericho, Arkansas, that's for sure." It was just too much, having to return to court twice on the same day to contest yet another traffic ticket, and Fire Chief Don Payne didn't hesitate to tell the judge what he thought of the police and their speed traps.Fire chief shot by cop in Ark. court over tickets (Thanks, Matt!) |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2009 07:49 AM PDT Paul McCartney, Elton John and other prominent British musicians have spoken out against the government's ridiculous proposal to disconnect people who've been accused of infringing on copyright from the Internet, calling it 'expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative".' Damned right. Cutting entire families off from access to e-government, health information, work, education, friends, family, and freedom of expression freedom of assembly and freedom of the press because someone accused one member of infringing copyright is terrible. The UK government's own research shows that households without Internet access operate at a huge disadvantage, paying more for basic necessities than online counterparts -- everything from premiums on their phone- and gas-service because they can't opt for electronic statements to missing out on jobs and other opportunities. To treat the Internet as a luxury item that can be taken away from whole housefulls of people because one member has been accused of a civil infraction flies in the face of justice, proportionality and due process. Civilised countries don't engage in collective punishment. In a statement seen by the Guardian, a coalition of bodies representing a range of stars including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John and Damon Albarn attacks the proposals as expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative".YouTube and PRS make peace as musicians protest about plans to punish file sharers Previously:
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| Free Frontalot/JoCo single: "Diseases of Yore:" Posted: 04 Sep 2009 07:18 AM PDT  Nerdcore rapper superstar MC Frontalot sez, "I am playing the mainstage at PAX tonight, and JoCo [ed: Jonathan "Nerd Troubadour Extraordinaire" Coulton] is playing tomorrow, so I woke up early and posted a new single from my CD Final Boss. It is called Diseases Of Yore and it features Mr. Coulton. It is PAX synergy. Synergism?" (Thanks, Frontalot!) Previously:
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| Pears grown in the shape of the Buddha Posted: 04 Sep 2009 07:09 AM PDT  Mark sez, "Growing pears inside a Buddha-shaped plastic form yields much fruit love!" Como fazer peras em formato de buda! (Thanks, Mark!) |
-1pm on Saturday Shawn Wallace will demo Fluxly, a game in which participants make their own microcontrollers to compete in wizard duels, while The Lab serves post-brunch mimosas 
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