Saturday, October 3, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

IT Crowd comes back for a fourth season!

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 03:58 PM PDT

Olympic Committee Member to Chicago bid team: US Customs is "harrowing experience"

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 03:56 PM PDT

Chicago may have lost its Olympic bid due to the insane fingerprints-and-photos regime at the US border: the Chicago bid team was questioned by an IOC member who called the US border "a rather harrowing experience." I've actually found the O'Hare border procedure pretty painless, but God help the foreigner who lands in Texas. At DFW, I was told by a border guard that I wasn't allowed to listen to headphones in the (two-hour-long) line; at Houston, we once stood in line for three hours just to change planes between Honduras and the UK.
Among the toughest questions posed to the Chicago bid team this week in Copenhagen was one that raised the issue of what kind of welcome foreigners would get from airport officials when they arrived in this country to attend the Games. Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, in the question-and-answer session following Chicago's official presentation, pointed out that entering the United States can be "a rather harrowing experience..."

"It's clear the United States still has a lot of work to do to restore its place as a premier travel destination," Roger Dow, U.S. Travel's president, said in the statement released today. "When IOC members are commenting to our President that foreign visitors find traveling to the United States a 'pretty harrowing experience,' we need to take seriously the challenge of reforming our entry process to ensure there is a welcome mat to our friends around the world, even as we ensure a secure system."

Chicago's Loss: Is Passport Control to Blame?

Flaming Lips song "Worm Mountain" set to slow-motion Tesla Coil video by ardent fan of both.

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 03:49 PM PDT

The trippy video above featuring the song "Worm Mountain" by the Flaming Lips (feat. MGMT) was created by a DIY electro-gadget maker named darcyklyne. BB pal Tom Osborn (who works at the Lips' label, Warner Bros. Records, when he's not reading our blog) pointed us to the video and adds,

Here's a forum thread talking about how this person built the Tesla Coil. They ended up being a new fan that found out about The Flaming Lips from The Colbert Report and were somehow inspired to make the following video with their newly created Tesla Coil.

In memoriam: Amy Farris - fiddler, singer, roots music performer.

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 04:25 PM PDT

Fiddler, composer, singer, music teacher and lovely human being Amy Farris has passed away. I first learned of her work in the context of performances in various lineups with former members of the great punk band X, and their country offshoot band The Knitters: namely Exene Cervenka, and with Dave Alvin, with whom Ms. Farris played in the video clip embedded above (Dave Alvin & Guilty Women / "Abilene"). The Texas native died in Los Angeles on Wednesday of an apparent suicide. More at the LA Times.

Sneak peek at "Bunny and the Bull," new film featuring "Mighty Boosh" stars Barratt and Fielding.

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 03:43 PM PDT

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Richard Metzger blogs, "I can't wait to see the surreal new British comedy Bunny and the Bull, from Mighty Boosh director Paul King. Although it keeps getting referred to as "The Mighty Boosh movie" (and looks quite Booshian) it's not, the Mighty Boosh just happen to be in it." Video over at Dangerous Minds.

Previously:

For Your Friday - The Spoon Box by The Books

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 06:34 PM PDT

Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog celebrating the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He lives in Harlem, NY.



For your Friday, here is a nice video of a spoon box making music. How does the spoon box you work you ask? Well, since it's made by The Books, we'll let them answer it:
This will take a little bit of explaining. I built this prototype of the Spoonbox out of wood, plexiglass, zinc plates, measuring spoons, and closeout radioshack parts. It hooks up to a CD player and small amplifier which cause the spoons to dance. There are small speakers behind the spoons that move in response to the sounds on the CD which I carefully composed using low frequency sine waves and kitchen sounds. The speakers, in turn, blow small puffs of air into the spoons which cause them to bounce/vibrate in rhythmic patterns. It really must be seen to be understood, but this video might give you some sense of what it does.
I just got off the phone with Nick Zammuto, 1/2 of The Books, and will be sharing with you our discussion this weekend. The Books are one of the most important bands of this decade and come this weekend, I will try my best to convince you why.

Until then, here are two tracks from their LPs. Tokyo and That Right Aint Shit both can be found on The Lemon of Pink, released in 2003. Happy Listening and Happy Friday.






Psychdedelic Nollywood film about Satan

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 02:58 PM PDT


666 is a Nigerian film (in 4 episodes) by Nollywood producer Pastor Kenneth Okonkwo. Judging from the trailer above and a "review" in VICE, it's destined to be a psychotronic classic. The VICE writer promised to post the full flick to YouTube. He'd better hurry -- the devil makes work for idle hands. From VICE:
Int V16N9 Htdocs Nollywood-Omen-124 1
In the first scene of 666, the devil sends two assassins up to earth to kidnap a pregnant woman. They cut her belly open in a tunnel and steal the baby, whom they baptize in the service of Satan. Throughout the movie, Satan terrorizes the people of Nigeria despite the efforts of Pastor Okonkwo (yes, he also stars in the film). Okonkwo often sends lightning bolts down to hell by the power of extreme prayer.

In part two of the quartet, the kidnapped child returns to earth and causes all manner of problems. He seduces a woman in her late 20s by flashing lasers out of his eyes; he goes on a bar crawl and possesses a woman who then kills a priest. Then, when a gang of Christians capture him and attempt to ritually stab him to death, he uses his powers to brand each of their foreheads with a lovely 666.
"Nollywood Omen" (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

REVO LA benefit art show

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 01:15 PM PDT

Audreyk-Print

Audrey Kawasaki says:

REVO LA is putting on a benefit art show to raise money for "Sekolah Dasar Balem Wamena" (SDBW), a model school, which has recently become a light of HOPE in the corrupt regions of West Papua, Indonesia.

Featuring works from Ekundayo, Joshua Clay, Shepard Fairey, Mr. Brainwash and more. The show opens on October 4th sunday at the UCLA Ackerman Grand Ballroom.

I have two prints up for sale there.

Special edition large print of 'Two Sisters' and the Pressure Printing intaglio print 'Okimiyage'.



Video of laser weapon fired from airplane

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 12:45 PM PDT



The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) is a directed energy weapon (aka ray gun) developed by Boeing under a US military contract. According to an overview document (PDF) about Boeing's Directed Energy Systems program, "In August 2009, the ATL defeated a ground vehicle target from the air, demonstrating its first air-to-ground, high-power laser engagement of a tactically representative target." The video above documents that experiment, in which the laser weapon, mounted on a C-130H Hercules transport plane, was fired at a car. See the Boeing site for more videos, including aerial footage. (via Smithsonian Air & Space)

Calculate how much it costs to make a sandwich at home

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 12:39 PM PDT

Mont Blanc's $23,000 pen to commemorate Gandhi's birth

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 12:30 PM PDT

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Joe Stirt says: "Swiss luxury penmaker Montblanc has just come out with a $23,000 pen to commemorate the austere, ascetic leader of Indian independence's birth on this date (October 2) in 1869."

The limited-edition Ma­hatma Gandhi pen, priced at Rs1.1m ($23,000, €15,800, £14,400), has an 18-carat solid gold, rhodium-plated nib, engraved with Gandhi's image, and "a saffron-coloured mandarin garnet" on the clip. The pens were unveiled this week, before the national holiday on Gandhi's birthday.

Dilip R. Doshi, chairman of Entrack, Montblanc's distributor in India, said the pen embodied Gandhi's timeless philosophy of non-violence and respect for all living creatures. "We are creating a thing of simplicity and beauty that will last for centuries," he said.

Fountains of dismay greet Montblanc's 'Gandhi Pen'

Zeitoun Giveaway Haiku Winners

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 12:25 PM PDT

Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog that celebrated the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He lives in Harlem, NY.

zeitoun.jpg The McSweeney folks were going to give us five signed copies, but then Dave Eggers himself loved this Haiku idea so much he's giving us another five. So, we're giving out a total of ten signed copies of Zeitoun. How great is that?

We  had a blast reading all the entries. We went through them three times to make sure none of the 380 entries were missed. A big thank you to Lisa Katayama who also chimed in at the last minute and helped select some of the winning entries.

 It was really hard choosing ten, so in no particular order here are the winners!

Top Ten Haikus -

I need to read this
to know why Al Qaeda would
strike in a canoe
- Zagrobelny

I will not waffle:
Zeitoun defrosted my heart.
 Leggo My Eggers!
- gabius

Flooding and prison
Not as bad as office life
Try and prove me wrong
- 45Visigoth

The waters recede
Deeper problems are revealed
Please paddle faster
- jcartan

Raised in Bible Belt,
And just moved to New Orleans.
Want understanding.
- Maghrabi

They all felt the rain.
It rose back to the heavens.
Some folks swim there still.
- okalready

This was not the world
My fiction promised to me
Where are my jetpacks?
- JMike

Levees are broken
Foundations washed away
A book preserves
- inter_baltic

My grandpa just passed
He left me an old canoe
Teach me to paddle
- crankarms

Flooded New Orleans
I'd rather read about it
Than live it again
- improvgreg

-----

Honorable Mentions

"An awesome writer,
Eggers is," says Yoda. "My
Children he can have."
- Kelly Coyle

Lolcat in your boat
Katrina took my capnip
Can I haz book now?
- simonbarsinister

I deserve the book.
I'm a Nigerian prince
living in London.
- Dasbub

I like Dave Eggers
Cute girls see this on my shelf
Everybody wins
- Subdrill

The man in the mosque.
The woman breaking her fast.
I am just like them.
- Marsha Keefer

----

Congratulations to all those who won a signed copy of Zeitoun. Dave Eggers is eager to read the winning haikus so I'll be sending it to his folks as soon as I get the chance.

Next steps? I'll be collecting addresses and will send the books as soon as I get them.

Proceedings of a 2003 seminar about Timeship, a visionary project designed by Stephen Valentine for storing the frozen remains of people awaiting reanimation

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 12:23 PM PDT

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Julie Lasky of Design Observer says:

I thought you guys might be interested in minutes I dug up from a 2003 cryogenics seminar, with attendees discussing the design of Timeship, a loopy facility for housing 10,000 frozen dead people. Much conversational chatter about things like "frozen religious leaders" and "vitrified brains." The architect of Timeship, Stephen Valentine, just came out with a book [Timeship: The Architecture of Immortality] about his still-unbuilt design.
Timeship

Shelley Rickey's "Bad Dog Pâté"

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 12:04 PM PDT

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On her blog, Shelley Rickey shows you how to make Bad Dog Pâté.

The grass is made out of Hummus covered in Parsley with sprigs of Chives sticking out. The Poop is made from Aubergine Pate with lots of Paprika Powder added to give it..uh, a 'nice' poop color. The flies are made out of Olives and Onions. Happy Animal Day Everyone!

Previously:


Nasal spray for memory enhancement

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:42 AM PDT

Neuroendocronologists report that a nasal spray containing a chemical secreted by the body's own immune system can improve the formation of long-term memories while sleeping. Lisa Marshall and team at Germany's University of Lubeck studied the impact of the substance, interlukin-6, on emotional and procedural memory retention. From the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology:
To make this discovery, Marshall and colleagues had 17 healthy young men spend two nights in the laboratory. On each night after reading either an emotional or neutral short story, they sprayed a fluid into their nostrils which contained either interleukin-6 or a placebo fluid. The subsequent sleep and brain electric activity was monitored throughout the night. The next morning subjects wrote down as many words as they could remember from each of the two stories. Those who received the dose of IL-6 could remember more words.
"You must remember this: Scientists develop nasal spray that improves memory"

Pee as fertilizer ingredient

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:31 AM PDT

New research suggests that a slurry of wood ash and piss makes a good fertilizer for tomatoes. It's the nitrogen in urine and the calcium and magnesium in the ash that does the trick. After promising results in a greenhouse, University of Kuopio environmental scientist Surendra Pradhan and his colleagues plan a real world test in Nepal. From National Geographic:
Human urine and wood ash have each separately been used as fertilizer for centuries. But until now, no one had explored applying them together...

Urine can be collected from eco-friendly, urine-diverting toilets. Or farmers could just collect their pee in cans.

The researchers estimate a single person could supply enough urine to fertilize roughly 6,300 tomato plants a year—yielding some 2.4 tons of tomatoes.

The farmer would just need to give plants ash three days or more after applying urine...

One potential setback may be that pharmaceuticals and hormones excreted in human urine—such as remnants of birth control pills—could negatively impact crops, Pradhan said. For instance, such byproducts could promote antibiotic resistance in local bacteria or get absorbed by the plants.
"Human Pee With Ash Is a Natural Fertilizer, Study Says"

Previously:


Canadian gov't using lies to sell Internet wiretapping law

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:14 AM PDT

Michael Geist sez, "The Canadian government has introduced Internet surveillance legislation that requires ISPs to disclose customer information without a warrant. Peter Van Loan, the Minister in charge, claims that a Vancouver kidnapping earlier this year shows the need for these powers. I did some digging and shows this to be a lie - the Vancouver police acknowledge that the case did not involve an ISP request and the suspect is now in custody."

Van Loan's Misleading Claims: Case for Lawful Access Not Closed

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:00 AM PDT

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, we saw the original IBM thinkpad, a lightbulb doorknob, and a crazy man flashed a gun at the Apple store. Our visit to Mercedes' research lab yielded two more videos: how to pair an iPhone with the console, and the company's plans to create an in-car appstore for its in-dash computers. Also, Ooma ($250 lifetime subscription to VoIP) has new hardware out, HP updated its Windows Home Server box, and reviewers of the PSPGo nailed Sony on the pricing. You may also, thanks to Skymall, carry a portable bidet with you.

Man with transplanted hands heads home

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 09:24 AM PDT

Jeff Kepner, the first person in England to receive two hand transplants, is now home after four months of recovery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in the United States. From LancasterOnline.com:
Handtranssss In a strange way, the double transplant was a bit of setback for Kepner, who had lost part of both of his arms and legs in 1999. Doctors amputated the limbs in a bid to save his life after Kepner came down with a strep infection that plunged him into a coma.

After the amputations, Kepner was outfitted with prosthetic hands and feet and forged on with his life.

"He had gotten quite used to his hooks," his mother says of her son's artificial arms. "He could dress himself. He could drive his car. He could do a lot of things..."

Now in therapy (after the transplants), he is learning how to pick up small items, like cotton balls, and catch a ball, but he still has no feeling in his fingers. The nerves grow about an inch a month from where the hands were attached, at the forearm.

"They told him it will be at least until the end of the year before those nerves get down into those fingers," Doris Schafer said. "Then he'll begin to do things."
"Ex-county man ready to go home after double-hand transplant" (via Fortean Times)

Previously:


Asgarda

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 11:26 AM PDT

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This photo-essay at Planet magazine of a purported "new tribe of Ukrainian Amazons," shot by French photographer Guillaume Herbaut, is receiving a lot of attention online. The magazine article is the only source I see for the following background on the women in these photos:

In the Ukraine, a country where females are victims of sexual trafficking and gender oppression, a new tribe of empowered women is emerging. Calling themselves the "Asgarda", the women seek complete autonomy from men. Residing in the Carpathian Mountains, the tribe is comprised of 150 women of varying ages, primarily students, led by 30 year-old Katerina Tarnouska. Reviving the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology, the Asgarda train in martial arts, taught by former Soviet karate master, Volodymyr Stepanovytch, and learn life skills and sciences in order to become ideal women. Little physical documentation existed on the tribe, until recently, when renowned French photographer, met the Asgarda back in 2004 in the midst of the Orange Revolution.
Is this the official Asgarda website? Does anyone know more about them? Are they a cult? A lesbian martial arts club? A planned community? Or manufactured narrative for a sweet series of photos by some French dude in an art magazine? I was inclined to think the whole thing was a hoax, like the "motorcycle ride through Chernobyl" hoax that made the blog rounds years ago, but maybe that's because a tribe of noble Ukrainian girl-warriors sounds too awesome to be true in this cold, cruel world.

Vampire-hunting technologies of yore

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 08:51 AM PDT

sothebyskit.jpg Over at LA Weekly, a photo gallery of kits used to slay vampires. This may shock you, but at least some of these are hoaxes. (thanks, Calpernia Addams!)

An Interview with Omar Mullick

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 09:15 AM PDT

Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog that celebrated the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He lives in Harlem, NY.

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Many of you may remember my post on Can't Take It With You, a landmark photo exhibit showcasing Muslims in America that's opening next week in New York. Omar Mullick, the photographer of the exhibit, invited me to the gallery space yesterday and we had a little chat.

Bassam: How are you feeling?

Omar: A little tired, a little happy. We've been working around the clock.

Bassam: So, first things first, where did the title for the show come from?

Omar: It's the opening lines of a Radiohead song called Reckoner. It had a pretty strong impact on me when I heard it. I realized that I was as capable of going to Radiohead or The Brian Jonestown Massacre as I was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for the same notes of transcendence....

.....I think that speaks volumes about me being Western and Muslim. It evokes other things, too, but some things I think are better left unarticulated. I'll tell you some thing great though: a photographer friend mentioned to me that he thought the title was a comment on photography and the effort to fix things and moments that slip by. On the same day a Muslim friend read the title as a comment on mortality and shot me an email to that effect.

Bassam: Seven years is a long time for a road trip to take photos.

Omar: It was on and off, in between commercial gigs or when I was traveling.

Bassam: Why show it now then?

Omar: Well the point of the project was to make a broad brushstroke -- I wanted to get at some thing about the country, about the sweep of the place and this moment. This community was a way in to that narrative. They are at the center of what we will accept as American or Western - right on the edge of what we think of as the 'other.' What can I say? I am not one to look away. I don't think I answered your question, though. I only feel now, I think, that I got a sense of this being an American narrative, and an irrevocable one, and the sheer breadth of it.

omar_rub.jpg

Bassam: So how do you edit that down?

Omar: With difficulty! I tried editing photos as if I were marrying the images to statistical facts about the community. That was an abject failure. The whole thing died on the page. It's a series of impressions in the end - I make no pretensions about being objective. I think the job is to be transparent about your biases. Consistently, I was drawn in the gallery edit to photos of people or moments who problematized some of the prevailing stereotypes. In the end though, when the high concepts paled, I kept coming back to things that move me about photography: wonder, awe, light - looking for the humanity in people.

Bassam: Why black and white? Why film?

Omar: I can give you all these explanations but to be perfectly honest I liked the aesthetic for this project. It's that simple. I also love what film does when you point it directly in to the light. I am interested in where all that starts to break. My bread and butter is digital though, so don't read in to my remarks some aversion to digital - far from it

Bassam: Getting back to the edit, we had a question from a reader asking after the emphasis on scarved Muslim women in the edit. Do you have women in the show who do not have scarves? And is my reading of this emphasis fair?

Omar: Great question. Yes, I do have women in the show who are Muslim and are not wearing scarves. Of the photos that come to mind, there is one photograph I am particularly fond of that shows a young girl wearing the hijab (headscarf) in New York talking to an elderly Afghan Muslim woman at her store in the West Village. The elderly woman is not wearing a scarf. I like that shot because the prevailing stereotype of scarves is that an elderly generation imposes it on the younger one. The expectation is reversed here. Incidentally, that same photo has the Afghan husband, cheerful and beardless, smoking a cigarette outside his shop. I loved that. I also have another photo where a young girl is wearing a hijab and riding a bmx and another girl behind her who does not wear a scarf has got a riding helmet on, probably for safety. I thought that's subtle, and a little playful.

omar_firesmile.jpg 

Bassam: Any other photography books that depict Muslims that you like?

Omar: Sure, Joachim Ladefoged did a book called The Albanians - I used to travel with that in my backpack. Fazal Sheikh: Ramadan Moon. Stanley Greene did a book called Open Wound on Chechnya. All wonderful.

Bassam: So what's next?

Omar: I've been shooting a lot of pictures of a corner in the Brooklyn music scene that I am particularly enamored with. I am curious to see where that goes. I have to shoot things I am a little in love with.

The gallery opens October 8th and runs till November 5th in New York.

RSVP at the Facebook event

(photos by Michael Kirby Smith, taken on the fire escape at GalleryFCB)

Mad Men on Sesame Street

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 08:41 AM PDT

Aman Ali, a BoingBoing guest blogger, is the co-author of 30 Mosques, a Ramadan adventure taking him to a different mosque in New York City every day for a month. I'll spare you guys the annoyance of raving about how good the TV show Mad Men is. But now apparently Sesame Street has gotten Mad Men fever. My friend's 3-year-old son saw the clip and said he wants to grow up and be like Don Draper. I said "You and me both kid, you and me both."

Zombies Calling: snappy popcult zombie comic in the Scott Pilgrim mold

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 08:30 AM PDT

Faith Erin Hicks's Zombies Calling is a fun, fast graphic novel about Canadian university students who battle zombies on campus. The protagonist, Joss, is an incorrigible zombie movie nut who argues endlessly with her roommates about the internal consistency of zombie genre films and the rules that heroes must follow when they are confronted by the walking dead. She's also a helpless anglophile who peppers her speech with affectations like "crumbs," which annoys her roommates but is actually very sweet for the reader.

Zombies Calling fits nicely into the Scott Pilgrim mode: rich with pop-culture reference, snappy dialog, and a delightful disregard for the boundary between reality and fantasy.

Hicks has got lots going for her -- great illustration and writing style, funny dialog and likeable characters -- but what I was most impressed by was her cinematic talent for making a zombie chase-scene come alive with real tension through clever panel-layout and illustrations. I didn't expect to have my heart thumping over a funnybook about zombies, but thump it did.

Zombies Calling

Previously:


Disney Family Museum's sucky no-photos policy

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 06:55 AM PDT

Thomas Hawk sez, "I was disappointed after reading about the new Walt Disney Family Museum's opening this week in San Francisco's Presidio via the SF Chronicle to learn that the museum has chosen to prohibit photography. For a cultural institution this is unfortunate. With many public museums moving more recently towards more open photography policies (including the EMP in Seattle just last month) it is disappointing to see a new museum opening with a closed policy. The Walt Disney Family Museum should consider following the lead of most of the other museums in the Bay Area and open their museum up to photographers."

As Thomas notes in his post, the Disney parks have an exemplary open photography policy, too; one that works superbly for Disney, engaging its fans and customers with its products and resorts. It's a real failure of confidence in their own success to impose a policy like this in the museum.

The New Walt Disney Family Museum's No Photography Policy Sucks (Thanks, Thomas!)

Panorama of yogi feet in the air

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 06:28 AM PDT

Jeffrey sez, "We're getting more and more excellent panoramic photographers uploading their spherical panoramas to our site - but this one made me splutter with delight. Hundreds, or maybe thousands, of yogis with their feet sticking up in the air, as far as you can see, while the sun rises in the distance. I feel more relaxed just looking at it.... If you right-click on the panorama and then select 'little planet' you get a yoga planet of legs...."

Umag Asanas At Sunset (Thanks, Jeffrey!)
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