The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Spectator throws out public safety, embraces sensationalism and AIDS denialism
- Taunton groom's cake
- DodgeDot - fun iPhone game
- Xeni on Rachel Maddow Show: John McCain vs. the Internet
- Kfetch
- Al Franken kicks eleventy-million kinds of ass in health-care hearing
- 555 California security guards in San Fran threaten to punch sidewalk photographer, break his f*cking camera
- Barclay's terrible bank-security
- Limbaugh and Beck pimp gold merchants with 35% spread
- Brutal Mario: violent, reference-heavy Mario mod
- Important and fascinating Lewis Hyde essay on copyright
- State of Asimov's sf magazine podcast
- Internet Archaeology
- LED Chaser
- Bigshot Toyworks art show: Natural Resources
- Spots Unknown - a great blog about San Francisco
- Hello Kitty 35th anniversary birthday bash at Royal/T in Los Angeles
- Woman with dystonia can only walk backwards
- Steering wheel tray
- Sikh Holy Men Wearing Spectacularly Large Turbans
- 10 Million Bats, and David Attenborough
- Nokia sues Apple over iPhone
- LEDs: Throwing Some Light on the Hype
- CNN's Kristie Lu Stout goes on a street food safari
- Taste test: Togarashi
- Dear Britain, please stop helping the fascists
- Jack of Fables versus Sun Tzu
| Spectator throws out public safety, embraces sensationalism and AIDS denialism Posted: 24 Oct 2009 02:00 AM PDT A film that denies the link between HIV and AIDS is being screened in the UK by the Spectator, in the name of "spurring debate." The Spectator's editor, Fraser Nelson, describes his motivation: "It's one of these hugely emotive subjects, with a fairly strong and vociferous lobby saying that any open discussion is deplorable and tantamount to Aids denialism. Whenever any debate hits this level, I get deeply suspicious." And here comes our Ben Goldacre, explaining why "deeply suspicious" (which, to my ears, is a foreshortened phrase whose entirety is "deeply suspicious that I might sell a crapload of newspapers through a reckless disregard for public safety and the truth") is deeply stupid and deeply dangerous: Of course people will have some concerns. Despite international outcry, from 2000 to 2005 South Africa implemented policies based on the belief that HIV does not cause Aids, and declined to roll out adequate antiretroviral therapy. It has been estimated in two separate studies that around 350,000 people died unnecessarily in South African during this period. We should also remember that "teach the controversy" is a technique beloved of American creationists, and of antivaccination campaigners (with whom Fraser Nelson has also, oddly, flirted). These groups know that in our modern media, where truth is halfway between the two most extreme views, to insert doubt is to win.Aids denialism at the Spectator |
| Posted: 24 Oct 2009 01:35 AM PDT  Bonnie sez, "Star Wars artist Chris Trevas got hitched and had this glorious dead Tauntaun cake (complete with Luke Skywalker stuffed inside) made for the groom's cake at his wedding! The cake was made by Courtney Clark from Cake Nouveau of Food Network Challenge (and TLC Ultimate Cake-Off) fame!" Dead Tauntaun Wedding Cake! (Thanks, Bonnie!) Previously: |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 11:53 PM PDT  My daughters and I have been fighting over my iPhone all night because we want to play DodgeDot, a new iPhone game that currently costs 99 cents. My friend and old school bOING bOING contributor Jim Leftwich co-created DodgeDot with his partner Steve Doss. He told me, "When I first thought the game up I was trying to come up with something that was a mix of the best qualities of classic and timeless games. Part skill, part strategy, part randomness, and something that was also calming and pleasant to look at." The object is to drag colored dots of various sizes to matching colored rectangles around the perimeter of the screen. When dragging a dot you aren't allowed to bump into a dot or rectangle of a different color, or you will lose health or lives. There's more to it, of course, and the game becomes more challenging each level. The nice thing is that you can learn the rules pretty quickly by just playing it. My six-year-old caught on to the object of the game and its rules faster than I did. DodgeDot works with the Jampaq Network (free, and accessible in the app), which gives players the ability to Follow and be Followed. Most importantly, it gives the game a new round each Sunday at midnight before Monday. All of the levels get new starting patterns (dot sizes, positions, and speeds), which really makes a huge difference in keeping the game fresh, and then we have new rankings for each Round," says Jim. Now that my kids are in bed, I have it all to myself until morning. |
| Xeni on Rachel Maddow Show: John McCain vs. the Internet Posted: 23 Oct 2009 09:29 PM PDT Eternally excellent Rachel Maddow allowed me to join her tonight (pretty much the only reason I own a TV now is to watch her show) for a discussion about John McCain's "Internet Freedom Act," also known as "The Great Telecom Reacharound of 2009." Why is the former presidential candidate who once described himself as technologically "illiterate" suddenly so worried about the nerdy details of internet architecture? Follow the money. A Sunlight Foundation Report released yesterday says McCain received more telecom lobbying money than any other senator, over the past two years. We ought to stop calling him the senator from Arizona and start calling him the senator from AT&T. Video: McCain Pushes Agenda Against Web Freedom (The Rachel Maddow Show) |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 07:12 PM PDT |
| Al Franken kicks eleventy-million kinds of ass in health-care hearing Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:40 PM PDT Watch Senator Al "Kick-Ass" Franken wipe up the floor with this health-care-lobby shill from the Hudson Institute who claimed that universal healthcare would increase medical bankruptcies. This is the perfect mix of being sensible and being devastatingly sarcastic, and I love him for it. Go Al! Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies Previously:
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| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 07:24 PM PDT  Troy had heard the reputation that the 555 California Building's security guards had for hassling photographers, so he tried out the experiment of photographing (legally) the building, and was met by potty-mouth security guards who threatened to break his "fucking camera" and punch him in the face. A rep from property managers Voranado Realty later apologized and said that this wasn't "typical of our security team." No photography, they stated clearly. Why, we responded. Safety, they said. If you're in San Francisco and want to go by 555 this weekend to get a photo, do drop by the comments on this post to let us know whether this is "typical" or not. "I Will Break Your Fucking Camera" Previously:
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| Barclay's terrible bank-security Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:30 PM PDT Security expert Ben "OpenSSL" Laurie went into a Barclay's bank to transfer a large sum of money ("enough money to fund a small country") and discovered an incredibly lax, brittle security system that focused on meeting compliance requirements instead of keeping deposits safe. I'm in the process of switching from Barclay's to the Co-Op, after years of frustration, insane fees, and terrible service. The Co-Op has its own security issues (they won't let you use random passwords, instead forcing you to use much-more-easily hacked passwords that contain no repeated characters) but they're nowhere near as bad as Barclay's. When I got there we sat down with a bank employee who asked me for my cash card. He stuck it into a PINsentry and asked me to type my PIN. On that evidence alone, we proceeded to transfer enough money to fund a small country. I find this a little scary. Anyway, when I reviewed the documentation, which I had to sign, it had a little box about ID verification, into which he'd typed "PIN xxxx + SRS" - "xxxx" was (part of?) the code from the PINsentry. I asked him what "SRS" meant and he explained it meant he'd checked my signature. In fact, he hadn't, but he proceeded to do so at that point, commenting that he already knew what my signature looked like, presumably to explain away why he hadn't done the check before..."We Used To Be More Secure" Previously: |
| Limbaugh and Beck pimp gold merchants with 35% spread Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:26 PM PDT Jon Taplin takes a close look at the small print from the gold merchants pimped on Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck's shows and discover a whopping 30-35 percent spread between their buy and sell rates. Obviously all these new boiler room high pressure sales groups that used to be pushing sub-prime refinancings are now trying to convince the unsophisticated listeners of right wing talk that they better buy gold before the dollar becomes worthless because of Obama's reckless spending. But how do firms like Goldline make money? Well it's all there in the fine print of their sales agreement.The Gold Scam Fear Merchants |
| Brutal Mario: violent, reference-heavy Mario mod Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:21 PM PDT Play This Thing reviews Brutal Mario, a Tarantino-esque Super Mario World hack that sounds like an incredible hoot to play: Brutal Mario Previously: |
| Important and fascinating Lewis Hyde essay on copyright Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:16 PM PDT Craig sez, "This post looks at an overlooked essay by Lewis Hyde, author of the cult-classic The Gift. 'Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property' is fascinating--not only for its content, which ranges from John Adams to MP3s, but also for its [ed: tragic] reception: only 7 Google hits in the last year (and this for an essay published online under a CC license)." Since 1983, when The Gift came out, Hyde has stayed busy, writing a second book, Trickster Makes This World, and various longer essays, the most recent of which is "Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property." Starting with George Lakoff's idea that conservatives "frame" issues better than liberals, Hyde explains how "the entertainment industry has also been very good at framing its issues." The entertainment industry asserts that downloading an MP3 is the same thing as shoplifting shoes, and anyone who disagrees has to do so in and through their terms.Framing the Issue: Copyright from John Adams to mp3s Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property (Thanks, Craig!) |
| State of Asimov's sf magazine podcast Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:11 PM PDT  Tony sez, "The Sofanauts hosted a fascinating discussion, centered on the SF magazine, Asimov's. Guests included both Editor and Managing Editor, Sheila Williams and Brian Bieniowski. Writers, Jeff VanderMeer and Jeremy Tolbert also joined host Tony C Smith. Contrary to growing opinion in the SF community, things are not all doom and gloom for the magazine. Digital sales are up and new methods of delivery are being explored. Yet some things, like website and digital submissions continue to be touchy subjects. Don't miss this frank and engaging roundtable focusing on one of the most established magazines in SF!" The Sofanauts No 30 The State of Asimov's Special (Thanks, Tony!) |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:06 PM PDT  "Essentially we're going through older, overlooked websites and archiving content," says participant Stefan Moore, "But the main difference between this and archive.org is that here, there's a focus on showcasing what we find." Old-school webhost Geocities will be shutting down later this month, so the site seems particularly timely right now. "We just finished archiving and curating a bunch of geocities flash sites," says Stefan, "Check it out under the section marked 'webgrabs." |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 02:09 PM PDT Now back to your regularly scheduled nifty, blinky things. Like these LED-enhanced false eyelashes designed by artist Soomi Park. They're hooked up to a motion sensor, so as you tilt your head in different directions, they turn on and off.  Thanks to Chris Tackett at Treehugger! Previously:
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| Bigshot Toyworks art show: Natural Resources Posted: 23 Oct 2009 01:38 PM PDT    I was invited to show a piece in the Natural Resources show, produced by Bigshot Toyworks and Mike Burnett. My piece is above. Here are some of the other fine pieces in the show. From Shoparooni: We are super duper excited for the coming opening of "Natural Resources", an absolutely amazing group show featuring wooden DIY toys created by Mike Burnett & Bigshot Toyworks, and customized by over 40 artists! Natural Resources |
| Spots Unknown - a great blog about San Francisco Posted: 23 Oct 2009 01:17 PM PDT Our friend Jeff Diehl has a new blog called Spots Unknown that's devoted to "exploring & infiltrating the forgotten places, events, and histories of San Francisco." It's off to a promising start. The most recent post is about 1958 film footage of the city (shown above). A film colorist at a local Chicago production house inherited a bunch of 16mm Kodachrome film shot in the late '50s by his grandparents. Cars driving down Lombard Street. The silhouette of the guy smoking the cigar in the window is classic. I also like the moody accompanying music. |
| Hello Kitty 35th anniversary birthday bash at Royal/T in Los Angeles Posted: 23 Oct 2009 01:05 PM PDT                  Hello Kitty turned 35 this week, and to celebrate, a birthday party was held for her last night at Royal/T in Culver City, Calif. I took my daughters with me to the opening of "3 Apples: An Exhibition Celebrating 35 Years of Hello Kitty," expecting a quiet affair with madeleine cookies and chamomile tea. I was surprised to see the line around the block waiting to get into what turned out to be a booze-fueled celebrity bash. There was an art show with works by Boing Boing favorites like Tim Biskup and Gary Baseman, lots of cosplay characters, go-go dancers, Hello Kitty themed maids serving drinks and snacks, a commemorative Hello Kitty Airstream travel trailer (which will be auctioned on eBay, check here for details), and lots of new Sanrio merchandise (my wife was fond of this dress). The exhibition will run at Royal/T until November 15th. |
| Woman with dystonia can only walk backwards Posted: 23 Oct 2009 11:37 AM PDT Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night. This video about a young woman who suffers from dystonia and can only walk backwards is really interesting, but I offer it up with a sprinkling of disclaimers. 1. It's a clip from the evening news, so naturally it reeks of sensationalism. 2. This shouldn't necessarily discourage you from getting the flu vaccine. 3. Some numbskull tweaked about a second of this video so that it sounds like the reporter is saying this should discourage you from getting the flu vaccine. If you want to explore some neurological case studies that represent patients as actual people, rather than as tragic spectacles, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks is a great read. |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 12:42 PM PDT
Meet the AutoExec WM-01 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray. This hunk o' plastic with a fancy name must be A) brilliant in its simplicity, or B) hopelessly dumb. But I can't quite decide which. Either way, the grab bag of serious sarcastic/ambiguous product reviews is enjoyable. One customer writes, "This has been a total lifesaver. It allows me to prop my sheet music against the wheel, allowing me to play the guitar with both hands while driving." Deadpan humor? Perhaps... or it might just be this guy. (via Random Good Stuff) |
| Sikh Holy Men Wearing Spectacularly Large Turbans Posted: 23 Oct 2009 11:08 AM PDT  I am digging these photographs of very large turbans -- perhaps for ceremonial occasions? -- worn by holy men of the Sikh faith in India. If someone is more familiar with their traditions than I, do pop in the comments and tell us more about what we're seeing. "Check Out These Enormous Sikh Turbans" (urlesque, thanks Stephen Lenz!) |
| 10 Million Bats, and David Attenborough Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:25 AM PDT The title really says it all. Follow this link to see a metric crap-ton of fruit bats (the largest such gathering in the world) converge on a remote swamp in Zambia--an area only about the size of two or three soccer fields. To take the shots, BBC camera crew had to swoop in on a powered hot-air balloon. Because there were so many bats that a helicopter couldn't fly. Oh. My. God.  |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 11:07 AM PDT  The cellphone business is patented up to its eyeballs. Dumped at ground zero in the wasteland of owned ideas, newcomers typically have to pay as much as ten percent of sales to the old guard. Apple declined Nokia's invitations to give it money, and as a result is now the target of a lawsuit filed by the Finnish manufacturer. From Reuters:
The funny part, I suppose, is the implied conceit that if it weren't for Apple's illegal appropriation of its technology, Nokia's own chrome-trimmed touchscreen iClones might have existed (or even, heaven forbid, been released) within years of the iPhone's debut. It's weird to compare the ostensible purpose of patents with the fact that Apple devised a product Nokia would never have cooked up in a hundred years. Reuters quotes an analyst as saying "It is almost inconceivable that someone can produce a mobile phone without using Nokia patented technologies." Doesn't this sound like a casual, almost unconscious acceptance of the idea that intellectual property exists to prevent competitive innovation? |
| LEDs: Throwing Some Light on the Hype Posted: 23 Oct 2009 11:18 AM PDT Let's start this off with a quick clarification. When I say "LED light", I'm not talking about the nifty, little blinky things that are frequently part of the ingredients list in Make projects. I'm talking about the Big Show: An LED light that can replace the incandescent bulbs and/or CFLs you have lighting up your home right now. To do it right, you don't just need a single LED that works, you need an array of them...and you need them to produce enough light, and the right color of light, reliably enough that people can buy an LED bulb and know what they're getting into.That ain't easy. But it is getting easier.  LED lighting really is more than a toy. This is the library of the new Wit Hotel in Chicago. It's not lit entirely by LED, but lighting designers Lightswitch Architectural did use the technology in the coves around the ceiling and walls. Unfortunately, getting this look at home isn't as simple as it's often made out to be. Trouble is, they're being oversold, like whoa. For about two-and-a-half years, I've been reporting on LED lighting for a trade magazine called Architectural SSL*. During that time, I've watched mainstream press and enviro blogs tout LEDs as the green energy miracle light. Often, with a level of enthusiasm seldom seen outside rooms full of puppies. Don't get me wrong. LEDs are pretty cool. There are places where they're useful now, and places they probably will be soon. But if you're just hearing about the awesome, you aren't getting the full story. And, as more LED products start showing up on store shelves, that really starts to matter. Join me, won't you, as we put on our Sober Assessment Goggles and take a peek at the current state of light bulb of the tomorrow... *The glamorous life of a freelance writer, everybody. That said, if you are thinking about freelance, I recommend convincing a trade magazine or two to love you. The work is steady, the pay is decent and the people are good. And that is a better situation than you'll get from a lot of things you could do to pay the bills. /unsolicitedwriteradvice 1. There Are Good LED Lights Out There; But You Probably Can't Afford Them 2. Trust No One 3. Keep a Close Eye On that "Energy Efficiency" Thing Again, I want to stress that LEDs don't suck. And where they do suck, they're getting better. But I don't want you to get burned by hype. And right now the amount of hype surrounding these things would make Flava Flav blush. *Yes, fluorescent lamps contain mercury. But so does the pollution from coal-fired power plants. This is part of what makes the green-ness of LEDs so complicated right now. If you get your energy clean, it might well be more green to buy an LED over a fluorescent, even if it uses more energy to produce the same amount of light. But if your energy comes from coal, that could change the equation, especially when you consider the fact that a lot of cities have good fluorescent recycling programs. Thumbnail photo: Goins |
| CNN's Kristie Lu Stout goes on a street food safari Posted: 23 Oct 2009 08:23 AM PDT My friend Kristie Lu Stout, a CNN International anchor, visited a number of street hawker stalls in Seoul to sample a variety of treats, including honey strings mixed with nuts, a spiral cut fried potato on a stick, and this french-fry encrusted hot dog on a stick that Kristie photographed and posted to Twitter last week. |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:22 AM PDT  Image by zrim via Flickr When I got a bag of chile peppers in our CSA delivery last week, I had a really hard time trying to figure out how to cook them. I tried putting them in pasta, but that turned out numbingly spicy. And then I remembered that chile peppers = togarashi in Japanese, and that they are a key ingredient in one of my all-time favorite spices — shichimi togarashi, a Japanese spice mix commonly found at home dinner tables and yakitori restaurants that is designed to enhance the natural flavors of high quality meat and veggies. For this week's Taste Test, I thought I'd share a simple recipe for shichimi and give you some tips on other ways to use it.
1 tbsp ground chile pepper 1 tbsp black peppercorns 1 tbsp dried tangerine peel 2 tsp flaked nori 2 tsp black sesame seeds 2 tsp white poppy seeds or black cannabis seeds 2 tsp minced garlic Combine all the ingredients in a small container, then grind together using a grinder or a wooden seed-grinder.Of course, there are many other ways to make the chile pepper a part of your diet — it's great in salsas, hot sauces, and on pizza — I'm sure many of you have your own favorite uses for the versatile fruit. If you just don't like the taste of chile peppers at all, it makes a lovely Christmas tree ornament. Every installment of Taste Test will explore recipes, the science, and some history behind a specific food item. |
| Dear Britain, please stop helping the fascists Posted: 23 Oct 2009 07:43 AM PDT  By subjecting nationalist toad Nick Griffin to the Two-Minute Hate, the U.K.'s media establishment turns a fool into a victim. His dismal performance on the BBC's Question Time would have been satisfying were it not for the hand-wringing hostility that turned it into a circus. Coming next to Britain's inane tabloids: Nazis portraying themselves as victims of oppression. It's no wonder he smirks so much, when his presence induces demands that his political party be banned, his speech suppressed and his opinions abolished. These instincts represent everything his followers want Britain to become: perhaps the irony is not lost on him. To paraphrase one noted humanitarian, a civilized society would either kill him or give him his bookings. The BBC disclaims the appearance as part of its duty to impartiality, then spins around to congratulate itself for orchestrating Griffin's public "humiliation." Paradoxically British! But the whole mess only goes to prove a simple fact: no-one has ever been so inadvertantly adept as the well-breakfasted BNP leader at poking holes in our pretentions to democratic toleration. Public convulsions over the BNP's inconsequential electoral successes make the country appear more divided and insecure than it is. But the BNP's advances are trivial: proportional representation, a changing media landscape and voter disgust merely reveal the exact form of a longstanding political presence on the fringe. Freaking out over it just creates a narrative that can be exploited and expanded into yet another bestselling British moral panic. The BNP is like salmonella, satanic abuse and paedogeddon all in one: yummy! And Griffin is thimerosal in your vaccination against media bullshit. The repsonse to these far-right nutjobs reveals not a principled objection to racism and fascism, but rather the weakness of a political culture built on tradition and the expectaton of common sense. Shouldn't a democractic society accept a plurality of idiots? |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:52 AM PDT  I'm a great fan of Bill Willingham's Fables comics and its numerous spinoffs (nutshell description: all fictional characters, legends, and fables are actually alive, always have been, and are living in secret exile in New York, having been chased out of Fableland by "The Adversary," a rapacious conqueror). One of the most fun of these is the Jack books, which feature a set of parallel adventures of Jack -- as in "Spratt" and "and the Beanstalk" and many other tales. Jack is handsome, womanizing, preternaturally lucky and cheerfully amoral doofus of a fable who is forever incurring the wrath of the Fable establishment by violating their rules by, say, pursuing a career as a Hollywood executive (he fits right in in Tinseltown, naturally). In Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War , Jack finds himself heading the Fable/Librarian army against the vicious Bookburner, who would destroy all of fabledom for his own reasons. Jack takes this command with the help of his sidekick and pal The Pathetic Fallacy (AKA "Gary"), an immortal "Literal" who changes the world to suit his moods. Jack is a terrible commander, but a very funny one, and he doesn't distinguish himself much as a general, but he does an admirable job of evincing yuks from the reader; and Willingham uses the story to make some really thought-provoking points about the dark and primal nature of stories and the danger and blood that lurks in their hearts. The Big Book of War would probably stand alone reasonably well, but if you just read this volume, you're really missing out. The whole Fables canon deserves your attention (and will reward it handsomely). It is both gripping and thought-provoking; philosophically substantial and sparklingly funny. Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War Previously: |
Huffington Post offers 
This is obviously a labor of love, as the developer knows her stuff. This game is highly allusive and drops constant references to other works like its Gaiman's Sandman. Super Mario World is its core, but set pieces, backgrounds, and enemies from assorted titles and other Mario games all make appearances. These additions are far from being a cut-and-paste hodgepodge though, as they're carefully woven together to create an enthralling experience. The nod to Tarantino and Shinichiro Watanabe is duly earned. Instead of being a pure homage, though, the game throws constant curveballs at you. I played one level where the On/Off switch actually changed the enemies in the level, and another one that was fully destructible via Mario's fireballs. These subversive quirks are made all the more apparent because they're within the Super Mario World engine, something that is so well-known and played. 
The Internet Archaeology project is a wonderful collaboration between artists, designers, and tech-minded people around the world, started by an artist named Ryder Ripps in New York. 
Boing Boing guestblogger 
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