Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Weta's new cheaper, delightful, detailed plastic rayguns

Posted: 24 Nov 2009 04:06 AM PST


Two years ago, my wife surprised me with one of the coolest presents I've ever received: an original Goliathon raygun from effects-house Weta (best known for doing the effects for the Lord of the Rings movies). It's a cast-iron monster, with delicate blown-glass fillips, and it comes in its own molded carrying case lined with red velvet. I've made it a point not to look up what it cost (it's a gift, after all), but I do know that people who collect these things tend to suck air over their teeth appreciatively when they see it, so I'm assuming it's rather a lot. It's among my top ten favorite inanimate objects in the universe, and it gives me pleasure every time I come through the door of my office.

So I was excited when Weta offered to send me two of their latest rayguns for review. The new line, "Dr. Grordbort's Rayguns," are not made from cast-iron, but rather from "Real Imitation Metal" (e.g., molded plastic), and comes in toylike packaging that wouldn't look out of place in a Toys R Us aisle. But as with the more expensive originals, the detail on the unit is exquisite, the best I've ever seen on a mass-produced item (this even carries over to the teeny-weeny desk-toy-sized "Minisculized" versions, which have details that even look good under a magnifying lens). They're still not cheap -- the "Righteous Bison" they sent me costs about US$85 -- but they're a lot more affordable than the hand-made iron monsters.

I have a small collection of rayguns here, some from professional houses, others hand-crafted by Etsy makers, but the Righteous Bison is the first plastic/mass-made version I'd consider adding to my wall. It's a beautiful piece, truly. And the little teensy Victorious Mongoose desk-toy gun (with its own stand) now lives beside my monitor, where I can enjoy it every time I look up.

Dr. Grordbort's Rayguns from Weta

Previously:


Makers audiobook - DRM free download

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 11:57 PM PST


The audiobook of my latest novel, Makers has been published by Random House Audio, strictly in DRM-free formats over the net (this means that Apple won't carry it in the iTunes store, even though Audible was willing to carry it without DRM).

The reading is by Bernadette Dunne, a very talented actor. I just listened to this for the first time yesterday and I was blown away by Dunne's reading. I'm a huge audiobook nut, and I'm incredibly glad to have professional audiobook adaptations of my books from Random House -- and doubly grateful to them for supporting my commitment to DRM-free distribution. When you buy this book, you own it. The "terms of service" are "Don't violate copyright law," not "By buying this audiobook, you agree that we get to come over and kick you in the ass."

Makers, read by Bernadette Dunne

British cops arrest people just to add them to the DNA database, claims inquiry

Posted: 24 Nov 2009 12:02 AM PST

Britain's cops have the largest DNA database in the world, and it's full of innocent people who were arrested but not charged, or charged but not convicted (the EU's Court of Human Rights have ordered this practice to stop, but the cops refuse to comply with the law -- their latest dodge is to keep innocents' DNA for six years). Now an inquiry that begins today claims that police are "routinely arresting people" that they know they can't convict of any crime, simply to get their DNA into the database.
The highly critical report from the government's advisory body on the development of human genetics is published as the number of innocent people on the database is disclosed to be far higher than previously thought ‑ nearing 1 million.

The commission says the policy of routinely adding the DNA profiles of all those arrested has led to a highly disproportionate impact on different ethnic groups and the stigmatisation of young black men, with the danger of their being seen as "an 'alien wedge' of criminality"...

The chairman of the commission, Prof Jonathan Montgomery, said: "It's now become pretty routine to take DNA samples on arrest. So large numbers of people on the DNA database will be there not because they have been convicted, but because they've been arrested."

He said the commission had received evidence from a former police superintendent that it was now the norm to arrest offenders for everything possible. "It is apparently understood by serving police officers that one of the reasons, if not the reason, for the change in practice is so that the DNA of the offender can be obtained," said Montgomery, adding that it would be a matter of very great concern if this was now a widespread practice.

Police routinely arresting people to get DNA, inquiry claims (Image: DNA Molecule display, Oxford University, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from net_efekt's Flickr stream)
Previously:


Weird and lovely taxidermy from Jun Takahashi

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 11:42 PM PST

Hacked climate scientists' emails in context

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 11:37 PM PST

A huge amount of email from the East Anglia Climate Research Unit was hacked and released onto the web, causing much rejoicing from the climate change denialists. They read through the corpus of email and found that the scientists working on climate change often have substantive disagreements with one another, which they debate vigorously in email, and cited this as evidence of a conspiracy to cover up dissent and present a scientific consensus on climate change.

Futurismic's Tom Marcinko does a great job of putting this in context, rounding up several links to other good commentators around the web. In a nutshell: science is about the advancement of competing theories and the evaluation of these theories in light of evidence. The East Anglia Climate Research Unit's scientists disagreed in some particulars, and used peer-review to resolve them (and continue to do so). No one is paying them to cover up evidence that climate change isn't real or isn't caused by humans -- but they are conducting science the way that scientists do.

Smart enough to hack, not sophisticated enough to appreciate the daily give-and-take of how science works-is that how we nonscientists are going to approach critical issues? Maybe we can do better than that.
Those hacked climate e-mails: Good scientists, poor conspirators
Previously:


Pathways of Desire: Detroiters carve their own streets out of the snow

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 11:28 PM PST

Using photos and satellite images, the Sweet Juniper blog documents the "pathways of desire" in Detroit -- the streets and sidewalks that Detroiters carved out of the snow indicating where they'd like to go, rather than where the city expects them to go. I read somewhere (I think it was Peter Ackroyd's incredible London: A Biography) that after the Great Fire, Christopher Wren tried to lay out the city in a regular grid, but that Londoners continued to walk along where the old winding streets had been, using the old, unburned stone church-spires to navigate them, walking through the construction sites, forcing the streets back to their old places.

This past winter, the snow stayed so long we almost forgot what the ground looked like. In Detroit, there is little money for plowing; after a big storm, the streets and sidewalks disappear for days. Soon new pathways emerge, side streets get dug out one car-width wide. Bootprints through parks veer far from the buried sidewalks. Without the city to tell him where to walk, the pilgrim who first sets out in fresh snowfall creates his own path. Others will likely follow, or forge their own paths as needed.

In the heart of summer, too, it becomes clear that the grid laid down by the ancient planners is now irrelevant. In vacant lots between neighborhoods and the attractions of thoroughfares, bus stops and liquor stores, well-worn paths stretch across hundreds of vacant lots. Gaston Bachelard called these les chemins du désir: pathways of desire. Paths that weren't designed but eroded casually away by individuals finding the shortest distance between where they are coming from and where they intend to go.

Streets With No Name (via Making Light)

AIG necropsy: taxpayer billions, direct to their pockets.

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:50 PM PST

"The very design of the federal assistance to A.I.G. was that tens of billions of dollars of government money was funneled inexorably and directly to A.I.G.'s counterparties." A necropsy of the AIG deal, in the NYT. Spoiler: we lose. (lifted from Mitch Kapor)

Alphabet made of glands

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:42 PM PST


Joceyln sez, "The annual Olympus BioScapes contest consistently yields amazing microscopic-scapes and this year a bonus: a glandular font, courtesy of Dr. Ma. Ivy Clemente's Glandular structures from Fibroadenoma and Nodular Prostatic Hyperplasia cases. I know what font I'm using on my holiday cards now..."

Specimen: Glandular structures from Fibroadenoma and Nodular Prostatic Hyperplasia cases (Thanks, Jocelyn!)

Previously:


Google and TiVo team up, strike terror into the nonexistent hearts of TV execs

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:47 PM PST

Seach and TV/online ad behemoth Google today announced an agreement to subscribe to TiVo's user data. "Here's where the fear and loathing come in. Google promises that advertisers pay only when their ads are seen. But TiVo lets viewers fast-forward through commercials. Now, with TiVo's data, collected from millions of digital video recorders across the country, Google can tell exactly which of those commercials are being bypassed."

Sarah Palin Parking Lot

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:18 PM PST

Video: Chase Whitestead and Erick Stroll of New Left Media speak to Sarah Palin fans at her book signing in Columbus, Ohio. More at Dangerous Minds.

Related: Over at The Awl this past weekend, Rudy live-blogged his reading of Sarah Palin's memoirs (so you don't have to). This follows a month-long build-up where he reviewed the entire canon of vice presidential memoirs. You're welcome. (via Jason Wishnow)

Previously:


Star Wars Double shot: Band Names, Facebook Updates

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 09:48 PM PST

A double shot of timewastey STAR WARS funs: Band Names (hashtag's here, @johnmoe started it), and Facebook Updates (via @bonniegrrl )

African leaders advise Bono on reform of U2, warn of poverty in "listenable songs"

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 07:44 PM PST

"An expert commission of African leaders today announced their plan for comprehensive reform of the rock band U2." (via Ethan Zuckerman)

Hope is fading

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 07:40 PM PST

hope.jpg

T-shirt: Freshjive (via Raymond Roker)

Gentleman arrested by fashion police at LA airport for wearing his living lizard suit

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 07:29 PM PST

A fashionable gentleman wearing 15 live lizards strapped to his chest was arrested by fashion police at LAX as he attempted to enter the country from Australia. US Customs agents said something about "smuggling," and claim the two geckos, eleven skinks, and two monitor lizards were worth a total of $8,500.

Galileo's fingers found

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 04:21 PM PST

A jar containing two of Galileo's missing fingers has been located. The jar containing the digits has been missing for more than a century. An individual purchased them at auction and delivered them to the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy. The two fingers will join a third finger (image below) and a tooth that were removed from Galileo's corpse in 1737.
Galileo Images Finger The museum plans to display the fingers and tooth in March 2010, after it re-opens following a renovation, Galluzzi said.

The museum has had the third Galileo finger since 1927, so the digits will be reunited for the first time in centuries, he added.

Removing body parts from the corpse was an echo of a practice common with saints, whose digits, tongues and organs were revered by Catholics as relics with sacred powers.

"Galileo's missing fingers found in jar"

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Life's behind-the-scenes gallery

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 04:20 PM PST

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In 1954, LIFE magazine sent their movies editor Mary Leatherbee and photographer Peter Stackpole to the Bahamas where Disney was filming 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. See a marvelous gallery of photos over at the LIFE site. Above, the film's director Richard Flesicher. "These distinctive suits, as the original captions noted, were a technical problem because they 'had to be invented to clothe the fabled Nautilus crew-- Victorian-looking yet practical and self-contained... the way Jules Verne imagined it for his mythical hero, Captain Nemo.'" 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea photo gallery

Rocky and Balls record song for charity

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 01:34 PM PST

Rocky & Balls, my favorite female uke-playing duet, recorded another song about facial hair. This one is for charity.
200911231329The proceeds will go to The Prostate Cancer Charity and we would love it if you could all buy a copy since it is for a very very very good cause!

In addition, we will keep a track of your names, if you purchase the song, and feature them in our music video when we finally get together to record it!  Be part of Rocky and Balls history ;)

It is a minimum of $2 so everyone is donating about a british pound, but think of the good that could do!


The Mo Song by Rocky & Balls

Previously:


Understanding the psychology of authoritarianism

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 12:53 PM PST

Mike sez, "Bob Altemeyer's excellent book 'The Authoritarians' is online in full pdf format. It's a result of 30+ years of research into what he calls 'right-wing authoritarianism'- right in the sense of 'might makes' rather than 'opposite of left'. It's a fascinating explanation of how the minds of this subset of the population works- or in some cases, fails to: how they are able to assiduously apply double standards, fail to notice inconsistencies in their beliefs, justify abominable behavior, etc. Somehow, knowing that these people really, truly, can't reason in the same way the majority of us can makes them a little less irksome, if not less frightening."

I've read a couple chapters, and he's a funny and engaging writer who seems to have a lot of experimental evidence to present. Good stuff.


The second reason I can offer for reading what follows is that it is not chock full of opinions, but experimental evidence. Liberals have stereotypes about conservatives, and conservatives have stereotypes about liberals. Moderates have stereotypes about both. Anyone who has watched, or been a liberal arguing with a conservative (or vice versa) knows that personal opinion and rhetoric can be had a penny a pound. But arguing never seems to get anywhere. Whereas if you set up a fair and square experiment in which people can act nobly, fairly, and with integrity, and you find that most of one group does, and most of another group does not, that's a fact, not an opinion. And if you keep finding the same thing experiment after experiment, and other people do too, then that's a body of facts that demands attention.3 Some people, we have seen to our dismay, don't care a hoot what scientific investigation reveals; but most people do. If the data were fairly gathered and we let them do the talking, we should be on a higher plane than the current, "Sez you!"
The Authoritarians (Thanks, Mike!)

Good News from the Large Hadron Collider

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 12:43 PM PST

Ladies and gentlemen, we have (hot, natch) particle-on-particle action. If the time-traveling, LHC-hating Higgs boson particles are really out there, they don't have a whole lot of time to get together another baked goods-based offensive.

The first protons collided in the Large Hadron Collider today at CERN outside Geneva, Switzerland. These first collisions are another milestone on the way to the ultimate goal: high-energy collisions of protons in the center of the LHC experiments. They follow a weekend of rapid progress for the LHC. After more than one year of repairs, on Friday evening, November 20, beams were once again circulating in the collider. Over the weekend, the LHC team carefully studied the beams one at a time. Today at approximately 1:30 local time, two beams circulated at the same time for the first time in the LHC. As the two circulating beams passed through each other, protons from each beam hit one another, and the resulting spray of particles registered in the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb detectors.

The first two protons collided at the relatively low energies with which they were injected into the LHC, 450 GeV each. Over the next few months, LHC scientists will raise the beam energy, aiming for collisions at the world-record energy of 3.5 TeV per beam in early 2010. With these high-energy collisions, the teams on the LHC experiments will embark on their quest to solve some of the mysteries of the universe.

Symmetry magazine, First Particles Collide in the Large Hadron Collider

Previously:


Tom Gauld print: "Characters for an Epic Tale"

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 12:43 PM PST

200911231239

Tom Gauld, author of the astounding The Gigantic Robot book, has a new print available at Buenvaventura Press, called "Characters for an Epic Tale."

9.5 x 12.5 inches, 2 colors [note the apparition, done in a gray spot-color -- Mark], letterpress printed on Hahnemühle Mould-made Ingres paper. Signed and numbered edition of 150, half available through Buenaventura Press and half through Tom Gauld himself. This edition of 150 has been divided between BP and the artist. If you are in North America you can order direct from us here, for the rest of the world you can order it soon directly from the artist's website www.tomgauld.com

Buy yours now! These are going fast, and the price will increase to $150 when we are down to the last ten!

While you are at Buenaventura Press's website, note that they are having a 20% off sale on every book they publish!

Tom Gauld print: "Characters for an Epic Tale"

Carbon/Silicon's latest album as a free download

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 12:34 PM PST

200911231233

Carbon/Silicon (a band fronted by The Clash's Mick Jones and Generation X's Tony James) has a new album called The Carbon Bubble. They are giving it away in the MP3 format on their site.

Carbon/Silicon's The Carbon Bubble album

Maker Shed kiosks at Fry's

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 12:25 PM PST

200911231220

If you find yourself at a Fry's in California, you might see one of these handsome Maker Shed kiosks. The Make team did a great job coming up with an attractive kiosk that took up just 4 square feet of floor space.

Gareth writes: "We think this is big news, not only for Maker Media, but for all indie makers -- a major retail chain is now giving small kit-makers this level of exposure. And, we think it's particularly cool that we designed and built these kiosks in-house, and even personally delivered them to the stores! What other publisher could claim that?"

Maker Shed kiosks at Fry's

It's healthy for kids to get dirty

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:57 PM PST

Researchers at UC San Diego say that being covered in Staphylococci bacteria "blocked a vital step in a cascade of events that led to inflammation," after an injury.
By studying mice and human cells, they found the harmless bacteria did this by making a molecule called lipoteichoic acid or LTA, which acted on keratinocytes - the main cell types found in the outer layer of the skin.

The LTA keeps the keratinocytes in check, stopping them from mounting an aggressive inflammatory response.

Head of the research Professor Richard Gallo said: "The exciting implication of the work is that it provides a molecular basis to understand the hygiene hypothesis and has uncovered elements of the wound repair response that were previously unknown.

Dirt can be good for children, say scientists

Sneaky pinball makers' tricks

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 11:20 AM PST

Northwestern economics professor Jeff Ely has a fun post on his blog about the economics of pinball:
Img 3732In 1986, Williams High Speed changed the economics of pinball forever.  Pinball developers began to see how they could take advantage of programmable software to monitor, incentivize, and ultimately exploit the players.  They had two instruments at their disposal:  the score required for a free game, and the match probability.  All pinball machines offer a replay to a player who beats some specified score.  Pre-1986, the replay score was hard wired into the game unless the operator manually re-programmed the software.  High Speed changed all that.  It was pre-loaded with an algorithm that adjusted the replay score according to the distribution of scores on the specified machine over a specific time interval. ...

The other tool is the match probability: you win a free game if the last two digits of your score match an apparently random draw.  While adjustments to the high-score threshold is textbook price theory, the adjustments to the match probability is pure behavioral economics.  Let's clear this up right away. No, the match probability is not uniform and yes, it is strategically manipulated depending on who is playing and when.  For example, if the machine has been idle for more than three minutes, the match probability is boosted upward.  You will never match if you won a free game by high score.  And it gets more complicated than that.  Any time there are two or more players and they finish a game with no credits left, one player (but only one) is very likely to match.  Empirically, the other players will more often than not put in another quarter to play again.

The Economics of Pinball

(Above: my photo of the Visible Pinball Machine built by Michael Schiess of the Lucky JuJu Pinball Arcade)

Couple charged with trying to sell fake Warhols

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 12:03 PM PST

A 65-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman were charged last week with trying to sell six fake Warhol pieces to a collector. The couple told the collector that the subject of the art was Mathew Baldwin, one of the famous Baldwin brother actors. The pieces were signed and dated in 1996.
After giving the couple a down payment of $25,000, the man took the art to an appraiser in California. The appraiser informed the man the art was fake because there was no Mathew in the famous Baldwin family. He also pointed out that the signatures were forged because Warhol died in 1987, charging documents state.
Couple charged with trying to sell fake Warhols (Via Museum of Hoaxes)

Milton Glaser on drawing and thinking

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:42 AM PST


In this short video by C. Coy, designer Milton Glaser draws a picture of Shakespeare while talking about the ways that drawing helps him think and perceive: "for me, drawing has always been a primary way of encountering reality."

His ideas reminding me of cartoonist Seth's short essay for The Walrus called "The Quiet Art of Cartooning." Both Seth and Glaser are in agreement that your mind opens up on interesting ways while you draw. Teachers who prevent students from drawing and doodling while being taught a lesson are hindering their learning.

Technology to generate power from slow moving river and ocean currents

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:36 AM PST

200911231025.jpg

Chris Connors of MAKE has a post about "a new way of generating electricity with the slow moving currents found in most of the rivers and oceans of the world." (Video here.)

VIVACE is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2 miles per hour.) Most of the Earth's currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently.

VIVACE stands for Vortex Induced Vibrations for Aquatic Clean Energy. It doesn't depend on waves, tides, turbines or dams. It's a unique hydrokinetic energy system that relies on "vortex induced vibrations."

Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists

The Science Geeks of Tomorrow Need Your Help

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:06 AM PST

Good stuff out of President Obama's speech on the importance of science education. Govt. will be working with media to help kids get science literate and, more importantly, help them get that science is fun. What I'm really excited about, though, is the first annual National Lab Day (coming early May 2010!)--a nationwide, community driven event that will give kids a hands-on science experience. National Lab Day organizers are looking for scientists, engineers and science-positive folks of all professions to volunteer.

Handcuffed, suspected bank robber eats alleged stick-up note

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:42 AM PST


At around 19 seconds into this police car video, an alleged bank robber eats a piece of paper, which police say was a stick-up note. I think the guy is suppressing a grin.

Raw Dash Cam: Bank Robber Gobbles Up Holdup Note

Kangaroo attacks man and attempts to drown his dog

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 09:45 AM PST

In Melbourne today, an angry kangaroo attacked a man while he walked his dog, cutting the owner's abdomen with its hind legs and pinning the dog underwater. The man ended the attack by jabbing the kangaroo in the throat with his elbow.
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