The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Homebrew Kodachrome factory
• Peek at the Tetris God at work
• Discontinued desktop 3D printers on the cheap
• Woman has fingerprints swapped to fool immigration
• Wendy "Elfquest" Pini's artwork for the never-made "Stormbringer" movie
• Furniture made from reclaimed wine-barrels
• Exclusive SpaceShipTwo unveiling gallery (Updated!)
• Map of Malaria in the USA, 1870
• Möbius Bagel: interlocking, endless, doughy rings of math
• Vancouver Olympic torch looks like ginormous, dank doobie
• Uke song about casket sale at Walmart
• UPSO's animation for FUEL TV
• Rite Aid's vibrator extravaganza
• Mod 3-ring binder circa 1970
• Ultraviolet: 69 Classic Blacklight Posters from the Aquarian Age and Beyond
• Questions from economics honors exam at Oberlin College
• Meet Gigi Gaston, the ye ye singer who never was
• Old photos of people grouped by gender
• Concept design for a disaster-proof baby container
• Garden Noam Chomsky
• Half-inch jellyfish nearly kills man
• Will Shetterly's "vampirish" YA novel free to download, available on Lulu
• Assembling a mystery box
• Mark Dery on Naked Lunch's 50th Anniversary
• Snowflake Science
• Woman "shoplifts" more than 400 items in multiple trips
• Just look at this awesome banana-peeling simulator.
• IRS goes after mother who makes $10 an hour
• First shots emerge of SpaceShipTwo

Homebrew Kodachrome factory Posted: 08 Dec 2009 04:08 AM PST This DIY Kodachrome machine (the "Filminator") was created to produce more film stock after the company discontinued productions. Michael, the creator, notes, "Plastic and goop go in one end, and camera film comes out the other end. This is not a trivial undertaking." DIY film (Thanks, Karloskar!)

Peek at the Tetris God at work Posted: 08 Dec 2009 02:09 AM PST Here's a rare peek into the celestial kingdom in which the Tetris God decides which shape to send you next. The Tetris God (via Geekologie) Previously: Game-themed Tetris cake - Boing Boing Chain-mail tetris blocks Boing Boing High-resolution Tetris - Boing Boing Hi-rez Tetris after two weeks - Boing Boing HOWTO Make Tetris brownies - Boing Boing Tetris cosplayers in parking-lot brawl - Boing Boing 3D Tetris in Flash - Boing Boing

Discontinued desktop 3D printers on the cheap Posted: 08 Dec 2009 01:24 AM PST The Invision LD 3D-Modeler printer has been discontinued and is being sold off for $5,000 a throw -- it uses Laminated Object Manufacturing to produce low-rez 3D models. It's not going to let you print other printers, AK47s, high-grade pharmaceuticals, picture-perfect edible omelettes, but, as the news story notes, "this is a great system for schools or hobbyists since the cleanup process is entirely physical with no heat or chemical based secondary processing required. At $5,000 you can't do better." $5000 Printer Available Now! (For a limited time) (Thanks, Rich!) Previously: 3D printer jargon in action - Boing Boing Homemade 3D printer goop made from maltodextrin costs 1/50 of the ... Candyfab 6000: latest rev of 3D sugar-printer - Boing Boing Shapeways 3D printing by Internet: 500 free beta signups - Boing Boing Sci-fi objects from a 3D printer - Boing Boing 3D printer art - Boing Boing 3D printer made from Meccano and hot-glue - Boing Boing TSA destroys the RepRap's first child - Boing Boing Scientific American: five 3D printers - Boing Boing

Woman has fingerprints swapped to fool immigration Posted: 07 Dec 2009 09:47 PM PST Japanese police have arrested a Chinese woman whom they claim had her fingerprints removed from the fingertips of each hand and swapped to the other side in order to fool immigration controls. The woman, whom they arrested for unrelated fraud, is said to have have paid US$15,000 for the operation. Japanese police believe that it is a widespread practice. Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand. Japanese newspapers said police had noticed that Ms Lin's fingers had unnatural scars when she was arrested last month for allegedly faking a marriage to a Japanese man. The apparent ability of illegal migration networks to break through hi-tech controls suggests that other countries who fingerprint visitors could be equally vulnerable - not least the United States, according to BBC Asia analyst Andre Vornic. 'Fake fingerprint' Chinese woman fools Japan controls (via /.) (Image: Fingerprints, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from kevindooley's photostream) Previously: Fingerprint test reveals if owner has touched drugs, explosives ... Heathrow Terminal 5 to fingerprint domestic passengers Hackers publish thousands of copies of fingerprint of German ... Mexico to fingerprint mobile-phone owners - Boing Boing Walt Disney World fingerprints visitors - Boing Boing

Wendy "Elfquest" Pini's artwork for the never-made "Stormbringer" movie Posted: 08 Dec 2009 01:51 AM PST Tavie sez, "Wendy Pini, creator of Elfquest, is my favorite living artist. I had long been curious about this out-of-print book about her quest to bring Michael Moorcock's "Stormbringer" to the big screen. The artwork was supposed to be phenomenal, but the book was unfindable long before I had even heard of Elfquest. Richard Pini has now made the book available online - in its glorious, lushly illustrated entirety - at Wendy's website for her web graphic novel, Masque of the Red Death. The paintings are incredible." Law & Chaos - Wendy Pini (Thanks, Tavie!) Previously: A girl at the 1978 comic-con - Boing Boing Elfquest to become a movie? - Boing Boing

Furniture made from reclaimed wine-barrels Posted: 07 Dec 2009 09:34 PM PST Etsy seller Stil Novo Design makes beautiful furniture out of old wine-barrels. I remember visiting the Bushmill's distillery in N. Ireland and asking what they did with their barrels after they were finishing converting grain to ambrosia, and the tour-guide said, "Oh, a man from town turns them into rubbish bins." I was agog. I wanted to furnish my entire house with them! Stil Novo Design (via Make) Previously: Abandoned bowling alley becomes furniture - Boing Boing Jake von Slatt's Victorian RV -- video tour - Boing Boing Using Nomadic Furniture book to make doll furniture - Boing Boing Nomad cardboard room-dividers - Boing Boing Cardboard rocket-ship playhouse - Boing Boing Bloxes: flat-pack cardboard cubes make sound-dampening walls ... Disused call-box turned into world's smallest lending library ...

Exclusive SpaceShipTwo unveiling gallery (Updated!) Posted: 08 Dec 2009 01:59 AM PST The world's first commercial spacecraft was officially unveiled on Monday afternoon. Photos shot for Boing Boing by Alan Radecki, photographer and Mojave aviation and space historian. The craft will take six tourists at a time to the edge of space. Each seat is $200,000, requires the traveler to pass a strenuous physical, and offers just a few minutes of zero-G flight. The Mojave desert is home to Virgin Galactic's research and development base. Its commercial spaceport is to be built in New Mexico. Entrepreneur Richard Branson and engineer Burt Rutan's dream is to kickstart private space exploration. Test flights will begin almost immediately. Earlier in the day, an ice-sculptor's work reflects similarly cold conditions two hours east of L.A., lashed by heavy rains before the unveiling. Journalists gathered for the event, bussed out on coaches to what one correspondent described as a "goat rodeo." Guests were evacuated early from the event due to wind advisory, Radecki said ... "Current winds, 53, gusting to 60!" California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson were among the attendees. The "badminton cock" design allows SpaceShipTwo to re-enter the atmosphere as slower speeds than the Shuttle, producing less heat. Branson, Rutan and their families will get to enjoy the first official journey into space. There's already a huge list of reservations for the twice-daily flights thereafter.

Map of Malaria in the USA, 1870 Posted: 07 Dec 2009 06:44 PM PST Nat Torkington says, Here is a Library of Congress map showing prevalence of Malaria throughout the United States in the 1870s. Astonishing how dangerous it was. In some places, it accounted for one-seventh of all deaths. People thought it was bad air (literally, "mal-" + "air"), figured out it was a parasite in the blood in the 1870s, but it wasn't until 1908 that a Cuban doctor made the connection with mosquitoes. Incidentally, if you've ever wondered what the "ague" is that Shakespeare kept banging on about--it's what the English called malaria. It was widespread in the marshlands during Shakespeare's time. (via sciblogs)

Möbius Bagel: interlocking, endless, doughy rings of math Posted: 07 Dec 2009 05:42 PM PST On the website of sculptor and mathematician George Hart, there are step-by-step instructions for how to craft a Möbius strip from a single bagel. I like his thoughts at the very end of the instruction process: "It is much more fun to put cream cheese on these bagels than on an ordinary bagel. In additional to the intellectual stimulation, you get more cream cheese, because there is slightly more surface area." Mathematically Correct Breakfast: How to Slice a Bagel into Two Linked Halves (via Serious Eats NY, thanks Laura)

Vancouver Olympic torch looks like ginormous, dank doobie Posted: 07 Dec 2009 03:42 PM PST Why, of course the Vancouver Olympics torch would resemble a big fat spliff. (via Clayton Cubitt)

Uke song about casket sale at Walmart Posted: 07 Dec 2009 03:25 PM PST Here's Suzanne Nolen singing about a casket sale at Walmart. Previously: Cigar box ukulele kit - Boing Boing Paulina Sinaga plays "Don't Bogart Me" on Ukulele Ukulele version of "Walk, Don't Run" - Boing Boing Sophie Madeleine plays "The Beard Song" on ukulele - Boing Boing Tickler brand ukulele T-shirt - Boing Boing Sophie Madeleine plays "Don't Think Twice It's All Right" on ... Ukulele cover of Styx - Boing Boing Sarahsukulele plays "Object of the Game" on ukulele - Boing Boing Brittni Paiva plays "Glass Ball Slack Key" on ukulele - Boing Boing Diane Rubio plays "Lulu's Back in Town" on ukulele - Boing Boing Two girls, one uke "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" played on homemade ukulele - Boing Boing hawaii82 plays "in your hawaiian way" on ukulele Megan plays "You and I" on ukulele - Boing Boing julia nunes: "god only knows" on the uke Misanthrope Jackalope plays "The Maker" on ukulele - Boing Boing Two new Crehore prints: a ukulele and a guitar - Boing Boing Interview with Warren Buffett about ukulele - Boing Boing Ukulele Blitzkrieg Bop - Boing Boing sophie madeleine's "love. life. ukulele." album Ukulele version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - Boing Boing Optional Accessory ukulele video By Zoe - Boing Boing Ukuleleaya plays "Crazy G" on customized cake ukulele - Boing Boing Ukulele covers of Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" from Portal ... Janet Klein plays "Tonight You Belong To Me" on ukulele - Boing Boing Dream a Little Dream of Me on ukulele - Boing Boing Taimane plays Eleanor Rigby on ukulele - Boing Boing Ukulele Headstock Art by Amy Crehore - Boing Boing Charley sings a song and plays her ukulele. - Boing Boing Beatles Complete on Ukulele - Boing Boing Kate Micucci plays "Dear Deer" on the ukulele - Boing Boing bbtv: clara belle performs "summer face" on ukulele Karinne Keithley plays "Sweet Child of Mine" on ukulele - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Dairy Queen ukulele, signed by Warren Buffett Shelley Rickey plays "Tonight, You Belong to Me" on her handmade ... Genius ukulele playing of Roy Smeck Boing Boing: Amy Crehore's Tickler ukulele Boing Boing: Little kid playing "Do Re Mi" on ukulele Boing Boing: Lunchbox ukulele Rocky and Balls perform "Gaysong" - Boing Boing cowboy fluke ukulele Videos by two good ukulelists - Boing Boing Maile Waltz on Uke - Boing Boing Rocky and Balls record song for charity "Mighty Uke" trailer - Boing Boing

UPSO's animation for FUEL TV Posted: 07 Dec 2009 03:04 PM PST I've posted before about my illustrator pal Dustin Amery Hostetler, AKA UPSO. His psychedelic, bold, graphic style has been featured on Burton snowboards, Chuck Taylor sneakers, Kid Robot Munnys, and in a slew of magazines. Dustin just created the art for this delightful animation in the FUEL TV Signature Series of station IDs. The music is by GoLab. For more on Dustin, check out his UPSO site and also the new issue of Faesthetic, his curated art 'zine.

Rite Aid's vibrator extravaganza Posted: 07 Dec 2009 03:18 PM PST You won't find vibrators like these at a Rite-Aid store, but Rite Aid's online store sells them. What happens if you live in Alabama and order one?

Mod 3-ring binder circa 1970 Posted: 07 Dec 2009 02:46 PM PST Speaking of blacklight posters from the 1970s, Jim Leftwich recently came across his beautiful Peter Max inspired 3-ring binder. When I was back at my family farm in Missouri this past September, following a circuitous 3,000 mile motorcycle ride through the Southwest from my home in Palo Alto, California, I spent some time going through old things. Among the things that still survive is this magnificently mod 3-ring binder, which my best guess is from around the third or fourth grade, which would put it from somewhere between 1969 and 1971. Like many things of its era, it's clearly aesthetically inspired by the work of Peter Max, but it also has that great 'filled-in-with-colored-markers' look that was also popular at the time. I myself was a marker fiend, and would spend hours drawing outlines in black and then coloring them like this. Do you remember those awesome 'El Marko" markers? And the sets of finer-tipped colored markers that were becoming very prevalent in the late 1960s and early 1970s - all great! Mod 3-ring binder circa 1970

Ultraviolet: 69 Classic Blacklight Posters from the Aquarian Age and Beyond Posted: 07 Dec 2009 02:46 PM PST I wish I had a blacklight to fully appreciate the groovy day-glo ink on the pages of Ultraviolet: 69 Classic Blacklight Posters from the Aquarian Age and Beyond, by Daniel Donohue. Going through this book was like mainlining the 1970s. It brought back memories of my friend and I sneaking into my friend's big brother's bedroom, turning on the blacklight, and tripping out to some of these truly bizarre posters loaded with drug references (and which our local Kmart sold for $1 each), our sensory high no doubt enhanced by the fear that the big brother would catch us in his room and beat us up. Ultraviolet: 69 Classic Blacklight Posters from the Aquarian Age and Beyond

Questions from economics honors exam at Oberlin College Posted: 07 Dec 2009 01:26 PM PST Steven Landsburg was chosen by the economics department at Oberlin College to be an outside examiner to "determine who among its top graduating seniors should receive an honors degree." He posted the written exam, which consists of 10 questions, to his blog. I feel confident in stating that if I took the test I would get a score of 0. Question 6. When Eve works, she produces exactly one apple per hour. Adam is completely unproductive and can produce nothing at all. Eve's income is taxed at a flat percentage rate, with the proceeds delivered to Adam. What determines the optimal tax rate? What does "optimal" mean here, and what philosophical justification would many economists give for adopting this tax rate? To make the problem concrete, you can assume that both Adam and Eve, if it were both possible and necessary, would be willing to work up to 1 hour for 1 apple, up to 2 hours for 4 apples, up to 3 hours for 9 apples, and up to x hours for x^2 apples. Now what is the optimal tax rate? (Your answer should be a number.) Question 8. The five Dukes of Earl are scheduled to arrive at the royal palace on each of the first five days of May. Duke One is scheduled to arrive on the first day of May, Duke Two on the second, etc. Each Duke, upon arrival, can either kill the king or support the king. If he kills the king, he takes the king's place, becomes the new king, and awaits the next Duke's arrival. If he supports the king, all subsequent Dukes cancel their visits. A Duke's first priority is to remain alive, and his second priority is to become king. Who is king on May 6? The Honors Class, Part I | The Honors Class, Part II

Meet Gigi Gaston, the ye ye singer who never was Posted: 07 Dec 2009 01:16 PM PST Via Dinosaurs and Robots: Josh Gosfield built an entire media world of magazine covers, snapshots, advertisements and album covers of a fictitious 1960's singing star, Gigi Gaston. Charting her rise and fall, Josh creates a completely believable alter universe in which Gigi hangs out with the Beatles, is a paperdoll or appears startled by paparazzi flash. A painstakingly thorough archive of something that never happened. Gigi Gaston Previously: Mareva Galanter's faux Scopitone videos - Boing Boing

Old photos of people grouped by gender Posted: 07 Dec 2009 01:10 PM PST Short but stunning gallery of high-resolution old photos of people grouped together by gender.

Concept design for a disaster-proof baby container Posted: 07 Dec 2009 01:05 PM PST Pouyan Mokhtarian designed a concept container to keep a baby alive a for few hours while getting the hell away from a disaster site. Inside you'll find the communication unit and LED screen. You can look at the baby and the baby can look at you, too! This screen is also near several airblowing units. On the top of this screen unit there's an orange LED light in the form of the Samsonite logo which shows the quality of the air inside the pod. Inside you'll also notice the auto rocking unit operated by a small servo unit located between the wells. Auto Diaper around the bottom of the baby has a moisture sensor which gently flushes away waste with water, the same with solid waste, all flushed away with tubes to the waste storage unit at the front of the case. Smart Baby Case

Garden Noam Chomsky Posted: 07 Dec 2009 01:12 PM PST Featured in The Nation's charity auction, this Garden Noam Chomsky sculpture, of a run "probably limited to less than 100". Gnome Chomsky the Garden Noam (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) Previously: Garden Jawa - Boing Boing Artsy Nazi gnomes, on display and for sale - Boing Boing Animatronic zombie that rises out of your garden and chases people ... Boing Boing: Garden gnomes take £15000 off the value of your home

Half-inch jellyfish nearly kills man Posted: 07 Dec 2009 12:59 PM PST A 29-year-man, wearing a full-body "stinger suit," was stung on the face by an Irukandji jellyfish while diving from a yacht off the coast of Australia. They can kill a person in minutes. The jellyfish's sting can lead to "Irukandji syndrome," a set of symptoms that includes shooting pains in the muscles and chest, vomiting, restlessness and anxiety. Some symptoms can last for more than a week, and the syndrome can occasionally lead to a rapid rise in blood pressure and heart failure... because the jellyfish leave almost no mark on their victims, scientists believe they are responsible for many deaths that were attributed as drownings or heart attacks... Australian dives face-first into deadly peanut-sized jellyfish Photo Irukandji-jellyfish-queensland-australia.jpg by GondwanaGirl from Wikimedia Commons released into public domain.

Will Shetterly's "vampirish" YA novel free to download, available on Lulu Posted: 07 Dec 2009 12:54 PM PST Award-winning sf/f author Will Shetterly sez, A couple of years ago, I wrote Midnight Girl, a YA vampirish (as in, not your classic vampires) novel just for the fun of writing a book without an outline, something I haven't done since my first novel. It became the story of Cat Medianoche, a girl who discovers on her fourteenth birthday that both sides of her family are part of a war that began long before recorded history. Each sees her as the key to their victory. I sent it to an editor who wrote back, saying, "I don't just love it, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!! Cat is one of the most kick-ass heroines I've ever come across. And talk about conflict and things at stake! (I keep having to tell authors to beef up the conflict because there's never enough.) First [spoiler deleted]. Then [spoiler deleted]. And *then* she has to make an impossible choice between two equally horrible fates. I love every single character in the book... I couldn't put the manuscript down. I devoured it in one sitting. Anyway, that's how much I love it." Sounds like a sure sale, right? Alas, her boss didn't like it. So I did a rewrite, sent it back, and the boss still didn't like it. So my agent sent it out to the major YA publishers, and they all passed. The ones who gave a reason said they thought the vampire fad was cresting. My agent recently sent me this note: "I was on the phone today with one of the editors at [Major Publishing House]. He loved Midnight Girl, and went to bat for it. The word he used was "brilliant." Unfortunately, powers that be felt otherwise. But at least you now know that it did have an in-house fan. He's a young up-and-comer, so I've made a note for future work of yours." Since this book doesn't fit the demands of traditional publishing, I decided to do what the cool kids do and release it in formats for free or purchase, and I've made the book available through Lulu. P.S. Creating the book didn't cost me a penny. I formatted the text with OpenOffice and found cover art at Wikimedia that I manipulated with the Gimp. Thank you, open source and Creative Commons! (Thanks, Will!) Previously: Shetterly releases Gospel of the Knife AND Dogland under CC ... Be a character in Shetterly's next novel - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Gospel of the Knife - American magic realism, the ...

Posted: 07 Dec 2009 12:52 PM PST Heir to party favor fortune loses $127 million in one year of gambling in Las Vegas. He says casinos gave him liquor and pain medication while he was gambling and wants his money back.

Assembling a mystery box Posted: 07 Dec 2009 12:42 PM PST Here's my pal J. Edgar Park showing how to assemble the laser cut Mystery-Box that was featured in MAKE. Plans for making a mystery box are here. If you don't have access to a laser cutter, but are still desirous of a mystery box, you may buy the laser-cut components for the Mystery Box from the Maker Shed for $38.99.

Mark Dery on Naked Lunch's 50th Anniversary Posted: 07 Dec 2009 12:08 PM PST This year marks the 50th anniversary of Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs's weird, challenging, creepy, funny, cut-up trek through the Interzone. To celebrate, Grove Press published a new hardcover, splipcased edition of the book: Naked Lunch: 50th Anniversary Edition. This edition presents the original restored text of the novel and and Brion Gysin's original cover art that appeared on the first Olympia Press printing. Over at the Las Vegas Weekly, Mark Dery pays his respects to the mugwumps among us. From Las Vegas Weekly: Fifty years on, Naked Lunch still delivers the gut-grabbing jolt of the autoerotic hangings that punctuate its pages, every death erection and post-mortem ejaculation described with a grim relish that walks the line between cry of conscience and shudder of fetishistic pleasure. It was these gore-nographic sequences, which Burroughs insisted were a sardonic critique of capital punishment, that resulted in the book's landmark obscenity trial in 1965. Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer offered spirited testimony in the book's defense--regrettably not included in the new Grove edition, but front and center in the 1982 Black Cat edition that electro-shocked my world--and in 1966 the Massachusetts Supreme Court found that the book possessed "redeeming social value" and was therefore not obscene. Of course, Naked Lunch is obscene, in the sense that it's slimed from head to toe by the moral obscenities it wrestles with. In "Howl" (1956), the poem that introduced America to the Beat generation, Ginsberg banged his head against the padded walls of a soulless society "of cement and aluminum" that institutionalized its freethinkers, "bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination." Burroughs, by contrast, shoves America headfirst into the bilge of its hypocrisies, its blood-soaked history, the Pepsodent-smiling brainlessness of its consumer culture. The Beat sensibility, at least as embodied in Ginsberg, was about Whitmanesque brotherly love, a Blakean embrace of cosmic interconnectedness. By that definition, the misanthropic Burroughs, who aspired to a reptilian cool, was no more a Beat than Marcel Duchamp was a surrealist. "Naked Lunch" at 50 (Las Vegas Weekly) Naked Lunch: 50th Anniversary Edition (Amazon)

Snowflake Science Posted: 07 Dec 2009 12:09 PM PST The first real winter storm of the season is is supposed to hit my part of the country tomorrow, inspiring childlike joy in those of us who work from home and grudging misanthropy in everybody else. With that inspiration, I offer the following slideshow combining gorgeous snowflake photography and fascinating snow science, sure to turn even the most frustrated commuter frown upside down. Next time you find yourself digging your car out of a snowbank, stuck behind several miles of backed-up traffic, or nose-first in a ditch waiting for rescue from the highway patrol, you can think back on cool facts like... The largest snowflakes ever measured occurred in Fort Keogh, Montana, in 1887. Flakes as large as 15 inches wide were reported. ...and smile. Treehugger: The Unbelievable World of Snowflakes Image from snowcrystals.com

Woman "shoplifts" more than 400 items in multiple trips Posted: 07 Dec 2009 11:40 AM PST Becky Jean Altena, 51, of Sioux Center, Iowa, was arrested for shoplifting from a drug store. She wasn't just stuffing her pockets though. Rather, she had filled some bags, taken them to her car, and then gone back in to grab more. From KDLT News: Officers say they found 418 stolen items in her car, ranging from cards and books to games and jewelry... The stolen items are valued at $2,200 dollars. Altena is charged with grand theft, which is a class four felony. "Woman Arrested for Stealing"

Just look at this awesome banana-peeling simulator. Posted: 06 Dec 2009 11:32 AM PST Just look at it. Dazzling Banana an electronic Banana peeler Previously: Just look at this awesome banana slicer. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana saver clip. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana bunker. Boing Boing HOWTO disassemble a banana - Boing Boing Robber uses banana as "gun" - Boing Boing Hemant "The Friendly Atheist" Mehta Interviews Ray "The Banana Man ... Peeling bananas from the other end is easier - Boing Boing Forlorn bananas of London - Boing Boing 11 students suspended for banana prank - Boing Boing

IRS goes after mother who makes $10 an hour Posted: 07 Dec 2009 11:13 AM PST The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is going after a single mother with two kids who makes $10 an hour at Supercuts. When she asked why she was being audited, the IRS told her: "You made eighteen thousand, and our data show a family of three needs at least thirty-six thousand to get by in Seattle." She had a yearlong odyssey into the maw of the IRS. After being told she couldn't survive in Seattle on so little, she was notified her returns for both 2006 and 2007 had been found "deficient." She owed the government more than $16,000 — almost an entire year's pay. She couldn't pay it. Her dad, Rob, has run a local painting business, Porcaro Power Painting, for 30 years. He asked his accountant, Driver, for help. Rachel's returns weren't all that complicated. At issue, though, was that she and her two sons, ages 10 and 8, were all living at her parents' house in Rainier Beach (she pays $400 a month rent). So the IRS concluded she wasn't providing for her children and therefore couldn't claim them as dependents. $10 an hour with 2 kids? IRS pounces

First shots emerge of SpaceShipTwo Posted: 07 Dec 2009 01:35 PM PST Virgin Galactic has released photos of the world's first commercial, tourist-carrying, thermosphere-skipping spaceship.

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