The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Nic Cage as Everyone
- No Chihuahua Left Behind
- Music therapy: new empirical data
- Neil Blomkamp ("District 9") on what's next for him: um, Monty Python?
- Google unveils Nexus One tablet PC
- Fixed Zeus for you
- Avatar makeup tutorial for men
- Indie comic pioneer dies young
- Best Buy caught in Consumerist investigation
- Bring on the zebra-patterned stirrup pants and dangly palm-tree earrings!
- Traveling to North Africa? The Sahara is a great place to meet jihadist kidnappers
- Is parenthood a lifestyle choice?
- 30th anniversary of The Clash's London Calling
- Paul Rand's business card
- Kinsley on the "legacy code" in newspaper writing
- Two mobile campers
- Police car chase with Benny Hill theme music
- Chili peppers burn your butt: Making sense of "duh" discoveries
- I'll probably hold out for a Nexus-6, myself
- Police chase man dragging a stolen soft drink vending machine behind his pickup truck
- The Nexus One in a nutshell
- What really happens when you select "debit" or "credit" with your Visa card
- Happy Nexus Day
- Apple: 3 billion apps downloaded in 18 months
- Discovery, Sony, and Imax create new 3D television channel
- Pocohontar
- Creepy "naked scanners" violate child porn laws in UK
- Anil Dash: Being on Twitter's "suggested user" list is not magic fairy dust
- In case you missed it: "A Privileged Marriage," WWII love story on Boing Boing Video
- Did TSA post honeypot tweet to catch security directive leaker, using blogger's account?
| Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:10 PM PST  Above, as Gandalf. niccageaseveryone.blogspot.com: a blog "founded on the belief that everything in life would be better with a little more Nic Cage, the most unique and versatile actor of his generation." (image in this post p-shopped by Colin Bridgeman, blog via George Ruiz) |
| Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:49 PM PST  Virgin America (the airline on which you can watch Boing Boing Video on a dedicated in-flight TV channel) tomorrow launches "Operation Chihuahua." Mr. Maximus, shown here, is one of the spokesdogs. "With the massive overpopulation of Chihuahuas in California we have partnered with the SF ACC, ASPCA and SFO to fly some needy pups to loving new adoptive homes on the East Coast," says a human at the airline. Moar info, and full-size pic. |
| Music therapy: new empirical data Posted: 05 Jan 2010 07:09 PM PST  Last month I met a musician named Chuck Wild (formerly of Missing Persons). He currently makes ultrachill ambient music via his company Liquid Mind. He calls it "musical healthcare" designed to induce sleep, reduce anxiety, etc. We talked a bit about the New Age vibe that accompanies a lot of the genre, and I asked if there was any hard data to back up various health claims. Chuck mentioned that there's actually been a resurgence in empirical studies on the evidence-based positive effects of music therapy.I did a little research, and it turns out this is indeed the case. The item that was most intriguing for me personally came out last month. German researchers Hidehiko Okamoto, Henning Stracke, Christo Pantev and Wolfgang Stoll reported that altering commercially available music improved the symptoms of tinnitus. That's good news for any of us who might have spent a little too much time wearing headphones or hanging out in loud clubs or sitting next to computers with loud fans. They found that test subjects who listened to music "notched" to dial out frequencies in the range of their tinnitus often had improvement after a year, compared to a control group. They believe tinnitus may be a refactoring of the auditory cortex due in part to lateral inhibition. |
| Neil Blomkamp ("District 9") on what's next for him: um, Monty Python? Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:18 PM PST "Science fiction allows for design and creatures and guns... most of the films I make, I'm sure, will be in that category. But I can also see myself making a film like Black Hawk Down and I could also totally do horror. Science fiction and horror, that right there is my optimum. I can see myself doing out-there comedy like Monty Python, absolutely, I would love that. Seriously." —Director Neil Blomkamp, in the Los Angeles Times. |
| Google unveils Nexus One tablet PC Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:13 PM PST Video above: A venti-sized model of the Nexus One. "This version is available for $600,000, and you have to be a giant to use it." More at Search Engine Land.
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| Posted: 05 Jan 2010 03:39 PM PST |
| Avatar makeup tutorial for men Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:56 PM PST Gabe Delahaye says, "You've probably seen the Avatar makeup tutorial going around these days on YouTube. Well, we have created one for the FELLAS with comedian Joe Mande." It's super epic.
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| Indie comic pioneer dies young Posted: 05 Jan 2010 01:53 PM PST Barry Blair, the publisher, author and artist of a vast mountain of indie comics, is dead at 52 of a brain aneurysm, reports Publishers Weekly. Successes included Samurai, Warlock 5, Elflord, and, as publisher, Men in Black. Blair was also infamous for his non-mainstream work, which often featured weird twink porn and women with unnecessarily large nipples: should you wish to save yourself before heading to Google Images, just imagine Don Bluth's Salo and you're all set. More from Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnson and CBR. Former boss Richard Pini offers a eulogy. |
| Best Buy caught in Consumerist investigation Posted: 05 Jan 2010 01:10 PM PST In a huge sting operation targeting 18 stores, The Consumerist caught Best Buy swindling customers, charging $40 extra for 'pre-optimized' computers that perform no differently to normal ones, and refusing to sell them at advertised prices. |
| Bring on the zebra-patterned stirrup pants and dangly palm-tree earrings! Posted: 05 Jan 2010 12:59 PM PST Author Ann M. Martin is writing a prequel to the Baby-Sitters Club—that classic late 80s, early 90s book series that taught pre-teen girls such important lessons as how to spot the symptoms of juvenile diabetes, what carob is, and why people who dress like color-blind lunatics are cooler than you. Shamefully, I am excited and (thanks to the auto-checkout machines at the library) will probably end up reading it. Please Ann M. Martin, be more gentle with my childhood than George Lucas was. |
| Traveling to North Africa? The Sahara is a great place to meet jihadist kidnappers Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:54 AM PST Adventurous travelers considering trips to North African countries like Mali and Niger—beautiful, culturally rich places—are advised to watch out. Jihadist kidnappers plague the Sahara region, demanding multimillion-dollar bounties for tourists' heads, and executing captives when demands are not met. |
| Is parenthood a lifestyle choice? Posted: 05 Jan 2010 12:35 PM PST  Given that Boing Boing readership almost certainly indexes higher for people without children, I thought I'd bring up a movement that doesn't get a lot of press: the child-free movement. We live in a world where pro-reproductive ideology is so pervasive that you'd think that having children is an inevitability, even a duty. Exhortations to have kids are the cornerstones of many religions. It's even been suggested sometimes that those who do not have children are "selfish," where those who do have children are serving the greater good, like firefighters. Yet if, say, a gay couple tries to adopt an unwanted child, some of the same people who talk about the importance of children and parenting change their tune on the whole "selfish" thing.While there are certainly plenty of unplanned pregnancies, it could be argued that this is a result of a lifestyle choice as well: the decision to have consensual procreative sex (for the sake of simplicity, let's leave nonconsensual sex off the table for this argument). Most pregnancies are planned in the sense that people want kids, then create the conditions for reproduction to occur. Either that, or they know that sex carries a risk of pregnancy and engage in sex anyway. After the jump, I pose a few questions that might elicit lively and interesting replies from fellow Boingers. I also have a few links to childfree sites for those interested in learning more. (Image: Baby Bingo coaster from The Child Free Life) 1. Are most children the consequence of fulfilling a desire? 2. Do non-parents end up footing part of the bill for parents (from school taxes to welfare)? Is there an opposite cost that parents absorb, like end-of-life care? 3. If everyone at work is asked to stay late, and a parent says they have to get their kid from daycare, is that excuse more valid than if a non-parent says they need to let their dog out? 4. Who (if anyone) is being "selfish" regarding parenthood or non-parenthood? Some thought-provoking stuff: Childfree USENET FAQ (includes snappy retorts) Childfree Lingo (many lulz to be had) |
| 30th anniversary of The Clash's London Calling Posted: 05 Jan 2010 12:22 PM PST  Thirty years ago today, The Clash released the greatest album ever made, London Calling, in the United States. |
| Posted: 05 Jan 2010 12:14 PM PST  Here's late graphic designer Paul Rand's business card (phone number has been removed). Here are a few of the famous logos he designed, printed on buttons: Previously: |
| Kinsley on the "legacy code" in newspaper writing Posted: 05 Jan 2010 12:17 PM PST Get out the red pen: all those troubled newspapers might fare better if writers would get to the freakin' point already, says Michael Kinsley. He argues it's time for decades-old conventions of writing structure and article length to change. |
| Posted: 05 Jan 2010 11:56 AM PST  The Opera (left) is a "mobile holiday home" by Belgium designer Axel Enthoven. The Camper Bike (right) is by artist Kevin Cyr. Which do you prefer? |
| Police car chase with Benny Hill theme music Posted: 05 Jan 2010 11:24 AM PST The fun starts at the 20-second mark. |
| Chili peppers burn your butt: Making sense of "duh" discoveries Posted: 05 Jan 2010 11:22 AM PST  With a title like "Red Hot Chilli Consumption Is Harmful in Patients Operated for Anal Fissure—A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Study", you know you're in for a wild ride. Yes, doctors in India really did take two groups of patients scheduled for a sphincterotomy (explanation linked, rather than described here, as a courtesy to those of you currently on lunch break) and randomly assign one group to receive 1.5 grams of dried chili powder twice a day, while the other got a placebo. And—perhaps unsurprisingly—it turned out that ingesting 3 daily grams of chili powder makes an already painful anal area even more uncomfortable. But why—aside from some sort of perverse sadistic streak—would anyone conduct such a study? (And, more importantly, why the hell would anyone sign up to be one of the research subjects?) What seems like a pointless waste of time and money makes a lot more sense when you consider culture. Indian food, as you may have noticed, is generally on the spicy side. Cutting peppers out of your diet in Mumbai is more of a challenge than in, say, Peoria. So, even though everybody pretty much already agreed—anecdotally—that hot peppers were a bad thing for anal-fissure patients, the researchers wanted some hard cause-and-effect proof that the relatively big lifestyle change those patients were being told to make was actually worth making. Even the amount of chili powder the subjects received was modeled to mimic the amount eaten by an average Indian at lunch and dinner. My point: Sometimes, "stupid" studies really do have a point—one that's easy to miss if you're too tightly focused on "common sense". Besides, if it weren't for research like this, we'd all miss out on such fabulously titled graphs as "Effect of chili consumption and placebo on anal burning in the first 7 days after sphincterotomy". Small price to pay, really. Full text of paper from the journal Digestive Surgery (Thanks to Nat Torkington for tipping me off to the existence of this paper.) Image courtesy Flickr user my_world_perspective, via CC |
| I'll probably hold out for a Nexus-6, myself Posted: 05 Jan 2010 11:40 AM PST  "I've seen iPhones on fire off the shoulder of Verizon. I've watched Blackberries glitter near the Cingular gate. Time to dial." (via Jason Snell. The new Google device was named after the humanoids in Bladerunner. They last four years, and try to kill you. No word on that feature in early reviews of the Google device.) |
| Police chase man dragging a stolen soft drink vending machine behind his pickup truck Posted: 05 Jan 2010 11:12 AM PST "The gentleman told our officers that he was needing some money," said McMinn County Sheriff Steve Frisbie. (Via Arbroath) |
| Posted: 05 Jan 2010 11:24 AM PST  • Particulars: 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB RAM, 800x480 3.7" AMOLED display, 5MP camera, thin as a pencil, unadventurous HTC industrial design. Hey, at least it isn't yet another chrome-trimmed iClone! • T-Mobile: $530 unlocked, $180 with contract. You can order it now from Google's online store. Verizon gets it soon, but contract pricing hasn't been announced. • There is no multitouch. But there is a miniature track-ball, animated 3D wallpapers, and the best implementation of Google's web services. • The first published review compares it unfavourably to the Moto Droid. It's "just another Android smartphone." Others disagree: "Droid, shmoid; Nexus is the one you're looking for." • Don't be fooled by intimations that this is the one true Google Phone. There'll be another one just as soon as the next hardware partner needs some marketing catnip sprinkled about. Software's the more interesting battleground, and that fight's now in full swing. So there's nothing to lose watching from a safe distance until your killer app presents itself. |
| What really happens when you select "debit" or "credit" with your Visa card Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:31 AM PST In the NYT today, a piece that explains exactly what goes on behind the scenes when you're at the checkout stand and select "debit" or "credit" with your Visa bank card. Short version: two ways to screw you! |
| Posted: 05 Jan 2010 11:22 AM PST  Today, Google formally unveils a new iPhone rival, the Nexus One (@googlenexusone), touted as a "superphone." Scoble is streaming it live on Ustream. Steven Levy reviews it in Wired. Here's Miguel Helft's analysis piece in the New York Times, rich with juicy, forward-thinking stats. Gizmodo's liveblog is here. Oh, look, so does gdgt. And Techcrunch, too. And Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land. John Battelle weighs in here. |
| Apple: 3 billion apps downloaded in 18 months Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:57 AM PST A press release from Apple today states that more than 3 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store in the first 18 months of its existence. |
| Discovery, Sony, and Imax create new 3D television channel Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:45 AM PST The Avatar Effect: 3D entertainment is expected to be a hot topic at this week's 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, even more so with today's announcement of a new 3D television channel venture formed by Discovery, Sony, and Imax. Also today, an announcement that Disney sports division ESPN plans to launch a 3D sports channel this summer. ESPN's 3D launch is timed to coincide with the World Cup in South Africa, and at first only live sporting events will be offered in 3D. |
| Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:34 AM PST |
| Creepy "naked scanners" violate child porn laws in UK Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:28 AM PST A year-long trial of "full body scanner" machines at a UK airport (the kind that display clear images the human body, including genitals and breast implants), was only permitted to go into effect after children under 18 years of age were exempted from the scans. Privacy advocates say the "naked images" would violate Britain's child porn laws (Guardian UK). |
| Anil Dash: Being on Twitter's "suggested user" list is not magic fairy dust Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:22 AM PST Anil Dash was recently surprised to find himself added to Twitter's coveted "suggested user list," which is widely considered to be a fast route to fame, followers, and whatever riches fame and followers bring. Anil posted a sober analysis of what that anointment really brought him, and today an equally thoughtful update: Nobody Has A Million Twitter Followers. |
| In case you missed it: "A Privileged Marriage," WWII love story on Boing Boing Video Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:23 AM PST If you took a break from your normal daily blog diet over the holidays, you may have missed a special episode of Boing Boing Video, embedded above: A Privileged Marriage. On the eve of the Third Reich, a young woman of Jewish descent married a non-Jewish man, the heir to a prominent brewing family. The Nazis would later ban marriage between Jews and non-Jews, but classified theirs as a "privileged marriage." That decree saved her life while millions died. Her name is Elizabeth Pschorr, and she tells us her story in this video. Watch: YouTube, Dotsub, or download MP4. Original Boing Boing blog post, with photos and a message from her grandson. |
| Did TSA post honeypot tweet to catch security directive leaker, using blogger's account? Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:10 AM PST  The unusual tweet above was posted to Steven Frischling's Twitter account just hours after TSA agents served a civil subpoena on the travel blogger last week. The agents showed up and interrogated him about the anonymous source who Gmailed Frischling a leaked copy of the controversial "December 25 incident" TSA security directive. So, did Frischling himself post that tweet, or did one of the TSA agents who threatened him and took his computer? Snip from Wired Threat Level blog post by Kim Zetter: According to someone familiar with the incident, one of the TSA agents, while in possession of Frischling's BlackBerry, typed the message in the blogger's Twitter account. He then handed the BlackBerry back to Frischling and asked him to click on the "send" button to post the message to his Flying With Fish Twitter page, the source offered to Threat Level.Blogger's Twitter Account Implicated in TSA Leak Hunt (Threat Level) Related item at Privacy Digest.
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