The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Stripped of opportunites for wonder, gratitude and guilt
- Google gets into the YouSendIt business: send 250MB attachments with Google Docs
- Folding electric bike - the "mini-farthing"
- France's anti-piracy goon squad pirates the font in its logo
- Dublin news crew films guy slipping on ice instead of warning him
- Tattoo of eyeglass frames (also, inked eyeballs)
- Nest of the Skeletons: stop-action insect film
- Case of the haunted scrotum
- Google will stop filtering Google.cn, after dissident Gmail accounts targeted by China
- Gift Idea For Delightfully Demented People: Shrunken Heads
- Top British scientist sacked
- Fum-Eddie: Captain Hook and the Dog Pie
- Walt Disney's 1943 org chart
- Old comic book ad for pet baby racoons
- Conan to NBC: I won't help you ruin "The Tonight Show"
- Early home made beekeeper's helmet
- The Irritation Waltz, after Nokia, after Tárrega
- Documentary about Jelly Bean entrepreneur
- Santa Fe man sues neighbor for using WiFi
- Video of Houston Police secret aerial drones
- Workshop on Google Book Search settlement for writers, NYC Jan 20
- EDGE question 2010: How is the internet changing the way you think?
- Phineas Gage: "Neuroscience's Most Famous Patient"
- Photo of Martian dune field
- Sarah Jane Newbury, "Britain's most famous virgin," has world's best website
- RCA's Wifi "power harvester"
- Data Logger for iPhone
- Thieves target shoppers leaving Apple store locations in LA
- Best letter to a fan, ever, by John Kricfalusi
- 40 restaurants that are betting you can't devour their outrageous specialty items
| Stripped of opportunites for wonder, gratitude and guilt Posted: 12 Jan 2010 10:43 PM PST Bunnie Huang quotes a bit from an All Things Considered airing of some of Alain De Botton's The Enlightening Bridge Between Art and Work: "Two centuries ago, our forebears would have known the precise history and source of almost every one of the limited number of things they ate and owned. They would have been familiar with the pig, the carpenter, the weaver, the loom and the dairymaid. The range of items available for purchase may have grown exponentially since then, but our understanding of their genesis has grown ever more obscure. We are now as imaginatively disconnected from the production and distribution of our goods as we are practically in reach of them, a process of alienation which has stripped us of opportunities for wonder, gratitude and guilt." That's some good Maker stuff right there. |
| Google gets into the YouSendIt business: send 250MB attachments with Google Docs Posted: 12 Jan 2010 10:36 PM PST Google is getting into the YouSendIt business: the free Google Docs now supports file-hosting of up to 250MB, along with access-restrictions based on Google accounts (just like other Google Docs). I'm thinking the 250MB limit has more to do with keeping the MPAA happy than any kind of technical limitation. But this will be well useful -- I've been tossing around big chunks of uncompressed audio for my upcoming experimental short-story collection's audiobook edition, and something like this would have been a godsend. Because Google Docs now supports files up to 250 MB in size, which is larger than the attachment limit on most email applications, you'll be able to backup large graphics files, RAW photos, ZIP archives and much more to the cloud. More importantly, instead of carrying a USB drive, you can now use Google Docs as a more convenient option for accessing your files on different computers.Upload your files and access them anywhere with Google Docs (via /.) Previously: |
| Folding electric bike - the "mini-farthing" Posted: 12 Jan 2010 10:31 PM PST  The YikeBike is an electric, folding "mini-farthing" (think "penny-farthing") bike -- €3,500 gets you a 10kg electric scooter that folds up to the size of a cymbal set and travels 10-20km on a single charge at 20km/h. Ideal for short-hop commuters who are too lazy to pedal a bicycle, as well as anyone who doesn't think a Segway is dorky enough! But it is a sweet bit of design. About YikeBike | YikeBike - The world's first super light electric folding bike (via Red Ferret) Previously: |
| France's anti-piracy goon squad pirates the font in its logo Posted: 12 Jan 2010 10:22 PM PST Hapodi, the French agency that's in charge of the country's new anti-piracy scheme (if someone you live with is accused of three acts of infringement, your whole household is taken offline and added to a list of address to which it is illegal to provide Internet access) has been accused of pirating the font used it its logo. The font designer is talking lawsuit. Hadopi says it wasn't infringement, just an "error of manipulation." It's tempting to count coup here, but it's more important to recognize that Hadopi has proved that the copyright minefield is an unnavigable mess and that the guillotine is too blunt an instrument to use in its policing. If an organization charged with policing copyright with absolute, unaccountable power can't stop its employees from committing unwitting acts of infringement, how can a mere family ensure that no act of infringement takes place over its network connection? In the meantime, I'm sure that if Hadopi commits two more acts of infringement, it will order its own offices taken offline for a period of a year. Right? French 3 Strikes Group Unveils Copyright Infringing Logo Previously:
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| Dublin news crew films guy slipping on ice instead of warning him Posted: 12 Jan 2010 08:10 PM PST This news crew in Dublin are a bunch of sickos. |
| Tattoo of eyeglass frames (also, inked eyeballs) Posted: 12 Jan 2010 10:39 PM PST  This fellow had eyeglasses tattooed on his face. Fortunately, he chose a timeless frame style. They would look handsome on the inmate who tattooed the whites of his eyes. Video of both after the jump. (via Dangerous Minds)UPDATE: There is some evidence that the tattooed eyeglasses are not real, but rather a viral marketing campaign.
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| Nest of the Skeletons: stop-action insect film Posted: 12 Jan 2010 06:54 PM PST Nest of the Skeletons is a stop-motion film by Tessa Farmer, the UK sculptor who creates exquisitely weird worlds of insects, faeries, and other tiny flora and fauna. Above is an excerpt from the film, co-directed by Sean Daniels, with sound design by Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Journal. The full video will be screened in London this Friday, January 15, as part of Luminous Aephemera, the Strange Attractor Salon's film night. (via Further) |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2010 06:12 PM PST In October 1996, the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine published the following missive and photo contributed by JR Harding, a consultant radiologist at the Royal Gwent Hospital: "The case of the haunted scrotum" (via Mind Hacks, thanks Vann Hall) |
| Google will stop filtering Google.cn, after dissident Gmail accounts targeted by China Posted: 12 Jan 2010 04:30 PM PST On the Google blog today, news that the search giant experienced an internet attack aimed at Chinese dissidents' Gmail accounts. The attack is presumed to have been the work of the Chinese government, and may lead to Google shutting down operations in China: These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.A new approach to China |
| Gift Idea For Delightfully Demented People: Shrunken Heads Posted: 12 Jan 2010 03:45 PM PST I recently bought a house and decided to turn the guest bathroom into a "chamber of horrors". I made a list of the things my mom would never let me have when I was a kid, and at the top of the list was a real live (dead) shrunken head. But where the heck would I go to get one? EBay of course! It turns out that the Jivaro Indians in Ecuador have toned down their warlike nature for the sake of commerce, and they're cranking out tsantsa (their word for shrunken heads) by the carload. Thankfully, they make them from goat and alpaca skins now, instead of their neighbors. These specialized tribal craftsmen haven't quite mastered the delicate art of quality control, so the heads vary in quality from laughably fake to chillingly realistic. It takes some know-how to score a really good one. There are two philosophies to shrunken head buying at eBay... If you like gambling, buy a lot of five or more at a time. The variability of the manufacturing process guarantees that each head is totally unique and has its own personality. You may have to sift through a bunch to find the one you like. You can always give away the rejects as hostess gifts at parties for the next few years. If you are a dedicated soul and desire a "de-luxe model", scour eBay until just the right head turns up. You might pay a bit more, but you'll have the perfect facial features and hair color to match your home's decor. "Real" Shrunken Heads For Sale at eBay
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| Posted: 12 Jan 2010 02:30 PM PST Baroness Greenfield is one of Britain's most well-known scientists and was, until recently, the head of the Royal Institution. The RI just fired her, after a £22m modernization plan left its finances in ruins. Greenfield plans to sue it, accusing the institute of sexual discrimination. After her decade-long tenure, however, Greenfield's consistent interest in pitching curiously unscientific stories at the tabloid press leaves her wanting for credibility. And then there's the matter of using one's seat in the House of Lords to peddle $150 'brain training' video games after criticising mainstream rivals. Ben Goldacre quite politely explains why she's trouble. The Guardian puts it bluntly: she's a self-promoter who has done no significant scientific research, has never gained her peers' respect, and is the architect of her own fate. |
| Fum-Eddie: Captain Hook and the Dog Pie Posted: 12 Jan 2010 03:43 PM PST  What would you get if you combined Leonardo DaVinci, Rudolph Valentino, Bob Clampett and Ayn Rand all into one person? A mulligan stew to be sure, but a mighty tasty mulligan stew! Eddie Fitzgerald is a philosopher, cartoonist, theoretician and bon vivant. In his blog, Uncle Eddie's Theory Corner he's discussed everything from the relationship between architecture and humanity to how to make the perfect hamburger to just exactly why guys love women so doggone much. But he's most famous for his "Fum-Eddies"... mini cartoon epics that he designs and performs for the iSight camera in his Mac. Eddie has travelled the world, gone on adventures to outer space, and navigated through the labyrinth of the human psyche- all from the comfort of his den. He's just reposted his magnum opus of Fum-Eddie, "Captain Hook and the Dog Pie" in four parts. Captain Hook and the Dog Pie:
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| Posted: 12 Jan 2010 01:02 PM PST  Gary sez, "@Issue has posted Disney's 1943 organization chart. It's actually more correct to call this an operations flow, but it does show an organization built around the gravitational pull of a central genius. The one thing to note his where Special Effects lives in the 1943 Disney Universe: it's a tiny function within the Camera function. Today, it'd be at or near the center of the universe!" Walt Disney's Creative Organization Chart (Thanks, Gary!) Previously: |
| Old comic book ad for pet baby racoons Posted: 12 Jan 2010 01:12 PM PST  This comic book ad undoubtedly resulted in a number of unhappy raccoons and unhappy people. Old comic book ad for pet baby racoons UPDATE: In November I posted this amazing story from a guy who ordered a monkey from Hialaeh Pets in the early 1970s. |
| Conan to NBC: I won't help you ruin "The Tonight Show" Posted: 12 Jan 2010 12:51 PM PST |
| Early home made beekeeper's helmet Posted: 12 Jan 2010 12:48 PM PST |
| The Irritation Waltz, after Nokia, after Tárrega Posted: 12 Jan 2010 12:50 PM PST Behold Marc-André Hamelin's Valse Irritation d'après Nokia, the stuff of nightmares. Subtle, enduring nightmares. [via Giz.] |
| Documentary about Jelly Bean entrepreneur Posted: 12 Jan 2010 11:31 AM PST From Cartoon Brew: "Here is the trailer to Candyman, a documentary by Costa Botes about David Klein, the inventor of the gourmet jelly bean Jelly Belly, and how he has been banished from the candy empire that he created. The film debuts at the Slamdance Film Festival later this month." |
| Santa Fe man sues neighbor for using WiFi Posted: 12 Jan 2010 01:08 PM PST A gentleman who suffers from "electromagnetic sensitivity" is suing his Santa Fe neighbor for refusing to turn off his cellphone and WiFi hotspot. |
| Video of Houston Police secret aerial drones Posted: 12 Jan 2010 11:19 AM PST This looks like fun! Houston Police using secret unmanned drone aircrafts to spy on folks. |
| Workshop on Google Book Search settlement for writers, NYC Jan 20 Posted: 12 Jan 2010 11:16 AM PST Mary Robinette Kowal sez, "The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has partnered with the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Writers Union to create a free workshop on the Google Book Settlement." Hear the best-informed, best-known authorities on what the second version of the Google Book Search Settlement would mean for writers if it is approved by the court. The second opt-out deadline is coming up a week after this seminar, so there is still time to figure out what's best for you, personally, and then to act. This workshop will focus on the settlement and writers -- just writers.I don't know Chu's work, but I worked with James at EFF and I think he's the bee's knees. Google Book Settlement Workshop in NYC on Jan. 20th (Thanks, Mary!) Previously:
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| EDGE question 2010: How is the internet changing the way you think? Posted: 12 Jan 2010 11:12 AM PST  Each year, John Brockman of Edge.org asks a question of a number of science, tech, and media personalities, and compiles the answers. This year's question: "How is the internet changing the way you think?" Lots of good, meaty responses that make for great reading, from interesting people whose work ideas have been blogged here on Boing Boing before: Kevin Kelly, Jaron Lanier, Linda Stone, George Dyson, Danny Hillis, Esther Dyson, Tim O'Reilly, Doug Rushkoff, Jesse Dylan, Richard Dawkins, Alan Alda, Brian Eno, and many more. I'm far out-classed by the aforementioned thinkers. But here's a snip from my more modest contribution, "I DON'T TRUST ALGORITHM LIKE I TRUST INTUITION": I travel regularly to places with bad connectivity. Small villages, marginalized communities, indigenous land in remote spots around the globe. Even when it costs me dearly, on a spendy satphone or in gold-plated roaming charges, my search-itch, my tweet twitch, my email toggle, those acquired instincts now persist.Read the rest. And here's the complete index of responses. (Image: Katinka Matson)
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| Phineas Gage: "Neuroscience's Most Famous Patient" Posted: 12 Jan 2010 12:41 PM PST  Phineas P. Gage was a construction foreman who, in 1848, suffered an amazing injury as an explosion launched a tamping iron through his the cheek, skull, and brain, and out the other side. Incredibly, Gage survived, although the brain injury completely altered his personality. His physician wrote that "The equilibrium or balance, so to speak, between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities, seems to have been destroyed. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows." His friends said he was "no longer Gage." This transformation launched Gage into the annals of neuroscience. Until recently, there were no known photographs of Gage. But as previously mentioned on BB, antique photo collectors Jack and Beverly Wilgus posted a scan of a curious daguerreotype in their collection to Flickr in 2007. Database administrator Michael Spurlock happened to see the image on the site and suggested that it might be Gage. Smithsonian has a story about the strange tale of "neuroscience's most famous patient" and his delightful portrait. From Smithsonian: "Phineas Gage: Neuroscience's Most Famous Patient" |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2010 11:09 AM PST  Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona This is my new favorite picture of Mars. From Phil Plait: The eternal Martian wind blows the heavy sand into dunes, and you can see the hummocks and ripples from this across the image. The sand on Mars is from basalt, which is a darkish gray color. The red comes from much smaller dust particles which settle everywhere.This High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment site has more photos so can zoom in and look for Dejah Thoris. |
| Sarah Jane Newbury, "Britain's most famous virgin," has world's best website Posted: 12 Jan 2010 01:50 PM PST  Website: sarahjanenewbury.com |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2010 10:46 AM PST  I'm having trouble believing that RCA's Airnergy, a "WiFi hotspot power harvester" unveiled at CES, can actually charge its internal battery from WiFi radio signals. From OhGizmo!: The Airnergy has a battery inside it, so you can just carry it around and as long as you're near some WiFi, it charges itself. Unlike a solar charger, it works at night and you can keep it in your pocket. Of course, proximity to the WiFi source and the number of WiFi sources is important, but at the rate it charges, if you have a home wireless network you could probably just leave anywhere in your house overnight and it would be pretty close to full in the morning.A commenter on OhGizmo! offers the following: Here's some math. Long story short, by my calculations, 100% efficiency and absorption at 5 feet away from a 100mW home router, (reasonable figures), it would take 34.5 years to charge that blackberry battery.(BTW, What is that dent in the gadget about? Looks like someone poked it with an awl.) |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2010 10:09 AM PST  Pachube's free Data Logger for the iPhone looks like an interesting app for self-trackers who want to track their weight, calorie consumption, hours of sleep, mood, etc. Data Logger for iPhone enables you to store and graph any data of your choosing along with a timestamp and geolocation. You might use Data Logger to store electricity meter readings, to create maps of pollution or temperature sensor readings around your neighbourhood, or animal sightings around the city. You can also set up custom data feeds, with user-defined min and max values, tags, description and units.Data Logger for iPhone (Via Seth Roberts) |
| Thieves target shoppers leaving Apple store locations in LA Posted: 12 Jan 2010 10:06 AM PST The suspects in a string of more than 100 "follow-away burglaries" "had a specific method of operation, Brown said. They stake out an Apple store and choose their target. Then they follow their prospective victims when they drive to another shop or a parking spot near their home. If computers are left unattended inside the vehicle, the thieves strike." LA Times article. |
| Best letter to a fan, ever, by John Kricfalusi Posted: 12 Jan 2010 09:34 AM PST Handwritten letter by Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi to then-14-year-old aspiring cartoonist Amir Avni is revealed as ne plus ultra of fan correspondence. What a cool guy. Read: "Your pal, John K" (via Ehrich Blackhound) |
| 40 restaurants that are betting you can't devour their outrageous specialty items Posted: 12 Jan 2010 09:28 AM PST  CouponSherpa's "Place Your Bets: 40 Gut-Busting Restaurant Challenges for Free Food" is a list of 40 restaurants that are willing to bet you can't finish the unimaginable quantity of food they'll put on your plate. If you consume it all, you get it free. For example, this Mt. Olympus Burger from the Clinton Station Diner in Clinton, NJ. You and three friends have three hours to eat ~17lbs of meat (plus toppings) each, and if you do, you don't have to pay for the privilege. Previously: |
The logo, already officially registered for 2 months with the National Institute of Industrial Property, had been created with an unlicensed font called "Bienvenue." 
A 45-year-old man was referred for investigation of an undescended right testis by computed tomography (CT). An ultrasound scan showed a normal testis and epididymis on the left side. The right testis was not visualized in the scrotal sac or in the right inguinal region. On CT scanning of the abdomen and pelvis, the right testis was not identified but the left side of the scrotum seemed to be occupied by a screaming ghostlike apparition (Figure 1). By chance, the distribution of normal anatomical structures within the left side of the scrotum had combined to produce this image. What of the undescended right testis? None was found. If you were a right testis, would you want to share the scrotum with that? 
The railroad-construction company that employed (Gage), which had thought him a model foreman, refused to take him back. So Gage went to work at a stable in New Hampshire, drove coaches in Chile and eventually joined relatives in San Francisco, where he died in May 1860, at age 36, after a series of seizures.
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