The Latest from Boing Boing

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• xkcd Spirit rover comic
• Tesco store bans grocery-shopping in pyjamas
• Tape-measure tricks
• HOWTO Make The Internet (as depicted in The IT Crowd)
• Australian censor board demands large-breasted porn-stars
• Mute button
• "If we're there, where aren't we?" -- PBS looks at life online
• Buy a modern treehouse for $25K
• Tracking a stolen iPhone
• Copyright disputes in the 1840s
• Gorilla Rack shelving units are awesome
• How to report the news
• Underwater sculptures
• Alex Wild's bug photography
• Overlooked miniature marine polyp gorges on plankton
• J.D. Salinger dies at 91
• Stop motion video of beach scene
• Enderle praises, dooms iPad
• DVD of men staring into camera to help women overcome shyness
• Lessig on Copyright and Culture: "Things could have been different"
• After 3 months, Newsday's web site gets 35 subscribers
• Video of remarkable pileus cloud
• Catchy song proves Internet is Made of Cats
• Search Engine video podcast: Free Hossein Derakhshan, even if he's kind of a jerk!
• Funny kayak.com easter egg
• Doctor who created MMR vaccine scare could lose his license
• 24th anniversary of the Challenger disaster
• What will the secret copyright treaty do to your country's laws?
• When Very Hungry Caterpillars go bad
• A more entertaining way to watch water boil

xkcd Spirit rover comic Posted: 29 Jan 2010 04:51 AM PST (Click for the rest.)

Tesco store bans grocery-shopping in pyjamas Posted: 28 Jan 2010 10:00 PM PST A Welsh outlet of Tesco, the UK mega-grocer, has instituted a no-pyjamas policy for its shoppers. A year ago, I may have applauded, but that was before I got a wicked set of checked flannel PJs and dipped my toe in the PJs-in-public waters by taking them with to wear on long flights. Now, I say bring on the jammies! They have as much sartorial juju as jeans and sneakers! A spokesman said Tesco did not have a strict dress code but it does not want people shopping in their nightwear in case it offends other customers... [The signs] read: "To avoid causing offence or embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted)." "I think it's stupid really not being allowed in the supermarket with pyjamas on. "It's not as if they're going to fall down or anything like that. They should be happy because you're going to spend all that money." Tesco ban on shoppers in pyjamas (via Neatorama) (Image: Spencer in Pajamas, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from sociotard's photostream) Previously: Dress code at the mall - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Disney relaxes dress-codes at Parks

Tape-measure tricks Posted: 28 Jan 2010 09:35 PM PST Check out this video of construction workers who've practiced their tape-measure skills to the point where they use it like Spider-Man uses his web-shooter. Superhuman tape measure skills (original) (via Kottke) Previously: Calculator watch with telescoping tape-measure - Boing Boing Tape-measure brooch - Boing Boing Retracting tape kitchen-timer - Boing Boing

HOWTO Make The Internet (as depicted in The IT Crowd) Posted: 28 Jan 2010 09:27 PM PST Here's an Instructables HOWTO from Melty Mcface explaining how to make a replica "The Internet" as depicted in Series 3, Episode 4 of The IT Crowd, "The Speech." Wikipedia summarizes: "After winning Employee of the Month, Jen finds herself less than inspired to write the required acceptance speech, and having found herself arrogant from her victory, asserts her power in the IT Department. When she eventually turns to Roy and Moss for help, they seen an opportunity to humiliate her in front of the whole department when they lend her a visual aid, on loan from the top of Big Ben and completely demagnetized by Stephen Hawking himself - "The Internet". The duo tell Jen that the Internet, complete with small black box, is completely wireless, and that if the red light on the top of the box stops flashing, the Internet will be destroyed." How to make The Internet (from The IT Crowd). (Thanks, Ed!) Previously: The IT Crowd -- season two, episode one - Boing Boing The IT Crowd -- the geek comedy I've been waiting for all my life ... IT Crowd third season starts on Friday! - Boing Boing Cut scenes from The IT Crowd - Boing Boing IT Crowd to return for a third season! - Boing Boing IT Crowd to return for a third season! - Boing Boing Episode 3 of The IT Crowd is available for download - Boing Boing Fan t-shirt for The IT Crowd - Boing Boing Dance remix of The IT Crowd theme - Boing Boing

Australian censor board demands large-breasted porn-stars Posted: 28 Jan 2010 09:22 PM PST A reader writes, "Australian Classification Board (ACB) is now banning depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. They banned mainstream pornography from showing women with A-cup breasts, apparently on the grounds that they encourage paedophilia, and in spite of the fact this is a normal breast size for many adult women. Presumably small breasted women taking photographs of themselves will now be guilty of creating simulated child pornography, to say nothing of the message this sends to women with modestly sized chests or those who favour them. Australia has also banned pornographic depictions of female ejaculation, a normal orgasmic sexual response in many women, with censors branding it as 'abhorrent.'" The Board has also started to ban depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. This is in response to a campaign led by Kids Free 2 B Kids and promoted by Barnaby Joyce and Guy Barnett in Senate Estimates late last year. Mainstream companies such as Larry Flint's Hustler produce some of the publications that have been banned. These companies are regulated by the FBI to ensure that only adult performers are featured in their publications. "We are starting to see depictions of women in their late 20s being banned because they have an A cup size", she said. "It may be an unintended consequence of the Senator's actions but they are largely responsible for the sharp increase in breast size in Australian adult magazines of late". Depictions of Female Orgasm Being Banned by Classification Board (Image: 124, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from brittsuza's photostream) Previously: Great Firewall of Australia will nationally block sites appearing ... Net censorship down under: Australian government to block protest ... Australia's proposed 'net censorship scheme: the politics. - Boing ... Word-map of net-censorship in China Boing Boing Electronic Frontiers Australia spokesman receives death threat for ...

Mute button Posted: 28 Jan 2010 05:18 PM PST I visited my friend Lara at her home in Tokyo yesterday. She just had a baby boy, who is the proud owner of this adorable little pacifier that doubles as his very own mute button. Update: You can buy it on Amazon for $6.

"If we're there, where aren't we?" -- PBS looks at life online Posted: 28 Jan 2010 02:50 PM PST Former BB guestblogger Douglas Rushkoff and PBS produccer Rachel Dretzin have created a documentary called Digital Nation. PBS has added some learning resources along with the standard mini-movies with titles like "Getting Ready for Robots." Viewable Feb. 1 online, Feb. 2 on Frontline at 9 pm. Dretzin and Rushkoff begin on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, home to some of the most technologically savvy students in the world. Many of these "digital natives," who have hardly known a world in which they weren't connected 24/7, confess to having increasingly limited attention spans that make it difficult for them to read books or learn in conventional ways. "Honestly, I can't sit somewhere for two hours straight and focus on anything," says a student named Alex. "Maybe it's some technology dependence I've developed over the course of the years, but at this point I don't think I can go back to just focusing on one thing."

Buy a modern treehouse for $25K Posted: 28 Jan 2010 09:30 PM PST Where I grew up in Tokyo, there was never enough room to build a treehouse; I was always envious of kids in America, who all seemed to have one in their giant backyard. (Of course, I know now this is not true.) Looking through the portfolio of German architecture firm Baumraum as me wishing once again that I had one — they've created a series of beautiful modern treehouses made with simple materials for fancy clients. Commissioning a treehouse from these wood construction experts costs upwards of $25,000 and takes three to seven months to build, depending on the health of the tree and complexity of design. Baumraum (via Apartment Therapy)

Tracking a stolen iPhone Posted: 28 Jan 2010 04:37 PM PST Want to know how to catch an iPhone thief? It evidently helps if you're prepared to be a wee bit obsessive.

Copyright disputes in the 1840s Posted: 28 Jan 2010 02:49 PM PST Who is Charles Dickens ranting about in this letter to Henry Austin? "Is it tolerable that besides being robbed and rifled, an author should be forced to appear in any form - in any vulgar dress - in any atrocious company - that he should have no choice of his audience - no controul [sic?]over his distorted text - and that he should be compelled to jostle out of the course, the best men in this country who only ask to live, by writing?" The not entirely surprising answer: American Publishers. Read more about the debate at the Literary and Debating Society at the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal (now known as the Atwater Library and Computer Centre).

Gorilla Rack shelving units are awesome Posted: 28 Jan 2010 01:35 PM PST We've been decluttering our garage and Carla ordered a few Gorilla Rack shelving units from Amazon. They are awesome. I've assembled shelving units before, and they required either nuts and bolts or little brackets, but the Gorilla Rack units have parts that fit together without extra hardware. I built the first shelving unit in about 30 minutes. The second one took me 15 minutes, and the third one was done in 10 minutes. The pieces fit together without any fussing and the unit is free of sharp edges. It's very sturdy, too. I think I'll buy the workbench next. Gorilla Rack Shelving Unit

How to report the news Posted: 28 Jan 2010 01:15 PM PST Charlie Brooker reports. It's remarkable how it differs in small but insignificant ways from the U.S.'s own 'model.' It also gave me weird flashbacks of 1980s' BBC news reports concerning South Africa, every single one of which concluded with stock footage of dancing Zulus, to illustrate whatever Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party thought about the matter at hand. Via John Biggs.

Underwater sculptures Posted: 28 Jan 2010 02:26 PM PST Jason de Caires Taylor exhibits his sculptures underwater. The liefesize sculpture above, titled "El Coleccionista de los Sueños Perdidos," is part of an ongoing installation of 400 pieces he's submerging near Cancun, Mexico at a depth of 8 meters to create "the world's largest underwater art museum." From his artist statement: The experience of being underwater is vastly different from that of being on land. There are physical and optical considerations that must be taken into account. Objects appear twenty five percent larger underwater, and as a consequence they also appear closer. Colours alter as light is absorbed and reflected at different rates, with the depth of the water affecting this further. The light source in water is from the surface, this produces kaleidoscopic effects governed by water movement, currents and turbulence. Water is a malleable medium in which to travel enabling the viewer to become active in their engagement with the work. The large number of angles and perspectives from which the sculptures can be viewed increase dramatically the unique experience of encountering the works. Jason de Caires Taylor's underwater sculpture (Thanks, Lindsay Tiemeyer!) Previously: Underwater sculpture dive-park Boing Boing Introducing the Atlas Obscura

Alex Wild's bug photography Posted: 28 Jan 2010 03:14 PM PST I'm enjoying Alex Wild's colorful bug photos. He's a biologist at the University of Illinois. This is a Thasus acutangulus nymph, taken in Mexico. "The bright colors advertise this bug's distastefulness," he writes. Here he talks about the macro lens he uses for many of his shots, Canon's MP-E 1-5x macro. Alex Wild's Myrmecos Blog (Via AntBlog)

Overlooked miniature marine polyp gorges on plankton Posted: 28 Jan 2010 11:44 AM PST Jared sez, "HD video of a single Corynactis viridis corallimorph polyp (about 8mm in diameter) seen capturing and digesting tiny plankton as they flow past in the current. Directed by Morphologic Studios, a scientific art endeavor based out of Miami, Florida. Morphologic Studios will be releasing a HD video-a-week this year highlighting overlooked, miniature marine life." Corynactis viridis (Thanks, Jared!) Previously: TED 2008 -- Garrett Lisi's E8 Theory of Everything - Boing Boing Jason Hackenwerth's huge balloon creatures - Boing Boing

J.D. Salinger dies at 91 Posted: 28 Jan 2010 11:15 AM PST From the Associated Press: J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91. Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son said in a statement... 'Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger dies [AP] Photo: Tatteralan.

Stop motion video of beach scene Posted: 28 Jan 2010 10:40 AM PST Fun stop motion video promo for Australia's TV1. (Via Drawn!) Previously: Stop-motion battle film by Pes Boing Boing PES animations: Human Skateboard and Fireworks - Boing Boing Stop motion film by PES: Western Spaghetti - Boing Boing Funny yule log screensaver from PES films - Boing Boing Stop motion film maker: PES - Boing Boing Flintstones in stop motion - Boing Boing Stop-motion journey up Yonge Street Boing Boing Stop-motion Atari re-creation - Boing Boing Sorry I'm Late: stop-motion film - Boing Boing The Butt Race, a 1965 stop-motion movie - Boing Boing Stop motion animation: Wolf and Pig - Boing Boing We Have Band: "You Came Out" (Stop Motion Music Video) - Boing Boing Sweet stop-motion video of paintings on public spaces - Boing Boing Star Trek stop-motion fanimation from mid '70s - Boing Boing Cardboard: animation by Sjors Vervoort - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Super Mario, the stop-motion Legos edition Boing Boing: 1967 live stop motion animation short Boing Boing: Stop-motion Space Invaders using human pixels Boing Boing: Stop-motion video game animation made with candles Boing Boing: Excellent amateur stop motion video Boing Boing: New stop-motion animation vids from milkfat's Michael ... Stop-motion captures of body language on public transit - Boing Boing 1967 live stop motion animation short - Boing Boing Lazyweb request -- gulf western stop motion commercials - Boing Boing Early 70s Levi stop-motion commercial - Boing Boing

Enderle praises, dooms iPad Posted: 28 Jan 2010 10:49 AM PST Apple's iPad, announced Wednesday in San Francisco, is doomed. Rob Enderle, a tech pundit famous for downbeat and spectacularly inaccurate Apple predictions, suggests it will be a big hit. [via GlennF]

DVD of men staring into camera to help women overcome shyness Posted: 28 Jan 2010 12:39 PM PST "Miterudake For Lady" is a Japanese DVD that consists of videos of men staring into the camera. It's meant for women who want to overcome shyness with men, but I suppose men who are shy of men could use it. (There is also a version with women looking into the camera.) Another possible use for these videos would be for self-experimentation in depression therapy.

Lessig on Copyright and Culture: "Things could have been different" Posted: 28 Jan 2010 02:49 PM PST For the Love of Culture, Google, Copyright and our Future. Astute and moving commentary by Lawrence Lessig, a love letter to the real-space library. Whatever your view of it, notice first just how different this future promises to be. In real libraries, in real space, access is not metered at the level of the page (or the image on the page). Access is metered at the level of books (or magazines, or CDs, or DVDs). You get to browse through the whole of the library, for free. You get to check out the books you want to read, for free. The real-space library is a den protected from the metering of the market. It is of course created within a market; but like kids in a playroom, we let the life inside the library ignore the market outside. This freedom gave us something real. It gave us the freedom to research, regardless of our wealth; the freedom to read, widely and technically, beyond our means. It was a way to assure that all of our culture was available and reachable--not just that part that happens to be profitable to stock. It is a guarantee that we have the opportunity to learn about our past, even if we lack the will to do so. The architecture of access that we have in real space created an important and valuable balance between the part of culture that is effectively and meaningfully regulated by copyright and the part of culture that is not. The world of our real-space past was a world in which copyright intruded only rarely, and when it did, its relationship to the objectives of copyright was relatively clear. We forget all this today.

After 3 months, Newsday's web site gets 35 subscribers Posted: 28 Jan 2010 09:35 AM PST In October Newsday (a Long Island daily paper that was sold for $650 million) began charging for online access. The price is $5 per week. In three months 35 people have subscribed. The web site redesign and relaunch cost the Dolans $4 million, according to Mr. Jimenez. With those 35 people, they've grossed about $9,000. In that time, without question, web traffic has begun to plummet, and, certainly, advertising will follow as well. After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday's Web Site

Video of remarkable pileus cloud Posted: 28 Jan 2010 09:21 AM PST From Forgetomori, a cloud to be appreciated. Previously: Boing Boing: Czech pranksters sneak mushroom cloud into weather report Stunningly strange cloud - Boing Boing Beautiful Clouds - Boing Boing Artwork and book about clouds - Boing Boing Haiti, HAARP, and conspiracy theorists Boing Boing face in the clouds Clouds that look like UFOs - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Night-shining clouds weird clouds in hastings, nebraska, 2004 Boing Boing: Are these awesome clouds a result of the shuttle ... tropospheric clouds that are half-rainbow

Catchy song proves Internet is Made of Cats Posted: 28 Jan 2010 08:57 AM PST Your friends at RatherGood want you to remember: The Internet is Made of Cats. They make an excellent case for this position, as well. (via Charlie Stross) Previously: Dogs and cats, living together ... mass hysteria! Boing Boing Cats for Gold: turn your glitter to litter! - Boing Boing The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out, by A. Koford - Boing Boing IBM computer brain simulation as complex as a cat's Boing Boing Illustrated book about cats written by Amazon Mechanical Turk ... Tortoise hates cats - Boing Boing Levitating Cat Boing Boing

Search Engine video podcast: Free Hossein Derakhshan, even if he's kind of a jerk! Posted: 28 Jan 2010 08:39 AM PST Search Engine's Jesse Brown sez, "Canadian/Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan has been held and tortured in a Tehran prison for over a year, without being charged. Both the Canadian and Iranian governments seem content to let him stay there. The media has also largely forgotten his case. Hoder's imprisonment begs the question: do we only fight for the freedom of dissidents whose beliefs we agree with?" JESSE BROWN: Free Hoder (Thanks, Jesse!) Previously: Iran: blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan said to have been jailed ... GoDaddy blocks friends of jailed Iranian blogger "Hoder" from ... Iran: blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan confirmed in prison ... Hoder on Bam earthquake and Iran's goverment - Boing Boing Persian blogger Hoder on how to build a blogosphere - Boing Boing Stuart Hughes' audio chat with Hoder about blogs + Iran - Boing Boing

Funny kayak.com easter egg Posted: 28 Jan 2010 02:49 PM PST For LOST fans: Search kayak.com for Sydney to LAX one-way non-stop on 9/22/2010. [via the Franklin Fellow]

Doctor who created MMR vaccine scare could lose his license Posted: 28 Jan 2010 07:57 AM PST Britain's General Medical Council has ruled that Andrew Wakefield—the doctor who created the MMR vaccine/autism scare by heavily promoting the results of his own poorly conducted research, even long after other scientists had proven his claims to be wrong—"failed in his duties as a responsible consultant". The Council will decide at a later date whether Wakefield will be stripped of his medical license.

24th anniversary of the Challenger disaster Posted: 28 Jan 2010 07:47 AM PST Following Miles O'Brien's Twitter reminded me that today is the anniversary of the destruction of the Challenger space shuttle, which blew up shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986. You can read O'Brien's memories of covering the aftermath as a young reporter in Florida. Me, I was 4 when this happened. My memories aren't so interesting. What really sticks out for me is finding out, years later, about the mechanical malfunctions that caused the explosion, the bureaucratic mismanagement that lead known to malfunctions being ignored—and the good, honest people at NASA and contractor Morton Thiokol who tried to make their bosses fix the problem and, after the disaster happened, brought their stories to the public. This clip from National Geographic's documentary "Challenger: The Untold Story" introduces Robert Boisjoly, an engineer at Morton Thiokol who spotted problems with the space shuttle's O-Rings in 1985, tried to stop the fatal Challenger launch and later testified before the presidential committee. His efforts earned him a Prize for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

What will the secret copyright treaty do to your country's laws? Posted: 28 Jan 2010 07:29 AM PST Michael Geist sez, Questions about ACTA [ed: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret and punishing copyright treaty under negotiation in Gudalara right now] typically follow a familiar pattern - what is it, do you have evidence, why is this secret, followed by what would ACTA do to my country's laws? This fourth question is the subject of this post, Part Four of the ACTA Guide. The answer is complex since the impact of ACTA will differ for each participating country: some will require limited reforms, others very significant reforms, and yet others (particularly those not even permitted to participate) complete overhauls of their domestic laws. That is not the answer that the participating countries have been providing. Instead, most have sought to dampen fears by implausibly claiming that ACTA will not result in any domestic changes in their own country. Of course, if all of this is true, skeptics might reasonably ask why ACTA is needed at all. The truth is that ACTA will require changes in many countries that ratify the agreement. The EU Commissioner-designate for the Internal Market, Michel Barnier, recently acknowledged precisely that during hearings in Brussels. Meanwhile, U.S. lobby groups have stated that they view ACTA as a mechanism to pressure Canada into new copyright reforms. ACTA Guide: Part Four: What Will ACTA Mean To My Domestic Law? (Thanks, Michael!) Previously: ACTA: the leaked secret memos Boing Boing Interactive timeline of secret copyright treaty Boing Boing Why is the secret copyright treaty a secret? Boing Boing Action - Boing Boing Follow the secret copyright treaty negotiations in Mexico Boing Boing Secret copyright treaty debated in DC: must-see video Boing Boing

When Very Hungry Caterpillars go bad Posted: 28 Jan 2010 06:34 AM PST From this week's Zoologger column in New Scientist: In a grassy field on the edge of a patch of woodland, some ants are escorting a pink caterpillar to their home. Once it has been guided into the depths of their nest, the caterpillar begins feeding the ants with sweet fluids. It may sound like a touching story of interspecies love, but it ain't. Over the following year, the caterpillar will eat its way through hundreds of ants, eggs and larvae. So voracious is the intruding caterpillar, there is a good chance that the ant colony will be wiped out. This deceitful ant-muncher is the caterpillar of the large blue butterfly - in adult form, a strikingly beautiful creature with iridescent, spotted wings. But in order to reach adulthood, the caterpillars must infiltrate the ants' homes, and they have an arsenal of less than beautiful tricks for that purpose... I like to imagine that lead being read by David Attenborough. New Scientist: Zoologger: The very hungry caterpillar usurps a queen Image courtesy Flickr user oddharmonic, via CC

A more entertaining way to watch water boil Posted: 28 Jan 2010 06:21 AM PST Egg Watchers is a great concept. You just tell the system what size of egg you're boiling, whether or not the egg is refrigerator-cold, and how well-done you want it. Then, you're set up with a YouTube video that will end at approximately the same time your egg is done. No more boring waiting around! For an 8 min. 30 sec. extra-large hard egg, I was treated to the delightful educational mockumentary above. My only complaint: I'd love to see this concept expanded to a full-on YouTube-based cooking timer. I've got 15 minutes for this pasta to boil, how will the Internet entertain me? Eggwatchers (Thanks, Laura Browning!)

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