The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Disguised weapons for sale
- Video: Mantis vs. Cursor
- Raptor devours cheerleader
- Church of Scientology at center of human trafficking allegations, new lawsuit
- Gunkanjima: Battleship Island
- It's "mixing," not plagiarism, says much-lauded 17-year-old author
- Highlights from TED 2010, Friday: "Using nuclear waste to power next generation's reactors"
- How Buttsecks Works, by gay marriage opponent Rep. Nancy Elliott (R-NH)
- NATO troops in Afghanistan launching largest offensive of war today
- Los Angeles: Faught, Ramos, Fabia, Snow, and others in Valentine's Day pop-up gallery show
- Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim now one of largest NY Times shareholders
- Hollywood sign through telescope: SAVE THE POO(D)
- EFF's Liberty Mecha shirt
- Tiny dinosaur model
- Mod spy cartoon by Chris Reccardi and Lynne Naylor
- 3DTV is coming, but are there health risks?
- Video of gadget that shoots down mosquitoes with lasers
- LOST maternity t-shirt
- Poverty in Mississippi Delta worsened by poor broadband
- Human interface device
- Modern teahouse heated with poo
- CNN: Ten big ideas from TED
- Taste Test: cherimoya
- Saturday Morning Science Experiment: BoingBoing and the Chamber of Clouds
- Canadian politician gives rival the finger, offers to "go outside" with the entire legislature if they don't like it
| Posted: 13 Feb 2010 12:16 AM PST Here's a correspondence between an angry person who placed a classified ad soliciting "disguised weapons" and a chain-yanker who was very funny in response: Disguised Weapons (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) Previously:
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| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 09:10 PM PST The human may think he is toying with the mantis, but I suspect the opposite is true. (Thanks, Antinous!) |
| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 08:13 PM PST Video link at Mag.ma. Happy weekend, everyone. (thanks, Andrew Baron!) |
| Church of Scientology at center of human trafficking allegations, new lawsuit Posted: 12 Feb 2010 06:27 PM PST Here's a local LA TV news report on a lawsuit brought against the Church of Scientology, and claims by former members that the religious organization is tied to human trafficking incidents. The "Anonymous" protests and Project Chanology are referenced, and the clip includes b-roll of dudes in Guy Fawkes masks. Video Link (thanks, Mark Ebner)
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| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 06:03 PM PST  Photo: Ken Lee + Skorj for Magnesium. A stunning series of photographs shot in the abandoned Japanese island-city of Hashima. (image used courtesy of Magnesium, thanks, Sean Bonner!) |
| It's "mixing," not plagiarism, says much-lauded 17-year-old author Posted: 12 Feb 2010 05:42 PM PST Helene Hegemann, a celebrated author and playwright in Berlin who's all of 17 years of age, is at the center of a plagiarism controversy after blogger Deef Pirmasens "last week uncovered material in the novel taken from the less-well-known novel Strobo, by an author writing under the nom de plume Airen. In one case, an entire page was lifted with few changes." Hegemann insists it's remixing, not stealing. She's being pummeled by angry Amazon users. |
| Highlights from TED 2010, Friday: "Using nuclear waste to power next generation's reactors" Posted: 12 Feb 2010 05:18 PM PST Here's my round up of highlights from the second day of the TED 2010 presentations. I especially enjoyed Bill Gates' talk about a zero-carbon future, and Temple Grandin's talk about the valuable contributions autistic people make. (Here's Thursday's round up. Here's Wednesday's round up) Bill Gates at TED2010, Session 8, "Boldness," Friday, February 12, 2010, in Long Beach, California. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson Bill Gates said a changing climate is especially bad for developing nations, mainly because it hurts crop yields. Temperature increase has effects on weather, ecosystems can't adjust and collapse. There is uncertainty about how bad the effects of increases in atmospheric CO2 are but they will be bad. Until we get to near zero, the temperature will go up. "We have to get to zero." Currently, 26 billions tons of CO2 are released each year. Americans are responsible for 20 tons per person. The global average is 5 tons per person. He showed this equation: Total CO2 = World population x Services x Energy of each service x CO2 per unit of energy The neat thing about an equation that uses only multiplication is that if any of the four factors can be reduced to zero, then you don't have to worry about the other three factors. The total CO2 output will be zero. So which one can we make zero? The first factor, Population, is headed to 9 billion people, an increase of 1.3. (We don't want this to go to zero, unless you belong to the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.)
The second factor, Services delivered per person, means things like food, electricity, heat. It's a great thing for this number to go up for most people. Gates showed a slide of kids reading their homework under street lamps in India because their homes have no electricity. The third factor, Energy of each service, has been going down, because we are getting better at making fertilizer, transportation, designing buildings. We could see a reduction of a factor of three to six. So far, we've gone from 26 billon tons of CO2 to 13 billion tons. That's not good enough. We need zero. Now, the last factor, CO2 per unit of energy. We have to create a new system. We need an energy miracle. He doesn't mean we need to achieve the impossible. The microprocessor is a miracle, The Internet is a miracle. We need an energy miracle along the lines of the Internet. But here's the added challenge: "Usually we don't need a miracle before a certain date. This one is on a tight timeline." We need energy solutions with unbelievable scale and reliability. Tide, geothermal, fusion, biofuels, are cool, but they just won't do it. Gates has a list of five other types of fuels that aren't out of the running:
1. Burning fossil fuels -- You need to take all CO2, convert it to liquid and store it and hope it stays there. It will be tricky. Who is going to guarantee something billions of times larger than nuclear waste won't get out? 2. Nuclear energy -- the concerns are cost, safety, making sure the fuel is not used for weapons, and the waste problem. 3, 4, and 5. Solar thermal, solar voltaic, and wind -- all three of these have dramatically less energy density than fossil fuels or nuclear energy, and are intermittent sources. Wind and sun aren't constant. So you need to get energy when there is no sun or wind. Do you store it in batteries? He looked at batteries. All the batteries we make now could store less than ten minutes of all the energy we consume. The battery problem is not impossible but it's not easy. "You need an incredible miracle battery." So Gates is looking at nuclear as the most likely miracle. "A molecule of uranium has a million times more energy than a molecule of coal." He and Nathan "Mosquito Zapper" Myrhvold are backing a nuclear approach. It's called Terrapower, and it's different from a standard nuclear reactor. Instead of burning the 1% of uranium-235 found in natural uranium, this reactor burns the other 99%, called uranium-238. You can use all the leftover waste from today's reactors as fuel. "In terms of fuel this really solves the problem." He showed a photo of depleted waste uranium in steel cylinders at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky -- the waste at this plant could supply the US energy needs for 200 years (woah!), and filtering seawater for uranium could supply energy for much longer than that. TED's Chris Anderson asked: If this doesn't work, then what? Gates: If you get in that situation - there is a line of research on geoengineering that could give us 20 additional years to get our act together. But that's a last resort. Gates wants to solve the problem without geoengineering.
"I see movies in my imagination." When you ask a "normal person" about church steeples they imagine generalized generic steeples. She sees "Google for pictures." A slide show of all the steeples she's ever seen runs through her imagination. She can stop at any one of the mental photos and turn it into a video. This turns out to be a "tremendous asset into making cattle handling facilities. I can run a piece of test equipment in my mind." There's a reason for her super visual powers. She showed her brain scan compared to a "normal brain" (her term). The visual part of her brain is much larger! "I have a huge internet trunk line for graphics." (The trade-off, she said, is few social circuits). Her gift of highly visual thinking gives her a lot of insight into animal minds. Animals thinks in images, sounds, smells, not words. "The world needs different kinds of minds to work together." She sees nerdy kids who aren't social, not being led towards science. "We need to get these geeky nerdy kids turned on." She says in the middle of the country, outside Silicon Valley and other geek meccas, the teachers don't know what to do with these kids. It was a huge mistake for schools to take out auto shop, art, and drafting class in school. There are three kinds of autistics, and each kind can excel in certain fields: Visual thinkers: art, design, industrial design, photography Pattern thinker: mathematicians, programmers Verbal thinkers: journalists, stage actors "I had to learn social skills like being in a play." Anderson asks her, "What are you most passionate about?" Her answer: "The things I do that are going to make the world a better place. I get satisfaction about seeing things that make a real change in the real world. We have too much abstract stuff." (Prolonged standing ovation) |
| How Buttsecks Works, by gay marriage opponent Rep. Nancy Elliott (R-NH) Posted: 12 Feb 2010 06:28 PM PST Rep. Nancy Elliott (R-NH), in the video embedded above, explains why she opposes marriage between partners of the same sex. Snip: Video link (thanks, Antinous!) |
| NATO troops in Afghanistan launching largest offensive of war today Posted: 12 Feb 2010 04:56 PM PST "This is possibly the largest IED threat NATO has ever faced."—U.S. Marine Gen. Larry Nicholson. In Afghanistan right now, some 15,000 NATO troops are said to be launching their biggest offensive of the war, attacking "the last Taliban stronghold" in the south. From CNN: "The Taliban has had months to plant bombs in the ground, most of them homemade mixes of ammonium nitrate, shrapnel fuel, salt or flour. Such bombs have caused about 80 percent of the deaths in past fighting in Helmand province." |
| Los Angeles: Faught, Ramos, Fabia, Snow, and others in Valentine's Day pop-up gallery show Posted: 12 Feb 2010 04:01 PM PST   One of my favorite living painters, Korin Faught, sends notice of a Valentine's Day "pop-up gallery show" in Los Angeles on Sunday night. The Love Show 2 features works by Korin herself and other great painters whose art has appeared on BB before including Natalia Fabia, Carlos Ramos, Savanna Snow, and more than a dozen others. Above, Fabia's "I Heart Hello Kitty!" Left, Faught's "Avital." The bash is at The Strange from 7pm to 11pm, or check out the works online.Love Show 2 Previously: |
| Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim now one of largest NY Times shareholders Posted: 12 Feb 2010 03:55 PM PST Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu is now one of The New York Times Co.'s biggest stockholders. According to an SEC filing, his stake recently upped to 16.3%. More: E&P, Romenesko. He's a controversial fellow. Slim's net wealth equals about 2% of Mexico's total yearly economic output. Mexican telcom Telmex, of which Slim and family own roughly half, charges some of the highest usage fees in the world, according to the OECD. |
| Hollywood sign through telescope: SAVE THE POO(D) Posted: 12 Feb 2010 04:19 PM PST  Amy Davis Roth shot this photo of the Hollywood Sign this morning as viewed through a telescope. Her snapshot captures the famous sign during a temporary transformation calling for citizens to "save the peak" (Cahuenga Peak) on which it is located. |
| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 03:05 PM PST  The Electronic Frontier Foundation's latest t-shirt commemorates its twentieth birthday with this awesome "Liberty Mecha" design. Yours with a $65 tax-deductible membership donation! |
| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 03:53 PM PST  Over at our new Boing Boing Bazaar, Everything Tiny is selling this amazing "Tinysaur Stegosaurus" kit. It's $16, including the laser cut parts, instructions, glue, and tweezers. Battery not included, cause it doesn't need one. Deluxe BYO Tinysaur: Stegosaurus |
| Mod spy cartoon by Chris Reccardi and Lynne Naylor Posted: 12 Feb 2010 05:13 PM PST Chris Reccardi and Lynne Naylor are wonderful pop surrealist painters I've featured on Boing Boing before. They're also respected animators. Chris worked on the Ren & Stimpy Show and Powerpuff Girls, while Lynne co-created the Ren & Stimpy Show and was lead character designer for Batman: The Animated Series and Powerpuff Girls. Two years ago, Chris and Lynne created a pilot for a mod spy cartoon called "The Modifyers." Execs at Nickelodeon passed on it, so Chris and Lynne have now posted the pilot online. I wish it were a full-length feature! Previously: |
| 3DTV is coming, but are there health risks? Posted: 12 Feb 2010 02:42 PM PST Will continuous, long-term exposure to 3D create potential health hazards? "None of the television manufacturers have done any health & safety testing around this. They must believe that if it's safe enough for the cinema, it's fine for the living room. But (g)etting a few hours every few weeks is nothing like getting a few hours, every single day."—Virtual reality pioneer Mark Pesce, writing at abc.net.au. |
| Video of gadget that shoots down mosquitoes with lasers Posted: 12 Feb 2010 01:53 PM PST Here's a video of mosquitoes being shot with Intellectual Ventures' laser zapper I mentioned in my TED round up yesterday. I'm not sure if the soundtrack ought to be "Blue Danube" or "Yakety Sax." I took some photos of the gadget, along with Intellectual Ventures' project Scientist, 3ric Johanson standing next to it. It was made from off-the-shelf parts purchased on eBay. See them after the jump.
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| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 12:36 PM PST  My friend, who is pregnant and also a big LOST fan, sent me a link to this Dharma initiative baby hatch maternity tee. |
| Poverty in Mississippi Delta worsened by poor broadband Posted: 12 Feb 2010 03:09 PM PST Madhis sez, "The Broadband in the Mississippi Delta report analyzes broadband availability and economic opportunity in Mississippi and the impact it has on communities of color. With far too little internet access in communities of color, hundreds of thousands are effectively prevented from contributing to the economy." Findings:BROADBAND IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA: A 21st CENTURY RACIAL JUSTICE ISSUE (Thanks, Madhis!)
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| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 11:23 AM PST |
| Modern teahouse heated with poo Posted: 12 Feb 2010 10:29 AM PST  A Japanese architecture firm has come up with a neat idea for eco-friendly teahouses — it has little compartments in the surrounding wall that can generate heat via compost, so you don't get cold when you're sitting inside. The best thing about it might be its name: Comploo. From Inhabitat: To feed the composter, garden waste, food scraps or other compost materials can be dropped in through a door at the top of each bin. A system of sealed ducts runs through each of the bins, and as the air circulates within the walls, the decaying compost warms it. This heated air is in turn emitted through a central vent that releases into the structure's interior. Occupants can comfortably sit along a circular bench surrounding the heat source, and enjoy the ambient natural light permeating through the transparent dome roof above.Bakoko's main page |
| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 09:59 AM PST Richard Galant and John D. Sutter from CNN are here with me in the press room at TED. They've been filing dispatches of the presentations and other events here and they are terrific. (Above, a video by CNN's Jarrett Bellini). Excerpt: Psychologist and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman says millions of dollars won't buy you happiness, but a job that pays $60,000 a year might help. Happiness levels increase up to the $60K mark, but "above that it's a flat line," he said.CNN: Ten big ideas from TED |
| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 11:12 AM PST  I picked up a fun fruit at the grocery store today. It's called cherimoya, and as the woman stocking the produce section at Rainbow reminded me twice, it's only in season, like, right now. On the outside, it looks like a cross between an artichoke and a pear — green, scaly, and lightbulb-shaped. It has a few decent-sized seeds in its core that are easy to remove, and its white flesh is jello-smooth. I suppose I could have mixed it in a salad or something, but I decided to just eat it raw. After all, this is a fruit that Mark Twain supposedly called "deliciousness itself." I don't know what it tasted like to him, but to me it tasted like... part apple, part pear, part strawberry, part cherry, coated in sugar and wrapped in the texture of a fruit roll-up. I wish I'd bought more than one. When the skin turns slightly brown like this one, that's when it's perfectly ripe and good to eat. Cherimoya is a subtropical fruit and was originally found in South America, but it is now grown in California and Hawaii, too. It has lots of sugar and vitamin C. In the ancient Cupisnique and Moche cultures of Peru, cherimoya was often depicted as pottery, like so: If you don't want to eat the fruit raw, try making cherimoya sorbet by pureeing the fruit with sugar and lime juice, then freezing it. Every installment of Taste Test will explore recipes, the science, and some history behind a specific food item. Image via Xeni's Flickr |
| Saturday Morning Science Experiment: BoingBoing and the Chamber of Clouds Posted: 12 Feb 2010 05:22 PM PST A cloud chamber is a nifty little piece of equipment that you can use to observe high energy particles. Those little white streaks you're seeing through the mist? They're the tracks left behind by cosmic rays moving through saturated alcohol vapor. The rays ionize the atoms of vapor as they pass by, leaving a trail of condensation. Better yet, you can build one at home and impress your friends. (Big thanks to our own Arkizzle for the fabulous recommendation!) Thumbnail image courtesy Flickr user milgrammer, via CC |
| Posted: 12 Feb 2010 06:31 AM PST Abel LeBlanc, a Liberal member of the New Brunswick legislative assembly, was thrown out of the room yesterday after he gave a rival politician the finger, called her a liar, and then asked the entire parliament to "go outside" (presumably for some sort of fisticuffs). The quote below gives you a taste of the outburst, but you owe it to yourself to download the audio, which I've edited out of the CBC As it Happens Podcast and uploaded to the Internet Archive for your enjoyment. Remix gold. Ringtone city. Listen to this rage. Just listen to it. N.B. MLA expelled for rude gesture Previously: |
I started thinking, and We're talking about taking the penis of one man and putting it in the rectum of another man, and wiggling it around in excrement, and you have to think.... hmmm, not sure, would I allow that to happen to me?
Robichaud complained again, but LeBlanc refused to apologize. | You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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