The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Why I won't buy an iPad, the podcast edition
• Rob Cockerham's Costco prank
• Beware of FYE's VIP Backstage Pass program
• Amy Crehore's Dirty Blond banjo-uke
• Insect Trap has admirable package design
• CSI shoots real-life crime investigation in the foot
• Who can build the tallest tower with a marshmallow, tape, string, and dry spaghetti?
• Where does oil come from?
• This spring at Coney Island
• Android app crowdsources UK election spending survey
• On Peter Watts's sentencing hearing
• Goldman Sachs email: "one shi**y deal"
• The "fair use economy" is enormous, growing, and endangered by the relatively tiny entertainment industry
• Walking robots battle at RoboGames 2010
• After 44 years, Malcolm X killer paroled. On Malcolm X boulevard.
• The Incident: a game of 8-bit cataclysm
• New Google Maps Option: "Avoid Arizona" (alright, it's a joke)
• Imaginary Foundation's "Make A Difference" flyer
• Knife-throwing mommy
• Map of US states where first cousin marriage is legal
• Former CIA station chief, accused of rape, found wandering around motel with his junk hangin' out
• Taschen's MOONFIRE: now for less than $1,000
• License plate with coded racist message recalled
• Orange juice's deep, dark secrets
• Protecting the Loch Ness Monster
• Science Fiction magazine art gallery from LIFE
• Refined carbs are bad for the heart, not fat
• How not to write an internship cover letter
• Kometen: the debut iPhone game from Blueberry Garden dev
• Destroying a cinder block with a dry ice bomb

Why I won't buy an iPad, the podcast edition Posted: 27 Apr 2010 10:23 PM PDT Last week while I was stranded by the volcano, I did an interview with the TVOntario Search Engine podcast about the iPad and why I thought that its policy and infrastructure should make it a no-go zone for publishers, users and authors. MP3 Link Previously: Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either) - Boing ...

Rob Cockerham's Costco prank Posted: 27 Apr 2010 07:23 PM PDT My favorite amateur sociologist Rob Cockerham printed up a bunch of price stickers for absurd products and sent them to his team of assistants around the country, who attached them to shelves in Costco stores. One assistant's field notes: It was a mad house today with all the snooty rich people fighting over free samples, but that was to my favor.  Everyone was so busy, that it was a piece of cake.  The only hard part was the Polo Assless Chaps, since our Costco hangs the prices above the items.  But nonetheless, I found a display right next to the main aisle of the clothing to place it.  It should be seen very easily.  The Canine Pacemaker Kit was placed right with the dog toys and dog biscuits.  The Costco Prank

Beware of FYE's VIP Backstage Pass program Posted: 27 Apr 2010 05:24 PM PDT Boing Boing reader Nate warns that an FYE store clerk took his credit card number and signed him up for a monthly subscription to a "FYE VIP program" without his permission. He said FYE will not let him cancel the program because he doesn't have his membership number. About a year ago I had to get a USB A to USB mini connector on short notice. The San Diego Office Max wanted around $60, but the FYE store had it for $10. While I was checking out, the clerk tried to sell me on their "VIP" program. I thanked him, but didn't sign up. And that was the last of it, or so I thought. The last couple of months I noticed charges appearing on my credit card that I hadn't authorized. Some googling on "fye vip" revealed the culprit - apparently FYE has been signing up people for this program either without disclosing the monthly charges, or (my case) signing them up without their knowledge and hoping they don't notice the charges appearing on their statements. I fall into the later category - didn't check all my statements as closely as I should have. My bad. The most intriguing aspect of this scam is the 'prove a negative' aspect. I called them to try and cancel the membership. After refusing several times, the rep eventually agreed to close the account. But wait - having never signed up, I have no membership card. So I can't close the account. Nice scam - if they sign you up using your credit card information you only have one option - report the card as missing so that the number is changed. That's what I'm doing now. Time will tell if they sign me up again. I'm also having the bank contest the charges, but I don't have much expectation of that leading anywhere. You can find quite a few negative stories about the FYE VIP pass on Google. Examples: TLG*FYE VIP: Refuse to stop charging me: "My granddaughter apparently agreed to pay this company for "what she doesn't know" as part of some "contest" on the internet during July. We have called and cancelled the contract twice. They continue charging her the monthly fee." F.Y.E. VIP Pass Complaints: I was offered a VIP pass for no monthly fees and received a book of coupons.Couple months later I find there is a $9.99 per month and the associate in the store told me, " Well, I don't know why she told you that, so call headquarters and they may or may not refund your money back." All this with an attitude of too bad so sad, we don't know how to apologize. I am finding frequent $9.99 charges on my credit card from FYE VIP FYE VIP Backstage Pass: Won't cancel/Keeps charging after cancellation "After about a month or so, I check my credit card online statement (which should have been a balance of 0.00$, I had just made a payment) only to find that a product marked as FYE VIP Pass had charged me a total of 11.99$. I am beside myself with rage..." If you've had an experience (good or bad) with this program, please share it in the comments.

Amy Crehore's Dirty Blond banjo-uke Posted: 27 Apr 2010 04:30 PM PDT Amy Crehore just finished painting another stringed instrument. This time it is the beloved banjo-uke. She says, "It's called 'Dirty Blond' and it's a Slingerland from the 1920s with birdseye maple veneer on the sides. It's in excellent shape, restored to a natural shine by the luthier." My Dirty Blond Banjo-uke (Crehore) Previously: Ukulele Headstock Art by Amy Crehore Amy Crehore's "The Creature" limited edition print 3 new paintings by Amy Crehore Amy Crehore's "Monkey Love Series" prints for sale Amy Crehore's hand painted ukuleles Amy Crehore's "Dreamgirls and Ukes" show Friday, Feb. 13, 2009 at ... Interview with artist Amy Crehore Sneak peek at Amy Crehore's Dreamgirls and Ukes show Amy Crehore print for sale: "Bubble Gum Encore" Interview with artist Amy Crehore Amy Crehore show in Santa Monica Amy Crehore profile Amy Crehore's "Deja Vu Waltz" Amy Crehore's "Flower Muncher" painting Amy Crehore's "Flower Muncher" painting Amy Crehore's "Banana Eater" painting Two new paintings by Amy Crehore Ukulele Headstock Art by Amy Crehore New Amy Crehore painting Amy Crehore's Tickler ukulele Interview with Amy Crehore New Amy Crehore print "Roaming Tomcat Rag" Amy Crehore's Blues Gals series Three new Amy Crehore prints for sale

Insect Trap has admirable package design Posted: 27 Apr 2010 04:08 PM PDT Even if we didn't have a cricket infestation problem I would have bought this box of insect traps, because the packaging is so terrific. My 7-year-old daughter couldn't take her eyes of it. My wife was repulsed by it and made me remove the box from the kitchen, but admitted that its design was striking. I hope it works! Victor Poison-Free M256 Insect Magnet Traps 12-Pack

CSI shoots real-life crime investigation in the foot Posted: 27 Apr 2010 04:05 PM PDT This is not a still from a Children's Television Workshop-produced season of Dexter. Instead, it's a shot from inside a forensic science training center at the University of Glamorgan in South Wales. The Economist visited the school for a story on "The CSI Effect"—that unfortunate legal train wreck that is the result of jury pools being simultaneously over-informed, under-informed and misinformed about forensic investigation science by prime-time cop shows. And, apparently, the same television habits that make juries expect a 100%, no-question DNA match for every case is also giving criminals ideas for evading the law. Criminals watch television too, and there is evidence they are also changing their behaviour. Most of the techniques used in crime shows are, after all, at least grounded in truth. Bleach, which destroys DNA, is now more likely to be used by murderers to cover their tracks. The wearing of gloves is more common, as is the taping shut--rather than the DNA-laden licking--of envelopes. Investigators comb crime scenes ever more finely for new kinds of evidence, which is creating problems with the tracking and storage of evidence, so that even as the criminals leave fewer traces of themselves behind, a backlog of cold-case evidence is building up.

Who can build the tallest tower with a marshmallow, tape, string, and dry spaghetti? Posted: 27 Apr 2010 03:57 PM PDT In this six-minute TED Talk video, Autodesk Fellow Tom Wujec describes a team-building contest in which groups of four people are asked to build the tallest free-standing structure possible out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of tape, a yard of string, and a marshmallow. Wujec says that very young kids usually build taller and more interesting structures than most adults, because they build a lot of prototypes in the 18 minutes each group is allotted, while adults spend a lot of time planning, then have no time to correct their mistakes. Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team

Where does oil come from? Posted: 27 Apr 2010 03:40 PM PDT With apologies to Soundgarden, our cars aren't burning dinosaur bones. Instead, most scientists think oil started out as plankton and other tiny ocean critters, specifically their lipids—tough, stringy molecules that bacteria want to eat about as much as you enjoy dining on gristle or tendons. The idea is that, unlike the rest of the biologic material, lipids don't get gobbled up by bacteria, instead falling out to the bottom of the ocean, where they're covered by millions of years of sediment and eventually become oil. One researcher told LiveScience that some petroleum molecules actually resemble lipids found in cell membranes. Interestingly, there's a small faction of researchers who say petroleum isn't the fossil fuel everybody thinks. This theory—that the carbon precursor of oil has nothing to do with decomposing organisms, has existed deep within the Earth probably since the planet formed and seeps upward through the mantle—was popular in Soviet Russia, but doesn't match up with what we know about the composition of petroleum and where deposits are likely to be found. That said, recent research has shown that it's theoretically possible for certain hydrocarbons to be synthesized under conditions found in the Earth's mantle. So the mechanism is realistic, even if there's no evidence that petroleum is really being produced this way. Image courtesy Flickr user richardmasoner, via CC Previously: Why oil prices rose to more than $100/barrel What an oil slick looks like from space Graph compares rock music quality with US oil production 1949-2007 ... Peak oil article in Rolling Stone

This spring at Coney Island Posted: 27 Apr 2010 10:27 PM PDT Coney Island is one of those places that has an outsized profile in the American imagination, but it's seemed to exist since the 1970s in twilight, halfway between a glorious past and an uncertain future. That's some of what photographer Joshua Brown saw on a visit last winter. Now, prompted by yet another round of rumors that developers are readying the wrecking ball, Nick Carr's great "Scouting NY" blog has taken a long look at the beleaguered beach resort, including a tour through the magnificently derelict Bank of Coney Island. (Carr's a location scout, which explains why he seems to be all over the five boroughs; the bank pictures, though, come from another scout, whose identity Carr is keeping to himself.) Over at Kickstarter, meanwhile, filmmaker JL Arsonson is fundraising for a documentary called "Last Summer at Coney Island." He's down to a 96-minute cut and is rounding up donors to help him bring it home. (Full disclosure: I'm one of them.) What do the three have in common? An affection for Coney Island as it's been -- down at the heels, sure, but authentic in itself, and a window into a kind of mass-market popular culture that our big cities are ever more willing to bulldoze. It seems like every spring brings fresh rumors of Coney Island's demise. It'd be a shame if this year they finally came true.

Android app crowdsources UK election spending survey Posted: 27 Apr 2010 03:30 PM PDT Election Champion is a little Android app that asks its users to snap pictures of election billboards across the UK, and plots the pics and their locations on a Google Maps mashup, tracking UK election spending by all parties. You can also play over the net. Top snappers get points, props on a leaderboard. Neat. (Thanks, Yishay!)

On Peter Watts's sentencing hearing Posted: 27 Apr 2010 03:27 PM PDT Madeline Ashby, Dr Peter Watt's friend (and mine) has written a beautiful piece on Tor.com about Peter's sentencing hearing: "This is a love story. This is the story of one man who had no idea how many people were in his corner. Not just the people standing up for him in court, or the ones who wrote letters to his judge or to the governor of Michigan, but the people all over the globe who donated to his legal fund, who bought his books, who talked about the case with their friends and neighbours, who blogged it and tweeted it and kept the conversation alive."

Goldman Sachs email: "one shi**y deal" Posted: 27 Apr 2010 03:40 PM PDT During today's hearings with Goldman Sachs execs on Capitol Hill, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) got into it with former mortgage chief Dan Sparks over whether he and his colleagues felt they had a responsibility to tell clients when betting against their trades. This is a huge story, needless to say: the firm made billions off the market's collapse, while investors and the American public were hopelessly screwed. The volume of emails and what they reveal is massive and complex—but sometimes, stories like these are best approached one detail at a time. Here's a good, small place to start: Levin pointed to a particular transaction that one of Sparks' bosses termed a "shi**y deal" in an email. The Senator used the phrase "shi**y deal" at least a half dozen times at the hearing. Sparks did not respond directly, and said it was not his own description of the transaction. Later in the day, when asked about the email, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said, "I think that's very unfortunate to have on email." People in the gallery laughed, and Senator Levin said, "On email? How about feeling that way?" Viniar said, "I think it's very unfortunate for anyone to have said that, in any form." Levin asked about whether it was unfortunate to believe it, and Viniar said, "I think that's very unfortunate as well." Some protesters inside the chambers wore striped prison outfits and held pink signs reading "SHAME." Lawmakers, Goldman execs clash at hearings (MSNBC/Reuters) Previously: Why Goldman Sachs is going down Goldman Sachs bankers ready themselves to kill peasants in the ... Maybe Goldman's bankers are getting guns after all (and even if ... Taibbi on Goldman Sachs: "Planet-eating Death Star," "Vampire ...

The "fair use economy" is enormous, growing, and endangered by the relatively tiny entertainment industry Posted: 27 Apr 2010 03:19 PM PDT The IT industry's US lobby group has released a report calculating the size of the "fair use economy" in the US -- all the businesses that rely on fair use, including web hosting companies, private schools, search engines and many others. The total for 2007 (the last year for which stats are available) is a whopping $4.7 trillion -- one sixth of US GDP -- with over 17 million people employed. The report is a counterpoint to those crazy Hollywood stats that show that every job in America will disappear unless copyright is extended to infinity, all network connections are surveilled, and every infringer is fined her entire net worth and stuck in jail. Industries benefiting from fair use have grown dramatically within the past 20 years, and their growth has had a profound impact on the U.S. economy.8 The development and spread of the Internet as a medium for both business and personal use has been creative and transforma- tive. The creation of new businesses (e.g., Google and Amazon) and business activities has in turn fueled demand from other sectors of the U.S. economy (e.g., fiber optics, routers and consumer electronics) and transformed a host of business processes (e.g., communications and procurement). The advent of the Internet and networking technology also has been widely credited with reviving U.S. productivity growth after two-decades of below-trend productivity.9 As higher productivity is an important source of income to labor and capital resources, the "new economy" has helped spur overall growth and offset structural declines in other sectors of the economy. FAIR USE IN THE U.S. ECONOMY (PDF) (Thanks, Ryan!) Previously: Fair use industries returned $4.5 trillion to the US in 2006 ... India's copyright bill gets it right Surowiecki on the "anticommons problem" -- The Gridlock Economy ... US makes Korea eliminate fair use US Copyright Czar wants your thoughts on how to measure and reduce ...

Walking robots battle at RoboGames 2010 Posted: 27 Apr 2010 03:14 PM PDT Alex Ward of Trossen Robotics sent me this great video of fighting crawlers and walkers from the Mech Warfare competition at RoboGames 2010. He said: "It was a huge hit this year especially with Fon Davis of ILM and Grant Imahara of Mythbusters helping out. Fon and his company did all the incredibly detailed arena work, all the way down to the miniature phone booths and parking meters." I can't wait until someone enters a PETMAN into the competition: RoboGames 2010: Mech Warfare

After 44 years, Malcolm X killer paroled. On Malcolm X boulevard. Posted: 27 Apr 2010 08:40 PM PDT After 44 years, Malcolm X killer paroled. On Malcolm X boulevard. (via Clayton James Cubitt)

The Incident: a game of 8-bit cataclysm Posted: 27 Apr 2010 03:22 PM PDT Alongside Kometen, another upcoming iPhone game featuring heavily on the radar is The Incident, from Panic designer Neven Mrgan and programmer Matt 'Big Bucket' Comi. Still heavily in development, The Incident is a simple idea executed with fantastic style -- your only goal as its every-man star is to avoid being buried under the weight of everyday objects falling either down or, err, up, on a search to figure out exactly what is causing this pedestrian doomsday. With hints of Katamari's cataloging of the objects of modern society and the "a funny thing happened on the way to work" slapstick tone similar to the vastly under-rated PlayStation minigame collection Incredible Crisis, Incident appears to be wrenching very good vibes from very bad days. The Incident [Big Bucket] Previously: Kometen: the debut iPhone game from Blueberry Garden dev

New Google Maps Option: "Avoid Arizona" (alright, it's a joke) Posted: 27 Apr 2010 01:12 PM PDT Not real—yet. (thanks, Danny Sullivan) Previously: Arizona's "papers please" law inspires frijoles-swastikas - Boing ...

Imaginary Foundation's "Make A Difference" flyer Posted: 27 Apr 2010 12:54 PM PDT I love this little piece of street art/provocation. Our co-conspirators at Imaginary Foundation posted a PDF at the Imaginary Foundation blog. "Make A Difference"

Knife-throwing mommy Posted: 27 Apr 2010 01:36 PM PDT Take that, helicopter parents.

Map of US states where first cousin marriage is legal Posted: 27 Apr 2010 11:49 AM PDT In most states, it is illegal to marry someone of the same sex. In other states, it is legal to be married to your first cousin. While looking at gay marriage inequalities, Mac McClelland was inspired to make a map showing where kissing cousins can make an honest man/woman out of each other. "Map of the Day: Cousin Lovin'"

Former CIA station chief, accused of rape, found wandering around motel with his junk hangin' out Posted: 27 Apr 2010 11:50 AM PDT Former CIA big-guy Andrew Warren, whom ABC News reported held the position of Station Chief in Algeria where multiple women accused him of drugging and raping them, has been arrested in Norfolk after wandering around a Ramada motel with his junk hanging out of his pants. (via Danger Room)

Taschen's MOONFIRE: now for less than $1,000 Posted: 27 Apr 2010 07:57 PM PDT I fondled a copy of the limited-run Taschen release of Moonfire by Norman Mailer when it first came out last year. It was the most visually luscious print homage to space I've ever seen (or groped). Come to blog of it, Moonfire may be the most beautiful books I've ever seen, period. It's surely the only one offered with its own piece of lunar rock (and a print signed by Dr. Buzz Aldrin). Problem is, the original limited-edition version cost $1,000 (and what copies remain sell online in some places for $1,500). But great news for space junkies this week: Taschen has released a smaller version for $39.99 with the same page count, same content. It's part of the publisher's 30th anniversary "Golden Book" line. And greater still, I'm seeing them offered on Amazon for $26. No moon rock, no Buzz signature, but something I can afford to put on my shelf (and will). Above, a detail of my favorite photograph in Moonfire: Neil Armstrong prepares for launch on March 16, 1966, in the Gemini VIII cockpit (courtesy NASA). Isn't that just a perfect, beautiful portrait? God I love that image so much. •Norman Mailer - MoonFire. The Epic Journey of Apollo 11 •Flash gallery of book contents here.

License plate with coded racist message recalled Posted: 27 Apr 2010 11:41 AM PDT The Virginia DMV recalled the license plate on this truck for containing a coded racist message. [T]he DMV agreed that the plate contains a coded message: The number 88 stands for the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, doubled to signify "Heil Hitler," said CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper. "CV" stands for "Confederate veteran" -- the plate was a special model embossed with a Confederate flag, which Virginia makes available for a $10 fee to card-carrying members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. And 14 is code for imprisoned white supremacist David Lane's 14-word motto: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." Virginia stamps out license to hate: DMV recalls plate with coded racist message

Orange juice's deep, dark secrets Posted: 27 Apr 2010 11:40 AM PDT Last year, I linked to an interview with Alissa Hamilton, author of Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice. Hamilton's book has now been released in paperback, and Smithsonian blogs some more of the not-so-sweet secrets of big brand juice that Hamilton uncovers in her book. From Smithsonian: Think about it; how could it be truly fresh year-round, when oranges are a seasonal product? Sure, it may be "not from concentrate," but raw juice is often heated, stripped of its volatile compounds and flavor-rich oils, and stored for as long as a year before it reaches the consumer. Something called "the flavor pack" is used to return most of the "natural" aroma and taste to the product, Hamilton explains: The flavor is sourced from all parts of oranges everywhere…Typically, the orange oils and essences that juice concentrators collect during evaporation are sold to flavor manufacturers, who then reconfigure these by-products…into 'flavor packs' for reintroduction into orange juice. Often, those by-products come from other countries and may contain unknown pesticide residues, but the producers don't have to disclose that. "Squeezed: The Secrets of the Orange Juice Industry" (Smithsonian) Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice (Amazon)

Protecting the Loch Ness Monster Posted: 27 Apr 2010 11:41 AM PDT Newly published documents show that William Fraser, a Scottish police chief in the 1930s, not only was convinced that the Loch Ness Monster exists but feared for her safety. "That there is some strange creature in Loch Ness seems now beyond doubt, but that the police have any power to protect it is very doubtful," wrote William Fraser, chief constable of Inverness-shire Constabulary. The Telegraph reports that Fraser had sent the correspondence to the Under Secretary of State at the Scottish Office, after a London man claimed to be having a custom harpoon gun made to kill the legendary beast. The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) has followed up with an article quoting my pal Loren Coleman of Cryptomundo about Nessie's unspoken government protection, a very real matter we've posted about on BB before. The CSM oddly ended the article by talking about US presidents who have seen UFOs, and illustrated the piece with the famous 1934 "Surgeon's photo" above without mentioning that it was revealed years ago to be a hoax. But it's still a great photo, isn't it? From the CSM: Sightings often describe the monster's iconic neck sprouting from the lake, but Coleman says experts agree that those sightings are only of an otter's tail or a water bird's neck. In his opinion, the Loch Ness monster is something like a whale or a walrus... Coleman says that new animal discoveries show that humans still have a lot to learn about the world. Just three weeks ago, scientists reported that they had discovered a new species of giant lizard in the Philippines. Coleman says that the finding underscored how strange animals – from Big Foot to Yeti to the Loch Ness monster – may still be lurking beneath our noses. "There are animals out there that will surprise us in the future," he says. "Loch Ness monster is real: former Scottish police chief" Previously: Records released regarding Nessie's government protection

Science Fiction magazine art gallery from LIFE Posted: 27 Apr 2010 11:24 AM PDT This week, physicist Stephen Hawking warned that we should avoid contact with extraterrestrials as long as possible, or risk their wrath. To bring that point home, our friend Ben Cosgrove at LIFE published a big gallery of creepy-fun science fiction cover art from the golden age of SF magazines in the 1940s and 1950s. "Fantasy & Sci-Fi Magazine Art" Previously: The science fiction book art of Richard Powers Science fiction art of 2006 Penguin science fiction covers past and present Science fiction cover-art explorer: mind-blowingly awesome - Boing ... 8 Wonders of the Solar System, art by Ron Miller

Refined carbs are bad for the heart, not fat Posted: 27 Apr 2010 11:06 AM PDT Scientific American reports that a meta-analysis of a couple of dozen dietary health studies reveals that processed carbs are more to blame for obesity, diabetes and heart disease than saturated fats. In 2008 Stampfer co-authored a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that followed 322 moderately obese individuals for two years as they adopted one of three diets: a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet based on American Heart Association guidelines; a Mediterranean, restricted-calorie diet rich in vegetables and low in red meat; and a low-carbohydrate, nonrestricted-calorie diet. Although the subjects on the low-carb diet ate the most saturated fat, they ended up with the healthiest ratio of HDL to LDL cholesterol and lost twice as much weight as their low-fat-eating counterparts. Carbs against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart

How not to write an internship cover letter Posted: 27 Apr 2010 11:00 AM PDT I think this person is going to have a very hard time landing a job. [via @jopearl]

Kometen: the debut iPhone game from Blueberry Garden dev Posted: 27 Apr 2010 10:51 AM PDT Following a semi-depressing seasonal lull in truly outstanding iPhone games, it appears that the indie dev community is starting to make a springtime comeback. Case in point: Kometen, the first iPhone game from Erik Svedäng, creator of Indie Games Fest 2009 grand prize winner Blueberry Garden (available on Steam here). Not a terrible amount is known about Kometen, but -- from the looks of the video above -- it would seem to have at least some things in common with Svedäng's prior work: primarily stand-out visual design (from Garden's pen & ink to Kometen's hand-watercolored universe, created by Niklas Åkerblad) and a focus on the pure joys of unguided exploration. The app's currently with Apple for approval, so it shouldn't be long before we can feel its "speed, beauty & grace" for ourselves. Announcing Kometen [Erik Svedäng]

Destroying a cinder block with a dry ice bomb Posted: 27 Apr 2010 10:56 AM PDT Smashing a cinder block with a 3-liter plastic soda bottle, water, and dry ice. I don't think a cinder block has as much tension strength as compression strength, but it is still impressive. (Via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories)

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