Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Open Science summit: Berkeley, July 29-31

Posted: 19 May 2010 04:17 PM PDT

Joseph sez,

This summer, scientists, hackers, students, patients, and activists will convene to discuss the future of our science/technology paradigm. Topics include: Synthetic Biology, Gene Patents, Open Data, Open Access, Microfinance for Science, DIY science, DIY Biology, Alternative Funding for Science, Open Source Drugs, Patent Pools, Open Health/Medicine, Patient Advocacy for Innovation

Ready for a rapid, radical reboot of the global innovation system for a truly free and open 21st century knowledge economy? Join us at the first Open Science Summit, an attempt to gather all stakeholders who want to liberate our scientific and technological commons to enable an new era of decentralized, distributed innovation to solve humanity's greatest challenges.

Sounds great to me! The event runs July 29-31 in Berkeley, CA.

Enlightenment 2.0: Unleashing the Open Science Revolution (Thanks, Joseph!)

Helping Johnny Remember: creepy video remixed from '60s PSAs

Posted: 19 May 2010 04:21 PM PDT

johnny.jpg Ashleigh Nankivell created this fabulously creepy remix short, sliced and diced from an old public domain social guidance PSA and re-animated with AfterEffects.

Helping Johny Remember (Vimeo, via Dangerous Minds, thanks Richard Metzger!)

Nigerian politician caught with belly full of cocaine

Posted: 19 May 2010 02:38 PM PDT

"Nigeria's drug enforcement agency says it has arrested a politician who allegedly swallowed 2 kg (4.5lbs) of cocaine to fund his election campaign." Agents say they found 100 individually wrapped packets of coke inside his belly.

No cash for iPads Apple Store policy a bummer for some (UPDATED)

Posted: 19 May 2010 07:12 PM PDT

ipadth.jpg// UPDATE: Apple reversed its "no cash for iPads" policy late today, presumably in part to the controversy around this story in the news. A good move. Original blog post follows. // In the news this week, a story about a disabled lady on a fixed income who'd saved up for some time to buy an iPad—and was denied the ability to complete her purchase at an Apple Store, because they don't accept cash for iPads. She didn't have debit or credit cards, just a backpack full of greenbacks. It's not the only such tale I've heard, but this would-be customer certainly inspires empathy. Apple instituted this policy (and others) in an attempt to limit the number of iPads shipped to overseas markets for unauthorized reselling—but as the article points out, there are ways for sneaky grey market profiteers to get around this, and this lady wasn't one of them. I wonder if Apple ended up resolving the issue with her? I'll post an update, if so. Read: Apple won't take iPad buyer's cash.

Spoonflower: online DIY fabric pattern service

Posted: 19 May 2010 02:17 PM PDT

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I recently wrote wrote about Colourlovers, a site that's revolutionizing the business of hues with inexpensive software and a vibrant community of—well, color lovers. Users can create their own palettes or patterns (like plaid, sunburst, or polka dots), and share them or import them to their Illustrator or other software.

If you've created your pattern and want to use it to make something outside of the digital realm, like curtains, clothes, bags, pillows, whatever, go to Spoonflower, upload your pattern, and create your own eco-friendly fabric. All of the fabric is printed in Mebane, North Carolina.

From the site:

It was founded in May 2008 by two Internet geeks who had crafty wives but who knew nothing about textiles. The company came about because Stephen's wife, Kim, persuaded him that being able to print her own fabric for curtains was a really cool idea.
I love it when chics and geeks put their heads together. Along with the site's 70,000 fabric enthusiasts, you have the option to enter a fabric-designing contest or vote in one. You can also order fabric designed by other users. Check out the "gingham invaders" fabric at the top of this post. The pattern is made of tiny space invaders.



EFF's "Bill of Privacy Rights for Social Network Users"

Posted: 19 May 2010 04:39 PM PDT

construct2_e0.gif Here's an op-ed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Kurt Opsahl listing what specific rights a responsible social network service should provide to its users:
Social network services must ensure that users have ongoing privacy and control over personal information stored with the service. Users are not just a commodity, and their rights must be respected. Innovation in social network services is important, but it must remain consistent with, rather than undermine, user privacy and control. Based on what we see today, therefore, we suggest three basic privacy-protective principles that social network users should demand...


Today is National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Posted: 18 May 2010 10:25 AM PDT

Today is National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and cities all over the country are having events to raise awareness and funds. One major public health issue among API communities is stigma. It's so taboo to talk about — or even think about — HIV/AIDS that two-thirds of Asians in America have never been tested and one in three HIV-positive Asians and Pacific Islanders don't even know they have it. Asian males were the fastest growing population of people with HIV between 2001-2004. When I first moved to San Francisco, I began volunteering at the API Wellness Center, where Asian men and women talk openly about sex, disease, and sexual orientation. It's also, in my opinion, one of the best places to get tested in San Francisco. I'm going to be at the Bloom fundraiser tonight in San Francisco. Come join us!

Verizon makes a hole in woman's lawn, fills it with bags of rocks

Posted: 19 May 2010 01:08 PM PDT

Verizon removed a utility pole from the front lawn of a home in Albany, NY, but the workers filled in the resulting crater by dumping in several sealed bags of rocks and then sprinkling some dirt on top. When the homeowner tried to garden the spot, she discovered the shoddy work:
She found there were big gaps between the bags, and dirt already was starting to settle into them and leave a sinking depression in the soil. Also, because the heavy stone-filled bags were so close to the surface, it would be difficult to plant the rose bush she wanted to put there.

Knapp said she has managed to haul out 13 bags but could not reach the bags at the very bottom of the hole. She opened six of the sacks and dumped the loose stones back in.

"This really seems like a pretty shoddy way to fill these holes, and I can't imagine mine is the only one they filled this way," Knapp said. "If they'd only opened the bags, ... ."

Since she wasn't home when the pole was removed, Knapp had no idea who did the work or who to ask to come back and do a better job filling the hole.

No stone unturned in the case of buried bags (via Consumerist)

(Image: Michael P. Farrell /Times Union)



Laptop webcam stickers remind you of the snitch inside

Posted: 19 May 2010 12:58 PM PDT


Ozge sez, "These stickers turn a laptop webcam into a CCTV camera. The idea is to comment on the latest incidents of spying on school children (in Lower Merion and the Bronx), which you have been covering."

Alas, they don't appear to be for sale. I'd love to give 'em out on school visits!

CCTV Stickers (Thanks, Ozge!)



Preview of Zombie Wonderland for iPhone

Posted: 19 May 2010 12:54 PM PDT


One of my favorite iPhone games is Chillingo's Monster Mayhem, so I have high hopes for its upcoming Zombie Wonderland game, which hearkens back to Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead.

Zombie Wonderland for iPhone

Video: Hacking is easy!

Posted: 19 May 2010 12:51 PM PDT



"You might as well give me the keys to your front door. I'm going to get into your system." (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!)

Dude, where's my amuse-bouche? NYT on haute stoner cuisine

Posted: 19 May 2010 04:04 PM PDT

user4251_pic3026_1236567146.jpg When I was a pothead in my misspent youth, "stoner cuisine" meant dingdongs and Domino's. In today's New York Times, a THIS IS SRS BIZNESS trend feature on on marijuana as an inspiration for highfalutin' cookin'. Not food that includes pot as an ingredient—weed brownies, or candies made from oil-soluble THC extracts— but instead, food inspired by what one wants when one has the munchies. Sweet, fat, carb-y goodness: the sort of sensual cravings you experience when you are baked. Featured in the NYT piece are such foodies as Anthony Bourdain, the hopheads behind Momofuku in NYC (cereal milk soft-serve icecream, maaaaannnn!) and the Kogi barbecue truck in LA.

Update: Noted buzzkiller Jack Shafer thinks the trend is totally bogus.

Self-portrait made with cables by Kasey McMahon

Posted: 19 May 2010 11:59 AM PDT

kasey-mcmahon-1-connected.jpg Connected // Global Brain Series // Self Portrait // 2010
Steel, CAT5 and other data cables
by Kasey McMahon

Charm chain doubles as a to-do list

Posted: 19 May 2010 12:37 PM PDT

charming_bracelet3.jpg

Designer Natalie Montgomery proposes this classy alternative to carrying around to-do lists: a charm braceletchain with different charms for different tasks. My to-do list is a bit more complicated than carrying an umbrella and buying gifts, but it's a cute idea.

via Yanko Design

Wanted: Steampunk Biblical Huts

Posted: 19 May 2010 11:29 AM PDT

sukkah-ron-almog.jpg A couple of years ago, I wrote a book about trying to live by all the rules of the Bible - moral, dietary, sartorial. Also architectural. For that last one, I had to build a build a hut and live it in for a week to remember my forefathers' flight through the wilderness (Leviticus 23:42). I couldn't get permission to build my hut on New York's sidewalks, so I ended up building a large rickety wooden structure in my living room. Which caused some consternation from my wife.

The commandment is still observed by religious Jews during the festival of Sukkoth in the fall. (My indoor hut wouldn't pass muster with rabbis, who say it's got to be outside).

Josh Foer and Roger Bennett -- two friends of mine -- are trying to reimagine this ancient tradition. They're holding an architectural contest in New York's Union Square, judged by heavyweights like Thom Mayne and New Yorker critic Paul Goldberger. So come September, look for Frank Gehry-like sukkahs, sukkahs on boats (which are kosher, I'm told), steampunk sukkahs (they've only had one steampunk entry so far, so they're looking for more). Christians, Muslims, Zoroastrians are invited to enter as well.

Sukkah City: NYC 2010

Photo by RonAlmog / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Woman fined for picking up the wrong dog's poop

Posted: 19 May 2010 11:14 AM PDT

60-year old Pam Robson was fined 50GBP for picking up the wrong dog poop while walking her dog. "I felt as if my integrity was being questioned," Robson told the BBC.

1950 Miss US TV beauty contest

Posted: 19 May 2010 11:16 AM PDT


I like the hairstyles seen in the DuMont Miss Television Network Beauty contest held at the Chicago Fair in 1950. The MC is hilariously smarmy, and Miss New Orleans TV's saucy tap dance routine (about 10 minutes in) was likely to have raised network censors' blood pressure a point or two. Miss Los Angeles's Afro-Cuban dance (about 23 minutes in) is also not to be missed.

Download page at Archive.org

Vintage ads depicting abused and domesticated women

Posted: 19 May 2010 11:16 AM PDT

Abusive-Vintage-Ads.jpg

WebUrbanist has a collection of vintage ads that remind me how far we women have come since the days when it was apparently okay to liken a woman to a floor mat and stomp on her head.

hswves.jpg

Giant constructivist iPhone sculpture

Posted: 19 May 2010 11:02 AM PDT

 Images Ipodsculptcon  Images  Palace Projectpages Tatlin Intl
Russian art collective and electronics hacker group Electroboutique created this giant iPhone Monument to 3G (image left) inspired by Tatlin's Tower (image right), a Constructivist monument designed in 1920 but sadly never built. From the artist statement:
Tatlin's work is considered one of the avant-garde icons, whereas iPhone is a bright techno-consumerist icon of today. Back in the 20's of the last centuries avant-garde artists have invented design as a way to bring art into people's homes. During the 20's century designers were gradually taking artistic ideas and implementing them into product design. Today we see companies claiming their products are art objects themselves; art has to re-define its role in the society again. The Monument to 3G links together the beginning and the current state of nearly a century of art-to-design dialogue and follows the strategy of re-claiming the designers' ideas back into art.
Monument to 3G (via Imaginary Foundation)

Paramount's Geographic Facsimile Map of 1927

Posted: 19 May 2010 10:41 AM PDT

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1927 map shows shooting locations in California and Nevada that could serve as "exoctic locales."

How to make augmented reality cookies

Posted: 19 May 2010 10:34 AM PDT

3927827104_d5f834d5cc_b.jpg

RISD industrial design student Mike Claire has posted instructions on how to make these tasty and interesting augmented reality vanilla cookies on his web site.

via Neatorama

48 Hour Magazine gets cease and desist letter from CBS

Posted: 19 May 2010 10:53 AM PDT

48 Hour Magazine, the project I took part in earlier this month in which a team of Bay Area journalists and designers created a print magazine in two days, received a cease-and-desist letter from CBS, owner of the 48 Hours TV series:
On May 11, Lauren Marcello, the assistant general counsel at CBS sent a cease and desist letter, noting that "CBS is the owner of the rights in the award-winning news magazine televison series, '48 Hours,' and its companion series, including '48 Hours Mystery,'" adding later in the letter, "your use is unlawful and constitutes trademark infringement, dilution and unfair competition ..." along with a lot of other complicated, vaguely threatening legalese.

..."To be honest, none of us even knew that there was still a program called '48 Hours,' so it never crossed our mind," said Mr. Honan. "When we were finished, we all felt like we had accomplished something significant, that there was a magazine there. It is the thingness of it, the physical evidence of the weekend that is so great. But the unfortunate truth I guess is that unlike what we said in the editor's letter, you can't do anything really large scale in contemporary society without have a legal team and a corporation."

The staff of 48 Hour Magazine has hired lawyers and are sorting things out. Update

48 HR magazine experiment big hit, except for that part about the lawyers [NYTimes]

Foucault's Pendulum cable snaps, causing irreparable damage

Posted: 19 May 2010 10:07 AM PDT

201005190955

The original 1851 Foucault's Pendulum at the Paris Technical museum fell from its cable, causing irreparable damage to the 28 kg brass bob.

The original pendulum, which was used by French scientist Leon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth and which forms an integral part of [Umberto] Eco's novel's labyrinthine plot, has been irreparably damaged in an accident in Paris.

The pendulum's cable snapped last month and its sphere crashed to the marble floor of the Musee des Arts et Metiers.

In 1851, Foucault used the pendulum to perform a sensational demonstration in the Paris Pantheon, proving to Napoleon III and the Parisian elite that the Earth revolved around its axis. Such was its success that the experiment was replicated throughout Europe.

Foucault's pendulum is sent crashing to Earth

Photo by Kongharald / Creative Commons Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

Overheard in the Newsroom: Superman and phone booths

Posted: 19 May 2010 11:29 AM PDT

Supermannnnnn
From the very funny (and provocative!) blog "Overheard In The Newsroom." (Thanks, Jason Schultz via Jess Hemerly!)

Norman Spinrad needs your good wishes

Posted: 19 May 2010 09:59 AM PDT

Dan sez, "My friend/hero Norman Spinrad, one of the great writers of science fiction, is very ill, undergoing treatment for stomach cancer at the Sloan-Kettering Center in New York. He's going into surgery tomorrow (in Norman's own words)and I'm hoping some internet-magic would bring him lots of good energy, appreciations, well-wishes and thanks during this scary time. Norman is a science fiction legend, president of the SFWA in the 80s, author of the original Star Trek episode 'The Doomsday Machine' and has never, ever stopped writing. His most recent novel, He Walked Among Us was published by Tor Books just two months ago."

This all happened so fast



Funny plastic bag for loaf of bread

Posted: 19 May 2010 09:48 AM PDT

201005190947

(Via the dieline)

1946 comic about a psychopathic man-baby

Posted: 19 May 2010 09:39 AM PDT

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"Enjoy" this four-page 1946 comic book story about a psychopathic man-baby who spends his day coming up with ways to torture animals and torment his parents. Fun for the whole family!

Little Jack Horner in Jack in the Box #11 (October 1946)

Adorable baby sloths in sloth orphanage are adorable

Posted: 19 May 2010 11:09 AM PDT

slothbb.jpg "Amphibian Avenger" writes:

"I filmed this at the Aviaros del Caribe sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica: the world's only sloth orphanage. Baby two- and three-toed sloths, whose mother's have either been run over or zapped by power lines are brought to the sanctuary and looked after by Judy Arroyo."

For more sloth photos and videos, visit her blog, or follow her on twitter. For more on the sanctuary go to slothrescue.org.

Video link (via Robin Sloan)

Biebians = Lesbians who resemble Justin Bieber

Posted: 19 May 2010 09:28 AM PDT

A new word for you to learn: Biebians = lesbians who resemble Justin Bieber, he of the eternally trending Twitter hashtag. (via Dangerous Minds)

Tom the Dancing Bug: Nate - Oil Spill

Posted: 19 May 2010 09:17 AM PDT

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