The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Philip Zimbardo on "The Secret Powers of Time"
- To do in LA: Gary Baseman's characters come to life at La Brea Tar Pits
- A helpful reminder for modern life
- BP disaster update: BP spills coffee, birds "cooking" to death in Gulf oil, June 12 protest
- Washington Post Journalist confronts his hoarding
- New policy for changing gender on US passport
- Hey LA: come see Bit.Trip devs Gaijin at Giant Robot June 14th
- Painted ukuleles in the Boing Boing Bazaar
- Steven Pinker: "Tech rots your brain" hysteria is stupid
- Deleting Facebook accounts doesn't
- Made by Hand book signing in Los Angeles, Saturday, June 12
- Daily news in comic form
- BP Oil Spill: Daily Dead Wildlife Tally
- EarthSky interviews Mark about Made by Hand
- Revised edition of The Urban Homestead
- Nintendo 3DS details emerge
- Animatronic bed of 1883 features winking bronze statues of women
- Report from an ER nurse in Haiti
- SCO is done
- Women scientists on the debate over women in science
- A compendium of essential world knowledge on back page of "Fun for Boys"
- Real clowns protest murder by imposter clowns
| Philip Zimbardo on "The Secret Powers of Time" Posted: 11 Jun 2010 03:03 PM PDT In this wonderfully animated video, Professor Philip Zimbardo (of the famed Stanford Prison Experiment) "conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world." (Thanks, Katie!) |
| To do in LA: Gary Baseman's characters come to life at La Brea Tar Pits Posted: 11 Jun 2010 02:41 PM PDT  24 of artist Gary Baseman's characters, including the ChouChous and the Tar Pit Girls, will perform and engage with crowds at the La Brea Tar Pits park and the LACMA museum in Los Angeles this Saturday: Choreographed by Sarah Elgart, and featuring a song by Carina Round, this dynamic experience will create new and alternative memories of one of LA's major landmark areas. Creating an atmosphere of whimsy and wonder, attendees who join the jollity by dancing or playing will receive limited-edition sashes with original art by Gary Baseman.Saturday, June 12, 2010, at the La Brea Tar Pits Park, Los Angeles, Performances: 12 pm, 1 pm, and 3 pm (with vignettes in between and until 4 pm). It's free! More info here. Video follows...
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| A helpful reminder for modern life Posted: 11 Jun 2010 02:23 PM PDT  This public service announcement brought to you by the hardwood floor sander my husband and I are currently renting. But I feel the sentiment has a wide range of applications. |
| BP disaster update: BP spills coffee, birds "cooking" to death in Gulf oil, June 12 protest Posted: 11 Jun 2010 02:15 PM PDT • BP Spills Coffee. • Those gulf birds are effectively cooked alive in the oil. As you know, a bird has a natural repellent in its feathers that keeps the water out. That's a little area -- a little cushion -- that keeps it cool. Well, this oil here gets on those feathers, and they lose that little insulation. And then, when you have this oil at 100+ degrees, the bird experts say, it begins to literally cook the birds.• Don't know much about this, but here it is: Worldwide BP Protest Day - 12 June 2010 • Should you eat shrimp from the gulf? (Good Magazine, and I don't care what they say, I won't be.) • NOAA: Freqently asked questions about Hurricanes and the Oil Spill. (PDF Link) • Image: from a second heartbreaking Boston Globe "Big Picture" series on the spreading devastation, "A sea turtle is mired in oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Grand Terre Island, Louisiana June 8, 2010. (REUTERS/Lee Celano)." Full series here. (via Constant Siege)
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| Washington Post Journalist confronts his hoarding Posted: 11 Jun 2010 02:48 PM PDT Michael S. Rosenwald of the Washington Post wrote a a brave piece about coming to terms with his hoarding condition. Later, I would learn from Frost that I keep my stuff on tables and in piles because having everything in plain sight provides comfort and, in a sense, a form of organized disorganization. If I can see it, I know it's there. That was the practical explanation. But as the students questioned me -- about the pleasure I feel acquiring stuff, the anxiety I feel tossing it -- I sensed that there was something deeper, more philosophical. And it was this: All of the stuff I pile up is a sort of second body, my twin. I am Michael Rosenwald, and those piles -- the books, magazines, fountain pens, inks, newspapers, everything -- are also me. The more I have of it, the more I am me. Up there in front of the class, I was beginning to confuse myself, and then I felt as if I might cry.The mess he made: A life-long slob decides it's time to get organized |
| New policy for changing gender on US passport Posted: 11 Jun 2010 01:34 PM PDT Transgender individuals who want to change their gender listed on their US passport no longer must be post-op. However, the application still requires a doctor's note. From CNN: The doctor's certification must confirm only that the passport applicant has undergone treatment for gender transition. Limited-validity passports for applicants who are in the process of gender transition also will be available under the policy."Surgery no longer a requirement for changing gender on passport" (Thanks, Rachel Hatch!) |
| Hey LA: come see Bit.Trip devs Gaijin at Giant Robot June 14th Posted: 11 Jun 2010 12:36 PM PDT  Tomorrow I'll be headed out for week at the yearly-roman-orgy-of-videogames that is E3, and while it's not quite the indie tour-de-force of GDC, there will be a good enough number in town to make for some interesting times. Case in point: before the expo properly begins, games-culture shop Attract Mode, Giant Robot and upstart non-profit LA Game Space will be partnering to do a free, public live event with Gaijin Games, creators of yesterday's top recommended game, Bit.Trip Runner. The Bit.Trippers will be having their games projected onto Giant Robot's GR2 building itself -- as all games should be -- and GR.eats (their accompanying restaurant) will be offering a special Bit.Trip menu, as well. So, you should come out! It's probably going to be pretty amazing. It'll all be taking place Monday, June 14th, from 7:30-10pm at GR2, 2062 Sawtelle Blvd, and will mark the first of a new bi-monthly series of similar 'Game Night's. More information is available via Attract Mode and Gaijin Games. See you there! |
| Painted ukuleles in the Boing Boing Bazaar Posted: 11 Jun 2010 12:18 PM PDT  Shelley Rickey (who made a great cigar box ukulele) has a store in the Makers Marker that sells ukulele-related merchandise, including some great hand painted instruments. This beautiful uke was customized by the wonderful Marc Kolle. Marc is an illustrator often featured in prominent newspapers, magazines and web-media. We are very proud to have him as part of 'The Jumping Flea Market Team'. |
| Steven Pinker: "Tech rots your brain" hysteria is stupid Posted: 11 Jun 2010 11:48 AM PDT  Supposedly, the use of technology is making it harder for human beings to focus and get things done. As somebody whose focusing and self-management skills have been drastically improved in recent years, thanks to technology (Shout-out to the nice folks at Daylite! Thanks, Twitter, for improving my focus and on-the-spot analysis during conference lectures! DEVONthink PRO, you rock at helping me manage information and think big-picture!), I was already pretty skeptical about this assertion. Seems that I have no less an authority than Steven Pinker backing up my skepticism.
New York Times: Mind over Mass Media Image courtesy Flickr user Hljod.Huskona, via CC. |
| Deleting Facebook accounts doesn't Posted: 11 Jun 2010 11:13 AM PDT Remember how Jason Calacanis ostentatiously deleted his Facebook profile, because Facebook doesn't respect its users or their privacy? Facebook didn't close his account down. Turns out that if third-party sites (like Twitter or YouTube) make updates to your profile within 14 days of the deletion, Facebook resets the process. How about that. [TechCrunch] |
| Made by Hand book signing in Los Angeles, Saturday, June 12 Posted: 11 Jun 2010 10:38 AM PDT  If you live in Los Angeles, I hope you come to my book signing for Made by Hand at Portrait of a Bookstore in Studio City on Saturday, June 12th at 4pm. Portrait of a Bookstore (inside Aroma Cafe), 4360 Tujunga Ave, Studio City, CA 91604. I'll bring some jars of honey and give them to the first 10 people who have me sign a copy of the book. |
| Posted: 11 Jun 2010 10:33 AM PDT  Lisa K tells me that presenting daily news-as-Manga is far from a new phenomenon in Japan, but Manga No Shimbun is a new Web site devoted to the form. According to Wired, "the site employs more than 100 manga artists to cover breaking stories, updating 10 or 15 times a day." Manga No Shimbun |
| BP Oil Spill: Daily Dead Wildlife Tally Posted: 11 Jun 2010 10:33 AM PDT  dailydeadbirds.com and @bpdeadbirds, generated with data from the US Fish and Wildlife reports. Tracks the daily death toll from the BP oil spill. No commentary, just the numbers. (Thanks, Amy and Stacy) |
| EarthSky interviews Mark about Made by Hand Posted: 11 Jun 2010 10:12 AM PDT EarthSky interviewed me about my new book, Made by Hand. They posted an 8-minute interview and a 90 second interview. The 8 minute version is here:
Mark Frauenfelder: If you take the time to repair something, it becomes part of you, and you have connection to the human-made environment around you. Having a say in that – and having it reflect your personality and your desire to make things the way you want them to be – is a powerful way to exist. In my book, I talk about taking back some of that control by even doing a little bit of that. You can take back control of the way you eat, for example, by growing your own food, keeping bees, and raising chickens. You get a little bit of that control back, and it can improve the quality of your life quite a bit.EarthSky interviews Mark Frauenfelder about Made by Hand |
| Revised edition of The Urban Homestead Posted: 11 Jun 2010 10:00 AM PDT  The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City, by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. It's honest, non-utopian, approach gave me the courage to try my hand at raising chickens, composting, growing vegetables, and practice old school food preservation methods. In my 2008 review of the book, I wrote, "Unlike many self-sufficiency books, this one isn't preachy, unrealistic, or dogmatic. Instead, it's honest and often humorous. Kelly and Erik (who run the Homegrown Evolution blog) are wonderfully lucid and accessible writers. They also walk the walk -- I visited their Los Angeles home and spent a wonder couple of hours touring their abundant vegetable gardens and henhouse filled with clownlishly entertaining chickens." I was pleased to learn that The Urban Homestead has been expanded and revised. The new projects include: • How to sterilize jars and bottles I'm looking forward to trying some of these new projects myself. Congratulations, Kelly and Erik! |
| Posted: 11 Jun 2010 09:58 AM PDT |
| Animatronic bed of 1883 features winking bronze statues of women Posted: 11 Jun 2010 09:44 AM PDT  Thom Buchanan of The Pictorial Arts posted this photo of a bed with four life-size bronze figures, made for Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan Abbasi V of Bahawalpur in 1883. The four figures at the corners represent women of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. With clever mechanisms, the statues were able to wink and wave fans and fly whisks... [T]he bed was fitted with a music box that played a thirty minute interlude from Gounod's Faust, activated by a button.Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan Abbasi V's bed |
| Report from an ER nurse in Haiti Posted: 11 Jun 2010 09:37 AM PDT My dear friend Jenny, an ER nurse, is in Haiti right now doing triage work. She just sent out this email update from the ground that describes what the medical situation is like there. I didn't realize that Haiti had never had an ER until we arrived in January. It started out in tents, but we have since moved into a building and are hoping to keep the ER going after we pull out in one month. Honestly, it doesn't seem feasible because we're still running the majority of the unit. The Haitian MDs and RNs are wonderful to work with, but most of them don't show up to work. They haven't been paid by the government in four months and many of them lost their homes. So actually, I think they're angels for even showing up. Jenny will be back next week, so hopefully we'll have another update and some photos then. |
| Posted: 11 Jun 2010 09:26 AM PDT A judge has refused to overturn a jury's verdict that SCO doesn't even own the Unix-related intellectual property it claimed ended up in Linux. This spells a final doom for its litigation against companies that use it. [Groklaw] |
| Women scientists on the debate over women in science Posted: 11 Jun 2010 09:46 AM PDT  Earlier this week, the New York Times published the first part of a two-part series by John Tierney looking at the current state of women in the sciences—in particular, whether the playing field can ever really be level, or whether innate neural differences mean there will always be more men getting ahead in science and math careers than women.
There've been a lot of responses to this article since it came out, but I wanted to know what actual female scientists thought. After the cut, you can read the perspectives of four smart women who have four different, insightful takes on the issue:
Dr. Carolyn Porco: Standardized tests vs. real world success With regard to the recent news that, after decades of `gap narrowing', differences still exist in standardized test performance between boys and girls at the extreme end of the distribution of test scores ... I think that this result, even if permanent, has little bearing on which gender will be better equipped to succeed in scientific careers. There is so much more involved in doing scientific research than just raw mental abilities. Given an adequate to above-average measure of analytical ability, it next comes down almost entirely to personality. Traits like drive, persistence, focus, confidence, insightfulness, emotional intelligence, ability to rebound from setbacks, ability to accept criticism, enjoyment of solitude, and an abiding, intense desire *to know* that will separate out those who succeed from those who don't. In any `big science' enterprise, like planetary exploration, where you must work in big teams of similarly driven people, it is important also to know how to work alongside others even when they may be your fiercest competitors. I've known males whose analytical abilities were off the charts—the ones on the extreme end of the curve that we are now discussing—but who just couldn't cut it in the world of scientific research, because they lacked some important personality trait. So, I don't agree that we can find excuses in the results of standardized test scores for the uneven distribution of males and females in academic departments and other science-related positions. There are other legitimate reasons why the male/female numbers don't reflect the general population, but the new findings are probably not among them. It might be that females, who tend to be more sociable, don't gravitate to a lifestyle that requires a great deal of solitude. Also, child-rearing is still, to my viewpoint, a largely female responsibility, and it's not easy to be very dedicated to a career—any career—and be a mother also. Women do it, but it's just not that easy. I think a large factor is the barrage of messages that girls receive from their surroundings ... parents, friends, internet, advertisements, the culture at large. I'm thrilled to see that amidst the cacophony of messages that we all receive (but that young people are most susceptible to) we find the pitch that girls can be capable at analytical thinking, mathematics, science, politics, and just about everything else that has been traditionally available to males. This has been growing since I was a young woman and it's been encouraging to see. But, it is still the case: being a scientist is not as socially acceptable as other pursuits. It's true still for boys; it's far, far more prevalent for girls. For instance, we have over a thousand Cassini-interested individuals who are members of the CICLOPS Alliance—a group that interacts with each other and with other Cassini scientists in a forum (of sorts) that takes place on the CICLOPS website. And the vast majority of these folks are males. And the audience profile for the entire CICLOPS website is largely male. And even my being a female and leading this experiment hasn't drawn the same numbers of women as it has men. Also, let's not forget: females have a special challenge when entering a male-dominated field that operates on male cultural norms and requires male traits—assertiveness, even aggressiveness, competitiveness, etc.—to be successful. When males act like males, they are doing what is expected and are rewarded for it. When a woman acts like a male (which is what she HAS to do to be successful), she is very much regarded otherwise. How many women will be able to handle that? The threshold for those in the vanguard is awfully steep. We still have a long way to go. However, things ARE improving. There are SO many more women in the field of planetary science, my field, than there were when I was young, and that's a great sign. And with more and more entering these male-dominated fields, the threshold will get lower. The culture of behaviors will change, and with that, expectations will change and will be more accommodating of females. It will get easier. I do think that putting too much credence in the results under debate could frighten away young women who aren't so confident to begin with. How should we be judging whether or not the sciences have been made more inclusive? Make education more accessible to women—ALL women, not just Americans. Reward them as much for their work as you reward the males, and they will fill all niches eventually, and that will change the complexion of the whole enterprise. I think the numbers are growing and that it has become more inclusive already. I don't worry too much about there not being the proper ratio between males and females near the top. It will happen eventually. Dr. Kirsten Sanford: "Different" doesn't mean "better" or "worse" I agree with Tierney that Summers was pilloried for some unfortunate statements on a very touchy subject. After going back to read the transcript again, I think he was really trying to start a conversation (so many prefacing disclaimer-like statements leading up to his main ideas). However, it's very difficult to publicly address the possible reasons that we see such an obvious imbalance between women and men in academic hiring. Suggest that it might be for biological reasons as opposed to strictly social reasons, and you risk opening an unmanageable can of worms, which Summers discovered all too late. But, in discussing the extreme right tail, Summers did and Tierney does miss the bigger point. Is the academic institution too entrenched in its devotion to those few scientific individuals who make up the extreme right tail? The scientific and academic enterprise is much larger than the physics departments of the top 10 top tier universities. Yet, we see the hiring biases persist throughout the system. About five years ago, I spent a lot of time looking at the University of California's hiring practices, and speaking with people who had worked on the issue since the 70's. The consensus was that hard work over the preceding three decades at changing systemic awareness by implementing workshops and hiring practice protocols (i.e. affirmative action) had significantly improved the ratio of women to men across the board, but that a recent complacency had led to dramatic drops. Just looking within the UC system, we can therefore see evidence that systemic adjustments do decrease the gender hiring bias. It might not solve the problem, but it certainly can't hurt. We have to seriously think about the reasons that the extreme right tail individuals are seen to succeed in the sciences. Of course, there is a natural propensity for analytical thought, but isn't there also a systemic bias, a social bias to be impressed by and favor individuals with higher test scores? Does science tend to value the higher math test scores over higher verbal test scores? If so, is this smart considering that most of research involves creativity and communication in addition to data collection and analysis? Back to hiring again, we know there is currently no shortage of female undergrads in the sciences, and numbers of male applicants are decreasing. Similarly, more and more women are pursuing PhDs. Also, as Tierney stated, women are promoted and get grants as often as men. Why are fewer women than men getting hired for academic tenure-track positions? There is something wrong here, and I don't think it is explained by the extreme right tail. Yes, there is plenty of research that supports the idea that women's brains generally collect and process information differently from men's. But, as has been stated many times before, different doesn't mean better or worse. Science stands to lose significantly if it refuses to productively address the biases that currently exist in the system. It's worth a try to see if awareness workshops initiate a change in attitudes because, really, we can collect data until we are drowning in it and generate alternative hypotheses until we gorge ourselves on them, but we will never know if we can change things unless we try. Dr. Esther Takeuchi: Encouraging women in science isn't just good for the women—it's good for the science I would like to respond to the article by making two points. The first point is that participation of women is good for science. The second point is that it is now time to act to resolve the continuing lack of participation by women. The first point: participation of women is good for science and may help in addressing the many technical issues that still face the world today. Perspective may be an important aspect of problem solving in science. Scientific problems often are revisited over time by a variety of scientists with each individual making a small but unique contribution towards the solution. What is considered creativity on the part of an individual may in fact be a different perspective. In order to solve problems which are currently considered intractable, it may be critical to involve people who are traditionally not participants in the scientific process, especially women because of the unique perspective that they bring. The current numbers that I have seen demonstrate that there are still far too few women in science. I submit that anybody who can bring a different perspective brings a new level of creativity, precisely because they think about solutions in different ways. The second point: it is now time to act. Often, situations arise where it is obvious that action rather than further study is needed. If your house is on fire, you do not want to commission a study on the nature of matches and their relationship to wood. Rather, you want to take action and put out the fire. In parallel or subsequent to extinguishing the fire, it is certainly valuable to understand more about its cause. The situation with women in science is similar. Roughly 50% of the population is underrepresented in scientific fields of growing importance for the 21st century. It is not good for science or the country to continue this trend. It is now time for action rather than to rationalize further delay in action by requiring further causal analysis. In closing, the low participation of women and some ethnic groups in science may be more grounded in the culture of science than in the ability of the women and other groups. It is important that the culture of science, math and engineering be inclusive rather than exclusive. In order to solve problems which are currently considered intractable, it may be critical to involve people who traditionally have not been participants in the scientific process. Dr. Isis: I am bored to tears with this "debate" John Tierney titles his article "Daring to Discuss Women's Potential in Science," as though he is bravely daring to out the dirty little secret that we all supposedly know deep in our hearts. Girls suck at math and science. The truth is, they really don't. It's just that John Tierney sucks at googling. Tierney wrote his article in response to the passage of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 by the US House of Representatives. Section 124 of Subtitle C under Title I of this 248 page bill is titled "Fulfilling the potential of women in academic science and engineering" (see page 68 of the bill). This section requires that:
He then continues to outline the evidence that boys tend to be the top scorers in math and science when measured via standardized aptitude tests, even if there is no difference between the means. Yet, he clearly has ignored the fact that this phenomenon is unique to the United States. Indeed, in countries with more gender equal cultural norms, the divide disappears. In Iceland, girls out perform boys in math and science. Japanese girls out perform American boys. Maybe in his next column Tierney will argue some type of evolutionary difference between the boys and girls in these other countries and American boys and girls. Personally, I would find it much more interesting if he would start posting recipes for pies we could make with all the cherries he's picking. When he brings up the evidence that the gender gap in aptitude tests has not shown the same rate of closing that it once did, he misses the evidence that the performance of elementary school aged girls on these tests is related to the level of anxiety displayed by their almost exclusively female teachers, who have been socially pre-conditioned with this anxiety. This anxiety remains abundant. But, thank goodness for all of us that Tierney is daring to ask the tough questions. Maybe next time he'll also dare to completely research a topic before he writes an article. However, where he really fails, and fails hard, is here:
Can we all agree that Tierny pulled this completely out of his ass? Someone who scores in the top 99.9% of an aptitude test is more likely to get tenure than someone who scores in the top 99.1% in the seventh grade? Really? As my dear brothers PhysioProf and Drugmonkey have discussed on their blog, scientific knowledge, per se, does not predict one's success as a tenured academic researcher. Managing a lab as a principal investigator at a major research university requires management skills, the ability to effectively communicate to the scientific community and obtain grant dollars, the ability to effectively teach and mentor more junior scientists, and the ability to creatively outline novel research directions. I would argue that these things are not necessarily predicted by an aptitude test taken in the seventh grade. Which, brings us back to the idea of gender bias and culture. This is where we need to be looking in order to close the gender gap in STEM. Recently ScienceMama from the Mother of All Scientists sent me a link to this article from Science about how successful academic women learn to outsource daily tasks like housekeeping, childcare, and laundry. While, I think the advice is generally good, ScienceMama picked up on the underlying social message of the article. She wrote to me:
She's exactly right. We can spend our time discussing SAT scores, but I worry that we are missing the most important thing that keeps women out of science—the cultural attitudes that teach women that if they choose a demanding career, they aren't fulfilling their duties as wife and mother. |
| A compendium of essential world knowledge on back page of "Fun for Boys" Posted: 11 Jun 2010 09:07 AM PDT  Mister Jalopy writes on Dinosaurs and Robots: Fun for Boys includes a chapter on moneymaking enterprises such as raising pigeons for profit. However, the gold of the book is not the text but is the list of other Padell titles. It appears a library stocked with the full selection would be a sort of compendium of essential world knowledge.A compendium of essential world knowledge on back page of "Fun for Boys" |
| Real clowns protest murder by imposter clowns Posted: 11 Jun 2010 09:05 AM PDT On Monday in San Salvador, two men dressed as clowns shot and killed a man on a public bus after he refused to turn over his money. Yesterday, 100 professional clowns, who perform frequently on buses, marched through the city to show that most clowns are happy-go-lucky and not cold-blooded killers. From the Associated Press (painting by John Wayne Gacy): Angry clowns decry armed robbery by imposters |
Kotaku has the scoop on a new portable gaming console: 
"We are protesting so that people know we are not killers," said professional clown Ana Noelia Ramirez. "The people who did this are not clowns. They unfortunately used our costume and our makeup to commit a monstrous act."| 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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