Friday, June 25, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Charlie the Unicorn lip-dubbed by Sean Bonner and friends

Posted: 25 Jun 2010 01:42 AM PDT

A few years ago, after a web video conference, a bunch of Internet luminaries — Sean Bonner, Micki Kriimmel, Nick Douglas, etc — got together in a living room in LA to make this hilarious lip dub of Charlie the Unicorn. It's one of those videos that gets better with age — the more times you watch it, the funnier it is.

(Thanks, Joi!)

Jesse Thorne describes his audio interview gear

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 11:04 PM PDT

I asked Jesse Thorne, producer of The Sound of Young America, to describe his audio setup. Read it here.

The Curfew: edugame about fighting the surveillance society

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 11:01 PM PDT

Speaking of kick-ass edugames my wife's behind, The Curfew is a forthcoming Channel 4/Littleloud game for kids 14+ that explores issues of surveillance, authoritarianism and liberation in a near-future Britain where a law-and-order party has taken over the country. Meant to be a tonic against sleepwalking into the surveillance state, it's subversive, thought-provoking and way fun. Due out end of July.

The Curfew



Young people, risky behavior and the net: the facts

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 10:08 PM PDT

danah boyd and Samantha Biegler have released a draft literature review on "Risky Behaviors and Online Safety," commissioned by Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. It looks at the latest papers on the risks presented to young people by using the Internet; if you've been reading the newspapers, the distance between the reality and what you've heard in the sensationalist accounts of pedos, cyberbullies, etc, will surprise:
Concerns about online predators are pervasive, but the image that most people hold doesn't necessarily match with the data about sexual crimes against minors. For starters, the emphasis on what takes place online tends to obscure the fact that most cases of sex crimes against children do not involve the Internet at all. As we seek to help youth who are victims, we must continue our efforts to address victimization in the home and in the community; addressing Internet- initiated victimization alone will not help the vast majority of children who are victimized. When facing interventions to address Internet-initiated victimization, we must be attentive to research that highlights that some youth are more at-risk than others. Youth who have psychosocial issues, family and school problems, and those who are engaged in risky behaviors are far more likely to be victimized than the average youth using the Internet. Targeting those who are more at-risk will allow us to help more youth. Research also suggests that most youth who are victimized are not deceived about the abuser's age, do discuss sex online before meeting up offline, and are aware of the abuser's sexual intentions when they decide to meet them. These youth often believe that they are in love and have no mental model for understanding why statutory rape is a crime. In order to help these youth, we cannot focus solely on preventing adults from engaging with youth; we must also help youth recognize that these encounters are abusive before they occur.

While the Internet has affected the contours of bullying and harassment, research continues to emphasize the interplay between what occurs online and what takes place offline. Many of the same youth are susceptible to victimization and those who engage in online bullying are not wholly distinct from those who bully offline. While much research is still needed to stabilize definitions and measurements, there is little doubt that bullying is prevalent both online and offline, affecting all communities even if it doesn't affect all individuals. We need interventions that get at the root of bullying, regardless of where it takes place. Because research consistently shows a connection between psychosocial troubles, family and school issues, and bullying, we cannot presume that parents are always equipped or present to intervene (and may in fact be part of the problem). Although countless programs have been developed to educate kids about bullying, far too little is known about the effectiveness of these programs. Finally, what happens online is more visible to adults, but we cannot assume that the most damaging acts of bullying are solely those that we are able to witness.

Risky Behaviors and Online Safety: A 2010 Literature Review

Regwall cuts The Times's online readership in half

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 10:03 PM PDT

Rupert Murdoch's Times newspaper has instituted a registration wall as a preliminary step toward a full-blown paywall. Readership of the online edition immediately dropped by 50%.
But, according to Hitwise's numbers, simply adding the registration barrier has cut traffic to the site almost in half. Prior to the change, The Times was seeing somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five percent of the traffic going to the print news media category; after, it was hovering around two percent.

Hitwise also tracked where users were going once they hit the registration page. About a third stay on one of The Times' properties, but many head straight to another news site (The Telegraph and The Guardian are big winners here), or simply to Google.

UK paper requires free Web accounts; traffic plunges


Domino's Pizza deliverators demand your SSN when you pay with a credit card

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 09:59 PM PDT

Some Domino's pizzerias (I use the term loosely) are demanding that you give the driver your Social Security Number when you pay with a credit card: identity theft ahoy!
When I called the local Domino's about this, I was told that drivers are now required to get the information because, she said, people have been ordering pizzas with stolen credit cards. Why showing that my license and Visa matched wasn't sufficient, she couldn't say.
Domino's Delivery Guy Demanded My Social Security Number

(Image: Domino's Pizza, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from adjourned's photostream)



Scenes From A Multiverse: funny webcomic from the creator of Goats

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 10:11 PM PDT


Jon Rosenberg, creator of the stellar and awesomely weird webcomic Goats, sez, "Just thought I'd let you know about the launch of my new webcomic, Scenes From A Multiverse. Five days a week we'll be visiting new places across an ordinary multiverse and see how folks there live. Readers have a chance to influence the itinerary by voting for Repeat Destinations each Friday, reality-show style."

Scenes From A Multiverse - A daily comic about life by Jon Rosenberg



EU secretly pushing to put kids in jail for sharing music: ACTA leak

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 09:43 PM PDT

More leaks from behind the scenes at the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations: the EU is pushing for criminal sanctions for non-commercial copyright infringement. That means putting kids in jail for trading music with one another.
"The ACTA agreement, by its opacity and undemocratic nature, allows criminal sanctions to be simply negotiated. The leaked document shows that the EU Member States are willing to impose prison sanctions for non-commercial usages of copyrighted works on the Internet as well as for 'inciting and aiding', a notion so broad that it could cover any Internet service or speech questioning copyright policies. EU citizens should interrogate their governments about their support to policies that obviously attack freedom of speech, privacy and innovation. Around the next round of negotiations and beyond, ACTA should be restlessly combatted and opposed worldwide." concludes Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.
Leak: EU pushes for criminalizing non-commercial usages in ACTA (Thanks, Adam!)


iPad home automation

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 04:24 PM PDT

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Admittedly I'm a first class dork, and I have been writing about home automation for many years. From climate control, to music, to hard core energy savings (vampire devices not allowed), I use automation to make my life a little better. For example I'll be heading out on vacation in July and while I'm gone, lights will turn on randomly at night, outside motion detectors will make people think someone is home, plants will get watered, chicken coop doors will go up and down, cameras will keep an eye out for the pet sitter, water mains will be watched, and I'll be able to login remotely and check that all is well and the house hasn't burned down.

The one hitch in my system for years is that since I've been building my own UI's for controlling the house, I've been limited because touch screen devices were either too expensive or limited by functionality and screen size. I've had a touch monitor, Nokia N800, and even an iPhone mounted to my walls. However as soon as I got my iPad home, I knew that I'd found the perfect touch device and started to rebuild my UI from scratch.

First I found some metal framing material at Lowes and built a mount for the wall. Then I embedded a rare earth magnet in the wall and spackled it in place so you couldn't see it. I cut a strip of tin, flattened it, and mounted it to the back of the iPad behind some velvet. This way when you place the iPad in the mount, it clicks and sticks to the wall (no velcro for me). With that done I moved on to a new UI. Here's a description of what I have so far:



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All Lights Off: Basically this will shut all lights off in the house.

Everything Off: Everything non-critical (light/appliance) will turn off.

Television: No vampire plasma TVs. This shuts the TV off at the outlet.

Fireplace: Gas fireplace. Turning it on via automation puts it on a 45 minute timer. Saves energy.

Coffee Grinder: 6:30 every morning, freshly ground coffee. Not going to be home? This turns it off.

Grinder Times: You can run the grinder at any time, and select how long to run it. Coffee pot or espresso shot?

Living Room Lights: All lights in the house are controlled. These control just the living room lights.

Percentages: Set what level you want the lights at.

Outside Lights: These are all the house lights and landscape lighting, which are on a timer as well.

Patio Lights: turn on all the accent lighting, and even set the brightness.

Kitchen Motion: The kitchen lights (like many lights in the house) operate on a motion detector. Sometimes you want to disable that.

Vacation Settings: Leaving? Clicking this button sets everything in motion. When you return, everything is back to normal.

Sonos Settings: While my Sonos already has a controller, this let's me quickly jump to my favorite music, pause, or mute. Coming soon, a Pandora page.

Thermostat: My Ecobee smart thermostat is web enabled, so this jumps to that page. Plus, I can login from my iPhone to control my thermostat with their app.

Timers: Need to set a reminder that the laundry will be done in 45 minutes? Baking something? This tells the kitchen iMac (VESA mounted) to announce the timer is set and when it is done. Using Growl and Applescript I also get notifications on my laptop, my wife's laptop, and a text message to my phone.

Watch Movie: Turns on the TV, sets the audio to the right input, turns on the TV, and sets the TV input to the Mac Mini Media Center. I could even script this to open either Front Row, Hulu, or Netflix on demand.

Bedtime: Turns on the the Hall Lights, Bedroom and Master Bath lights, and puts all other lights on a 10 minute timer.

Entertain: Sets all the lighting to a certain ambiance and turns the Sonos on with a party playlist.

More Controls: Eventually I'll have another page of controls for irrigation, music, and the security system.

So far the iPad is an outstanding touch screen solution, and I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing all sorts of people using it as a kiosk. I'm in the process of writing an ebook about automation so I'm excited to see what other ideas I come up with during that project.

A visit to Maximum Fun headquarters

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 10:58 PM PDT

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Earlier this week I went to Jesse Thorn's in-home Los Angeles studio, where he does his interviews for The Sound of Young America, the most consistently interesting interview program on the planet.

I like the fact that Jesse keeps his costs down by producing the show in a spare bedroom. That means every dollar he gets in donations goes as far as possible. I've been doing a lot of interviews for my book over the past month at plush public radio stations, and I'm sure the rent, equipment costs, and staff salaries to keep them running are enormous. Jesse's costs are a tiny fraction of a public radio station's, yet the sound quality of his shows are just fine. Jesse, you are the future.

UPDATE: I asked Jesse to describe his set-up, which he kindly did. Here's what he said about it:

I use Shure SM7 microphones. These are famous for being the mics that Michael Jackson used to record his vocals for Thriller, but they're really a great all-purpose microphone. They're also tough and cheap - at least compared to other studio vocal microphones. They cost about three hundred bucks, and the next step up is several thousand. They work great for my purposes because their pickup pattern really emphasizes the guest and de-emphasizes the guy outside my window with the leaf blower. Very forgiving.

My mixer is a Mackie Onyx 1620, with the optional built-in firewire audio interface. I record in multi-track these days, but before I did that, I used a Mackie 1402-VLZ Pro, which is now in our road kit. The SM7s need a lot of gain (signal boost) and Mackie has a reputation for having the cleanest microphone pre-amps. For phone interviews I have a Telos One. We actually don't do phone interviews anymore, but I do do "tape syncs," which are the poor man's way to link up two studios - no ISDN here, so I just put a remote guest in a studio, call them up, record on both ends, and match them up later. My CD player is the cheapest rack-mounted CD player I could find. Same story with my headphones and headphone amp. I listen back on B- headphones, because I figure that's how most people will listen anyway. The radio on my desk (which is also my monitor) is a Tivoli Audio Model Three, which is a wonderful machine that I recommend highly - especially if you get it for $14.99 on clearance at Target, which I did. I record on a PC in Adobe Audition 3. I started with Audition's predecessor, Cool Edit, which was $19.99, and Audition is like three hundred bucks, but that's the cost of being "professional." I do my backup recording with a Zoom H4 flash recorder, and store my many huge files on a Drobo with four terabyte drives in it. My shows are hosted with the very good folks at Libsyn, who I also recommend.

Generally I find that you can make a listenable podcast by simply having a microphone for each person, a working mixer, and decent mic skills. Using a mic is pretty easy, and if you stay on-mic, even a $10 microphone will sound good enough. Too many people try and record with one mic shared between multiple people, or with an onboard or headset mic. That won't fly. My friends at Never Not Funny recorded their whole first season with mics that their producer Matt bought 3-for-$10, and it sounded fine. I just recorded an episode of the amazing Superego comedy podcast , and they had the most motley assortment of mics I've ever seen - and theirs is maybe the best-produced podcast I've listened to. I also think Audacity, which is free, multi-platform and open-source, is plenty good for most podcast applications. If you're thinking about putting together a podcast, check out This American Life's comic book, Radio: An Illustrated Guide, which you can get from their website. It's from before the podcast era, but it has a lot of great information on technique in pretty much every area of podcast production.

Img 2200By the way, if you ever visit Jesse's place, do not get into a staring contest with Coco. You will lose.

The Sound of Young America

eBoy posters in the Boing Boing Bazaar!

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 03:41 PM PDT

Eboytokyoooo-1
Ebaoyyyyy I couldn't be prouder that the amazing pixel pushers of eBoy, creators of our own Jackhammer Jill, have set up shop in the Boing Boing Bazaar/Makers Market. Seen here is their Tokyo Poster, 33.1" × 46.8", available for $27. Also in the shop: Venice, Los Angeles, London, Cologne, Maker Faire, and more! "eBoy is Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig and Svend Smital. We create re-usable pixel objects and take them to build complex and extensible artwork. And we make toys."
eBoy in the Makers Market/Boing Boing Bazaar

Steam offers deep-discount game sale

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 03:13 PM PDT

steamsaleindieplain.jpg PC (and now Mac!) digital download service Steam has kicked off a site-wide sale offering big discounts on everything from AAA to indie, including bundles like the 'Northern Lights' pack (above) -- which includes Crayon Physics, the aforementioned Saira and the excellent UK indie Plain Sight -- and the Best of the Underground pack. Also of note, all the games from Darwinia creators Introversion are bundled for $5, and even recent releases like BioShock 2 and Borderlands are around half off (and available in their own 2K bundle). The Steam store site has the full listing of discounted items, which remain on sale until July 4.


BP disaster: Louisiana boat captain says BP is burning sea turtles alive

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 02:24 PM PDT

youtubeseaturtle1.jpg Conservation biologist Catherine Craig shot this video interview with a Louisiana boat captain named Mike Ellis, who claims that BP is blocking access to rescuing sea turtles, and incinerating turtles in oil. More here. (thanks, everyone)

Free "Prosecute BP" stickers

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 02:17 PM PDT

In-ear audio monitors from JH Audio

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 03:23 PM PDT

Jh16Big

This probably falls under the "too much information" category, but I have weirdly-shaped ear canals. Instead of being roughly circular, the cross-section is pinched and narrow. As a result, in-ear buds don't fit well. My ear canals push them right out. I like wearing old-fashioned headphones, but they aren't always practical.

So when JH Audio offered to make me a pair of its PRO series custom-fit, in-ear audio monitors, I happily accepted. I've heard good things about these monitors. They're cast from your own ear shape, so they fit the contours of your ear bowl perfectly.

Images AngelanelsonThe first thing I had to do was visit an audiologist to get a casting of my ears made. I visited Angela Nelson, a clinical audiologist in Burbank, California. She was very nice and even let me take photos of the process, explaining what she was doing every step of the way.



Ear-Monitors-4
She mixed together two goopy substances and spooned it into a syringe. Then she squirted the blue goo into my ears.





Ear-Monitors-2

For the next couple of minutes, while waiting for the goo to cure, I couldn't hear anything. (Thanks for taking this photo, Dr. Nelson!)



Ear-Monitors-1

Dr. Nelson then gently removed the hardened molds from my ears, put them in a cardboard box and sent me on my way. If you click the thumbnail image on the left, you will be treated to a view of my earwax.



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I mailed the ear molds to JH Audio, and a couple of weeks later they arrived in what seems like a bomb-proof plastic case.





Ear-Monitors2

The first time I tried using them, it took about 5 minutes to figure out how to fit them into my ears. It's like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. (Now I can get them in without effort).



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The sound quality is superb, and I can keep the volume of my iPod very low (in fact, I've learned to turn the volume down before putting the JH5s in my ears to avoid a shocking blast of sound). They do a better job of blocking outside noise than the noise canceling headphones I've tried. They fit snugly in my ear, and they are supremely comfortable.





JH5 Pro in-ear audio monitors starting at $399.00

Random dudes on YouTube now covering Die Antwoord

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 02:10 PM PDT

It was inevitable. Bridgemary Kiss covers "Enter the Ninja" by Die Antwoord (thanks, Adam Stanhope).

BP "reporter" flies over oil spill, "filled with wonderment"

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 02:48 PM PDT

Directly lifted from BP's blog, and first mocked on the Rachel Maddow Show:

• Planet BP reporter Tom Seslar flies with an oil-spotting crew over the Gulf of Mexico and sees a deeper appreciation of the relationship between coast and sea and energy and nature than can be had on the ground or in a boat.

• "It's strangely peaceful up here - just right for surrendering to some meditation.

• I'm filled with the wonderment of what's happening below our chopper only moments after it lifts off from an airport in Houma, La."

• "It's likely there will be no alternative to the Gulf as a key source of American energy for decades to come. That's why it is so essential to protect it. Even the most severe critics of the oil industry tend to accept that reality."

"Reporter" Tom Seslar, I have a message for you on behalf of America (and her reporters): go suck it.

Flying higher to get closer to the spill response - 15 June 2010. There's more where that came from. Oh, they have a YouTube channel for this crap, too, specimen above. (BP.com)

American Vuvuzela (now with added vuvuzela)

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 01:27 PM PDT

The sound of vuvuzela en masse reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite place it. Until now. I got it. The dulcet tones of SRL's V1, Hovercraft, and Pulse Jet, from Mark Pauline and crew (thanks, @MarkusHunt).

So you know what's even a crazier video watching experience? The little soccer ball icon on the YouTube player when you click this link and watch this video right on the YouTube site? That adds vuvuzela noise to whatever video you're watching. So, click that button while watching SRL videos on YouTube.com, and don't forget your hearing protection. Yo dawg, I heard you like...

Obama on Twitter and diplomatic relations with Russia

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 02:33 PM PDT

USA Today:

[Obama pledges further economic cooperation with Russia, and says he supports Medvedev's bid to join the World Trade Organization. Also cites Medvedev's visit this week to "Twitters" -- it's really called Twitter -- and jokes that tweets may be a new method of U.S.-Russian communication:

"We may finally be able to get rid of those red phones."

"Fine, I can hear you now, Dmitry, clear and plain and coming through fine. I'm coming through too, eh? Good. Well, it's good that you're fine and I'm fine..."

They had a burger, too.

PRIVATES: action-packed reproductive health edu-game (in your naughty bits)

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 12:34 PM PDT

Zombie Cow and Channel 4 have just released the first trailer for PRIVATES, a reproductive health education game for teenagers. It's an action-packed, side-scrolling adventure game. In a vagina.

My incredibly awesome, award-winning, genius wife commissioned this; it's the latest in a series of "public service games" she and her colleagues at C4 are releasing as part of the broadcaster's public service remit.

Privates is a platform twin-stick shooter in which you lead a teeny-tiny gang of condom-hatted marines as they delve into peoples' vaginas and bottoms and blast away at all manner of oozy, shouty monsters. It's rude, funny, bitingly satirical and technically pretty accurate if you don't count the tiny people or the germs with teeth.
Zombie Cow Studios and Channel 4 announce 'Privates'


How a visit to Fermilab changed kids' perceptions of what a scientist is, and who can be one

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 11:53 AM PDT

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Never underestimate the power of the field trip. Turns out, visiting real scientists doing real science had a big impact on what one group of seventh graders thought scientists looked and acted like.

The kids drew and captioned pictures before and after their trip. One of the first things that struck me, flipping through these shots, was how much more hair the real scientists had. The "before" drawings look like something out of central casting—a lot of old white guys in lab coats, often hovering over beakers full of bubbling, green liquid. The "after" images become real people—men and women, of all races, with much lower rates of male pattern baldness. Apparently, the kids caught on to the basic idea behind the existence of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists.

Also noteworthy: The way scientists became relateable to the kids, what seem to have previously thought of scientists as weird, crazy people that didn't do anything but work. Here's what a student named James said before:

When I think of a scientist I think of brainy and very weird people. I think of lots of bottles with chemicals in them. I think of explosions with chemicals. I think of tiny little disks with data information on them. I think of little gadgets that are used for things that I do not know what they are.

And after:

A scientist is a normal person. They have a life. Scientists are just like you. Scientists wear normal clothes and not big lab coats. Scientists have hobbies like baseball and volleyball and basketball. A scientist's job looks like a lot of fun.

(Via Kateryna Artyushkova)

BodyShock The Future: submit ideas to improve global health

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 12:15 PM PDT



Do you have an idea to improve global health over the next three to 10 years? A fully-baked product idea? A back-of-the-envelope sketch of a novel invention? My colleagues at Institute for the Future's Health Horizons program have just launched BodyShock The Future, a public challenge to generate ideas that could make people healthier. The grand prize for the best idea is $3,000. Five winners will participate in an expenses-paid design showcase in Palo Alto. You have until September 1 to submit a video, graphic, illustration, chart, or other artwork. (See the above sample video for an admittedly ambitious example!) When submitting an entry, you can choose from a variety of Creative Commons, GPL, and other licenses. From IFTF BodyShock the Future:
Bodyshockfutututut BodyShock is a call for ideas to improve global health over the next 3-10 years by transforming our bodies and lifestyles. Are you:
• a DIY scientist trying to extend healthy human life?
• a developer who wants to invent a mobile diabetes app?
• an elder caregiver with ideas to help people age in place?
• a patient creating an emotional wellness tracker?
• a citizen with a plan to reduce air pollution in your community?
BodyShock The Future

CDSea

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 11:27 AM PDT

Here's a crazy cool project at the intersection of art and environmentalism: CDSea, a new installation by British artist Bruce Munro. Munro has been collecting castoff CDs from donors, and this past weekend he and 140 volunteers arranged the discs -- 600,000 of them, mostly from the UK, but some from as far away as California and Brazil -- in a single layer on Long Knoll Field in Wiltshire. The BBC has a slideshow here. The installation, which Munro calls "a glittering inland sea illuminated by natural light," will stay up for two months, after which the CDs will be collected and sent for recycling. (Via artdaily.org.)

ABC News and Xeni test FaceTime

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 11:19 AM PDT

iPhone 4's FaceTime video calling: better than Skype? Xeni and ABC news try out the WiFi-only feature in this TV segment. Looks kinda choppy to me -- but better than Skype. [ABC News] Also: the bigger picture on why Apple made this. [DF]

Make's Circuit Skills: Perfboard Prototyping video

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 11:04 AM PDT


Over at Make: Online, the amazing Collin Cunningham has a new video to teach you practical electronics. This time, it's about perfboard prototyping and he shows you how to make a "rather unusual guitar effect."

When you think "DIY electronics," one of the first images that likely comes to mind is of parts and wire soldered to a standard piece of perforated circuit board -- and that makes sense. Perfboard is widely used because it's so versatile. Essentially, it's just a grid of potential solder-point connections. You can trim it down to just the size you need, or leave extra space for future enhancements, or revisions, if need be.
Make's Circuit Skills: Perfboard Prototyping video

"Obama Wants Our Women"

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 10:59 AM PDT


Communism sure is scary. How else to explain its continuing deployment as an all-purpose bugaboo (and thoughtful gift), decades after it posed any real threat, an idea so scary that people use it when they really mean Socialism, which sounds a little too Facebooky to strike fear into the hearts of idiots?

But what is it, exactly, that makes Communism so terrifying? The redistribution of wealth? The drab, shapeless uniforms?

As someone who has recently spent a couple of years in the 1950s - when there were actual Reds around to scare - I have a theory. An examination of hundreds of popular movies from the time, which baldly reflected the national psyche, reveals that Americans were less frightened by nuclear annihilation or universal health care than they were by the loss of what was most precious to them:

The Commies were coming to carry away their women.

This is a familiar trope to anyone who has ever visited an art museum or googled "rape of." And it has proved quite handy over the years in motivating our menfolk.


Davies H482.Wwi Poster.Us.Destroythismadbrute



The above recruiting WWI recruiting poster brought to mind a subgenre of the 1950s Monsters-Stealing-Our-Dames, one which taps deeper into the primal fear.



Showpid-66



Wp-Content Uploads 2009 03 Robot Monster 080320070842



Bride And Beast Poster 02



Captive Wild Woman



Teenage Zombies



So, when folks call Obama a Communist, or the mythical chimera Communist-Nazi-Muslim, one could argue that what they really mean is:



I Walked With Zombie Poster 022



(Unsurprisingly, the carrying off of struggling or unconscious women appeals to some men's specific needs, and there are websites devoted to it. This one is dedicated to the carrying of exclusively Asian ladies.)

IBM hard disk drive from 1956

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 10:46 AM PDT

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With a capacity of 5 MB, the IBM 350 disk storage unit could have stored about two MP3 files. This photo, showing a unit getting forklifted onto a plane, is from 1956.

IBM's history website has more information about the drive.

IBM 350 disk storage unit (Thanks, Roy Doty!)

World record for body piercing?

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 11:37 AM PDT

On Saturday, Aryan Hopkins of Roseville, California hopes to be the most pierced person in the world, at least for a little while. He's planning to receive 2,000 temporary body piercings, nearly doubling the current record, in a fundraiser for a chilren's hospital. (It should be noted that Elaine Davidson, who I posted about here, claims to have 6,000 body piercings but perhaps that hasn't been confirmed?) An EMT will be standing by, and the public is invited to Hopkins's tattoo shop for what's sure to be a bloody good time. From CBS13 (CC image/Malinki :
3611 3643179571 D5C8B0711C Fellow tattoo and piercing artist Paul Dunkleberger will have the task of inserting the 18-gauge hollow needles an eighth of an inch apart up and down Hopkins' body.

"We'll be applying a stencil all over his body," Paul said. "I think he can do it. I've tattooed his whole chest."

Hopkins said he isn't too worried about the pain, but he is worried about passing out: After they insert the 2,000 needles, they all have to come out. When needles are inserted into the skin for several hours, the skin tightens and bends the needles, which could lead to serious complications.

"Man Going For World Piercing Record: 2,000 Needles"

Psychedelic music video for Blockhead

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 10:50 AM PDT


The psychonauts at Dose Nation spotted his terrifically trippy video for a tune from Blockhead's latest album, "Music Scene."

All your favorite dinosaurs suck

Posted: 24 Jun 2010 08:59 AM PDT

What's your favorite dinosaur? Actually, that doesn't really matter because your opinion is just. plain. wrong., says comedian Dan Telfer. Included: A great reference to the differences between the Velociraptors you know and fear thanks to Jurassic Park, and actual Velociraptors, which had feathers and were a nice size for kicking. Pedantry can be fun!

Fair warning: Includes swear words. Some people may consider this inappropriate for small children and coworkers who act like small children.

(Via Tommy Bobo, who is awesome.)
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