The Latest from Boing Boing

---

• The definitive Barack Obama portrait
• Raising funds for a critically acclaimed small science fiction publisher to create a novella market
• Wired examines the neuroscience of Alcoholics Anonymous
• America's "jobless recovery"
• Glucosamine no better than placebo for lower back pain
• Security theater tees
• Sauerkraut factory collapses in Ohio
• To do in Berkeley, CA: Meara O'Reilly's Chladni music with glass bottle orchestra, this Friday
• 101 things to grill
• Independent review of climate science tells us nothing we didn't already know
• Tomoko Sawada's cosplay self-portraits
• Can it really rain oil?
• Pinhole camera made from an iPhone box
• Thieves snag tractor-trailers full of pharmaceuticals
• Double Rainbow: The Song
• What's the Gulf oil spill destroying now?
• New NASA Spitzer telescope image: The Magic Dragon
• Crack the Code in Cyber Command's Logo
• Tom the Dancing Bug: totally rad, louis!
• Rick Lieder, AKA Wild Light, in the Boing Boing Bazaar
• Unicorn Chaser: "Unicorn Crossing" sign
• Man dies, then his mom, then both get eaten by cats
• Glocks stolen out of Israeli PM's bodyguard's luggage on American Airlines flight
• Basil Wolverton's CULTURE CORNER: grotesque HOWTOs from MAD Magazine's gross-out king
• To do in Ireland: Glen E. Friedman photography show opening in Dublin
• Mat Ricardo one-man show in London and Edinburgh
• Lohan's middle finger issues statement

The definitive Barack Obama portrait Posted: 07 Jul 2010 11:56 PM PDT Drew Carey offers a splendid presidential portrait, as seen in South Africa. [@DrewFromTV]

Raising funds for a critically acclaimed small science fiction publisher to create a novella market Posted: 07 Jul 2010 11:44 PM PDT Dario sez, "SF and Fantasy micro-press Panverse Publishing tested its engines last October with its acclaimed first title, Panverse One. Publisher Dario Ciriello's goal is to provide a permanent market for novella-length work, actively promote new writers, and restore the genre's core values of story and wonder. He believes Fantasy and SF are vitally important and essentially subversive literatures. With the help of Kickstarter, Dario wants to take Panverse into orbit and become a force for excellence in the field." Wonder. Story. They're Back! (Thanks, Dario!)

Wired examines the neuroscience of Alcoholics Anonymous Posted: 07 Jul 2010 11:21 PM PDT In this month's Wired Magazine, Brendan Koerner takes a look at the neuroscience behind Alcoholics Anonymous— and the neuroscience of alcoholism. More than a million people belong to AA. The "peer to peer" recovery system has been in existence for more than 75 years, founded during the Great Depression by a drunk stockbroker. How does it work? Nobody really knows. * As for the steps themselves, there is evidence that the act of public confession--enshrined in the fifth step--plays an especially crucial role in the recovery process. When AA members stand up and share their emotionally searing tales of lost weekends, ruined relationships, and other liquor-fueled low points, they develop new levels of self-awareness. And that process may help reinvigorate the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that is gravely weakened by alcohol abuse. To understand the prefrontal cortex's role in both addiction and recovery, you first need to understand how alcohol affects the brain. Booze works its magic in an area called the mesolimbic pathway--the reward system. When we experience something pleasurable, like a fine meal or good sex, this pathway squirts out dopamine, a neurotransmitter that creates a feeling of bliss. This is how we learn to pursue behaviors that benefit us, our families, and our species. When alcohol hits the mesolimbic pathway, it triggers the rapid release of dopamine, thereby creating a pleasurable high. For most people, that buzz simply isn't momentous enough to become the focal point of their lives. Or if it is, they are able to control their desire to chase it with reckless abandon. But others aren't so fortunate: Whether by virtue of genes that make them unusually sensitive to dopamine's effects, or circumstances that lead them to seek chemical solace, they cannot resist the siren call of booze. Secret of AA: After 75 Years, We Don't Know How It Works * Just keep coming back, because it does work.

America's "jobless recovery" Posted: 07 Jul 2010 10:31 PM PDT Dismal news about the American "jobless recovery" in yesterday's NYT. I've always thought the phrase "jobless recovery" illustrates the perfectly idiotic cognitive dissonance at play in financial thinking. If the thing you use to measure the health of your economy has gone up, but no one has a job, then surely you are measuring the wrong thing to gauge the health of your nation. The outlook this time is not so clear. Starved for jobs at adequate pay, the millennials tend to seek refuge in college and in the military and to put off marriage and child-bearing. Those who are working often stay with the jobs they have rather than jump to better paying but less secure ones, as young people seeking advancement normally do. And they are increasingly willing to forgo raises, or to settle for small ones. "They are definitely more risk-averse," said Lisa B. Kahn, an economist at the Yale School of Management, "and more likely to fall behind." In a recent study, she found that those who graduated from college during the severe early '80s recession earned up to 30 percent less in their first three years than new graduates who landed their first jobs in a strong economy. Even 15 years later, their annual pay was 8 to 10 percent less. American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation (via Jon Taplin) California Supreme Court: Non-compete clauses are not enforceable ... Track where US gov bailout trillions went with augmented reality ... Federal temporary jobs in disaster recovery, a HOWTO NSA employee literature

Glucosamine no better than placebo for lower back pain Posted: 07 Jul 2010 10:31 PM PDT A Norwegian study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that glucosamine has no effect on relieving lower back pain. Six million Americans take glucosamine supplements. For six months, he and his colleagues gave 250 adults with chronic lower back pain and degenerative osteoarthritis either 2,500 mg daily of glucosamine sulfate or a placebo. At the six-month and one-year marks, there weren't any significant differences among patients in the two groups. Both groups did seem to be helped by the placebo effect, which is common in pain patients, in which people apparently feel better simply because they are receiving treatment. Glucosamine No Remedy for Lower Back Pain, Says Study (via Consumerist) A short, illustrated guide to tsubo Quack back massager from 1930 Back pain costs $90 billion/year Carpal Tunnel Syndrome exercises that really work Map of prescribed psychiatric drugs in America

Security theater tees Posted: 07 Jul 2010 10:31 PM PDT Big Brother Tees, sporting a variety of slogans relevant to airport security: "Nobody is safer when you take my water," "Cast Member of Airport Security Theater," "You can only detect and respond," "Technology can't solve security problems," "Franklin's Essential Liberty," "What airport security procedures miss." Someone will come along any moment in the comments to explain that if you get hassled for wearing one of these, it's your own fault for antagonizing them. But let's be clear: the TSA's job is to keep airplanes safe. Criticizing the TSA does not undermine the safety of airplanes. Hurting a screener's feelings does not endanger our skies. Refusing to believe in the pseudoscience of binary explosives made in airplanes from the contents of your toothpaste tube does not constitute noncompliance with the magic-anti-terror-baggie rule. Big Brother T-Shirts (Thanks, Bruce!) The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg tests airport security Michael Chertoff on the TSA and "Security Theater" ... Anti-terror cutlery for airline security theater TSA head calls lighter-ban "security theater" Yo dawg, I heard you like TSA security restrictions, so I put some ... Pseudo-science and airport security Schneier: Fix US airport security by making TSA more transparent ...

Sauerkraut factory collapses in Ohio Posted: 07 Jul 2010 06:34 PM PDT Link. Previously: Man dies, then his mom, then both get eaten by cats

To do in Berkeley, CA: Meara O'Reilly's Chladni music with glass bottle orchestra, this Friday Posted: 07 Jul 2010 06:10 PM PDT Former Boing Boing guestblogger and sound artist Meara O'Reilly says, This coming Friday July 9th I'm going to be debuting new Chladni Music (accompanied by a glass bottle orchestra!) at the Berkeley Art Museum. The show marks the opening of my friend David Wilson's installation and residency at BAM called "Gatherings", and I'm thrilled to be a part: the whole evening is designed as a "Sun Ceremony" involving an 8 foot handmade globe, light projections, singing, and drumming all over (and on) the museum, so come ready to make some beautiful noise! Doors are at 6pm, Sun Ceremony begins at 7:30. Tickets are $5. Meara O'Reilly's Chladni Singing Guest blogger: Meara O'Reilly!

101 things to grill Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:10 PM PDT NOM. That is all.

Independent review of climate science tells us nothing we didn't already know Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:21 PM PDT I've been traveling the last couple of days, so this may be a bit old, but I wanted to do a quick update on "What's Up With Inaccuracies in the IPCC Report?" When we last left our intrepid international panel of scientists, they were fending off criticism over mistakes found in the 2007 Working Group II report, which summarizes the impacts of climate change. Specifically, the IPCC predicted Himalayan glaciers receding at a rate that glaciologists said was ridiculous. Worse, the faulty fact came from a World Wildlife Fund position paper, rather than peer-reviewed research. Things only got more fun when Rajendra K. Pachauri responded to the criticism in a manner more befitting a LiveJournal owner than an IPCC chairman. Short story: There was sketchiness. The Dutch government sent an independent commission to look into it. The results are back now, and what they found isn't terribly surprising. The science of climate change—in the big-picture, Earth-is-getting-warmer-and-humans-are-causing-it-and-that-is-bad sense—remains sound and reliable. There is, however, a lot of uncertainty over what a hotter planet means, in terms of detailed, localized impacts—and, thus, a big range of reasonable possibilities for what could go wrong, when and where. This is pretty much exactly what I've been told by every climate scientist I've ever talked to. Where the IPCC went wrong, according to the Dutch report, was in emphasizing the worst-case scenarios while not making the background uncertainty clear enough. Which sounds pretty damning, until you understand what that actually means. In this context, we aren't talking about inventing a disaster. We're talking about slightly overstating it. For example: The IPCC said that by the year 2020, between 75 million and 250 million Africans would be at risk of "water stress" (ie not having enough water). PBL says that based on the science available, the figures should be 90-220 million - but that the IPCC projections fit within the "range of uncertainty" in the science. Here's the bottom line: In a massive, multinational report there were 35 errors found. Many of them typos. They don't change any of the fundamental, mainstream conclusions about climate change. Also, the IPCC could stand to do a better job of communicating the inherent uncertainties of climate science with the public. And all God's children said, "Well, duh." What's interesting to me, then, is how you get the BBC reporting it as Dutch Review Backs UN Climate Science Report, while the exact same story is headlined Dutch Review Raises Concerns About Climate Report in the Wall Street Journal. I wish I could say that most of the coverage I've seen went with the far more accurate BBC spin. Related side note: There have now been THREE independent reviews into the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit email scandal*. All three have exonerated the scientists involved of accusations that they were concealing data, fudging facts, intentionally misleading the public, undermining the IPCC, etc. The most recent one came out today. It did find that the scientists were too quick to circle the wagons and, in the process, didn't "display the proper degree of openness" with their data. Basically, they had nothing to hide, but kind of acted like they did. Like the IPCC kerfluffle, what we've learned here is that the science is sound, but the scientists (and, if we're honest, the press) aren't doing a very good job of explaining that science and countering skeptics. The excellent Erin Biba at Wired already tackled this problem (and its solution) a couple months ago: Rather than brainstorming methods for changing public perception, the speakers wasted three hours trying to find someone to blame. Was it an anti-global-warming campaign by the coal industry? Journalists trying to make their stories appear "balanced"? The Climate-gate emails from the University of East Anglia? But those are the wrong questions. What the scientists should have been asking was how they could reverse the problem. And the answer isn't more science; it's better PR. When celebrities like Tiger Woods or Tom Cruise lose control of their image, they don't waste time at conferences. They hire an expert. What the climatology community needs is a crackerjack Hollywood PR team. *I refuse to call it "Climategate" because I am completely sick of the cutesy, nonsensical -gate suffix as an indicator of scandal and am trying to be the change I'd like to see in the world. Hacked climate scientists' emails in context News in Summary: The IPCC and glacier shrinkage BBC's snappy answers to climate-change denial More Insight on Those Leaked Climate Change Emails Scientists hash out the uncertainties of climate sensitivity ... Image courtesy Andres Rueda via CC

Tomoko Sawada's cosplay self-portraits Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT One of my favorite young female Japanese artists is a photographer from Kobe named Tomoko Sawada. She is best known for photographs of herself dressed in different stereotypically Japanese female roles, from a geisha to a school girl to a kogyal. While accepting a photography award back in 2000, she said: I was bound by an inferiority complex. When I started to take pictures, I loved my image taken in photos, which looked attractive and cute. I could make myself look like a model or an actress in pictures. As I looked at my pictures again and again, the gap between my real image and my image in a picture widened. In other words, my appearance could be changed easily, but my personality did not change. The mock school photo shown above depicts Sawada as every single member of the class. Tomoko Sawada main page

Can it really rain oil? Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT Does this video really show oil raining down on Louisiana? Doubtful. What you're likely seeing here, scientists say, is regular water falling onto an oily street and washing that far more common form of pollution down the sewer grate. But, does that mean oil in ocean water can't possibly become involved in the hydrologic cycle? Nope. There is some evidence, according to the Christian Science Monitor, that floating oil can evaporate under the right conditions. In that case, though, you wouldn't get oil droplets falling from on high. The more likely result would be normal-looking rain tainted with chemical compounds from the oil. According to Popular Mechanics, the only way you'd really get black "rain" is if a hurricane picked up polluted water and dumped it—sans evaporation—onto a coastal area. Christian Science Monitor: Raining Oil in Louisiana? Popular Mechanics: Can it rain oil?

Pinhole camera made from an iPhone box Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT Check out this super cute pinhole camera made out of an iPhone box on Etsy. I love the simple slightly retro design: This one of a kind handmade pinhole camera is crafted from a reclaimed, spray painted iPhone box. It is designed to take standard 35mm film just like a normal camera. It has a built-in advance reel as well as rewind reel. This enables you to shoot a picture, advance to the next frame, use the entire roll of film, rewind it back into the canister and take it to the drug store for processing! [via Notcot] Paper pinhole camera plans in PDF Pinhole Camera Fashioned From 150 Year-Old Skull - Gadgets Papercraft pinhole camera - Boing Boing Pinhole skull-camera - Boing Boing Make an R2-D2 pinhole camera out of an oatmeal box - Boing Boing Pinhole camera from iPhone box - Boing Boing World's largest "pinhole" camera - Boing Boing Ceramic pinhole camera

Thieves snag tractor-trailers full of pharmaceuticals Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT Where do illegal, online pharmacies get their medications? At least some of them are selling wares originally copped in massive thefts of semi-trucks full of pharmaceuticals. The largest such robbery, which happened last March, featured a matinee-worthy heist plan involving a team of thieves rappelling into an Eli Lilly warehouse. They made off with $75 million worth of Prozac, Stattera, Cymbalta, Zyprexa, Gemzar, Alimta and Efient. This is not a field for violence-loving villains, though. Apparently, the vast majority of these thefts happen when truck drivers leave their rigs unattended at traffic lights and in parking lots. Which, to me, is really the most mind-blowing part of this whole story. FiercePharmaManufacturing, via The Scientist magazine: Top 10 Pharma Cargo Thefts By Value 2009/2010 Image courtesy Heart of Oak via CC

Double Rainbow: The Song Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT Autotuned with music by schmoyoho. Like Owl City, but with actual emotions. Previously. [via Waxy]

What's the Gulf oil spill destroying now? Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT Apparently, dead things are not safe from the oil spill's onslaught. Archaeologists are worried about damage the oil could inflict on shipwrecks—both 19th century and WWII U-Boat flavors—and important coastal historic sites. Oil contamination could damage the artifacts, itself, but there's also concerns about how risk of human exposure could keep sites from being properly researched. What's more, archaeologists say that, during past spills like the Exxon Valdez, cleanup efforts led to accidental destruction of sites, and intentional looting. "We learned from Exxon Valdez that there were incidents of looting by cleanup workers, equipment being brought in, destroying the ground," said John Rawls, marine archaeologist with Earth Search Inc., a firm hired by BP to do archaeological surveys. In one incident, cleanup workers stumbled across a prehistoric Chugachmiut burial cave containing wooden artifacts. "Cleanup workers found the cave, which was unknown to archaeologists, and removed some of the bones and then called a supervisor," McMahan said. He said Exxon security collected more of the bones and state troopers raked remains into a body bag and carted them away. "The site was pretty much trashed," he said. Image of a Maui shipwreck courtesy Flickr user DirectDish, via CC

New NASA Spitzer telescope image: The Magic Dragon Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT Our astronomer friends at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab have just released a new picture from the Spitzer telescope. The Spitzer infrared view is on the top, and the visible-light view is shown on the bottom. "The flying dragon can only be seen with infrared," Whitney Clavin of JPL tells Boing Boing, "It's a dark, dense cloud where stars are just beginning to form. In fact, the dragon will eventually metamorphose into a bright star-forming cloud like the one to the left of the dragon." More info, and larger sizes of this image, on the JPL website.

Crack the Code in Cyber Command's Logo Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT The U.S. Military's new "Cyber Command" logo contains a hidden code. Noah Shachtman at Wired News says, "Help us crack it!" Related reading today: Bruce Schneier says "The Threat of Cyberwar Has Been Grossly Exaggerated."

Tom the Dancing Bug: totally rad, louis! Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:06 PM PDT Archive: Tom the Dancing Bug at Boing Boing

Rick Lieder, AKA Wild Light, in the Boing Boing Bazaar Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:07 PM PDT Science fiction illustrator and nature photographer Rick Lieder has started offering some of his gorgeous prints in the Boing Boing Bazaar/Maker's Market. One of Rick's specialties is macro photography, and this image, "Firefly," blends a painterly sensibility with that up-close back-yard nature photography I love. Rick is also husband of the hugely talented novelist Kathe Koja and the two are an unbeatably wonderful combination. Wild Light Rick Lieder's fantastic backyard bird photos -- new book Detroit Zoo exhibits Rick Lieder's extraordinary bug pix Rick Lieder is a spectacular Macrofocus bug photos for sale Insect photos in naturalistic macro-focus Macrofocus photos of bees

Unicorn Chaser: "Unicorn Crossing" sign Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:07 PM PDT "Unicorn Sign," a photo by Steffe from Sweden, from his Creative Commons-licensed Flickr stream. Here's his photo blog.

Man dies, then his mom, then both get eaten by cats Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:07 PM PDT Boing Boing reader Katie says, This story is so horrifying I can't help but share it with Boing Boing. Also, I am hoping you'll post this, so maybe I'll get the unicorn chaser I so desperately need now. As my friend Tab Brown said, "It sounds like an Edgar Allan Poe version of a Hoarders episode."

Glocks stolen out of Israeli PM's bodyguard's luggage on American Airlines flight Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:07 PM PDT Four Glock 9mm pistols belonging to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's bodyguards are missing after American Airlines sent their suitcase to NY LA instead of DC. The luggage has been recovered, but the guns are missing and presumed stolen. Good thing the TSA doesn't let us lock them out of our suitcases, huh? NBC News reported that the handguns had, in accordance with security procedures at New York's John F Kennedy airport, been placed inside checked luggage. The luggage was then supposed to be put on a connecting flight to Washington however, American Airlines workers at the airport instead sent it right across the country to LAX in Los Angeles. By the time the luggage was located and recovered, the guns had disappeared, and are presumed to have been stolen. US airline 'loses Netanyahu bodyguard guns' (Image: Glock 17 (9mm) Muzzle Flash, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from dad_and_clint's photostream) HOWTO Carry a gun onto an airplane Bag with gun shape Canadian airport security screener confiscates blocks tiny gun ... TSA officer caught stealing laptops at JFK Demonstrating TSA futility by stabbing dead pigs with pens MIT student arrested for entering Boston airport with "fake bomb ...

Basil Wolverton's CULTURE CORNER: grotesque HOWTOs from MAD Magazine's gross-out king Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:08 PM PDT Fantagraphics has done the world the great service of reprinting Basil Wolverton's Culture Corner, a series of satirical and grotesque HOWTO strips that ran in Fawcett's Whiz Comics (best known as the home of Captain Marvel) from 1947 to 1952. The book includes every known strip, along with the (sometimes even weirder) pencil sketches where those exist. Wolverton is best known as the gross-out master of MAD Magazine's golden age (and as the deeply religious Christian who drew his own horrific illustrated Old Testament), and these strips will delight any Wolverton fan with their characteristic doggerel, gratuiotous violence, and slapstick humor that pokes fun at the American self-improvement genre. These strips all seem to be in the public domain and can be read for free through Dinosaur Gardens. But the Fantagraphics edition is well worth the price: it's a handsomely bound item, augmented with the sketches and a nice essay by Wolverton's son. Basil Wolverton's Culture Corner Basil Wolverton's Bible: the putting the grotesque into the Old ... Basil Wolverton show hanging in NYC until Aug 14 Art from Basil Wolverton's Bible Powerhouse Pepper comic book stories, by Basil Wolverton Basil Wolverton was a comic Distortions in the scan below are my fault -- it's page-curl from my scanner-glass; they look great in real life -Cory

To do in Ireland: Glen E. Friedman photography show opening in Dublin Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:08 PM PDT Photographer Glen E. Friedman's show at the Light House Cinema in Dublin opens tomorrow, July 8, and features 40 pieces from throughout his career— shots of the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Black Flag and Minor Threat are in the mix. On launch night, there will be a screening of the Fugazi documentary Instrument. (Above: The great Black Flag.) BB Video: Photographer Glen E. Friedman - Early Hip Hop, and The ... BB Video: Photographer Glen E. Friedman in Conversation (and ... Video: Our 4-part Glen E. Friedman/Shepard Fairey ...

Mat Ricardo one-man show in London and Edinburgh Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:08 PM PDT Mat Ricardo sez, "For the last 23 years I've been touring the world as a comedy variety performer, but the industry I love is all but dead in my native UK, so I'm at a bit of a career crossroads. So - I'm doing my first (and perhaps last) one man show at this years Edinburgh Festival, to try to determine what I do with the rest of my life. Do I continue as a performer, or do I find a job that will satisfy me artistically while letting me see my wife and friends more than once a month? I'll let my audience help me decide. MAT RICARDO: THREE BALLS AND A GOOD SUIT is the show. I'm doing two nights of previews at the Deptford Albany London, and then I'm at the Edinburgh festival."

Lohan's middle finger issues statement Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:08 PM PDT Behold! Lindsay Lohan's all-too-illustrative message to the judge who sentenced her to 90 days inside. [USA Today]

You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610