The Latest from Boing Boing

UNCW prof vows to destroy atheist student groups: "I seek power over the godless heathen dissident"
XKCD: Homeopathy v evolution
Futuristic streamlined deco trains of yesteryear
Extreme caving: months in the dark
Vat-grown bio-fashion
Zombie at Tiffany's Threadcake
Zombies in car crash confuse onlookers
Colton Harris-Moore, "Barefoot Bandit," arrested in the Bahamas after 2 years on the lam
Grad theses from MIT's Comparative Media Studies program
MP was too drunk to vote on the budget
Michigan town wants fortune-tellers' employment history

UNCW prof vows to destroy atheist student groups: "I seek power over the godless heathen dissident"

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 12:26 AM PDT

A Supreme Court decision forced a California state university Christian society to accept gays as members as a condition of receiving support from the school ("Other groups may exclude or mistreat Jews, blacks, and women -- or those who do not share their contempt for Jews, blacks, and women. A free society must tolerate such groups. It need not subsidize them, give them its official imprimatur, or grant them equal access to law school facilities.").

This ruling has upset Mike Adams, a prof at UNC Wilmington. He's vowed to disrupt atheist student societies by filling their rosters with Christian evangelical students, "to use my young fundamentalist Christian warriors to undermine the mission of every group that disagrees with me on the existence of God."

As PZ Myers points out, if the situation were reversed, Adams and his fellow travelers would doubtless be even more apoplectic: "I can just imagine what would happen if I tried to turn freethinkers on campus into militant disruptors of other organizations: their faculty advisors would descend on me in fury."

But Mike Adams isn't looking for debate. As he says, "I do not seek robust debate. I seek power over the godless heathen dissident."

Christianist Professor Calls for Religious McCarthyism

XKCD: Homeopathy v evolution

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 10:00 PM PDT

In today's XKCD: the evolutionary unsustainability of homeopathy. Be sure to click through to the original for the excellent afterjoke in the tooltip.

Dilution

Futuristic streamlined deco trains of yesteryear

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 10:27 PM PDT

Dark Roasted Blend's gallery of images of streamlined, deco trains from the 1920s and 1930s tell a story about the hopeful futurism of a bygone era, when everything seemed to be streaking toward the future (by contrast, today's trains seem to be designed to say, "The future will not arrive, but if it does, it will be more of the same.").

Streamlined Train Wonders of the Art Deco Era (Thanks, Marilyn!)

(Image: Louisville Art Deco)

Extreme caving: months in the dark

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 09:51 PM PDT

Jason Zasky interviews James M. Tabor, author of Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth , a book about extreme caving, the kind of thing that sends you underground for months at a time in freezing conditions, buffeted by 60mph winds, rappelling using special gear (including rebreathers that let you breathe your own air over and over again), in absolute darkness:

Cavers not only have to contend with the climbs and the extreme verticality, they have to deal with constant absolute darkness. Unless they are moving or performing a task they turn off their lights to save battery power, so most of the time they are in the dark. They are always wet and cold and there is always a high level of anxiety. They typically lose a pound or a pound-and-a-half a day, in part because of the kind of physical work that is required--descending or rappelling with very heavy loads, and ascending the same way. In Krubera, cavers are underground for up to a month.
There are several [effects of prolonged absolute darkness] that have been studied scientifically. One effect is that it disrupts normal circadian rhythms. Cavers may work for twenty-four hours at a stretch and then sleep for twenty or twenty-four hours. Second, their immune systems really take a beating without sunlight or natural light. Stone told me that after he had been underground in Cheve for two weeks, every one of his fingernails became infected with staphyloccocus.
Another thing is that each human brain has a unique tolerance for darkness. Some individuals reach their limit after a certain number of days or certain number of feet below the surface, and then they have an attack called The Rapture, which is like a panic attack on speed. I've interviewed people who've experienced it and they say it's like a panic attack but multiplied a hundred times in intensity.

To the Supercave

Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth

(via JWZ)

Vat-grown bio-fashion

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 02:17 PM PDT

Robbo sez, "In the age of 3D printing and growing new body parts in a lab - the fashion industry steps forth and joins the fray - using bacteria to grow clothing. As described in a post on the ecouterre.com site: 'designer Suzanne Lee has crafted fashion items that look both cool and unsettling. No doubt we'll all soon be wearing clothing we can print out or grow - purchasing designs online and then heading down to the kitchen to try things on. Biodegradable? Possibly. Could also be used to thicken gravy.'

Biocouture (Thanks, Robbo)

Zombie at Tiffany's Threadcake

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 05:39 PM PDT

Threadcakes -- a competition to re-create Threadless t-shirt designs as cakes -- reaches its apotheosis in this, Gonzuela Bastarache's recreation of the Zombie at Tiffany's tee.

Zombie at Tiffany's by Gonzuela Bastarache (via Super Punch)

Zombies in car crash confuse onlookers

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 02:01 PM PDT

A group of cosplayers dressed as zombies got into a car crash near Portland, OR; their gory makeup led witnesses to believe that they were gravely injured:

Police said that in their investigation they learned that the people inside the car were dressed as zombie costumes and they were headed to a party at the time of the crash.
Sgt. Greg Stewart said people who witnessed the crash initially thought the victims' injuries were much more serious, because of the zombie costumes.
"We're glad that everyone is alive, despite being 'undead'," Sgt. Stewart said, referring to the costumes.

"Zombies" crash on I-84 near Lloyd exit (Thanks, Dan!)

(Image: Zombies ! Run !, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from darkpatator's photostream)

Colton Harris-Moore, "Barefoot Bandit," arrested in the Bahamas after 2 years on the lam

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 09:28 AM PDT

19-year-old serial criminal Colton Harris-Moore has been caught, in the Carribean. Finally. The 6-foot-five teen was dubbed the "Barefoot Burglar" during his two-year crime spree because of his habit of removing his shoes prior to break-ins, and sometimes leaving white chalk footprints as a calling card.

In the photo at left (courtesy of the Sounder newspaper of Orcas Island, WA) chalk drawings of bare feet are shown on the floor of a store he'd just hit.

"Colt" became an internet folk hero. He was an outdoor survivalist, a pilot and crasher of planes, a hot-wirer of cars, a pirate of boats, a stealer of other people's stuff, and a prolific amasser of Facebook fans (log in today and hear their lamentations, mostly "Busted, Bro!"). His momma has a book deal, and has retained a lawyer to handle their "entertainment interests."

The long arm of the law caught up with Colt this morning, just before dawn, as he tried to dock a boat he'd recently stolen at a tourist spot in the Bahamas:

Burglary victims in Eleuthera told The Associated Press on Saturday they had little doubt the lanky (...) fugitive was on the island. Ferry boat captain Freddie Grant said he was returning from Harbour Island in northern Eleuthera on Wednesday evening when he saw a tall, white teenager bathing or swimming in an inlet near the ferry landing. Ferry service employee Stan Pennerman also said he saw Harris-Moore lurking in the woods the same day. Neither man thought much of it until they noticed the next morning that somebody had damaged the ignition system on three of their boats.
A bar at the ferry landing was also burglarized Wednesday night by a thief who cut a screen to break in, dismantled a security light, and moved the television's remote controls, said Denaldo Bain, the 30-year-old manager of Coakley's International Sporting Lounge.
"He was watching television. He was just chilling," said Bain, who also said he saw the teenager in the inlet.

Bahamas police catch 'Barefoot Bandit' (King 5 via Glenn Fleishmann)

'Barefoot bandit' apprehended in Bahamas (CNN)

Grad theses from MIT's Comparative Media Studies program

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 07:52 AM PDT

Nick sez,

This year's graduate theses from MIT's Comparative Media Studies (the last class to work with Henry Jenkins before he moved to USC) are now online. Topics include:
-undergraduate female gamers at MIT
-an alternate reality game based on The Count of Monte Cristo
-TV ratings after digital distribution
-the history of player pianos
-Twilight anti-fans
-live mobile video
-and more!

Graduate Student Theses Titles 2010

MP was too drunk to vote on the budget

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 07:50 AM PDT

Mark Reckless, a new Tory MP from Kent got so drunk at the House of Commons that he decided he wasn't able to vote on the budget. He's "really sorry" about it. The debate over the budget had gone on to 230AM, and he refreshed himself mightily over the course of the day.

Mark Reckless MP sorry for being 'too drunk to vote'

(Image: MarkReckless.com)

Michigan town wants fortune-tellers' employment history

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 07:42 AM PDT

Warren, Michigan has just passed a new law requiring fortune-tellers to get "licenses, fees, fingerprints, criminal background reports and employment histories."

As Ed Brayton sez, "All fortune tellers are fraudulent and prey on the vulnerable. A fortune teller without a criminal background is every bit as incapable of telling fortunes as one with a criminal background. A fraud with a good employment history is no less a fraud."

Fortune telling in Warren to get harder (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

(Image: Coin-operated Fortune-Teller, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from benleto's photostream)