Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

How Heinlein plotted

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 03:40 AM PDT

I'm powering through the ending of the smashing, enormous first volume of the first major authorized biography of Robert A Heinlein: Robert A Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century, Volume 1: Learning Curve (1907-1948) and I've just been poleaxed by this quote, which absolutely sums up the way that I approach stories: "My notion of a story is an interesting situation in which a human being has to cope with a problem, does so, and thereby changed his personality, character, or evaluations in some measure because the coping has forced him to revise his thinking. How he copes with it, I can't plot in advance because that depends on his character, and I don't know what his character is until I get acquainted with him."

101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design: Oblique strategies for changing and controlling behavior

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 01:30 AM PDT


Dan Lockton, the technology scholar whose Architectures of Control in Design has been one of my favorite reads for several years now, has just released a deck of Creative Commons-licensed cards called "101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design." They are an outcome of his research toward his Ph.D., a set of illustrated cards showing how design can be used to change, prevent, or encourage certain behaviors. Mitch Kapor quipped that "architecture is politics," and Dan's research is the proof of it: the way that spaces, objects and systems are designed heavily influence (or even determine!) the way that we live our lives around them. They serve as both suggestions and critiques, showing how spaces and objects are designed to control us for better or for worse.

Dan sells the decks as a neatly boxed set of 117 cards for £24.50, or you can download them and share them for free. This is quite possibly the most provocative set of quick-read, random-access idea-bombs I've seen.

Download the cards

Order the cards

(Thanks, Dan!)



Inception is about creativity

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 11:44 PM PDT

It shouldn't matter to you whether the top stops spinning, because it doesn't matter to Cobb. [The Awl]

Ronald Reagan, douchebag: podcast

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:54 PM PDT

The charming geek podcast Tank Riot did a great job this week with a 2+ hour Douchebag of the Week special on Ronald Reagan: "The Tank Crew discuss the complicated 40th President of the United States, Ronald 'Dutch' Reagan. We examine how his life as an actor, his personality and his philosophy shaped the world of the 1980s and what that means for the future. From lifeguard to acting to SAG president and on to governor and president the journey was unique to Ronald Reagan. Listen to the show and get the full Tank Riot analysis!"

Ronald Reagan! (Thanks, Viktor)

(Image: Ronald Reagan sends out smokes, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from x-ray_delta_one's photostream)



Cheap nanomaterial won't grow bacteria

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:51 PM PDT

A paper in ACS Nano describes the use of graphene (nanoengineered, one-carbon-atom-thick material) as an antibacterial surface: "Such graphene-based nanomaterials can effectively inhibit the growth of E. coli bacteria while showing minimal cytotoxicity. We have also demonstrated that macroscopic freestanding GO and rGO paper can be conveniently fabricated from their suspension via simple vacuum filtration. Given the superior antibacterial effect of GO and the fact that GO can be mass-produced and easily processed to make freestanding and flexible paper with low cost, we expect this new carbon nanomaterial may find important environmental and clinical applications."

Graphene-Based Antibacterial Paper (via Medgadget)



Title sequences to Roger Corman movies

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 11:10 PM PDT


The late Paul Julian is best known for his background art in Looney Tunes cartoons. According to Wikipedia, he provided the smugly chipper "Beep-Beep!" of the Roadrunner (one of the few Warner Brothers cartoon characters I can't stand).

As a sideline, Julian created the title sequences for a number of Roger Corman movies. Don't bother watching the entire movies, Julian's titles are the only part worth watching.

I wonder how much he was paid to make these for Corman? $25? $12.75? (Via Lou Romano, who has other examples of Julian's art here.)

Tarp surfing: the delights of blue tarps and skateboards

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:44 PM PDT

These clever young gentlemen have discovered that if you lay down a big blue tarp and skateboard across it while a confederate lifts the corner, it looks just like you're surfing on the ocean blue. Gnarly!

tarp surfing (via Kottke)



War of the passive-aggressive office notes: Comic Sans edition

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:40 PM PDT

Poor old Comic Sans, always getting a bum rap, as in this photo of a pair of dueling passive-aggressive door-notes at an unnamed Fortune 500 corporation. Funny: I fault signmaker the first more for the excessive use of exclamation points; and number two needs a refresher course in capitalization -- "lemonade stand" is only a proper noun if you're talking about the Apple ][+ game.

Typeface Terrorism (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)



The Star Thrower: sweetly moving comic

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:37 PM PDT


I found Jake Parker's short comic "The Star Thrower" to be sweetly moving and well, just lovely. What a nice way to have started my morning.

The Star Thrower (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)



Enormous antique tower clock for sale

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:34 PM PDT


Want to own an enormous, Seth Thomas four-sided tower clock with complete works from 1904? Up for bids on eBay, starting at $26K. Each face is five feet in diameter, and the clock stood for years at Montgomery Brothers jewelers at Broadway and Fourth Street in Los Angeles.

SETH THOMAS 4 DIAL TOWER CLOCK - Complete and Original (via Making Light)



Similarities between gold farming networks and drug dealing networks

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:29 PM PDT

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, a PhD student researching Computational Trust at the University of Minnesota, has posted research comparing the organizational structure of gold farmers in virtual worlds to drug dealers in the physical world. It's a fascinating analysis, showing the underlying similarities in networks of people who undertake prohibited activities.
Figures 5 and 6 compare the identified farmer network to the Caviar drug-trafficking network. Both the real world and virtual criminal networks exhibit very similar performance and resilience under degree attack and random failures. Removing fewer than 1% of the nodes by attack keeps the fraction of the network in the LCC (largest connected component) relatively high and the number of isolates in the network relatively low. However, these networks are an order of magnitude more sensitive to node removal than the affiliate networks analyzed in Figure 4; removing approximately 5% of nodes by degree attack cuts the fraction of nodes in the largest connected component below 50% while increasing the fraction of isolates to approximately 50%.

Taken together, this analysis shows the farmer and affiliate networks have substantial resilience to both random failures and determined attacks over several orders of magnitude before fracturing into many disconnected components, a pattern which is also found in a real-world drug trafficking network. The affiliate network composed of farmers, unidentified farmers, and legitimate players exhibits even less sensitivity to attack than the clandestine networks alone. These findings suggest that farmers are able to effectively conceal their interaction patterns against the background of legitimate trade activity which also provides substantial resilience to interdiction.

Gold Farming


Arrested: Jihadi jerk who threatened "South Park" over Mohammed episode

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:43 PM PDT

Christ, what an asshole. Zachary Chesser, an unemployed 20-year-old man in Virginia who this year threatened South Park's creators over an episode featuring the Prophet Muhammad dressed in a bear suit, has been arrested on federal charges "after speaking openly to the FBI about his connection to a terror organization and his plans to travel overseas to fight with the group."

The organization, Al-Shabaab ("Movement of Warrior Youth"), is identified by the US as a terror group affiliated with al-Qaeda. Mr. Chesser was Jewish, but converted to a wacked-out, militant crazystrain of Islam that involves uploading jihadi videos to YouTube and invoking assassination unto the creators of Cartman and Butters. Snip from TSG:

According to the below affidavit sworn by FBI Agent Mary Brandt Kinder, Chesser, a convert to Islam, spoke at length with agents about his attempts to travel to Kenya and Somalia to join Al-Shabaab and his devotion to jihad, which has included his operation of web sites and a You Tube channel stocked with jihadi propaganda. Through the revolutionmuslim.com site, Chesser remarked in April that "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker would "probably end up" like a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered in retaliation for a film critical of the treatment of Islamic women. Along with focusing the public's attention on his extremist beliefs, Chesser's "South Park" threat resulted in fallout within his family. After his mother received death threats following the "South Park" remarks, Chesser told the FBI, "he was no longer on speaking terms with his parents." During one of his interviews with federal agents, Chesser explained how he came up with the YouTube user ID, LearnTeachFightDie: "learn Islam, teach Islam, fight for Islam, and die in the name of Islam."

View the documents at Smoking Gun. (thanks, Martha Clayton!)

Giant cardboard robot arms (for giant cardboard robot hugs)

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:15 PM PDT

"Perfect for giant robot hugs, super high high-fives, and terrorizing small children." $85 plus shipping. Etsy link. (thanks, Erin)

Theoretical time travel: Now Grandfather Paradox-free!

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 08:56 PM PDT

I got news for you, McFly. Scientists at MIT have figured out a theory that would allow for time travel without any of the nasty, accidentally-erasing-yourself-from-existence side effects.

The $2 billion error

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:11 PM PDT

redbloodcells.jpg

Fascinating story from the early days of biotech: How three errors in a 166 amino acid protein sequence ended up being the deciding factor in a showdown between two companies who both wanted to patent the genes behind the protein that triggers red blood cell formation.

I have some big problems with patenting of naturally occurring human genes, but that issue aside, this a great tale of corporate espionage gone wrong. The setting: It's 1981, and the biotech company Amgen is trying to sequence the protein erythopoietin—or Epo—so they can use that data to work backwards and find the DNA in the actual human genome that coded for it.

And here is where it gets interesting. Rodney Hewick, one of the co-inventors of the protein sequencing machine, was one of the people who carried out the sequence analysis. After sequencing Epo, Hewick abruptly quit on Sep. 1st 1981, only to immediately join a Boston biotech, Genetics Institute, as a senior protein chemist. He arrived at the new company bearing gifts, and the gift was the sequence of Epo.

But Rodney Hewick made exactly 3 errors out of 166 amino acids in the protein sequence of Epo. And he didn't even know it. After 3 year of failure, Genetics Institute finally realized that their protein sequence was wrong. They purified their own Epo, sequenced it again, and finally found the full gene for Epo. They submitted the article to Nature on Dec 7, 1984.

But by then it was too late. Fu-Kuen Lin, who had joined Amgen as their 7th scientist in 1981, had single-handedly identified Epo in the human genome using Goldwasser's protein. More important than getting a Nature paper, he had filed a patent for Amgen in Dec 13. 1983, a good year before Genetics Institute's Nature article. In the world of big pharma, it is the patent that matters. Amgen got FDA approval in on June 1 in 1989. EPO was Amgen's blockbuster drug, which attracted 460 million dollars from the government in the first year. It is now worth 2 billion dollars of income, and almost half of Amgen's income in 2002.

Amgen became a biotech behemoth, whereas Genetics Institute eventually got bought out by Wyeth.

Read the full story, via Daniel MacArthur.

Image of red blood cell models at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, courtesy Flickr user rpongsaj, via CC

Stone Age dildo unearthed in Sweden?

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:52 PM PDT

Stone-age dildo unearthed in Sweden? Best part of the article is the photo of the object next to a ruler. Snip: "Perhaps instead of, or in addition to, its sexual purpose, the object may have been used as a tool, such as to chip flakes of flint, [the archaeologist] suggested. One end is shaped into more of a point, he said. It's not immediately clear whether the tool would have been one most likely to be used by men or women or both. 'If it's a tool and it's also shaped like a penis, it could be an item where you want to discuss gender questions." (thanks, Steve Silberman)

Coffee table made from old computer parts

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:54 PM PDT

500x_circuit_board_table.jpg

This coffee table made from old computer parts is both pretty and geeky.

It's mainly made up of boards/drives from old Intergraph 6000 series machines built in the late 80s early 90s. They had nice big boards. It was a good way to keep around my first real computer after I could no longer find parts to keep it working, an Intergraph 6880 with Edge II graphics. I learned computer modeling, rendering and animation on it and think of it as a mentor. There are also old 2800 baud modem parts and other random parts collected over the years.

No real pattern other than just getting it all to fit together like a puzzle. The LED lights along the perimeter worked out better that I had hoped. I have it wired so it automatically goes on when it gets dark.

The News is Broken [via Make]

99 cent store sued for raising prices to 99.99 cents

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:39 PM PDT

The discount chain 99 Cent Only Stores is being sued by customers for raising their prices to 99.99 cents. "If they call themselves 99 Cents Only, it should be 99 cents," Orange County lawyer Dan Callahan told the LA Times.

Tim & Eric's Awesomecon: San Diego, Saturday July 24

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:26 PM PDT

Details here on Tim & Eric's AWESOMECON 2010. The short version: Saturday, July 24, 12-3pm, in San Diego.

Scientists ask govt. to hold off on anti-oil spill engineering projects in the Gulf

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:04 PM PDT

Scientists to Thad Allen: How's about we actually study the potential impacts and benefits of sand berms and other anti-oil spill engineering schemes before we jump into these things wallet-first?

Sticker makes it look like you have lots of drugs in your suitcase

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 06:25 PM PDT

suitcase-sticker-1.jpg TheCheeky.com sells these funny (or not so funny at all?) stickers for your suitcase.

[via NotCot]

A spelling bee for cheaters

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:19 PM PDT

Dave Eggers' 826LA is hosting a fun event on August 14th — it's a spelling bee fundraiser that encourages cheating. The more money you raise, the more ways you'll be allowed to cheat. For example, $100 will get you a letter hint, but $1,000 will let you switch places with a team member when you're stuck in a rut.

826-Spelling-Bee-Poster-709px.jpg

The contest has some celebrities signed up, too, like Dianna Agron from Glee, John Krasinski from The Office, and Spike Jonze. Sounds like fun! Read the contest rules after the jump.



1. SIGN UP in teams of 2 or more.


2. In the days leading up to the tournament, raise money for your team


3. On game day, your team sends one representative to spell and use the funds you've raised to order from a menu of cheats:

• FREE to register*: Each team member must raise a minimum of $50 for the team to qualify to compete in the Spelling Bee. All participants who raise over $50 will get priority seating at the venue, receive a bag lunch, a copy of The Wild Things by Dave Eggers, and more. (*$25 general admission spectator tickets will be released based on availability on August 6th.)
• I before E? ($100): You may request one letter hint (limit 3 in a row).
• Ask your team ($250): Ask your team for their opinion. It's up to you whether you want to take their advice or not. Time spent consulting your team counts against your turn limit.
• Pick a new word ($500) Don't like the word you got, get a new word.
• Get a dictionary ($750): One speller may consult the dictionary before spelling the word. Time spent looking in the dictionary counts against your turn limit.
• Switch-a-Roo ($1,000): Swap places with another team member.
• Invent a word ($1,500): Spell whatever you like and, so long as you can pronounce and define it, your word advances you to the next round.
• Pass on a word, but stay in the round ($2,000): You don't even have to spell anything! You may skip to the next round.
• Automatically advance to the second round ($5,000): Any team that raises over $5,000 will automatically advance to the second round.
• Second Chance ($6,000): Spelled your word wrong? You're out! Not so fast! For $6,000 we'll let you slide one time. (For $12,000, we'll let you slide two times.)
• Immunity ($25,000): You're basically invincible! You raised $25,000!?!? You get double the cheats.

A Spelling Bee for Cheaters [826LA]

(Thanks, jlar!)

Flying donkey shocks Russians on vacation

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:29 PM PDT

Pug sings Batman TV theme

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:15 PM PDT

Video link. His name is Teddy Almond Turtle. Origins explained on MSNBC, urlesque.

Right to Repair law in MA (open-source your car)

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:27 PM PDT

The Washington Post reports that small auto repair shops in Massachusetts are pushing a bill that would require auto makers to provide (for a price) all diagnostic and software data they make available to their dealerships. "Massachusetts would become the first state to approve the so-called auto right-to-repair law. The Senate recently passed it, and it's pending in the House. Industry observers say passage of the bill in Massachusetts could drive similar legislative efforts in other states." (thanks, Rob Boyle)

World Bank study shows that giving cash to girls may prevent spread of HIV in Africa

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:06 PM PDT

At the International AIDS Conference in Vienna this past weekend, the World Bank announced the results of an unusual study on HIV/AIDS prevention — it gave cash to girls in Malawi just for staying in school. Girls between ages 13 and 22 in the southern district of Zomba were paid $15 a month for a year; their behaviors were compared to a control group that was not paid at all. Results showed that the girls who were paid to stay in school seemed to make wiser choices about when to have sex with and with whom:
18 months after the program began in January 2008, biomarker data show that HIV infection rates among girls who received cash was 1.2% versus the control group's 3%. This translates to 60% lower prevalence. Girls in the cash group also had a lower infection rate of herpes simplex virus type 2, the common cause of genital herpes (0.7% vs. 3%). Those findings hold even for a third group of girls who got cash without any schooling or other strings attached.

How did it happen? The key seems to be an "income effect" on the sexual behaviors of young women receiving cash payments. A year after the program started, girls who received payments not only had less sex, but when they did, they tended to choose safer partners, says Berk Özler, a senior economist at the Development Research Group who conducted the study with Sarah Baird of George Washington University and Craig McIntosh at the University of California, San Diego. In fact, the infection rate among those partners is estimated to be half of that of partners of the control group.

The cash transfers may have led to a drop in the so-called "transactional sex." At the beginning of the study, a quarter of sexually-active participants said they started relationships because they "needed his assistance" or "wanted gifts/money." Meanwhile, among the sexually-active schoolgirls in the control group, 90% said they received an average of US$6.50 a month in gifts or cash from their partners. Such "gifts" are significant, given the country's GDP per capita was $287.5 in 2008.

After a year, schoolgirls receiving payments from the cash-transfer program seemed to avoid older men, who tend to be wealthier and are much more likely to be HIV positive than schoolboys. The sexual partners were two years older on average than the girls, compared with three years for the control group.

A similar study was conducted simultaneously in Tanzania, where young adult women were paid up to $60 a year for avoiding unsafe sex and tested against a control group for new STI infections.

Malawi and Tanzania research shows promise in preventing HIV and sexually transmitted infections [World Bank]

Punk roboticists Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) perform in SF Bay Area on July 24

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 04:36 PM PDT

SRL will stage its first performance since relocating from San Francisco, CA to Petaluma, CA this Saturday, July 24. The show will feature the Big Arm and Running Machine, with "special" props. From 4pm to 6 pm in the field in front of the Petaluma River Heritage Center. See Rivertown Revival for location information. Free. This is not to be missed. More here. (via k0re)

Lobsterotica, 1921

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 04:34 PM PDT

Oh, it gets better. Read the whole thing. I dare say it's borderline NSFW. Lobsturbation?

Excerpt from "A Lobster Hypnotized," Ashburton Guardian (New Zealand), Volume XLI, Issue 9464, 11 March 1921, Page 2. (via NLNZ via Bibliodyssey)

End Call button for the iPhone 4

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 03:44 PM PDT

Twitpic Photos Large 131133375

Aaron Draczynski made an "End Call" button for the iPhone 4. (It's not really for sale).

Auction of pulp and pinup illustrations

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 03:01 PM PDT

Elvgren-Robot

You can browse the art for sale at Heritage Auction #5054, to be held in Dallas, TX from August 17-18, 2010. Some great stuff in there, including Gil Elvgren (left), Hannes Bok (right), Rick Griffin, Dean Cornwell, Norman Rockwell, and Vargas.

Heritage 2010 August Signature Illustration Art Auction - Dallas, TX. Auction #5054

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