The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Intricately carved vintage vinyl records
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Maps
- Gone fission -- see you in September!
- Inception's musical secret
- Shark Knife will terrify your enemies with macho impracticality
- Trumpet junk raygun
- Mosquito feels pretty (oh, so pretty)
- What would happen if the world stopped turning?
- Bees rob a hive: video of the aftermath
- Whooping cough on the rise
- Maker Faire in Detroit this weekend!
- Astronaut sends first message in sign language from orbit
- Jet Pens, a site that sells Japanese pens
- Sniper Jesus
- House okays $59B emergency war bill, most for Afghanistan buildup
- Google gets a new patent for blog search
- Hayward on fairness
- "Google Alarm" browser plugin alerts you when any of your personal data sent to Google
- Octopuses? Octopi? Octopodes?
- Time lapse of 15 hour road trip from Ohio to Minnesota
- Xeni on Rachel Maddow Show: Wikileaks and "Afghan War Diaries"
- August Titanic expedition will create 3D map of the wreckage
- Home-made life insurance, the Apollo way
- "My son is a meme?"
- Dinosaur (and Warcraft Murloc) hoodies
- Last.fm's robots.txt
- Wikileaks megadump reveals US pays local Afghan media to run psyops
- Put your pants back on: Chatroulette logging IP addresses, screengrabbing users
- My Fair Lady X zombies t-shirt
- Smoke bomb ingredient: potassium nitrate (aka saltpeter)
| Intricately carved vintage vinyl records Posted: 27 Jul 2010 10:52 PM PDT  By artist Scott Marr, who is based in Australia: "Records revert to time." Carved record and ochre, 25cm. View more from this series of artwork. He explains that these are all carved by hand using a dremel, which sounds awfully time-consuming and delicate. Really beautiful stuff. (via Bibliodyssey) |
| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 12:07 AM PDT It's a map of a world that doesn't exist: twelve feet wide and as tall as a Tataru. Fussy details are in tension with swathes of empty, gold-leaf space. It is what I once imagined adorned every videogame developer's wall, a map to a virtual land where the treasure isn't a spot marked with an X, but the world itself: emerald hills, sapphire rivers, and mountains draped in ice.
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| Gone fission -- see you in September! Posted: 27 Jul 2010 09:40 PM PDT  If you are reading this blog-post, it is because I have been kidnapped by my family and whisked away to a cottage on a Canadian lake, from which vantage I will be contemplating the loons, catching up on my reading, teaching Poesy to swim, going to the drive in, and lolling about in the grass or lazing on the dock. Three things I will not be doing is looking at email, answering the phone, or blogging (though I have some book reviews in the queue for August, to coincide with the books' release dates). I'll see you all again on August 29th -- and if you're in Australia, I hope to see you at the World Science Fiction Convention and Melbourne Writers Festival in early September. Likewise, I hope to see my German friends on my September Little Brother tour, and my Dutch friends on my PICNIC and Bits of Freedom Makers launch. In the meantime, I leave you in the expert hands of my co-editors here at Boing Boing. See you all in the autumn! (Image: more view, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image from jtrant's photostream) |
| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 01:16 AM PDT Inception is one of the two best science fiction movies I've ever seen (along with Gilliam's Brazil) -- in fact, it's one of two sf movies that I'd rank with the very best sf novels. Here's a YouTube clip showing some of the nice attention to detail in the film: the two major musical stings in the movie (a threatening, bassy throb and a grainy Victrola of Edith Piaf singing "Je Ne Regrette Rien") are, in fact, the same song, played at very different speeds. Inception Music Comparison (via Super Punch)  |
| Shark Knife will terrify your enemies with macho impracticality Posted: 27 Jul 2010 09:20 PM PDT  The shark knife isn't going to win any beauty contests, but that's OK, because shark knives aren't about looking good, they're about getting the job done. And the job here is looking insanely tough, but with a tender, whimsical side. The Klingons have a word for this, most often translated as "trying too hard." Shark Knife (via Making Light)  |
| Posted: 27 Jul 2010 09:17 PM PDT  C.G.Conn Gideon's entry at Budget Rayguns is this wonderful trumpetgun, suitable for arpeggioing the Bug-Eyed Monsters into paste. C.G.Conn Gideon (Thanks, Keri666! via Submitterator)  |
| Mosquito feels pretty (oh, so pretty) Posted: 27 Jul 2010 07:45 PM PDT  Look at those eye lashes! Actually, they're flagellomeres—a basic part of all insect antennae. Looking at the number of flagellomeres present—and the way they're attached to the rest of the antenna—can help distinguish between species of insects, and sometimes even between males and females within a species. This picture comes to us through the Submitterator, via Karloskar. The photo was taken by Flickr user brokentoyshop. According to Karloskar, brokentoyshop took this image using only "some simple homebrew of lenses, flashes and a laser for targeting." Super cool!  |
| What would happen if the world stopped turning? Posted: 27 Jul 2010 07:28 PM PDT  Never fear. This isn't another ecological disaster scenario you need to lose sleep over. What we're really talking about here is some good, old-fashioned struttin'. In this case, the creators of ArcGIS—a suite of geographic information system programs—decided to show off their system's predictive modeling abilities by generating maps that show what a non-spinning Earth would look like. One of the most surprising outcomes they came up with has to do with the impact centrifugal force has on oceans.
In North America, this polar ocean would stretch all the way down to Chicago, while vast, unexplored vistas opened up west of Mexico. And, unlike the real world, the two oceans in this alternate reality wouldn't be connected. (Via Brainpicker) Image courtesy Flickr user nattu, via CC  |
| Bees rob a hive: video of the aftermath Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:47 PM PDT Russell Bates says: "One of our hives got attacked by another bunch of bees recently, and the resulting body count (of bees) was truly impressive. I had Kirk come over to do a bit of detective work, and this short video is the result." Life isn't always pretty in the world of beekeeping. Kirk Anderson (aka Kirkobeeo) finds a hive that has fought to the death after being attacked by robbers. He also shows how to recover and move on after this happens.Backwards Beekeepers TV: Hive War  |
| Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:42 PM PDT Maryn McKenna—science journalist and Scary Disease Girl extraordinaire—talks about vaccinations, the precarious dance of herd immunity, and the time she caught whooping cough.  |
| Maker Faire in Detroit this weekend! Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:28 PM PDT Here's a rundown of 12 makers who will be at Maker Faire in Detroit this weekend. If you are coming, please find me and introduce yourself! Dana Dolfi's people-stopping calliope is made from ship and train air horns. It won't be hard to find The Great American Horn Machine at Maker Faire Detroit. It's really loud. The horn machine can play a range of 24 notes through a MIDI controller. Dana is a pipe fitter/plumber by trade and a collector and builder for fun. Learn about more makers who will be at Maker Faire Detroit here. |
| Astronaut sends first message in sign language from orbit Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:06 PM PDT "In addition to those spoken in the 15 countries that have had representatives aboard the space station, American Sign Language, or ASL, is now included. NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson has sent a message in ASL from the station to the deaf community." (thanks, Steve Silberman)  |
| Jet Pens, a site that sells Japanese pens Posted: 27 Jul 2010 08:36 PM PDT  Over at Cool Tools, Michael Aaron Dennis recommends Jet Pens, a site that sells Japanese pens. Japanese pens are simply the coolest pens on the planet. Whether for writing notes, manga, or drawing, Japanese pens are the best. The finest are .18mm while the widest are brush pens that will allow you to practice your kanji. They also come in colors that will never see the inside of a Staples or and Office Depot.Hold on to you wallet. |
| Posted: 27 Jul 2010 04:10 PM PDT  Boing Boing reader Kumar Corcoran did this sweet Photoshop of a well-armed Lord Jesus. I blogged a crappy, low-res copy found on a third-hand image hosting website months ago, and he kindly rooted around in old hard drives out in the garage and found the original, along with some other 'shopped delights I'll save for future posts. Thanks, Kumar. |
| House okays $59B emergency war bill, most for Afghanistan buildup Posted: 27 Jul 2010 03:54 PM PDT The long-term effects of this week's Afghan mega-leak from Wikileaks remain to be seen. But a mere 48 hours after the docs dropped, our government doesn't appear any less eager to allocate more money to war, and less to domestic programs. The House of Representatives today approved a $59 billion emergency war bill, most of which will go toward troop buildup in Afghanistan. The bill was previously okayed by the Senate, and is expected to be signed into law by President Obama.  |
| Google gets a new patent for blog search Posted: 27 Jul 2010 11:38 AM PDT According to this new "Indexing and retrieval of blogs" entry in the U.S. Patents database, Google has just today received protection for searching blogs.  |
| Posted: 27 Jul 2010 02:35 PM PDT What better illustration of why BP boss Tony Hayward had to resign than his parting statement, in which he says that life isn't fair. [BBC]  |
| "Google Alarm" browser plugin alerts you when any of your personal data sent to Google Posted: 27 Jul 2010 11:59 AM PDT F.A.T.'s new "Google Alarm" browser addon alerts you with sound and visual notification whenever your personal information is being sent to Google servers. Gmail and YouTube gather some user data, but so do "tracking bugs": Google Analytics, Google AdSense, YouTube embeds, API calls. Currently available for Firefox and Google Chrome.  |
| Posted: 27 Jul 2010 02:52 PM PDT What's the plural of octopus? Octopuses? Octopi? Octopodes? According to this video by Merriam Webster editor Kory Stamper, all three are technically correct. Video link. (via Jen Phillips' Twitter) |
| Time lapse of 15 hour road trip from Ohio to Minnesota Posted: 27 Jul 2010 02:01 PM PDT A road trip from Ohio to Minnesota captured on a dashboard digital camera. One picture every 15 seconds. Each pictures lasts 2 frames. Music by: OK Go. (Via) |
| Xeni on Rachel Maddow Show: Wikileaks and "Afghan War Diaries" Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:56 PM PDT  Last night's episode of The Rachel Maddow Show (solidly guest-hosted by Chris Hayes of The Nation) focused largely on the Afghanistan war documents leaked on Sunday by Wikileaks. I joined for a segment about the tech side of that story. As I said during that segment, if you zoom out beyond this specific leak, if you zoom out beyond Julian Assange (Wikileaks' highly public and highly polarizing figurehead), and if you zoom out even beyond Wikileaks—that's where this gets really interesting. The incident marks the same kind of historic turning point in power distribution as when the music industry flipped out over Napster in the '90s, and the movie industry flipped out over BitTorrent in the early '00s. This moment feels like the same kind of apple-cart-upset, but for information control by military and political powers which, before this moment, we perceived as "in control." (It's no accident that the copyright maximalists and secrecy maximalists are often in agreement regarding internet restrictions and issues like net neutrality— and I'd expect to see new laws and controls soon proposed in that regard). Did you see the Washington Post "Top Secret America" series (blogged on BB here)? Spend some time with it. This moment is the natural counterpoint to the massive, unprecedented buildup of secrecy and surveillance documented in that investigative report. Do Wikileaks and other "distributed anti-secrecy networks" that will surely follow have the power to topple governments, or set into motion massive political change? Wikileaks is a big story. But the story is bigger than Wikileaks alone, and it has just begun. What happens next, whether there's a backlash and a doubling-down of attempts to exert control, is one of the next big questions. Dan Gillmor digs into that here, a must-read essay. Jay Rosen's thoughts in this piece were referenced in the Maddow Show broadcast. Another meta-analysis piece worth reading today by C.W. Anderson at Nieman Lab. And another from David Carr, of the New York Times (one of the three news organizations that received early access to the "Afghan War Diaries" data-dump.) Watch the video:
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| August Titanic expedition will create 3D map of the wreckage Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:49 PM PDT  On August 18th, an expedition team will be heading out to the Titanic site to create a 3D map of the wreckage 2.5 miles beneath the sea. 1,522 people died in the Titanic shipwreck in 1912; oceanographer Robert Ballard discovered the remains in 1985, and since then a bunch of different expeditions have headed out there in an attempt to salvage artifacts or take photos. But this one appears to be by far the most technologically intensive and expensive mission. The "dream team" of archaeologists, oceanographers and other scientists want to get the best assessment yet on the two main sections of the ship, which have been subjected to fierce deep-ocean currents, salt water and intense pressure.New Titanic expedition will create 3D map of wreck [SFGate]  |
| Home-made life insurance, the Apollo way Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:26 PM PDT  Of all the places I never expected to learn anything cool about the Apollo astronauts, number one would have to be the blog run by ukinsurance.net. ("For many years we have provided buildings and contents insurance for home owners, landlords and business premises.") I mean, it doesn't exactly promise a light, zippy read, does it? But it delivers one, and this week's post on "The Apollo Astronauts' Fascinating Insurance Covers" actually is fascinating. It details the extraordinary measures taken to provide financial security for families of the Apollo crews, who were literally uninsurable: Before every flight, from 11 to 16, the crews would autograph and leave behind a number of commemorative post cards, the idea being that, should the flight end in an untimely fashion, the cards' value would skyrocket. ("No pun intended," ukinsurance.net notes brightly.) It's a weird, unexpected look into a neglected corner of our history in space. (Via Coudal.) |
| Posted: 27 Jul 2010 12:39 PM PDT  Allen S. Rout posted some cute pictures of his infant son Stephen ten years ago, one of them with the caption, "We're really blessed. Stephen is an amazingly happy baby." That image is shown above, in the upper-left hand corner. Now, Stephen is a ten-year-old boy&mdash but that infant photo has blossomed into a full-blown meme in Japan. Some of the expressions of that meme are shown above. (thanks, Sean Bonner) |
| Dinosaur (and Warcraft Murloc) hoodies Posted: 27 Jul 2010 12:37 PM PDT  Dinohoodies. In addition to proper dinosaurs, the line includes World of Warcraft Murlocs, as shown above. (via Submitterator). |
| Posted: 27 Jul 2010 12:18 PM PDT |
| Wikileaks megadump reveals US pays local Afghan media to run psyops Posted: 27 Jul 2010 12:05 PM PDT  Among the tens of thousands of classified documents released this week by Wikileaks is evidence the US military in Afghanistan is repeating a PR blunder that led to trouble in Iraq: paying local media outlets to run "friendly stories"— in military parlance, "psychological operations." Several reports from Army psychological operations units and provincial reconstruction teams (also known as PRTs, civilian-military hybrids tasked with rebuilding Afghanistan) show that local Afghan radio stations were under contract to air content produced by the United States. Other reports show U.S. military personnel apparently referring to Afghan reporters as "our journalists" and directing them in how to do their jobs.Leaked files indicate U.S. pays Afghan media to run friendly stories (Yahoo News)
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| Put your pants back on: Chatroulette logging IP addresses, screengrabbing users Posted: 27 Jul 2010 11:50 AM PDT  Pantsless videocreeps (and anyone who puts a premium on privacy), beware: Chatroulette founder Andrey Ternovskiy recently announced on the official Chatroulette company blog that they've been logging data about users: Recently I decided to seriously look into issue again, and I've had a breakthrough.(via IT News)  |
| My Fair Lady X zombies t-shirt Posted: 27 Jul 2010 11:56 AM PDT  This seems like the perfect shirt for those of you who are theater geeks and zombie geeks. Art by Kyle Strahm. Product page (Thanks, SamCostello! via Submitterator) |
| Smoke bomb ingredient: potassium nitrate (aka saltpeter) Posted: 27 Jul 2010 12:08 PM PDT  I learned how to make smoke bombs when I was 12 by reading a recipe in Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book. The recipe calls for two ingredients: ordinary sugar and potassium nitrate (also known as saltpeter). In those days I was able to buy potassium nitrate from the pharmacy at K-Mart in Boulder, Colorado. Here's Hoffman's recipe: SMOKE BOMB The problem with this recipe is that the mixture can easily ignite while heating it over a stove burner. My friend and I made a batch when I was 13, and it went off in his kitchen and caused a lot of damage (when it burns it produces a red hot liquid that looks like molten lava). So I do not recommend this recipe. Has anyone tried melting the sugar first, then turning off the burner and pouring the potassium nitrate into the molten sugar? I've also read that you can mix together powdered sugar and potassium nitrate and ignite the powder. Other people have reported success adding melted paraffin to the powdered mixture.
Potassium nitrate is also an ingredient in gunpowder (which also contains charcoal and sulfur). There's an interesting paragraph about potassium nitrate in William Gurstelle's excellent book about acceptable risk-taking, Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living: In parts of China, gunpowder makers could merely scoop up saltpeter that lay on the ground, the result of fermentation of soil and animal waste in the humid subtropical climate. Europeans living in a dryer, colder environment had to work much harder to get saltpeter. The early European method of obtaining potassium nitrate involved aggregating great heaps of rotting organic matter, especially that which contained high percentages of rotted meat and animal dung. "Petermen" would search out promising places to collect their smelly treasure. Abandoned outhouses and animal pens were especially prized. The petermen picked up and taste-tested handfuls of dirt. When they found a place that tasted right, they'd cart out the soil, boil it in vats, then evaporate the liquid and strain the slurry-like residue. The result was high-purity saltpeter. The image of a peterman tasting saltpeter brings to mind the widely held belief that militaries add saltpeter to soldier's food as a way to deaden their sex drives. But saltpeter's reputation as an anti-Viagra is false. From Snopes: There's no proof potassium nitrate (also known as saltpeter) has any effect on libido, plus or minus, so there would be nothing to be gained from such a doctoring of edibles. Yes, saltpeter has long rumored to be an anaphrodisiac, a substance that reduces sexual drive. But it's all rumor and no fact. If you are interested in experimenting with potassium nitrate, you can buy it from Amazon. 5 lb Potassium Nitrate on Amazon Photo by M. Kelley. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  |
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