The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Music video created with Nintendo DSi
- Get Lamp now available
- New Kindle
- Cooking with homeopathy
- Distaste for Corona saves geologist from assassination
- In space, everybody can smell your armpits
- Shopping in Harajuku, Tokyo
- Where Did the Money to Rebuild Iraq Go?
- Osmonds song from "Pretty Maids All in a Row"
- Frappes are wonderfoul
- Donny Osmond plays the Moog Modular
- Yiying Lu's "Lifting a Dreamer" wall graphics set in Boing Boing Bazaar
- NYT unhappy at being dependent on Wikileaks for news
- Daily Show does Wikileaks
- Tom the Dancing Bug: Rad Louis - Friday Night
- Funny t-shirt: "this was supposed to be the future"
- Khuan+Ktron maps of international cities
- Looking back at Look Around You with Popper and Serafinowicz
- In the Age of Privacy
- Watercolor painting depicting cell division
- Japanese TV commercial for jock itch cream
- Wikileaks: A counter-argument to the "nothing to see here" crowd
- Blank Nintendo carts banned in UK
- Chewbacca fights Nazis while riding mutant squirrel
- Bisson's Fire on the Mountain: alternate history in which John Brown wins at Harper's Ferry
- Postcard from Language Camp
- It ain't evidence if there's no trial
- FBI nabs "Iserdo" the 23-yr-old Slovenian "Botnet" bandit
- Noah Shachtman on Afghan War Diaries: caveat lector
- The War Project, continued: an interview with Sgt. George Zubaty
| Music video created with Nintendo DSi Posted: 29 Jul 2010 12:29 AM PDT The video to "Brain Games," the third track from Arman Bohn's Atari 2600-inspired "Bits  " album, was created using drawings made on a Nintendo DSi. These elements were combined with traditionally-shot footage in After Effects, resulting in a monochrome 1080-line-high heap of pixels.
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| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 08:16 PM PDT Get Lamp, a documentary about text adventures, is finally available to order after years in development. [Getlamp.com] Computerworld's Ken Gagne interviewed creator Jason Scott. |
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| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 06:42 PM PDT Water as flavor enhancer? Yes, ma'am. At least, that is, with booze and coffee. NYT's The Curious Cook explains the science and the taste behind this trick. (Via Graham Farmelo) |
| Distaste for Corona saves geologist from assassination Posted: 28 Jul 2010 09:34 PM PDT  Buried in Wikileaks' Afghanistan documents is a largely ignored 2007 warning that Pakistani spies were planning to poison booze intended for American soldiers using sulfuric acid. It sounds a little far-fetched. Until you hear the story of James Yeager, an American geologist who claims to have narrowly avoided being poisoned in exactly this way in, yes, 2007. Yeager was in Afghanistan advising the government as they took bids on a massive mining contract ...
Insert your own Corona joke here. Christian Science Monitor: Wikileaks confirmed? A plan to kill American geologist with poisoned beer Image courtesy Flickr user Kyle May, via CC
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| In space, everybody can smell your armpits Posted: 28 Jul 2010 06:10 PM PDT Fun trailer for Mary Roach's new book, Packing for Mars, which comes out on August 2. It tells the story of life in outer space. In this video, early '60s-era NASA conducts some delightful experiments in "minimal personal hygiene", to find out how humans might respond, socially, to a reality without earthly bathrooms. Via Submitterator
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| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 06:02 PM PDT  (In July, I went on a family vacation to Japan. Here are my posts about the trip: The Ghibli Museum | Watermelons in the shape of cubes, hearts, and pyramids | What happened to the Burgie Beer UFO of Melrose Avenue?) Having been to Tokyo three times previous to our recent vacation, I was excited to take my daughters to Harajuku, a popular teen shopping area in the city. To get there, we took a short ride on the JR Line to Harajuku Station, which has a neat Tudor-esque building built in 1925. We took the Takeshita Exit from the station, which lead us to Takeshita Dori, a narrow pedestrian street filled with teen fashion boutiques and creperies. Many more photos after the jump.
I didn't see anyone smorking (or smoking, for that matter), but I saw plenty of "touts" -- young African men who follow shoppers down the street to try to convince them to shop in stores that hire them to tout their wares. No one seemed to pay any attention to the touts. I wonder how they make a living?
Cheap trinkets were in abundance near the top of the street, giving this part of Takeshita Dori a slightly seedy, past-it's-prime vibe, much the way I remember London's Carnaby Street in the 1980s.
We spent a long time at Kiddy Land, a toy story with six floors.
Near the Harajuku Station is Yoyogi Park, where cosplayers happily pose for photos.
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| Where Did the Money to Rebuild Iraq Go? Posted: 28 Jul 2010 03:17 PM PDT  From the Good Blog: Where Did the Money to Rebuild Iraq Go? From the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, July 27, 2010 (PDF): Weaknesses in DoD's financial and management controls left it unable to properly account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion in DFI funds it received for reconstruction activities in Iraq. This situation occurred because most DoD organizations receiving DFI funds did not establish the required Department of the Treasury accounts and no DoD organization was designated as the executive agent for managing the use of DFI funds. The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss.
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| Osmonds song from "Pretty Maids All in a Row" Posted: 28 Jul 2010 04:51 PM PDT After seeing Pesco's moogarific Osmonds post, I got to thinking about a terrific piece of cinematic sleaze from 1971 called Pretty Maids All in a Row starring Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson, written by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Roger Vadim (Brigitte Bardot's svengali, over-the-top bon vivant playboy, and director of Barbarella). The lead song, "Chilly Winds," was performed by the Osmonds, and is probably their best song ever. I can't beat Bad4Alice's description of the movie, so I'll just cut-n-paste: The First 5 minutes of "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (1971) - Welcome to the 70's! A Teen boy seduced by a HOT substitute teacher (Angie Dickenson); a Footbal Coach / 'Counselor' (Rock Hudson) giving 'Private Lessons' to the Willing and Sexy Young High School girls - Short Skirts, No Bras, Lots of 'Bounce' and Upskirt Peeks - It makes Certain 'Things' Hard for a young highschool guy, especially the New Substitute in her Short Skirt, Jiggly Butt, and Tight Top, who 'Accidently' pokes his face with her Breasts! He has to get a Hall Pass, and 'Limp' to the Boys' Room, holding a clipboard in front of himself, for a little 'Relief'! He's about to start, when he finds a cute young girl in the next stall, Skirt Up and Panties showing - But she's having a harder day than his - She's DEAD! The movie (NOT the Clip) goes on to more girls murdered, lots of nudity, Telly Savales & James Dohan (Scotty on Star Trek) as the Cops, Roddy McDowall as the Principal. and the Osmonds singing the Theme Song! It's a Sexy Comedy/Murder Mystery -- Far Out, Groovy, and Right On!
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| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 02:04 PM PDT  Mark Richards says: "I spotted an instructive sign at a Greek festival."
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| Donny Osmond plays the Moog Modular Posted: 28 Jul 2010 01:37 PM PDT Er... Switched-On Osmonds. (Thanks, Jean Paul Bondy via Jeff Cross!)
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| Yiying Lu's "Lifting a Dreamer" wall graphics set in Boing Boing Bazaar Posted: 28 Jul 2010 01:24 PM PDT  A couple of days ago my 7-year-old daughter and I decorated her bedroom wall with designer Yiying Lu's "Lifting a Dreamer" (Elephant) wall graphics set. (Yiying is the illustrator of Twitter's famous Fail Whale. Here's an interview with her.) The three-foot elephant set is $59.95, and the four-foot set is $79.95. They are available in the Makers Market / Boing Boing Bazaar. Yiying Lu premium wall graphics are self-adhesive and will stick to almost any surface (walls, windows, even ceilings), and can be removed and re-hung 100 times without leaving a mark or damaging your walls.Yiying Lu's "Lifting a Dreamer" (Elephant) wall graphics set
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| NYT unhappy at being dependent on Wikileaks for news Posted: 28 Jul 2010 01:15 PM PDT CJR has a very detailed explanation on how the arrangement around "The Afghan War Diaries" between Wikileaks and three newspapers (Guardian, NYT, Der Spiegel) came to pass. Notably, the article incorporates a disparaging use of the verb "flounce." |
| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 01:01 PM PDT Predictably, Jon Stewart's Daily Show take on the Wikileaks/Manning/Assange/Lamo/AfghanMegaDump telenovela is spot-on, revelatory, and required internet viewing (though folks outside the USA are SOL, as it's region-blocked). |
| Tom the Dancing Bug: Rad Louis - Friday Night Posted: 28 Jul 2010 11:29 AM PDT 
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| Funny t-shirt: "this was supposed to be the future" Posted: 28 Jul 2010 12:18 PM PDT  This t-shirt design by John Slabyk over at Threadless should be part of any credentialed Futurist's wardrobe: they lied to us"Damn Scientist" t-shirt (Thanks, Emily Goligoski!)
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| Khuan+Ktron maps of international cities Posted: 28 Jul 2010 04:17 PM PDT   Over at the Submitterator, Cheftournel turns us on to Belgian design firm Khuan + Ktron's lovely illustrations of entire countries, created for Weekend Knack Magazine. They have a bit of a Mary Blair vibe, but also are rather fresh too. KHUAN + KTRON for Weekend Knack Magazine
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| Looking back at Look Around You with Popper and Serafinowicz Posted: 28 Jul 2010 04:38 PM PDT Watch video: YouTube, or download MP4. Make sure to have your copybooks ready, you'll want to take notes. In this episode of Boing Boing Video, the offbeat British comedy duo of Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, creators of the BBC series "Look Around You," speak to us on the occasion of the US DVD release for their absurdist fake-educational science program. Bonus: They are also founders of the faux religion of Tarvuism. In this very video, for the first time ever, they recite the full invocational prayer of Tarvu, meaning that just by watching, you are automatically indoctrinated as a member of the Church of Tarvu. So if octopuses (octopi? octopodes?) start chattering priestmuntyisms to you in the night, you've been warned. In addition to the LOL-rich endeavors they discuss in this interview, these guys are busy: there's Popper's long-running prank phone call and Timewaster Letter series, work on the IT Crowd, and their Radio Spirit World podcasts, Popper is writing for South Park lately. Serafinowicz has an eponymous BBC show out on DVD, and lots of movie roles in the works, including the new Yellow Submarine remake. US audiences may know Serafinowicz best as the voice of Darth Maul. We'll be debuting a new comedy short from these guys soon on Boing Boing Video, so stay tuned. Thants! • LOOK AROUND YOU Season 1 on DVD (Amazon) Photo, below: Popper (L) and Serafinowicz (R) at Comic-Con, with a new pal...
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| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 11:16 AM PDT |
| Watercolor painting depicting cell division Posted: 28 Jul 2010 11:41 AM PDT  Artist Michele Banks uses watercolor to depict natural, scientific, and medical phenomena. This one above shows cell divisions (note that it's not meant to be completely accurate); another one I like is a bright blue canvas with a single line showing someone's heart rate. Her work is available for sale in the Makers Market/Boing Boing Bazaar! [via Try Handmade via Submitterator]
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| Japanese TV commercial for jock itch cream Posted: 28 Jul 2010 09:54 AM PDT Check out this great Japanese TV commercial for Delicare M's, a jock itch cream. Tokyo gets really hot in the summer, and men still have to wear suits to work, so the idea of a refreshingly itch-less crotch is likely to appeal to many salarymen. [via Spoon & Tamago via TokyoMango]
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| Wikileaks: A counter-argument to the "nothing to see here" crowd Posted: 28 Jul 2010 09:48 AM PDT "[I]n rushing to declare what the war logs are not, many in the media have been quick to pass over what they are. Or, at the very least, what they might be: If not something 'new,' 'shocking,' and Pentagon Paper-esque, certainly a trove of material to add texture, detail, and anecdote—in other words, reporting—to a war that, despite the good work of some brave and diligent correspondents, has gone largely underreported in recent years." Joel Meares in CJR. |
| Blank Nintendo carts banned in UK Posted: 28 Jul 2010 09:27 AM PDT Just days after the U.S. Copyright Office explicitly authorized DRM-cracking by consumers, a British court has effectively abolished the import and sale of blank Nintendo DS cartridges. The mere possibility of piracy is sufficient to ban them, even if the media has legitimate uses such as storing freely-available third-party software. "The mere fact that the device can be used for a non-infringing purpose is not a defence," read the ruling by Justice Floyd. [BBC] |
| Chewbacca fights Nazis while riding mutant squirrel Posted: 28 Jul 2010 09:09 AM PDT  Created by DeviantArt user Gamefan84, who says all that needs to be said: "Craziest request ever: Chewie riding a giant cute squirrel chasing down Nazis. He needs long flowing fur and a giant roar." You might stop by his DeviantArt page and tell him how great this is. (via BB Submitterator / The High Definite)
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| Bisson's Fire on the Mountain: alternate history in which John Brown wins at Harper's Ferry Posted: 28 Jul 2010 09:26 AM PDT  I thought of sf writer Terry Bisson's work as being delightfully absurdist, always moving but never solemn, but then I read Fire on the Mountain, his acclaimed 1988 short novel, reprinted in 2009 by PM Press in a handsome pocket edition with an introduction written by the revolutionary Mumia Abu Jamal from his cell on death row. Now I know that Bisson is perfectly capable of being as solemn as a funeral, and that when he takes on that mode, he is just as moving, and sweetly sad in a way that reveals the powerful mastery that's hidden behind his whimsy in stories like They're Made of Meat and Bears Discover Fire. Fire on the Mountain is an alternate American civil war history, in the classic mode: one battle goes differently, for the want of a battle the war is lost, and the nation becomes an altogether different place. But Bisson's approach is more than a bit of militaristic speculation: it is a revolutionary polemic clothed in an exciting and moving adventure story. In Bisson's world, Harriet Tubman joins John Brown at Harper's Ferry and the two of them kindle a nationwide abolitionist uprising that sparks a global series of socialist revolutions, in Canada, Haiti, Mexico, France, England, Ireland, and across the American continent among indigenous people. The story takes place in two timelines: the history of the revolution is told in the form of a memoir of a slave-boy who grew up to be a revolutionary leader, and in correspondence from a white Virginian doctor who turned his back on privilege and fought alongside the rebels in John Brown's army. Then there's a "contemporary" story, set in 1959, when socialist Africa is just about to land its first astronauts on Mars. Yasmin is the great-great granddaughter of the ex-slave whose memoir recounts the history of the revolution, and she is the widow of an African astronaut who died in space on an earlier, failed Mars mission. She is delivering her ancestor's papers to a revolutionary museum, travelling cross-country with her teenaged daughter, Harriet, the bother of them absorbed with bitter emotion at all the space travel in the news. Weaving between these three stories, Bisson paints a picture of a world where progress is based on peace, not war, cooperation, not competition. And he tells the gripping tale of the war that was fought and the blood that was shed to get to that world, and of the ambivalence that the fighting and the not-fighting engender among all concerned. It's a slender novel, a mere 150 pages, but it does the science fiction trick of making you step back from your own world and see it more clearly, and it does so while wrenching your heart and setting your pulse pounding. All in all, one of the best alternate histories I've read -- and a side of Bisson (a southerner who fought in the John Brown Anti-KKK League) I'm glad to have discovered.
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| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 12:38 PM PDT  Greetings from one of the best places in the world to learn foreign languages! DLI, CIA University? No, a small town in Vermont that hosts an annual summer language institute: Middlebury. To call the Middlebury language schools a camp is like calling a hurricane a rain shower.At the core of the language program here is the contractual agreement of all participants to only use their language of study for the duration of their stay. The "language pledge" is in effect 24-7 and contributes to the full-immersion environment. In many ways, you are exposed to more of the language than in a country where it is spoken. There is simply no escape from the language outside of withdrawal from the program, resulting in a strange environment in this small Vermont town near the Green Mountain National Forest. Pictured above is Sunday morning at the library where students pore over word lists, prepare for the upcoming week, and listen to audio files to improve their listening comprehension. Giving up English for 7-10 weeks has a strange, Kafkaesque effect on the brain. You live in a heterotopian space, one that makes you question where and when you exactly are, and how you came to be there. Time seems to stand still in this environment as the new language permeates you, even as an instructor. The frustration of not being able to express yourself in English either gives way to creative uses of the new language, or a bout of 'language breakdown' when students are incapable of any form of communication. This intense committment to staying in the language has resulted in the occasional call from the local hospital asking for a translator for an injured student who is 'stuck' in the language. I am teaching beginning German this summer to students who have had almost no exposure to the German language. They too sign away English for seven weeks, and of course they often make the most progress of all students. It is a testament to the hard work of the students and to the human brain's ability to acquire languages. Middlebury started with a school of German in 1915, when Vassar professor Lilian Strobe thought that Middlebury's isolated geography would make an ideal place to allow students to focus on language learning. Today, Middlebury teaches 10 languages and on any Friday night, the town pub becomes an even more surreal place. As you walk in you can hear a table of German speakers, a table of French, a table of Spanish, etc. If you passed through town accidentally and did not know what was going on, you might question where in the world you were. If you try to speak to the students, you would only get a strange look or an answer in the language they study. The motto of the Language Schools is "No English Spoken Here". Teaching a language without the aid of any English explanations or translations is an interesting challenge, but the challenge forces both me and the students to strain our minds to comprehend and communicate. It forces a more efficient, comprehensive teaching and learning style that manages to promote quick and effective language acquisition. Students from a variety of backgrounds come here, including many graduate students who need a language for their research, government types whose first phrase in the language is "I'm not permitted to tell you what I do for a living," and students who are preparing to move abroad and need to learn as much of a language as possible in a short period of time. The program runs from June-August only and is roughly the equivalent of two years of instruction. The real trick is the constant immersion and steady interaction with other speakers. Contrary to popular belief, there is no way to 'pick up' a language quickly with self-study. Languages are spoken among people and that spoken interaction is critical to learning. Here, students only sit in classes 3-4 hours daily. The rest of the day is spent doing other activities involving high frequency vocabulary such as working out, playing teams sports, yoga, singing in a choir, eating, drinking, putting on a play, playing billiards, and hiking in the nearby forests; all in the target language. Often, these seemingly superfluous interactions outside of the classroom prove to be the most beneficial way to solidify what one has learned in the classroom earlier that morning. I have long lamented the state of language education in the United States, but I see change and improvement in foreign language education every year. Middlebury reflects this trend and has shown a steady increase in demand. Overall applications for admission to the program have increased 120% over a ten-year period. For Arabic, applications are up 375% and this increase has prompted the program to move the Arabic school to Mills College in Oakland, California. For my passion, German, applications are up a significant 75% with steady enrollments over a ten- year period, countering the trends of decreasing interest after the fall of the Berlin wall. For a realistic look at the amount of progress made, you can view the before and after videos on the Middlebury web site.
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| It ain't evidence if there's no trial Posted: 28 Jul 2010 08:54 AM PDT Richmond police recently refused to arrest a group of men who beat up a naked drunk in public. "We don't need it," one said to a woman who filmed the incident. [The Awl] |
| FBI nabs "Iserdo" the 23-yr-old Slovenian "Botnet" bandit Posted: 28 Jul 2010 08:47 AM PDT "To use an analogy here, as opposed to arresting the guy who broke into your home, we've arrested the guy that gave him the crowbar, the map and the best houses in the neighborhood. And that is a huge break in the investigation of cyber crimes."—International authorities have nabbed "Iserdo," the 23-year-old Slovenian hacker believed to have written the "Botnet" code that a network of criminals used to infect 12 million computers, compromising the security of major banks and corporations worldwide. |
| Noah Shachtman on Afghan War Diaries: caveat lector Posted: 28 Jul 2010 09:37 AM PDT  Wired writer and Danger Room blog editor Noah Shachtman has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today cautioning those who dive in to the Wikileaks Afghan war logs to read the military-produced reports they contain with some skepticism. Not because Wikileaks has released anything less than the genuine article, but because reports produced by the military don't always tell the whole story. Shachtman cites a series of reports related to actions of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, in Helmand province on August 25th: I happen to know this because I was there with Echo company, reporting for WIRED magazine. And the wide difference between what actually happened at the Moba Khan compound and what the report says happened there should give caution to those who think they can discover the capital-T truth about the Afghanistan conflict solely through the WikiLeaks war logs. It should also give pause to those officers in military headquarters who count on these updates to learn about what’s happening on the front lines. The military has a problem in how it talks to itself.My War, WikiLeaked: Why the Public (and the Military) Can't Count on Those Battle Logs (Danger Room) Here's the full op-ed at the WSJ. If you search for it via Google News, you should be able to get around their stupid paywall.
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| The War Project, continued: an interview with Sgt. George Zubaty Posted: 28 Jul 2010 12:33 PM PDT  Susannah Breslin has posted a new story to The War Project website, her independent online project featuring first-person stories of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Every as-told-to story is based on an in-person interview Susannah conducted with the veteran, and a photo portrait she took of the veteran. About today's story: Sgt. George Zubaty, whose father was a Vietnam War veteran, grew up in a small southern town and was deployed as an Army infantryman to Afghanistan in 2002 and Iraq in 2003. In his story, he talks about being among the first to enter Baghdad, what Iraq and Cormac McCarthy's The Road have in common, and why some soldiers have more problems than others.Sgt. George Zubaty (The War Project) You can follow The War Project on Twitter.
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About Yiying Lu: "Yiying" is 2 characters in Chinese. "Yi" means Happy; "Ying" means Creative. Born in Shanghai, Yiying moved to Sydney when she was a teen. Yiying has been educated in UK and Australia. She has studied at Central St Martins College of Art & Design in London and University of New South Wales in Sydney. She graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with 1st-Class honors in Bachelor of Design Visual Communication 2007. 
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