The Latest from Boing Boing

---

• Random Texas sign: "Dang good candy"
• Haiku for failed banks
• Antenna criticism vanishes
• More miniature masterpieces from Dalton Ghetti
• The Brick Wash Cycle
• UAE to block Blackberry messaging: "If you can't scan 'em, ban 'em"
• A life in polaroids
• Man faces jail for videotaping gun-waving cop
• Microcomputernation
• Millions of 5-year-olds have found their calling
• The Intimidator

Random Texas sign: "Dang good candy" Posted: 01 Aug 2010 03:20 PM PDT I spent the last few days in Texas. I didn't take this photograph, but I wish I had. Thanks for snapping it and sharing it, Chris aka @blueneurosis (whose Flickr stream is here).

Haiku for failed banks Posted: 01 Aug 2010 03:14 PM PDT The finance and economics blog Calculated Risk publishes an unofficial, periodically updated list of problem banks in the USA. The most recent edition includes 800 such institutions.Every time a bank fails, they post a haiku ode. Here's a snip from the most recent entry, regarding failed banks in Washington and Oregon The Cowlitz Bank failed. Udderly Ridiculous! Their milk shake was drank. (via Ned Sublette)

Antenna criticism vanishes Posted: 01 Aug 2010 03:00 PM PDT Apple's videos and criticisms of rivals' smartphone antennas have mysteriously disappeared from its website. TechCrunch's MG Siegler, however, found that if you hold the internet a certain way, you can still find them. [TechCrunch]

More miniature masterpieces from Dalton Ghetti Posted: 01 Aug 2010 02:40 PM PDT The Telegraph has a big new gallery of Dalton Ghetti's astonishingly precise pencil-tip sculptures. What on earth lead him to do it? [Thanks, Heather!.]

The Brick Wash Cycle Posted: 01 Aug 2010 10:05 AM PDT Wait for it. Posted to YouTube by Photonicinduction. Of his other videos, don't miss Washing Machine vs. Potatoes, Coffee Cup and Ashtray. Submitted by Antinous.

UAE to block Blackberry messaging: "If you can't scan 'em, ban 'em" Posted: 01 Aug 2010 09:01 AM PDT Blackberry mobile device service will be blocked in the United Arab Emirates beginning this October, after device maker Research in Motion effectively refused to comply with government demands that make the phones easier to surveil. Saudi Arabia will soon do the same. Other countries, including India and the Gulf state of Bahrain, have also raised concerns about BlackBerry messaging features, but have not decided to block them outright. I wonder what this means about other smartphone services that remain available in these same states?

A life in polaroids Posted: 01 Aug 2010 08:44 AM PDT Jamie Livingston took a polaroid photograph every day for eighteen years. On the day he died, a friend took the final shot. [Mental Floss. Thanks, opcws and @Pic_Nick]

Man faces jail for videotaping gun-waving cop Posted: 01 Aug 2010 10:33 PM PDT Police officer Joseph Uhler was caught on film charging out of his unmarked car and waving his gun at a unarmed motorcyclist pulled over for speeding. When the footage was uploaded to YouTube, authorities raided Anthony Graber's home, seized his computers, arrested him, and charged him with "wiretapping" offenses that could land him in jail for 16 years. Glyn writes in: The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who potentially faces 16 years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop. The ACLU attorney handling the case says, "To charge Graber with violating the law, you would have to conclude that a police officer on a public road, wearing a badge and a uniform, performing his official duty, pulling someone over, somehow has a right to privacy when it comes to the conversation he has with the motorist." Indeed, Maryland contends that Uhler had a reasonable expectation of privacy while waving his gun around in public and yelling at a motorist with a giant video camera mounted on the top of his helmet. Remarkably, the state Attorney General has already opined that when police record in public, that is not a private conversation subject to the same laws. In other words, in any public interaction between a police officer and a member of the public in Maryland, it is private for one of them but not the other. "We have looked, and have not been able to find a single court anywhere in the country that has found an expectation of privacy for an officer in such circumstances," writes the ACLU. Sixteen Years in Prison for Videotaping the Police? [MCLU via Submitterator]

Microcomputernation Posted: 01 Aug 2010 07:49 AM PDT Jefferson was the proposed name of a state between California and Oregon. Ethan Ham and Ethan Miller hacked a router so that regional addresses on the internet are rewritten to change the state name to "Jefferson." [Submitted by Ethan Ham]

Millions of 5-year-olds have found their calling Posted: 01 Aug 2010 07:41 AM PDT The following is an actual headline and subhead from The Christian Science Monitor: "Monkeys Hate Flying Squirrels Report Monkey-Annoyance Experts: Japanese macaques will completely flip out in when presented with a flying squirrels, a new study in monkey-antagonism has found. The research could pave the way for advanced methods of enraging monkeys." (Thanks to my husband, who came out while I was mowing the lawn to tell me that he'd found something that had to be posted to BoingBoing immediately.)

The Intimidator Posted: 01 Aug 2010 07:48 AM PDT GarE Maxton's 125-piece Intimidator appears, at first look, to be named for its own complexity as a puzzle: blocks of precious metals interlinked in a hellish, impossible-looking block. This design is by far my most complex metal sculpture and it's both mentally and physically intimidating, thus the name. ... In June 2009, starting with a few extra parts from my Labyrinth sculpture, I began working night and day creating this sculpture. It grew to eight inches tall, four inches deep and five inches wide; there's a lot of volume to fill with interlocking parts and assembly of this puzzle is extremely difficult; you'll need a lot of time on your hands. Physically, it tips the scale at over 40 pounds. But it's not just a toy: when certain pieces are reassembled just so, it also has an intimidating function. Inspired by Scaramanga in 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun, the .45 caliber firearm puzzle will remain "part of my personal collection," writes the creator. Maxton, however, does offer many delightful and mysterious metal puzzles for sale. Submitted by InsertFingerHere and Defunctdoormat.

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