Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Discoveries, and rumors of discoveries

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 10:02 PM PDT

Did the Kepler satellite really find 140 Earthlike planets in the constellation Cygnus? Sadly, no. More like 140 roughly Earth-sized bodies that could, possibly, turn out to be planets. That's a mighty big devil hanging out in those details and, for Dennis Overbye, it's a perfect example of the "two-sigma blues"—when "a measurement or discovery of some kind sticks up high enough above the random noise to be interesting but not high enough to really mean anything conclusive." Two-sigma discoveries often get the gossip mill up and running, something that can lead to a lot of confusion, especially in already difficult-to-explain-to-the-public fields like astrophysics.

The DNA dilemma

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 09:39 PM PDT

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Science journalist—and my fellow mental_floss alum—Mary Carmichael is thinking about taking an at-home DNA test. But, before she goes all the way, she's doing some major background research: Holding up a spotlight onto the business of DNA reports, and examining what these tests can (and can't) tell you, and how reliable they really are.

Mary's put together a fascinating series that's running all this week. On Friday, she'll weight the benefits and detriments and make her choice. Highly recommended reading! The excerpt below is from a series of interviews and analysis looking at what you can actually learn from a DNA test.

NOT WHAT YOU MAY EXPECT
Steven Murphy

physician specializing in personalized medicine and vocal DTC critic

"I have seen probably more patients with these types of tests than just about any clinician out there, so I can tell you what the patients ask and what I tell them. (1) You will not learn what you will die from. In fact, most tests won't tell you, whether ordered via Amazon or through your doctor. (2) You will not learn what diet is right for you. We do know some people may benefit from some types of diets to lower cholesterol and lose weight, but the science to accurately predict genes and diet is not ready to bring to market. (3) You will not learn if you are of the lost tribes of Israel. The J Haplogroup analysis you get is only a small window into heritage.

The results for positive carrier tests are just as valid as those ordered by a doctor in some instances. But they may be better at ruling in than ruling out. If it says you are not a carrier, don't trust the results. If it says you are, you can double check with a doctor. You may learn you carry a rare mutation putting you at significantly increased risk of breast or ovarian cancer. Are you ready for what to do with those results if you had them?"

Mary's take: Murphy may have seen patients asking "what they'll die from" based on a DTC test, but I myself wouldn't ask such a silly question. I appreciated his concern that I might not be ready to find out about BRCA, the breast and ovarian cancer mutation, and so, apparently, did the test makers. Some potentially life-altering results are "locked" in many DTC reports. You're supposed to specifically decide you're ready to see them before you actually do. Mirabile dictu, I started to believe I was reaching a consensus among my contributors: you won't get much good out of the test if you don't actively think about the results.

DNA Dilemma: What do genetic tests show?
DNA Dilemma home page


Image courtesy Flickr user mknowles, via CC

Mommy, where do conspiracy theories come from?

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 08:41 PM PDT

How to turn an innocuous science story into a brand, spanking new conspiracy theory in three easy steps. (Hint: Step #2 is The Daily Mail)

The Depression in color

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 08:39 PM PDT

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I absolutely love this collection of photos, taken by the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information between 1939 and 1943. The shots taken prior to 1941, especially, are incredibly jarring—familiar images of poverty stricken farm families straight from your high school history textbook, suddenly rendered "real" and emotionally resonant by the addition of color film.

I'm very fond of the shot posted above, partially because it's just a great portrait, but also because I recognize that dress and that apron. My Great-Grandma, Rosella Duncan, owned strikingly similar outfits and was still wearing them when I was a teenager in the 1990s. It's the sort of recognizable, relatable detail that gets lost if you were to look at the same image in black and white.

Other particularly striking shots in the series:

  • >#6: which shows a small-town newspaper's early attempt at real-time headlines
  • >#17: where you see the family pictured above eating dinner and can get a good look at their food
  • >#43: a shot of a woman and her son outside a grocery store that could easily be (without any real alterations) a modern big city bodega
  • >#66: a real-life Rosie the Riveter who is rocking some fabulous, bright-red nails

Denver Post Photo Blogs: Captured: American in Color 1939-1943

Stormin' The Gates of Hell: Pastor Steve Winter's rockpocalypse

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 08:25 PM PDT

Over at Dangerous Minds, Marc Campbell has an extensive post (with lots of great video selections) about WinterBand, an Apostolic Pentecostal Christian rock group led by a gentleman named Steve Winter.

Marc writes:

A fire and brimstone nutjob with a beard more flammable than a Rhode Island nightclub, Winter makes Jimmy Swaggart seem like the voice of reason. His hatefilled diatribes against other religious sects, his extreme and bizarre views on Christian doctrine, his appalling attitude toward women, his dozens of wacky Internet sites, and numerous lawsuits against anyone who questions his legitimacy as a religious prophet, portray a man who is operating in the void left by Jim Jones, David Koresh and Marshall Applewhite (Heaven's Gate cult). Within the Pentecostal community, Winter has accrued an enemies list so long it makes Nixon's look like a haiku.
Mr. Winter's website FAQ is quite a read. He calls the FBI on people he considers foes.

Update: Thanks to BB commenter PeaceNerd for pointing out that The Awl ran a post back in April on Mr. Winters' hijinks.

"I'm here to tell you what it's like to be a reporter at Guantanamo. It's hard."

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 12:08 PM PDT

The rules for reporters at Guantánamo Bay change daily. But one stays constant: you can only do your job if there's a member of the military within earshot. From a McClatchy newspaper group commentary by Carol Rosenberg:

It's a place where you can go to court only in the custody of a military public affairs officer. Inside, if there's only one escort -- this happened recently -- and somebody has to go to the bathroom, every reporter has to leave court, too. It's a place where a soldier stands over your shoulder, looks in your viewfinder and says 'Don't take that picture, I'll delete it.'

This happened earlier in July. The government censor stands in front of a No Photography sign and says, "New policy, the sign and scene behind are now OK. Have at it." You take your camera to a shed for a security review a few minutes later and a sergeant says, "Um, 'No Photography' signs are forbidden." "They just told us it was OK," I say. "For real?" he asks. "For real," I reply. He deletes it anyway. There was a sliver of concrete in the frame. The fringes of a bunker you're not allowed to see.

And it's a place where the Pentagon believes it can tell you not to include in your story the name of a man who outed himself in a newspaper interview in 2008 to clear his name.

"Commentary: For reporters, the rules at Guantanamo change daily" [mcclatchydc.com]

Image: "Guantanamo Bay," a CC-licensed photo by Kevin Dooley.

Oh, Happy Gay!

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 08:35 PM PDT

"California's obligation is to treat its citizens equally," wrote the judge. Prop 8 overturned. Read the full decision here. PS: Suck it, Utah.

[BB Submitterator, thanks Jason Stuart]

Update: Lest we forget that not everyone in Utah, and not everyone who's LDS, is a jerk—here is a photo to remind us that happy mutants exist everywhere. (thanks, @ryandpaul)

Sudan: 19 young Muslim guys get lashes for wearing false lashes

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 02:31 PM PDT

In happy-fun, gay-friendly Sudan, 19 young men were each sentenced to receive 30 lashes and a punitive fine for the crime of having been videotaped while cross-dressing. The men had no lawyers.

The Disappearing Spoon

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 01:34 PM PDT

Wp-Content Uploads 2010 07 The-Disappearing-Spoon The title for Sam Kean's new book, The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, comes from a prank that scientists sometimes play: they make a spoon out of gallium (which melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit) and hand it to unsuspecting friends to stir their tea with.

The title sets the tone for this witty, anecdote-filled book about the role elements have played in science, art, war, commerce, medicine, literature, and other fields. An element I'd never heard of before, ruthenium, was the key to riches for Kenneth Parker, who used it to make fountain pen tips in 1944. A more well-known element, silver, plays a role in the fate of Stan Jones (I posted about him in 2002), Montana's Libertarian candidate for Senator in 2002. Jones drank a homebrew concoction of colloidal silver to prevent bacterial infection (he was afraid that conventional antibiotics wouldn't be available in the new millennium) and it stained his skin blue for good (the condition is called argyria and I wrote abut it in my book, The World's Worst, which you can buy for $0.01 on Amazon). Cadmium is both a hero and a villain: a hero for being a part of vibrant pigments (I love my cadmium red and cadmium yellow acrylic paints), and a villain for sickening a great many people in the 1940s who drank out of drinking glasses lined with cadmium.

The disappearing spoon is my favorite kind of science journalism: it reveals a hidden universe in the form of a thrilling tale.

Buy The Disappearing Spoon on Amazon

Last chance to win free Outside Lands tickets!

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 01:19 PM PDT

Tonight (Wednesday) at 11:59pm PDT is the deadline for our Outside Lands 2010 ticket giveaway. Outside Lands 2010 is the huge music festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate park taking place August 14-15, with performers like Kings of Leon, Furthur featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, The Strokes, Al Green, and Gogol Bordello. We're giving away two pairs of two-day tickets ($140/ticket value)! You still have more than 10 hours to get your entry together. Here's what to do:
Images Sfol10 Logo Low To enter our Outisde Lands 2010 ticket contest, please compose a song about why you want to go to the festival, and record it on video or audio. Your song can be as simple (a capella!) to as elaborate (orchestral!) as you want. If you make a video, please upload it to YouTube. Audio only recordings should be posted on Archive.org. Our own Dean "Dino" Putney is going to judge, so email dean at boing boing dot net with a link to your entry.
We'll announce the winners on Friday.



Dr. Dre, astronomy buff, working on "music of the spheres" instrumental concept album

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 01:12 PM PDT

In an interview with Vibe, rap mogul Dr. Dre reveals that he is working on an instrumental album to be titled "The Planets."

It's just my interpretation of what each planet sounds like. I'm gonna go off on that. Just all instrumental. I've been studying the planets and learning the personalities of each planet. I've been doing this for about two years now just in my spare time so to speak. I wanna do it in surround sound. It'll have to be in surround sound for Saturn to work.
[via The Atlantic / illo: Xeni]

AMA report on CIA physicians' role in torture

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 12:39 PM PDT

The Journal of the American Medical Association today published a report on the role of CIA doctors and psychiatrists in developing innovative torture techniques during the Bush-Cheney administration—techniques which are presumably still in use today.

Notes Andrew Sullivan (who also posts highlights of the AMA's subscribers-only report), "These individuals need to be stripped of their medical licenses and prosecuted under the Geneva Conventions. Fat chance under Obama."

See also this previous Boing Boing post, an interview with Physicians for Human Rights on the same topic earlier this year: Experiments in Torture: Physicians group alleges US conducted illegal research on detainees.

[illo: Beschizza]

CO gov candidate: Denver mayor's pro-bicycle ideas part of UN New World Order conspiracy

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 12:38 PM PDT

"At first, I thought, 'Gosh, public transportation, what's wrong with that, and what's wrong with people parking their cars and riding their bikes? And what's wrong with incentives for green cars?' But if you do your homework and research, you realize [the public transport initiative] is part of a greater strategy to rein in American cities under a United Nations treaty."—noted nutjob and Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes. [via BB Submitterator, thanks John Napsterista]

Surprise! Feds stored thousands of checkpoint body scan images after all

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 12:28 PM PDT

US agencies have long defended the use of body scanning devices at airports with the promise that all images will be discarded as soon as security staff have viewed them. Last summer, the TSA claimed "scanned images cannot be stored or recorded." Declan McCullagh at CNET:
Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.

This follows an earlier disclosure (PDF) by the TSA that it requires all airport body scanners it purchases to be able to store and transmit images for "testing, training, and evaluation purposes." The agency says, however, that those capabilities are not normally activated when the devices are installed at airports.

Feds admit storing checkpoint body scan images [CNET via @declanm]



YouTube parody of "The Social Network"

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 01:03 PM PDT

Video Link. A YouTube-themed parody of the forthcoming "The Social Network" movie about Facebook. Written and co-directed by Jeff Loveness, a Jimmy Kimmel Live intern. To fully appreciate, watch the original.

[via Submitterator, thanks David Carroll]

Foxconn installs "Anti-Jumping Nets"

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 11:01 AM PDT

Taiwanese gadget manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, aka Foxconn, is installing "anti-jumping nets" at a number of its facilities throughout mainland China after a widely-reported string of worker suicides which left 10 dead.

Falero's The Departure of the Witches

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 11:33 AM PDT

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Today's art history appreciation moment: The Departure of the Witches, 1878, by Luis Ricardo Falero.



Should Wikileaks join the press corps?

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 11:35 AM PDT

Jack Shafer wrote an interesting article about what Wikileaks can learn from newspapers. The thrust is that by publishing unreviewed materials, Wikileaks renders itself open to criticsm, whereas papers like the New York Times -- which transmuted the leaks into well-heeled news stories -- are adept at wrangling tacit acceptance from government.
I don't expect the Pentagon to pin Distinguished Service Crosses on the lapels of the redacting editors any time soon, but the WikiLeaks coverage shows how conscientious the press generally is when publishing information the government would rather keep secret.

Wikileaks, in this view, needs to become a player: "Instead of having [Wikileaks chief Julian Assange] outside the tent, pissing in, government should find a way to get him inside the tent, where at least they can influence the direction of his cascade."

There's an obvious problem with that! When the press does this, it sometimes creates an appearance of improper obedience to those it reports on. One reason Wikileaks has been such a hit is because people know of the backroom negotiations between press and government that Schafer details and don't buy the idea that it serves the public trust. The fact Wikileaks can boast of so many scoops is further evidence that the press is having trouble reporting much at all that the government doesn't want you to know.

Domestic media has to think about a competitive marketplace. It has to weigh carefully the wisdom of upsetting subjects that may also be its sources. Wikileaks is somewhat insulated from these concerns, so when Schafer talks of the "horse-trading" designed to "minimize damage to national security while getting the story published," it implies a quid pro-quo that's only incidentally relevant. A 'smarter' Wikileaks may become more adept at protecting its own sources or redacting innocent names, but there's no incentive for it to adopt mainstream policies such as systematically holding off on publishing vaguely-defined 'national security' threats.

Speaking of deals, the basic form of that one -- we've got something on you, let's talk before we publish -- is offered every day in newspaperland. It's got nothing at all to do with journalistic conscience.

Schafer gets it, of course:

If the choice is between an operator like Julian Assange, who publishes secret documents in the raw without conversing with officialdom, and the "little dears of the Fourth Estate," who anguish over what information to publish, Deitz and his allies in the government may start waxing nostalgically for the good old days when the little dears held sway.

That term, "little dears," was used by a CIA official in 2006 to ridicule the press. It's not hard to see how the keepers of secrets all but willed Wikileaks into being.

"Strange sources of music" in 1926

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 11:11 AM PDT

Screen Shot 2010-08-04 At 11.08.55 Am

These folks were at Maker Faire 1926. I'll see if I can dig up the video I shot there.

Full photo at Amy Crehore's Little Hokum Rag.

Creepy 1920 cigarette lighter in shape of a woman's head

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 10:44 AM PDT

Westerners' gut microbes make them sick

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 11:06 AM PDT

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Researchers compared the intestinal microbes of healthy children in Burkina Faso with those of healthy Italian children and found that the African kids had significantly more bacteria associated with lean people and less bacteria associated with obese people.

Additionally, the researchers detected bacterial strains of Prevotella, Xylanibacter, and Treponema only in the children from Burkina Faso. These bacteria are excellent at breaking down fibrous foods and producing short-chain fatty acids that provide added energy. Studies have also shown that those same fatty acids help protect the intestines from inflammation, which could explain why inflammatory bowel disease is almost unheard of in African communities that eat high-fiber diets, Lionetti says.

The increased diversity of microbes in the gut also makes the body more resistant to intestinal pathogens while tempering the immune system's response to harmless molecules, leading to fewer allergies, Lionetti says. The group reports its findings online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

ScienceNOW: Western Diet Tied to Intestinal Disease and Allergies

Photo: Grubs for Sale by Adam Jones, Ph.D. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

An unfond farewell to San Francisco's dingy, dark, fetid Transbay Terminal

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 10:40 AM PDT

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Todd Lappin has a terrific photo essay about the soon-to-be-closed Transbay Terminal in San Francisco.

The structure has barely changed since it opened, and today an unknowing visitor might be forgiven for wondering if it hadn't been cleaned since, either. The Transbay Terminal is a dingy, depressing, and fetid place -- think New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal, but without the bustle of crowds to at least provide some vitality. This probably explains why so little nostalgia has accompanied the announcement that the Transbay Terminal will close permanently on August 7, 2010. Thereafter it will be demolished, and eventually replaced with a gleaming new facility that will be home to a César Pelli-designed high-rise tower, a 5.4 acre rooftop park, and an underground train station for (hopefully) high speed rail service to Los Angeles.
One problem -- Todd's photos are so good, he makes the Transbay Terminal look awesome.

An Unfond Farewell to San Francisco's Dingy, Dark, Fetid Transbay Terminal

Boing Boing Video on Virgin America: now with new EFF PSAs!

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 10:18 AM PDT

When you fly Virgin America Airlines, you can enjoy original Boing Boing Video episodes (and short films, animations, remixes, and music videos from creators whose work we dig) on our in-flight entertainment channel. We're somewhere north of CNN and south of Fox News on the free satellite TV dial. And starting this month on the Boing Boing channel, you can see some fun PSAs from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I think they're great, and I'm proud to run them!

The EFF's Richard Esguerra explains: "Earlier this year, EFF worked with Bucknell University Professor Eric Faden (of A Fair(y) Use Tale fame) to create these two video PSAs about important, cutting-edge digital rights issues. Hopefully, viewers are reminded of the very important idea that many of the rights and protections we have in the physical world should apply to the digital world as well."

More about "the making of," and a full list of credits, at the EFF blog. Above, the Digital Books and EULAs spot. Below, the PSA for Online Behavioral Tracking.

Reverse engineering Apple's battery charging

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 10:07 AM PDT


Our hardware hacking friends at Adafruit Industries have revserse engineered how Apple's battery charging tech works. PT says:

In this 7 minute video we explore the mysteries of Apple device charging. Usually device makers need to sign a confidentially agreement with Apple who want to say "works with iPhone / iPod" and never talk about how the insides work. If you don't put these secret resistors on the data lines to you get the dreaded "CHARGING IS NOT SUPPORTED WITH THIS ACCESSORY". We demonstrate how anyone can do this and make their own chargers that work with iPhone 4, 3Gs, etc.
"The mysteries of Apple device charging"

The wonderful world of blob launching videos

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 10:49 AM PDT


What is a blob? It's a giant plastic bag filled with air, placed in a lake.

What do you do with the blob? One person sits on one end the end of the blob. Another person climbs a tower and jumps onto the other end of the blob, launching the sitter into the air.

What happens when two beefy guys jump onto a blob at the same time? The sitter gets launched very high in the air.

Where can I see more blob launching videos? Here. Here. Here. Here.

Pastor calls for Quran burning on 9/11

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 10:03 AM PDT

To commemorate the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the Dove World Outreach Center will hold a Quran burning. Senior pastor Terry Jones, organizer of "International Burn A Quran Day," is also the author of the book Islam Is Of The Devil, which I'm sure is a convincing demonstration of intellectual rigor and celebration of diversity. The Dove World Outreach Center members are pals with the delightful folks from the Westboro Baptist Church, famed for their "God hates" fags" protests. From the Christian Post:
Islam-Is-Of-The-Devil-Front-Cover 0 When asked if he has ever participated in interfaith dialogues, Jones said "of course" and said he has talked to the CAIR director in Tampa, Fla. He also said he has invited Muslims to come to the 9/11 Quran burning event and is willing to dialogue with them during the activity.

Jones emphasizes that his church does not just speak out about Islam but also homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and abortion...

A survey released by (Christian group) LifeWay Research in April found that 42 percent of Protestant pastors believe Islam "promotes violence" and more than half agree with a statement by well-known evangelist Franklin Graham, who said Islam is an "evil" religion.

"Fla. Church Plans 'Burn a Quran' Day to Mark 9/11" (Thanks, Bob Pescovitz!)

Disturbing photo from sewing magazine

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 09:56 AM PDT

2010 08 Knitmare Over at Submitterator, TinChicken shares this family photo from the December 91/Jan 92 issue of Threads, a magazine "for people who love to sew." Ah, where to begin...
Knitmare

PVC and high heel speakers

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 09:40 AM PDT

Archive 2010 08 04 Pvc-Pipe-Speakers Vsm Files Jacob-Mathew
Etsy seller Ikymagoo offers these handsome PVC "Sea Cucumbers" speakers for $200/pair in red, yellow, or white, but you can also build your own based on the notes the maker has posted on the DIY Audio Projects Forum! That same forum is where I spotted the shoe speakers. PVC Pipe Speaker Project (via Make: Online)

Dog bites man. Again and again. And, in doing so, saves his life.

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 09:44 AM PDT

Over at the Submitterator, mistergog points to this totally disgusting and weird news story and summarizes for the squeamish: "A dog bit off a man's long-infected big toe while he was passed out from a drinking binge. Upon waking, he goes to the hospital, where he is told he has diabetes. The dog apparently ate only diseased tissue. Only one thing smells like bacon...and it's gangrene!"

Washing machine brick death video: now with eyes, soul

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 09:11 AM PDT

YouTube remixer "landstrider" transforms the "Washing Machine Brick Cycle" video into a death dirge with googly-eyed pathos and emoticon monologue. And yet, we ROFL.

Washing Machine Self Destructs REMIX [YouTube]



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