The Latest from Boing Boing

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• UK government ready to abolish consumer protection agencies as "waste"
• Sentient City Survival Kit: gadgets to foul the surveillance state and amuse the bearer
• Blackwing pencil video review
• Hitler learns about Rich Iott's Nazi cosplay photos - the Downfall video
• Reminder to vote
• Speaking tonight with Tom Watson at the Westminster Skeptics
• Hitting droplets of nitroglycerin with a hammer in slow motion
• Simpsons show intro directed by Banksy
• Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completes first manned glide flight
• How best to celebrate 10/10/10? Why, watching the Eames film Powers of Ten.
• RavenVapes5v510 returns with a new "Hardcore vaping" electronic cigarette video review
• Moon Scratch and Sniff
• Famous ambiguous rabbitduck recreated as taxidermy

UK government ready to abolish consumer protection agencies as "waste" Posted: 11 Oct 2010 03:42 AM PDT Jim Killock from the UK Open Rights Group says, "Late last week, staff at Consumer Focus in the UK heard that they are facing the sack, as the government has decided to abolish them to save 'waste'. Only this is the public body charged with protecting consumers against things like energy pricing rip-offs and the Digital Economy Act. Last year, Consumer Focus briefed Lords and MPs alongside human rights campaigners Liberty and the Open Rights Group, telling government that cutting people off the Internet without a fair trial would be - yes - bad for consumers. The reward for their sage advice is to face the axe. Consumers don't need protection, apparently, and government does not think it needs advice about consumers. No, private organisations can write policy briefings and conduct consumer research, if they think something is so important. That's what the record labels do, isn't it? That's very helpful. Other consumer protection agencies are also facing the chop as well: the Office of fair Trading, which takes companies to court for ripping off customers, are also going to be closed. Outraged citizens are already organising to tell their MPs that these plans are stark, raving mad: they think Consumer Focus and the Office of Fair Trading do an essential job." Lobby your MP (Thanks, Jim!)

Sentient City Survival Kit: gadgets to foul the surveillance state and amuse the bearer Posted: 11 Oct 2010 02:34 AM PDT Mark Shepard's "Sentient City Survival Kit" video shows a series of experimental designs for devices intended to jam surveillance, control and boredom in everyday life; there's a commuter's coffee cup that networks with other commuters' cups to form covert, train-long mesh-networks; a CCTV-foiled umbrella studded with infrared LEDs, and more interesting, if somewhat vapourware, gizmos. Sentient City Survival Kit (Thanks, M1k3y!) Fon releases open meshing WiFi router Meraki free mesh WiFi network spreading across San Francisco ... We need alternative sources of bandwidth just like we need ... Tibetan mesh org hosting community WiFi event in ... Infrared LEDs make you invisible to CCTV cameras Anti-paparazzi handbag DIY anti-CCTV glasses

Blackwing pencil video review Posted: 10 Oct 2010 10:30 PM PDT (Video link) Alex Beam of the Boston Globe reports on the extinct Blackwing 602 pencil and mentions a new pencil that's also called the Blackwing, made by California Cedar (which I don't care for). First impression of the new Blackwing pencil The return of the Blackwing pencil Review of $35 Blackwing 602 pencil Others weigh in on new Blackwing pencil Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil fetish Beloved Blackwing pencils sell for $20 each Can any pencil replace the Blackwing 602? The Boston Athanæum's Stash of Blackwing pencils

Hitler learns about Rich Iott's Nazi cosplay photos - the Downfall video Posted: 10 Oct 2010 10:18 PM PDT This is one of the better Downfall videos -- Hitler learns about Tea Party fave candidate Rich Iott's SS photos. It's not embeddable, so watch it here.

Reminder to vote Posted: 10 Oct 2010 10:01 PM PDT (Video link) If you don't vote, Louie Gohmert's terror babies will win.

Speaking tonight with Tom Watson at the Westminster Skeptics Posted: 10 Oct 2010 10:02 PM PDT Rebel UK MP Tom Watson and I are speaking together tonight at a panel for the Wesminster Skeptics, held in London at 7PM, free to enter, on the subject of "Beyond the Digital Economy Act." Beyond the Digital Economy Act Panel including Cory Doctorow and Tom Watson MP When? Monday, October 11 at 7:00PM Where? The Monk Exchange Strutton Ground London SW1H 0HW What's the talk about? Now the Digital Economy Act has been passed, what happens next? Beyond the Digital Economy Act - Monday, October 11 at 7:00PM

Hitting droplets of nitroglycerin with a hammer in slow motion Posted: 10 Oct 2010 09:56 PM PDT In the interests of science, the presenter from the BBC's "How We Shook the World" hits a droplet of nitro with a hammer, over and over again, in slow motion. I am enscienced! Nitroglycerine Detonation Filmed in Slo-Mo - Explosions: How We Shook the World, Preview - BBC Four (Thanks, Freeal, via Submitterator) Slow-motion video of Lindy Hop dancing Slow motion video of things being destroyed Someone being slapped in super slow motion Video: Dogs in slow motion Frog jump in super slow motion Apollo 11 launch revisited in slow-mo HD Female tennis players hitting the ball in slow-motion

Simpsons show intro directed by Banksy Posted: 10 Oct 2010 07:37 PM PDT Video Link. The opening sequence for tonight's episode of The Simpsons was storyboarded and directed by famed British street artist Banksy. (via Wooster Collective and banksyfilm, thanks to all who suggested this!)

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completes first manned glide flight Posted: 10 Oct 2010 08:07 PM PDT The Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise (SpaceShipTwo) today reached a new milestone: completing a manned free flight from over 45,000 feet, then gliding down to land at Mojave Air and Spaceport, in California. During its first flight the spaceship was piloted by Pete Siebold, assisted by Mike Alsbury as co-pilot. The two main goals of the flight were to carry out a clean release of the spaceship from its mothership and for the pilots to free fly and glide back and land at Mojave Air and Space Port in California. More about today's accomplishments here. (Photo by Mark Greenberg: VSS Enterprise glides back towards Mojave Space Port.)

How best to celebrate 10/10/10? Why, watching the Eames film Powers of Ten. Posted: 10 Oct 2010 08:16 PM PDT Video Link, at powersof10.com. Artist and geographer-at-large Eames Demetrios, who is the grandson of the legendary husband-and-wife design duo Charles and Ray Eames, tells Boing Boing: Just thought the Boing Boing community might want to know about what the Eames Office is doing for "Powers of Ten" day. We did a Powers of Ten of wine; we have a beta of a new site, powersof10.com; and a lot of people will be sending us photographs of their celebrations over the next few days. There is a Powers of Ten response competition on Core77, and educational activities continue. Celebrations are as complicated as our fundraiser at the Eames House and as simple as watching the film on youtube with a friend.

RavenVapes5v510 returns with a new "Hardcore vaping" electronic cigarette video review Posted: 10 Oct 2010 07:17 PM PDT VAPE HARD. Before reviewing VSVapor's (Vapor Station) "Tampa" eliquid, RavenVapes5v510 takes a vape down memory lane. He shares one of the first PV mods ever built and vapes a vintage 90mg Bacon Menthol e-liquid. RavenVapes5v510 is an extreme freestyle Vaper from Los Angeles, CA. His reviews and opinions should be considered law in the world of vaping. (Don't tell anyone, but it's really Liam Lynch.) "Hardcore vaping" electronic cigarette video review is full of ...

Moon Scratch and Sniff Posted: 10 Oct 2010 11:25 AM PDT It is really a strong smell. It has that taste -- to me, gunpowder -- and the smell of gunpowder, too.—Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 astronaut, 1972 Moon Scratch and Sniff, a limited-edition silkscreen print by artists Hagen Betzwieser and Sue Corke, imprinted with the smell of the moon as described by astronaut Charlie Duke, above. The artists designed the scent with flavourist Steven Pearce at Omega Ingredients, UK. The print was a commission for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and debuted there as part of olfactory art exhibition last month. Available at Edinburgh Printmakers (now), and the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh (beginning December 2010). More about the artists at wecolonisedthemoon.com. (via Robert Pearlman's wonderful website, CollectSpace.com.)

Famous ambiguous rabbitduck recreated as taxidermy Posted: 10 Oct 2010 09:31 AM PDT Even better than Joseph Jastrow's 1899 drawing. Behold the rabbitduck

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