The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Man builds fusion reactor prototype at home
- The best physics websites
- Apple to (finally) sell Beatles in iTunes
- How quantum mechanics brought us the Blu-ray player
- Chat live with scientists flying over Antarctica
- Out of Sight
- Sailing to Brooklyn (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
- Al Gore, Dean Kamen, Sally Ride, and MythBusters' Jamie and Adam in global online town hall for math/science education on Wed. Nov 17
- Charles Burns interview
- Seven busted in global human organ trafficking network
- Coming Soon to an Airport Near You: Prison-style strip searches?
- SelfControl
- Devastating landslide swallows Brazilian port
- Help Wanted: Internet Killed the Video Store
- You Look Like Sh*t: The Megacut
- Baby jaguar snuggling sleepytime toy after bowl of milk (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
- Random Internet Guy's dorky 8mm animated home movies from the '80s are delightful
- Star Wars posters by Tom Whalen
- Autumn fun with Kinetic Steam Works
- Housecat attacks alligator
- Spider Robinson is the Vancouver Public Library writer-in-residence
- Handy tip #1 for surviving Somali pirate hostage-taking: don't get high with them
- Pilots unions: Don't submit to naked-scanners
- Crocodile attacks elephant
- Cronenberg's forthcoming film about Freud and Jung
- Fast Company seeks "Most Influential Women in Tech" nominations
- Seeking the ghost particle
- Hideo Wakamatsu Super Hybrid Gear II: awesome road-warrior travel-backpack
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Hajj for Heathens
- Mean Monkey Monday 6
| Man builds fusion reactor prototype at home Posted: 15 Nov 2010 07:49 PM PST I have to say, fusion reactors were not something I ever expected to see coming out of the DIY community. Only $39,000. Cheap! |
| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 07:40 PM PST  The 2010 Physics.org Web awards honor the best sites dedicated to physics education and news. And I was honored to be one of the judges. Now, the results are in. For every category, average science fans nominated their favorite sites, and judges voted from the top five nominees. If you already love physics, you'll be debating the winners in the comment section. If you're learning to love physics, these are the sites to bookmark. And if you're terrified of the "P" word, hopefully something here can convince you that it really isn't so bad.
Congrats to all the finalists! I voted in the Online Magazine category and it was great to see so many sites offering such great physics coverage. Image: A mural at CERN depicting the ATLAS particle detector, a part of the Large Hadron Collider. According to CERN, the mural is three stories tall, but is still only 1/3 the size of the actual ATLAS detector. |
| Apple to (finally) sell Beatles in iTunes Posted: 15 Nov 2010 07:41 PM PST I read the news today, oh boy: "Apple is expected on Tuesday to announce that it has finally struck a deal with the Beatles, the best-selling music group of all time, and the band's record company, EMI, to sell the band's music on iTunes." (Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Apple Store...) |
| How quantum mechanics brought us the Blu-ray player Posted: 15 Nov 2010 07:12 PM PST "Everybody thought we'd have a revolution in energy, instead we had a revolution in information." Dr. James Kakalios is a physics professor at the University of Minnesota and a science adviser for movies like Watchmen. In this short video he delves into the history of the laser, and why our ability to stuff more and more information onto a compact disk has been all about the development of new and different laser types. It's one of several trailers for his new book, The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, which attempts to explain how we got to the world we live in today, rather than the future our grandparents imagined—and what all of that has to do with guys like Erwin Schroedinger and If you're in Seattle tomorrow, you can see Kakalios give a public lecture on Quantum Mechanics in Science Fiction. Nifty! And cheap. Tickets are only $5. |
| Chat live with scientists flying over Antarctica Posted: 15 Nov 2010 06:49 PM PST  What's it like to live and work in Antarctica? What do we learn by studying the frozen continent? We've dug into it a little here at BoingBoing. But this Wednesday, you can get the story straight from the scientists themselves. NASA is sponsoring a live chat with researchers on a DC-8 flying science laboratory. It starts at 1:00 pm Eastern. The chat window will open a half hour before. One cool thing to tide you over until then. That little rainbow smudge in the middle of the this photo isn't something I made by EasyCropping the photo all wrong. And it's not a trick of the camera, either. Instead, NASA says:
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| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 06:30 PM PST |
| Sailing to Brooklyn (Boing Boing Flickr Pool) Posted: 15 Nov 2010 06:09 PM PST  "Sailing to Brooklyn," a photo contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr pool by Troy McCullough (web) of New York City. Troy explains that the captured moment is "on the Peking in the South Street Seaport, taking aim at downtown Brooklyn across the East River." |
| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 05:43 PM PST  Interesting internet person Jeff Simmermon, who by day works for Time Warner Cable and also does other stuff we've blogged about here on Boing Boing, alerts us to an event Time Warner Cable's "Connect a Million Minds" project is hosting this Wednesday, November 17: "A global online town hall hosted by Al Gore; Dean Kamen, Sally Ride and now Discovery Channel's MythBusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage will explore attitudes among American youth toward math and science, and discuss how to inspire and motivate them so they will be successful in a competitive global marketplace." Details on how you can watch and/or participate here. (Via the Boing Boing Submitterator) |
| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 05:30 PM PST Cobra in Belgium interviewed Black Hole and X'ed Out (see my review of X'ed Out here) author Charles Burns. It's in English. |
| Seven busted in global human organ trafficking network Posted: 15 Nov 2010 05:29 PM PST At least seven people were today charged with participating in a Kosovo-based global organ-trafficking network. Poor people were lured into selling kidneys and other organs (this is from their living bodies, mind you) with promises of cash up to $20,000 per organ. "Law enforcement officials say many never received a cent." |
| Coming Soon to an Airport Near You: Prison-style strip searches? Posted: 15 Nov 2010 06:27 PM PST Ted Balaker says or Reason.tv : "I came across an old public domain Bureau of Prisons training video and was saddened by how much it reminded me of airport security screenings -- even the prison guards' uniforms look like TSA uniforms at first glance! It's getting harder to tell the airline passengers from the prison inmates." I agree with Ted. Is there any reason not to believe that airport searches will ratchet in the direction?
You've heard about the passenger who opted out of a full-body scan (a.k.a. "a virtual strip search") and was subjected to an intrusive and humiliating pat down. "If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested," passenger John Tyner told Transportation Security Administration workers in San Diego.Coming Soon to an Airport Near You: Prison-style strip searches? |
| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 04:02 PM PST
Hours can fly by in the blink of an eye when I am surfing the web. In an effort to regain some footing in this battle against distraction I have recently been using a program called SelfControl. This free Mac-only open-source program (there are PC and Linux based alternatives) clamps down on internet usage by selectively turning it off. SelfControl uses brute force to stop bad online habits. When the timer-based program is activated browsers will act like they aren't connected to the internet. You can restart your computer, you can quit the program, you can switch browsers, and you can even uninstall the program (be careful, because if you are too invasive you can permanently damage some systems). It doesn't matter. You are locked out for the allotted amount of time. As such you have to be careful with how you use it. You don't want to accidentally lock yourself out of the web for 12 hours if you know you have to research an important subject that evening. Unlike other programs like Freedom which only serve to ban all internet access for a designated amount of time, SelfControl gives you more control over what you want to keep on and off. You can use a "white list" of approved sites or a "black list" of banned ones. Or, you can selectively set it up to block things like twitter and email. This selectivity is crucial in that it allows you to tame but not break the internet.
I personally prefer to use a "black list". By eradicating access to well known time sinks during working hours I reduce the temptation to stray while keeping open the rest of the web for research (especially important as I work from home and primarily online).
SelfControl Mac OSX Free Comment on this at Cool Tools. Or, submit a tool! |
| Devastating landslide swallows Brazilian port Posted: 15 Nov 2010 01:17 PM PST According to the description on YouTube, a "backhoe was excavating for the construction of a ramp 150 m from the port and into the Rio Negro," causing a "strip of land of at least 300 meters long from the port to slide over the work." It happened in October. |
| Help Wanted: Internet Killed the Video Store Posted: 15 Nov 2010 12:17 PM PST  This is a post about the side-effects of technological change, the sad fate of video rental shops, and an opportunity for you to help memorialize your favorite video store in song. In San Francisco, Lost Weekend Video is struggling. A wonderful video rental shop with a well-curated selection and a friendly, knowledgeable staff, Lost Weekend is trying to remain afloat against a tide of Internet-fueled transformation that has already plunged big video rental chains like Blockbuster into bankruptcy and driven half the video rental stores in some major cities out of business. Lost Weekend Video has responded to this turn of events with black humor and a knowing nod to history -- in the form of a tune posted recently in the store's window. Updating "Video Killed the Radio Star" -- the 1979 song by The Buggles that ushered in the era of cable television and MTV -- Lost Weekend rewrote the lyrics to tell their own story. The complete lyrics to "Internet Killed the Video Store" have been transcribed here. Now we're inviting BoingBoing readers to complete the loop by either recording an actual, audio version of "Internet Killed the Video Store", or (even better) doing the same with a video remix. Think of it as a way to honor of your favorite video store, wherever it is... or was. Go for it. When you're done, send a link to your work via the BoingBoing Submitterator, or link to it in the comments below. We'll post the best versions in a future post. |
| You Look Like Sh*t: The Megacut Posted: 15 Nov 2010 12:42 PM PST This turns out to be a popular stock phrase in Hollywood: "You look like shit." |
| Baby jaguar snuggling sleepytime toy after bowl of milk (Boing Boing Flickr Pool) Posted: 15 Nov 2010 12:25 PM PST  12-week-old jaguar cub Morato after his bowl of milk, contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by Marcy Mendelson. The cute, it burns! Morato is the subject of this Flickr set, and he recently appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. More about the wild animal sanctuary where he is cared for here: cathaven.com. |
| Random Internet Guy's dorky 8mm animated home movies from the '80s are delightful Posted: 15 Nov 2010 12:41 PM PST [Video Link, lots more at YouTube Channel] BB reader Yuri Duncan shares the video above with us, and says, It was the 80s! Armed with my 8mm, Spencer Sundell and Matt Shaver and I made our own (mostly) claymation movies. Recently re-discovered in a farmhouse in Indiana, now available in their flickerous glory. The Snake Trilogy, The Prehistoric Mouth, Journey to the End of the Universe, and Treasure of the Earth Giant are waiting for you!(Via BB Submitterator) |
| Star Wars posters by Tom Whalen Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:46 AM PST This poster and the two others below (after the jump) are things of beauty. Best of all, if you think the trilogy posters are awesome, then you could easily spend a happy hour or so browsing through the rest of Tom's work at his website, as well as his deviantART page. 
Tom Whalen's Strongstuff (via drawn) |
| Autumn fun with Kinetic Steam Works Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:42 AM PST YouTube's Mark Day shares this wonderful clip with us, and explains: "Vintage steam-powered fun at Oakland's Kinetic Steam Works, plus pumpkin-tossing, front-porch clowning and briefly-glimpsed Shovelman." Video Link. |
| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:45 AM PST A tourist visiting a Florida Louisiana tourist dump caught this intense scuffle between a cat and an alligator at a swamp. To see who won, click the play button above, where arketron's rare and excellent video can be viewed. "Housecat Attacks alligator" |
| Spider Robinson is the Vancouver Public Library writer-in-residence Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:23 AM PST Vancouverites, rejoice! Spider Robinson is the Vancouver Public Library's artist in residence: "During his four-month tenure, Robinson, an internationally acclaimed author of 36 novels, will mentor emerging writers and share his expertise with the community through readings, events and the Library's first-ever podcasted workshop." |
| Handy tip #1 for surviving Somali pirate hostage-taking: don't get high with them Posted: 15 Nov 2010 12:46 PM PST Over at Wired's Danger Room, Adam Rawnsley blogs a helpful series of tips on how to increase the odds you will survive if you are ever taken hostage by seafaring pirates off the Horn of Africa. The short version, "Don’t get high, don’t piss anyone off, and try to smile every once in a while." More:
Rule #1 for Pirate Hostages: Don't Get Stoned (wired.com)
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| Pilots unions: Don't submit to naked-scanners Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:11 AM PST Lulameagirl says: "Hopefully, this (along with the earlier report that it doesn't detect cavity devices) will be the death knell to the backscatter scanners. Two large pilots unions have advised pilots not to use the scanners due to increased radiation exposure in the profession. They note that the TSA 'has offered no credible specifications for the radiation emitted by these machines.'" While recommending the pat-downs as an alternative to the AIT scanners, both unions described them as demeaning and intrusive. USAPA recounted the experience of one US Airways pilot who "experienced a frisking that . . . left him unable to function as a crew member."That must have been one hell of a frisking. Unions advise pilots to avoid full-body scans |
| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 10:51 AM PST  A tourist visiting Zambia's South Luangwa National Park caught this intense scuffle between a crocodile and mother and baby elephants at a watering hole. To see who won, click through to National Geographic where Martin Nyfeler's rare and excellent series of snapshots can be found. "Crocodile Attacks Elephant" |
| Cronenberg's forthcoming film about Freud and Jung Posted: 15 Nov 2010 10:39 AM PST  The inimitable David Cronenberg is directing a new film about Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Based on Christopher Hampton's stage play "The Talking Cure," the story revolves around a patient named Sabina. Titled "A Dangerous Method," the film, starring Viggo Mortensen as Freud, Michael Fassbender as Jung, and Keira Knightley as Sabine, is due out next year. From AceShowbiz: Detailing Knightley's character, director David Cronenberg recently said, "Really [Sabina] was a passionate, intelligent, very creative woman who didn't have an outlet for those things so it manifested itself as madness until she met Carl Jung. She was 18, he was about 29. They had an affair, she become his mistress." He concluded, "So it's the story of the three of them particularly and it's a really fascinating story.""First Official Images From Keira Knightley's 'Dangerous Method'" |
| Fast Company seeks "Most Influential Women in Tech" nominations Posted: 15 Nov 2010 10:21 AM PST Fast Company plans to put a woman on the cover sometime in 2011. Unlike women on the covers of other tech magazines under recent fire, she will be a technology executive and she will be wearing a shirt. (thanks Maggie) |
| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 10:41 AM PST  The Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory seen above, is located in a zinc mine 3,300 feet underground, near the city of Hida, Japan. The walls of the tank are instrumented with 13,000 light detectors, and in this photo you can see workers rowing around the interior as it fills with 50,000 tons of water. Neutrinos are subatomic particle that are notoriously hard to detect because they have no electric charge and they pass right through almost all ordinary matter. In fact, 100 trillion neutrinos apparently flow through our bodies every second. The Super-K observatory pictured here is just one detector that scientists are building to study these "ghost particles" as they're known. From Smithsonian: So that neutrinos aren't confused with cosmic rays (subatomic particles from outer space that do not penetrate the earth), detectors are installed deep underground. Enormous ones have been placed in gold and nickel mines, in tunnels beneath mountains, in the ocean and in Antarctic ice. These strangely beautiful devices are monuments to humankind's resolve to learn about the universe."Looking for Neutrinos, Nature's Ghost Particles" |
| Hideo Wakamatsu Super Hybrid Gear II: awesome road-warrior travel-backpack Posted: 14 Nov 2010 07:00 PM PST  My beloved backpack bit the dust last month and I've been on a quest for a replacement bag ever since. Last week, I found such a bag, and I've travelled extensively with it since and am prepared to pronounce it good. The bag is a Hideo Wakamatsu Super Hybrid Gear II; a hard-shell pack that appears to contain some kind of Tardis, as I have been able to fill it with my two little gear pouches, a pencil case, my sunglasses, my document sleeve, my laptop, a power adapter, two boxes of business cards, a book, a mini-multidriver, a mini-maglite, and a Moleskine. For all that it's got a solid layer of armor, it still weighs in at less than three pounds; the straps and rear are well-padded, with a chest clip. There's an integrated, Velcro-closing laptop sleeve (already saved my ass at the Dallas Fort Worth TSA checkpoint, when I nearly dropped my laptop on the floor). I'm also quite enamored of the slit pocket that can be opened without opening the main body of the case -- perfect for train tickets, itineraries, etc; there's a second slit-pocket containing a rain-cover. The $109 bag comes in silver (they appear to have discontinued the navy blue and khaki green models; I bought the last green one in the store). My wife's had a Hideo backpack for five years that looks and wears great; I love their design sense, which marries simplicity and practicality with very spare lines. I have a nice little semi-rigid Samonsite spinner for overnight use, but when that one wears out, I think I'm going to replace it with the Hideo equivalent; it's even lighter than the Samsonsite, and shares the excellent interior design of the Super Hybrid Gear II. |
| SPECIAL FEATURE: Hajj for Heathens Posted: 15 Nov 2010 09:54 AM PST Every year—on exactly the same days, as far as Muslims are concerned—literally millions of people descend upon the original Mecca™ of Saudi Arabia and its surrounding holy sites in pilgrimage. Notable for infidels though, is that Muslims use a lunar calendar (based on the moon's cycle, like werewolves), which is about 11 days shorter than the standard Gregorian Calendar - so named for its 16th century patron Pope Gregory XIII (still wondering why Muslims don't use it?). Non-believers can thus be excused for thinking that Hajj falls on a different date each year. In 2010, things got under way in the holy land over the weekend.
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| Posted: 15 Nov 2010 10:40 AM PST |
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