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- Happy Turkey Day, from the angriest, most savage toddler in the world
- Homemade Portal gun
- Menstruating woman subjected to TSA grope because panty-liner obscured her vulva on pornoscanner
- Forged Disney art on eBay
- Save the Bibliotheca Philosophia Hermetica!
- Nun warns giant against rushing the Tokyo subway doors
- Glass globe doorknob is a whole-room fisheye for the other side of the door
- Have you seen him? (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
- Color-coded terror alert system may soon end
- Apps and gadgets to soothe the baby
- Palin: America's "gotta stand with our North Korean allies"
- San Diego: Massive stash of homebrew explosives found in Serbian hoarder's hideyhole
- Eating factory-farmed turkey for Thanksgiving? You may be eating arsenic.
- Happy Thanksgiving from Turkzilla! (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
- Tom DeLay convicted
- The best scientific theories (that later turned out to be wrong)
- Original Swedish Goggles
- Facebook has "become kind of legit"
- Cheerful sweet potato awaits death with a smile
- TSA outrage critical mass: Angry White Guy Syndrome
- What does stoning a person to death entail?
- Tom the Dancing Bug: A Security Issue at the Office
- Kim Jong-Il pic released after North Korea attacks South requires better caption
- Cars sliding down a snowy Seattle hill: crashing steel Ice Capades
- Greenwald vs The Nation: opposing the TSA doesn't make you a tool of the Koch brothers
- Thanksgiving science: A collection of stories, expanding like waistlines
- You too can use the same scientific accounting apparatus as the Fuller Brush Co!
- Set to Sea: moving and beautiful graphic novel about a poet who becomes an involuntary sailor
| Happy Turkey Day, from the angriest, most savage toddler in the world Posted: 25 Nov 2010 01:40 AM PST  Nothing says Thanksgiving like a bloodthirsty, masked toddler holding a huge, lethal cleaver. (via @JSCarroll) |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2010 11:54 PM PST This spectacular, one-of-a-kind homemade Portal gun is for sale in this year's Child's Play charity auction to raise money to provide games and toys to sick children. The maker, Harrison Krix, has also documented the build. Portal Gun for Child's Play (via JWZ) |
| Menstruating woman subjected to TSA grope because panty-liner obscured her vulva on pornoscanner Posted: 25 Nov 2010 01:44 AM PST A self-described "rule follower" went through an airport pornoscanner wearing a panty-liner (she was menstruating). Because the hygienic item obscured the screener's view of her These new scans are so horrible that if you are wearing something unusual (like a piece of cloth on your panties) then you will be subjected to a search where a woman repeatedly has to check your "groin" while another woman watches on (two in my case - they were training in a new girl - awesome). So please, please, tell the ladies not to wear their liners at the airport (I didn't even have an insert in). I'm a strong, confident woman; I'm an Army vet (which is why those camo liners crack me up), I work full-time and go to graduate school full-time, I have a wonderful husband, and I don't take any nonsense from anyone. I don't dramatize, and I don't exaggerate. I'm trying to give you a sense of who I am so you won't think that this is a plea for attention, or a jumping on the bandwagon about the recent TSA proposed boycott. I just don't want another woman to have to go through the "patting down" because she didn't know that her glad-rag would be a matter of national security."There are plenty of TSA apologists who say that objections to the TSA's invasive "pat-downs" are just whining from people don't want to go through the backscatter radiation machines -- we bring it on ourselves. But as we've seen, anything out of the ordinary -- wearing a fabric pad during menstruation, artificial limbs, medical prostheses, etc -- can send you off for a date with Doctor Jellyfinger, Junior G-Man extraordinaire. By declaring war on the unexpected, the TSA has set in motion a policy that makes the lives of cancer sufferers, disabled people, people who've had major surgery, and many others who're already having a hard time even harder. TSA Groin Searches Menstruating Woman (Thanks, Jen!) |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2010 11:40 PM PST  The Disney Fakes blog catalogs forged Disney art for sale on eBay, painstakingly cataloging the tells and errors made by the forgers. Some are hilariously bad, others are damned subtle. Disney Fakes (via Super Punch) |
| Save the Bibliotheca Philosophia Hermetica! Posted: 24 Nov 2010 11:32 PM PST Bibliomanticore sez, "The Bibliotheca Philosophia Hermetica is an important cultural library utilized by scholars worldwide. Once declared a Dutch national heritage institution, the library of alchemical, hermetic, rosicrucian and gnostic books & manuscripts is in danger of closing. Find out how you can help!" (via Submitterator) |
| Nun warns giant against rushing the Tokyo subway doors Posted: 24 Nov 2010 11:30 PM PST  Another fantastic Tokyo subway etiquette poster: "This poster advises passengers not to rush on to the train at the last moment." |
| Glass globe doorknob is a whole-room fisheye for the other side of the door Posted: 24 Nov 2010 11:25 PM PST  Hideyuki Nakayama's glass globe doorknob refracts the scene on the other side of the door in its depths, giving you a preview of what's going on in the next room before you turn the knob. A Room in the Glass Globe by Hideyuki Nakayama (via Make!) |
| Have you seen him? (Boing Boing Flickr Pool) Posted: 24 Nov 2010 06:34 PM PST  "Have you seen him?," photographed in Minneapolis, MN, and contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by BB reader Phil Jones (website). |
| Color-coded terror alert system may soon end Posted: 24 Nov 2010 06:27 PM PST According to the AP and the New York Times, the days of the color-coded terror threat level system—and jokes made at its expense—are numbered. |
| Apps and gadgets to soothe the baby Posted: 24 Nov 2010 05:56 PM PST Baby cry decoders! Advanced bouncing chairs! Surveillance systems! A Voice Activated Crib Light with Womb Sounds! In the New York Times, Farhad Manjoo has an interesting roundup of apps and gadgets for babies. |
| Palin: America's "gotta stand with our North Korean allies" Posted: 24 Nov 2010 05:52 PM PST Transcript snip from Glenn Beck's radio show: CO-HOST: How would you handle a situation like the one that just developed in North Korea? |
| San Diego: Massive stash of homebrew explosives found in Serbian hoarder's hideyhole Posted: 24 Nov 2010 05:45 PM PST  (Authorities closed off a nearby freeway so hazmat experts could blow up explosives found at the home of suspected bank robber and prolific bomb maker George Djura Jakubec) Hazmat teams are very, very carefully clearing the residence of a Serbian national living in the San Diego County town of Escondido— the home was filled with the "the largest" cache of various varieties of homemade explosives ever found in one place in the US. So far, they have reportedly recovered 9 pounds of hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD, an explosive powder favored by suicide bombers worldwide), and they believe they'll also recover pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN, the stuff used in the 2001 shoe bomber plot and during October's attempted parcel bombing run). The homeowner, George Djura Jakubec, 54, is being held in lieu of $5 million bail and has been charged with 28 felonies: 13 counts of possession of a destructive device, 13 counts of possession of ingredients to make a destructive device and two robbery counts. (...) Investigators today recovered computers from the house, from which they hope to obtain clues on why Jakubec was apparently cooking up all those bombs. The suspect's LinkedIn profile lists him as a software engineer, and a state database lists an expired contractor's license.
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| Eating factory-farmed turkey for Thanksgiving? You may be eating arsenic. Posted: 24 Nov 2010 05:04 PM PST Los Angeles Times: "Most commercial-grade poultry feed today contains an arsenic-based pesticide. Like the Victorians, farmers use the poison because of its ability to improve appearances -- in this case because arsenic's potent effect on blood vessels makes the chicken and turkey we buy look pinker and therefore fresher." |
| Happy Thanksgiving from Turkzilla! (Boing Boing Flickr Pool) Posted: 24 Nov 2010 04:57 PM PST  Boing Boing reader, Kaiju collector, and whimsical photoshopper REdYOdA (blog) shooped up this holiday-themed monstrosity. Enjoy! Photo link, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool. |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2010 04:51 PM PST Tom DeLay was convicted earlier today on corruption charges. He described the jury's verdict as "the criminalization of politics." [AP] |
| The best scientific theories (that later turned out to be wrong) Posted: 24 Nov 2010 02:53 PM PST  Science can contradict itself. And that's OK. It's a fundamental part of how research works. But from what I've seen, it's also one of the hardest parts for the general public to understand. When an old theory dies, it's not because scientists have lied to us and can't be trusted. In fact, exactly the opposite. Those little deaths are casualties of the process of fumbling our way towards Truth*. Of course, even after the pulse has stopped, the dead can be pretty interesting. Granted, I'm biased. I like dead things enough to have earned a university degree in the sort of anthropology that revolves around exactly that. But I'm not alone. A recent article at the Edge Foundation website asked a broad swath of scientists and thinkers to name their favorite long-held theory, which later turned out to be dead wrong. The responses turn up all sorts of fascinating mistakes of science history—from the supposed stupidity of birds, to the idea that certain, separate parts of the brain controlled nothing but motor and visual skills. One of my favorites: The idea that complex, urban societies didn't exist in Pre-Columbian Costa Rica, and other areas south of the Maya heartland. In reality, the cities were always there. I took you on a tour of one last January. It's just that the people who lived there built with wood and thatch, rather than stone. The bulk of the structures decayed over time, and what was left was easy to miss, if you were narrowly focused on looking for giant pyramids. What's your favorite dead theory? The Edge: Wrong Scientific Beliefs That Were Held for Long Periods of Time *Likewise, just because some ideas have turned out to be wrong doesn't mean it's safe to assume all the scientific truths we hold today will be disproved somewhere down the line. We've spent several hundred years now carefully collecting data about our lives, our planet, and the wider Universe. But we don't have all the information. Sometimes, new research comes in and confirms our previous picture of reality, and sometimes it doesn't. It's not random. It's often easy to see how facts are stacking up and get a good idea of likely reality even when you don't yet have all the pieces perfectly in place. But the point is: You can't generalize. Image: The cover of Laurie Anderson's 1982 album Big Science, as photographed by kevindooley. Some rights reserved. |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2010 02:43 PM PST  Among competitive swimmers that wear goggles four hours a day for weeks on end, the widely accepted gold standard is a type of goggles invented in the 1970s by the Swedish company Malmsten AB and widely copied thereafter. They will hold up to years and years of exposure to chlorine, replacement parts are easy to find, they are infinitely customizable to their user's face, are very comfortable when dialed in, and yet cost only $4 a pair where others can cost $30. They're called "Swedish" goggles. The first thing you'll notice about them is that unlike every other goggle on the market, they have no soft rubber/foam seal around each eyepiece. The sealing surface is hard plastic. What would seem to be a shocking design oversight actually makes a lot of sense. They were originally designed this way to accommodate people that might have a skin allergy to rubber or foam. Because the seal is hard plastic, it is impervious to chlorine and UV, and seals exactly the same way each time. Individual eyepieces will last forever and still seal the same long after soft seals have rotted away from the chlorine. They come in about eight million colors, but I recommend not getting the metallic eyepieces as the coating eventually wears off but they do look cool. There is an anti-fog variant, but I just spit and swish in mine and that works well enough. I suppose you could also buy an anti-fog cream. The nose piece is another thing you'll notice, in that it appears to just be a cheap piece of string in a rubber tube. Again, this design is very smart, as it is infinitely adjustable where other goggles have to use interchangeable nose pieces or some other part that will force the purchase of a new pair if it ever gets lost or broken, the Swedish goggles' nose piece can be replaced with any bit of string you can find and a piece of clear tubing from the hardware store. Many swimmers like Michael Phelps also use a section of the head strap as a nose piece. I personally use a twist of wire. The head strap is like the nose piece; instead of a proprietary strap like other goggles, it uses a simple piece of flat rubber strap that can be found anywhere. The strap can be configured to have different upper and lower lengths in order to sit perfectly. Fitting them, of course, is more involved due to their customizability. There are detailed directions included with each pair, and it takes about 15 minutes. Just like any goggle, some people will fit them and some won't. I have heard of a few swimmers shaping the sealing surface with sandpaper in order to make them fit, but they really do fit the vast majority of people. However, they won't fit a lot of kids because kids' smaller eye orbitals will interfere with the sealing. I have had my pair of goggles for about ten years, and have gone through about five head straps and three nose pieces in that time while pool and ocean swimming 10 hours a week during college and 2 hours a week thereafter. My eyepieces are still going strong. -- Jon Braun Original Swedish Goggles $4 Comment on this at Cool Tools. Or, submit a tool! |
| Facebook has "become kind of legit" Posted: 24 Nov 2010 01:59 PM PST BREAKING! CNN reports that Facebook is now "kind of legit" for non-nerds to use. Don't all rush in at once! [CNN] |
| Cheerful sweet potato awaits death with a smile Posted: 24 Nov 2010 01:50 PM PST  Reader aag found this happy face while prepping food for tomorrow's feast. Think of it as a pleasant, secular counterpoint to all those faces of Jesus and Mary that turn up every which place. |
| TSA outrage critical mass: Angry White Guy Syndrome Posted: 24 Nov 2010 12:26 PM PST  Since 9/11, disenfranchised groups have been trying to get traction about our eroding civil rights while traveling, without much luck. That's why I was delighted to see angry white guys finally reach the tipping point. They are even more potent a force in creating a media frenzy than Missing White Woman Syndrome. Now that white guys are being objectified, scrutinized, touched, and considered guilty until proven innocent, they are finally getting a taste of what an encounter with authority can be like for other groups on a daily basis, and not just when traveling. Welcome to our world, dudes! Even before 9/11, transgender people were especially susceptible to delays and humiliation because of gender-segregated screening. The Real ID Act and similar legislation are especially onerous for trans people, since successfully changing your legal name and sex depends on the state and even the judge. Back in 2003, I wrote a short piece called "Gender Terrorists" (I myself have been called a "terrorist" because of my style of political activism. It's the new "communist"). My piece was in response to a NY Times article about the Pentagon screening The Battle of Algiers for military and DHS higher-ups. Read on for more about how this is a war on non-assimilation, and why it usually takes assimilated people to cause a media frenzy. If you haven't seen Battle of Algiers (which I consider one of the best films of all time), here's the basic plot: the French occupation force in Algeria faces insurrection from Muslims tired of 130 years of colonialist rule. As tensions mount, the Algierians are forced to submit to greater restrictions of free movement, including more rigorous security checkpoints and additional government identification (sound familiar?). The French soldiers resort to increasing violence and intimidation against the Algerian Muslims, which leads to terrorist activity in the European parts of the capitol, Algiers. The film is among the first to detail the cell structure developed by the French Nazi resistance (currently employed by al Qaeda), as well as the counterterrorism methods (aka Guantanamo Bay-style torture) employed against cell structures in Algieria by the French, who were now in the role of the occupiers. One of the recurring themes is the freedom that assimilated women have in moving around the city. There's a scene where Muslim freedom fighters get rid of their hijabs and cut and color their hair to "pass" as Francophilic Muslim women. The scene is shot in a very intimate fashion, and it is designed to show the sacrifice of their "true" identities for the greater good. By flirting with guards at checkpoints and by bringing children, the attractive women are allowed to move through carrying bombs and messages without waiting, while the unassimilated men get harassed. There's also a scene where the male leaders of one terrorist cell put on hijabs in order to escape a dragnet. They are given away by their boots, once again showing how men are hopelessly lost when it comes to accessorizing. All of the fear shown in the movie will feel very familiar and is about the invisible threat. I have often used an illegal immigrant metaphor to discuss trans political status. The people in our community who don't assimilate are easily ghettoized and face incredible difficulties, but what really freaks some people out is not genderqueer people, but those who "pass," especially attractive trans women. If you happen to be trans and are reading this, the Transgender Law Center continues to lead the way on fighting for the rights and dignity of trans travelers. Trans travelers can file a report. Here's their summary: If you are traveling this weekend or in the future, here is what you need to know: If you are non-trans and have had an issue that needs redress, we can all file a complaint with TSA. I recommend not just leaving it in their hands, since they are self-regulating. Contact your local lawmakers and media outlets, whether you are an angry white guy or not. But especially complain if you are an angry white guy, as it's clear that you will be taken more seriously by the media more quickly and effectively than trans people have been in almost a decade of activism. Know your rights, and exercise them! |
| What does stoning a person to death entail? Posted: 24 Nov 2010 11:55 AM PST  Canada's National Post created a two-page spread to explain the procedure for stoning condemned adulterer to death. Since 1980, at least 150 men and women have been stoned to death in Iran, said Farshad Hoseini, head of the International Committee against Execution, who has compiled a report on the practice from media reports and human rights organizations.Iran's stone-age justice system |
| Tom the Dancing Bug: A Security Issue at the Office Posted: 24 Nov 2010 10:53 AM PST   |
| Kim Jong-Il pic released after North Korea attacks South requires better caption Posted: 24 Nov 2010 09:08 AM PST  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (L) visits the newly-built Soy Sauce Shop at the Ryongsong Foodstuff Factory in North Korea, in this undated picture released by North Korea's official KCNA news agency today, November 24, 2010. KCNA did not state the date when the picture was taken. This just one day after North Korea attacked South Korea. Now, war rumblings and military posturing between the US, China, South Korea, and North Korea are heading in an ominous direction. The photograph requires creative captioning by Boing Boing readers. Go. (REUTERS/KCNA KCNA) |
| Cars sliding down a snowy Seattle hill: crashing steel Ice Capades Posted: 24 Nov 2010 09:08 AM PST Here's a brief, excruciating video of cars losing traction on Seattle's Capitol Hill during this week's snowstorm and caroming downwards, out of control (the clincher is a city bus, and what appears to be the same white SUV that just keeps on trying to make it, as though the owner can't believe that his giant ride can't contend with puny black ice). As someone who's been in a couple of high-speed, freeway ice-accidents (including a childhood trauma in which I was thrown from the car!) this was nearly too painful to watch -- though, as the closing credits remind us, no one was actually hurt on Capitol Hill that day. Which, I suppose, makes this into a kind of crashing steel Ice Capades. Sliding Cars in Seattle Snow on 11/22/10 (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) |
| Greenwald vs The Nation: opposing the TSA doesn't make you a tool of the Koch brothers Posted: 24 Nov 2010 09:02 AM PST Salon's Glenn Greenwald destroys a shameful, fact-free smearjob in The Nation that accused John "Don't Touch My Junk" Tyner of being a Tea-Party-stooge duped by the Koch brothers; and goes on to accuse everyone who believes that the TSA's sexual harrassment security theater is unwarranted and illegitimate of being a tool of some shadowy right-wing conspiracy. Hey, Nation: I remember when being anti-authoritarian, pro-dignity and pro-freedom were values of the progressive left. Some of us still embrace them. |
| Thanksgiving science: A collection of stories, expanding like waistlines Posted: 24 Nov 2010 01:15 PM PST You know that weird, floppy bit of skin that hangs off the face of a male turkey? That's called a snood, and it's used to impress lady turkeys. In a process that should sound at least somewhat familiar, the snood fills with blood, growing in size, and turning rather red. This animation, based on CT scans, shows how the snood is connected to the blood vessels that allow it to engorge. (Even though using the word "engorge" that makes the turkey sound like a character in a really bad romance novel.) Thanks to Ohio University's Witmer Lab for the animation! There's lots more Thanksgiving-related science where that came from. Some of my favorite links (so far) are below. If you've seen something cool that I missed, let me know in the comments and I'll add it in. The goal: Enough holiday-themed nerdy joy to get us all through the long waits at the airport, multi-state car rides, awkward family get-togethers, and post-dinner partial comas. Let us all give thanks for science! •The Genetics of White Meat and Dark Meat from Scientific American (Thanks, Erin Biba!) More to come! And, if your holiday plans put you in Washington D.C., remember, the Smithsonian museums are open tomorrow! |
| You too can use the same scientific accounting apparatus as the Fuller Brush Co! Posted: 24 Nov 2010 07:33 AM PST |
| Set to Sea: moving and beautiful graphic novel about a poet who becomes an involuntary sailor Posted: 24 Nov 2010 11:57 PM PST  Drew Weing's slender, hand-sized debut graphic novel Set to Sea is a crosshatched masterpiece. It's the story of a nameless gentle giant who dreams of being a poet, but mostly he's a bum in a seaside town. Discouraged and penniless, he thinks nothing could get worse -- until he gets shanghaiied for a cross-ocean voyage to the port of Hong Kong. Ship life is an awful drudge, and the big lug throws his poems into the sea, losing all hope. He has nothing to live for -- until the ship is beset by pirates. The peaceful, morose giant doesn't want to fight, but after he is wounded, he flies into a rage and single-handedly beats off the pirates. He is made third mate for his bravery, and gradually, he find camaraderie and identity among the sailors. Weing draws in an elaborate, crosshatched style that's half Popeye, half Maakies, and it meshes brilliantly with the subject matter and the storytelling. Set to Sea is so lovely in places that I found myself exclaiming aloud -- it's got a naive-but-self-conscious grace that is impossible to describe and that few have ever mastered. This one is highly recommended.
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As his love for life is rekindled, so is his dream of writing poetry. Through an artful montage, we see him grow older and wiser, see him return to his poetry, but he is more experienced now -- and it shows in his poems. 
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