Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Video anthology of time-saving tips

Posted: 25 Jan 2011 02:41 AM PST

Yes, it's one of those icky, deliberately "viral" videos from a big, stupid telco, but this five-minute video is a seriously interesting anthology of time-saving tips, some of which have been shamelessly nicked from existing video hits (I've been a big fan of high-speed t-shirt folding since we featured it here 7 or 8 years ago), others are new to me, and collectively, they represent substantial relief from the pitiless drudgery imposed by stupid physics.

Time Saver of the Day

 


Douglas Adams' online encylopedia tries to buy itself back from the BBC

Posted: 25 Jan 2011 02:58 AM PST

H2G2, the online encylopedia founded by Douglas Adams and sold to the BBC, is now set to be shut down by the Beeb, which is slashing its online spending. The community -- many of whom predate the BBC acquisition -- are attempting to raise the money to buy themselves back from the BBC.
I love h2g2, it's where I met my best friends, it's where I met my wife. I want to keep it. The BBC want to 'dispose' of it, we can't persuade them to change their mind. But we could buy it, between us. I have a dream, and I think we can do it. Join our google group, subscribe to our google group this page, find out more..

The H2G2 Community, owned and run by the H2G2 Community

If a group of us get together and put a reasonable proposal for the site I think we could take it on and make a success of it. We'd have to try and migrate the whole thing to a new server. Maybe with the web address www.h2g2.com. We'd be funded by donations, and if that won't pay the bills we'll may have to small amounts of advertising. We won't have any full time staff members, but we'll have volunteers, and with all the volunteer schemes together that'll be enough to keep it running. The Scouts and the Sub Eds could keep the Guide running on their own. We could have elections for the posts that have the power that the italics used to have.

H2G2 Community Consortium - We need you! to help Save h2g2 (via /.)
 


French Canadian genomics and family histories are rich research territory

Posted: 25 Jan 2011 02:54 AM PST

This fascinating Discover blog-post looks at recent research into the history and genomics of French Canadian families -- who have a high propensity for Mendelian disorders, as well as relatively well-documented family histories -- a combination that is proving to be a bonanza for researchers.
What has all this told us? From a medical genetic perspective it is implying that population structure matters when evaluating French Canadians, an Acadian is not interchangeable with a native of Montreal. In terms of ethnically clustered diseases of French Canadians, in the USA the Cajuns, it may not be that there are patterns across the whole ethnic group, but trends within subgroups characterized by long-term endogamy. I wonder if the same might be true of Ashkenazi. Is there is a difference between Galicians and Litvaks? Such regional differences among European Jews are new, but the French Canadians themselves are the result of the past three centuries. These results also seem to reinforce the Frenchness of the French Canadians. Years ago I skimmed a book on the cultural history of the people of Quebec, and the author went to great lengths to emphasize the amalgamative power of the French Catholic identity in Canada. Arguing that to some extent the roots of the community in the colonial era was something of an overblown myth. These results come close to rejecting that view. In particular the first paper, which shows the disproportionate impact that earlier settler waves have on the long term demographics of a population. A group which one could analyze in a similar vein would be the Boers, who are an amalgam of French Protestants, Dutch, and Germans, but seem to exhibit a dominance of the Dutch element culturally.

Finally, the French Canadians may give us a small window in the long term demographic patterns and genetic dynamics which might be operative on a nearby ethnic group: the Puritans of New England. Because of their fecundity it seems likely that tens of millions of Americans today descend from the 30,000 or so English settlers who arrived in New England in the two decades between 1620 and 1640. This is the subject of the Great Migration Project. With numbers in the few tens of thousands it seems unlikely that much of a thorough population bottleneck occurred with this group in a genetic sense in the aggregate. But the results from the French Canadians indicate that isolated groups can be subject to stochastic dynamics, and develop in their own peculiar directions.

The genomic heritage of French Canadians

(Image: QUEBEC 1978 license plate, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from woodysworld1778's photostream)

 


What it takes to like Rogue-like games

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 06:49 PM PST

To this day, I still can't quite get into old-school ASCII roguelikes. Is it something you have to pick up as a youngster, or can the taste be acquired? John Brownlee (formerly of BB Gadgets) explains his love for an "unattractive, sociopathic, schitzophrenic" genre. The system requirements: imagination, an unbelievable tolerance for failure, and "a morbid and self-deprecating sense of humor." [Gearfuse]

Ancient Costa Rica, revisited

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 05:01 PM PST

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I just found out about the death of Michael Snarskis, an archaeologist who was an early mentor to my undergraduate anthropology mentor, John Hoopes.

You might remember Snarskis from a series of posts I wrote last year about the ancient cultures of Costa Rica. Snarskis helped me understand the context behind Costa Rica's beautiful gold and stone artwork, and was my tour guide on a trip to the ancient city of Guayabo. He will be missed.



The Science of Smiles

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 03:10 PM PST

"Chimpanzees sometimes smile not for pleasure or for a social bond, but for power. A dominant chimpanzee will grin and show its teeth. Dr. Niedenthal argues that humans flash a power grin as well -- often raising their chin so as to look down at others. 'You're an idiot, I'm better than you'--that's what we mean by a dominant smile,' said Dr. Niedenthal." (NYT)

Jack LaLanne, fitness and health food icon, dies at 96

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 03:13 PM PST

Jack LaLanne, the man credited with inspiring generations of fitness enthusiasts, health food eaters, and happy snarfers of raw fruits and veggies and juices, has passed away at the age of 96. As an aside, know who turned him on to all that stuff around 1929? Paul C. Bragg, the man behind "Bragg's amino acids," that soy sauce-esque stuff popular with those of the hippie-chow persuasion.

White people rapping poorly

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 03:13 PM PST

white.jpg Oh yes, this is exactly what you are hoping it is. White people rapping poorly.

Rahmen Emanuel

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 01:47 PM PST

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That Rahm Emanuel is one smart guy. He really knows how to use his noodle.

rahmenemanuel.tumblr.com

(thanks, Nick Fraccaro)

Should employers be blind to private beliefs?

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 01:41 PM PST

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(Reflections inspired by the Gaskell debate in Kentucky)

The University of Kentucky has caved in and agreed a settlement, out of court, with the allegedly creationist astronomer Martin Gaskell. For a brief account of the case see [here]. The detailed legal documents are [here], and a range of views are to be found [here] and [here]. Briefly, Gaskell was rejected for the position of Director of a new university observatory, and he sued the university on grounds of religious discrimination. The university has now settled to pay him off with $125,000, while declining to admit wrongdoing.

On the face of it, Gaskell's allegation is ludicrous. You go up for a job and somebody else is preferred. It happens all the time. One candidate wins, the rest are disappointed. End of story. In this case, however, it was not the end of the story. There is good evidence that Gaskell was the top candidate on other grounds. The chairman of the search committee wrote an email to the chairman of the department, which included [the following]:

If Martin were not so superbly qualified, so breathtakingly above the other applicants in background and experience, then our decision would be much simpler. We could easily choose another applicant, and we could content ourselves with the idea that Martin's religious beliefs played little role in our decision. However, this is not the case. As it is, no objective observer could possibly believe that we excluded Martin on any basis other than religious...

A smoking gun, it would seem, and one that smokes out an important general question: is it a good law that says a candidate's beliefs are private and should be ignored when making appointments, in the same way as colour or sex should be ignored (unless one wants to make a case for positive discrimination)? The chairman of the search committee actually said that Gaskell was "breathtakingly above the other applicants", which is as clear an admission of negative discrimination as a lawyer could want. My own position would be that if a young earth creationist (YEC, the barking mad kind who believe the entire universe began after the domestication of the dog) is "breathtakingly above the other candidates", then the other candidates must be so bad that we should re-advertise and start afresh.

Martin Gaskell claims, however, that he is not a full-blooded YEC although he has "a [lot of respect] for people who hold this view because they are strongly committed to the Bible", so I want to leave his particular case on one side and look at the general principles. First, is it always wrong to discriminate against holders of certain beliefs when appointing? Second, should it make a difference if the beliefs are based on religion? Is it a good law that deems religious belief a peculiarly private matter, to which we should be conscientiously blind when appointing a candidate to a position?

Let's look at some possible scenarios, beginning with some absurd extremes.


1. A doctor believes in the stork theory of human reproduction, rejecting the sex theory. He applies for a job as an eye surgeon in a teaching hospital, is rejected because of his beliefs, and sues the hospital on grounds of discrimination. His lawyer makes the case that, since he makes no pretence to be an obstetrician, his views on obstetrics are irrelevant to his (breathtakingly superior) ability to operate on eyes and teach ophthalmology.



2. A flat-earther applies for a professorship of geography. He promises to keep his private beliefs to himself, and undertakes to adhere closely to the round earth theory in all his lectures. He is universally agreed to be a brilliant teacher, breathtakingly above the other candidates in his ability to get the (erroneous, in his view) round earth theory across to students.

I suspect that most of my readers would discriminate against both these job candidates, although some might feel uncomfortable doing so because the word 'discriminate' carries such unfortunate baggage. A commentator on a website discussing the Gaskell affair went so far as to write, "If Gaskell has produced sound, peer-reviewed literature of high quality then I see no reason for denying him the position, even if he believes Mars is the egg of a [giant purple Mongoose]". That commentator probably felt rather pleased with his imagery, but I don't believe he could seriously defend the point he makes with it and I hope most of my readers would not follow him. There are at least some imaginable circumstances in which most sensible people would practise negative discrimination.


If you disagree, I offer the following argument. Even if a doctor's belief in the stork theory of reproduction is technically irrelevant to his competence as an eye surgeon, it tells you something about him. It is revealing. It is relevant in a general way to whether we would wish him to treat us or teach us. A patient could reasonably shrink from entrusting her eyes to a doctor whose beliefs (admittedly in the apparently unrelated field of obstetrics) are so cataclysmically disconnected from reality. And a student could reasonably object to being taught geography by a professor who is prepared to take a salary to teach, however brilliantly, what he believes is a lie. I think those are good grounds to impugn his moral character if not his sanity, and a student would be wise to avoid his classes.


But should this all change, if it can be shown that these eccentric beliefs are based upon religion? Should religiously inspired beliefs be privileged, protected against scrutiny, where other beliefs are not? If the eye-doctor's belief in the stork theory, or the geographer's flat-earthism, or the astronomer's belief that Mars is the egg of a mongoose, turned out to be derived directly from a holy book or 'faith tradition', should that weaken our objection? Let's look at a couple more scenarios, real ones this time, not hypothetical.


3. A senior colleague at Oxford told me of an astronomer who, on religious grounds, believes the universe is less than ten thousand years old. This man holds down a job as a competent cosmological theorist (not at Oxford, I hasten to say). He publishes mathematical papers in learned journals, taking it for granted that the universe is nearly fourteen billion years old and using this assumption in his calculations. He bottles up his personal beliefs so successfully that he is capable of performing calculations that assume an old universe and make a genuine contribution to science. My colleague takes the view that this YEC is entitled to a job as a professor of astronomy, because he keeps his private beliefs to himself while at work. I take the opposite view. I would object to employing him, on the grounds that his research papers, and his lectures to students, are filled with what he personally believes to be falsehoods. He is a fake, a fraud, a charlatan, drawing a salary for a job that could have gone to an honest astronomer. Moreover, I would regard his equanimity in holding two diametrically opposing views simultaneously in his head as a revealing indicator that there is something wrong with his head.


4. I have [previously written] about the similar case of the geologist Kurt Wise, so will not rehearse it again here. Although well qualified with a PhD in paleontology from Harvard, he published the following disarmingly ingenuous confession:

Although there are scientific reasons for accepting a young earth, I am a young-age creationist because that is my understanding of the Scripture. As I shared with my professors years ago when I was in college, if all the evidence in the universe turns against creationism, I would be the first to admit it, but I would still be a creationist because that is what the Word of God seems to indicate. Here I must stand.

I would discriminate against both these religious men if I were on the search committee for a university job, on the same grounds as I gave for my hypothetical examples above. The fact that these particular anti-scientific beliefs happen to be grounded in religion should make no difference. Religious beliefs should never be privileged over other beliefs, simply by virtue of being religious. Either a particular belief is relevant to eligibility for employment or it is not. Whether the candidate got it from a religious 'tradition', or simply made it up, is immaterial: a traditional or scriptural belief was originally made up too - just longer ago. If you want to insist that a candidate's beliefs are private, should be respected, and should be treated as irrelevant by an appointing committee, then you should at least be consistent. You should also be blind to whether or not those beliefs have a religious provenance. Either you should say, "I don't care whether his beliefs are based on religion or not, they are private and I refuse to take them into account." Or you should join me in saying, "I don't care whether his beliefs are based on religion or not, they affect his suitability for the job, and I am going to take them into account." A law that encourages you to say, "If a candidate's private beliefs are based on religion I shall ignore them, otherwise I shall take them into account", is a bad law.

It is a bad law because, while purporting to oppose discrimination, it is actually highly discriminatory: it discriminates in favour of religious foolishness and against non-religious foolishness.

I prefer to discriminate against both.

Image: "The Brain in the Sistine Chapel," photoshopped from the Michelangelo original and shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by Boing Boing reader Tom Blackwell of Otley, UK. From the image description:

An article written in the Journal of the American Medical Association describes the shape as an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain, including the frontal lobe, optic chiasm, brain stem, pituitary gland, and the major sulci of the cerebrum. (...) Some say the meaning of the brain in the Sistine Chapel is not of God giving intelligence to Adam, but rather that the intelligence and observation of the human brain lead directly to God without needing a Church at all. Others interpret it as a metaphor for atheism: God is an invention of the human mind, and it is actually mankind that is giving life to his imagined 'creator.'

Herbie Hancock: "Rockit" from the 1984 Grammy Awards

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 01:42 PM PST


Grand Mixer D.ST. is scratching on the B-side of Fab Five Freddy's "Change The Beat." Don't miss the shot of Michael Jackson and date Brooke Shields in the front row.

Joos portable solar power charger looks good

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 12:39 PM PST

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I don't have one of these Joos portable solar power chargers, but they look good, and the specs are impressive. The manufacturer claims that it charges at least 3 1/2 times faster than other portable solar chargers at the same price ($139.95, but they are on sale for $99). They also claim that one hour in the direct sun equals two hours of 3G talk time, and that the battery pack has enough energy to charge a smart phone "at least four times over." It's waterproof, too.

It also comes with a utility for windows and OS X that shows you how charged your battery is, how much instantaneous solar power is being generated, and the total amount of energy your charger has produced. Unfortunately it looks like the charger is sold out, but you can go to the website and enter your e-mail address so that when more units are available you can buy it for the sale price of $99.

If you have experience with this charger, I would appreciate it if you could review it in the comments section of this post.

Joos portable solar power charger

Turnstyle: fresh writing from teens and young adults

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 12:33 PM PST

turnstyle.jpg Turnstyle is a just-launched website written and produced by young adults, a wonderful mix of news, commentary, photography and blogging. I helped develop and design their website and working with them was a fantastic experience: they only went live a few days ago, but there's already a ton of great work up. • Excellent features on internet freedom in Tunisia, New York's raw food subculture, Narco culture in Spanish soaps, etc. • Stories about new Atlantic wind farms, DJ Paul V's blog about old photos that show the innate gayness of their young selves, and Amy Chua's controvesial new book. • Photo essays, such as this one about old people in bathing suits, and coverage of the Sundance film festival.

Sundance: Kevin Smith premiers new film, tells Hollywood to suck it

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 01:14 PM PST

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Writer/Director Kevin Smith premiered his new film Red State at Sundance today—he'd led everyone to believe that after the showing, he'd publicly auction the distribution rights to the highest-bidding studio. Instead, he bought it himself and used the attention generated to note how broken the studio distribution system is (why spend $20 million on a film that cost $4 million to make) and how he was convinced he could a better job handling things on his own.

Fans of Smith may be surprised, but shouldn't be too shocked by this move: Smith has long bemoaned the "business" of making and releasing movies, and has been particulary vocal about it on twitter of late.

Personally, I'm really excited about this. There is so much under-appreciated talent out there, and we all know that the web really does make it so much easier to get the word out. Someone as established as Smith deciding not to play the game anymore, and to instead explore new options, may have far-reaching effects on the rest of the industry. I can't wait to see what comes from this.

Smith also announced he'll be making one more movie (after Red State), but that he will then retire from the director's chair with plans to focus on the distribution side of the business, presumably to the benefit of others opting to work outside of the studio system. Go Kevin!

For more information about how this film will be distributed or to help out, check out coopersdell.com

Paper planes launched from weather balloon

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 11:44 AM PST


These folks were hired by Samsung to launch 200 paper planes containing memory cards from a weather balloon sent over Germany. Anyone who finds one of these planes is asked to visit the Project Space Planes website and make a note of it.
The balloon, filled with helium gas and carrying a load of paper planes, took 2.6 hours to rise to 37,339 metres (that's at the edge of space!), where it burst and took only 40 minutes to fall back to earth. It landed in a forest just south east of Berlin, where our team had to use a very long pole to retrieve the payload from the top of a tree.

The hand-crafted paper planes with their precious cargo of Samsung SD memory cards were released at around 36,3500 metres and could land anywhere.

Project Space Planes

Wal-Mart of weed

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 12:03 PM PST

Dhar Mann, 26, and Derek Peterson, 36, are the owners of the weGrow marijuana superstore in Oakland, California. The 15,000 square-foot weGrow is just their first hit though. Mann and Peterson are also shooting a reality show pilot, training medical pot growers, and manufacturing high-end grow gear. They say they're in contract on 75 franchise stores in 5 states and are considering an IPO. According to Mann, their vision is to become the "Wal-Mart of Weed." From Mother Jones (Chris Buck photo):
Files Images Pot400Crop THE SEEDS for weGrow were planted in early 2009, when Dhar Mann received a visit at his property-management firm from a tenant whose office had just been burglarized. Mann was about to call the cops when the tenant confessed that he wasn't actually a caterer, as he'd claimed on his lease. He was a medical cannabis grower, and he'd been using his space to cultivate six dozen plants.

The notion of being a landlord for pot growers intrigued Mann, the scion of Oakland's largest taxicab company, who'd founded a mortgage refinancing mill and a luxury-car rental company before he'd turned 25. He paid $500 to enroll in courses at Oaksterdam University, started in 2007 by longtime legalization advocate Richard Lee to provide technical and legal training to would-be growers. Looking at the old-school potheads studying at "America's first cannabis college," Mann realized he could fill a niche. "Everybody I was meeting was a little bit older, more a part of the hippie generation," he recalls. "I was like, 'I bet there's so much room for innovation and new ideas.'"

His first enterprise was igrow420.com, a kind of Facebook for potheads that never took off. Undeterred, he rented a giant warehouse (from his dad) and prepared to become a grower. When he walked into a hydroponics store in Berkeley and asked how to start a pot farm, the salesman kicked him out. A federal ban on selling pot paraphernalia and comedian Tommy Chong's 2003 imprisonment for selling bongs have scared most hydro shops into avoiding any mention of marijuana.

That's when Mann switched gears again: He'd create "the first honest hydro store," one that didn't perpetuate the charade that its customers are spending thousands of dollars growing amazing tomatoes. When the PR shop that was managing weGrow's grand opening in January 2010 handed him a press release that read "Urban gardening megastore opens by airport," Mann fired the firm and rewrote the release himself: "Marijuana Superstore Opens in East Oakland."

"Weedmart: Marijuana Superstores. IPOs. Reality TV."

Ebert: 3D movies suck

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 10:59 AM PST

Roger Ebert hates 3D movies as much as I do. For me, 3D causes a headache, always means that part of the screen is blurred, makes movies too dark, and the magic of 3D quickly fades away as the brain becomes accustomed to it. Ebert received a letter from Oscar-winning editor/sound designer Walter Murch, who worked on Apocalypse Now and Captain EO, which describes in technical terms why 3D movies are such a pain in the eyes (and the ass) to watch:
The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the "convergence/focus" issue. A couple of the other issues -- darkness and "smallness" -- are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.

But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focussed and converged at the same point.

If we look at the salt shaker on the table, close to us, we focus at six feet and our eyeballs converge (tilt in) at six feet. Imagine the base of a triangle between your eyes and the apex of the triangle resting on the thing you are looking at. But then look out the window and you focus at sixty feet and converge also at sixty feet. That imaginary triangle has now "opened up" so that your lines of sight are almost -- almost -- parallel to each other.

Why 3D doesn't work and never will. Case closed.
 


Engineer designs his own heart implant

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 10:50 AM PST

Tal Golesworthy, a British engineer from Tewkesbury, suffered from Marfan syndrome, an inherited condition that threatened to split his aortic root. After being told that he urgently needed a mechanical valve implant, he designed one that was better than the one already in use, custom tailored to his heart (as displayed on his MRIs) and used a rapid prototyper to refine the design. He received his implant in 2004, and 23 more people have had them implanted since.
'We realised fairly early that with RP we would not be able to produce the finished device, but that we should be able to produce a perfect 3D thermoplastic model of the aorta,' said Golesworthy. 'The challenge then was to find a way of producing what was almost always going to be a textile implant to fit this model.'

The team looked at a number of different processes, such as 3D embroidery, but ended up using a standard medical polymer, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in a textile solution that allowed them to form a mesh directly onto the former. The mesh weighed less than 5g, was an exact fit for the ascending aorta and could be sutured into place by the surgeon. The process, from proposal to final product, took just under two years.

UK engineer develops own life-saving implant (via Medgadget)
 


Frozen pizza and frozen cookie-dough, in the same package

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 10:43 AM PST


Spotted in the freezer aisle by an alert Redditor, a box containing (test-marketing?) both a frozen, uncooked pizza, and frozen, uncooked cookie dough, all together and ready to be roasted of an evening.

Pizza AND Cookies...in the same box?! (via Super Punch)

 


For sale: snake-infested house

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 10:35 AM PST


Chase Bank is selling a Rexburg, Idaho home for $66,000 less than its estimated value of $175,000 because it's, er, infested with thousands of garter snakes. The home went into foreclosure after owners Benjamin and Amber Sessions were forced into bankruptcy. The news video above is about the folks who owned the house before the Sessions purchased it. From The Rexburg Standard Journal:

"We were told that the previous owners in there didn't want to make their payment because they made up a story that there were snakes there, that they didn't want to pay their mortgage so they made up a snake story," Ben Sessions said.

The couple was also informed that every precaution was taken to ensure there wasn't a snake problem. They trusted the real estate agent that the information they had been told was true.

Later, the Sessions learned that the story of the snakes was not made up, and there was a problem.

"'Snake House' up for sale again"

From Reuters:
"People always build first and never ask about an area and whether there is a snake den before they do," said (Center for North American Herpetology director Joe) Collins. "Afterward, it's too late: the house is there, the snakes are there and people are there. It's a great set up for a wonderful time."

The snakes are not likely to relocate, voluntarily or otherwise.

Even if the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which oversees reptiles in the state, agreed to dislodge the garters, some snakes will remain and reproduce, restarting the cycle, Collins said.

(Realtor Todd) Davis said he is searching for snake-friendly buyers. He said he has every intention of disclosing the snake occupation to prospective purchasers.

"I guess I need a snake lover; either that or someone with multiple mongooses," said Davis.

"For Sale Cheap: House infested with slithering snakes"



Anti-pest device charges unwelcome visitors a dime to ring doorbell

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 01:14 PM PST

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Here's another anti-pest doorbell like the one I posted about in 2006. The bell will not ring unless a dime is inserted into the slot.

(Thanks Felipe Li!)

Top WordPress themes on Google riddled with spamlinks and obfuscated code

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 02:09 AM PST

Siobhan Ambrose went looking for a WordPress theme; of the top ten free WordPress theme sites listed on Google, eight had hidden, obfuscated, or encrypted code buried in them that rendered spammy keyword links that were part of a deceptive search engine optimization scheme; in some cases, Siobhan couldn't figure out what the offending code did and speculates that it might contain malware. Of the remaining two, one hosted themes that didn't validate. The remaining site, WordPress.org, is the only site in the first ten Google results for "free wordpress theme" whose themes don't contain deceptive backlinks, obfuscated code, or non-validating themes.
Exploit scanner came up with 17 severe warnings for this theme. Since there are only 4 links showing at the bottom I think we can assume that this theme is either packed full of hidden backlinks or there is something else going on.
Why You Should Never Search For Free WordPress Themes in Google or Anywhere Else (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
 


Lie to your professors, risk being eaten

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 10:00 AM PST

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Academic honesty is an important value to instill in students. This poster, spotted by journalist and economics grad student Allison Martell at McMaster University, is either doing it wrong, or doing it very, very right. Depending, I suppose, on how well "fear of vampires" works as a motivator.

John Keel's Jadoo song

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 09:49 AM PST

Wp-Content Uploads 2010 12 Jakcharmer Wp-Content Uploads 2010 12 Jadoo3
John Keel (1930-2009) was a Fortean journalist (and personal inspiration) best known for his book The Mothman Prophecies, turned into a 2002 movie starring Richard Gere. But Keel's first book, Jadoo, is my absolute favorite. Published in 1957, it chronicles Keel's journey through "the Orient" seeking out the Indian rope trick and other examples of magic and supernatural strangeness called "Jadoo." Keel's curiosity comes through in these fantastic tales of high weirdness and odd characters. According to Doug Skinner, who maintains the John Keel blog, when Jadoo was published the book "was promoted in many ways: interviews, excerpts in magazines, and a Keel snake act in a Manhattan store window. There was also a song" recorded on a 78. Have a listen to it here and also read Jadoo for free on Scribd.
"Jadoo" by John Keel

Snow geometry

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 09:32 AM PST

"Linkage" is a technical/mechanical name for a relatively simple concept that's played a big role in daily life since the Industrial Revolution.

Imagine four rigid bars of different lengths, connected into a chain by three mobile joints. Add one more joint to the end, close the loop, and you have a linkage. You can use that linkage to change one type of motion—say, a spinning motor—into a completely different, usually very specific, type of motion. For instance, the windshield wipers on your car swish back and forth in time, the way they do, because their movement is controlled by a four-bar linkage similar to the one I just described.

Recreational mathematician Vi Hart has another way of explaining linkages, involving a good, fresh snowfall and the human body. Enjoy!

Thanks for Submitterating, akputney!

See Antarctica aboard a scientific research vessel

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 08:57 AM PST

The Akademik Fyodorov is a Russian research ship that's been to both the North Pole*, and to Antarctica. This time-lapse video packs an entire 201-day Antarctic expedition into 10 minutes, starting in Cape Town, South Africa, and traveling around the coastline of the Frozen Continent.

What happens? There's a lot of ice breaking—during which the Akademik Fyodorov seems to beach itself like a whale before backing up and ramming the ice again—and a lot of loading and unloading of cargo. It looks like the boat's mission was to resupply several inland research stations. At one point, a helicopter unloads the coffin of a man who died in a fire at one of those stations. The Akademik Fyodorov shipped his body back home.

There are frolicking penguins, the construction of an entire airplane, and (at about 7:19) the construction on an on-deck swimming pool, which is quickly filled with frolicking Russians.

Thanks to Sedgeman for Submitterating!

*On a 2007 trip to the Arctic, the Akedemik Fyodorov served as the base from which Russia launched the manned min-subs that planted a Russian flag on the ocean floor—symbolically, although not legally, claiming the North Pole and all its natural resources.

"Satanist" turned heavy metal minister

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 08:54 AM PST

Twelve years ago, Jayme "Dusty" Murphy, then 17, thought satan told him to torch a church near Williamstown, Kentucky. So he and some friends tried to do just that. After serving 39 months of a 5-year jail sentence, Murphy, aka "Reverend Dred," is now the lead singer of a Christian heavy metal band called Datum Point. He's also an ordained Pentecostal minister. Here's the kicker, from a profile in the Cincinnati Enquirer:
Images02 122 L A5F32E1E2F77482Bac63460292121B51 Murphy acknowledges he still struggles with demons that haunted his youth, but says faith has relieved his fears. As for the workaday world, he says the next step toward escaping his felonious past is a petition to get his gun-owning rights restored.

"I have a 12-year-old daughter and it won't be that long before she'll be dating," he says. "I want to be cleaning a gun when the guy comes to pick her up."

"Rocker considers prison time a blessing" (Thanks, Gil Kaufman!)

How-To: Ultralight camp pot from Heineken "keg" can

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 08:50 AM PST


HKC-pot-rick-wilderness-survival-forum.jpg The community of resourceful and inventive ultralight backpacking enthusiasts thought that the Heineken 24-ounce "mini keg" can would make for a good miniature cooking stove. Sean Michael Reagan of MAKE says:

The community has evolved the design of these cooking pots to a remarkable extent, and although there seem to be as many variations as there are builders, a few common features seem to be emerging:

1. The top of the can is removed with a side-cutting can opener and preserved for use as a lid. The tab may be bent up to provide a handle, or a small knob may be attached.
2. The side of the can is wound with 1/16" fiberglass wick to provide an insulated gripping surface
3. An elastic silicone wristband is stretched around the rim of the can for drinking comfort.

How-To: Ultralight camp pot from Heineken "keg" can

Christopher Walken/zombie/metal tee

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 07:58 AM PST

Epic bus-cake for bus-obsessed kid's second birthday

Posted: 24 Jan 2011 01:53 AM PST


J sez, "The eldest of my friends' two youngins is obsessed with the bus. Loves to ride it, loves to watch it zoom past, loves to yell 'buth!' at it and proceed to go into hysterics. You can make his whole face come alive with wonderment when you point one out approaching from down the road.. So, for his second birthday, his ma crafted him the most maddeningly wonderful cake i have ever laid eyes on: a perfect little doughy mock-up of Seattle Metro's newest route, the #2 to Max-ville! COMPLETE WITH TWO CANDLES FOR THE LITTLE CABLE-POWER-BUS-ATTACHIES ZOMG!"

Max's 2nd Birthday 2010 (Thanks, J!)

 


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