The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Maker Faire UK this weekend in Newcastle
- Hi Fructose art show at Seattle's Roq La Rue gallery
- Michigan Republicans create "financial martial law"; appointees to replace elected local officials
- Aimée Baldwin's Vegan Taxidermy
- Drum machine pioneer Roger Linn's newest device
- Japan Sendai Quake and Tsunami: big photo gallery
- Japan hit by catastrophic 8.9 magnitude quake, massive tsunami sweeps country
- R. Crumb retrospective in NYC
- Demented woman enjoys chocolate a little too much
- Clive Thompson on the "best pencil sharpener I've ever used in my life"
- Wikileaks: Manning's dad protests conditions of son's incarceration, new legal filing complains conditions unjust
- Egypt: state security headquarters ransacked by protesters, what happens to archives?
- "Make yourself... f**king lovely"
- No URL shorteners in the comments, please
- Combination-lock-cracking robot
- Pitch perfect comic parable about sustainability
- Homebrew laser pistol that shoots neat holes in stuff
- EU seizes Playstation 3 imports in patent row
- Cutting edge computer graphics: a 22-year retrospective
- The Experience Machine
- Using EXE files to create found audio
- Molly Lewis Wants Stephen Fry's Baby
- Wired Threat Level takes on the naked body scanners
- Pot growers employed "watchgator" to guard $1.5 million weed stash
- L'Inhumaine, quintessentially avant-garde 1924 film
- Qaddafi. Qazzafi. Qadhdhafi. Qaththafi. Gadhdhafi. Khadafy. Gazafy. Hizzafizzle. Schlebaffi. LOLdaffy.
- Zazzle: Tolkien estate told us to take down the badge. Wait, no they didn't!
- Carl Sagan vs. Old Spice Guy LOL-GIF
- Judge John Hodgman Ep. 16: The Potluck Problem
- Atlas Obscura's Obscura Day of weird expeditions and strange tours
| Maker Faire UK this weekend in Newcastle Posted: 11 Mar 2011 05:13 AM PST This weekend is Maker Faire UK time in Newcastle -- the return of the brilliant Maker Faire event to Britain: "Expect a weekend of cool robots, garden-shed inventions, knitted wonders, the occasional fireball and oodles of opportunities to make your own creations. Perfect for creative people of all ages!" |
| Hi Fructose art show at Seattle's Roq La Rue gallery Posted: 11 Mar 2011 05:11 AM PST   Tonight in Seattle, our friends at Roq La Rue Gallery and Hi Fructose Magazine unveil the Hi Fructose Group Show Invitational. The preview is online and it's quite a stellar glimpse into the contemporary underground/low-brow/pop surrealist scene. Participating artists include: Al Columbia, Aron Wiesenfeld, Chris Berens, Dalek/James Marshall, Bob Dob, Eric Fortune, Femke Hiemstra, Harma Heikens, Jason D'Aquino, Jeremy Geddes, Kazuki Takamatsu, Martin Wittfooth, Michael Page, Rob Sato, Robert Hardgrave, Scott Hove, Tim Biskup, Travis Lampe, Nicola Verlato, and Sylvia Ji. Above, Jeremy Geddes's "Adrift" (oil on board, 29.5" x 29.5"). At right, Kazuki Takamatsu's "Prepare For The Future Unknown Enemy" (acrylic gouache on tarpaulin, 64" x 64").Hi Fructose Group Show Invitational |
| Michigan Republicans create "financial martial law"; appointees to replace elected local officials Posted: 11 Mar 2011 04:48 AM PST  Republican Michigan governor Rick Snyder, along with the state's Republican house and senate, have passed a controversial bill that allows the governor to dissolve the elected governments of Michigan's towns and cities, replacing them with unaccountable "emergency financial managers" who can eliminate services, merge or eliminate school boards, and lay off or renegotiate unionized public employees without recourse. Republican senator Jack Brandenburg -- who supported the measure -- calls it "financial martial law." While local governments are subject to electoral recall by residents, the "managers" the governor appoints will answer only to the state legislature. There are no limits to the salary "managers" may draw (an amendment that would have limited their compensation to $159,000, which is the governor's own salary, was defeated). "Managers" will be able to govern as they see fit. Practically speaking, this opens the door to the kind of "governance" we've seen in occupied Iraq, where high-paid appointees who don't answer to the governed get to award no-bid contracts to their pals, with little or no oversight or control. Michigan Senate passes emergency manager bills (via Reddit) (Image: Rick Snyder for Governor Yard Sign, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from billrice's photostream)
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| Aimée Baldwin's Vegan Taxidermy Posted: 11 Mar 2011 12:59 AM PST  In the thread on my post yesterday about Courtney Cerruti's "Animal Anomalies" paper sculptures, an anonymous commenter turned me on to the astounding "Vegan Taxidermy" of Berkeley-based sculptor Aimée Baldwin. She constructs these beauties from "hand-cut crepe paper feathers over individually-shaped foam and paper-mâché body, with wire legs, sculpted claws and beaks, and taxidermy glass eyes (the only pre-fabricated part of the birds)." From Baldwin's artist statement: Vegan Taxidermy |
| Drum machine pioneer Roger Linn's newest device Posted: 11 Mar 2011 12:47 AM PST |
| Japan Sendai Quake and Tsunami: big photo gallery Posted: 11 Mar 2011 12:26 AM PST
[Related BB post: "Japan hit by catastrophic 8.9 magnitude quake, massive tsunami sweeps country"] An office building burns in Tokyo after an earthquake March 11, 2011. A massive 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan on Friday, causing many injuries, fires and a four-meter (13-foot) tsunami along parts of the country's coastline, NHK television and witnesses reported. There were several strong aftershocks and a warning of a 10-meter (32-foot) tsunami following the quake, which also caused buildings to shake violently in the capital Tokyo. (photos: REUTERS/Kyodo) People take shelter as a ceiling collapses in a bookstore during an earthquake in Sendai, northeastern Japan March 11, 2011.
Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan reacts he he feels an earthquake as he attends a committee meeting in the upper house of parliament in Tokyo (REUTERS / Toru Hanai)
Rescue workers hurry to a building following reports of injuries in Tokyo's financial district after an earthquake off the coast of northern Japan (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon) Woman wears hard hat and talks on phone after evacuating building in Tokyo's financial district, after earthquake off the coast of northern Japan. (REUTERS/Kim Kyung Hoon)
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| Japan hit by catastrophic 8.9 magnitude quake, massive tsunami sweeps country Posted: 11 Mar 2011 12:31 AM PST  A catastrophic earthquake has struck Northern Japan, 150 miles off the coast. The quake hit on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 06:25:51 UTC, with a magnitude of 8.9. Frequent aftershocks at the time of this blog post. This is one one of the highest earthquakes ever recorded on earth. The quake is being described as roughly 1,000 times the size of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, in terms of total energy released. The USGS reports that this is the 5th strongest earthquake in the world since 1900. The Pacific Tsunami Center has issued a warning not only for Japan, where a 10-meter (33 foot) high tsunami is already sweeping the country, but for the coast of Russia, Marcus Island, Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Marshall Island, Midway Island, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Live coverage on CNN International, Al Jazeera, and NHK, is showing massive tsunami waves of debris, mud, and flame wiping out massive sections of coastline. We are watching people dying, swept up in these massive waves of mud and debris. Here's a Reddit thread with relevant links. There is already a Wikipedia page: 2011 Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami. The Google Person Finder is available to help connect with missing loved ones. YouTube's Citizentube is curating raw videos from eyewitnesses.
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| Posted: 10 Mar 2011 04:46 PM PST  The Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in New York is presenting "R. Crumb: Lines Drawn On Paper," a retrospective of the world's greatest living illustrator. This 90-piece exhibit showcases rare and seminal examples of original art including covers and interior pages from ZAP, San Francisco Comic Book, Head Comix, Bijou Funnies, The East Village Other, Snatch Comics, Motor City Comics, Your Hytone Comix, Big Ass Comics, The People's Comics, Despair, Black & White Comics, Arcade, Hup and Weirdo. This exhibit features such counter-culture icons as Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, Shuman the Human, Bo Bo Bolinski, Lenore Goldberg and Her Girl Commandos, Horny Harriet Hotpants, Boingy Baxter, Angelfood McSpade and a special guest appearance by the ol' pooperoo himself -- R. Crumb. Works will be on display for six weeks, beginning March 23rd through April 30th in the Museum's galleries in New York City's Upper East Side.My friend Monte Beauchamp (BLAB! magazine founder) is curating it. See more pieces from the show after the jump.
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| Demented woman enjoys chocolate a little too much Posted: 09 Mar 2011 11:46 PM PST  Further evidence that expressions of crazed delight had a place in commercial advertising that is inexplicable by today's standards: this Nestle's ad from 1956 that features a nearly zombioid woman enjoying a piece of chocolate so much her eyes have rolled back in her head. |
| Clive Thompson on the "best pencil sharpener I've ever used in my life" Posted: 10 Mar 2011 08:02 PM PST [Video Link] When I was at TED2011 I interviewed writer Clive Thompson about what he calls "the best sharpener I've ever used in my life," the Palomino-KUM Long Point Pencil Sharpener. UPDATE: Here's Andy Wefle of Pencils.com with a video that shows you how to use the sharpener. |
| Posted: 10 Mar 2011 03:00 PM PST Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour. The attorney for Pvt. Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst who is accused of downloading thousands of classified State Department documents and making them available them to WikiLeaks, today posts this update on the condition of Manning's incarceration in maximum security at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, VA: You can read the legal filing here. Manning remains in solitary confinement and under a "prevention of injury" watch, and is now required to strip naked at night. From a PBS Frontline blog post today, a tease of an exclusive interview with Manning's dad: His attorney, David Coombs, told reporters the brig's action followed his client's complaint that the so-called "prevention of injury" restrictions on him were absurd. Manning said if he wanted to harm himself, he could do so with the elastic waistband of his underwear. In an exclusive Frontline interview this week with correspondent Martin Smith, Manning's father, Brian Manning, spoke for the first time about his son's incarceration. For Boing Boing readers who can't play the video, Brian Manning says: His clothing is being taken away from him, and he's being humiliated by having to stand at attention in front of people, male or female, who are fully clothed. This is someone who has not gone to trial or been convicted of anything. It's shocking enough that I would come out of our silence as a family and say, now then, you have crossed the line. This is wrong. The Frontline update also includes a statement from the Department of Defense. More of the PBS interview with Brian Manning on tonight's edition of NewsHour, and Bradley Manning will be profiled in a special edition of Frontline airing March 29. The network will publish a documentary on Wikileaks in May. |
| Egypt: state security headquarters ransacked by protesters, what happens to archives? Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:41 PM PST The people ransack the state security headquarters in Egypt, and archives of torture and oppression are unlocked: "This is a moment exposing what was hidden, but how this will be used is the problem. What is happening is too much for people to absorb and endure."—journalist Ibrahim Issa, founder of a new TV station called Tahrir. (New York Times) |
| "Make yourself... f**king lovely" Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:11 PM PST  This photograph of "a real sign in Itaewon, South Korea" was contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by reader Misha McMurtray. |
| No URL shorteners in the comments, please Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:10 PM PST Dear readers! URL shorteners' popularity with spammers means we've blocked some of the big ones (at least temporarily) to cut down on the spammation. Sorry for the inconvenience! While we plan a long-term fix, just use normal URLs. You are welcome to use anchor tags in BB comments, too. |
| Combination-lock-cracking robot Posted: 09 Mar 2011 11:52 PM PST Students at Olin College have made a robot that can crack a MasterLock brand padlock's combination; it can work faster depending on whether it knows some, none or all of the combination. The documentation for the project is quite good. Our final design was able to dramatically reduce the amount of material needed by turning the entire assembly on its side. In this way, the motor mount and spindle, the lock holder and the solenoid could all be considered distinct entities attached to a single base plate. Since torque on the base was not an issue like it was with the first two "tower" designs, we could make the base much thinner. This allowed us to make our slots longer without increasing the total cost much. Thus, we were able to make every component adjustable relative to the fixed lock base which allowed for quick insertion and removal of the lock, as well as easy tuning of the solenoid distance that allowed it to consistently pull the lock latch all the way open. This was critical because one of the main problems we dealt with was assuring the location of the solenoid relative to the lock. The solenoid had a very thin range of positions that it would work from; too far from the lock it did have enough energy to pull the latch, too close to the lock and it didn't have the travel to pull the latch completely open.The LockCracker (via Neatorama)
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| Pitch perfect comic parable about sustainability Posted: 10 Mar 2011 01:52 PM PST  Just wanted to showcase this marvelous comic by Stuart McMillan (the cover of which you see above and is a nice nod to Hergé). It's called "St. Matthew Island" and asks: "What happens when you introduce 29 reindeer to an isolated island of untouched natural resources?" As a parable (humans being humans, and reindeer being reindeer), it does a great job of gently and effectively illustrating the issue of over consumption . St Matthew Island by Stuart McMillan |
| Homebrew laser pistol that shoots neat holes in stuff Posted: 10 Mar 2011 01:29 PM PST Here's a working, homebrewed 1MW laser pistol that can fire through a steel razor-blade and possibly other objects as well. If you want to make one of your own, the creator will help you find the parts and get it all together. German hacker [Patrick Priebe] recently constructed a laser pulse gun that looks so good, it could have easily come off a Hollywood movie set. Its sleek white and black exterior adds intrigue, but offers little warning as to how powerful the gun actually is.You'll shoot your eye out...with a 1MW laser pulse pistol (Thanks, Caleb!) |
| EU seizes Playstation 3 imports in patent row Posted: 10 Mar 2011 01:32 PM PST The European Union has seized all incoming shipments of Playstation 3s. It marks the climax in an ongoing IP war between Sony and LG, which have been patent trolling each other over various trivially obvious functions of their products. Usually these are strategic battles aimed at securing lucrative cross-licensing deals, but this one has gotten way out of hand: the impounding costs mean that LG risks financial ruin if they ultimately lose the case. Update: Sony won already. This limits the fines and costs to LG to a mere $500k, at least so far. [Thanks, DrPretto!] |
| Cutting edge computer graphics: a 22-year retrospective Posted: 10 Mar 2011 01:22 PM PST This great Metafilter post by Codacorolla links to cutting edge computer graphics demos for all the years from 1989 to 2010. It's a vivid demonstration of the astounding rate of change in CGI, and a humbling reminder that this year's jaw-dropping CGI is next year's chunky, awkward crudity. The future, for a little while anyway
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| Posted: 10 Mar 2011 11:17 AM PST From Anarchy, State, and Utopia, by Robert Nozick (1974) Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life's experiences? If you are worried about missing out on desirable experiences, we can suppose that business enterprises have researched thoroughly the lives of many others. You can pick and choose from their large library or smorgasbord of such experiences, selecting your life's experiences for, say, the next two years. After two years have passed, you will have ten minutes or ten hours out of the tank, to select the experiences of your next two years. Of course, while in the tank you won't know that you're there; you'll think it's all actually happening. ... Would you plug in?(Via Futility Closet) |
| Using EXE files to create found audio Posted: 10 Mar 2011 11:07 AM PST Turning data strings like DNA and what-not into audio can produce interesting results. YouTube user r2blend says, "If you import an EXE file into an audio program as audio data, you hear all kinds of cool stuff. The most awesome by far for me was MS Paint." Fisco130 then made a club remix of the MS Paint data audio. Wonder if any scans of great works of art contain secret music? Does malware translate to sad trombone sound, or Rick Astley? [Video link] |
| Molly Lewis Wants Stephen Fry's Baby Posted: 10 Mar 2011 10:20 AM PST [Video Link] Strangefriend says: "Ukulele player Molly Lewis plays a song offering to bear Stephen Fry's baby." Gary Peare adds: "After you've watched the above video, check out this video of Molly serenading Mr. Fry himself at a ceremony during which he received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism from Harvard on February 22, 2011. (Begins at the 3:00 mark)." (Submitterated by Strangefriend) |
| Wired Threat Level takes on the naked body scanners Posted: 10 Mar 2011 10:02 AM PST In Wired's Threat Level blog, a three-part series on the technology and politics surrounding those "nude body scanners" introduced to a number of American airports last year. "Court Likely to Uphold Constitutionality of 'Nude' Airport Scanners," and "'Nude' Airport Scanners: Are They Safe?," and "Airport 'Nude' Body Scanners: Are They Effective?." |
| Pot growers employed "watchgator" to guard $1.5 million weed stash Posted: 10 Mar 2011 09:55 AM PST While raiding a $1.5 million pot-growing operation, California narcotics investigators found an alligator named "Wally" guarding the stash. He is healthy, weighs 55 pounds, and is now being cared for by the Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary. Here's the original news item in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. |
| L'Inhumaine, quintessentially avant-garde 1924 film Posted: 10 Mar 2011 12:24 PM PST Marcel L'Herbier's 1924 film L'Inhumaine is considered to be a triumph of avant-garde culture, a strange science fictiony story with cubist sets by proto-pop art painter Fernand Léger and pioneering modernist architect Robert Mallet-Stevens. According to L'Herbier, his goal was to present "a miscellany of modern art." Indeed, legend has it that Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, and Man Ray were extras in the film. I've never seen the whole film, but there are clips online like the YouTube clip above. It also plays art houses and festivals occasionally, including last month at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive which prompted an article about it in the San Bay Guardian: L'Inhumaine reflects its moment as much as the next year's Battleship Potemkin (1925). That it was received more like 1923's Salome — the infamous Rudolf Valentino-funded Art Nouveau version of Oscar Wilde's play, which for reasons both credible and malicious was branded a "riot" of homosexual aesthetics — laid in the extreme disconnect between cutting-edge techniques and woozily old-hat theatrical content. There's no denying the film is whopping camp, albeit camp curated (as L'Herbier intended) to complement the hugely influential International Exhibition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts opening in Paris in 1925."Gleaming the Cubist" (SFBG) L'Inhumaine (Wikipedia) |
| Posted: 10 Mar 2011 09:37 AM PST  Why are there so many different spellings for the Libyan dictator's name? An AP Stylebook post explores: Starting on the pronunciation front, the spelling is complicated by a perfect storm of issues: Arabic letters or sounds that don't exist in English, differences in pronunciation between formal Arabic and dialects, and differences between transliteration systems.(via Jodi Ettenberg, 'shoop by Xeni, photo: the variously-spelled leader in Tripoli, March 8, 2011. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah )
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| Zazzle: Tolkien estate told us to take down the badge. Wait, no they didn't! Posted: 10 Mar 2011 07:20 AM PST Last week, I got an email from a lawyer representing the Tolkien estate informing me that his clients hadn't demanded that Zazzle remove Adam Rakunas's badge reading "While you were reading Tolkien, I was watching Evangelion." So I wrote to Adam and asked him what Zazzle had told him about the affair. He was good enough to post all of his correspondence with Zazzle over the matter. On February 28, "Mike" from Zazzle wrote to Adam to say: But when Adam pressed them for details (and after a lot of bad publicity), "Mike" wrote back: This email is in regards to the deletion of your button entitled "While you were reading Tolkien,I was watching Eva". After corresponding with representatives from the Tolkien Estate, it's been brought to our attention that the design was removed inadvertently due to a miscommunication on our part.I've written to several addresses at Zazzle seeking clarification, without an answer. But here's my guess: the Tolkien estate had previously contacted Zazzle and said, forcefully, "You keep carrying things that infringe our copyrights and trademarks. We expect you to take them down and prevent this from happening in the future." So Zazzle instituted a blanket policy of removing anything that even smelled of Tolkien. Then this dumb thing happened, and the lawyers called back and said, "Well, that button didn't infringe on our rights, so you shouldn't have taken it down." And Zazzle put it back up. I've asked the Tolkien estate lawyer to confirm this repeatedly; he's said things like "I repeat that the Estate made no complaint concerning this badge, which was removed on Zazzle's own initiative. There is no further relevant information to add." When I asked again, "Did the estate ask Zazzle to engage in pro-active policing of its marks and copyrights?" he stopped responding to my emails. I guess you can infer what you want from that. Anyone from Zazzle reading this: I'd love to get your side of the story. |
| Carl Sagan vs. Old Spice Guy LOL-GIF Posted: 10 Mar 2011 09:21 AM PST |
| Judge John Hodgman Ep. 16: The Potluck Problem Posted: 10 Mar 2011 09:19 AM PST  Don't miss episode 16 of the Judge John Hodgman podcast: The Potluck Problem Two best friends disagree on the morality of the potluck. One says it's a great opportunity for everyone to pitch in. One says it's a sign of a host who's abdicated responsibility for the party. Only one man can decide who's right.Judge John Hodgman Ep. 16: The Potluck Problem |
| Atlas Obscura's Obscura Day of weird expeditions and strange tours Posted: 10 Mar 2011 09:18 AM PST  Seen above is the "Door to Hell" in Turkmenistan, Darvaza. It's one of many locales around the world where curiosity-seekers will celebrate the second annual Obscura Day on April 9, organized by our friends at the Atlas Obscura directory of wondrous travel destination. Dylan Thuras sent me this sampling from the list of events lined up so far: In London - Join the Adventurists for films and cocktails in the historic Royal Geographical Society Map RoomOscura Day |
My concern for habitat conservation, environmental issues, and the effects of consumer culture on our relationship with the planet and with each other, has motivated me to distance my work from mass production of disposable merchandise. Instead I am focusing on individually sculpting unique pieces of art work which emphasize delicate highly-skilled craftsmanship and whose variety reflects the natural variation within the species it honors.
On March 1, 2011, the Quantico Base Commander, Colonel Daniel J. Choike, denied PFC Manning's request to be removed from Prevention of Injury Watch and to have his custody classification reduced from Maximum to Medium Detention-In. The defense filed the following rebuttal to Colonel Choike's response. Colonel Choike will now complete his action on the Article 138 complaint, and then forward the proceedings to the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, for his final review. If Secretary Mabus denies PFC Manning's requested relief, the defense will file a Writ of Habeas Corpus to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals.
With regards to details of the infringement, all legal documents are confidential therefore I cannot release this undisclosed information. But we ask that you do acknowledge the fact that we were contacted by The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate, and at their request to prevent and remove any unauthorized and infringing third-party uses of their copyrights, trademarks and intellectual properties. | You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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