The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Crowdfunding the tour: pre-selling shows before you book them
- High-Speed Robot Hand
- WiFi-sniffing picture frame
- US underwriting "liberation technology" projects to route around internet censorship abroad
- A boat named "Zeus." (Photo from Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
- FBI gives agents new powers to spy on you and go through your trash
- Bob Dylan sings about the video game "Gears of War." Bonus: "Goat Rap."
- Mark's talk at TEDxBrussels
- Trivia Championships of North America, July 8-10, 2011, Las Vegas
- A dog with persistence-of-vision LEDs in her shirt writes my novel Makers in the park at night
- 10 "Handy" Photoshop foul-ups
- Atom bomb survival suit patent from 1958
- Why I'm skeptical of the "Earless Bunny of Fukushima"
- The Funniest Joke Ever Told in the History of the Universe
- Deer, at attention (photo from Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
- Lulzsec hacks U.S. Senate
- Why the blue penguin is blue
- Webby Awards streaming tonight
- Baby Galapagos tortoise
- Famous People Hanging Out With Their Vinyl
- Europride and Gaga in Rome
- Woah
- Sultan Qaboos grand mosque, Muscat, Oman (photo from Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
- The Wichita "heat burst" explained
- OHANDA: the Open Source Hardware and Design Alliance
- Cool imaginary machines and systems at Justin Amrhein's new art opening: June 25
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Such Bravery
- Guy Bourdin's experimental films
- Pierced man hangs from hot air balloon
- My head is a 3D scan
| Crowdfunding the tour: pre-selling shows before you book them Posted: 14 Jun 2011 04:00 AM PDT Having had stellar success funding her album and video with Kickstarter, musician Kim Boekbinder set out on tour, only to find that some of her gigs were barely attended. After playing to 18 people in Portland, OR, she decided that she needed to use the same tools that pre-funded her album and video to pre-book her tours. Her plan is something like Upcoming.org's facility for fans to register their desire for a show in their town, and her description of the whys and wherefores is great tonic for people wondering about the relationship between performers and their audiences: There is no "Making It" or rather, this is making it. Right here, where I am, with my small but dedicated fan base holding me aloft while I drift through the detritus of an imploding music industry that never did a thing for me yet still manages to get in my way. I'm a modern musician with modern tools trying to navigate an old broken system; a system which declared that all musicians must work for free until picked up by a record label which would either make or destroy them; a system which drove a wedge between fans and their music, musicians and their audiences; a system that forgot that the entire reason it existed was to facilitate the experience of art...GUEST INFORMANT: Kim Boekbinder (via JWZ) |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 10:46 PM PDT A certain class of jokes write themselves here, yes, but that does not mean I am obliged to write them down. [Video Link: Len Fiorenz's YouTube. Thanks, Jess!] |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 09:32 PM PDT  This picture frame, made from an ancient Pentium II laptop, displayes images sniffed out of public WiFi connections: "Many coffee shops in Vancouver feature both local art and wi-fi, so why not combine the two?" Wiretap picture frame [Free Geek Vancouver via JWZ] |
| US underwriting "liberation technology" projects to route around internet censorship abroad Posted: 13 Jun 2011 06:18 PM PDT "The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy 'shadow' Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks." From James Glanz and John Markoff in the New York Times. |
| A boat named "Zeus." (Photo from Boing Boing Flickr Pool) Posted: 13 Jun 2011 06:36 PM PDT  Photographer and Boing Boing reader Craig Berry contributed this photo to the BB Flickr Pool. He shot this near Point Dume in Southern California, and explains: The boat's name was Zeus. When I first arrived the tide was coming in and only the "S" was visible. As the tide continued to rise I saw the "Z" and "E". The water would rush up and collect in the stern and then as it washed back out it created this whirlpool effect. |
| FBI gives agents new powers to spy on you and go through your trash Posted: 13 Jun 2011 06:04 PM PDT The New York Times reported this weekend that the FBI will grant "significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents"—powers that allow them them greater freedom to "search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention." The FBI's general counsel describes the changes as "more like fine-tuning than major changes." The ACLU isn't buying it. |
| Bob Dylan sings about the video game "Gears of War." Bonus: "Goat Rap." Posted: 13 Jun 2011 06:05 PM PDT [Video Link]. Oh, alright: it's really internet video genius Liam Lynch. It's a clip from his podcast, "Lynchland:The Liam Lynch Podcast". Full episodes can be seen at liamlynch.net or on iTunes. Here's the video that inspired this parody. Not into Dylan? Liam's "Goat Rap," below.
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| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 05:17 PM PDT [Video Link] In addition to the Brushbot-making workshop I gave to kids at TEDxKids in Brussels a couple of weeks ago, I also gave a talk about the cool tools and services available to makers today. You can watch other TEDxYouth videos here. |
| Trivia Championships of North America, July 8-10, 2011, Las Vegas Posted: 13 Jun 2011 04:35 PM PDT When I was in high school in Boulder Colorado, I loved going to the University of Colorado Trivia Bowl every year. I even started and hosted the Boulder High School Trivia Bowl. The winning team of the first Boulder High Trivia Bowl included Paul Bailey, who is now the producer of the Trivia Championships of North America, and Mitch O'Connell, who later went on to become a famous artist and collector of bizarre thrift store garbage. I'm about to relive my youth at the Trivia Championships of North America, which will be held on July 8-10, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you are going, too, let me know!
The website, preliminary schedule, and link for application to compete can be found here |
| A dog with persistence-of-vision LEDs in her shirt writes my novel Makers in the park at night Posted: 13 Jun 2011 04:20 PM PDT  Michael created a dog-shirt equipped with persistence-of-vision LEDs controlled by a LilyPad soft Arduino, and programmed it to output the text of my novel Makers as his pooch ran gleefully around the park at night. Then he photographed it and sent it to me, and my head exploded with delight. Mounting 5 LEDs on a moving object creates one of the cheapest and largest displays: Persistence of Vision. It's been done on bicycle wheels, fans and other rotating objects.My Dog Light Writing "Makers" |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 04:09 PM PDT Our pals at the excellent Photoshop Disasters website prepared this freakish gallery of disembodied hands, duplicated & deleted digits, and extra arms. Two hands, five fingers on each. Sounds simple, right? Yet when there's Photoshop and a (possibly drunk) graphic artist at work, things don't always come out as nature intended. To see more atrocities head on over to Photoshop Disasters or you can check out the PSD Facebook page for other images not shown on the website. |
| Atom bomb survival suit patent from 1958 Posted: 13 Jun 2011 03:09 PM PDT  This atomic bomb survival suit looks like something Chris Ware would have in one of his comic books. John Ptak says: Is there anything more revolting than this solitary, encapsulated, iron maidenesque survival sarcophagus and its promised hope of survivability?Questionable Quidity: the Preservation of Decay--Atomic Bomb Suits |
| Why I'm skeptical of the "Earless Bunny of Fukushima" Posted: 13 Jun 2011 02:39 PM PDT [Video Link] This bunny is earless. But why? According to the buzz on the Internet, it's because he was born near the site of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meldown—the victim of radiation exposure in the womb. Theoretically, that could be true. But I'm not convinced. Specifically, before you let this bunny give freak you out, I think you need to demand two key pieces of evidence. First, we don't actually know where this bunny came from. Everything I've seen on it is based on one video, and isn't particularly well sourced. Without that, it's impossible to know whether the bunny even comes from Japan, let alone the Fukushima area. It's also impossible to know whether this bunny was really born recently. Second (and probably more important) earless bunnies aren't a particularly rare phenomenon. You don't even need a genetic mutation to get one. In fact, mother bunnies—especially those living with overcrowding, or other stressful conditions—are known to "over groom" newborns, biting their little ears down to nubs in the process. It's a common enough occurrence to spark debates on rabbit owner websites over whether or not earless baby bunnies should be killed. (And three years ago, Vincent the earless bunny—born nowhere near any recent nuclear meltdowns—became an Internet sensation on the strength of his cuteness alone.) It boils down to this: Radiation exposure has health risks. Radiation can be a teratogen—something that can affect the physical development of a person or animal. But a weird-looking bunny in a video is not necessarily proof of a nuclear-related mutation in Japan. I'm not saying there's no way they could possibly be related. But, to start believing that, I'd first need proof that this bunny is from where he's supposed to be from, is the age he is supposed to be, and that he actually exited the womb earless. Until that exists, I think it's more likely that this bunny (wherever he's from) became earless the same way most earless bunnies do. |
| The Funniest Joke Ever Told in the History of the Universe Posted: 13 Jun 2011 02:34 PM PDT [Video Link] Boing Boing pal Joe Sabia, who has been co-curating the Boing Boing Video in-flight TV channel on Virgin America with us (channel #10 on your sky-high dial!), directed this commercial for BBC America. It's brilliant. More of Joe's work as a director here. |
| Deer, at attention (photo from Boing Boing Flickr Pool) Posted: 13 Jun 2011 02:52 PM PDT  Photo by M. Rehemtulla for QUOI Media Group, contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool. (Image: Audience, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from quoimedia's photostream) |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 04:46 PM PDT LulzSec today announced recent hacks of the U.S. Senate's website—"is this an act of war, gentlemen?"—and game developer Bethesda Softworks, whose 200k users were spared in the hope that forthcoming fantasy epic Skyrim will not be delayed. |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 01:37 PM PDT  This is a microscope view of the feather structure of the Little Blue penguin. The structure turns out to be pretty important, because it's those tightly packed bundles of fibers that scatter light in just the right way and make the Little Blue penguin appear blue.
The Fossil Penguins blog, via Hectocotyli |
| Webby Awards streaming tonight Posted: 13 Jun 2011 02:35 PM PDT  Tonight is the big Webby Awards extravaganza in New York City. Lisa Kudrow is hosting, Norah Jones and Antoine Dodson with The Gregory Brothers are performing. Zach Galifianakis, Daniel Radcliffe, Anna Wintour, Marlon Wayans, and Isaiah Mustafa will be there. Our friends at the Webbys are streaming the whole shebang live starting at 8pm ET. 15th Annual Webby Awards Stream |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 01:25 PM PDT |
| Famous People Hanging Out With Their Vinyl Posted: 13 Jun 2011 01:18 PM PDT  A wonderful photo-essay on Dangerous Minds. The selection above, obviously: Marilyn Monroe. |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 12:39 PM PDT  (Lady Gaga performs during a gay pride concert in downtown Rome. Stefano Rellandini / Reuters) The gay icon Lady Gaga was there wearing her green wig, together with up to one million people marching chanting singing in a carnival gay pride march. Rome is the capital of Vatican too, the place where Pope lives and preaches from his balcony every Sunday morning about how people should live and love. Lady Gaga's motto this Sunday was the power of love. She recalled her Italian origin and name ( La Germanotta) and, in a passionate speech, demanded immediate equal rights for the gays, meaning the right to get married, have children etc. While singing her new song Born This Way, an anthem to diversity... But only few days ago, the Pope announced his firm opposition to equalize even straight informal marriages, that is, unions not sanctioned by God in a marriage sacrament. Where the Catholic church is concerned, gay marriages are not only a taboo topic but even a place of severe demonization and homophobia.
The Italian state has fought a long and heavy battle against the Catholic church, which reached a certain status quo with the "Concordato" in 1929, signed when Mussolini was in power. With this arrangement canonic law became the civil law too, regulating marriages, prohibiting divorce, freedom of choice, sexual diversity...Only in the seventies did civil society activism manage to pass Italian law that made divorce and abortion possible, as well as non legalized marriages. However gay rights never became a focus in Italian society. Civilian gays have been battered, criminalized and persecuted, notwithstanding the huge sex pedophilia scandals running among Catholic priests who have been getting away quite easily all these years with their criminal abuse of power. Italy today is still a macho society mirrored publicly by its premiere Silvio Berlusconi who very often justifies his sex scandals with minors and prostitutes with the words, at least I am not gay. By contrast, a gay politician of Rome caught with a transvestite prostitute had to resign because of his public image being ruined. This parade yesterday in Rome was extremely well organized by the LGBT community even though many antipope offensive banners were flying together with the drag queens, masques of famous icons, wigs, rainbow flags; Pope Ratzinger was renamed Natzinger. Gay politicians from the Italian parliament gave speeches pointing out that Italy is ranking at level 0 in the European community regarding minority rights. The Cinderella of Europe, as Italy is called as of today, would not be accepted to join the European community nowadays. Yet Italy remains a G8 powers and a founder of united Europe. Italian double standards baffle other European countries as well as the progressive italian citizens. Only a couple of months ago, the right winged regional government in Piemonte northern Italy, tried to impose a new measure on abortion. Women who have the national constitutional right to abortion, would have to face a restrictive treatment with the pro life volunteers manning hospitals.
The right winged elected politician, immediately after his victory, announced his antiabortion and anti gays policy. Somehow women and gays are always the primary target of conservatives and the civil rights of gays and women should also be the first test for the real level of democracy in a country. Democracy must include all citizens, notwithstanding their diversity. Yesterday Italy also voted against nuclear power after Germany said a definite no, after Japan suffered the tsunami catastrophe with numerous leaks, 25 years after Chernobyl, in the midst of global warming tragedies, and religious antiDarwinist denials.
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| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 12:14 PM PDT |
| Sultan Qaboos grand mosque, Muscat, Oman (photo from Boing Boing Flickr Pool) Posted: 13 Jun 2011 12:13 PM PDT  Photo by Omar Chatriwala, contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool. (Image: Hanging out in the grand mosque, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from omarsc's photostream) |
| The Wichita "heat burst" explained Posted: 13 Jun 2011 12:02 PM PDT  Last Thursday, around midnight, the temperature in Wichita, Kansas, jumped 20 degrees in 20 minutes. Needless to say, this is not normal—both for the speed of the temperature increase, and the time of day at which it happened. (There's a reason we normally talk about overnight lows.) So, what's the deal? It's called a "heat burst," says John Rennie at PLoS Blogs. Heat bursts are weather phenomena related to stuff you've probably heard of before—downbursts and microbursts. In those events, rain-cooled air suddenly becomes denser than the air beneath it and plummets quickly to Earth. But, for obvious reasons, that doesn't fully explain what happens in a heat burst.
Image: Hot Hot Hot, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from rcbodden's photostream |
| OHANDA: the Open Source Hardware and Design Alliance Posted: 13 Jun 2011 05:20 AM PDT  Ian sez, "OHANDA is the Open Source Hardware and Design Alliance - an attempt to do for hardware and patents what Copyleft is doing for non-physical objects. They've created a label to apply to physical devices developed under OHANDA. The point lies in what they call the Four Freedoms which any device bearing the logo will enjoy: Freedom to use the device for anything, Study how it works, Change & redistribute, and Release improvements for the use of everyone." IF YOU DESIGN IT 4 FREEDOM, THEN LABEL IT WITH THE 4 FREEDOMS! (Thanks, Ian!) |
| Cool imaginary machines and systems at Justin Amrhein's new art opening: June 25 Posted: 13 Jun 2011 10:33 AM PDT 
Michael Rosenthal Gallery [San Francisco] is thrilled to present Schema, Brooklyn-based artist Justin Amrhein's first solo exhibition. In a series of intricate yet gracefully spare drawings and lightboxes, Amrhein plots and charts the inner workings of imaginary machines. Evoking patent diagrams, textbook illustrations or the work of an evil mastermind intent on destroying the world, the works capture the viewer's curiosity on both an intellectual and technical level.Justin Amrhein's Schema |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 01:01 PM PDT In 1212, thousands of vagrants, bandits and starving children converged on Genoa in search of shelter, adventure and heaven's gate. But their footsteps fell on a path already well-trodden...
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| Guy Bourdin's experimental films Posted: 13 Jun 2011 11:06 AM PDT Guy Bourdin (1928-1991) was a French avant-garde fashion photographer. Mentored by surrealist Man Ray and inspired by filmmaker Luis Buñuel, Bourdin's fashion shoots were often very strange, sexual, phantasmagoric and occasionally quite creepy. His photography frequently appeared in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and he shot ad campaigns for Charles Jourdan, Issey Miyake, Chanel, and others. Bourdin was also quietly a filmmaker, working with 8mm, super 8, and 16mm. Above is footage of Dayle Haydon and Sayuko during a 1974 Vogue shoot in Normandy, France. More footage (perhaps NSFW) here on YouTube and here on UBUWEB Film. There's also a recent documentary, titled When the Sky Fell Down: The Myth of Guy Bourdin. And in July, Phaidon will publish a small inexpensive hardcover book of his work. (via @chris_carter_)
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| Pierced man hangs from hot air balloon Posted: 13 Jun 2011 10:21 AM PDT In body modification circles, a "suspension" is the practice of hanging from hooks pierced through the body. Zane Whitmore, 34, of Seattle, took suspension to, er, new heights when he hung from his skin below a hot air balloon that lifted him more than 10,000 feet into the air. The suspension was for a feature-length documentary called "Feet Off The Ground" currently in production by Precarious Egg. From KATU: (Whitmore) was pierced four times across his shoulder blades and the balloon was released over California's Long Valley Caldera. The flight, which was on Saturday, lasted about 75 minutes."Seattle man takes hot air balloon flight suspended by his skin" (via Fortean Times) |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2011 09:20 AM PDT  Last week, my wife Alice and I stopped into MakerBot Industries, the DIY 3D printing company in Brooklyn, and got our heads scanned. The MakerBotters covered us in cornstarch (so that the laser-scanner could resolve our hair and eyebrows) and waved this crazy, six-degrees-of-freedom laser-scanning wand around us until we had been turned into polygons. Now our heads are online in Thingiverse, along with many others who happened to pass through MakerBot's doors while they had the scanner on the premises (it was a loaner). It's no Stephen Colbert head, but it's mine, and I'm (cautiously) excited about what the world ends up doing with it! |
For the first time, everyday trivia fans from across the continent will battle million-dollar minds -- and one another -- to answer the question: Who are the top trivia players of North America? Taking place in Las Vegas on July 8-10, the Trivia Championships of North America (TCONA) will recognize "mental medalists" who are both quick on the buzzer and full of facts. 
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