The Latest from Boing Boing

Suffragette surveillance photos from 1912
Laser-cut zoetropes from animated GIFs
Warren Ellis/D'Israeli comic about augmented reality with secret UV backstory
CC Free! Music! Contest!
Happy 4th of July!
Steampunk thinking helmet
Fireworks stop-motion animation by PES
RIP, Len Sassaman: cypherpunk and anonymity hacker
Italian telco regulator grants itself power to censor Internet; Obama administration approves
Photos of basset hounds running

Suffragette surveillance photos from 1912

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 04:50 AM PDT

Scotland Yard's first surveillance camera, bought in 1912, was used to spy on "increasingly militant suffragettes" who demanded votes for women, regarded as terrorists in their day.

The covert photographs are at the heart of an exhibition marking the centenary of the founding of the Women's Social and Political Union, which invented modern direct action and ultimately changed the face of the UK...
One of the women on the list, Kitty Marion, went on to become one of the most celebrated of the suffragettes as she endured more than 200 force-feedings in prison while on hunger strike.
"On the one hand, the state considered them dangerous terrorists, but on the other it simply did not know what to do with them," says Ms Tulloch.

Spy pictures of suffragettes revealed (BBC) (via How to Be a Retronaut)

Laser-cut zoetropes from animated GIFs

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 02:26 AM PDT

Two recent NYU Interactive Technology Projects grads have launched a Kickstarter project called "Physical GIF" that will produce laser-cut zoetropes adapted from animated GIFs that can be played on a regular musical turntable illuminated with a strobe-light. They're hoping to produce a physical object that animated GIF artists can sell to support their work, which is generally distributed without charge online.

In addition to the Physical GIFs above, we've commissioned designs from four prominent animated GIF artists: Ryder Ripps, Nullsleep, Sara Ludy, and Sterling Crispin. Ryder Ripps is the founder of http://dump.fm and one of the pioneers of animated GIF art. Ripps has shown his work widely and collaborated with a number of prominent artists including M.I.A. Learn more about Ryder: http://ryder-ripps.com Nullsleep is a widely-reknowned chiptune musician and computer artist. He's one of the founders of 8bitpeoples and Blip Festival. He's performed all over the world. Learn more about Nullsleep: http://nullsleep.com. Sara Ludy is a musician and new media artist based in Los Angeles whose work has been shown around the country. Her work has been covered by Bad At Sports and Notes on a New Nature. Learn more about Sara: http://www.saraludy.com. Sterling Crispin is a member of animated GIF collective Computers Club. His work deals with the concept of emptiness in Buddhism and the singularity and has been shown all over the country. Learn more about Crispin: http://www.sterlingcrispin.com.
We've asked these artists to produce designs that push and expand the medium of the Physical GIF. We'll be working with them to explore a variety of different materials and processes that can be used to achieve surprising effects. The Physical GIFs they produce will only be available as a numbered limited edition of ten each. They will quickly become highly sought after collectors' items.
Half of the money from the sale of each Artist Edition GIF will go to the artist who designed it. We think that Physical GIFs are a great way to reward the incredible creativity and artistic achievement of animated GIF artists who give away so much of their work for free over the internet.

Physical GIF (via Waxy)

Warren Ellis/D'Israeli comic about augmented reality with secret UV backstory

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 04:52 AM PDT

Warren Ellis, Matt "D'Israeli" Brooker and the London design firm BERG have all teamed up to release a marvellous and scary comic called SVK. SVK is an exploration of some of the terrifying possibilities of ubiquitous augmented reality in comic form, the story of a disgraced spy who is tasked with recovering a top-secret package lost by a military contractor. Throughout the comic, a second story is revealed in ultraviolet light, visible with the accompanying skinny, wallet-sized UV flashlight (it also works on the joke ads and the real ones). Interspersed with learned essays on comics as an art form (William Gibson), augmented reality (Jamais Cascio) and the history of novelty comics (Paul Gravett), SVK is more than a story, more than a design provocation and more than a warning about the unchecked future of technology in the hands of the military-industrial complex.

BERG have published the comic themselves, and are selling it in a sweet package with the required UV torch for £10, plus £3 shipping (UK -- £8 elsewhere).

Comics break the rules of storytelling, invent new ones, and break them again - more often than almost any other medium. This graphic novella is about looking - an investigation into perception, storytelling and optical experimentation that inherits some of the curiosities behind the previous work of BERG.
Litho printed on 115gsm silk paper in tones of black and blue, SVK uses a third ink invisible without the SVK object. The object is a UV light source which unlocks hidden layers woven throughout the comic book. Reading SVK becomes a unique and strange experience as you see the story unfold through the eyes of Thomas Woodwind.
First and foremost SVK is a modern detective story, one that Ellis describes as "Franz Kafka's Bourne Identity".
It's a story about cities, technology and surveillance, mixed with human themes of the power, corruption and lies that lurk in the data-smog of our near-future.

Buy SVK

SVK photos and scans

CC Free! Music! Contest!

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 10:25 PM PDT

Musikpirat sez, "More than 130 bands/artists joined last year's Creative Commons based Free! Music! Contest. This time, a gig in Germany, prizes worth more than 1.000€ and a publication on CD can be won. Musical patron Allison Crowe, the famous Canadian singer/songwriter, is acting and made a generous gift to the Creative Commons community: She published several source tracks of her song 'Spiral' at ccmixter.org. This year 'free' is used as in 'freedom' and not as in 'free beer,' so all songs on the CD will be licensed CC-BY or CC-BY-SA! ..." (Thanks, Musikpirat!)

Happy 4th of July!

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 09:43 PM PDT

I love these mini hot air balloons my family launched off this year. Basically, they're just like the Kongming lanterns used by the ancient Chinese military. (Note: This was NOT a part of the country affected by drought.)

Later, my husband came very close to successfully shooting one of these down with a barrage of surface-to-air Roman candles.

Video Link

Steampunk thinking helmet

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 12:48 PM PDT

Mad steampunk mask and helmet maker Tom Banwell's completed a new one: Taruscat, a thinking helmet, with several aether collectors.

Tauruscat: The Final Photos

Fireworks stop-motion animation by PES

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 10:58 AM PDT

In celebration of the Fourth of July, please enjoy this classic -- and awesome -- animation by PES.

RIP, Len Sassaman: cypherpunk and anonymity hacker

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 06:17 AM PDT

GuidoDavid sez, "Len Sassaman, a cryptographer, activist and biopunk died yesterday, he lost the battle against depression in Leuven, Belgium. He is survived by his widow, Meredith L. Patterson, also a hacker and biopunk. His work and actions inspired me and shaped the world we live in, as he was active during the Crypto Wars and designed and wrote anonymizing tools. He will be missed, but I hope that his legacy will go on and I am certain he will continue inspiring our efforts."

An obituary posted on Facebook by Sassaman's friend and fellow hacker Pablos Holman recounted the pair's early work on crypto-systems after they met in 1999.
"We were reimagining our world, riddled with cryptosystems that would mathematically enforce the freedoms that we treasured. Anonymous remailers to preserve speech without fear of retribution; onion routers to ensure nobody could censor the internet; digital cash to enable a radically free economy."
While much of their work was an academic "geek utopia exercise", Sassaman liked to "get his hands dirty", which led to numerous visits from Federal agencies over remailer abuse, according to Holman: "Len, you are, in fact, an inspiration to those of us who inspired you. You made something great of your life. You left a lot behind for us. Thanks for letting me be a part of it all."

Young cryptographer ends own life (Thanks, GuidoDavid.)

(Image: Codecon 2006, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from ioerror's photostream)

Italian telco regulator grants itself power to censor Internet; Obama administration approves

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 06:13 AM PDT

David Weinberger writes, "A new power about to be claimed by AGCOM, the Italian telecommunications regulatory agency, would permit it to 'remove content from Italian websites or to block access to foreign websites accused by copyright holders to break their rights.' The proposed powers implement a requirement from the Italian government that the agency take action to prevent piracy. The decision about the proposed AGCOM powers is due on July 6. The Obama administration is backing the law."