My SIGGRAPH keynote Gap's Death-Camp Chic mannequins Fark settles with patent troll for $0 Bodega Cats of New York City (video) A little bit of exercise could have big benefits Jascha Hoffman, "Some Hungry Guy" (Little Nemo in Slumberland-inspired music video) Incandescent light bulbs have not been banned A good argument for why Krazy Kat's George Herriman is the best cartoonist of all time Preserving human history in a National Park Common sense on the way for TSA? TOM THE DANCING BUG: Is "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" a TRUE STORY? (Yes, and you're living it.) Charges filed in lost iPhone 4 case; Gizmodo editors cleared Spoonfuls of brown goop for sale! Artist injects self with horse blood Penelope Kenny's lovely hybrid animal illustrations Food spoilage bacteria are harmless Sweden's space port Masonic multi-tool and animalistic staple removers Dense, beautiful sculptures made from thrift scores Panoramic images of Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb Cotton Exchange: Mississippi Hill Country Blues radio show The brilliantly-programmed graphic demos of Assembly Summer Taxonomy of technological risks: when things fail badly Soldering is Easy: CC licensed HOWTO solder comic Mailifest Destiny: U.S. expansion visualized as post offices Neil deGrasse Tyson to host new series of Cosmos Secret anti-racist shirts covertly distributed to neo-Nazis XKCD on the password paradox: human factors versus computers' brute force 
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My SIGGRAPH keynote
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 11, 2011 09:50 am This week, I gave the keynote address at the ACM SIGGRAPH conference in Vancouver, BC. The event's organizers were kind enough to record and release my video to their YouTube channel. My talk was about the way that copyright can …
Continue reading → Read in browser Gap's Death-Camp Chic mannequins
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 11, 2011 09:03 am My intrepid wife snapped this pic in a Gap store in London, where a dangerously emaciated mannequin was showing off the frankly named "Always Skinny" line. I'm wondering what the internal project name for this was at Gap HQ: "Death-camp …
Continue reading → Read in browser Fark settles with patent troll for $0
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 10, 2011 08:40 pm News aggregator Fark, targeted by a company owning a patent covering "news releases", settled its case for $0. Fark proprietor Drew Curtis writes about what sounds like an unusually callous and disinterested shakedown. The patent troll realized we were going …
Continue reading → Read in browser Bodega Cats of New York City (video)
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 10, 2011 08:17 pm The web video project Internets Celebrities, whose work you can see on Boing Boing's in-flight entertainment channel on Virgin America Airlines, has released a new episode about the kitties of NYC's little corner stores. (Thanks, Casimir)
Read in browser A little bit of exercise could have big benefits
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 10, 2011 08:13 pm A new rat study suggests that exercising even a small amount more than you previously did could produce relatively large health benefits.
Read in browser Jascha Hoffman, "Some Hungry Guy" (Little Nemo in Slumberland-inspired music video)
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 10, 2011 08:13 pm I like this Winsor McCay/Little Nemo-inspired music video directed by Ben Harrison for Jascha Hoffman's song "Some Hungry Guy." If you're too young to get the reference, start here. And here are two definitive collections of McCay's work (they're not …
Continue reading → Read in browser Incandescent light bulbs have not been banned
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 10, 2011 08:11 pm Nobody has banned the incandescent light bulb. Fast Company busts a few myths about CFLs and new energy-efficient lighting legislation.
Read in browser A good argument for why Krazy Kat's George Herriman is the best cartoonist of all time
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 10, 2011 07:33 pm Craig Yoe's new book, Krazy Kat & The Art of George Herriman: A Celebration, published by Abrams ComicArts, is a gorgeous volume of comic strips, unpublished art, essays, memorabilia, and illustrations from one of the world's most talented cartoonists. My …
Continue reading → Read in browser Preserving human history in a National Park
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 10, 2011 07:31 pm Northern Wisconsin, along the coast of Lake Superior, is rural, but it isn't wild. Farms and orchards have been cleared here for generations. Highways twist through the woods. There are grocery stores and bars. There is Dairy Queen and the …
Continue reading → Read in browser Common sense on the way for TSA?
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 10, 2011 07:10 pm Noah Shachtman at Wired News: "Bruce Schneier is a telepath of unimaginable power. That's the only possible explanation for the stunning reversal at the top of the Transportation Security Administration."
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Is "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" a TRUE STORY? (Yes, and you're living it.)
By Ruben Bolling on Aug 10, 2011 07:00 pm Read in browser Charges filed in lost iPhone 4 case; Gizmodo editors cleared
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 10, 2011 06:35 pm Prosecutors in California filed charges today against an alleged thief who infamously handed a lost iPhone 4 prototype to reporters at Gawker Media. Brian Hogan, 22, of San Mateo county, was charged with misdemeanor theft. He faces up to one …
Continue reading → Read in browser Spoonfuls of brown goop for sale!
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 10, 2011 06:21 pm My friend Mitch O'Connell wants to know what these spoonfuls of brown goop are. I'm a man who knows my snack treats, but sometimes even I am slightly mystified. While at the checkout with our pinata, this possible visit to …
Continue reading → Read in browser Artist injects self with horse blood
By David Pescovitz on Aug 10, 2011 05:59 pm Marion Laval-Jeantet was injected with horse blood plasma and walked around in hooves. Y'know, for art. From Wired: Laval-Jeantet prepared her body to accept the horse blood plasma by getting injected with different horse immunoglobulins over the course of several …
Continue reading → Read in browser Penelope Kenny's lovely hybrid animal illustrations
By David Pescovitz on Aug 10, 2011 05:41 pm Fine artist Penelope Kenny "explores the relationship between humans and other animals, especially in connection to transhumanism, evolution, hybrids and biotechnology." Seen here, "The Tree of Modified Life" (2011, screenprint, 100 x 70 cm). Dig those freaky hybrids! Penelope Kenny …
Continue reading → Read in browser Food spoilage bacteria are harmless
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 10, 2011 05:01 pm Anastacia Marx de Salcedo of Slate explains the difference between spoilage bacteria and pathogenic bacteria. It turns out the the bacteria that stinks and makes food look disgusting is harmless, but the bacteria that makes you sick "provide no sensory …
Continue reading → Read in browser Sweden's space port
By David Pescovitz on Aug 10, 2011 05:01 pm Air & Space Magazine visited Kiruna, Sweden, a mining town 90 miles above the arctic circle. You may have heard of Kiruna due to its proximity to the famed ICEHOTEL built each December. Next year, Kiruna will also be Virgin …
Continue reading → Read in browser Masonic multi-tool and animalistic staple removers
By David Pescovitz on Aug 10, 2011 04:44 pm Jac Zagoory sells pewter staple removers in the form of various animals. And also a Masonic-themed multitool. Jac Zagoory Design (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)
Read in browser Dense, beautiful sculptures made from thrift scores
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 10, 2011 04:27 pm Swedish sculptor Michael Johansson creates beautiful, dense sculptures made from charity shop and yard-sale finds, arranged by similarity in tetrisoids and other odd fittings. Check out the link for some enormous pieces made from carefully fitted furniture, as well. Michael …
Continue reading → Read in browser Panoramic images of Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 10, 2011 04:22 pm 360 Cities has a collection of 360 degree panoramas of historic photos taken in August, 1945, after the US detonated a nuclear bomb in Hiroshima, Japan. The photos are from the Hiroshima Peace Museum's collection, now loaded into 360 Cities' …
Continue reading → Read in browser Cotton Exchange: Mississippi Hill Country Blues radio show
By David Pescovitz on Aug 10, 2011 04:16 pm Last weekend, I sat in on The Cotton Exchange radio show on San Francisco's "KUSF In Exile Archive." I didn't actually say anything, I just listened intently to host David Katznelson play his favorite recordings of Mississippi hill country blues. …
Continue reading → Read in browser The brilliantly-programmed graphic demos of Assembly Summer
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 10, 2011 03:21 pm Digital Tools offers a selection of the demos on show at Assembly 2011 Summer. For the uninitiated, demos are short multimedia hits similar to music videos, originally intended to demonstrate the potential of a computer's media capabilities. Pushing the limits …
Continue reading → Read in browser Taxonomy of technological risks: when things fail badly
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 10, 2011 02:10 pm "A Taxonomy of Operational Cyber Security Risks" by CMU's James J. Cebula and Lisa R. Young is a year-old paper that attempts to classify all the ways that technology go wrong, and the vulnerabilities than ensue. Fascinating reading, a great …
Continue reading → Read in browser Soldering is Easy: CC licensed HOWTO solder comic
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 10, 2011 01:56 pm "Soldering is Easy" is a great comic-book primer on soldering; I field tested it this week at the Vancouver Hackspace's table at SIGGRAPH 2011 and managed to solder up a perfectly passable blinking lights kit with only minor burns for …
Continue reading → Read in browser Mailifest Destiny: U.S. expansion visualized as post offices
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 10, 2011 01:26 pm Derek Watkins created a visualization tracking the spatial distribution of U.S. postal offices from the 18th to the 20th century. Gathering data from the USPS Postmaster Finder, with lat/long coordinates extracted from the USGS Geographic Names Information System, the results …
Continue reading → Read in browser Neil deGrasse Tyson to host new series of Cosmos
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 10, 2011 12:31 pm Astrophysicist and TV presenter Neil deGrasse Tyson is to host a new series of Cosmos, originally presented by Carl Sagan. The above photo, posted to Reddit by Bobojoe, is said to be of a young Tyson, before he was a …
Continue reading → Read in browser Secret anti-racist shirts covertly distributed to neo-Nazis
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 10, 2011 11:32 am Anti-racist activists snuck trick t-shirts into a music festival with a large neo-Nazi turnout; the shirts bore a crypto-racist slogan that faded on first washing to reveal a plea to reconsider "militant right-wing lifestyle." The shirts, which bore a skull …
Continue reading → Read in browser XKCD on the password paradox: human factors versus computers' brute force
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 10, 2011 11:24 am Today's XKCD, "Password Strength," neatly illustrates the research from this paper (PDF) by Philip Inglesant and M. Angela Sasse from University College London, with the ironic conclusion that we've trained our users to use passwords that computers can easily guess …
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