Wallpaper made of thousands of hand-applied stickers Japan: Rare public apology by Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant manager Japan: first report of radioactive contamination in rice After Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan shifting towards costly fossil fuels Fukushima workers face "nightmarish world of high radiation, difficult terrain" How does the FBI investigate Anonymous? Superfast US military plane reaches Mach 20 speed, then crashes A "gadget camp" for girls only Fukushima: First photojournalist inside plant captures daily life of cleanup workers Wanted: Daniel Clowes tattoo art Cadillac's big concept convertible NASA to conspiracy theory: Drop Dead Human disease kills coral Giant cicada wants to be friends Fun with the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake Fighting Trousers: Quality Victorian-parody rap video The perils and pitfalls of an all-volunteer road crew Facing down Greenland's katabatic winds Nearly full tube of Arctic Silver now 5 years old To do in NYC: Coilhouse magazine fundraiser party, Sun. Aug 21 Genetics of family with no fingerprints West Memphis Three set free West Memphis Three hearing under way Checker shadow optical illusion video Friday Freak-Out: D.R. Hooker's "Forge Your Own Chains" (1972) Friars pray for diarrhea punishment for bible thief Just look at this peelable papercraft banana Intel's Tomorrow Project: prototyping tomorrow's devices with science fiction Hamburg's lost over-and-under monorail "Probability neglect": why policy-makers are constitutionally incapable of formulating evidence-based anti-terrorism policy 
Watchismo Vintage & Modern Horology - So many cool watches, so few limbs to put them on
Wallpaper made of thousands of hand-applied stickers
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 20, 2011 06:13 am Brian Kaspr and Payton Turner's "The Salon at Sundown" features a room with elaborate wallpaper whose motif is made out of thousands of hand-placed tiny stickers. The Salon at Sundown (via Craft)
Read in browser Japan: Rare public apology by Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant manager
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 20, 2011 03:27 am [Video Link] "We sincerely apologize to all local residents, the people of Fukushima prefecture, and the general public for the anxiety and inconvenience caused by the accident," says Masao Yoshida, general manager of TEPCO's radiation-spewing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in …
Continue reading → Read in browser Japan: first report of radioactive contamination in rice
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 20, 2011 03:15 am Agricultural inspectors in Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture have detected small amounts of radioactive cesium in a sample of rice farmed in Hokota city, about 100 miles south of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The prefectural government posted readings here, says the rice …
Continue reading → Read in browser After Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan shifting towards costly fossil fuels
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 20, 2011 02:53 am Hiroko Tabuchi reports in the NYT: "Japan, the world's third-largest user of electricity behind China and the United States, had counted on an expansion of nuclear power to contain energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, its nuclear program is …
Continue reading → Read in browser Fukushima workers face "nightmarish world of high radiation, difficult terrain"
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 20, 2011 02:41 am [video link] UK's Channel Four has a news feature out on the plight of the 3,000 workers currently being bussed into the Fukushima Daiichi plant on behalf of some 600 subcontractor companies tasked with securing and cleaning up the nuclear …
Continue reading → Read in browser How does the FBI investigate Anonymous?
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 20, 2011 02:28 am Ars Technica filed a Freedom of Information Act request in an attempt to gain "an inside view of the FBI response to minor incidents" of Anonymous-style site defacement and internet pranks, in the name of hacktivism. The resulting explainer piece …
Continue reading → Read in browser Superfast US military plane reaches Mach 20 speed, then crashes
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 20, 2011 02:14 am An unmanned U.S. military aircraft managed to reach speeds of more than 20 times the speed of sound, and to control itself for three minutes, before it crashed into the Pacific near Vandenberg Air Force Base on August 11. Space.com/MSNBC. …
Continue reading → Read in browser A "gadget camp" for girls only
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 20, 2011 01:42 am [photo courtesy GADgET] The New York Times profiles GADgET (Girls Adventuring in Design Engineering & Technology), a summer camp workshop for girls held near Chicago that aims to bring more women into manufacturing careers in the United States. Although the …
Continue reading → Read in browser Fukushima: First photojournalist inside plant captures daily life of cleanup workers
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 20, 2011 01:21 am 25-year old Kazuma Obara (Twitter), a native of Japan's tsunami-hit Iwate prefecture, is the first photojournalist to enter the Fukushima Daiichi plant and photograph what conditions are like for the cleanup workers. His photo-essay for the Guardian is here. "I …
Continue reading → Read in browser Wanted: Daniel Clowes tattoo art
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 19, 2011 10:12 pm Alvin Buenaventura of Danielclowes.com says: As we wrap up the forthcoming volume, The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist, the first monograph on the celebrated cartoonist and author of Ghost World, David Boring, Ice Haven, Wilson, Mister Wonderful, and The Death Ray, we are asking readers to help …
Continue reading → Read in browser Cadillac's big concept convertible
By David Pescovitz on Aug 19, 2011 09:59 pm This is the Cadillac Ciel, a concept convertible. Apparently, the last full-size Cadillac convertible was the 1985 El Dorado. Of course, its 80s audaciousness trumps this new-fangled topless land yacht. But I find the Ciel to be slick in a …
Continue reading → Read in browser NASA to conspiracy theory: Drop Dead
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 19, 2011 08:48 pm NASA to the Internet: Comet Elenin will not kill us all. (Via Louie Baur)
Read in browser Human disease kills coral
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 19, 2011 08:42 pm In news that would be completely fascinating, were it not so damn depressing: One of the causes behind Caribbean coral die-offs seems to be a bacteria, spread from humans to the coral through sewage. It's the first time that a …
Continue reading → Read in browser Giant cicada wants to be friends
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 19, 2011 08:32 pm This is, to put it mildly, a much larger cicada than I am accustomed to. Most likely, judging from the video and Wikipedia, you're looking at a Malaysian Empress Cicada—a species that can have a wingspan of 8 inches. Apparently, …
Continue reading → Read in browser Fun with the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 19, 2011 08:22 pm Snakes are not my favorite members of the animal kingdom (I have a problem with the fact that they lack legs.) But I did like this video about rattlesnake behavior and biology from the folks at KQED Science. One cool …
Continue reading → Read in browser Fighting Trousers: Quality Victorian-parody rap video
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 19, 2011 08:07 pm I don't quite understand how I've kept forgetting to post this here since my friend Leah showed it to me months ago. I also don't quite understand how Cory didn't get to it first. Regardless: Behold, Professor Elemental and his …
Continue reading → Read in browser The perils and pitfalls of an all-volunteer road crew
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 19, 2011 07:50 pm There's a great, illustrated history of America's highway system—from the Colonial period to the 1970s—that can be read for free on OpenLibrary. I've just thumbed through it a bit so far, but it reminded me of a book I read …
Continue reading → Read in browser Facing down Greenland's katabatic winds
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 19, 2011 05:55 pm At the end of the month, I'm going up to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, for a small conference. While there, I'll be Couchsurfing with Benjamin Linhoff, a Ph.D. student in a joint MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute program. Ben just spent the …
Continue reading → Read in browser Nearly full tube of Arctic Silver now 5 years old
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 19, 2011 05:26 pm Years ago, I gave up on building my own computers. Though nothing major ever went wrong, putting them together was harrowing. Screw something up, and you're out of pocket. Stability issues? You're on your own, Sparky. But I never got …
Continue reading → Read in browser To do in NYC: Coilhouse magazine fundraiser party, Sun. Aug 21
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 19, 2011 05:07 pm If you're in the NYC area this weekend, highly recommended: a Coilhouse fundraiser party this Sunday in Brooklyn. Lots of performers, lots of freaks, looks like a ton of fun. Coilhouse is a lushly-designed counterculture magazine put together by some …
Continue reading → Read in browser Genetics of family with no fingerprints
By David Pescovitz on Aug 19, 2011 04:53 pm After sequencing the DNA of one of only four known families in the world to have a rare medical condition called adermatoglyphia, which leaves them without fingerprints, Eli Sprecher and his colleagues at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center identified …
Continue reading → Read in browser West Memphis Three set free
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 19, 2011 04:51 pm The West Memphis Three have been released. Their support group, via Twitter, "Everyone's screaming in joy! It's done. 18 years too long... The convictions have been tossed out." Early word from those in the courthouse indicate that all three took …
Continue reading → Read in browser West Memphis Three hearing under way
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 19, 2011 04:25 pm Follow @wm3org for live courthouse updates from the West Memphis Three support group. A hearing which may result in their release today is under way in Arkansas. Longtime supporter Natalie Maines tweets: The gag order has been lifted, so now …
Continue reading → Read in browser Checker shadow optical illusion video
By David Pescovitz on Aug 19, 2011 04:22 pm This is magic: a video demonstration of Edward Adelson's famous checker shadow optical illusion. (via Daily Grail) Color tile optical illusion – Boing Boing
Read in browser Friday Freak-Out: D.R. Hooker's "Forge Your Own Chains" (1972)
By David Pescovitz on Aug 19, 2011 04:09 pm Friday Freak-Out: D.R. Hooker's "Forge Your Own Chains" from his 1972 private press album The Truth. This lounge-psych gem can also be heard on the essential compilation Forge Your Own Chains, Vol. 1: Psychedelic Ballads And Dirges 1968-1974. Subliminal Sounds …
Continue reading → Read in browser Friars pray for diarrhea punishment for bible thief
By David Pescovitz on Aug 19, 2011 03:50 pm Friars at the church San Salvator al Monte in Florence, Italy were so angry at a thief who snatched a rare bible from the pulpit, and a replacement too, that they asked God punish the crook with diarrhea. From The …
Continue reading → Read in browser Just look at this peelable papercraft banana
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 19, 2011 03:48 pm Just look at it. Paper Banana (Thanks, Blake!)
Read in browser Intel's Tomorrow Project: prototyping tomorrow's devices with science fiction
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 19, 2011 03:02 pm The BBC has a good story about Intel's Tomorrow Project, through which Brian David Johnson, Intel's Chief Futurist, gets science fiction writers to produce "science fiction prototypes" that spark discussions in the engineering and product groups. I wrote a novella …
Continue reading → Read in browser Hamburg's lost over-and-under monorail
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 19, 2011 02:58 pm Hamburg's Cabintaxi was an "over and under" monorail design that ran personal monorail cars in both directions, with counterclockwise traffic on one level and clockwise on the other. It looks like it never got deployed, but it's one sweet retrofuture …
Continue reading → Read in browser "Probability neglect": why policy-makers are constitutionally incapable of formulating evidence-based anti-terrorism policy
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 19, 2011 02:50 pm A Policy Maker's Dilemma: Preventing Terrorism or Preventing Blame (PDF), a study in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, argues that counterterrorism policy fails to address real terrorist threats because politicians and bureaucrats perceive more risk from being punished by …
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