Information consumes attention: focus in the age of abundant stimulus 8-bit Zardoz How a kid paralyzed by a flawed firearm tried to take it off the market for good Amazon.com has a great price on 50-packs of whippets right now. A gallery of indecipherable Captchas A Chinese version of Batman's origins Desktop jellyfish tank Gale Boetticher's karaoke video and noteook from Breaking Bad Dirty Girls Ministries is on a crusade against the evils of female masturbation Realistic "toy" gun found in sandbox Greatest Hugo acceptance speech of all time? Gorgeous machined Stirling engine kits Reality is the ultimate God game Sweatshirt Monster episode of Leave it to Beaver Gregory Euclide's Bon Iver cover art available as a print Japan: Areas around Fukushima, contaminated with nuclear fallout, may be off-limits "for several decades" Ricky Schroeder and emotional films in science India: mass graves discovered, holding bodies of thousands of civilians "disappeared" in 1990s insurgency war Google launches Amazon River Street View project "Digital natives" need help understanding search Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival is this Saturday, August 27 Public school teacher who called creationism 'superstitious nonsense' protected from lawsuit Credit scores are bullshit How paid FBI anti-terror informants lead "terrorist attacks" that the FBI foils Loggerhead turtles have internal GPS Real scientists of the Planet of the Apes Great vintage science fiction art up for auction – Frazetta, Wally Wood, Virgil Finlay The agony and the ecstasy The science of speech and gender Mondo Cane director Gualtiero Jacopetti, RIP 
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Information consumes attention: focus in the age of abundant stimulus
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 23, 2011 09:58 am In New York magazine, Sam Anderson ponders economist Herbert A. Simon's 1971 thoughts on the economics of attention: "What information consumes is rather obvious: It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of …
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By Rob Beschizza on Aug 23, 2011 04:09 am As I somehow missed this fantastic intro to a nonexistent 8-bit Zardoz game last year, perhaps you did, too! Animator Nick Criscuolo writes: "I realize the audio isn't entirely 8bit, more like 8/16 bit. Maybe more like Amiga game music …
Continue reading → Read in browser How a kid paralyzed by a flawed firearm tried to take it off the market for good
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 23, 2011 04:04 am Brandon Maxfield was a young teenager left paraplegic in a shooting accident. The gun manufacturer knew of a safety issue in their cheapo pistols, but chose not to alter the design. After a jury found it partially responsible for Maxfield's …
Continue reading → Read in browser Amazon.com has a great price on 50-packs of whippets right now.
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 23, 2011 01:42 am Today I learned that if you really, really, really like whipped cream (and I am not implying that this product can be used for any other purpose), you can buy 50-packs of Whippets for $99,999 on Amazon (Regular price: $28.99). …
Continue reading → Read in browser A gallery of indecipherable Captchas
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 23, 2011 12:43 am Arne tried to comment on the Breaking Bad post and was presented with a bunch of ridiculously indecipherable Captchas. Here are just a few of the ones he was challenged with: Sorry, Arne! By the way: Arne's comment: "Here's a …
Continue reading → Read in browser A Chinese version of Batman's origins
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 23, 2011 12:16 am Craig Yoe pointed me to this delightful Chinese version of Batman's origins, found on a dollar store toy. Chinese dollar store offers wonderfully insane backstory for Batman
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By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 22, 2011 11:25 pm One of my favorite projects in MAKE magazine is Alex Andon's pet jellyfish tank from Vol 27. It's not hard to make, but people who don't want to build a tank on their own should look into Alex's Desktop Jellyfish …
Continue reading → Read in browser Gale Boetticher's karaoke video and noteook from Breaking Bad
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 22, 2011 11:11 pm [Video Link] A few people think that chemist Gale Boetticher from Breaking Bad is a Boing Boing reader. I agree! Above, the complete "Major Tom" karaoke video from Season 3, episode 4. I think they should publish a facsimile of …
Continue reading → Read in browser Dirty Girls Ministries is on a crusade against the evils of female masturbation
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 22, 2011 10:37 pm Thank goodness someone is taking on the female masturbation epidemic that's plaguing our great nation. The No Stones recovery group is part of an organization called Dirty Girls Ministries that [Crystal] Renaud launched in 2009 after suffering from her own …
Continue reading → Read in browser Realistic "toy" gun found in sandbox
By David Pescovitz on Aug 22, 2011 10:28 pm My 5-year-old son found this buried in a sandbox at the public playground near our house. It's plastic. I described it to Mark who instantly determined that it was an Airsoft gun. In fact, it's available for $4 via Amazon. …
Continue reading → Read in browser Greatest Hugo acceptance speech of all time?
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 22, 2011 09:15 pm Behold! The greatest moment in modern Hugo Award history, as Chris Garcia has a complete (and utterly charming) meltdown when he realizes that he's won a Hugo for Best Fanzine for Drink Tank. I was so close as to be …
Continue reading → Read in browser Gorgeous machined Stirling engine kits
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 22, 2011 08:45 pm Hermann Böhm's metal Stirling engine kits are some of the most beautiful machines I've ever seen, real triumphs. They run about as much as one of them fancy toothpaste squeezers, but they're about ten thousand times cooler, and somehow don't …
Continue reading → Read in browser Reality is the ultimate God game
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 22, 2011 08:18 pm [Video Link] Scott Beale says: "South Korean artist June Bum Park creates wonderful forced perspective videos in which his hands seem to guide the actions of people, cars, and machines."
Read in browser Sweatshirt Monster episode of Leave it to Beaver
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 22, 2011 08:12 pm Screenshots from the "Sweatshirt Monster" episode of Leave it to Beaver (1962).
Read in browser Gregory Euclide's Bon Iver cover art available as a print
By David Pescovitz on Aug 22, 2011 07:13 pm I've posted before about painter/sculptor Gregory Euclide who casts nature for his magnificent landscape dioramas and blends moss, Blackberry Lily seeds, hair, and snow into his pigments for paintings that seem to grow off the canvas. I was thrilled to …
Continue reading → Read in browser Japan: Areas around Fukushima, contaminated with nuclear fallout, may be off-limits "for several decades"
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 22, 2011 06:48 pm Japan's Daily Yomiuri reports that land within a 3km (about 1.8 miles) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant "likely will be kept off-limits for an extended period--possibly for several decades" because contamination levels of radioactive substances in this zone …
Continue reading → Read in browser Ricky Schroeder and emotional films in science
By David Pescovitz on Aug 22, 2011 06:43 pm The still above is from the tearjerker ending of the 1979 film The Champ, starring Ricky (RICK, damnit!) Schroeder. It's apparently a "go to" clip in psychology experiments to study emotional triggers and depression. It became the industry standard after …
Continue reading → Read in browser India: mass graves discovered, holding bodies of thousands of civilians "disappeared" in 1990s insurgency war
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 22, 2011 06:41 pm New York Times: "Thousands of bullet-riddled bodies are buried in dozens of unmarked graves across Kashmir, a state human rights commission inquiry has concluded, many of them likely to be those of civilians who disappeared more than a decade ago …
Continue reading → Read in browser Google launches Amazon River Street View project
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 22, 2011 06:38 pm Google has adapted its Street View service to map one of the world's most remote places: the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers of northwest Brazil. The project is in partnership with Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon (FAS). Google will train …
Continue reading → Read in browser "Digital natives" need help understanding search
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 22, 2011 06:27 pm A report from Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries documents research done on "digital native" college students to evaluate their skill with refining searches, evaluating search results, and navigating thorny questions of authority and trust in online sources. The researchers …
Continue reading → Read in browser Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival is this Saturday, August 27
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 22, 2011 06:18 pm Shane Speal says: The second annual Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival is this Saturday, August 27 from 10am-5pm in downtown York, PA. The fest will host 14 acts on two stages plus demonstrations, instrument vendors and more. Headlining acts include …
Continue reading → Read in browser Public school teacher who called creationism 'superstitious nonsense' protected from lawsuit
By David Pescovitz on Aug 22, 2011 06:16 pm "Aristotle … argued, you know, there sort of has to be a God. Of course that's nonsense. I mean, that's what you call deductive reasoning, you know. And you hear it all the time with people who say, 'Well, if …
Continue reading → Read in browser Credit scores are bullshit
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 22, 2011 06:13 pm Matt Haughey explains why credit-scores are bullshit: "I had the highest credit score at a time in my life when I was leveraged to the hilt and I lived paycheck to paycheck. Now that I have my own business, a …
Continue reading → Read in browser How paid FBI anti-terror informants lead "terrorist attacks" that the FBI foils
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 22, 2011 06:08 pm Michael from Mother Jones sez, "This a yearlong investigation by Mother Jones and the Investigative Reporting Program at UC-Berkeley explores the network of thousands of informants the FBI employs in its domestic counter-terrorism program, operating in gray area where the …
Continue reading → Read in browser Loggerhead turtles have internal GPS
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 22, 2011 06:05 pm New Scientist has a great set of stories about the extraordinary senses of animals, including the fact that creatures like sea turtles can sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it for navigation. Young loggerhead turtles, for example, read the …
Continue reading → Read in browser Real scientists of the Planet of the Apes
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 22, 2011 05:54 pm Great Moments in Pedantry or Helpful Insight? Can't it be both? Carin Bondar explains how Rise of the Planet of the Apes gets scientists, and the scientific process, all wrong.
Read in browser Great vintage science fiction art up for auction – Frazetta, Wally Wood, Virgil Finlay
By Mark Frauenfelder on Aug 22, 2011 05:50 pm Heritage Auctions is auctioning off the Jerry Weist Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art and Books on September 11 in Beverly Hills. Some amazing pieces of art and artifacts are being offered. This 1966 Frank Frazetta painting from a …
Continue reading → Read in browser The agony and the ecstasy
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 22, 2011 05:24 pm Scientists have developed a modified form of ecstasy that can kill blood cancer cells in a test tube. It's really fascinating chemistry, but please note the italics and do not try this at home, kids.
Read in browser The science of speech and gender
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 22, 2011 05:21 pm Over at PLOS blogs, Emily Anthes has a fascinating interview with Eliza Gray, a reporter at The New Republic, who just published a long article about the push for transgender rights in the United States. In that article, Gray wrote …
Continue reading → Read in browser Mondo Cane director Gualtiero Jacopetti, RIP
By David Pescovitz on Aug 22, 2011 05:16 pm Film director Gualtiero Jacopetti, director of the pioneering 1962 shockumentary Mondo Cane, has died. He was 91. The trailer above may be NSFW. From the film's opening: All the scenes you will see in this film are true and are …
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