Watchismo Vintage & Modern Horology - Our watches will improve your self esteem by 7% Europeans: EU to vote on ACTA, get informed and involved! Microsoft buys Skype, attacks reverse engineer with bogus takedown notices and florid language Herman Cain warns against "big potato moths" What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really? The White House supports leaks Watch Live: Michael Moore at Occupy Oakland Mike Godwin's first-person account: "What Happened at Occupy Oakland" Occupy Wall Street roundup for Friday, Oct. 28 Blue Coat, a U.S. tech firm, admits Syria used its products to censor the web during "Arab Spring" Occupy Emerald City: The Wizard of #OWS Saif Gaddafi's paintings In NYC, Occupy Wall Street isn't very brown (yet) "Lord Cain," by Tim Heidecker (music) Of course Occupy has a message Roberts Robots title sequence HuffPost Bingo Man stuck in baby swing How Occupy has shifted the national debate Changes in U.S. Consumer Spending, 2007-2010 Blood Bros' 1980s action movie DJ mixes Found-object light fixture made from Ikea-harvested dead lightbulbs Crowley vs. Wicked Witch Mummies and Monkey Skulls: 'Oddities' Host Ryan Matthew Cohn on the creepiest antiques What the Bible says about women who won't go barefoot How to make glowing kryptonite candy Shape Type: typography game of graceful curves Ads of Yore "How Occupy Wall Street Cost Me My Job" Police tactics in Occupy Oakland raid questioned Happy 125th birthday, Statue of Liberty! Europeans: EU to vote on ACTA, get informed and involved!
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 29, 2011 08:05 am ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a punishing, secretly negotiated copyright treaty that could send ordinary people to jail for copyright infringement. The EU will soon vote on it. Here's a video for Europeans who want to learn more before their representatives vote to criminalize them, their children and their neighbours. On the occasion of ...
Read in browser Microsoft buys Skype, attacks reverse engineer with bogus takedown notices and florid language
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 29, 2011 07:30 am Microsoft-owned Skype has launched a campaign to shut down programmers who use reverse-engineering to understand its protocol and make interoperable products. Their PR agency calls this "nefarious attempts to subvert Skype's experience." Unfortunately for Skype and Microsoft, "experience" is not something the law protects -- after all, if a Skype user wants to talk to ...
Read in browser Herman Cain warns against "big potato moths"
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 11:48 pm [Video Link] Best "Bad Lip Reading" yet, I'd say. Herman Cain sings God Bless America Cain Train: Herman Cain campaign ad by Tim Heidecker Visualizing Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan to redistribute wealth from the ... "Lord Cain," by Tim Heidecker (music) Yet another weird Herman Cain campaign ad: "He Carried Yellow ... Herman Cain sings ...
Read in browser What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really?
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 11:26 pm Kobun Chino Otogawa, Steve Jobs' Zen teacher. Courtesy kobun-sama.org. At PLOS, Steve Silberman goes in depth into the influence that Steve's Buddhist teachers had on Apple's mission and its products. "I found myself in a unique position to write it, since I knew Jobs' teacher Kobun Chino, and studied at Zen Center around the same ...
Read in browser The White House supports leaks
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 11:19 pm "I'm all for leaking when it's organized."—White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. (ProPublica)
Read in browser Watch Live: Michael Moore at Occupy Oakland
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 10:59 pm KQED has a live stream of Michael Moore speaking to "Occupy Oakland", right now. And North Oakland Now is live-tweeting soundbites while he speaks, as is East Bay Express.
Read in browser Mike Godwin's first-person account: "What Happened at Occupy Oakland"
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 10:57 pm "I knew I had to see what was happening for myself. Since there was a chance I would be arrested, or worse, I took off my watch and emptied my wallet of most of its cash—I carried only a single ID and a credit card (the latter in case I had to make bail)."—Mike Godwin ...
Read in browser Occupy Wall Street roundup for Friday, Oct. 28
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 10:35 pm Over at Wired News, Quinn Norton has a comprehensive Occupy Wall Street roundup: #occupysd, #occupynashville arrested, and Tahrir Square marches with #occupyoakland. And separately: the Oakland police crackdown Tuesday night, which injured a number of protesters, including a Marine vet? "The police forces' violent tactics worked only temporarily," Quinn writes, "And [they] have, for the ...
Read in browser Blue Coat, a U.S. tech firm, admits Syria used its products to censor the web during "Arab Spring"
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 10:27 pm A U.S. company that makes Internet "filtering" systems admits that Syria has been using at least 13 of its devices to censor Web activity there. This news comes as the Syrian government cracks down on its citizens and silences their online activities. Blue Coat Systems Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., says it shipped the Internet "filtering" ...
Read in browser Occupy Emerald City: The Wizard of #OWS
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 10:05 pm Boing Boing reader Ed Marsh (pirxx@mac.com) created this homage to "The Wizard of Oz," and to the Occupy Wall Street movement. What did they want, after all? A heart. A home. Courage.
Read in browser Saif Gaddafi's paintings
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 28, 2011 09:50 pm People keep talking about Saif Gaddafi's artwork, but it is useless without pictures. Here are a few of the paintings ascribed to him in press reports. Many are sadly but necessarily shot at oblique angles to make them more interesting. Whenever they've been exhibited, critics have been very unkind to Mr. Gaddafi. It's true that ...
Read in browser In NYC, Occupy Wall Street isn't very brown (yet)
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 08:47 pm "Thanks to our overwhelming no-show of numbers, 49,000 shots haven't been fired at OWS yet."—Essayist Greg Tate, who is black, musing that a "blacker" Occupy Wall Street movement would have meant more widespread police brutality. This from Alice Speri's NYT piece on race and #OWS.
Read in browser "Lord Cain," by Tim Heidecker (music)
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 07:00 pm Herman Cain speaks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's Presidential Forum in Des Moines, Iowa October 22, 2011. REUTERS/Brian C. Frank. Because Herman Cain's actual campaign ads just aren't weird enough: "Lord Cain," an opus by Tim Heidecker (of Tim and Eric fame), as promised. Download: MP3, Ogg, and other options here. You should ...
Read in browser Of course Occupy has a message
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 28, 2011 06:48 pm A kick-ass op-ed by Dahlia Lithwick smashes the myth that the Occupy movement doesn't have a message: "Mark your calendars: The corporate media died when it announced it was too sophisticated to understand simple declarative sentences. While the mainstream media expresses puzzlement and fear at these incomprehensible 'protesters' with their oddly well-worded 'signs,' the rest ...
Read in browser Roberts Robots title sequence
By David Pescovitz on Oct 28, 2011 06:45 pm Here is the excellent title sequence for Roberts Robots, a 1973-1974 UK comedy television series about an inventor of androids and his mechanical creations. (via Toys and Techniques)
Read in browser HuffPost Bingo
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 28, 2011 06:09 pm From FluffPo (the blog of bad Huffington Post behavior), here's the HuffPo bingo board.
Read in browser Man stuck in baby swing
By David Pescovitz on Oct 28, 2011 06:05 pm A gentleman spent nine hours stuck in a toddler/infant bucket swing at a Vallejo, California playground until firefighters rescued him. Apparently, the 21-year-old had bet $100 that he could fit into the swing. To do it, he had to lubricate his legs with liquid laundry soap. Once he got in though, he couldn't get out ...
Read in browser How Occupy has shifted the national debate
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 28, 2011 05:56 pm Prior to Occupy Wall Street, the dominant narrative in US politics was about debt and deficit reduction, and the attendant austerity measures that entailed. A study of keywords from network newscasts shows that the national policy discussion has shifted in the wake of the Occupy demonstrations, with an increased emphasis on unemployment and fairness (this ...
Read in browser Changes in U.S. Consumer Spending, 2007-2010
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 28, 2011 05:48 pm Gwen Sharp of Sociological Images comments on an Economist graph that shows how spending patterns have changed in the US during the Great Recession. The results provide a good snapshot of the economic trade-offs Americans are making (i.e., we're buying more canned veggies and eating out less), as well as which industries are taking the ...
Read in browser Blood Bros' 1980s action movie DJ mixes
By David Pescovitz on Oct 28, 2011 05:30 pm DJA and Dirty South Joe are the Blood Bros, dedicated curators and compilers of 1980s action movie songs. Get fired up to chop wood, take on a bully, or stage a single-handed coup. On two mixes, First Blood and the sequel Heaven 2 Hell, you'll Train! Fight! Win! to music from Rocky (all of 'em), ...
Read in browser Found-object light fixture made from Ikea-harvested dead lightbulbs
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 28, 2011 05:30 pm Matthew Agostinis from Toronto made a smashing light fixture by harvesting a collection of odd, dead lightbulbs from the recycling bin at his local Ikea, and setting them amid one working light affixed to a cheap Ikea Hemma Lampcord, using a drilled out acrylic sheet. Recycled Hemma lampcord
Read in browser Crowley vs. Wicked Witch
By David Pescovitz on Oct 28, 2011 05:17 pm "Aleister Crowley, "The Wickedest Man In The World," Meets His Match With The Wicked Witch Of The West, From '"The Wizard Of Oz'" Who would win? My money is on the witch. Crowley may have been pals with Aiwass, but the witch was boss of those nasty Winged Monkeys. I got a kick out of ...
Read in browser Mummies and Monkey Skulls: 'Oddities' Host Ryan Matthew Cohn on the creepiest antiques
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 28, 2011 05:13 pm Ben Marks of Collector's Weekly says: "We published an article about Ryan Matthew Cohn's jones for bones. It's got videos from the Oddities show and lots of cool photos of goat-skull chandeliers and Beauchene skulls (skulls that have been exploded so you can see how they go back together)." "One of the things I do ...
Read in browser What the Bible says about women who won't go barefoot
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 28, 2011 04:58 pm In the coming global food riots, keep a close eye on women who don't go barefoot: when things get grim enough that families start eating the youngest children, it's the mother who wears shoes who will eat her babies in secret so she don't have to share. Deuteronomy 28: 56-57: 56 The tender and delicate ...
Read in browser How to make glowing kryptonite candy
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 28, 2011 04:32 pm Over at CRAFT, Becky Stern has a video showing how to make glowing kryptonite candy.
Read in browser Shape Type: typography game of graceful curves
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 28, 2011 04:26 pm Shape Type is a new HTML5 typography game from the creator of Kern Type; this time around, you have to drag curve-adjustment tools to perfect letterforms. Shape Type (via Waxy)
Read in browser Ads of Yore
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 28, 2011 04:04 pm @AdsofYore is a twitter feed that republishes unusual liner ads from the archives of local newspapers.
Read in browser "How Occupy Wall Street Cost Me My Job"
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 03:56 pm At Gawker, Brooklyn-based journalist Caitlin Curran explains how you could quickly go from being part of the downtrodden 99% to being part of the "no, really, unemployed and utterly fucked" contingent: your boss could see a photo of you holding up a sign at a protest and fire you the next day. Ms. Curran is ...
Read in browser Police tactics in Occupy Oakland raid questioned
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 03:54 pm "My sense is the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing," he said. "I don't think there was adequate command and control." The NYT Lede blog digs into what happened in Oakland Tuesday night. Also at the NYT, outrage grows over veteran Scott Olsen's injury by police.
Read in browser Happy 125th birthday, Statue of Liberty!
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 28, 2011 03:46 pm Today, the statue of Liberty is 125 years old. Above, from the Smithsonian Institution archives, a Harpers Magazine cover: Wilbur Wright flying his Wright Flyer around her in 1909. Sarah Taylor Sulick of the Smithsonian Institution tells Boing Boing, This was one of the earliest public demonstrations of powered flight, an iconic moment in front ...
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