New York State Senators want "refined First Amendment," laws to prevent trolling, flaming and excluding people from online groups Scientists simulate Europa Visit the Unicorn Museum How To: Remove a bladder stone in the days before anesthesia Watch lectures on mind, brain, and human nature Italy's insane Internet law prompts removal of Italian Wikipedia Bletchley Park gets a £4.6m grant, financed by government pro-innumeracy programme Feynman explains beauty and science Jahbulon, a demon for the modern age GamersOptOut will send printed EULA opt-outs to game companies on your behalf Randomly generated 3D spaceships to print on your 3D printer, generated with WebGL Charming song about Lego Chocolate-covered flour sacks as benches Portrait of a blogger in the 1920s Officer accused of terrorizing citizens, still on force Boss creates "Guess who I'm going to fire next" contest Michele Bachmann honored by Bad Lip Reading Gallery of Hildebrandt illustrations Miramax CEO: our biggest threat is online distribution monopolies, not piracy David Lynch's solo album Old ad: anguished housewife needs to be drugged Shadowy organization publishes blacklist of writers who track down con-artists Corn mazes across the country celebrate NASA Strange Russian "numbers station" Smartypants Occupy Wall Street protester makes Fox News interviewer look stupid, interview doesn't air Shaving with a shovel One-legged woman's Hallowe'en costume Sunset on the Tevatron: Photos and memories from a Fermilab physicist Exciting Silicon Valley startup to launch new 'telecommunications' device Humiliating airport pat-down for breast cancer survivor: an update on Lori Dorn's JFK incident New York State Senators want "refined First Amendment," laws to prevent trolling, flaming and excluding people from online groups
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 05, 2011 12:55 pm New York State Senators Jeff Klein, Diane Savino, David Carlucci and David Valesky apparently missed civics class, because they think the First Amendment grants the "privilege" of free speech, not the right, and that this "refined" view of free speech should be implemented in order to stop people from saying stupid things on the Internet. ...
Read in browser Scientists simulate Europa
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 05, 2011 12:53 pm Researchers at the Universidad de Buenos Aires recreated conditions found on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa in the lab, and then proved that some Earth organisms are capable of surviving in that extreme environment. At least, for three hours. It's one experiment in a growing body of work aimed at proving that Earth could ...
Read in browser Visit the Unicorn Museum
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 05, 2011 12:41 pm Briefly mentioned on BoingBoing back in 2007, The Unicorn Museum is a spot-on (and Biblically correct!) parody of the Creation Museum. This photoshopped billboard kind of makes me wish it were a real place. Hopefully, this makes up for the bladder stone surgery.
Read in browser How To: Remove a bladder stone in the days before anesthesia
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 05, 2011 12:24 pm The Chirurgeon's Apprentice is an entire blog dedicated to eye-witness accounts of surgery in the days before anesthesia. Oh, Internet. Thou art wonderful and horrible. Collected by University of London medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris, the stories come from well-documented sources, from the 17th century onward. Part of the goal here is to follow the path ...
Read in browser Watch lectures on mind, brain, and human nature
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 05, 2011 12:02 pm On Monday, I told you about The Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College, in St. Peter, Minn., where top neuroscientists are speaking about the mind, the brain, and what it means to be human. Now, I have some good news for those of you who couldn't play hooky this week, couldn't get tickets to the ...
Read in browser Italy's insane Internet law prompts removal of Italian Wikipedia
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 05, 2011 11:21 am Prompted by Italy's punitive (batshit) wiretapping law proposal, Wikipedia has removed its Italian version and now directs anyone trying to find Italian Wikipedia to a page explaining that Italy's Internet law will make it impossible to have an Italian Wikipedia: This proposal, which the Italian Parliament is currently debating, provides, among other things, a requirement ...
Read in browser Bletchley Park gets a £4.6m grant, financed by government pro-innumeracy programme
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 05, 2011 10:08 am Bletchley Park, the birthplace of modern crypto and the home of the WWII codebreaking effort, has received a £4.6m Heritage Lottery Fund grant to fund restoration efforts and new exhibits. Bletchley was broken up after the war and its work was literally buried as part of the Cold War climate of secrecy that prevailed. In ...
Read in browser Feynman explains beauty and science
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 05, 2011 01:22 am Here's Richard Feynman monologing about the way that science creates new ways to appreciate the beauty of the world around us. Inspiring stuff, and the accompanying video is nicely apt. (via Kottke)
Read in browser Jahbulon, a demon for the modern age
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 05, 2011 12:31 am Steven Daily's "Jahbulon" (available as giclee on canvas print) is a thoroughly contemporary sort of demon -- the stuff of delirious and glorious nightmares. (via Super Punch)
Read in browser GamersOptOut will send printed EULA opt-outs to game companies on your behalf
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 11:50 pm As game companies start to add conditions to their EULAs that prohibit class action suits for their negligence in handling your personal data, a collective of gamers called Gamers Opt Out have created a service that makes it easy to mail printed opt-outs from these conditions. Individual lawsuits against game companies that harm their users ...
Read in browser Randomly generated 3D spaceships to print on your 3D printer, generated with WebGL
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 11:04 pm Dolf sez, "Dolf Veenvliet aka macouno of Entoforms fame has been working on some fun tools to generate 3D forms. Under the ShapeWright moniker Dolf has produced a random space ship generator entitled shipWright that generates unique configurations of space ships ready for 3D printing (and freely downloadable). You can also have a personalized Space ...
Read in browser Charming song about Lego
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 04, 2011 10:09 pm Do enjoy the lead single from USL's latest album, "Build Motherfucker!" (Thanks, Joel)
Read in browser Chocolate-covered flour sacks as benches
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 08:44 pm Dejana Kabiljo's contribution to Beijing Design Week are these flour-sacks covered in chocolate-looking polyol sponge frosting. The recyclable sofas are called LetThemSitCake. Beijing Design Week has invited Vienna- based architect Dejana Kabiljo to contribute to the 751-D PARK DesignHop with her quirky installation "LetThemSitCake!" at 751-D PARK Power Square. Stacked bags of wheat, topped off ...
Read in browser Portrait of a blogger in the 1920s
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 04, 2011 08:42 pm Old school blogger. From Hugo Gernsback's Science and Invention. Lots of other great science fiction illos on this page. (Via TIH)
Read in browser Officer accused of terrorizing citizens, still on force
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 04, 2011 08:17 pm Despite over 500 pages of internal affairs complaints lodged against Clayton County police officer Michael Hobbs, he is still on the force. A Metro Atlanta police officer is accused of being out of control and assaulting the citizens he was sworn to serve and protect.Chief Investigative Reporter Wendy Saltzman found dozens of use-of-force reports brushed aside ...
Read in browser Boss creates "Guess who I'm going to fire next" contest
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 08:13 pm William Ernst, owner of the QC Mart chain of stores headquartered in Bettendorf, Iowa, has lost a court case against an employee who claimed benefits after quitting. Ernst had created a contest that invited his employees to guess who among them would be fired next, and a cashier named Misty Shelsky quit. Ernst tried to ...
Read in browser Michele Bachmann honored by Bad Lip Reading
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 04, 2011 08:01 pm [Video Link] A new video from Badlipreading.com always brightens my day. "I went from being two banana plants up to a thrill-seeking shark who sold pictures of different toys I wanted." (Via Dangerous Minds)
Read in browser Gallery of Hildebrandt illustrations
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 04, 2011 07:53 pm The fantastic Monster Brains blog has some examples of Greg and Tim Hildebrandt's excellent book cover art. The painting above is the cover for John Christopher's wonderful young adult science fiction novel from 1967, The White Mountains. Gallery of Hildebrandt illustrations
Read in browser Miramax CEO: our biggest threat is online distribution monopolies, not piracy
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 07:25 pm Netflix CEO Mike Lang, speaking a the MIPCOM conference, discussed the problems facing his industry and suggested that while piracy isn't a big deal, chokepoints in the distribution chain were, because when there isn't enough diversity in distribution, you get intermediaries that end up totally controlling your business: Another problem, related to the pricing issue, ...
Read in browser David Lynch's solo album
By David Pescovitz on Oct 04, 2011 07:23 pm The inimitable David Lynch is releasing his first solo album on November 7. The title track, "Crazy Clown Time," can be heard at left. It's quirky, dark, and strange. Does that surprise you? Didn't think so. David Lynch
Read in browser Old ad: anguished housewife needs to be drugged
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 04, 2011 07:07 pm Give that lady her Serpasil! From Wikipedia: Reserpine was isolated in 1952 from the dried root of Rauwolfia serpentina (Indian snakeroot), (which had been known as Sarpagandaand had been used for centuries in India for the treatment of insanity, as well as fever and snakebites — even Mahatma Gandhi used it as a tranquilizer during ...
Read in browser Shadowy organization publishes blacklist of writers who track down con-artists
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 07:04 pm One of the better services provided by the Science Fiction Writers of America is Writer Beware, maintained by Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin, which lists scammy vanity publishers, book doctors, fake agents and other entities devoted to separating hopeful writers from their money. Predictably, Writer Beware has attracted a lot of approbation from the people ...
Read in browser Corn mazes across the country celebrate NASA
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 04, 2011 06:31 pm Nothing makes more sense than this. Rachel Hobson of CRAFT says: In a special outreach titled Space Farm 7, seven of the nation's top agritourism farms have been selected to celebrate and honor the U.S. space program in collaboration with NASA this fall. Each farm has planted corn mazes that will feature designs celebrating NASA's ...
Read in browser Strange Russian "numbers station"
By David Pescovitz on Oct 04, 2011 06:10 pm In the new issue of Wired, Peter Savodnik wrote a great story about the very strange Russian shortwave station UVB-76. Known as the Buzzer because of the buzz patterns it transmits, UVB-76 is most likely a "numbers station" that governments use to transmit secret info to operatives around the world. The article reminded me of ...
Read in browser Smartypants Occupy Wall Street protester makes Fox News interviewer look stupid, interview doesn't air
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 05:50 pm Fox News has been dispatching a stream of trolling reporters to Occupy Wall Street with the mission of making the protesters look stupid, using cheap editing tricks to heighten the effect. But sometimes they get a charming, silver-tongued demonstrator like Jesse LaGreca, who makes Fox and its minions look like fools. Of course, they don't ...
Read in browser Shaving with a shovel
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 05:33 pm A Russian tabloid features the story of Nizhny Novgorod Alexander Karpenko, who taught himself to shave with a shovel (also a hatchet and a pair of scissors), inspired by his grandad's stories of shaving with a shovel in wartime. (via Neatorama)
Read in browser One-legged woman's Hallowe'en costume
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 05:20 pm An unnamed one-legged woman conceived of this terrific Christmas Story lamp costume for Hallowe'en.
Read in browser Sunset on the Tevatron: Photos and memories from a Fermilab physicist
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 04, 2011 05:13 pm For more than 20 years, the Tevatron reigned as the gold standard in particle accelerators. Under a berm outside Batavia, Illinois, the machine pushed protons and antiprotons to high energies around circular tracks before crashing them into each other. What's the point of that? When high-energy protons and antiprotons collide, they reproduce the conditions at ...
Read in browser Exciting Silicon Valley startup to launch new 'telecommunications' device
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 04, 2011 04:59 pm Apple has gathered gadget bloggers and tech journalists to unveil an update to the iPhone. Gizmodo, GDGT, and Engadget have boots on the ground and/or liveblogs in the ether (some are covering remotely). Ars Technica and MacWorld liveblogs are down at the time of this blog post. Oh, wait, Gizmodo and GDGT liveblogs are down ...
Read in browser Humiliating airport pat-down for breast cancer survivor: an update on Lori Dorn's JFK incident
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 04, 2011 04:19 pm The health blog "Well" at the New York Times covers the case of Lori Dorn, a 44-year-old New York woman and friend of Boing Boing who learned in March that she had breast cancer. Over the weekend, I blogged here at Boing Boing about a horrible experience she had going through the TSA screening at ...
Read in browser 
No comments:
Post a Comment