WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
Letter to Santa from 1911, found in a Dublin chimney Recording of coyotes in my neighborhood How Computers Work Navy kiss seals the year of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal Apps for Kids 001: a new Boing Boing podcast Will America's public domain treasures finally be freed? 3D printers as teleporters Handmade Music Factory - great DIY book Adam Savage on SOPA: "We're better than that" The Wolfe's Den treehouse TV hosts turn cannibal for their audience How To: Wrap a baby in swaddling clothes Chinese village evicts police, army, Party officials Honey, we have a problem Turn air miles into train miles TOM THE DANCING BUG: So... You've Been Indefinitely Detained! Helpful Information From Your U.S. Government! Complex Systems Institute claims "bear raid" market manipulation crashed the global economy 6 myths of microfinancing HOWTO keep your data safe at the US border Boy pulls own tooth by tying it to the round in a nerf gun, yanking trigger Obama Girl creator does an anti-SOPA anthem Shufflin' grandpa -- country dance meets electronic music ICanStalkU twitterbot nags Twitter users about disclosing their location Letter to Santa from 1911, found in a Dublin chimney
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 22, 2011 05:06 am This letter to Santa was written in 1911, and stashed in the chimney of a house in Dublin, from which it was recovered in 1992 by the house's current occupant, John Byrne. The letter, written by "A or H Howard" (a brother-sister team) survived remarkably well, and is very lovely. "I want a baby doll ...
Read in browser Recording of coyotes in my neighborhood
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 22, 2011 02:14 am I went out to get the mail this evening and my Los Angeles neighborhood coyotes were very excited. They sounded like enraged monkeys! I grabbed the tail end of the event using my iPhone's recorder. Link to MP3
Read in browser How Computers Work
By Rob Beschizza on Dec 22, 2011 12:43 am Text and images by Ladybird Books. Remix by Rob. Wormholed from the archives of BBG. Original scans from davidguy.brinkster.net
Read in browser Navy kiss seals the year of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 21, 2011 11:37 pm Washington Post: "With the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta was able to win a raffle that gave her the first off-the-ship kiss, a Navy tradition, with her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell." Visit site for full photo by Brian J. Clark.
Read in browser Apps for Kids 001: a new Boing Boing podcast
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 21, 2011 11:28 pm Apps For Kids is a new Boing Boing podcast. It's about iOS apps that are fun for kids and their parents. My 8-year-old daughter Jane is my co-host. We'll look at games, activities, and educational apps. Episodes will be short -- under five minutes. In the first episode of Boing Boing's Apps for Kids podcast, ...
Read in browser Will America's public domain treasures finally be freed?
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 08:40 pm Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez, "John Podesta and I have written an open letter to President Obama calling for the creation of a Federal Scanning Commission, tasking this body with developing a strategy for digitizing .gov. Today, we do not scan at scale and there is a huge untapped storehouse buried in federal institutions such ...
Read in browser 3D printers as teleporters
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 08:05 pm Anil Dash has a characteristically great, smart noodle on the future of 3D printing, including several provocative ideas (the emnently sensible notion of not reinventing the printer as a platform for selling expensive consumable "ink" is, alas, a little late, and, hurrah, about to be obviated by the expiry of key patents in 2014-16). The ...
Read in browser Handmade Music Factory - great DIY book
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 21, 2011 07:17 pm As a maker of cigar box guitars, Handmade Music Factory is a book I've been waiting for for a long time. It's written by Mike Orr, a professional carpenter and the owner of Built2Last Guitars. This beautifully produced, full-color book shows you how to make your own musical instruments. Projects include a washtub bass, a ...
Read in browser Adam Savage on SOPA: "We're better than that"
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 06:56 pm James sez, "MythBuster Adam Savage joins the growing chorus of opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act." Honestly, if a friend wrote these into a piece of fiction about government oversight gone amok, I'd have to tell them that they were too one-dimensional, too obviously anticonstitutional. The Internet is probably the ...
Read in browser The Wolfe's Den treehouse
By Mark Frauenfelder on Dec 21, 2011 06:06 pm [Video Link] MAKE magazine's Derek "Deek" Diedricksen shows how he built this cool treehouse. This triangular treehouse was assembled in the Catskills over two weekends, and stands as one of the larger projects Deek's tackled for the show. His only given parameters for the design: "It must receive a good deal of natural light, and ...
Read in browser TV hosts turn cannibal for their audience
By David Pescovitz on Dec 21, 2011 06:00 pm Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno, hosts of the Dutch TV show "Preojfkonijen" ("Test Rabbits") ate bits of each other's flesh before a studio audience. There is no report whether it tasted like chicken. From NY Daily News: "The punchline of the show is to get really simple answers on stupid questions, such as, 'Can you ...
Read in browser How To: Wrap a baby in swaddling clothes
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 21, 2011 05:57 pm There is no excuse for crappy nativity scenes. I can't help you with building the manger, though. Ask Mark. Video Link
Read in browser Chinese village evicts police, army, Party officials
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 05:47 pm The ongoing dispute between villagers in Wukan, Guangdong Province and the government of China has escalated. Villagers have evicted all Communist Party officials, all soldiers and all police. The government forces have blockaded the village, effectively laying siege to the rebels, cutting off their food and water. The dispute began as a conflict over land ...
Read in browser Honey, we have a problem
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 21, 2011 05:31 pm UPDATE: Hey guys, I screwed up on this one. NPR points out that the story I wrote about here is pretty heavily biased, produced by a website that's run by a law firm specializing in food poisoning cases. And the claims made here don't line up with evidence. Apologies. I normally manage to avoid being ...
Read in browser Turn air miles into train miles
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 21, 2011 05:14 pm Do you like trains? Do you have a lot of Continental Airlines OnePass miles? Until December 31st, you can turn those air miles into Amtrak GuestRewards points. There are certainly some people this wouldn't make sense for, but I know some of you will be interested, so I thought I'd post it. Call the Continental ...
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: So... You've Been Indefinitely Detained! Helpful Information From Your U.S. Government!
By Ruben Bolling on Dec 21, 2011 05:00 pm RECOMMEND: Follow RUBEN BOLLING on TWITTER.
Read in browser Complex Systems Institute claims "bear raid" market manipulation crashed the global economy
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 04:56 pm A paper from the New England Complex Systems Institute claims that they have found evidence that traders executed a "bear raid" on Citigroup in 2007, precipitating the financial collapse. A "bear raid" is a market manipulation technique in which short sellers conspire to dump huge quantities of borrowed shares into the market all at once, ...
Read in browser 6 myths of microfinancing
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Dec 21, 2011 04:21 pm Over the years, I've been really impressed with the stuff I've heard about microfinancng charities like KIVA. The idea of helping people in developing countries launch and support small businesses, changing their lives and the lives of their children, makes a lot of sense. And the personal stories that go with microfinancing are pretty appealing. ...
Read in browser HOWTO keep your data safe at the US border
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 03:37 pm The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a new guide, "Defending Privacy at the U.S. Border: A Guide for Travelers Carrying Digital Devices," which explains how the law, good technology choices, cryptography and backups can be combined to keep your data safe while you travel, especially when crossing into the USA, where customs officials reserve the ...
Read in browser Boy pulls own tooth by tying it to the round in a nerf gun, yanking trigger
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 03:00 pm In this video, an enterprising young fellow ties his loose tooth to the projectile in his Nerf Big Bow and fires the weapon, taking his tooth out in one glorious, nearly painless instant. Pulling a tooth using a Nerf gun (via Geekologie)
Read in browser Obama Girl creator does an anti-SOPA anthem
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 02:00 pm Leah Kauffman, who wrote and sang the "I Got a Crush on Obama" song (it was lipsynched in the video by a different woman who became the "Obama Girl"), has recorded and performed a new anthem in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act, called "Firewall." It's not my kind of music, but I love ...
Read in browser Shufflin' grandpa -- country dance meets electronic music
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 01:30 pm Jason Kottke rounds up a series of YouTube clips of "old styles of dancing set to contemporary music" including this Shufflin' Grandpa doing fast-footed country dancing with a dubstep contemporary electronic soundtrack. Shufflin' grandpa
Read in browser ICanStalkU twitterbot nags Twitter users about disclosing their location
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 21, 2011 01:27 pm ICanStalkU is a twitterbot Twitter-analyzing service that seeks out Twitter users who transmit their location in the photos they tweet and generates responses like "ICanStalkU was able to stalk @XXXXXXXXXX at http://maps.google.com/?q=35.5371666667,139.510166667," with the stated purpose of "Raising awareness about inadvertent information sharing." I generally like the idea of helping people understand that their software ...
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