WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
Cross-section of a tree played like a record on a turntable HOWTO drive the Disneyland Monorail HOPE 9 Call for Papers An abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today Khan Academy explains SOPA/PIPA SOPA isn't dead, it's back on Congressmen and Senators withdraw support for SOPA/PIPA Apps for Kids 005: Glider Classic RAW quote: in other words, if you think you know what the hell is going on, you're probably full of shit. Crew of 170 people needed to keep Predator drone airborne for 24h Why SOPA/PIPA protests should matter to people outside the USA Frontline post-Fukushima documentary "Nuclear Aftershocks" airs tonight Physically protest tomorrow to protest SOPA and PIPA Recall election in Wisconsin: It's probably on A doctor responds to Seth Roberts' guest post about tonsillectomy New MAKE podcast: Make Talk In praise of skeuomorphs 2600 to go PIPA-dark, too Yahoo co-founder, former CEO Jerry Yang resigns from board and "all other positions" The greatest running shoe never sold, by Bob Parks Free PDF of the first Diesel Sweeties comic collection MPAA issues statement slamming SOPA/PIPA "blackout" protests as "dangerous gimmick" Why the 'Check Engine' light must be banned One more response to Boing Boing post on "Police Pad" gadgets in Georgia, by Some Guy from Georgia TSA-compliant cupcakes: "I am not a gel" Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The Blackout of 1977 A neat finding about pseudonymous commenters—and why you should question it Stop-motion animation of 3D-printed people Torture common again in post-Saddam "democratic" Iraq How traffic jams are born Cross-section of a tree played like a record on a turntable
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 19, 2012 12:52 pm This music -- which sounds like a moody piano soundtrack for a existentialist movie about a rainy day -- is made by slicing a tree in cross-section, sticking it on a turntable, and dropping a tone-arm with a PlayStation Eye Camera in the head, and processing its output through Ableton Live. It's called Years, and ...
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By Cory Doctorow on Jan 19, 2012 12:47 pm If you ever find yourself writing a historical novel about someone who goes joyriding in the Disneyland Monorail, I have a hell of a reference for you: the 1966 Disneyland Monorail Operator Guide. Disneyland Monorail Operator Guide (1966) (Thanks, Jeff!)
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By Cory Doctorow on Jan 19, 2012 09:12 am Emmanuel Goldstein from 2600 sez, "The Call For Papers for 2600 Magazine's HOPE Number Nine conference has been issued. HOPE stands for Hackers On Planet Earth and has been happening in New York City since 1994. Typically over 100 talks and panels are presented, featuring topics including hardware hacking, social engineering, net activism, privacy, surveillance, ...
Read in browser An abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 19, 2012 09:00 am As Xeni wrote on Tuesday, the MPAA isn't pleased about sites like this one going dark to protest SOPA and PIPA. Former Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America called it "an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today." Well, he should know. ...
Read in browser Khan Academy explains SOPA/PIPA
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 19, 2012 05:06 am The globally praised Khan Academy comes out against SOPA and PIPA in this explainer video, which does a really excellent job of digging into the implications for legitimate sites (like Khan Academy) in a world where SOPA/PIPA become law. This is a great explanation of what SOPA and PIPA means for people trying to communicate ...
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By Cory Doctorow on Jan 19, 2012 05:06 am House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) has vowed to resume his markup hearings in February. (Thanks, Adam!)
Read in browser Congressmen and Senators withdraw support for SOPA/PIPA
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 19, 2012 05:05 am Yesterday, literally millions of Americans contacted their senators and congressional reps to ask them to withdraw their support for SOPA and PIPA. The result? A massive withdrawal of support from elected lawmakers for the bills. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and John Boozman (R-AR) all vowed to ...
Read in browser Apps for Kids 005: Glider Classic
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 18, 2012 09:50 pm Welcome to Boing Boing's Apps for Kids Episode 5 for Wednesday, January 18, 2012. Apps for Kids is a podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. I'm Mark Frauenfelder. My co-host is Jane Frauenfelder. Today, we review a remake of a 1991 Macintosh game called Glider Classic for the iPhone and iPad. If ...
Read in browser RAW quote: in other words, if you think you know what the hell is going on, you're probably full of shit.
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 18, 2012 06:23 am "Whenever people are certain they understand our peculiar situation here on this planet, it is because they have accepted a religious Faith or a secular Ideology (Ideologies are the modern form of Faiths) and just stopped thinking." -- Robert Anton Wilson Fnord
Read in browser Crew of 170 people needed to keep Predator drone airborne for 24h
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 18, 2012 01:32 am A Freedom of Information request reveals that aerial drones are rife with expensive technical problems. The aerial disasters described draw attention not only to the technical limitations of drone warfare, but to larger conceptual flaws inherent in such operations. Launched and landed by aircrews close to battlefields in places like Afghanistan, the drones are controlled ...
Read in browser Why SOPA/PIPA protests should matter to people outside the USA
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 18, 2012 12:00 am Michael Geist sez, While there is little that people living outside the U.S. can do to influence SOPA and PIPA, there are many reasons why it is important for everyone to participate in tomorrow's SOPA protest. First, the SOPA provisions are designed to have an extra-territorial effect in countries around the world. Second, non-U.S. businesses ...
Read in browser Frontline post-Fukushima documentary "Nuclear Aftershocks" airs tonight
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 17, 2012 11:27 pm [Video Link]"Nuclear Aftershocks," the PBS Frontline documentary which Maggie described in a Boing Boing review as "brilliant," airs tonight online and on local PBS stations at 10pm. I've seen an advance copy, and I agree that it's excellent—though I'm admittedly biased, since I love everything Miles O'Brien does, and collaborate with him creatively from time ...
Read in browser Physically protest tomorrow to protest SOPA and PIPA
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 17, 2012 11:13 pm Jonathan from Hackers and Founders sez, "We're planning SOPA/PIPA protests in SF, NYC, DC and Seattle on Wednesday the 18th to coincide with the blackouts."
Read in browser Recall election in Wisconsin: It's probably on
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 17, 2012 11:01 pm Wisconsinites needed 500,000 signatures in order to authorize a recall election against Governor Scott Walker. They got 1 million.
Read in browser A doctor responds to Seth Roberts' guest post about tonsillectomy
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 17, 2012 10:31 pm We recently ran a guest post by Seth Roberts, detailing the case against tonsillectomies as a regularly prescribed treatment for sore throats. I was able to read Roberts' post before it went up here, and comment on it. And Roberts made several changes to the post, which I had suggested, before it ran. In general, ...
Read in browser New MAKE podcast: Make Talk
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 17, 2012 10:09 pm Here's the first episode of MAKE's new podcast, Make Talk. In each episode, I'll interview one of the makers from the pages of the magazine. We created Make Talk because we wanted to find out about the people who write the how-to articles in MAKE. As you might guess, MAKE's makers are often as interesting ...
Read in browser In praise of skeuomorphs
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 17, 2012 10:05 pm I reflected today on the fact that my four-year-old makes a "click" sound when she's playing with a toy camera because that's the MP3 that my phone plays when I take her picture. A number of people pointed out that this is an example of a skeuomorph, "a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues ...
Read in browser 2600 to go PIPA-dark, too
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 17, 2012 09:00 pm Emmanuel Goldstein sez, "The websites for 2600 will go dark on Wednesday, joining many others around the world in protest against the potentially devastating effects of bills like SOPA and PIPA."
Read in browser Yahoo co-founder, former CEO Jerry Yang resigns from board and "all other positions"
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 17, 2012 08:55 pm Yahoo announces that Jerry Yang has resigned from the internet company's Board of Directors "and all other positions with the company, effective today." Yang has also resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, effective today. Yahoo's official statement is here. Photo: Co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. Jerry ...
Read in browser The greatest running shoe never sold, by Bob Parks
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 17, 2012 08:50 pm My friend Bob Parks has a great story in Bloomberg Businessweek about the sad fate of a new kind of running shoe that promised to be better than any other running shoe on the market. (Photo by Daniel Shea) Three days before the 2002 Chicago Marathon, Hann bought industrial carbon fiber fabric and baked it ...
Read in browser Free PDF of the first Diesel Sweeties comic collection
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 17, 2012 08:26 pm The delightful R. Stevens is distributing the first Diesel Sweeties webcomic collection as a DRM-free, free PDF, in celebration of his birthday. "Pocket Sweeties, Volume 1," is a sterling example of the demented, bitter humor that Rich pulls off so well, and we're a lucky Internet for getting this great gimmee from him. He's got ...
Read in browser MPAA issues statement slamming SOPA/PIPA "blackout" protests as "dangerous gimmick"
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 17, 2012 08:24 pm Former Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA), pooh-poohs the January 18 internet blackout protests over SOPA and PIPA: It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given ...
Read in browser Why the 'Check Engine' light must be banned
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 17, 2012 07:42 pm "Check engine" lights suck! Jason Torchinsky of Jalopnik asks you to sign a whitehouse.gov petition to "require automakers to replace the nearly useless Check Engine Light with a display that actually explains what's wrong." The continued use of a generic, uninformative "check engine" light in cars keeps car owners in the dark about the condition ...
Read in browser One more response to Boing Boing post on "Police Pad" gadgets in Georgia, by Some Guy from Georgia
By Some Guy From Georgia on Jan 17, 2012 07:36 pm People walk past graffiti on a street in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Jan. 13, 2012. (REUTERS) Editor's Note: In response to an anonymously-sourced wisecrack we published about police corruption in former Soviet states, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs responded with a statement, which we published in full. A Boing Boing reader from Georgia also ...
Read in browser TSA-compliant cupcakes: "I am not a gel"
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 17, 2012 07:21 pm Inspired by Rebecca Hains' harrowing tale of cupcake confiscation by the Las Vegas TSA, Providence, RI's Silver Spoon Bakery is selling "TSA-compliant cupcakes." These have exactly three ounces of frosting, and come in a ziplock baggie with a boarding card and a little Richard Nixon badge bearing the legend, "I am not a gel." Bakery's ...
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The Blackout of 1977
By Ed Piskor on Jan 17, 2012 07:00 pm Part 1 of The Hip Hop Family Tree
Read in browser A neat finding about pseudonymous commenters—and why you should question it
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 17, 2012 06:37 pm Here's some interesting data that I would like to believe is true—mainly because it matches up with what I've experienced here at BoingBoing. Many of you use some kind of pseudonym in the comments, whether it's first-name-only, an Internet handle, or a completely fake name. My experience here has taught me that, despite this, you ...
Read in browser Stop-motion animation of 3D-printed people
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 17, 2012 06:16 pm In celebration of the new Makerbot Replicator 3D printer, a stop-motion animation that depicts the birth-by-printer of a sweet girl and the heartbreak she experiences thereafter. This all new stop-animation music video was made with Michael Curry's playset characters and a number of other MakerBot-made pieces! The princesses story was written by MakerBot CEO and ...
Read in browser Torture common again in post-Saddam "democratic" Iraq
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 17, 2012 06:12 pm "Iraqi state security officers are systematically arresting people on trumped-up charges, torturing them and extorting bribes from their families for their release." Guardian UK via Richard Engel.
Read in browser How traffic jams are born
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 17, 2012 06:00 pm A couple of years ago, Cory posted a really interesting story about the mathematics behind seemingly cause-less traffic jams. It's pretty interesting. Shorter version: The researchers think jams like this are caused by one person braking, and the response to that slow down moves through dense traffic in a way that is mathematically very similar ...
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