WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
Slovenia's ambassador apologizes to her children and her nation for signing ACTA, calls for mass demonstrations in Ljubljana tomorrow RAW Week: "I am not that kind of Libertarian, really; I don't hate poor people," by Tom Jackson FBI tells net cafe owners that TOR users might be terrorists Never change the oil in Michael Bay's car Census record for "letter from an ex-slave" author? Cora Holben, Chicago's "lady detective," run to ground RAW Week Bonus: RAWing in the Rain, by Maja D'aoust White House petition: fix copyright for 21st century libraries Man arrested for impersonating a traffic camera BREAKING: Criminal wallpaper vandalism discovered in Los Angeles restaurant Ian Bogost: the sarcastic game dev and academic who gave us Cow Clicker "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind" performed by Vashti Bunyan "Survival" sewing kit 3-Minute Tour of the 2012 Art Shanty Projects Soviet pistol door handle UNC-Charlotte gets its own SWAT team Peter Watts webcast lecture: "Why Science Fiction is Too Important To Be Left to the Scientists" iModela, Roland's $1000 hobbyist CNC milling machine Jim Woodring T-shirt: a Boing Boing Shop exclusive! Patrick Watson - "Into Giants" (MP3 download) Sh*t Barefoot Runners Say Sweet 24-hour comic about a dangerously moody roommate Beatnik poem from High School Confidential Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo Anal fireworks lead to lawsuit Tipster: MPAA astroturf group is buying signatures to beef up its numbers John Whitney's 1960s computer animation HOWTO make aerogel "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": Awesome DIY transportation Understanding Google's new privacy policy: your YouTube activity will now be linked to your searches Slovenia's ambassador apologizes to her children and her nation for signing ACTA, calls for mass demonstrations in Ljubljana tomorrow
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 08:47 am After Helena Drnovsek Zorko, Slovenia's ambassador to Japan, signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, she was deluged with emails from Slovenians criticizing her for signing onto the agreement, which encourages widespread network censorship and creates criminal penalties for copyright infringement. The ambassador read the agreement more closely and decided she agreed with the critics, and wrote ...
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By Tom Jackson on Feb 03, 2012 06:23 am I never met Robert Anton Wilson, but after reading him closely for years, I like to think I know him pretty well. When I went to college in the 1970s, I encountered Illuminatus!, and it had a greater effect upon me than anything I learned in class. It's impossible to minimize the impact the book ...
Read in browser FBI tells net cafe owners that TOR users might be terrorists
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 04:28 am Icecube sez, "Are you concerned about your online privacy? Do you shield your laptop from view of others? Do you use various means of hiding your IP address? Do you use any encryption at all like PGP? That means you are probably a terrorist according to the FBI. These are just some of the activities ...
Read in browser Never change the oil in Michael Bay's car
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 03, 2012 02:59 am [via Qt3]
Read in browser Census record for "letter from an ex-slave" author?
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 02:52 am @daveg appears to have found the census record for Jordan Anderson, author of the very arch and admirably sarcastic letter from a former slave to his former master I reposted the other day.
Read in browser Cora Holben, Chicago's "lady detective," run to ground
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 01:49 am Paul Reda was taken with the above 1908 ad for Miss Cora Strayer's Private Detective Agency, which was posted to the most excellent Vintage Ads LiveJournal group. A Chicago history buff, he decided to delve into the life and times of Cora Strayer, and has fleshed out a fascinating, and often tragic, timeline of her ...
Read in browser RAW Week Bonus: RAWing in the Rain, by Maja D'aoust
By Maja D'aoust on Feb 03, 2012 01:23 am It was raining hard and I came into work soaking wet. My Dr. Martens had that darker sheen around the toes where the water had sunk into the petrol-resistant exterior. The smell of damp and of dusty books filled my nose as I prepared for another day of work at the library. It was 1995 ...
Read in browser White House petition: fix copyright for 21st century libraries
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 01:10 am Neal sez, "This is a White House petition to reform U.S. copyright law in regard to libraries. Due to DRM and other publisher restrictions, libraries have lost their first sale right for ebooks and other digital media. The current ability of libraries to purchase digital content to loan to patrons is largely at the whim ...
Read in browser Man arrested for impersonating a traffic camera
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 12:45 am [Video Link] His name is Rémi Gaillard and he's a well-known French prankster. (Via biotv)
Read in browser BREAKING: Criminal wallpaper vandalism discovered in Los Angeles restaurant
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 12:45 am A depraved individual gouged out the eyes of all the animals on the wallpaper in the men's room of the Bollywood Cafe in Studio City, CA. And who colored in the gouges with ball point pen: the criminal (in an act of contrition), or the restaurant's owners, in an effort to repair the vandalism?
Read in browser Ian Bogost: the sarcastic game dev and academic who gave us Cow Clicker
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 12:12 am In Wired, Jason Tanz tells the bizarre, incredible tale of how Ian Bogost's satirical Facebook game "Cow Clicker" became an actual, successful game, despite being designed to show how incredibly stupid and pointless the FarmVille-style Facebook games of the day were. Cow Clicker stripped the FarmVille model to its barest bones: it presented you with ...
Read in browser "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind" performed by Vashti Bunyan
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 02, 2012 11:45 pm [Video Link] Thanks Bedazzled for uploading this video of Vashti Bunyan singing "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind," and thanks Amy Crehore for posting it!
Read in browser "Survival" sewing kit
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 02, 2012 10:52 pm Design student Victoria Caswell created this "Boy Scout Survival Sewing Kit" that puts all the sewing essentials into a rugged, macho knife-roll-style package. Student Work – Victoria Caswell (via Super Punch)
Read in browser 3-Minute Tour of the 2012 Art Shanty Projects
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 02, 2012 10:45 pm [Video Link] Like a 20-below Burning Man on ice. Fun! It's taking place until February 5 atop Medicine Lake, Plymouth, Minnesota. Learn all about it here.
Read in browser Soviet pistol door handle
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 02, 2012 10:14 pm The "Bang Bang Handle" is a door-handle made from a 9 mm Makarov semi-automatic pistol ("the personal weapon of the Soviet and post-Soviet armed forces and law enforcement"). It was designed by Nikita Kovalev, who included a lot of detail about the Marakov in his documentation. Available in many colorful metallic platings. bang-bang handle (via ...
Read in browser UNC-Charlotte gets its own SWAT team
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 02, 2012 09:45 pm Why does the University of North Carolina-Charlotte need a SWAT team? "Virginia Tech and Columbine," explains Lieutenant Josh Huffman of Campus Police. Radley Balko, a journalist who covers the militarization of police, says: Yes. Virginia Tech and Columbine. Now, let's look at the numbers: Any given middle school, high school, or college in America can ...
Read in browser Peter Watts webcast lecture: "Why Science Fiction is Too Important To Be Left to the Scientists"
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 02, 2012 08:45 pm Tony Smith sez, "Why Science Fiction is Too Important To Be Left to the Scientists will be a talk given by scientist and science fiction writer Peter Watts for a online writers workshop held in March by StarShipSofa. Other guests include Ann VanderMeer and Nancy Kress. Pete says about the workshop talk - I'll make ...
Read in browser iModela, Roland's $1000 hobbyist CNC milling machine
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 02, 2012 08:45 pm We've covered the iModela, Roland's $1000 hobbyist CNC milling machine over at MAKE, but here's a new photo showing some of the things you can make with it. A milling machine is sort of the opposite of a 3D printer, because it carves away material from a piece of stock, while a 3D printer adds ...
Read in browser Jim Woodring T-shirt: a Boing Boing Shop exclusive!
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 02, 2012 08:28 pm We are excited as humanly possible to unveil the latest in Boing Boing's Artists Series of T-shirts: Jim Woodring's "It Followed Me Home." Offered in scarlet ink on a jet black T-shirt (for a "tigers' breath in a cave" effect, as Jim describes it), this is an original illustration designed exclusively for Boing Boing. It's ...
Read in browser Patrick Watson - "Into Giants" (MP3 download)
By Amy Seidenwurm on Feb 02, 2012 08:00 pm Sound it Out # 16: Patrick Watson"Into Giants" Patrick Watson's new song "Into Giants" is a gorgeous journey into a land of angelic singing, trumpet solos and string arrangements. The song has a delightful, wide-eyed exuberance. I'm hoping for more of this lush instrumentation matched with Watson's intimate, confiding voice when the record comes out ...
Read in browser Sh*t Barefoot Runners Say
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 02, 2012 07:45 pm [Video Link]
Read in browser Sweet 24-hour comic about a dangerously moody roommate
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 02, 2012 07:44 pm Zack sez, "24-hour comics -- comic books written, drawn and finished in 24 hours -- have been around for more than 20 years, but rarely have the results been as polished or charming as 'Darkness,' the 24-hour comic by the French cartoonist Boulet. The tale of a very, very moody roommate, the result is better ...
Read in browser Beatnik poem from High School Confidential
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 02, 2012 06:45 pm [Video Link] "Tomorry is a drag man, tomorroy is a king-size bust." Phillipa Fallon delivers a poem in High School Confidential (1958)
Read in browser Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 02, 2012 06:44 pm Our thanks go to Watchismo for sponsoring Boing Boing Blast, our once-daily delivery of headlines by email. Who makes your heart tick? Timing is everything and Watchismo has progressive savings in store with their Valen-Time Sale. They're offering BB readers three Valentines Day discounts for 10%, 15% or 20% off watches. Use code VDAY10 for ...
Read in browser Anal fireworks lead to lawsuit
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 02, 2012 06:42 pm A student is suing his fraternity after a drunken acquaintance inserted a bottle rocket into himself and ignited it. The fireworks failed to launch, instead exploding inside his anus, thereby sending the startled plaintiff sprawling off a deck. He is also suing the acquaintance, whose injuries remain unclear. [Courthouse News]
Read in browser Tipster: MPAA astroturf group is buying signatures to beef up its numbers
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 02, 2012 06:32 pm CreativeAmerica is an astroturf group financed by the MPAA that pretends to represent everyday folks who want to see further-reaching, stricter copyrights, and it just happens to be run by a bunch of ex-MPAA staffers. An anonymous tipster claims that the organization has now resorted to paying people to get signups for its membership rolls: ...
Read in browser John Whitney's 1960s computer animation
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 02, 2012 05:34 pm But Does It Float has screenshots and links to videos (Catalog, Permutations, Matrix) of pioneer computer animation artist John Whitney. Whitney collaborated with designer Saul Bass to create the title sequence for Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). About the video above, titled Catalog (1961). John Whitney was an American Animator during the mid-1900s. He created many animations ...
Read in browser HOWTO make aerogel
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 02, 2012 05:27 pm Aerogel.org is devoted to making open versions of aerogel, the super-strong, super-light new material. They provide recipes for several sorts of aerogel, testing protocols, and projects you can undertake with your homebrew miracle substances. Warning! Propylene oxide is a known carcinogen (exposure can cause cancer), and epichlorohydrin is probably too. If you plan on doing ...
Read in browser "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": Awesome DIY transportation
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 02, 2012 04:36 pm "My Favorite Museum Exhibit" is a series of posts aimed at giving BoingBoing readers a chance to show off their favorite exhibits and specimens, preferably from museums that might go overlooked in the tourism pantheon. I'll be featuring posts in this series all week. Want to see them all? Check out the archive post. I'll ...
Read in browser Understanding Google's new privacy policy: your YouTube activity will now be linked to your searches
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 02, 2012 04:08 pm When Google changed its privacy policy last week, they made a strong effort to ensure that everyone knew that a change had occurred, but if you tried to figure out what had actually changed, you had to wade through a lot of buzzwords and legalese. Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Rainey Reitman explains it in ...
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