WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
Fukushima and mental health What the US government tells European parliamentarians about ACTA Moonface: "Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips" (MP3 download) HOWTO request your FBI file The Guardian's Three Little Pigs ad Comic: meeting the Monkees' Davy Jones Report: Nintendo rejects indie game on religious grounds Papercraft, wall-hung 3D space invader sprites Andrew Breitbart, 1969-2012 Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo Windows 8 Consumer Preview is "weird, brilliant, daring" Defendant's encrypted laptop yields secrets Lytro light-field camera reviewed Tory Lord tells peers about a weird Internet scam at great length Ken MacLeod's Intrusion: a surveillance and bioscience dystopia with the best of intentions Irish SOPA signed into law Art-video made by attaching pyramidal crystals to an LCD Hidden camera footage of police officers hindering citizens who try to file complaints A moronic bike thief attempts to ply his trade Icebound, long-abandoned Communist flying saucer in the cliffs of Bulgaria Deco hood ornaments of Lalique In Minecraft, a fountain of cats at the top of the world TED2012: Post Secret - Frank Warren A pessimist and an optimist talk at TED2012 12-port USB strip Smithsonian building archive of printable 3D scans Scrap rayguns from Clayton Bailey TED2012: littleBits creator Ayah Bdeir Celebrating the wartime pleasure of getting loaded and cleaning your guns Old toy for teaching children to accurately drop atom bombs Fukushima and mental health
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 01, 2012 12:55 pm Yesterday, I got to host an eye-opening Q&A with Dan Edge, a PBS FRONTLINE producer who just finished a documentary about what happened at Fukushima during the first few days of the nuclear crisis there. During that discussion, we touched a bit on the psychological impact all of this—the earthquake, the tsunami, the nuclear meltdowns—has ...
Read in browser What the US government tells European parliamentarians about ACTA
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 01, 2012 12:05 pm Sulka sez, "A Finnish MEP (Anneli Jäättenmäki) visited US and got told that given ACTA has been prepared entirely outside of Congress and isn't ratified, it's probably not legally binding towards US. The process has also been similar in other countries (Finland included), so it's questionable if the treaty has any power." I visited Washington ...
Read in browser Moonface: "Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips" (MP3 download)
By Amy Seidenwurm on Mar 01, 2012 11:09 am Sound it Out # 19: Moonface - "Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips" This is slightly complicated. Moonface is Spencer Krug and whatever collaborators he's working with at the moment. So, this particular Moonface record is titled With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery because Spencer went to Helsinki to make the album with Finnish band Siinai. Spencer also plays ...
Read in browser HOWTO request your FBI file
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 01, 2012 10:54 am xyzzy123 sez, "Want to make a freedom-of-information request to the FBI or other three-letter agencies for any information they might have about you? This post links to a website that lets you enter personal information (or not, if you prefer), and then automatically print form letters to the correct government offices." The incident that precipitated ...
Read in browser The Guardian's Three Little Pigs ad
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 01, 2012 10:54 am British newspaper The Guardian promotes its "open journalism" format with this fantastic mockumentary ad.
Read in browser Comic: meeting the Monkees' Davy Jones
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 01, 2012 10:18 am At Spin, cult cartoonist Ward Sutton illustrates a memorable encounter with the Monkees' Davy Jones.
Read in browser Report: Nintendo rejects indie game on religious grounds
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 01, 2012 10:05 am Nintendo rejected a 3DS port of indie gaming hit The Binding of Isaac due to its "questionable religious content", reports developer Edmund McMillen. Age-restricted in Germany for 'blasphemy,' according to Wikipedia, the action RPG is available on Steam for PC and Mac. A few minutes with Newsgrounds' in-browser demo may explain what all the fuss ...
Read in browser Papercraft, wall-hung 3D space invader sprites
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 01, 2012 09:54 am Jeff sez, "We like to be prepared for an alien invasion...Nerf guns loaded, extra rations of nachos packed away, and a Klingon dictionary in the back pocket. Unfortunately, such preparations tend to be forgotten in the routine of day-to-day life. As a subtle reminder, we created giant, 3-D, papercraft Space Invaders on our walls, and ...
Read in browser Andrew Breitbart, 1969-2012
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 01, 2012 09:48 am Conservative author and publisher Andrew Breitbart died this morning of natural causes, according to a statement published at his website. He was 43. The LA Coroner's Office confirmed to ABC News that he died shortly after midnight.
Read in browser Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 01, 2012 09:45 am Our thanks go to Watchismo for sponsoring Boing Boing Blast, our once-daily delivery of headlines by email. Thin is in! Taking a break from over-complicated and generously-sized timepieces popular at Watchismo, Mondaine Watches is introducing a new minimal ultra-thin collection using the instantly recognizable Swiss Railways clock dial, emulating the time-honored design present in every ...
Read in browser Windows 8 Consumer Preview is "weird, brilliant, daring"
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 01, 2012 09:32 am Mat Honan takes a tour of Windows 8, which was released yesterday in preview form for consumers: "Weird can be brilliant. Weird can be daring. Windows 8 is all of those things."
Read in browser Defendant's encrypted laptop yields secrets
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 01, 2012 09:21 am After seizing an encrypted laptop from defendant Ramona Fricosu, prosecutors headed into difficult waters: could she be forced to unlock it? A judge ordered her to give up the password, raising issues of unreasonable search and seizure and the right not to incriminate oneself. Fricosu's lawyers suggested she had forgotten it, but a showdown was ...
Read in browser Lytro light-field camera reviewed
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 01, 2012 09:11 am At The Verge, David Piece reviews Lytro, the camera that allows photos to be refocused after taking a shot. Explained in-depth at The Economist by Glenn Fleishman, it gathers data for all focal lengths with each snapshot. But as Pierce learned, there are compromises in store.
Read in browser Tory Lord tells peers about a weird Internet scam at great length
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 01, 2012 04:51 am On February 16th, Lord David James of Blackheath (a Conservative life peer) spoke for 11 minutes in the UK House of Lords about a supposed $15 trillion federal reserve conspiracy that involved more gold than has ever been mined. It turned out he had fallen for a widespread scam. "Mr. Riyadi has sent me a ...
Read in browser Ken MacLeod's Intrusion: a surveillance and bioscience dystopia with the best of intentions
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 01, 2012 04:27 am Ken MacLeod's new novel Intrusion is a new kind of dystopian novel: a vision of a near future "benevolent dictatorship" run by Tony Blair-style technocrats who believe freedom isn't the right to choose, it's the right to have the government decide what you would choose, if only you knew what they knew. Set in North ...
Read in browser Irish SOPA signed into law
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 01, 2012 03:04 am The "Irish SOPA" law, which makes provision for arbitrary, ISP-level national censorship without court orders, has been signed -- despite the law's unpopularity and the widespread protests against it. The Irish Minister for Research and Innovation, Sean Sherlock, is insisting that the final version of the bill is much more limited than earlier proposals, and ...
Read in browser Art-video made by attaching pyramidal crystals to an LCD
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 01, 2012 01:35 am Mikey P sez, "A guy I went to art school with, Kit Webster, has made something unusual and pretty captivating by attaching pyramid-shaped crystals to an LCD screen and running some kind of algorithmically-generated video through them. It creates a hypnotic, kaleidoscopic effect and is well worth checking out. (The video's under 2 minutes long, ...
Read in browser Hidden camera footage of police officers hindering citizens who try to file complaints
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 01, 2012 12:00 am This video is a montage of hidden camera footage of police officers across America -- in unspecified jurisdictions -- intimidating or otherwise hindering someone who has asked for a complaint form. They ask for ID, they demand details, they make veiled threats, they make explicit threats. This is exactly what happened to me the two ...
Read in browser A moronic bike thief attempts to ply his trade
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 29, 2012 11:46 pm [Video Link] From Animal New York: While out on a shoot Friday, the ANIMAL team captured footage of a thief with questionable intelligence trying to steal parts from a locked up bike on the Lower East Side. The video was shot at around 3PM on Attorney Street (between Houston and Stanton). That’s when a young ...
Read in browser Icebound, long-abandoned Communist flying saucer in the cliffs of Bulgaria
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 29, 2012 11:18 pm Timothy sez, "This is a link to some photos I have took of Buzludzha (pronounced Buz'ol'ja) a very remote building in the Balkan Mountains. It is Bulgaria's largest monument to Communism which was left to ruin after the revolution in 1989. An incredible 70 metre tall, 1970's 'flying saucer' perched precariously in the snow on ...
Read in browser Deco hood ornaments of Lalique
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 29, 2012 09:41 pm RM Auction is selling off a lot of Lalique hood ornaments ("mascots") collected by Ele Chesney. They're as lovely a collection of deco beasties as you'll find anywhere. In 1925, André Citroën's company was a primary sponsor and exhibitor for the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. The motoring magnate rented ...
Read in browser In Minecraft, a fountain of cats at the top of the world
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 29, 2012 09:09 pm 271kochu created a "fountain of cats" in Minecraft by building a structure that extended to the top of the world, then exploiting the game's simple flocking rules for virtual cats to entice the sprites to form a never-ending fountain that is a joy to behold. Catsplosion (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
Read in browser TED2012: Post Secret - Frank Warren
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 29, 2012 08:30 pm [Video Link] Frank Warren is the founder of Post Secret. He's received over 500,000 postcards from anonymous people around the world who have shared a secret they've never told anyone before. I interviewed Frank right after his fantastic TED talk this afternoon, which got standing ovation. See all my TED2012 coverage here.
Read in browser A pessimist and an optimist talk at TED2012
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 29, 2012 08:26 pm The first two videos from TED2012 are up. They're from yesterday's session. Paul Gilding, author of The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World, gave a very depressing talk about the imminent end of life as we know it. It's titled The ...
Read in browser 12-port USB strip
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 29, 2012 08:06 pm This 12-port USB power-strip looks like just the thing for people like me, who have three or four USB switches daisy-chained behind our desks (in fact, I could use a 24-port model). I have no idea if this is a crapgadget or not, but I like the underlying notion. Satechi 12 Port USB Hub with ...
Read in browser Smithsonian building archive of printable 3D scans
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 29, 2012 07:03 pm The Smithsonian, the world's largest museum, is planning on producing 3D scans of its collection and making them freely available to the public to print out at home on their 3D printers (or incorporate into their virtual worlds). CNet's Daniel Terdiman has the story: Update: Sarah Taylor Sulick from the Smithsonian sez, "Unfortunately we have ...
Read in browser Scrap rayguns from Clayton Bailey
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 29, 2012 05:59 pm On Wired, Matt Simon profiles Clayton Bailey, who makes spectacular rayguns out of junk and scrap, and who is possessed of a truly magnificent mustache. Next you'll notice the many steampunkish ray guns — from dueling pistols to rifles to turrets — that Bailey has constructed from materials he found at flea markets and scrap ...
Read in browser TED2012: littleBits creator Ayah Bdeir
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 29, 2012 05:18 pm [Video Link] Ayah Bdeir is the founder and lead engineer of littleBits, an open source library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping and play. littleBits won Popular Science's "Best of Toy Fair 2012" and Ayah was named a TED Fellow this year. I interviewed her this morning at TED2012 in ...
Read in browser Celebrating the wartime pleasure of getting loaded and cleaning your guns
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 29, 2012 04:39 pm This wartime ad from Life encourages you to get loaded on fine booze at home while cleaning your guns, to leave the roads and railways clear for Our Boys. Life, October 16, 1944
Read in browser Old toy for teaching children to accurately drop atom bombs
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 29, 2012 04:00 pm Before the "Nintendo wars" of the early 21st century, there were these toys, which invited young children to practice accurately releasing atom bombs. I'm not sure that the skills you learned with this gadget would translate into real A-bombing practice, though, which probably disappointed some youngsters. Atom Bomber
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