WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
Robert Crumb on the famous and infamous Your brain, your food, and obesity TOM THE DANCING BUG: The Outer Reaches of Plot Twists - Brain in a Beaker! Commuting illustrator draws his fellow riders, publishes a newspaper for them containing his sketches An animal rights pop quiz After 20 years, a former teacher returns to Tanzania Sony pirates itself with "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" disc Describe a flame, win a VIP pass to the World Science Festival 12 days until "The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist"! (and your chance to win free copy) Pixelated furniture Use it up, wear it out, make it do! Apps for Kids 014: Combin3 Sushi that looks like a Japanese Battleship As seen on TV Playing "Still Alive" with a fiber laser and a piece of stainless steel Humble Indie Bundle: name your price for DRM-free games for Android, Mac, Win, Lin Apps for Kids 014: Combin3 "I'm proud of you," deaf man signs to Obama in ASL. "Thank you," president signs back. Girl Walk: 77-minute dance-film accompanies Girl Talk's All Day Fooling facial recognition surveillance cameras with cunning and crocheting Will the FAA stop prohibiting electronic devices on commercial flights? 1977 CB radio ad Dutch Catholic Church accused of castrating 10 young men The murder of Trayvon Martin In economically devastated Greece, internet-enabled barter economy rises Wooden skyscrapers: efficient, fire-safe, environmentally friendly(ier) NYPD and Bloomberg vs. Occupy Wall Street: "Just hit them" 13 days until "The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist"! (and your chance to win free copy) Neil deGrasse Tyson on faster-than-light particles (live streamed event starts at 7:30 pm Eastern) Famous painter of prehistoric murals for museums, Charles R. Knight - exclusive excerpt Robert Crumb on the famous and infamous
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 21, 2012 12:54 pm Here's a 3-part series on Robert Crumb's comments on dozens of "the famous and infamous," compiled from a large number of interviews. I find it fascinating and I often (but not always) agree with him. WILLIAM BURROUGHS Robert: "I love Burroughs also; a great writer. But his best writing is his straight-ahead prose. He wrote ...
Read in browser Your brain, your food, and obesity
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 21, 2012 12:48 pm We recently hosted an article by scientist and guest blogger Stephan Guyenet that explained how certain foods—those with a high calorie density, fat, starch, sugar, salt, free glutamate (umami), certain textures (easily chewed, soft or crunchy, solid fat), certain flavors, an absence of bitterness, food variety, and drugs such as alcohol and caffeine—could trip reward ...
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: The Outer Reaches of Plot Twists - Brain in a Beaker!
By Ruben Bolling on Mar 21, 2012 12:30 pm You will visit the TOM THE DANCING BUG WEBSITE, and you will follow RUBEN BOLLING on TWITTER.
Read in browser Commuting illustrator draws his fellow riders, publishes a newspaper for them containing his sketches
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2012 12:27 pm Newspaper Club is a service in London that lets people publish super-limited-edition newspapers. They're always finding surprising and sweet niches for newspapers. One recent example is Steve Wilkin, an illustrator who rides the 7:38 train from Hebden Bridge to the University of Central Lancashire, where he teaches illustration. For ten years, he's been sketching the ...
Read in browser An animal rights pop quiz
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 21, 2012 11:51 am "Over the weekend, I borrowed a friend's time machine and cold-bloodedly killed a Neandertal, a Homo erectus, an Australopithecus, a dolphin, a chimp, eight sentient robots, the first extraterrestrial visitor to Earth, and my neighbor with the unreasonably loud sound system. Question: in the eyes of the law, how many murders did I just commit?" ...
Read in browser After 20 years, a former teacher returns to Tanzania
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 21, 2012 11:44 am Frank Bures is a friend of mine here in the Twin Cities. He's also one of the best travel writers I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. You might remember his work from a post a couple of years ago, about Bigfoot hunting in northern Minnesota. He has a more-serious piece out in the recent ...
Read in browser Sony pirates itself with "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" disc
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2012 11:00 am The official design for the disc-art on the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo DVD makes the disc appear to be a pirate copy, designed to mimic a blank, home-burned disc with the movie's title handwritten in black marker on it. Dragon Tattoo Has Unique DVD Design (via Hack the Planet)
Read in browser Describe a flame, win a VIP pass to the World Science Festival
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 21, 2012 10:47 am What is a flame? If you can explain that, on a level that an 11-year-old can understand, then you could win a VIP pass to the World Science Festival, May 30 to June 3 in New York City. This is one of those questions that is harder to answer than it first appears. Alan Alda, ...
Read in browser 12 days until "The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist"! (and your chance to win free copy)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 21, 2012 10:35 am Clowes Deck In 1991, Daniel Clowes designed a deck titled "Mutant City" for Corey O'Brien and Santa Cruz Skateboards. Daniel Clowes adds, “ I have never set foot on a skateboard.” The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist will be available April 1st. Order a copy today from your local bookseller, the publisher, or Amazon. ...
Read in browser Pixelated furniture
By Rob Beschizza on Mar 21, 2012 10:02 am Design Milk offers a roundup of pixelated furniture and home accessories that one may buy, such as this "Do Lo Rez" Ron Arad rug depicting a serious industrial accident in Minecraft.
Read in browser Use it up, wear it out, make it do!
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 21, 2012 10:00 am This series is brought to you by TurboTax Federal Free Edition. The poster above was issued by the US Government in 1943 to remind citizens to be frugal and resourceful at home to help the war effort abroad. The North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts has an article that provides some context: ...
Read in browser Apps for Kids 014: Combin3
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 21, 2012 10:00 am Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 8-year-old daughter, Jane Frauenfelder. In this week's episode Jane and I talk about Combin3, a visual matching game that pits kids equally against grownups. It's free in the iTunes store. If you're an app developer and ...
Read in browser Sushi that looks like a Japanese Battleship
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2012 10:00 am Brian Ashcraft sez, "A Japanese art student named Mayuka Nakamura created 'sushi warships' based on famous Japanese warships of the past. In Japanese, ikura is often served as 'gunkan maki', which means 'battleship roll sushi'. Nakamura took that imagery and went one step further by creating sushi that actually looked like real battleships." Imperial Warships ...
Read in browser As seen on TV
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 21, 2012 09:58 am Despite what you may have seen in popular network dramas, it's actually rather difficult to perform a tracheotomy with a ballpoint pen. In fact, according to a 2010 study, only two specific brands of pens were able to properly do the job of emergency airway puncture. Visit NCBI ROFL to learn which two. The life ...
Read in browser Playing "Still Alive" with a fiber laser and a piece of stainless steel
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2012 09:00 am Chjade84 convinced an Automated Laser Corporation 20 watt fiber laser to play "Still Alive," Jonathan Coulton's epic anthem for Valve's video-game Portal; as a lagniappe, the laser performs this feat while carving Valve's Aperture Science's logo into a stainless steel plate. There has been a lot of interest in these stainless plates with the Aperture ...
Read in browser Humble Indie Bundle: name your price for DRM-free games for Android, Mac, Win, Lin
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 21, 2012 07:36 am The latest Humble Indie Bundle has launched: "The Humble Bundle for Android 2" features five DRM-free Android games (they also play on Windows, Mac and GNU/Linux), available on a name-your-price basis. As of this writing, they've sold 65,000+ bundles, with about twelve and a half days left. When you set your price, you can also ...
Read in browser Apps for Kids 014: Combin3
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 21, 2012 12:21 am Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 8-year-old daughter, Jane Frauenfelder. In this week's episode Jane and I talk about Combin3, a visual matching game that pits kids equally against grownups. It's free in the iTunes store. If you're an app developer and ...
Read in browser "I'm proud of you," deaf man signs to Obama in ASL. "Thank you," president signs back.
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2012 11:39 pm [Video Link] From H. Hoover at Distriction blog, a little anecdote about a cool interaction that Stephon, a young man who was "born deaf and justifiably proud," had with the president at a recent event: Stephon stood just a few feet away from Barack Obama. The president, busy shaking hands, looked right at him. "It ...
Read in browser Girl Walk: 77-minute dance-film accompanies Girl Talk's All Day
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2012 11:27 pm Girl Walk is a 77-minute dance film that accompanies Girl Talk's astounding album All Day, produced through an extremely successful Kickstarter project that raised $24,817 out of the $4,800 the producers were seeking. I just watched the first half (it's in a series of segments on Vimeo) and was blown away. What's the story? A ...
Read in browser Fooling facial recognition surveillance cameras with cunning and crocheting
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2012 10:08 pm [Video Link] Canadian yarn-lover and privacy-lover Howie Woo has developed an ingenious system for thwarting surveillance cameras that use face recognition technology. His solution involves crochet and LOLs. Here are more photos (via the Boing Boing Flickr Pool). More about Howie's playful creations here.
Read in browser Will the FAA stop prohibiting electronic devices on commercial flights?
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2012 09:50 pm As I noted in a Boing Boing post yesterday, there's news of a possible change ahead for in-flight gadget rules in the US. The Federal Aviation Administration currently prohibits passengers from using electronic devices on commercial flights when the plane is below 10,000 feet in altitude. But the FAA announced this week that after widespread ...
Read in browser 1977 CB radio ad
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2012 09:39 pm This 1977 CB radio ad has it all, from the heavy metal concept album lettering to the lens-flares on every surface -- even a halo for the holy gizmo itself. 1977 CW McCall Midland CB Radio
Read in browser Dutch Catholic Church accused of castrating 10 young men
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2012 09:36 pm In the New York Times, Stephen Castle reports on a case in the Netherlands dating back to the 1950s: Roman Catholic Church officials are accused of surgically castrating as many as ten young men. In at least one case, the act may have been punishment against a child who went to police to report that ...
Read in browser The murder of Trayvon Martin
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2012 08:38 pm Trayvon Martin, 17 (above), was shot to death on February 26 while walking to his dad's girlfriend's house from a convenience store just north of Orlando, Florida. He was unarmed, wearing a hoodie, and carrying some Skittles and iced tea he purchased at the mini-mart. George Zimmerman, 28 (inset), is the neighborhood watch volunteer who ...
Read in browser In economically devastated Greece, internet-enabled barter economy rises
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2012 07:56 pm An interesting piece in the Guardian this week about cashless commerce in Greece, where the currency crisis has prompted citizens to take unusual measures to obtain essential goods. One exchange website in particular is cited, and a unit of barter known as "tems." The network has been online for about a year and a half. ...
Read in browser Wooden skyscrapers: efficient, fire-safe, environmentally friendly(ier)
By Cory Doctorow on Mar 20, 2012 07:36 pm An architect named Michael Green believes he can make wooden skyscrapers that stand 100 storeys tall, and he's prototyping the idea with a 30-storey wooden building in Vancouver. More wooden high-rises are planned in Austria and Norway. Green uses laminated strand lumber, a glue/wood composite, and has char buffers to give it good safety in ...
Read in browser NYPD and Bloomberg vs. Occupy Wall Street: "Just hit them"
By Xeni Jardin on Mar 20, 2012 07:29 pm "[W]hat's been pretty seriously under-covered is this past weekend's amazing outburst of out-of-control NYPD tactics on Occupy Wall Street," writes Choire Sicha at the Awl, along with a roundup of links and videos illustrating just how out-of-control those NYPD tactics are.
Read in browser 13 days until "The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist"! (and your chance to win free copy)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 20, 2012 07:22 pm Alvin Buenaventura, editor of The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist, says These images (above and after the jump below) are previously unpublished sketchbook pages from The Daniel Clowes Archive. They are some of our favorite drawings that didn't make it into the 230-page book. It was a real treat to spend days looking through ...
Read in browser Neil deGrasse Tyson on faster-than-light particles (live streamed event starts at 7:30 pm Eastern)
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Mar 20, 2012 07:00 pm Video streaming by Ustream Tonight, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts a roundtable debate on Einstein's Theory of Relativity, its discontents, and how likely the theory is to stand the test of time. You're all familiar with the recent drama in this department—data from the OPERA ...
Read in browser Famous painter of prehistoric murals for museums, Charles R. Knight - exclusive excerpt
By Mark Frauenfelder on Mar 20, 2012 06:55 pm When you think of dinosaurs, you are imagining them as envisioned by the artist Charles R. Knight 100 years ago. American wildlife artist Charles R. Knight (1874–1953) spent a lifetime creating scientifically accurate and spectacularly beautiful images of Earth’s ancient past, from dinosaurs and mammoths to saber-toothed cats and early humans. For generations, his groundbreaking ...
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