[Sponsor] VENTURA SPARC MGS - After years of research and development, the world's first Swiss mechanical automatic digital watch is a reality. Pierre Nobs invented the Ventura Automatic Digital Watch in 2000 - allowing movements of the wrist to activate a rotary mass which relays the momentum to a micro-generator; the electric energy gained in the process continuously feeds an optoelectronic time-module. See all Ventura Watches at Watchismo.
Down with roundrects! Squared-off phone case The LA riots, 20 years later, viewed through food Papercraft gadget to help you figure out the value of resistors Tonight: Join a G+ hangout to talk energy, infrastructure, and science geekery Electrical engineer builds devices to detect ghosts What's inside an elephant? Butterfingers may cost magazine photographer $300,000 Tutankhamen: A mummy story for grown-ups 2,000 patents have been granted for shaped pasta Vintage 1960s Batman TV show photos Forever Alone statue Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo The Investigative Dashboard: Hacking Crime and Corruption [MP3] The Autumn Carnival, by The Dandy Warhols A Lifetime Car Lover Has Found His Match Meet Peng Peng, a newly cloned "good fat" sheep in China (photo) A/B testing: the secret engine of creation and refinement for the 21st century Peak plastic Office of Management and Budget to Obama: veto CISPA Turning web-pages 3D Lightsaber cutlery Scathing response to a stupid legal threat from a sharp lawyer Alan Turing's obituaries TSA agents harass 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and developmental disability TSA screeners in LA ran drug ring, took narco bribes HOWTO make a CAT-AT Star Wars cat-condo Who did the TSA terrorize today? A 4-year-old girl. Why? She hugged her grandma. Space suits sans space men (photo) Piñata cookies Descriptive Camera prints out descriptions of pictures, not pictures themselves Down with roundrects! Squared-off phone case
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 26, 2012 12:57 pm Incase's new iPhone protectors have square (if not quite cigarette box-pointy) corners. Must be a trend! They're $30 and have "flex-fit construction", which I understand to mean "rubbery". Shame about the colors, though: they come only in white, black, clear and pink.
Read in browser The LA riots, 20 years later, viewed through food
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 26, 2012 12:57 pm Could anyone other than LA's Pulitzer-winning food critic Jonathan Gold explain the 1992 Los Angeles riots through the food culture of the neighborhood where it all went down? Nope. (LAT via @shelbygrad)
Read in browser Papercraft gadget to help you figure out the value of resistors
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 26, 2012 12:48 pm If you don't want to rely on an obscene/racist mnemonic to help you figure out the value of resistors based on their colored bands, you can make this nifty papercraft resistor decoder from Adafruit. It’s the newest tool in our Circuit Playground -- when you can’t get to your iPhone or iPad, use paper! One ...
Read in browser Tonight: Join a G+ hangout to talk energy, infrastructure, and science geekery
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 26, 2012 12:46 pm I'm going to be joining a Google+ hangout tonight with the nice folks from Scilingual. We'll be talking about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy—as well as my new book, Before the Lights Go Out. If you want to join us, just circle Scilingual on G+ and you'll get an invite to the hangout. ...
Read in browser Electrical engineer builds devices to detect ghosts
By David Pescovitz on Apr 26, 2012 12:44 pm Electrical engineer Gary Galka is proprietor of D.A.S. Distribution Inc, a company that makes and sells a variety of industrial sensors for medical, aerospace, and factory automation applications. After his teenage daughter was killed in a car accident, Galka began to develop instruments to detect ghosts and scan for electronic voice phenomena that he says ...
Read in browser What's inside an elephant?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 26, 2012 12:05 pm Sometimes, I get so jealous of British television. Apparently, there's a whole series over there called Inside Nature's Giants. It's basically a zoology dissection show, where scientists break down large, exotic animals in ways that help teach viewers about evolution, biology, and the science of animal locomotion. John Hutchinson is an American zoologist who works ...
Read in browser Butterfingers may cost magazine photographer $300,000
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 26, 2012 11:38 am During a photo shoot, photographers working with Art+Auction magazine picked up an irreplaceable 2600-year-old terra cotta statue from Nigeria's Nok culture so they could move it into a better line for a shot. Yada yada yada ... they're now being sued for negligence. (Via Dr. Rubidium)
Read in browser Tutankhamen: A mummy story for grown-ups
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 26, 2012 11:10 am When Howard Carter opened the tomb of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen in 1922 he found a series of chambers piled high with "wonderful things." For nerds of a certain age, this is a story we've heard many times before. King Tut was a part of our lives from childhood. On the list of "Dead Things ...
Read in browser 2,000 patents have been granted for shaped pasta
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 26, 2012 10:53 am Dan sez, "Macaroni and cheese seems like a pretty docile product -- I mean, it's just pasta and orange powder in a box. But Kraft and others use the fun macaroni shapes to help market the products, and to protect their marketing tool, they often seek patents for their shapes. Yes, patents. And... they get ...
Read in browser Vintage 1960s Batman TV show photos
By Jason Weisberger on Apr 26, 2012 10:41 am This photo is part of a small set of behind-the-scenes photos found in Harald Haefker's flickr photostream. I do not know the backstory but they are wonderful.
Read in browser Forever Alone statue
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 26, 2012 10:39 am Matt Scone and sculptor Sanden Henning offer this splendid Forever Alone sculpture. Despite there being only 30 in the limited edition run, they're only $79 each: "We learned a bunch on the whole process of making a toy and shipping it to the US from overseas. We invested about 2.5k into the project, in fact ...
Read in browser Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 26, 2012 10:08 am Our thanks go to Watchismo for sponsoring Boing Boing Blast, our once-daily delivery of headlines by email. After years of research and development, the world's first Swiss mechanical automatic digital watch is a reality: the Ventura Sparc MGS. Pierre Nobs' Ventura Automatic Digital Watch, devised in 2000, allowed movements of the wrist to power a ...
Read in browser The Investigative Dashboard: Hacking Crime and Corruption
By Paul Radu on Apr 26, 2012 10:04 am Paul Radu is building a platform for the hacker community to collaborate with investigative journalists to expose the most vile, dangerous, and bizarre global corruption you never knew existed. Paul is the executive director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). And if you are in San Francisco tomorrow, Friday, April 27, Paul ...
Read in browser [MP3] The Autumn Carnival, by The Dandy Warhols
By Amy Seidenwurm on Apr 26, 2012 10:01 am Sound it Out # 26: The Dandy Warhols - "The Autumn Carnival" The Dandy Warhols have been a band since 1994. They've released 8 widely-different studio albums in these 18 years - their sound has fluctuated between garage rock, electronic and psychedelic. Their new record is called This Machine and came out this week. It's ...
Read in browser A Lifetime Car Lover Has Found His Match
By Advertiser on Apr 26, 2012 10:00 am ADVERTISEMENT This post is sponsored by Chevrolet Volt. Electric when you want it, gas when you need it. Note: The 2012 Chevy Volt offers an EPA-estimated 35 miles on a full charge based on 94 MPGe [electric] and an additional 340 miles with a full tank based on 35 city, 40 MPG highway [gas]. Actual ...
Read in browser Meet Peng Peng, a newly cloned "good fat" sheep in China (photo)
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 26, 2012 07:29 am Peng Peng (below), a cloned sheep, is seen on a video display at the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen, southern China April 23, 2012. Chinese scientists have cloned a genetically modified sheep containing a "good" type of fat found naturally in nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens that helps reduce the risk of heart attacks ...
Read in browser A/B testing: the secret engine of creation and refinement for the 21st century
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 26, 2012 06:33 am Brian Christian's long Wired feature on A/B testing does a good job of explaining the quiet revolution in product design we've experienced this century, the modes of thought that habitual A/B testing encourages, and the drawbacks to those modes. A lot of the products and services we use today are designed to a turn that ...
Read in browser Peak plastic
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 26, 2012 05:29 am Materials scientist Debbie Chacra writes about "peak plastic" -- the moment at which our ability to make plastic (which is made from oil) begins to decline. As Debbie points out, our material world is made of plastic, and it's hard to imagine a post-plastics life. Plastic is more than just water bottles and Tupperware. If ...
Read in browser Office of Management and Budget to Obama: veto CISPA
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 26, 2012 04:27 am CISPA, the sweeping cyber-surveillance bill that is gallumphing through Congress despite its constitutional deficiencies, has hit a snag. The Office of Management and Budget has recommended that Obama veto the bill, should it reach his desk. The bill's up for a vote on Friday. Here's Cyrus Farivar, writing about it on Ars Technica: "Legislation should ...
Read in browser Turning web-pages 3D
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 26, 2012 03:23 am Edan Kwan's 3Dit bookmarklet turns any page into a weird kind of 3D display, by turning CSS levels into a Z-axis. Difficult to explain, easy to see -- click through to try it. Using CSS 3d to make every website into 3d(kind of). It is a bit buggy but you can bookmark the script to ...
Read in browser Lightsaber cutlery
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 26, 2012 02:17 am Domino's Japan is giving away this nifty lightsaber cutlery with its otherwise undistinguished and unworthy pizzas. Star Wars Special Set | TOPICS | Domino's Pizza (Thanks, Francesco!)
Read in browser Scathing response to a stupid legal threat from a sharp lawyer
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 26, 2012 01:14 am A lawyer (or person claiming to be a lawyer) sent threatening letters to people who criticized a featured Etsy seller who they said was actually importing cheap furniture from Bali and passing it off as her own homemade goods. The legal threats were the work of a bumbling amateur, and drew a stupendous, blistering response ...
Read in browser Alan Turing's obituaries
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 26, 2012 12:13 am David Stutz has posted a small collection of obituaries for Alan Turing after he was hounded to suicide as a punishment for being gay. Here's my favorite: "For those who knew him here [at Sherborne] the memory is of an even-tempered, lovable character with an impish sense of humour and a modesty proof against all ...
Read in browser TSA agents harass 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and developmental disability
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 25, 2012 11:50 pm The Transportation Security Administration launched the "TSA Cares" program to assist disabled fliers just four months ago, but a story making the rounds today proves that the TSA definitely does not. The Frank family was traveling from New York City's JFK airport to Florida, and were abruptly pulled aside after a dispute over how their ...
Read in browser TSA screeners in LA ran drug ring, took narco bribes
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 25, 2012 11:10 pm Photo: Reuters. A man is screened with a backscatter x-ray machine at an LAX TSA checkpoint. Four present and past security screeners at LAX took 22 payments of up to $2400 each to let large shipments of coke, meth, and pot slip through baggage X-ray machines. Oh, we are so very, very shocked.In one incident ...
Read in browser HOWTO make a CAT-AT Star Wars cat-condo
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 25, 2012 11:04 pm Redditor BillyAppletini surprised a friend with an "Imperial CAT-AT (All-Terrain Armored-Transport)" -- a cat-condo/AT-AT walker. His Imgur gallery , which documents the build, has some rudimentary plans as well. I wouldn't consider myself a great woodworker or an artist - but I will take credit for being committed to a joke. I wrecked my house ...
Read in browser Who did the TSA terrorize today? A 4-year-old girl. Why? She hugged her grandma.
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 25, 2012 10:50 pm PHOTO: Snapshot by Lori Croft of her 4-year-old granddaughter Isabella Brademeyer, in Wichita, Kan., where she was a flower girl at her uncle's wedding. The child was harassed by TSA goons on the way back from that family event, for the crime of hugging her granny. Earlier this week on Boing Boing, Cory blogged about ...
Read in browser Space suits sans space men (photo)
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 25, 2012 10:28 pm Space suits of U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba (L) and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka (C) and Sergei Revin are ready for a crew's training session at the Star City space center outside Moscow April 24, 2012. The three-man team is preparing for a mission to the International Space Station on May 15. (REUTERS/Sergei Remezov)
Read in browser Piñata cookies
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 25, 2012 10:18 pm Cookies filled with candies, shaped like burro piñatas. The creator of this chimera is the Louis Pasteur of compulsive eating. SUGAR COOKIES WITH A SURPRISE INSIDE (via Reddit)
Read in browser Descriptive Camera prints out descriptions of pictures, not pictures themselves
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 25, 2012 09:01 pm Matt Richardson's "Descriptive Camera" sends your pictures to Amazon's Mechanical Turk and jobs out the task of writing a brief description of each image, then outputs the text on a thermal printer. It's a camera that captures descriptions, not pictures. The technology at the core of the Descriptive Camera is Amazon's Mechanical Turk API. It ...
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