[Sponsor] Our Biggest Swiss Watch Sale Ever! Save 40% on select Tendence Watches at Watchismo for a very limited time. Apply coupon code TENDENCE40 at checkout to redeem. A blend of form & function, the Tendence collections are a highly evolved & original concept - extreme dimensions never before seen in a wristwatch - the extreme three-dimensional digits are carved high above the concave dial and built into multi-material casings of stainless steel, polycarbonate or titanium. Tendence Watches come from Lugano Switzerland and are now available worldwide at Watchismo. This coupon code expires very soon!
Donna Summer, RIP Optical illusion tees look different depending on your perspective The worst song ever Geckos can't climb teflon People of Burning Man [NSFW] How books are born Science fiction mass-signing in Arlington on May 18 (tomorrow!) Video of cool undersea jelly blob London cops want to suck your phone dry in an instant Energy is more than sources; energy is systems Please insert your Sir Mix-a-Lot joke here Lazy harp seal has no job Enter the world of the xenopus Canada's warrantless surveillance bill is, improbably, dead Chuck Brown, godfather of Go-Go music, dies at 75 EFF Geek Reading, May 30 in San Francisco Global subway systems converge on common topologies Mute Watch: capacitive, accelerometer-aware "blank" watch Robert Armstrong's painted Django Guitar Jazzy Communist hymn Little Free Library can help put a library on your corner Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to return their medals to protest war on terror at Chicago NATO summit this weekend Canadian MP: ripping a CD is like stealing a pair of shoes Apps for Kids 022: Junk Jack A photo of a photo of Soyuz Placebo: Now available in maximum strength More detail on what Kodak was doing with a neutron multiplier Dog Vacay: Airbnb for dogs Woman controls robot arm with her mind From hacker to wonk Donna Summer, RIP
By Xeni Jardin on May 17, 2012 12:29 pm One of the greats is gone. Donna Summer died of cancer this morning in Florida, according to reports. The Queen of Disco was 63. About "I Feel Love," the synth-driven club anthem she recorded with Giorgio Moroder in 1977, Brian Eno said at the time: "This is it, look no further. This single is going ...
Read in browser Optical illusion tees look different depending on your perspective
By Cory Doctorow on May 17, 2012 12:00 pm Answersquestions sez, "These shirts designed by an Architecture professor friend of mine at Carnegie Mellon depend on perspective and distance in order to be seen. Check out that SKULL!" Most tees are the same: splashy graphic or logo centered on a shirt for others to read. Vantage Tees are site-specific art pieces using optical illusions ...
Read in browser The worst song ever
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 17, 2012 11:11 am Last year, at the Twin Cities branch of the BoingBoing Meetup Day event, musician Jeremy Messersmith brought the lyrics to a song he was working on—a song intended to be as terrible a song as he could possibly write. Now, you can enjoy "It's the Heat" as an actual recorded song ... a song that ...
Read in browser Geckos can't climb teflon
By Cory Doctorow on May 17, 2012 11:00 am Tom Quinn sez, "A gecko struggles with the low van der Waals forces encountered when climbing a non-stick pan." Here's a Google Translate of the French description on the video: We conducted an experiment with a gecko on a Tefal frying pan, that is to say, a pan made of Teflon. The gecko, despite numerous ...
Read in browser People of Burning Man [NSFW]
By Cory Doctorow on May 17, 2012 10:58 am Julian Cash's The People of Burning Man is a beautifully produced photo-portrait book shot over many consecutive years at Burning Man, the giant, weird, delightful art and culture festival that takes place every summer in Nevada's Black Rock desert. Cash -- who's quite an accomplished and experimental portraitist -- does a wonderful job of bringing ...
Read in browser How books are born
By Rob Beschizza on May 17, 2012 10:28 am Mariah Bear created an amusing infographic explaining the book proposal process. [via Mediabistro. Thanks, John Biggs]
Read in browser Science fiction mass-signing in Arlington on May 18 (tomorrow!)
By Cory Doctorow on May 17, 2012 10:21 am James Morrow writes, "As part of the 2012 Nebula Awards Weekend, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America will hold a mass autographing session at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia, on Friday May 18th from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm. This event is free and open to the ...
Read in browser Video of cool undersea jelly blob
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 17, 2012 10:00 am [Video Link] Steve Haddock, a research scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (as well as a MAKE contributor, and co-author of a great book called Practical Computing for Biologists) just posted this video about a weird and wonderful jelly called the scyphomedusa Deepstaria. If you like what you see here, visit Jellywatch, Steve's ...
Read in browser London cops want to suck your phone dry in an instant
By Cory Doctorow on May 17, 2012 09:12 am The Met, London's police force, is buying "mobile device data extraction" devices that can suck all the data out of your phone "in minutes" -- that's where you've been, who you know, what you've said to them, what websites you visit, and, depending on your apps, what groceries you buy, when you've called for a ...
Read in browser Energy is more than sources; energy is systems
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 17, 2012 09:00 am When we talk about energy, we often talk about it in very disconnected ways. By that, I mean we talk about new renewable generation projects, we talk about cleaning up dirty old power plants, and we talk about personal decisions you and I can make to use less energy, or get more benefits from the ...
Read in browser Please insert your Sir Mix-a-Lot joke here
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 17, 2012 08:50 am Humans' have exceptionally rounded rear ends compared to our primate relatives. Turns out, that beefed-up gluteus maximus helps stabilize our upper body when we run, keeping us from falling forward. Read more about the biology and theoretical evolution of running at the Harvard Gazette. (Via Nicholas Thompson)
Read in browser Lazy harp seal has no job
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 17, 2012 08:15 am Good luck getting this song out of your head. Via Deep Sea News Video Link
Read in browser Enter the world of the xenopus
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 17, 2012 08:00 am Every now and then, I get a glorious reminder of just how much the Internet has enriched my life. Fifteen years ago, if I had arrived at a conference center—as I did yesterday for my stint in the Marine Biological Laboratory Science Journalism Fellowship program—and seen a sign in the lobby announcing the presence of ...
Read in browser Canada's warrantless surveillance bill is, improbably, dead
By Cory Doctorow on May 16, 2012 08:54 pm Remember Canada's Bill C-30, the sweeping surveillance bill proposed by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who declared that if you opposed unlimited, unaccountable, secret warrantless snooping on networked communications by the police and by appointed civilians, you "stand with the child pornographers?" The bill that was a sure thing to pass, given the Conservative majority ...
Read in browser Chuck Brown, godfather of Go-Go music, dies at 75
By Xeni Jardin on May 16, 2012 08:43 pm Chuck Brown performing at the 20th St. Lucia Jazz Festival, May 8, 2011. REUTERS/Andrea De Silva. The artist widely credited with founding the Go-Go music genre died today. Chuck Brown was 75. Like many punk teens growing up in Virginia in the eighties, I discovered this DC-rooted genre of black American music by accident—a go-go ...
Read in browser EFF Geek Reading, May 30 in San Francisco
By Cory Doctorow on May 16, 2012 08:00 pm Joanna from the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes: If you plan on being in or around San Francisco May 30, come join EFF for a Geek Reading with Barbara Simons. An expert on electronic voting, Simons co-authored Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count? As Simons told us recently 'The way we run our voting system in ...
Read in browser Global subway systems converge on common topologies
By Cory Doctorow on May 16, 2012 06:44 pm A paywalled paper in the Royal Society's journal Interface argues that the world's underground rail systems are all converging on an "ideal" form. The paper, "A long-time limit for world subway networks," shows that subway systems grow "organically," in response to the needs expressed by the cities above them over the course of decades, and ...
Read in browser Mute Watch: capacitive, accelerometer-aware "blank" watch
By Cory Doctorow on May 16, 2012 06:18 pm Watchismo's latest watch is the Mute, a solid-cast red or grey timepiece whose featureless face lights up based on touch or movement. I love all the usability thinking that went into this -- feels like the first inkling of what new materials and commodity capacitance and accelerometers will do for all sorts of devices. You ...
Read in browser Robert Armstrong's painted Django Guitar
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 16, 2012 04:58 pm Michael Simmons of Fretboard Journal says: Today is the 59th anniversary of Django Reinhardt's death. To honor him, I posted images of a guitar that I had Robert Armstrong paint for me years ago. The top features Django in heaven, the back has a street scene of Django and the Quintet of the Hot Club ...
Read in browser Jazzy Communist hymn
By Cory Doctorow on May 16, 2012 04:38 pm Your moment of Commie Zen for the day: a big-band lounge-style cover of "L'Internationale," the hymn of the Communist Second International. Assuming that's not to your taste, how about a trance remix industrial dance version. Tony Babino - L'Internationale (via Making Light)
Read in browser Little Free Library can help put a library on your corner
By Amy Seidenwurm on May 16, 2012 03:45 pm I happened upon this mini-library in my neighborhood and am so impressed with the movement that Little Free Library has started that I am getting one together for our street. The concept is simple: put a charming box full of books in a public place, encourage people to share them and to contribute their own. ...
Read in browser Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to return their medals to protest war on terror at Chicago NATO summit this weekend
By Cory Doctorow on May 16, 2012 03:38 pm Iraq Veterans Against the War is bringing veterans to the NATO summit in Chicago on May 20 to ceremonially return the medals they were awarded for serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. The group's statement -- which will be reiterated to NATO's representatives -- is: We were awarded these medals for serving in the Global War ...
Read in browser Canadian MP: ripping a CD is like stealing a pair of shoes
By Cory Doctorow on May 16, 2012 03:00 pm Yesterday's Canadian Parliamentary session included a moment of dramatic idiocy, when the Tory Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dean Del Mastro climbed to his hind limbs to declare that wanting to rip your CDs to listen to them on your MP3 player was like buying a pair of socks and then stealing a pair of shoes ...
Read in browser Apps for Kids 022: Junk Jack
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 16, 2012 03:00 pm Click here to play episode. Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 9-year-old daughter, Jane Frauenfelder. In this week's episode we talk about Junk Jack, a sandbox game that's a lot like a 2D version of Minecraft. It's $2.99 in the iTunes Store. ...
Read in browser A photo of a photo of Soyuz
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 16, 2012 02:54 pm NASA's Image of the Day is always awesome, but I particularly love this image from behind-the-scenes of the Pretty Space Photography Industrial Complex. The Soyuz rocket is seen in the monitor of a video camera moments before Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineers Joseph Acaba and Sergei Revin arrived to board the rocket at ...
Read in browser Placebo: Now available in maximum strength
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 16, 2012 02:47 pm For only 6 British Pounds, you can cure what ails you with Placebo maximum strength sugar pills. I'm a little sad that Etsy user spellingmistakes got to this idea before I could start marketing Placebex, as I've been threatening to do since approximately 2001. Maybe there's an intellectual property lawsuit in there someplace. ;) And, ...
Read in browser More detail on what Kodak was doing with a neutron multiplier
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 16, 2012 02:34 pm Earlier today, David told you about a news story that's everywhere right now: The fact that the Kodak company ran a small nuclear facility at its research lab in Rochester, New York. The facility closed down in 2007, but I can totally understand why this story interests people. It's nuclear! And it is really weird ...
Read in browser Dog Vacay: Airbnb for dogs
By David Pescovitz on May 16, 2012 02:29 pm Dog Vacay is like Airbnb for canines. This is brilliant because on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. (Thanks, Marina Gorbis!)
Read in browser Woman controls robot arm with her mind
By David Pescovitz on May 16, 2012 02:07 pm In this video, a woman known as Cathy, who is unable to speak or move any of her limbs or torso, controls a robot arm with her mind to take a sip of coffee. This fantastic breakthrough is reported in the current issue of the science journal Nature. Cathy has been implanted with a BrainGate ...
Read in browser From hacker to wonk
By Cory Doctorow on May 16, 2012 01:45 pm This week on the always excellent Command Line podcast, Thomas Gideon -- senior staff technologist for the New America Foundation -- describes his journey from programmer to technology wonk (MP3), explaining the relationship between code and policy.
Read in browser 
No comments:
Post a Comment