[Sponsor] Demigod designer Philippe Starck has perfectly deconstructed the wristwatch by completely eliminating the center of the dial. All that is left is a big hole where traditional timekeeping has been flushed down the horological toilet. Surrounding the negative space where a watch once seemed to be isn't quite digital and not really analog but both do seem to co-exist in the perfectly designed Starck O-Ring Watches. Minutes are seen as liquid crystal segments growing clockwise around the donut shaped LCD display. The digital representation of hours show through the blocks either positively or negatively, depending where the minutes are located. Simply put, it's revolutionary. See all the Philippe Starck Watches at Watchismo
Obituary for a French superspy Satanists claim vandalism to home a religious hate crime Taffeta/embroidered "Thank You" shopping bag TOR project uncovers flaw in mass-surveillance appliance RIP, Andy Griffith Star Wars Kid makes good TEDx Meta Maggie at CONvergence, Twin Cities, July 6-7 TOM THE DANCING BUG: Judge Scalia - Robed Rage!! Job insecurity in America: a terrified nation of disposable workers How to: Lower tourists into a volcano Team Human: a high-school vampire novel doesn't suck (it rocks) Karl Marx on a MasterCard Aussie parliamentary committee hates ACTA, too UPDATED: Home Secretary to UK net activists Iconic images recreated with Star Wars toys Diablo 3 first impressions Political cartoonist angry Minecraft quilt How the Selectric's digital-to-analogue converter worked Authentic Los Angeles: Raul Ojeda, shoemaker Texas Republicans call for an end to critical thinking in schools OpenROV - open source underwater robot WTF is the deal with people who are contrary conversationalists? Disgruntled customer destroys T-Mobile UK store Chuck D's rules for the music business Slow motion aerial birds eye view of fireworks exploding You got your Syfy in my science What kind of heartless monster wouldn't help a nice Canadian girl buy a laser gun? Impossible Box: a $1 million handmade electronic music instrument Obituary for a French superspy
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 01:00 pm The Telegraph's obit for Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld recounts the florid and exciting life of the aristocrat turned French resistance fighter turned UK special forces killer turned escape artist turned colonial enforcer in Indochina. In particular, La Rochefoucauld was a skilled escapologist, and ballsy as all hell about it: Dropped into the Morvan with ...
Read in browser Satanists claim vandalism to home a religious hate crime
By David Pescovitz on Jul 03, 2012 12:46 pm Mountain View, Colorado couple Luigi and Angie Bellaviste claim they were victims of a religious hate crime after their "Vote Satan" sign was cut down from their front porch. Whether it fits the local legal definition of a religious hate crime or not, most of their neighbors agree that destroying the Bellaviste's property was absolutely ...
Read in browser Taffeta/embroidered "Thank You" shopping bag
By David Pescovitz on Jul 03, 2012 12:29 pm Spotted in the continually-excellent PAPER magazine, this embroidered taffeta tote designed by Lauren DiCioccio. Very clever. Have a nice day. "Thank You, Thank You Tote Bag"
Read in browser TOR project uncovers flaw in mass-surveillance appliance
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 12:06 pm The TOR team have discovered a fake certificate in the wild. The certificate, issued by a US company called Cyberoam, was used in an attempt to trick a user in Jordan into believing that her/his connection to the TOR website, was private and secure, though in fact it was being spied upon by a Cyberoam ...
Read in browser RIP, Andy Griffith
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 10:58 am Andy Griffith, TV star, comedian, raconteur and comedian, has died at 86. I grew up on Mayberry, and I can sing all the words to the Andy Griffith theme (and also the Beyonce mashup). I'll miss him. BREAKING NEWS: Friend Says Andy Griffith Has Died
Read in browser Star Wars Kid makes good
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 10:55 am Ghyslain Raza, best known as Star Wars Kid, is all grown up and curating a military history exhibition on the botched US invasion of Quebec. (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
Read in browser TEDx Meta
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jul 03, 2012 10:16 am The New Yorker's Nathan Heller looks at five of the most popular TED Talks of all time and uses them to explain why, exactly, this series of public lectures is so much more popular than all other public lecture series.
Read in browser Maggie at CONvergence, Twin Cities, July 6-7
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jul 03, 2012 10:12 am Every year, CONvergence draws upwards of 5,000 people to the Minneapolis/St.Paul area for a celebrations of science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and general geekery. This year, I'll be one of them. I'm participating in several of the Con's science and skepticism-themed panels. On July 6th, you can catch me at 3:30 pm, talking about facts, ...
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Judge Scalia - Robed Rage!!
By Ruben Bolling on Jul 03, 2012 10:00 am FOLLOW @RubenBolling on Twitter. Further: JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's proud and mighty INNER HIVE and receive untold BENEFITS and PRIVILEGES!
Read in browser Job insecurity in America: a terrified nation of disposable workers
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 09:50 am Alternet's new series on "job insecurity" opens with a frightening and infuriating piece from Lynn Parramore, who paints a picture of a nation where the new normal is to be marginally employed, in terror of a coming layoff, haunted by unshakable student debt, and in a continuous, panicked search for work, all at once: It ...
Read in browser How to: Lower tourists into a volcano
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jul 03, 2012 09:41 am So, say you're an Icelandic tour company, with access to an extinct volcano (or, at least, a volcano that hasn't erupted in 4,000 years). And say you want to offer tours inside of said volcano, to tourists who don't have the rappelling experience to get themselves down and up the steep sides of the volcano's ...
Read in browser Team Human: a high-school vampire novel doesn't suck (it rocks)
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 10:38 am Team Human is a new young adult novel from Justine Larbalastier and Sarah Rees Brennan, about an ancient vampire who enrolls at a small town high school, where a beautiful young girl falls in love with him. No, it's not that novel. Far from it, in fact. Team Human is an incredibly fresh and original ...
Read in browser Karl Marx on a MasterCard
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 08:51 am The German bank Sparkasse Chemnitz asked its readers to choose from among 10 designs for its next MasterCard issue. The overwhelming winner was this Karl Marx card. Priceless. It's not just cheap irony, either. As Reuters reports, "A 2008 survey found 52 percent of eastern Germans believed the free market economy was 'unsuitable' and 43 ...
Read in browser Aussie parliamentary committee hates ACTA, too
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 08:21 am A crucial Australian parliamentary committee has reported in on ACTA, the corrupt, US-led copyright treaty negotiated in secrecy, and has joined with all the relevant EU parliamentary committees in roundly rejecting it. Ellen Broad writes for the Australian Digital Alliance: Yesterday the Australian Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) presented Parliament with a damning report ...
Read in browser UPDATED: Home Secretary to UK net activists
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 04:35 am Update: Jimmy Wales sez, "They have NOT said no yet. It sounds like the chap from V3 got someone on the phone to read the standard statement." Hundreds of thousands of Britons have signed a petition asking the Home Secretary to abandon plans to extradite Richard O'Dwyer to America. O'Dwyer, a student, has a website ...
Read in browser Iconic images recreated with Star Wars toys
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 03, 2012 01:41 am David Eger, a Canadian teacher, has a project on Flickr called "Cloned Photos" that uses "Clone Troopers and other Star Wars characters to recreate important and historical images" (it's a sequel to another project, 365 Days of Clones). He sells various products based on his illustrations at Redbubble and Society6. Many of these are inspired, ...
Read in browser Diablo 3 first impressions
By Rob Beschizza on Jul 03, 2012 01:08 am I know I'm late with this one, but see, I've had my eye on this fantastic rare in the Auction House and can't quite get my Act III gold runs past 130k/hr. So, busy. Soon.
Read in browser Political cartoonist angry
By Rob Beschizza on Jul 03, 2012 12:08 am Cartoonist Donna Barstow often broaches political themes. Paging Charles Carreon! Someone on the internet wants money from mocking critics, but may need a hand with the legal not-so-niceties. Slate cartoonist Donna Barstow railed on Monday at online forum Something Awful, whose denizens often repost her work and subject it to withering ridicule. Though one of ...
Read in browser Minecraft quilt
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 02, 2012 10:47 pm One of the best things about pixel-art games is how well they lend themselves to tributes in antique media, like cross-stitch and quilts -- these being fundamentally pixel-based themselves. Case in point: Carla from CoraQuilts's Minecraft Creeper quilt-top, an atemporal confection: "I just finished this quilt top today. I have plans for a fleece backing ...
Read in browser How the Selectric's digital-to-analogue converter worked
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 02, 2012 09:00 pm This great video explainer shows the inner workings of a digital-to-analogue converter, using the IBM Selectric's early example of the form to illustrate the mechanism: Using slow motion video Bill Hammack, the engineer guy, shows how IBM's revolutionary "golf ball" typewriter works. He describes the marvelous completely mechanical digital-to-analogue converter that translates the discrete impulse ...
Read in browser Authentic Los Angeles: Raul Ojeda, shoemaker
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jul 02, 2012 07:38 pm [Video Link] My friends Jessica Gao and Gaston Dominguez-Letelier are making a series of video profiles called "Authentic Los Angeles." In this episode, they profiled Raul Ojeda, shoemaker. Authentic Los Angeles is a documentary series that explores and celebrates both Los Angeles heritage and appreciation for craftsmanship. Each film subject, whether an individual or institution, ...
Read in browser Texas Republicans call for an end to critical thinking in schools
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 02, 2012 07:22 pm A meeting of the Texas Republican party in Fort Worth came out with a list of demands for the education system, including a demand that schools end the practice of teaching "higher order thinking skills" because these challenge "student's fixed beliefs" and undermine "parental authority." In the section titled "Educating Our Children," the document states ...
Read in browser OpenROV - open source underwater robot
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jul 02, 2012 06:47 pm David and Eric's open source underwater robot became fully-funded on Kickstarter in one day. I'm not surprised. I met David and his OpenROV at Maker Faire in May and was very impressed. OpenROV - The Open Source Underwater Robot
Read in browser WTF is the deal with people who are contrary conversationalists?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jul 02, 2012 06:40 pm I once worked with a woman whose conversational style was to disagree with everything I said. One day she remarked, "It's a nice day outside." I said, "Yes, it is." She said, "Not really. It's kind of crappy outside." I don't think she was even aware of her behavior. I've come across other people like ...
Read in browser Disgruntled customer destroys T-Mobile UK store
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 02, 2012 05:34 pm A man in Manchester was denied a refund by a T-Mobile store, so he destroyed it, smashing fixtures and spraying around with a fire extinguisher. He's apparently up on criminal damages charges. There's not really any excuse for this kind of thing, but mobile phone operators... Well, I suspect that many people have fantasized about ...
Read in browser Chuck D's rules for the music business
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 02, 2012 05:18 pm From Public Enemy frontman and hip-hop legend Chuck D's Twitter feed, a short and useful list of rules for people who want to break in to the music business (hit the link below for the whole series). Chuck D's Rules for the Music Business (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
Read in browser Slow motion aerial birds eye view of fireworks exploding
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jul 02, 2012 04:36 pm [Video Link] Jeremiah says: "This is a video I shot using giant helium balloons, a GoPro, and a bunch of fireworks."
Read in browser You got your Syfy in my science
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jul 02, 2012 04:33 pm An Animal Planet documentary, which the station insists was intended to be taken as science fiction, has forced the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to publicly deny the existence of mermaids. If you need me, I'll be out back, drinking whiskey and taking aim at the television.
Read in browser What kind of heartless monster wouldn't help a nice Canadian girl buy a laser gun?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jul 02, 2012 04:28 pm Jesse Thorn of Maximum Fun says: A couple of weeks ago, during the "Momentous Occasions" segment of an episode of Jordan, Jesse, GO!, a listener named Donna called in with a dual occasion: she had been admitted to graduate school to study Civil Engineering (she'll be working in green building measurement and certification) and she'd ...
Read in browser Impossible Box: a $1 million handmade electronic music instrument
By David Pescovitz on Jul 02, 2012 04:19 pm This is oddball instrument artist Arius Blaze's Impossible Box, a musical instrument containing synthesizers, sequencing, MIDI, multi-tracking, sampling, a drum machine, electronic filters, and, er, thumb pianos. Blaze writes that "there was a desire in the creation to not come out the other end with million ways to make bleepy sounds." You can own it. ...
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