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Tornado snapshot from 1943 Scientology's "Hole" - alleged torture-camp for high-ranking execs who fell out of favor Christopher Eccleston cast as the villain in Thor 2, geekdom is immediately overwhelmed Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo Boyett's Mortality Bridge, now in paperback Nokia Lumia nail polish Jack Black, Will Ferrell and Jason Segel as the Haunted Mansion's hitchhiking ghosts Sight: haunting short sf movie Skittles' bestiality ad Bull attempts to mate with man Lost fur seal makes it to Hawaii Olympic "K-Tape" unproven, scientists say Kids and Mozilla hack my novel Little Brother Aurora shooting suspect's psychiatrist alerted colleagues of threat, but officials never contacted police Sharp cuts Red scare ad for Canadair HOWTO survive a robot uprising (just add water) Perhaps you thought General Butt Naked in "Book of Mormon" was a fictional character? You thought wrong. When Rudy Rucker met Kurt Gödel KFC Loves Gays, starring John Goodman as Col. Sanders (video parody) What ADHD feels like Cat, wearing chapeau, rides through streets on bicycle (video) Desperate banks fall for the 419 advance-fee fraud The Higgs-like particle makes its way to peer review The whooping cough vaccine your children get may not work as well as the one you got as a kid The history (and future) of kid's chemistry sets Romney's tax-free decade All the way to Timbuktu Where extreme weather and infrastructure meet, bad things happen Meet the people who keep your lights on Tornado snapshot from 1943
By David Pescovitz on Aug 02, 2012 12:51 pm My friend Randall de Rijk has an astounding collection of vintage vernacular snapshots. This is his latest acquisition, a photo of a tornado that hit the Cavalry Replacement Training Center at Fort Riley, Kansas, on May 15, 1943 at 3pm. "It did $175,000 in damage, destroying 41 buildings. It took 400 carpenters, working around the ...
Read in browser Scientology's "Hole" - alleged torture-camp for high-ranking execs who fell out of favor
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 02, 2012 12:48 pm The Village Voice has a haunting, well-sourced account of "The Hole," where upper echelon Scientologists who have fallen into bad odor with the group's leader are imprisoned under inhumane conditions and tortured. Debbie Cook was in for only 7 weeks in 2007, but her experience was brutal. She testified that Miscavige had two hulking guards ...
Read in browser Christopher Eccleston cast as the villain in Thor 2, geekdom is immediately overwhelmed
By Jamie Frevele on Aug 02, 2012 12:33 pm This is bigger than Zachary Quinto playing Spock, and even bigger than David Tennant showing up in a Harry Potter movie. Christopher Eccleston, best known in Nerdville for playing the ninth incarnation of the Doctor on Doctor Who, has snagged the lead villain role in Thor 2: The Dark World. How will those of us ...
Read in browser Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 02, 2012 12:00 pm Our thanks go to Watchismo for sponsoring Boing Boing Blast, our once-daily delivery of headlines by email. Batman & Bane Limited Edition Watches from Diesel's The Dark Knight Rises timepiece collection are available for preorder exclusively at Watchismo. The stealthy black steel and rubber features of the Diesel BATMAN Watch, and the brutal ruggedness of ...
Read in browser Boyett's Mortality Bridge, now in paperback
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 02, 2012 11:43 am Steven Boyett is one of my favorite authors (and has been for decades, since I was wowed by his debut novel Ariel). I reviewed his latest, Mortality Bridge , back in November, when it came out in a limited-edition hardcover. The book's out as an (admittedly pricey) print-on-demand paperback and ebook now. It is worth ...
Read in browser Nokia Lumia nail polish
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 02, 2012 11:14 am When Nokia announced the N9/Lumia 800, I was among the many delighted by the attractive hardware. With the new Windows Phone OS—itself getting surprise raves for its minimalism and focus—it struck me that here was a vision in the sense that technologists and marketers mean it: a contemporary ideal of quality and forward-thinkingness that could ...
Read in browser Jack Black, Will Ferrell and Jason Segel as the Haunted Mansion's hitchhiking ghosts
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 02, 2012 11:01 am Annie Leibovitz has been commissioned by Disney to produce a series of "Dream Portraits" showing actors dressed and posed as characters from the company's films and rides. I'm very taken with this Haunted Mansion portrait: From the Haunted Mansion attraction, Jack Black, Will Ferrell and Jason Segel star as Phineas, Ezra and Gus, better known ...
Read in browser Sight: haunting short sf movie
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 02, 2012 10:01 am "Sight," a short film and grad project from Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo, is one of those science fiction stories that don't treat the technology as a larger-than-life operatic prop, but rather try to present something extraordinary (a heads-up display built into your eye) as though it were ordinary. It's the best science fiction magic ...
Read in browser Skittles' bestiality ad
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 02, 2012 09:24 am Via JWZ, who quotes' John Nolte's amusing outrage: "Pay special attention to the thoroughly disgusting sound effects. You can laugh and say it's just a joke, but through a war of inches, Hollywood continues its assault to define deviancy down and to normalize destructive behavior. If you don't think there's an agenda behind this, you ...
Read in browser Bull attempts to mate with man
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 02, 2012 09:16 am Megan Reynolds at Log Cabin Democrat: "According to the report, a deputy arrived at the home and noticed a man slapping the bull on the head and leading him across the yard. The report says the bull then "tried to mate" with the man, standing up on its back legs and pinning the man between ...
Read in browser Lost fur seal makes it to Hawaii
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 02, 2012 09:11 am Audrey McAvoy writes: A seal that would normally live in waters around the Aleutian Islands and California has shown up thousands of miles away on a beach in Hawaii, officials said Wednesday. Little fella needs a theme song, if you ask me. [AP]
Read in browser Olympic "K-Tape" unproven, scientists say
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 02, 2012 09:08 am Alexis Madrigal on the weird tape that Olympic athletes are sticking on themselves: It's called kinesio (or just 'k') tape. Athletes use the tape as a kind of elastic brace that they say helps relieve pain. The tape and technique were developed by Kenso Kase thirty years ago in Japan. Since then, many companies have ...
Read in browser Kids and Mozilla hack my novel Little Brother
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 02, 2012 12:34 am I'm proud and excited beyond words to see the running notes from the work being done in Chicago by a group of students and a facilitator from the Mozilla Foundation's Hive NYC on a number of video projects using Mozilla's Popcorn technology and my novel Little Brother. Here's an introductory set of notes on the ...
Read in browser Aurora shooting suspect's psychiatrist alerted colleagues of threat, but officials never contacted police
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 01, 2012 09:51 pm The University of Colorado psychiatrist who treated mass shooting suspect James Holmes was so concerned by his behavior, she alerted colleagues in June that he was potentially dangerous. CNN reports that "University officials never contacted Aurora police with Fenton's concerns before the July 20 killings." She "made initial phone calls" about engaging a university threat ...
Read in browser Sharp cuts
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 01, 2012 09:23 pm Japan's Sharp Corporation, best known for its Aquos televisions and solar panel technology, may soon cut 5,000 jobs globally, or "just under 10 percent of its consolidated workforce. (Reuters)
Read in browser Red scare ad for Canadair
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 01, 2012 09:08 pm I'm a bit baffled by the context for this Canadair red-scare ad -- maybe Korean War? Do We Actually Know WHERE to Face Communism?
Read in browser HOWTO survive a robot uprising (just add water)
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 01, 2012 09:03 pm Randall "XKCD" Munroe's "What If?" site continues to shine -- and possibly even to outshine his most excellent webcomic. This week, Randall (whose background is in robotics), looks at what would happen in a robot uprising. He's rather sanguine about this, given the general uselessness of robots in the field. Those robots lucky enough to ...
Read in browser Perhaps you thought General Butt Naked in "Book of Mormon" was a fictional character? You thought wrong.
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 01, 2012 08:42 pm In Vanity Fair, Tom Freston profiles the former Liberian warlord turned evangelical minister whose alias many Americans know only through a character in Matt Stone and Trey Parker's Broadway hit, Book of Mormon. Snip: Today known as Joshua Blahyi, he devotes himself to running a ministry, making amends, and rehabilitating former child soldiers. In his ...
Read in browser When Rudy Rucker met Kurt Gödel
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 01, 2012 08:38 pm Science fiction writer and mathematician Rudy Rucker -- surely one of the world's all-time happiest mutants -- met with Kurt Gödel on three occasions, which he documented in an essay from his book Infinity and the Mind. Now Rucker has reprinted the essay on his blog, along with some of his fine photographs. It raised ...
Read in browser KFC Loves Gays, starring John Goodman as Col. Sanders (video parody)
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 01, 2012 08:19 pm This parody ad skewering the anti-gay in Chick-fil-A is the best thing yet to come out of the whole fast-food-chicken-meets-marriage-equality kerfuffle. "If you want the gayest chicken, you have to visit me," intones John Goodman in Colonel Sanders drag. (funny or die via Laughing Squid)
Read in browser What ADHD feels like
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 01, 2012 08:12 pm Perhaps the best description for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder ever, from Amy Alkon: "Having ADHD is like trying to think while being attacked by a flock of crows or having 16 squirrels in your head, all scampering off in different directions." (OC Register)
Read in browser Cat, wearing chapeau, rides through streets on bicycle (video)
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 01, 2012 08:10 pm [Video Link] This must be seen to be believed. What's with his widdle platform he's standing on, the two discs? And how does he hang on wif him widdle paws? Your theories in the comments. (thanks, herpus derpus)
Read in browser Desperate banks fall for the 419 advance-fee fraud
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 01, 2012 07:30 pm The FDIC has issues a special alert warning that America's debt-haunted, cash-strapped banks are falling prey to conmen working the advance fee fraud, the same scam used in the familiar "Nigerian prince" or "419" scam. The banks fork over big bucks to supposed high-flying investors who are supposed to come through with large sums in ...
Read in browser The Higgs-like particle makes its way to peer review
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 01, 2012 06:56 pm It takes 98 total pages and two different research papers to describe the discovery of the particle that CERN scientists believe is probably the Higgs Boson. The papers have now been submitted to peer review. But, if insanely dense physics research is your idea of good August beach read, you can check out both in ...
Read in browser The whooping cough vaccine your children get may not work as well as the one you got as a kid
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 01, 2012 06:50 pm About 20 years ago, the United States and a few other countries started using a different pertussis vaccine than had been used previously. The change was in response to public fear about some very rare neurological disorders that may or may not have had a relationship to that older vaccine (it couldn't ever be proven ...
Read in browser The history (and future) of kid's chemistry sets
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 01, 2012 06:27 pm Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, my mom bought me a chemistry set. I was in grade school, but I remember thinking it was pretty cool. I also remember being slightly disappointed (particularly after being told that I could only play with it in the garage) that there was nothing in there that ...
Read in browser Romney's tax-free decade
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 01, 2012 06:26 pm Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has told the press that the reason Mitt Romney won't release his tax returns is that he paid no tax at all for a decade. (via Reddit)
Read in browser All the way to Timbuktu
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 01, 2012 05:51 pm Timbuktu is, for the record, in the West African country of Mali. But how did it end up immortalized in Western idiom? Pamela Toler at Wonders and Marvels explains. Here's a hint: In the 14th century, the city was one of the major book-making centers in the entire world.
Read in browser Where extreme weather and infrastructure meet, bad things happen
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 01, 2012 05:23 pm I just posted the first part of a two-part feature about America's electric grid and the risk of blackouts. If this is something you're interested in, though, there's a New York Times piece from last week that you should really read. When we lose our access to electricity, there's usually more than one thing that ...
Read in browser Meet the people who keep your lights on
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 01, 2012 05:13 pm Power was restored today in India, where more than 600 million people had been living without electricity for two days. That's good news, but it's left many Americans wondering whether our own electric grid is vulnerable. Here's the good news: The North American electric grid is not likely to crash in the kind of catastrophic ...
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