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Report: Long before CEO's douchey gay marriage comments, Chick-Fil-A were jerks to workers Chilling effect spreads, as FBI hunts down national security leaks New Nike ad features overweight 12-year-old boy HOWTO open an electronic hotel-room lock without a key NASA's Ashwin Vasavada talks Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity with Boing Boing In mid-'60s LSD research study, dosed scientists achieved creative breakthroughs SpaceX, Boeing win $900 million to develop spacecraft for human space flight Ice-cream ads: words fail me. In a good way. The Library of Congress welcomes our new galactic overlords Babelfish: Adafruit's Arduino-based RFID flash-cards for learning language with open source hardware Patent on a method for exercising a cat Coconut crab is frighteningly large Blackout: What's wrong with the American grid The next book I'll be reading Vote against CISPA, SOPA and PIPA in 2012 Petition to make the TSA obey a court order and hold hearings on pornoscanners The other Olympics Japan launches criminal probe into Fukushima nuclear crisis Sexism in gaming Traffic hacks: elderly woman in China ties sex doll to tree to slow motorists US nuclear weapons site shut after protesters breach security Diving Catalina with Bamboo Reef It sure sucks to work for Chick-fil-A when you're gay Are we all Martians? The curious hunt for life on Mars Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity headed for Mars landing. Are you ready? Cops: handcuffed man shot self A be-mulletted Eric Bana has some very useful advice for aspiring Olympic athletes Enthralling Books: Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell, by Deborah Solomon "Sacrifice Zones" and corporate greed Life in a city made of computers Report: Long before CEO's douchey gay marriage comments, Chick-Fil-A were jerks to workers
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 03, 2012 12:52 pm In Salon, an article about series of lawsuits against Chick-Fil-A by former employees who claim managers "have wielded their authority over workers in ways that break the law: firing a Muslim for refusing to pray to Jesus; firing a manager so that she'd become a stay at home mom; and punishing workers for objecting to ...
Read in browser Chilling effect spreads, as FBI hunts down national security leaks
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 03, 2012 12:29 pm "Current and former high-level government officials from multiple agencies" have been interviewed privately by FBI agents in recent weeks, reports the NYT, "casting a distinct chill over press coverage of national security issues." Agencies are turning down routine interview requests, and halting background briefings. The leak hunt is said to be the "most sweeping inquiry ...
Read in browser New Nike ad features overweight 12-year-old boy
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 03, 2012 12:22 pm [Video Link]. Wieden+Kennedy's new ad for Nike is provocative stuff. Nike isn't sponsoring the Olympics this year, but the ad is timed accordingly. The star of this spot, Nathan, is 12 years old and lives in London, Ohio. He tells Business Insider he puked in a ditch while filming takes. I like this kid.
Read in browser HOWTO open an electronic hotel-room lock without a key
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 03, 2012 12:21 pm Cody Brocious -- a Mozilla dev and security researcher -- presented a paper on a vulnerability in hotel-door locks last month at Black Hat. Many electronic hotel door-locks made by Onity have a small DC power-port that also supplies data beneath them. Brocious showed that if he plugs an Arduino into these locks, reads out ...
Read in browser NASA's Ashwin Vasavada talks Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity with Boing Boing
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 03, 2012 12:12 pm In April, 2011, Boing Boing (well, our photographer pal Joseph Linaschke) visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a peek inside the clean room where the Mars rover, Curiosity, and other components of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft (MSL) were in the process of being built for launch in late 2011 from Florida. Our big photo ...
Read in browser In mid-'60s LSD research study, dosed scientists achieved creative breakthroughs
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 03, 2012 11:55 am Illustration: Jonathan Castro, for The Heretic A wonderful long-read at The Heretic by Tim Doody, on 1966 LSD studies that took place as the US government's position on acid research shifted from "sure, go ahead, scientists" to "nope, this is now banned." The series of tests described in the article took place at the International ...
Read in browser SpaceX, Boeing win $900 million to develop spacecraft for human space flight
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 03, 2012 11:10 am NASA has awarded Boeing (not to be confused with "Boing Boing," you guys), SpaceX, and a Colorado-based systems integration firm more than a billion in contracts to develop spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts. The Chicago-based aerospace giant Boeing gets $460 million. Elon Musk's space transportation startup SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, CA, gets $440 million. And ...
Read in browser Ice-cream ads: words fail me. In a good way.
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 03, 2012 11:05 am I know nothing about the quality of the products on offer at Little Baby's Ice Cream in Philadelphia. But their excellent nightmare-fuel advertisements will haunt me in a good way forever. The one above, featuring a person covered in (made of?) ice-cream eating her or his own head while narrator Matthias Bossi reads copy that ...
Read in browser The Library of Congress welcomes our new galactic overlords
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 03, 2012 10:01 am The Library of Congress has an official standard for abbreviations of different languages. It's a long list, because, well, there are lots and lots of languages that might be mentioned in the Library of Congress. In fact, the standard is so thorough that it includes Klingon. (Via Hilary Mason)
Read in browser Babelfish: Adafruit's Arduino-based RFID flash-cards for learning language with open source hardware
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 03, 2012 09:59 am Phil Torrone sez, "Learn to make a speaking, card-reading toy! The Babel Fish helps you learn to say words and phrases on RFID flash cards by reading the card and playing an associated sound file loaded on an SD card inside. This project is very straightforward and could make a great jumping-off point for your ...
Read in browser Patent on a method for exercising a cat
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 03, 2012 09:43 am When you pull out a laser pointer and get your cat to chase the dot of light around your house*, you are using a patented method of cat exercise. The rights are owned by Kevin Amiss and Martin Abbott (both of Virginia), who patented it in the early 1990s. In the abstract, they describe this ...
Read in browser Coconut crab is frighteningly large
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 03, 2012 09:27 am On the plus side, that means it makes a great comic photo prop. Here, blogger Angelo O'Connor Villagomez plays Edward Crabhands. Native to a wide range of Pacific islands, the crabs used to be plentiful. Sadly, they're one of those creatures that humans have eaten into being an endangered species. These crabs can live for ...
Read in browser Blackout: What's wrong with the American grid
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Aug 03, 2012 09:06 am It began with a few small mistakes. Around 12:15, on the afternoon of August 14, 2003, a software program that helps monitor how well the electric grid is working in the American Midwest shut itself down after after it started getting incorrect input data. The problem was quickly fixed. But nobody turned the program back ...
Read in browser The next book I'll be reading
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 03, 2012 12:25 am Holy cats, Jo Walton knows how to review a book in such a way as to get me drooling. (She's no slouch at writing 'em too). The book under discussion now is Francis Spufford's Red Plenty, available finally in the USA. Spufford's book is an unlikely slam dunk, a blend of fiction and nonfiction that ...
Read in browser Vote against CISPA, SOPA and PIPA in 2012
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 03, 2012 12:04 am A reader writes, "The Bill of Rights Defense Committee has a list of candidates who are running for Congress who strongly oppose indefinite detention of American citizens and SOPA/CISPA. The link also mentions current incumbents who are working to defend the Internet."
Read in browser Petition to make the TSA obey a court order and hold hearings on pornoscanners
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 03, 2012 12:02 am Bruce Schneier writes, Year ago, EPIC [the Electronic Privacy Information Center] sued the TSA over full body scanners (I was one of the plantiffs), demanding that they follow their own rules and ask for public comment. The court agreed, and ordered the TSA to do that. In response, the TSA has done nothing. Now, a ...
Read in browser The other Olympics
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 02, 2012 11:18 pm The British, Irish and French put in predictably strong showings among the world's most drink-guzzling nations; Western Europeans drink nearly twice as much as the U.S. per capita. But no-one knocks it back quite like those in former Soviet republics.
Read in browser Japan launches criminal probe into Fukushima nuclear crisis
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 02, 2012 10:49 pm Finally: Prosecutors in Japan have launched a criminal investigation into the 2011 nuclear plant accident, after more than 1,300 residents filed a complaint against TEPCO executives. Bloomberg reports that the prosecutor for Fukushima City yesterday accepted the complaint, and will start a probe to determine whether professional negligence played a role in the country's worst-ever ...
Read in browser Sexism in gaming
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 02, 2012 10:45 pm Not a new thing for women who game, but it's great to see the New York Times devote more than a thousand words to it. The hate-filled attacks that followed Anita Sarkeesian's Kickstarter campaign are part of the story, but so are a number of anecdotes from tournaments that expose "the severity of the harassment ...
Read in browser Traffic hacks: elderly woman in China ties sex doll to tree to slow motorists
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 02, 2012 10:36 pm According to the rough translation I've found here, an elderly woman in China who lived near a pedestrian crossing that drivers often speed through found a clever way to get motorists to slow down. She tied a sex doll to a tree at the crosswalk. That's her, and her sex doll, above. Tiexue, via Car ...
Read in browser US nuclear weapons site shut after protesters breach security
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 02, 2012 10:15 pm The only US facility for "handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium" was closed temporarily after anti-nuke activists, including one 82-year-old nun, breached security fences. Reuters reports that On Wednesday, 3 activists cut through perimeter fences and reached the exterior of a building where highly enriched uranium, a component of nuclear bombs, is stored.
Read in browser Diving Catalina with Bamboo Reef
By Jason Weisberger on Aug 02, 2012 10:15 pm I'm diving this week with the fine folks from Bamboo Reef, in San Francisco. Every year I try to join them on their charter to Catalina Island. One of my fellow divers, Stacy Kerkela, got this wonderful shot of a California Spiny Lobster.
Read in browser It sure sucks to work for Chick-fil-A when you're gay
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 02, 2012 10:11 pm Great piece over at Huffington Post in which LGBT employees of Chick-Fil-A are interviewed about what it's like working there right now. They're getting it from both sides: the icky customers who thank them for hating gays, and the entitled jerk protesters who assume the same. And, bonus: some of the fast food chain's gay ...
Read in browser Are we all Martians? The curious hunt for life on Mars
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 02, 2012 09:23 pm NASA's newest rover Curiosity, is zipping through space, slated to enter the Martian atmosphere early morning eastern time on Monday, August 6. (Image: NASA) At the PBS NewsHour site, space journalist Miles O'Brien recounts the history of human exploration of the red planet, leading up to this Sunday's planned landing by the Mars Science Laboratory ...
Read in browser Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity headed for Mars landing. Are you ready?
By Xeni Jardin on Aug 02, 2012 06:45 pm NASA JPL's nuclear-powered Curiosity rover will try to land at the foot of a 3-mile-high mountain on Mars this Sunday night (technically, early Monday morning) to learn more about the possible building blocks of life there. The rover is about the size of a car. The whole project costs about $2.5 billion. As you can ...
Read in browser Cops: handcuffed man shot self
By Rob Beschizza on Aug 02, 2012 05:03 pm Just how hard can it be for a left-handed man to shoot himself in the right temple with a concealed pistol after being searched and put in a police car? While handcuffed?
Read in browser A be-mulletted Eric Bana has some very useful advice for aspiring Olympic athletes
By Jamie Frevele on Aug 02, 2012 03:42 pm Before he played Nero the evil Romulan, the Hulk, and other dramatic roles in gut-wrenching movies like Munich and Black Hawk Down, Eric Bana put on silly wigs and did impressions as part of his actual, full-fledged comedy career. The only time he's come close to doing a comedy film was Funny People, which is ...
Read in browser Enthralling Books: Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell, by Deborah Solomon
By Amy Crehore on Aug 02, 2012 03:30 pm This is one in a series of essays about enthralling books. I asked my friends and colleagues to recommend a book that took over their life. I told them the book didn't have to be a literary masterpiece. The only thing that mattered was that the book captivated them and carried them into the world ...
Read in browser "Sacrifice Zones" and corporate greed
By David Pescovitz on Aug 02, 2012 03:20 pm In 2010, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Chris Hedges and comix artist/journalist Joe Sacco travelled through towns in America where real people's towns, homes, and lives are destroyed to benefit corporate bottom lines. The resulting book documenting these "sacrifice zones" is Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. Hedges (and Sacco, briefly) recently appeared on the TV ...
Read in browser Life in a city made of computers
By Cory Doctorow on Aug 02, 2012 03:04 pm Here's a transcript of a classic Charles Strossian rant, his speech at TNG's Big Tech Day in Munich last June. Entitled "How low (power) can you go?" it's a look at life in a city whose entire surface was made of sensing, computing smart matter: I also noted that the combined video and audio streams ...
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