The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Today at Boing Boing Gadgets
- Essential maker skills
- Jeffrey Carver's novel SUNBORN with NASA images
- Tapecraft: art made with tape and markers
- Baby goose with homemade leg brace
- Michael Jackson didn't sell 750 million records
- One-of-a-kind Star Wars vinyl toys for kids' charity
- Iranians say "no" to Nokia over reports of surveillance collaboration
- Richard Metzger interviews Julien Nitzberg about his documentary film, "The Wild Whites of West Virginia"
- Spider pizza may be delicious, but I will not be eating it.
- Injections of soil bacteria make mice happy
- Things to say during sex (Doogie Horner flowchart lulz).
- Soldier won't go to Afghanistan because he doesn't believe Obama is the president of the United States
- Dan Witz' "Dark Doings"
- Kids on Bluegrass
- Photos of parkour
- Space history auction
- Ghostbusters Ecto-1 on eBay
- Pea shooter traditionalists decry use of laser sights at annual competition
- Meeting cost ticker
- Woman takes revenge on tow truck driver
- @BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com)
- State Department apparat asks Clinton to let him use Firefox
- Star Wars/fine art photoshopping contest redux
- Independent comic book artists draw Marvel's superheros
- The art of horse puppetry
- Graphic novel adaptation of Richard Stark's Parker The Hunter
- Phones confiscated at preview screenings: whose hypothetical risk is more important?
- Sale of Business Week could fetch one dollar.
- Visa claims teen spent $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 on prepaid credit card
| Posted: 15 Jul 2009 12:46 AM PDT  Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, we had a special theme day on makeup. Stop by to read about: * three battery-operated mascaras; * why permanent makeup is scary; * how to look hot in high-definition; * a zit zapping gadget called the Zeno; * crazy transformer makeup kits; * a visual history of cosmetics gadgetry; * a video gallery of humanimals; and movie makeup tips. We also wrote about other cool stuff like a laser-cut wooden keyboard, new digicams from Samsung, ceramic knives inspired by cavemen, an ironing board that turns into a mirror, and a Pac-Man stapler.   |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 11:20 PM PDT Uptown Maker's "18 Essential Skills for a Maker" is a damned good list; reminds me of Heinlein's "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." 2. Spot valuable salvage- Not only knowing where to get it, but knowing it when you see it. Finding it isn't too hard- curbs, alleys, and the classic dumpster dive. Deciding whether to keep it is the real trick: can it be broken down? Are there useful things inside (gears, motors, electronics, hardware, salvageable wood, springs, etc.)? Is trying to salvage parts of it a wise thing to do (upholstered items left outside are a great way to get bedbugs into your home)?18 Essential Skills for a Maker (via Make)   |
| Jeffrey Carver's novel SUNBORN with NASA images Posted: 14 Jul 2009 10:37 PM PDT Jeffrey A Carver sez, "The prologue to my SF novel Sunborn (Tor Books), narrated to an animated video sequence drawn from a slew of NASA images from Hubble, Chandra, etc. In the case of this particular prologue, the astronomical images actually do reflect the story of one Deeaab, explorer from across the brane-boundary. I think it's pretty cool, which is not entirely bragging, as the real video wizardry was done by a fellow named Adam Guzewicz. Created for a local arts festival, I decided to see if it might be an interesting way to introduce a book to new readers." Video Narration of Sunborn (Thanks, Jeffrey!) |
| Tapecraft: art made with tape and markers Posted: 14 Jul 2009 10:02 PM PDT  Flickr user Happy Monkey has a set of "Tapecraft" objects: "Crafts constructed from simple invisible tape and colored with permanent markers." Tapecraft (via Evil Mad Scientists) |
| Baby goose with homemade leg brace Posted: 14 Jul 2009 10:00 PM PDT A baby goose with a homemade leg brace, balanced on the liminal threshold between cute and creepy. Goose gets a bionic leg in world-first operation (via Medgadget) (Image: JEFF MOORE) |
| Michael Jackson didn't sell 750 million records Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:56 PM PDT Barry sez, "No, Michael Jackson did not sell 750 million albums, so says an interesting article in the WSJ. The WSJ article generously spins the error as a misinterpretation of songs sold versus albums -- but that's giving a PR flack way too much credit. Those of us who earn our living in the economic trenches deciphering PR spin know a good bullshit tale when we see one. 750 million albums sure as hell qualifies!" Off-the-Wall Tallies of Jackson's Sales (Thanks, Barry!) |
| One-of-a-kind Star Wars vinyl toys for kids' charity Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:54 PM PDT  Bonnie sez, "Artists, comic book creators, toy designers, and celebrity fans are getting out their markers, paint brushes and glue guns to transform blank Mighty Muggs into one-of-a-kind Star Wars art to be auctioned by The Make-A-Wish Foundation. These highly-collectible urban vinyl toys have been available in a variety of characters from Star Wars and Indiana Jones, among other comic book and film franchises. For this special project, called The Empire Muggs Back, Lucasfilm asked popular artists, comics book creators, toy designers and celebrity fans to take blank Mighty Muggs (donated by Hasbro) and transform them into their favorite Star Wars characters, scenes, ships and more." StarWars.com | The Empire Muggs Back: Art for a Mighty Good Cause (Thanks, Bonnie!) |
| Iranians say "no" to Nokia over reports of surveillance collaboration Posted: 14 Jul 2009 06:20 PM PDT A growing number of Iranian mobile phone consumers are boycotting Nokia after the release of reports that the mobile phone maker participated in "collaborations" with the Iranian government: Wholesale vendors in the capital report that demand for Nokia handsets has fallen by as much as half in the wake of calls to boycott Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for selling communications monitoring systems to Iran.Iranian consumers boycott Nokia for 'collaboration' (Guardian UK, thanks Sepideh)
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| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 04:39 PM PDT Julien Nitzberg, director of the documentary film, The Wild Whites of West Virginia, is the guest on the third episode of our friend Richard Metzger's terrific interview show, Dangerous Minds. Shot over the course of eighteen months, the film follows the often comical, sometimes tragic antics of the hell-raising hillbilly White family of Boone County, WV. Surely the state's most notorious clan since the days of the Hatfields and the McCoys, the Whites engage in a mind-blowing array of anti-social and criminal activities with barely concealed glee. Produced by "Jackass" maestros Johnny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine through their Dickhouse production company and MTV Films, "The Wild Whites of West Virginia" takes no prisoners and it doesn't tell you what to think about the Whites. Local law enforcement hate them, but for the most part--barring a several day armed seige one younger White puts them through--but tend to want to stay out of their insane shenanigans. When one of the Whites gives birth and then snorts up ground painkillers in her hospital room while her infant sleeps nearby, the camera was there, okay? It's intimate! Unlike anything you are likely to see unless you live in Boone County, WV. An incredible documentary. Highly recommended.Julien Nitzberg discusses "The Wild Whites of West Virginia"   |
| Spider pizza may be delicious, but I will not be eating it. Posted: 14 Jul 2009 02:28 PM PDT  Over at her Tokyomango blog, our Lisa Katayama (also of Boing Boing Gadgets) has a post up about "spider pizza" offered at a pizzeria in Okinawa.   |
| Injections of soil bacteria make mice happy Posted: 14 Jul 2009 07:04 PM PDT Researchers of a study published in the March 28 May 11, 2007 issue of Neuroscience discovered that injections of a soil bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, increased the activity of serotonin-producing neurons in mice. (The paper is titled "Identification of an Immune-Responsive Mesolimbocortical Serotonergic System: Potential Role in Regulation of Emotional Behavior.") Lowry and his colleagues studied another set of mice, who were subjected to a stress-response test. They dropped each mouse into water for five minutes and timed how long it would take the animal to switch from active swimming to passive floating. Control mice swam for an average of two and a half minutes, while the M. vaccae–injected animals paddled for four. Researchers already know that antidepressants increase active swimming and decrease immobility. The bacteria "had the exact same effect as antidepressant drugs," Lowry explains.Maybe this explains some people's craving for eating dirt? From a CDC article titled "Eating Dirt": Among children, too, it seems eating dirt might have immunologic consequences. Maternal immunoglobulins are secreted in breast milk shortly before birth and for 1 year or more afterwards. Children often begin eating dirt a year or two after birth. As maternal immunity wanes, eating dirt might "vaccinate" children who are losing their maternal IgA, which could stimulate production of nascent immunoglobulins, especially IgA. Eating dirt might also help populate intestinal flora. Discover magazine asks: "Is Dirt the New Prozac?" (Via Seth's Blog) |
| Things to say during sex (Doogie Horner flowchart lulz). Posted: 14 Jul 2009 06:53 PM PDT  Link to complete image.   |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 07:52 PM PDT U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook says Obama can't be president because he hasn't proven he was born in the United States. Therefore, he refuses to be deployed to Afghanistan. [Cook] and his lawyer Orly Taitz have filed a lawsuit so the Major does not have to go to war and fight in Afghanistan because that would be, "in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President's command."  Birthers insist that a giant conspiracy has taken place. The birth certificate showing that Obama was born in Honolulu in August 1961 is fake, they say. Birthers are also certain that some kind of time travel treachery has been undertaken by shadow pinko government agents, who warped themselves back to 1961 to insert notices in the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star Bulletin saying that "Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama" gave birth to a son on August 4, 1961. |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 12:35 PM PDT Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.  What are you doing this summer? Artist Dan Witz is creating a New York City street art series that he calls Dark Doings. He tells Wooster Collective: "I don't think I've ever been as excited as I am about this work I'm doing now... I'm calling it, "Dark Doings", inspired by my recent time in Amsterdam's red light district."   |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 12:25 PM PDT Guestblogger Marina Gorbis is executive director at Institute for the Future. The title of this post is actually the name of the program started by the California Bluegrass Association, an organization that brings together young pickers, ages 3 to 18, to play at various bluegrass festivals. Before I, or more precisely, my son and his friends, found bluegrass, I could never imagine that this traditional American music genre could be the epicenter of young musical talent. And when I mean young, I mean very young. I've seen some amazingly hot pickers who are under 10! What I love about bluegrass festivals is that there is as much great music offstage as on, in the campground where small and large groups, many including very young musicians, jam together. Bluegrass is the ideal medium for these musicians. The basic chords are easy to learn, bluegrass jams are cross-generational affairs with pros often happy to share their skills with novices, and the music is highly social and ad hoc, i.e. you can play acoustic instruments virtually anywhere without any major set up. Although the chords are easy, the possibilities for virtuosity in this genre are immense (think Chris Thile , Bela Fleck , or Bryan Sutton). I also love the fact that at most any bluegrass festivals you can see the "stars," mixing with the audience or standing in line for coffee just like anyone else. Imagine such a thing at a huge rock festival. Above are videos of a few amazing young bluegrass musicians I've come across: Annie Staniec, Molly Tuttle, and AJ Lee with the Tuttles. There are many more out there, young and old, so feel free to link to your favorites in the comments. Previously:   |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 11:30 AM PDT  Fine art and commercial photographers Alex and Cocco created a magnificent series of images documenting Parkour (l'art du déplacement). The photos, "as shot" with no retouching, are collected on their Distil Ennui site which, unfortunately, uses Flash navigation. "Particle Parkour" Previously:   |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 11:05 AM PDT    On Wednesday, Bonhams New York is auctioning and insanely amazing collection of artifacts from the history of space exploration. The 400 lots including such choice items as an Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Star Chart (image above right), a Mercury life raft, and a dehydrated cocoa drink carried on Apollo 13. From Bonhams: From the Apollo 16 mission comes one of the most highly estimated lots in the sale- a cuff mounted check list (image above left) used on the surface of the moon. Presented to backup Commander Fred Haise by astronaut Charles M. Duke after his Apollo 16 flight, the checklist was used during the second and third lunar surface exploration periods by Duke. It was exposed to the lunar environment for over 12 hours and had lunar dust embedded in to several sheets as Duke turned each leaf with his dust coated lunar glove. The checklist's authenticity is further evidenced by a photo of Duke wearing this check list while touching a large lunar boulder. Considering its direct contact with the moon and the lingering proof of its trip in the form of moon dust, the coveted lot is estimated at $200/300,000. This lot is being sold to benefit the non-profit Infinity Science Center, located near NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.Space History auction   |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 10:34 AM PDT  This 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance, converted by Universal Studios into the Ghostbusters' Ecto-1, was up for auction on eBay. The listing does not imply that this was the one used in the movie. I'm sure there were several made for the film and other promotional uses. The high bid was $45k but did not meet the reserve. From the auction listing: There is not a lot that can be said about this car once you see it you know what it is. This car was owned by Universal Studios as you can see by the copy of the title. This is the real Universal car not a copy. The car runs and drives good it has new tires on it know. The car is in a car Museum right now, when it goes on tour it draws a VERY VERY LARGE crowd.Ecto-1 on eBay (via Laughing Squid)   |
| Pea shooter traditionalists decry use of laser sights at annual competition Posted: 14 Jul 2009 10:21 AM PDT The Telegraph UK reports on the World Peashooting Championship where George, the 58-year-old reigning champion, used a high tech pea shooter to win again this year, much to the consternation of traditionalists, who use a simple straw. Pea shooters fight it out for world championships   |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:59 AM PDT  The Meeting Ticker is a fun tool to measure how much money is spent attending meetings. You enter the number of attendees, average hourly salary, and meeting start time, and watch the dollars add up in real time. Meeting Ticker (Thanks, Mathias Crawford!)   |
| Woman takes revenge on tow truck driver Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:28 AM PDT Another advantage of front wheel drive. (Via Neatorama) |
| @BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com) Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:08 AM PDT (Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.)
More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com   |
| State Department apparat asks Clinton to let him use Firefox Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:13 AM PDT Last week's Clinton town-hall with the State Department featured an apparat begging to be allowed to use Firefox: MS. GREENBERG: Okay. Our next question comes from Jim Finkle:Town Hall Meeting to Announce the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) (via Memex 1.1)   |
| Star Wars/fine art photoshopping contest redux Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:08 AM PDT  Today on the Worth 1000 photoshopping contest: "Star Wars Ren 3" -- fine art mixes of Star Wars characters. |
| Independent comic book artists draw Marvel's superheros Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:09 AM PDT  Tony Millionaire's version of Iron Man in the forthcoming Strange Tales mini-series by Marvel looks amazing. Other contributors to the series include Paul Pope, Peter Bagge, Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt, Junko Mizuno, Dash Shaw, James Kochalka, Johnny Ryan, Michael Kupperman, Nick Bertozzi, Nicholas Gurewich, Jason. Wow! The philosophy of the book was to have these creators from 'indy' or 'alternative' or "literary" or 'art' comics come in and do what they do best. I think Marvel readers will really dig seeing radically different versions of their favorite characters, and the fans of these cartoonists will get to see the creators work in a milieu they never thought they'd get to see.Independent comic book artists draw Marvel superheroes   |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 08:24 AM PDT Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.  The New York Times has a story on these beautiful horse "puppets" that appear in a play in London called War Horse: "Making Horses Gallop and Audiences Cry." The horses are seven feet tall, and each requires three human puppeteers working within the body of the puppet to tell the story of an impoverished British boy who loses his horse to a British officer who rides the beast to battle in World War I.
Making Horses Gallop and Audiences Cry. (Image credit: Andrew Testa/The New York Times.)   |
| Graphic novel adaptation of Richard Stark's Parker The Hunter Posted: 14 Jul 2009 09:30 AM PDT  I'll admit that I'd never heard of author Richard Stark (real name: Donald E. Westlake) or his 1962 novel, The Hunter, until I'd read this superb graphic novel adaptation. Eisner award-winning Artist and writer Darwyn Cooke's version is stunningly rendered in black and blue that perfectly matches the mood of this hard-boiled story about an amoral professional thief name Parker who's on a mission of revenge against another thief who double crossed him. Imagine Mad Men, with its cool stylishness, but with characters even more depraved and rapacious, and you'll have an idea for what's in store when you read The Hunter. |
| Phones confiscated at preview screenings: whose hypothetical risk is more important? Posted: 14 Jul 2009 08:03 AM PDT My latest Guardian column, "Stop worrying, Hollywood - nobody is stealing your films with mobiles," looks into the curious practice of forcing attendees at preview screenings to surrender their phones while they see the movie. The industry admits that no one has ever camcordered a movie with a phone, and further, they admit that 100 percent of pre-release leaks come from insiders, not camcordering. And then there's the small matter of all the data on those hundreds of VIPs' phones that are left in care while they spend a couple hours watching giant robots throw buildings at each other. If I wanted to stop movies from being pirated, I'd focus my effort on the places where they leak. In the case of the Oscars, that's the insider awards voters who leak every movie they're sent within six days, not the film critics - who have never, ever leaked a movie by recording it at a preview.Stop worrying, Hollywood - nobody is stealing your films with mobiles   |
| Sale of Business Week could fetch one dollar. Posted: 14 Jul 2009 08:07 AM PDT The Financial Times reports that "McGraw-Hill could reap just $1 from a sale of Business Week, according to people familiar with the 80-year-old financial magazine's losses." Boutique investment bank Evercore is tasked with exploring the possibilities for a sale. The "predominantly print" magazine reported a circulation of 936,000. (Thanks, Richard Metzger) |
| Visa claims teen spent $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 on prepaid credit card Posted: 14 Jul 2009 07:53 AM PDT  Visa recorded a $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 purchase on Consumerist reader Dale's kid's prepaid Visa Buxx card: "My lectures about financial responsibility appear to have failed: yesterday she charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 at the drug store. That's 2,000 times more than the national debt, which is a paltry 11 trillion. The ever-vigilant folks at VISA added a $20 'negative balance fee,' and have suspended the card." |
George's home-designed device featured a gyroscopic balancing mechanism, a hyper-accurate laser sight, and what he described as "other bits" borrowed from his son's Nintendo. 
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