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Popular Science archives, online and free
Junior Senior, "Can I Get Get Get" (Greatest Song of All Time of the Day: Special Saturday Night Dance Party Edition)
Boing Boing Video Game Quiz!
HOWTO beat the London cops on a BS terrorism stop
Full-content RSS feeds harm page views, but not viewership
Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, "Wooly Bully" (Greatest Song of All Time of the Day)
Saturday Morning Science Experiment: Traffic lights

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 11:02 PM PST

Popular Science, in partnership with Google, just put its 137-year archive online, for free. You can't yet browse by issue; rather, the entry point is a keyword search box. But yes, the ads are all there too. At left, Chatroulette, er, I mean "You See Your Party On New Video Phone" (September, 1950). Ah, the history of the future never gets old.

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Junior Senior, "Can I Get Get Get" (Greatest Song of All Time of the Day: Special Saturday Night Dance Party Edition)

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 01:56 PM PST

It's like Chic and Abba had a baby!

Boing Boing Video Game Quiz!

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 09:52 AM PST

We've collected screenshots from 15 popular—and not-so-popular—video games. Think you can pick the correct title from a list of four? As many of these franchises were offered on multiple platforms, you don't have to name the version—just the title that matches the visual. There will also be a (parenthetical) hint with each possible answer, naming the developer, publisher or platform. After you take the quiz, come on back and let us know how well you did! And if you have an idea for a future quiz, tell us your suggestion! Enough rat-a-tat... give the quiz a whirl.

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HOWTO beat the London cops on a BS terrorism stop

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 09:21 AM PST

Glyn sez, "The Love Police do an amazing job demonstrating how to get out of being searched under section 44 of the Terrorism Act. Stopped by police outside the Tower of London, they avoid being searched, having to give their personal details and having their camera film looked at simply by stating the law, remaining calm and polite. (Although keeping the video camera rolling probably helped too.) The police sent an Inspector (rather senior), two Sergeants, five officers and four police cars. But in the end they walk away."

The Love Police: How to Escape a TERROR STOP (Thanks, Glyn!)

Previously:

Full-content RSS feeds harm page views, but not viewership

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 09:14 AM PST

Merlin Mann calls for websites to offer free, full-text RSS feeds. Jason Snell agrees, but wonders if offering them harms web traffic. As Boing Boing's had a full-content feed since the dawn of time, we can't really tell, but John Gruber switched only recently. He says that in his experience, a dip in traffic did result--but that in the long run, his RSS feed became the primary source of income for Daring Fireball:

"What is "traffic"? I suspect Snell is talking about page views. ... When I switched DF's free public RSS feed to full-content in August 2007, DF's web page views had been growing steadily month-to-month. After the switch, web page views were stagnant, with no growth, for about a year. (If anything, they went down in the first few months.) But readership clearly continued to grow: subscribers to the feed skyrocketed. And, about a year ago, even web page views started growing significantly once again -- going from a little over one million per month to a little over two million per month.

Perhaps the singular focus of Gruber's subject matter allows him to charge selected sponsors a premium for feed advertising, whereas more diverse sites aren't likely to get good deals (see Snell's follow-up). But his point is a doozy: while subscribers to a full-content RSS feed offer the most attention, they generate the least page views.

Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, "Wooly Bully" (Greatest Song of All Time of the Day)

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:09 PM PST

The back cover of the glorious compilation Best of Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, which I am unable to locate online, portrays four strangely attired people running around a tree. They don't seem to know why they are doing this, but they are enjoying themselves immensely, and seem committed to continuing the action until they fall down. This is an ideal image for understanding the band. Sam the Sham, whose real name is Domingo Samudio, is a Dallas-born crazy (last we heard he was a street preacher and motivational speaker working out of Memphis) who loved raunchy, laconic rock and roll of the most giddily mindless variety, and his sidemen--Ray Stinnet, David Martin, Jerry Patterson, and Butch Gibson--were consistently able to carry him to a demented part of frat-rock heaven. They recorded briefly for something called Dingo Records and then moved to MGM. Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs are best known for their pair of Number Two smashes, "Wooly Bully," a masterwork of indecipherability that made "Louie Louie" sound like an enunciation class, and "Li'l Red Riding Hood," a hormone-laced fairy tale with a happy ending. If you're guessing an enormous Kingsmen influence on these organ-heavy folks, you're right. Hits aside, the modest gifts of the band were surprisingly malleable, as showcased on charming, wacked-out cuts like "The Hair on My Chinny Chin Chin," "El Toro de Goro (The Peace Loving Bull)," and "(I'm in With) The Out Crowd." All these songs were defiantly insubstantial, and all held out deep meanings to those with the right bent. How much fun is this nonsense? Even a lipsynched (?) version of "Wooly Bully" will improve your day (embedded at the top of this post). More after the jump.

Alas, this is one of the most-covered numbers ever: