The Latest from Boing Boing

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• RIP Martin Gardner
• 13-year old boy becomes youngest to summit Everest
• If Gandalf recited the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme
• Yu-Gi-Oh and Catholicism booth, NCFest
• Sugary drinks and their equivalent in junk food
• Papercraft junkbots
• InfoLadies of Bangladesh revolutionize rural life

RIP Martin Gardner Posted: 22 May 2010 06:49 PM PDT Martin Gardner, a pioneer in modern recreational mathematics and inventor of popular math games, has died. For thirty years, he penned a math games column in Scientific American (you can buy the full collection here). He was 95 years old. Martin Garnder, 1914-2010 [Discover]

13-year old boy becomes youngest to summit Everest Posted: 22 May 2010 06:38 PM PDT 13-year old Jordan Romero became the youngest person to ever summit Mt. Everest today. Romero completed the climb with his dad, his girlfriend, a trusty team of Sherpas; since they couldn't tackle it from the Nepal side due to age restrictions, the team headed to China and ended up summiting via a much more difficult route. He's one away from completing the Seven Summit — the highest peaks on each continent — he climbed Kilamanjaro at age nine, and is planning a trip to the last summit, Vinson Massif in Antarctica, this December. American boy, 13, breaks Everest Record [CNN]

If Gandalf recited the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme Posted: 22 May 2010 05:00 PM PDT Hunter Davis puts his powers of mimicry to very good use: here he is imitating Ian McKellen in full Gandalf, reciting the lyrics to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air themesong. Ian McKellen - Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) Sir Ian 'Gandalf' McKellen mistaken for homeless, given a dollar ... Nic Cage as Everyone Star Wars/LotR mashup - see Gandalf/Yoda disco-fight! Gandalf willing to star in Hobbit Early 1990s TV commercial - pay $2 a minute to hear a story that ...

Yu-Gi-Oh and Catholicism booth, NCFest Posted: 22 May 2010 05:16 PM PDT More scenes from a book-tour. Today I had a couple hours free, so I stopped in at the NCFest at the state fair grounds near Raleigh, North Carolina (I love a fair!). Lots of great stuff: bought a cheap megalodon tooth, ate Masonic BBQ, and saw this: a booth advertising Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, and "Ask me about Catholicism." (More NC Fest photos) Click through below for some highlights. So great to see so many happy mutants today at the Cary Barnes and Noble. Hope to see more of you tomorrow at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill at 1PM. Next stop is NYC: with events at Books of Wonder (May 26, 6PM); Brooklyn's Powerhouse Books (May 27, 7:30); and McNally Jackson (May 28, 7PM). The tour wraps in Toronto on June 4 with an event at the Merril Collection at 7PM. ( Full tour schedule)

Sugary drinks and their equivalent in junk food Posted: 22 May 2010 05:18 PM PDT World of Mysteries' Men's Health's "Harmful Drinks in America" is a series of photos of sugary beverages next to their caloric equivalent in junk food. Here's a 280 calorie Rockstar Energy Drink alongside a mountain of 6 Krispy Kreme donuts. Of course, that's nothing compared to the 345 calorie Arizona Kiwi Strawberry drink (equivalent to 7 bowls of Froot Loops) and the 870 calorie Dairy Queen Caramel MooLatte, (equivalent to 12 Dunkin' Donuts Bavarian Kreme Doughnuts). 20 Worst Drinks in America (via Super Punch) Update: Thanks to Tim Howland for correct attribution. Neuroscience of junk-food cravings, researched in a Chili's ... End of Overeating: the science of junk-food cravings Canadian junkfood etailer British junk-food reviews Weight-loss through false memories of puking after junk-food ... KFC's Double Down: bacon and cheese sandwiched between two pieces ... Happy Meal is ageless: no decay in a year on a shelf

Papercraft junkbots Posted: 22 May 2010 04:38 PM PDT Japanese papercraft sculptor Takahashi Masakazu makes all manner of lovely things (especially robots!) out of recycled consumer packaged goods packages. Papercraft (via Super Punch) Screaming papercraft robot Papercraft motorized robot Papercraft robot toy with rotating head Papercraft mecha: Metabots Papercraft Wing Commander spaceships My Steampunk Papercraft Commodore 64 MMORPG Identity Crisis ...

InfoLadies of Bangladesh revolutionize rural life Posted: 22 May 2010 05:50 AM PDT Bangladesh's Infoladies ride from village to village on bicycles, toting netbooks and mobile phones, and set up infobooths where they use net-gathered info to teach hygiene, help with childbirth, assist with crop problems, and so on. There's an army of them. "Ask me about the pest that's infecting your crop, common skin diseases, how to seek help if your husband beats you or even how to stop having children, and I may have a solution," says a confident Akhter. "An InfoLady's netbook is loaded with content especially compiled and translated in local Bangla language," says Mohammed Forhad Uddin of D.Net, a not-for-profit research organisation that is pioneering access to livelihood information. "It provides answers and solutions to some of the most common problems faced by people in villages." In Bangladesh this means nearly three-quarters of the nearly 160 million that live in rural areas. From agriculture to health, sanitation and disaster management, the content follows simple text, pictures and engaging multimedia animations to include all users, many of whom are illiterate. "I love the cartoon that tells about brushing teeth and hygiene," says 10-year-old Shamshul. It took a just a brief meeting with an InfoLady for 60-year-old Nahar Hossain to finally identify the pest that destroyed his rice fields year after year. "She matched the picture of my crop with the one on her TV [netbook] and recommended a certain pesticide. I haven't had problems since," says Hossain, who had spent a lot of time and money seeking government help to no avail. Two-wheel triumph (via Beyond the Beyond) Cambodian hybrid motorcycle/WiFi network Handmade mud school in Bangladesh Speccing servers for rural Bangladesh Wireless cottage industries: "phone ladies" of Bangladesh - Boing ... Wireless phone ladies of Bangladesh, revisited

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