The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- UK editions of my novels; launch on July 20 with China Mieville
- Finance columnist explains capitalism to children: take things without paying, then sell them
- Two-tone, 1937 Wrigley's ad
- Suitcase converts to a scooter, stroller and luggage-cart
- Where the Brillo box came from
- W00t! sends Associated Press a bill for quoting its blog
- For carbon sequestration to work, containers need to leak less than 1% per millennium
- Parenting makes you miserable, but you think it makes you happy
- Shah Jo Raag fakirs on Coke Studios (video: traditional Pakistani music)
- February 1944: The High Command takes five
- This Gaming Life free online
- Invisible homeless man
- Maps showing density of Tweets in four cities
- US Army: alleged Wikileaks source Manning faces 52 years
- EFF's Cindy Cohn on Colbert Report: Video
- Canadian musician-turned-MP challenges minister on new copyright law
- Bruce Willis: the "manliest scent in the world"
- Don't forget: Boing Boing picnic is this Saturday!
- Fireworks video: 30 minutes sped up to 3 minutes
- San Francisco bans coke from city vending machines
- Jpegasus t-shirt
- Giant bike-friendly junk-cyborg
- Scuba-diving Dachshund
- Squidgey sculpture feels like rolls of fat
- Rapist, murderer, and satanist claims religious persecution
- GOP senate candidate uses copyright in attempt to censor reprinting her previous campaign positions
- US will press criminal charges against Manning, alleged Wikileaks source
- Hot as Hetalia: webcomic-based anime phenom explodes
- Alligator arrested after 'stroll' through town
- Iran: "President unveils second Iranian robot man"
| UK editions of my novels; launch on July 20 with China Mieville Posted: 07 Jul 2010 02:42 AM PDT  HarperVoyager, my UK publisher, have just published British editions of the three novels they didn't already have in print: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe, and Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. There's also a UK paperback edition of Makers out this week. I'm going to be celebrating all these UK launches at Clerkenwell Tales in London on July 20, in an event with China Mieville, chaired by English PEN's Robert Sharp. The event's set for 7PM and space is limited (though attendance is free). Email Clerkenwell Tales to RSVP. |
| Finance columnist explains capitalism to children: take things without paying, then sell them Posted: 07 Jul 2010 02:36 AM PDT Chicago Sun-Times columnist Terry Savage happened upon two little girls giving away lemonade at their roadside lemonade stand. She was affronted at this economic illiteracy: after all, the raw materials for the lemonade had come out their parents' pockets, so they should be charging for the product! The mentality that leads to children giving away their parents' things (rather than selling them) is what has led to America's economic decline, according to Savage: Get that, kids? The correct thing to do with the stuff you appropriate from others is sell it, not give it away! Sounds about right -- companies take over our public aquifers and sell us the water they pump out of them; telcos get our rights of way for their infrastructure, then insist that they be able to tier their pricing without regard to the public interest. Corporatism in a nutshell, really.
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| Posted: 06 Jul 2010 11:09 PM PDT |
| Suitcase converts to a scooter, stroller and luggage-cart Posted: 06 Jul 2010 11:06 PM PDT Agent's modern Move-On luggage design update   |
| Where the Brillo box came from Posted: 07 Jul 2010 12:05 AM PDT Here's the secret history of the amazing, pop-art Brillo box: Shadow Boxer (via Dinosaurs and Robots)   |
| W00t! sends Associated Press a bill for quoting its blog Posted: 06 Jul 2010 11:11 PM PDT  When W00t! posted its delightful notice about being acquired by Amazon, it was picked up and re-run by blogs all over the net. Not wanting to miss out on the action, the Associated Press ran the story and the text, too. One problem: the AP has previously told bloggers that quotations -- however brief -- should be licensed before publication. They even offer these licenses. For a small fee, AP will generously allow you to quote one of its articles on your blog (provided that you don't do so in a way that criticizes the AP, of course, and they reserve the right to take the quote back at any time). So W00t! sent the AP a bill for $17.50 for the quotation: The AP, we can't thank you enough for looking our way. You see, when we showed off our good news on Wednesday afternoon, we expected we'd get a little bit of attention. But when we found your little newsy thing you do, we couldn't help but notice something important. And that something is this: you printed our web content in your article! The web content that came from our blog! Why, isn't that the very thing you've previously told nu-media bloggers they're not supposed to do?Woot To AP: You Owe Us $17.50 For Copying Our Content   |
| For carbon sequestration to work, containers need to leak less than 1% per millennium Posted: 07 Jul 2010 12:05 AM PDT Carbon sequestration -- pumping the carbon emitted by coal and other "dirty" power plants underground -- is an attractively macho, big-engineering style solution to climate change. Rather than developing new kinds of power (which might favor new companies and regions) or new patterns of use (which might require effort on the part of individuals), we simply contract with firms who take all our carbon and lock it away underground for millennia. What could be simpler? Carbon dioxide sequestration isn't a great global warming solution unless we develop less leaky equipment or commit to regular re-sequestering, according to a paper published in Nature Geoscience. If the containers used don't leak less than one percent every thousand years, atmospheric carbon would have to be monitored carefully and resequestered on a regular basis over tens of thousands of years in order to match the effects of reducing carbon emissions. Otherwise, sequestration would only slow the warming, not stop it.Carbon sequestration too leaky to stop global warming
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| Parenting makes you miserable, but you think it makes you happy Posted: 06 Jul 2010 10:47 PM PDT Don't get me wrong, I love my daughter. Even when -- as last night -- she refuses to go to bed for two hours and then gets up at 3AM and refuses to go back to bed for two hours. But it's somehow reassuring to know that it's supposed to be miserable at times: The economist Andrew Oswald, who's compared tens of thousands of Britons with children to those without, is at least inclined to view his data in a more positive light: "The broad message is not that children make you less happy; it's just that children don't make you more happy." That is, he tells me, unless you have more than one. "Then the studies show a more negative impact." As a rule, most studies show that mothers are less happy than fathers, that single parents are less happy still, that babies and toddlers are the hardest, and that each successive child produces diminishing returns. But some of the studies are grimmer than others. Robin Simon, a sociologist at Wake Forest University, says parents are more depressed than nonparents no matter what their circumstances--whether they're single or married, whether they have one child or four.All Joy and No Fun: Why parents hate parenting. (via Kottke)   |
| Shah Jo Raag fakirs on Coke Studios (video: traditional Pakistani music) Posted: 06 Jul 2010 05:05 PM PDT On Sundays, most Pakistanis will turn away from their usual Indian TV consumption and catch Coke Studios on one of the many Pakistani channels that have syndicated it. I blogged about the show last year. I wanted to share a new song that was in the second episode of the new season. The song is called Moomal Rano. I'm not familiar with the Sindhi poets and singers, so here's the description from the Coke Studios website: Shah Jo Raag fakirs from Bhit Shah take centre stage with 'Moomal Rano', a sur from Shah Jo Raag Risalo. As they sing and chant 'Moomal Rano', the fakirs also mark a monumental first of collaborating their unique five-stringed dhamboora with western instruments.The singers are natives to Bhit Shah, an area in the Sindh province that is known for the great poet Abdul Latif Bhithai. The men singing the sur are known as fakirs. The term fakir means many things. In colloquial Urdu, it can be used as a derogatory term for a street beggar. In the best sense, a fakir is someone who dedicated his/her time for the worship of God and lives a fairly ascetic life. From what I'm told, you can catch the fakirs performing at the tomb of Abdul Latif Bhitai. The sur and translation follow... O mian, Allah mian... (repeat)
Russ ma russan ghoryo
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| February 1944: The High Command takes five Posted: 06 Jul 2010 01:17 PM PDT  This is my new favorite image of World War II -- the Allied High Command in what looks very much like the moment after photographer David E. Scherman told them to take a break. The fact that it was shot for LIFE magazine, which spent the war years carving the generals' sober faces in stone, makes it all the more remarkable, because it reveals the Command in an almost unheard-of mode: Tired, maybe even a little punchy, and all too recognizably human. (From Google's Life Magazine photo archive via How To Be A Retronaut.)  |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2010 01:03 PM PDT Jim Rossignol's splendid book, This Gaming Life, is now available to read in full online. A "rumination on the personal, sociological and even political impact of videogames," Joel Johnson gave it a good review at BBG. Wired liked it too! [Umich via Jim Rossignol] (Buy it at Amazon  )  |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2010 12:31 PM PDT |
| Maps showing density of Tweets in four cities Posted: 06 Jul 2010 12:23 PM PDT  Researchers at the CASA Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL have created maps of London, Paris, New York, and Munich based on the density of Tweets within each city. This is London. Interactive Tweetography Maps [Urban Tick via Strange Maps] |
| US Army: alleged Wikileaks source Manning faces 52 years Posted: 06 Jul 2010 04:44 PM PDT Earlier today, Boing Boing reported news that the U.S. has filed formal charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old Army Intelligence Specialist who is believed to have leaked damning classified data to Wikileaks. The "charge sheet" published on Boing Boing specified 8 federal criminal violations, including one identified as a violation of the Espionage Act. I spoke to Lieutenant Colonel Eric Bloom of the U.S. Army's Public Affairs Office for more. The Army won't confirm that Manning leaked anything to Wikileaks, or that he obtained and transmitted "260,000 State department cables," the specific number widely reported— but the Army charge sheet released today does say the 22-year-old engaged in "conduct being prejudicial to good order and discipline in the armed forces," which threatened to "bring discredit upon the armed forces."
Boing Boing/Xeni Jardin: What are the maximum penalties in Manning's case, based on the charges filed today? Do any of these charges carry the possibility of capital punishment? U.S. Army/Ltc. Eric Bloom: No, I don't think we're talking about the death penalty. We have calculated the maximum possible number of years based on these charges to be 52 years. Boing Boing: So, the organization he is said to have leaked all of this classified information to, Wikileaks— Bloom: We have not said that he has leaked all of this material. We have not confirmed that. And that organization is not named in the charges. Boing Boing: Okay, understood. So, the organization others have reported that Manning leaked videos and State Department cables to, Wikileaks, I'm reading that they've said they have attempted to connect Manning with a lawyer, with civilian legal representation, but that those attempts have been rebuffed. Is he represented by any civilian attorney? Bloom: We have no knowledge of any civilian attorneys he has retained. He is free to do so at any time. I do not know of any rebuffing. I've been in the military for 26 years, and I've never heard of any party's attempt to secure legal representation being denied. We don't rebuff representation.
This response to the charges against Manning appeared on the Wikileaks Twitter account today:
Private Manning charged with disclosing iraq-slaughter video. Trigger happy Apache crew remain uncharged.
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| EFF's Cindy Cohn on Colbert Report: Video Posted: 06 Jul 2010 12:26 PM PDT  The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cindy Cohn appeared on The Colbert Report last night. Unsurprisingly, the resulting segment is full of hearty LOLs. Ms. Cohn doubts Obama is coming for our guns online, and does not appreciate Colbert's Hitler jokes. Henceforth, I will always think of the EFF as the "Fightin' Effers." (video duration 06:09, includes use of the word "noogies.") |
| Canadian musician-turned-MP challenges minister on new copyright law Posted: 06 Jul 2010 11:15 AM PDT Michael Geist sez, NDP MP Charlie Angus [ed: ex- of punk-rock act L'Etranger] has issued a lengthy letter to Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement that challenges them on the digital lock provisions in Bill C-32 [ed: This copyright bill says that any rights the public get in copyright, such as privacy, the right to sell or lend media, the right to rip or time-shift media, etc, are null if they are blocked by a "digital lock" or DRM]. In a release on the letter, Angus states "the digital lock provisions will subject Canadians to arbitrary limitations on their legal rights of access. The government is trying to create the impression that this unbalanced approach to digital locks is necessary in order to bring Canada into compliance with WIPO and the Berne Convention. Nothing could be further from the truth." He adds:Angus Calls Out Moore on WIPO: Says Fails to Understand Treaty, Makes Mockery of Copyright Balance (Thanks, Michael!)
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| Bruce Willis: the "manliest scent in the world" Posted: 06 Jul 2010 11:07 AM PDT  The COO of the company distributing this new fragrance — which goes on sale today — says: "I personally feel that the new Bruce Willis fragrance is the manliest scent in the world." Among the reported ingredients are grapefruit, pepper, and vetiver. Yummy. Bruce Willis fragrance to his stores today [Geekosystem] |
| Don't forget: Boing Boing picnic is this Saturday! Posted: 06 Jul 2010 12:47 PM PDT  We're having our first ever Boing Boing picnic this Saturday in San Francisco. Xeni, David, Dean, and I will be there — come say hi! It's BYOB, but we'll have some t-shirts and stickers to give away. RSVP on our Facebook page or just show up. Here's a map.   |
| Fireworks video: 30 minutes sped up to 3 minutes Posted: 06 Jul 2010 01:18 PM PDT Dustin "UPSO" Hostetler recorded video of a 30-minute July 4 fireworks show in Toledo, Ohio and sped it up into a 3 minute weirdly unsettling hyperfast spectacle. When I drink too much coffee, it feels like my neurons are firing like this.
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| San Francisco bans coke from city vending machines Posted: 06 Jul 2010 10:43 AM PDT In a new directive geared towards fighting obesity, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom is banning the sale of Coke, Pepsi, and Fanta Orange in vending machines on city property. From SFGate: Newsom's directive, issued in April but whose practical impacts are starting to be felt now, bars calorically sweetened beverages from vending machines on city property.It's a neat idea, but I wonder how effective it is. |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2010 10:20 AM PDT  T-shirt artistes Chop Shop Store just added this fun Jpegasus tee to the Boing Boing Bazaar! If you don't know Chop Shop Store, their pop cultural iconography is a mutant force to be reckoned with, and worn with pride.  |
| Giant bike-friendly junk-cyborg Posted: 06 Jul 2010 10:11 AM PDT  Luke sez, "I made this cyborg sculpture out of scavenged electrical wire, conduit, and parts from a submarine and a nuclear power plant. It's neat because its innards light up at night and it comes from a future in which the human form is preserved through continued use of the humble bicycle." Wheeled Victory, or The Cyborg of Interstellar Justice Spring 2008 (Thanks, Luke!) |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2010 10:02 AM PDT This picture of Boniface, the Russian scuba diving dog, reminds me of something I'd have seen on my favorite 1980s TV newsmagazine show, "That's Incredible!" Professional diver Sergei Gorbunov had the special suit made for his companion. From the Associated Press: "Russian Teaches Dachshund To Scuba Dive"   |
| Squidgey sculpture feels like rolls of fat Posted: 06 Jul 2010 09:51 AM PDT  Nick sez ,"This shows photographs of a recently completed sculpture, currently on exhibition outside the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. It's carved from a block of upholstery foam, and coated in a rubber skin, so when you grab hold of those rolls of fat you find they are actually soft. Some people are disgusted, others love it, but it's certainly provoking reactions. It's one of a series I'm making about the materiality of the human body." Venus (Thanks, Nick!)   |
| Rapist, murderer, and satanist claims religious persecution Posted: 06 Jul 2010 09:37 AM PDT Convicted rapist and murderer Irving Davis is requesting that a Texas appeals court toss out his death sentence. Why? He thinks it's unfair that jurors were informed that he's a Satanist. Apparently, the prosecutors showed the jury his satanic drawings, a copy of The Satanic Bible he kept in his cell, and also a "grievance form that showed Davis complaining about being denied a gong, candles, chalice, black robes, a vial of blood and other items he said were needed to practice his religion." From The Statesman: "I mean, come on, boil it all down, the Church of Satan?" Judge Michael Keasler said. "You've got to be kidding me as to how that's good, because Satan himself, at least as far as Christian doctrine is concerned, is the epitome of what evil is. If somebody chooses to align themselves with something like that, it certainly would seem relevant.""Satanism wrongly used at trial, death row inmate argues" (Thanks, Jason Weisberger!)   |
| GOP senate candidate uses copyright in attempt to censor reprinting her previous campaign positions Posted: 06 Jul 2010 08:53 AM PDT  Sharron Angle is the GOP candidate for the United States Senate seat in Nevada. During her primary campaign, she used a website chock full of extremist positions aimed at wooing the Republican party's extreme right (killing Social Security, eliminating the Departments of Education and Energy and shipping nuclear waste to Nevada, preparing for a "coming dictatorship"). After she took the nomination, her campaign took down the old site and put up a much more moderate one aimed at the regular electorate. So her opponent, Dem Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, reposted the old site, under the title, "The Real Sharron Angle." In response Angle's campaign sent a copyright takedown notice to the Reid campaign, alleging that reprinting her campaign materials was a copyright infringement and demanding that they cease reprinting her old materials as part of their effort to demonstrate the agenda espoused by Angle when she was in the less-public realm of the GOP nomination race. The Reid campaign responded by posting highlights from the old site to a new URL, SharronsUndergroundBunker.com. Angle Sends Cease-And-Desist To Reid -- For Reposting Her Own Website   |
| US will press criminal charges against Manning, alleged Wikileaks source Posted: 06 Jul 2010 04:49 PM PDT
UPDATE: Read Boing Boing's interview with an Army spokesperson with more on the charges filed, and possible penalties: Manning faces up to 52 years in prison.
 The U.S. military has announced that it will press criminal charges against 22 year old Pfc. Bradley E. Manning for allegedly transferring classified military information to his personal computer, "wrongfully adding unauthorized software to a Secret Internet Protocol Router network computer," obtaining "more than 150,000 classified U.S. State Department cables," and transmitting data to unauthorized persons. The charge sheet published at the end of this post reveals that he will be charged with eight federal criminal law violations including one count of transmitting classified information to an unauthorized third party, a violation of the Espionage Act. Manning is believed to be the person who leaked the so-called "Collateral Murder" video to Wikileaks. The 2007 video, edited before release by Wikileaks, shows an Apache helicopter strike that killed 12 civilians in Baghdad, including two Reuters photojournalists. Manning has been detained at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait since May, when he was arrested by the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command. According to reports, Manning "confessed" to ex-hacker Adrian Lamo that he leaked the "Collateral Murder" video, a video of the Granai airstrike in Afghanistan, and 260,000 diplomatic cables, to Wikileaks. Lamo is said to have then turned Manning over to authorities. According to the U.S. Armed Forces Rules for Courts-Martial, Manning is entitled to a trial within 120 days after having been restrained. Word on Manning's case has been all but silent, but some of his supporters noted that charges were imminent, given that deadline. Lt. Col. Eric Bloom, a spokesman for U.S. Division-Center—the Army headquarters that oversees security in central Iraq—told Bloomberg News, "The initial investigation is still ongoing because there are additional items to sift through." In today's statement, the Army said the question of whether Manning must face court-martial will be determined by a military version of a grand jury hearing. Charge sheet: PDF Link, and JPEGs in the body of this post, below.
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| Hot as Hetalia: webcomic-based anime phenom explodes Posted: 06 Jul 2010 09:00 AM PDT
Liz Ohanesian reports from the Anime Expo in Los Angeles, where Hetalia was hot stuff this year—"from cosplay gatherings to artist alley booths to panel sessions." It began as a web comic, then became a series of five-minute anime episodes. At the Expo, Funimation announced plans to release the first season of Hetalia: Axis Powers on DVD this September. The response? Nonstop screams from a packed room of fans. And a panel the following day on "Hetalia History" drew a capacity cosplayer crowd. Snip from Liz's photo essay: In the Hetalia universe, countries are personified as young men and women with a variety of flaws. The emphasis isn't on war so much as it is on the relationships between the characters. Italy always relies on Germany for protection. Japan offends China upon first meeting him. America and England are brothers with a rocky relationship. Canada is irritated that he's frequently confused with America. And then there's poor little Sealand, who might be considered the world's smallest country if only the others would recognize him.Anime Expo 2010: 'Hetalia' Draws Legions of Fans at Anime Expo (laweekly.com)   |
| Alligator arrested after 'stroll' through town Posted: 06 Jul 2010 07:09 AM PDT  An alligator 'found roaming' in the German village of Groß-Rohreim this weekend was taken into custody, say authorities. Adds Reuters: "Two officers dispatched to investigate were able to capture the 3.3-foot long alligator with equipment ordinarily used to capture dogs." The best thing about these stories is that they do not come with art, but art must be provided, because it means nothing without pictures. Reuters opts for a stock photo of inky reptilian eyes surfacing in a dark swamp: a metaphor, perhaps, for the calculating menace submerged but ever-present beneath the calm waters of modern village life. Reuters' alligator, however, is clearly longer than 3.3 feet. Alligator takes late-night stroll through town [Reuters] Alligator Costume [Amazon Referrer Link]  |
| Iran: "President unveils second Iranian robot man" Posted: 05 Jul 2010 10:07 PM PDT  Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) is a fountain of state-issued LOLS this week. Yesterday, I blogged news of forbidden and approved hairstyles for Islamic gentlemen, as decreed by government officials in charge of monitoring guys' hair. Today, let us appreciate the beauty of this unadulterated IRNA headline: President unveils 2nd Iranian robot manWait—"2nd Iranian Robot Man," meaning, what, Ahmedinejad was the first? Let's read on:
The robot man dubbed as Sorina 2 was designed and manufactured by some 20 Iranian experts from Tehran University. The robot man can replace human being in carrying out sensitive tasks in different situations. Simultaneous with the "Day of Industry and Mine" honored in presence of President Ahmadinejad, the robot was unveiled in the hall of Summit conference.IRNA says the announcement proves "Iranian scientists are on the right track of scientific development and success." The West is awfully worried about Iran getting the bomb, but I fear we have not worried enough about Iran getting the 'bot. * A prize for your funniest caption on the photo above, via the Iranian news agency. |
I pushed the button to roll down the window and stuck my head out to set them straight. 
Agent's Move-On wheeled luggage has a scooter board that unfolds from the back of the bag so that your kid can ride along behind you, or you can stack other pieces of luggage on it, turning your suitcase into a redcap's luggage cart. There's also a version that works like a stroller for babies and toddlers. 
At the time, Harvey was known, if at all, as a second-generation abstract expressionist painter who applied his oils so thickly that a 1961 New York Times review described him as "obviously having a love affair with his paint." (Washburn worked at the Graham Gallery, which had hosted several of Harvey's exhibitions.) But his day job was as a commercial artist for the industrial and package designers Stuart and Gunn, creating redesigns for companies like Philip Morris and Bristol-Myers. Three years before, Brillo implemented his drawings for a redesign of the company's packaging. 
Illustration: 
In a recent demonstration, Boniface barked eagerly as Gorbunov readied the equipment and uncomplainingly endured being hung upside-down as Gorbunov fitted the suit on him...
Photo: Shannon Cottrell
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