Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

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Best electronic tools from Evil Mad Scientist Labs

Posted: 15 Jul 2010 01:51 AM PDT

The insane geniuses at Evil Mad Scientist Labs have put together a roundup of their favorite tools for working with electronics: " In this roundup we've collected some handy--and even important --tools along that you might not have seen before, along with some best-of-breed versions of everyday electronics tools."

This is like a painter getting a look at Rembrandt picks for best brushes, paints and canvasses.

"Surgical tools." Soldering isn't brain surgery. Only, sometimes it is.

Clockwise from top: Hobby knife, nonmagnetic fine point tweezers, scissors of different sizes, hemostats or locking forceps.

Hobby knife: No, this isn't really a surgical tool. Scalpels are easy to come by, but I find that the blades are generally too thin. They flex and break. In most cases for electronics, the good old hobby knife is stronger and more capable. This tool is one of the most important for general-purpose repair and hacking. You can use it to easily cut a trace on a circuit board, to scrape the solder mask off of a trace, to trim down stubborn connectors, or to cut a path through a molten solder bridge. Just damn handy.

Fine point tweezers in different shapes: Just the thing for setting individual surface mount components in place. The angled ones make it much easer to flip over a component-- say that tiny SMT resistor that happened to land upside down. They're also handy for guiding wires into terminal blocks and placing patch wires before you solder them down.

Scissors: For trimming kapton tape to size, cutting copper wire in awkward locations, and fitting where wire clippers can't. And for all kinds of other things you never think of until you use them.

Locking forceps: Like the grown up version of an alligator clip. Use it to hold two wires near their intersection for soldering, or any number of other uses. (See here for some of those other uses.)

More cool electronics tools


Girl on the Wall: sweet little romantic comedy

Posted: 15 Jul 2010 01:50 AM PDT

Greek directory/designer Gabriel Psaltakis's short film "The Girl on the Wall" is a charming and silly little romance about graffiti, fashion, and ennui.

THE GIRL ON THE WALL (Thanks, Gabriel!)

ACTA leaks -- again

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 10:52 PM PDT

With the latest round of secret negotiations over ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, concluded last week in Switzerland, it was only a matter of time until the full text of the treaty's current draft leaked into the public domain, which it has duly done.

ACTA is an extreme copyright treaty that threatens to establish a world of border iPod and laptop searches for infringing music and movies; jail sentences for downloading; universal network surveillance; and whole-house Internet disconnection orders served on ISPs against customers who are accused (without proof) of violating copyright law.

It has been negotiated in secret over protests from MPs, Congressmen, MEPs, public interest groups, technology industry associations, archivists, educators, groups representing people with disabilities, poor countries, and anyone who isn't an utter corporate lickspittle.

But it continues to function in secret, and it continues to leak. The current leak shows the negotiating position of all the participating countries. The US does not cover itself in glory here -- but then, it was Obama's White House that intervened to keep the treaty secret, citing "National Security."

ACTA so transparent, the text still has to be leaked



Photo-documenting the real Toronto backgrounds from Scott Pilgrim

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 10:47 PM PDT


Flickr user mad5l5in5 has scoured the streets of Toronto for the locations that appear in the backgrounds of Bryan Lee O'Malley's smashing Scott Pilgrim graphic novels (which will conclude this summer with the release of the feature film). As a expat Torontonian, I was struck again and again by O'Malley's excellent work in capturing the character of the city with his backgrounds. I can't wait for the movie -- the photoset was a great reminder of O'Malley's excellent use of setting.

Scott Pilgrimage (via Neatorama)



Colon: the web's punctuation

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 10:40 PM PDT

The colon: love it, hate it use it. Consider: the ascendancy of colons in web-writing, driven by its dramatic value for opinion pieces, not to mention its use in brief twitterlike media.

The Millions' Conor J. Dillon argues persuasively that a new kind of colon has entered common usage: the "jumper colon," which goes, "dependent clause + colon + just about anything, incorporating any and all elements of the other four colons, yet differing crucially in that its pre-colon segment is always a dependent clause."

For everyone else: its usefulness lies in that it lifts you up and into a sentence you never thought you'd be reading by giving you a compact little nugget of information prior to the colon and leaving you on the hook for whatever comes thereafter, often rambling on until the reader has exhausted his/her theoretical lung capacity and can continue to read no longer.
Colonoscopy: It's Time to Check Your Colons (via Kottke)


Penn Jillette on artistic satisfaction and magic

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 10:34 PM PDT

Here's a fun and revealing interview with Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller), talking about the artistic satisfaction he gets from doing the kind of magic he does, and the working relationship he has with his longtime business and performance partner, Teller. Penn and Teller are in London for their first show here in more than a decade (I've got tickets to see them tonight -- an early birthday pressie from my wife!).
He couldn't care less what they think. "I have always hated magic," he says. "I have always hated the basic undercurrent of magic which Jerry Seinfeld put best when he said: 'All magic is "Here's a quarter, now it's gone. You're a jerk. Now it's back. You're an idiot. Show's over".' I never wanted to grow up to be a magician. It was never my goal." He would rather have been a rock star, he says, but the business seemed already saturated with extraordinarily talented people. "So my thinking was, and I will say this outright, music is full of people I absolutely love. I don't have a chance. They are all better than me. Magic has, ooh, nobody in it that I like." He rocks back in his chair, cackling. "This is the field for me!"

Everything about Penn and Teller seems to defy conventional wisdom. Here are two men who value the world of ideas: Penn counts Bob Dylan, Stephen Fry and Richard Dawkins among his friends; when in New York, Teller has tea with Sondheim. And yet they have taken up residence in perhaps the most mindless town in the United States. They are creatively restless: in addition to their show, their current projects include producing a film about "the secret technology that was probably behind Vermeer's work", directing an off-Broadway play (Teller), and writing a book about atheism (Penn). But they have signed up to a deal that compels them to perform a show in the same hotel, at the same time, night after night.

Penn and Teller interview (via Kottke)


Mountains of putrid fat scraped off the sewer-walls beneath Leicester Square

Posted: 15 Jul 2010 01:54 AM PDT

For a thrilling, stomach-churning time, venture into the sewers of London, where everything that gets flushed ends up. All the stuff that you're not supposed to flush gets stuck, making subfecal condombergs and other odd formations. Weirdest of all is the fat -- tons of fat, enough to fill nine double-decker buses -- found under Leicester Square. Presumably, this comes from frytraps emptied into the toilet, and not from fat excreted by the London's straining colons.
Enough fat to fill nine double-decker buses is being removed from sewers under London's Leicester Square.

A team of "flushers" equipped with full breathing apparatus has been drafted in with shovels to dig out an estimated 1,000 tonnes of putrid fat.

And powerful jets are being used to break it down.

'Walls of fat' removed from London's sewers (Thanks, Mneptok!)


Apple iPhone 4: information remediation on attenuation complication situation

Posted: 15 Jul 2010 12:08 AM PDT

Pull Up To the Bumper, Baby. Apple today announced plans to hold a press conference related to iPhone 4 on Friday at 10am Pacific—company rep Steve Dowling didn't elaborate on the content or who'd be talking, but everyone's assuming they'll (finally) address The Great iPhone Antenna Crisis of 2010.™

Earlier this week, Consumer Reports dinged Apple over a lab report stating that when held just the right way under a full moon by virgin vegan nuns from Vanuatu chanting invocations to Vishnu, the device's otherwise excellent reception takes a hit.

"Contradictorily, Consumer Reports also said that the iPhone 4 was the best smartphone it had tested."

My money's on free bumpers to calm the hordes.

Update: Gruber agrees with this prediction from a MacRumors forum on what we'll hear at Friday's presser. Siracusa agrees, with a caveat. And, Mitch Wagner: "I think it was the David Letterman Top 10 List that did it. When your product is a joke on nationwide TV, that requires a response." Then again, maybe Dave Pell's on to something.

(photo: Dean Putney. Yes, those are tears.)



The bass is not THAT amazing

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 07:20 PM PDT

Music cannot get you high. Except, perhaps, metaphorically.

Speaking of facts vs. opinion...

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 07:12 PM PDT

Methane released by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is not going to kill us all.

How we subsidize fossil fuels

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 08:34 PM PDT

fossilfuels.jpg

This is a little old, but I ran across it on Jon Taplin's blog recently and I think it does a good job of making an important point—fossil fuel, as an industry, isn't self supporting. No matter where we get our energy from, we're propping up production with tax dollars.

Couple things to keep in mind with this graph:

Not all fossil fuel subsidies are evil. (Frankly, I think we can drop the fossil fuels part and say "not all subsidies are evil", but I digress.) The Environmental Law Institute—who compiled the research and created this graphic—points out a great example: The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. That's calculated under subsidies to fossil fuels. It's by no means a big part of fossil fuel subsidies, but it's there.

This accounting doesn't include all spending. For instance, there are programs that, arguably, spend money as a direct result of the fossil fuel industry, but that aren't technically subsidies. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, say, or, more controversially, money spent on military campaigns at least partially influenced by a desire to stabilize/defend/friendly-fy oil-producing countries.

Read the full paper this graph is based on. See the full graph with footnotes.

Facts are not opinion

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 07:26 PM PDT

Seems pretty straightforward, but somebody ought to explain the difference to Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. On June 11, Dewhurst publicly claimed that Phoenix, Arizona was the number two kidnapping capital in the world, after Mexico City.

But, after researching the soundbite, journalists with PolitiFact Texas and the Austin American-Statesman declared Dewhurst's statement to be "False".

The earliest such statement was made by an ABC News investigative piece from early 2009. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and both Arizona senators have made the same claim. But no politician or media outlet cited hard facts proving it. The Phoenix police department told O'Rourke it doesn't know.

"I called the FBI, Department of State, Interpol, United Nations, Homeland Security -- any agency that we thought could shed some insight into the statement," O'Rourke said at her desk in Austin. "And nothing turned up. Nobody was tracking the statistic in a comparable way."

What's more, officials from firms that insure executives abroad told O'Rourke they don't think Phoenix comes close to Baghdad or Latin American cities.

Dewhurst considers this reporting "a new low", telling NPR that the act of calling his claim false belongs on the opinion page, not in the newspaper. I disagree. (That's an opinion.) There's a difference between disagreeing with a politician's philosophy and citing evidence that said politician has made statements that are demonstrably inaccurate. (That's a fact.) Dewhurst is absolutely right that opinion belongs on the opinion page. But facts are not opinion.

UPDATE: Reader Timothy Williams found more explanation of the facts behind Phoenix's kidnapping problems in a George Will column on RealClear Politics. There were 368 reported kidnappings in Phoenix last year. Almost all of the victims were "drug smugglers and human traffickers preying on one another" or undocumented immigrants who paid for passage into the U.S., only to be be held hostage by their "guides" until families can pay even more money. Williams' opinion (and mine) is that politicians like Dewhurst are using those numbers in a completely misleading way, implying that evil undocumented immigrants are randomly kidnapping law-abiding, native-born Americans.

NPR: As Truth-O-Meter Spreads, Politicians Wince

Don't believe the revisionism: Taliban continue the war on women

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 02:16 PM PDT

"We as Taliban warn you to stop working... otherwise we will take your life away. We will kill you in such a harsh way that no woman has so far been killed in that manner. This would become a good lesson for women like you who are working." A note left for Fatima K., a 22-year old Afghan development worker in Kabul. Rachel Reid at Human Rights Watch writes about growing "Taliban revisionism," as policy makers from Kabul to Washington seeking to reintegrate Taliban fighters "try to explain why the enemy isn't so bad after all."

Old Spice Guy has competition

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 07:46 PM PDT

The internets are abuzz with praise, wonder, and hearty LOLs over a savvy online marketing campaign for Old Spice by ad firm Wieden+Kennedy.

Old Spice Guy appears in a number of YouTube videos, and creates response videos to high-profile bloggers, Twitterers, and "internet influencers." Like my friend Susannah Breslin, who'd written about the campaign previously. And Alyssa Milano, Demi More, Ellen DeGeneres, Apollo Ohno, Ashton Kutcher, and the glamorous babes at Gizmodo (hello, girls!)

Everyone loves linklove, and so those he shouts out tweet and blog about having been shouted out, and a potent meme spreads. [ Read more here about how the ads are created. ] I agree with popular consensus: it's one of the most cleverly executed online ad campaigns ever. I have laughed at each one of the videos I've seen. And I now have a crush on Old Spice Guy, actor Isaiah Mustafa. And a nascent foam fetish.

But Old Spice Guy now has competition. His name is @OhDoctah. My heart be still. This is quite possibly the best YouTube video of all time. Watch the video here.

When I watch the video, I see this inside my mind.

(Thanks, Quinn, and @Beschizza. Disclaimer: I was paid to speak at an "A plus K" event earlier this year, but they didn't tell me anything about this campaign, or ask me to blog this, or recompense me in any way for doing so. However, I do admit I wrote this post with secret hope Old Spice Guy would video at me. Or @ohdoctah. A girl can dream.)

Nicolas Cage dives in to the lore of Nicola Tesla

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 03:16 PM PDT

As preparation for his role in the upcoming Sorcerer's Apprentice, Nicolas Cage delves deep into the mysteries (and technical accomplishments) of Nikola Tesla. Some spooky coincidences involving pigeons, flesh wounds, and debt. (via Bre)

Boing Boing Bazaar: Chris Reccardi's "Mechacosmogog" print

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 02:09 PM PDT

Mechacosmogog.Print-2

Fantabulous psy-fi artist Chris Reccardi has just added this limited edition print to his shop in the Boing Boing Bazaar/Makers Market. It's titled "Mechacosmogo" and sells for $95. From the product page:

Guaranteed (unofficially) to protect your pad from all sorts of space-faring evilness. Beautifully reproduced on heavyweight velvet fine art paper. Signed and numbered edition of 250. Art measures 22 × 16" (overall print measures 24 × 18″, perfect for standard frame sizes!).
Chris Reccardi's "Mechacosmogog" print

The Spy who webinar'd me: Did Russian spook, masquerading as consultant, steal corporate secrets?

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 02:10 PM PDT

An interesting and troubling piece in the Washingtonian today about one of those recently-nabbed Russian spies, who passed as a corporate consultant. The Russian who went by the alias "Donald Heathfield" wanted to know how US companies were preparing for a post-oil economy. "He wasn't terribly curious about domestic political issues," a source says. "Not 'What does this bill include?' or 'What's in these energy regulations?' But potentially 'Where in five years will a company be looking to get funding for clean and green energy?' " (via Danger Room)

Man decorates walls with beautiful Sharpie illustrations

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 01:50 PM PDT

Wallgrfffffi

For those (like me) that missed the story of Charlie Kratzer's Sharpie decor the first time around, the interactive panorama is well worth the click-through. I wonder if he's completed more rooms since then! From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Drawmarkerrrrr Says Kratzer, 53, the associate general counsel for Lexmark: "People are amazed that with something as simple and inexpensive as a Sharpie, you can decorate a whole basement."

How did this Sharpie world start? With a single swipe of the marker.

Kratzer started mid-wall, with the Salon by Picasso. Then he thought, well, taking a design out to the edge of the wall wouldn't be overwhelming. Then the rest of the basement flared off that first wall.

Kratzer's basement suggests that the great cultural influences wandered out of college humanities class — here a Churchill for eloquence during harsh times, a Joan Crawford for cinematic vampiness, Holmes and Poirot for great literary characterization — and set up shop together in the carefully hand-drawn markings of an educated imagination come to life.

Kratzer might be a lawyer by day, but in his off hours he is a man who has taken the artistic influences and heroes of his life and imagined them onto his walls, that he might keep company with them while he uses the pool table.

"Man decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpie"

Call for beta testers!

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 04:33 PM PDT

Hello from the depths of Boing Boing! We're working on a new way for people to let us know about wonderful things, and we need some industrious happy mutants to help us test it out. If you're interested in helping, please comment on this thread and email me so we can give you access.

EDIT: Anonymous comments don't count. Sorry. I need your BoingBoing username to turn on access for you.

ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH. Thanks to all of you who volunteered! You'll be receiving instructions from me via email shortly. New comments and requests to beta test may or may not, but probably will, be viciously ignored.

Warhammer 40K Potato Head

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 12:47 PM PDT

Did AP really threaten to charge bloggers $12.50 to quote 5 words? (UPDATED)

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 01:14 PM PDT

Improv Everywhere: Star Wars Subway Car

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 11:16 PM PDT

Animals that glow and other genetic modifications

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 12:38 PM PDT

Images Gfpkittt Images Piggggggfp
The piggy above was genetically modified to have a yellow nose and feet, while the kitty was engineered so its skin glows in ultraviolet light. The aim is to develop ways to genetically modify animals to have properties not found in nature that have scientific or agricultural benefits. New Scientist surveys the latest variety of "Altered animals: Creatures with bonus features." Paging Eduardo Kac and Alba, your meme is ready! From New Scientist:
Ultimately, the adoption of GM farm animals may hinge on public opinion and the demand for the benefits they can offer. That demand may be felt most urgently in countries such as China, where meat consumption is skyrocketing. "I anticipate that genetically engineered livestock will be first used in China, Cuba and other places around the world, and then come to the US and Europe," says James Murray, an animal geneticist at the University of California, Davis. "It'll be the reverse of what you saw with the plants."

So in 20 years' time will GM animals be as widespread as their botanic counterparts are now? "Technologically, nothing is standing in our way," says Fahrenkrug. "Really, the issue is coming down to: what are you going to make?"

"Altered animals: Creatures with bonus features"

Inside an electricity control center

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 12:15 PM PDT

ERCOTcontrolroom.jpg

Dottie scans her pass card at one door. Then another. At the third, she slides a manicured fingertip across a biometric reader. On either side of that door, shiny metal pillars glow like blue-eyed Cylon sentries, recording the number of people tied to Dottie's print. If our group came back out one person short, the sentries would sound an alarm.

On the other side of all this security sits the control room of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas—the primary nerve center for one of the United States' three main electrical grid sectors. (The fact that the nation's grid is divided into East, West and Texas strikes me as very, hilariously ... Texan.) From this soaring room—its massive video wall looming over rows of desks where technicians sit surrounded by squadrons of eight-to-10 monitors each—come the commands that keep electricity flowing smoothly throughout the entire state.

Working in 12-hour shifts, 24/7, the staff here monitors weather, power plant output, the availability of electricity generated out of state—all the factors that influence the frequency of electricity pulsing through the grid, and whether minute-by-minute electricity supply will be able to meet demand. Upset that delicate balance and you get brownouts, blackouts, and all manner of crawling heebie-jeebies.

I got inside the ERCOT control room last week, as part of research I'm doing for my upcoming book on the future of energy in the United States. Besides being its own grid sector, Texas also has the highest installed wind capacity of any state—9,317 MW, as of June 30. Unlike fossil fuel electricity, wind power can't be held at a steady rate. Changes happen, and they can happen in an instant. Control centers like ERCOT's—which exist all over the country—do the work of making flighty wind play nice with the slow-and-steady grid. I thought y'all would like a peek inside.

More photos follow.

controlroomtwo.jpg

controlcenter3.jpg

You can read more about the variability of renewable energy in this story I wrote for Discover last year.

Video: Dr. Brian Fisher, The "Ant Guy"

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 12:55 PM PDT



Last night, KQED public television's Quest presented "Ants: The Invisible Majority." It's about Dr. Brian Fisher, chairman of the Department of Entomology at the Cal Academy of Sciences who is attempting to catalog the world's 30,000 species of ants before they're extinct. Accompanying the video is an interactive map for learning about the various ant species in the San Francisco Bay Area.

UPDATE: Look at the contextual ads that appeared when I just loaded this post!

Boing Boing Picnic: Aerial video from balloon, and a Doc Pop-scored report

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 12:00 PM PDT

Two very fun videos from the first-ever Boing Boing picnic, held this past weekend in San Francisco: first, a wonderful little montage of scenes, set to an original (composed live!) DocPop score, by Boing Boing reader Billy Green. (direct video link)

And then, what happens when you attach a Droid to a dirigible, by Boing Boing reader Neil Fraser. (direct video link)



Times Square Failbomber's martyr tape is now on YouTube

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 11:34 AM PDT

Faizal Shahzad, better known as the Times Square Failbomber, recorded a martyr tape with shout-outs to his jihadi homies prior to packing the SUV. Al Arabiya broadcast the tape, and now it's on YouTube. Danger Room has analysis.

Dub War of the Worlds Step

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 11:24 AM PDT

Andrew sez, "Some brilliant madman has turned Jeff Wayne's 1978 version of The War of the Worlds into an hour-long dubstep mix. Available to stream or download for free. H.G. Wells' classic, performed with narration by Richard Burton, Phil Lynott and David Essex. Oh, and just a touch of bass. Just a tiny amount, really."

I'm not much of a dubstep fan, but woah. I mean, woah.

War of the Worlds (Thanks, Andrew!)



Mel Gibson generously provides even more fresh material for internet remixers

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 11:17 AM PDT

Oh dear. More Mel.

Double Rainbow, the feature film

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 11:08 AM PDT

Oh my god. It's so intense. What does it mean?

The Meaning Of Rainbows - Trailer (Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow) [YouTube, thanks Shane]

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