The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Steampunk horror-show walk-through
• Physics lecturer demonstrating by unicycling across class with juggling student on shoulders
• Giant, fetishistically detailed Little Nemo art
• Free the 'Shine! Why it's finally time to legalize liquor
• Special edition Fujitsu ScanSnap with Urushi lacquer coating and gold embellishments
• Cheap, portable personal 3D printer: the UP!
• Art Deco motorcycle mod
• XKCD cake
• Driver fails at making a getaway after hitting a parked car
• Oliver Sacks on face blindness
• Jim Woodring's giant steel dip pen project is fully funded
• Odd CB radio cards from the 1970s
• What are your favorite physics websites?
• How to open a new book
• Latest leaked draft of secret copyright treaty: US trying to cram DRM rules down the world's throats
• Gibson's ZERO HISTORY: exciting adventure that wakes you to the present-day's futurism

Steampunk horror-show walk-through Posted: 07 Sep 2010 04:25 AM PDT Here's a first-person walk-through of "Machine," a steampunk horror show built by hobbyists in their garage. It's jaw-dropping awesomesauceular -- "real horrorshow," as Little Alex might say. Homemade steampunk walkthrough: Fangoria 2010 (Thanks, George!)

Physics lecturer demonstrating by unicycling across class with juggling student on shoulders Posted: 07 Sep 2010 04:22 AM PDT Here's University of Auckland engineering lecturer, Peter Bier riding a unicycle across his classroom with a juggling student on his shoulders, memorably demonstrating some key principles of physics. University lecturer on unicycle with student on his shoulders - juggling!!! (Thanks, Tim!) Blind juggling robot High-speed Dance Dance Revolution kid juggling three pins Juggling monkey makes ape out of AACS The Self-Balancing Unicycle Gadgets Fast food table with unicycle wheels Steampunk Segway: the Legway

Giant, fetishistically detailed Little Nemo art Posted: 07 Sep 2010 04:18 AM PDT Zak sez, "If you've ever seen Windsor McCay's LITTLE NEMO -- particularly the gorgeous full-sized collections -- you know how involved the illustrations got. Cartoonist Jeremy Bastian just did an enormous commission of Little Nemo that captures McCay's style perfectly. It is 13 by 9 inches and is inked by brush. According to the person who commissioned it, it took Jeremy two weeks of 10-hour days to draw it. The person who commissioned it has several close-ups of the details on this page." Jeremy Bastian, The Little Nemo Commission (Thanks, Zak!) Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays -- a new ... Gigantic Little Nemo book does justice to the loveliest comic ever ... Little Sammy Sneeze: Winsor McCay's anarchic precurson to Little ... Titles from Little Nemo in Slumberland Expirable copyright makes giant-sized Little Nemo ...

Free the 'Shine! Why it's finally time to legalize liquor Posted: 06 Sep 2010 05:24 PM PDT Ted Balaker of Reason.tv produced a video about moonshine. He says, "You can make beer at home, but if you try to make spirits at home it's a felony. Go figure." If drinking makes us healthier and wealthier, why is America's liquor policy so screwy? Jimmy Carter legalized home brewing in 1978, and that newfound freedom fueled the craft beer movement that continues to lavish beer lovers with endless choices. But in many ways, laws that govern whiskey, gin, and other distilled spirits are stuck in the 1920s. Federal agents still raid distilleries much like they did during Prohibition, and making any amount of moonshine at home is not only illegal, it's a felony that can carry up to five years in prison. The result is a market dominated by a few big names, where would-be craftsmen are forced to hide their work. And yet, despite the danger, America is in the midst of "moonshine renaissance," in which a new wave of hipster hobbyists has joined with old-time 'shiners to flout the law and do what they love to do. Free the 'Shine! Why it's finally time to legalize liquor

Special edition Fujitsu ScanSnap with Urushi lacquer coating and gold embellishments Posted: 06 Sep 2010 05:00 PM PDT I use my Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500M many times throughout the day, but I don't think I'll pay $3200 for the special edition model with Urushi lacquer coating and gold embellishments. The special limited-edition models have been designed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of PFU and are decorated using an Urushi lacquer coating and gold embellishments. The high-quality lacquer coating is applied using a centuries-old method which originated from Ishikawa Prefecture, a region renowned for its excellent craftsmanship in traditional Japanese lacquerware and the birthplace of PFU. The design of the special edition ScanSnap models represents the pinnacle of traditional Japanese aesthetics and convenience. The special models are the result of the collaboration between PFU and Japan's premier maker of Wajima lacquerware, one of the most recognized examples of traditional Japanese crafts. The durable lacquer coating was applied using a special layering technique called "Tenpi kurome," and is accompanied by the depiction of a Golden Eagle (the official bird of Ishikawa) and company logo made from pure gold powder. Special Design Edition: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 and S1300 (Thanks, David!) Fast, Excellent Document Scanner: Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500M

Cheap, portable personal 3D printer: the UP! Posted: 06 Sep 2010 04:05 PM PDT The UP! personal 3D printer from China retails for $1500, with goop running at $50/kg. From this early adopter's review: It runs at 0.3mm resolution, and the finished models show striations from successive layers of goop, but light sanding produces a smooth finish. For objects with funny extrusions and sitcky-outie bits that aren't stable until they are fully printed, the printer calculates and adds support struts on the fly, and these have to be removed with a hobby knife after printing. Personal Portable 3D Printer (via Futurismic) Shapeways 3D printing by Internet: 500 free beta signups 3D printing with ice 3D printing comes to ceramics Shapeways interviews Makerbot: 3D printing ahoy! Sci-fi objects from a 3D printer Turn an inkjet into a 3D printer High-end 3D printer art Scientific American: five 3D printers

Art Deco motorcycle mod Posted: 06 Sep 2010 03:58 PM PDT This 1936 Henderson motorcycle was given a superb Art Deco mod by Frank Westfall of Syracuse, NY and displayed at last summer's Rhinebeck Grand National Meet. The Knucklebuster blog got to see and photograph it in person there, and has a thrilling account of its performance: "The bike is a fantastic piece of history, the craftsmanship is absolutely stunning and it's surely more of a museum piece than a daily rider. Frank has obviously spent an incredible amount of time meticulously restoring and rebuilding the bike to its current gorgeous state." 1930 Art Deco Henderson (Thanks, Littledragon!) Dead man propped on his beloved motorcycle for funeral Motorcycle sidecar that turns into a canoe Homemade motorcycle ad on Craigslist Royal Enfield Military 500 motorcycle First Look: Mission One electric motorcycle Gadgets Coordinated motorcycle performance video from the 1950s

XKCD cake Posted: 06 Sep 2010 03:53 PM PDT Pink Cake Box made this custom XKCD wedding cake for one of their customers in New Jersey: "The top of the cake includes cutouts of the comic characters with a red heart on a wire between them. The entire cake is covered in white fondant with black thin bands at the base of each tier. Equations inspired by this comic decorate the remaining tiers." xkcd Comic Wedding Cake (via Super Punch) Bakers make cake with image of flash drive instead of image in ... Resignation letter on cake Katamari Damacy cake kicks ass HOWTO bake a no-mess chocolate cake in five minutes Cthulhu cake! Funny cake decorating flub AT-AT wedding cake

Driver fails at making a getaway after hitting a parked car Posted: 06 Sep 2010 12:53 PM PDT (Video link | Benny Hillified video link) After the driver hits a car, he or she tries and fails to make a quick getaway.

Oliver Sacks on face blindness Posted: 06 Sep 2010 12:46 PM PDT Author and neurologist Oliver Sacks has prosopagnosia (face blindness) and he wrote about it in The New Yorker. The article isn't online, but here's an audio interview with him. From The New Yorker's abstract of the article: Severe congenital prosopagnosia is estimated to affect two to two and a half per cent of the population—six to eight million people in the United States alone. Writer describes his own difficulties recognizing and remembering faces. He also has the same difficulty with places and often becomes lost when he strays from familiar routes. At the age of seventy-seven, despite a lifetime of trying to compensate, he has no less trouble with faces and places than when he was younger. He is particularly thrown when seeing a person out of context, even if he was with that person five minutes before. Writer gives several examples of his inability to recognize familiar people out of context, including his therapist and his assistant. You Look Unfamiliar - an audio interview with Oliver Sacks

Jim Woodring's giant steel dip pen project is fully funded Posted: 06 Sep 2010 12:33 PM PDT Great news! Jim Woodring has raised the funds required to build and demonstrate a giant dip pen (David wrote about it in July). The dip pen is a bit of fetish item for me (as it is for many pen users). The pen is extremely difficult to master but ultimately allows for an extraordinary degree of expression. The well-constructed pen and ink drawing is a monument to perseverance, requiring tremendous patience and control. I am thrilled by the challenge of creating such drawings in public and introducing new audiences to the allure of the medium. The pen (nib) itself will be approximately 16 inches long, made of steel and fully functional. The holder will be six feet long and made of wood with a metal sleeve insert to hold the pen. Nib and holder will resemble as closely as possible the actual implements on which they are based. Once the pen and penholder are built I will train myself to ink with it; and once I've done that, I will arrange at least two public performances in which I will use the pen to ink large graphite drawings on 3' x 5' sheets of bristol. The money raised will go towards the engineering and manufacture of the steel nib; the creation of the pen holder, which will be hand turned and lacquered with a cork wrapping and metal insert with spring retainer; the supplies to create the public drawings (ink, paper, graphite, eraser, and); and the creation of the drawing table itself. Don't miss the video where Jim describes the project.

Odd CB radio cards from the 1970s Posted: 06 Sep 2010 12:16 PM PDT Artist Mitch O'Connel bought a some unusual CB radio cards at a flea market. Love these personal CB radio cards, the more homemade looking the better. The sometimes naive art seems more personal, contains great left field imagery and, as an artist, less threatening! CB radio cards: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

What are your favorite physics websites? Posted: 06 Sep 2010 10:37 AM PDT Physics.org is looking for the best physics-centric sites on the Web, and they need your help. The first ever Physics.org Web Awards is now open for nominations. We're looking for great sites suitable for a non-specialist audience in the following categories: * Best blog * Best news site / online magazine * Best podcast * Best Q&A / ask the expert site * Best revision site * Best kids' site * President's prize (anything which doesn't fall under any of the categories above) You can nominate sites until the 10th of October and there's several ways to nominate. On Twitter, you can send a message to @dotrythisathome or make a general tweet using the #pwa10 hashtag. There's a Facebook page. Or you can just send an email. Winners will be announced just as soon as the judging panel—which includes yours truly—reaches a decision.

How to open a new book Posted: 06 Sep 2010 09:40 AM PDT A limber binding is a happy binding. (Submitterated by Gabriel Andery)

Latest leaked draft of secret copyright treaty: US trying to cram DRM rules down the world's throats Posted: 06 Sep 2010 07:40 AM PDT Michael Geist writes in with the latest news on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the secret, closed-door copyright treaty that will bring US-style copyright rules (and worse) to the whole world. Particularly disturbing is the growing support for "three-strikes" copyright rules that would disconnect whole families from the Internet if one member of the household was accused (without proof) of copyright infringement. The other big US agenda item is cramming pro-Digital Rights Management (DRM) rules down the world's throats that go way beyond the current obligations under the UN's WIPO Copyright Treaty. In the US version, breaking DRM is always illegal, even if you're not committing any copyright violation -- so breaking the DRM on your iPad to install software you bought from someone who hasn't gone through the Apple approval process is illegal, even though the transaction involves no illicit copying. Ironically, this DRM push comes just as the US courts and regulators have begun to erode the US's own extreme rules on the subject. Or perhaps this isn't so surprising: in the past, the US copyright lobby has torpedoed the courts and Congress by getting USA to commit to international agreements that went far beyond the rules that they could push through on their own at home. Given the history of ACTA leaks, to no one's surprise, the latest version of the draft agreement was leaked last night on Knowledge Ecology International's website. The new version - which reflects changes made during an intense week of negotiations last month in Washington - shows a draft agreement that is much closer to becoming reality. Square brackets [ed: these indicate areas where there is still debate] have been removed from many sections, leaving the core issue of scope of the agreement [ed: that is, whether the treaty will cover things like EU-style trademark rules that would prohibit calling it "cheddar cheese" if it's not made in Cheddar, England] as the biggest issue to be resolved when the next round of negotiations begins in a few weeks in Japan. Perhaps the most important story of the latest draft is how the countries are close to agreement on the Internet enforcement chapter. The Internet enforcement chapter has been among the most contentious since the U.S. first proposed draft language that would have globalized the DMCA and raised the prospect of three strikes and you're out. In the face of opposition, the U.S. has dropped its demands on secondary liability [ed: that is, forcing ISPs and online services to police and censor their users or face prosecution] but is still holding out hope of establishing digital lock rules that go beyond the WIPO Internet treaties and were even rejected by its own courts. ACTA Text Leaks: U.S. Concedes on Secondary Liability, Wants To Go Beyond DMCA on Digital Locks New ACTA leak: It's a screwjob for the world's poor countries ... ACTA "internet enforcement" chapter leaks Delusional EU ACTA negotiator claims that three strikes has never ... Biggest-ever ACTA leak: secret copyright treaty dirty laundry ... ACTA leak: Now we know who is against transparency - USA, Korea ... Secret ACTA fights over iPod border-searches Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad. ACTA goes public

Gibson's ZERO HISTORY: exciting adventure that wakes you to the present-day's futurism Posted: 04 Sep 2010 06:38 AM PDT William Gibson's latest novel, Zero History, is his best yet, a triumph of science fiction as social criticism and adventure. Continuing on from 2007's Spook Country, Zero History features a reformed, dried out version of Milgrim, the junkie anti-hero from Spook Country. He's been rehabilitated at the expense of Hubertus Bigend, the shadowy power-broker whom we first met in Pattern Recognition. Bigend has got Milgrim hunting for the designer behind a mysterious line of fetish-denim, in the hopes of remaking it as the basis for a lucrative US military contract; this being Bigend's idea of novelty-seeking good times. Joining Milgrim is Hollis Henry, the former pop star from Spook Country, still reluctantly in Bigend's employ, but even more conflicted, and missing her ex-boyfriend, a thrill-seeking nutjob whose idea of a good time in jumping off tall buildings in a glidersuit. Milgrim -- and later, Hollis -- track the secret denim from South Carolina to London to Paris and back to London again, and very quickly find themselves embroiled in an intrigue involving US spooks, experimental UAVs, rogue infosec specialists, and a palace coup at Blue Ant, Bigend's legendary design and branding firm. What makes Zero History into Gibson's best so far is how absolutely perfectly he captures the futuristic nature of the present day. Milgrim -- a junkie dried out after a ten year fugue of living rough and stealing to buy pills -- is well-suited to this task, emerging as if from a time-machine into the 21st century in full swing, able to narrate its essential strangeness without seeming contrived. But all of Gibson's characters are in the business of understanding how we got to this futuristic present, and on every page, there is a jolt of pleasant dissonance as Gibson does the conjurer's trick of making you look at your surroundings with fresh eyes. Here is a book that is both contemporary, and futuristic -- and anachronistic, filled as it is with characters who long for simpler times, who fetishize antique computers and vintage memorabilia. It's a book that doesn't so much feel written as designed, cunningly filled with trompe d'esprit effects that fool your brain into staring at your own life from the objective distance of a Martian. And moreover, here is a book that is a novel, filled with people having exciting adventures and romance, developing as characters, chasing mysteries. An even better trick: to make something so smart that is nevertheless enormous fun as well. What a treat. Zero History William Gibson bags and coats William Gibson's Spook Country William Gibson explains why science fiction is about the present ... William Gibson interviewed on IO9 William Gibson answers questions William Gibson: The Rolling Stone interview William Gibson on NSA wiretapping Original proposal for William Gibson's Spook Country Timothy Leary and William Gibson promoting a Neuromancer film ... William Gibson WashPo interview "one of the best ever" William Gibson's playlist BoingBoingBoing #15: William Gibson William Gibson on writing in the age of Google William Gibson explains how Molly's mirrorshades work Gibson's self-destructing poem Agrippa: screen-movie How William Gibson discovered science fiction

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