The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Master's theses from the DHS's Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security
• History of scientific thought as a tube-map
• Stickering London's Barclay's bicycles
• PA school board pays $33K settlement for searching kid's phone and referring seminude self-portraits to DA for criminal prosecution
• Photos of nuclear weapons, narrated by the photographer
• Urinals sort your pee by alcohol content
• Lady Gaga: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Meat-Dress
• Never say "No" to Panda
• Charges to be filed against WA woman who admits faking acid attack
• How becoming a Stoic can make you happy
• Cat dumper Mary Bale charged with animal cruelty, faces prison
• Long-running web series relaunches
• Behold, the "point your iPhone at a plane and know where it's headed" app!
• Bill gives DoJ power to close sites accused of piracy anywhere in the world
• Kevin Costner, "Private Citizen," to testify at House hearing on BP oil spilltastrophe
• Fed claims you need a permit to dig in the sand
• Joe Haldeman on writing without distraction
• Juárez, Mexico: Amid escalating violence against press, local paper asks narcos, "What do you want from us?"
• Volcano tornado
• DOJ: FBI faked terrorist threat, misled DOJ about spying on peace group
• 3-million-year-old whale fossil unearthed in CA
• A Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names
• How to record the cops
• Operation sheep drop
• Reading Playboy to the blind
• Century-old lens on a fancy digital camera
• Own a Stargate!
• Boeing's new spaceship for tourists
• Sarriugarte's Golden Zeppelini mini-dirigible car
• Dad arrested for confronting bullies who tormented his 13-year daughter who has cerebral palsy

Master's theses from the DHS's Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:39 PM PDT Looking for ideas for your next technothriller? This list of Master's thesis titles from the past two years' graduates of the DHS-sponsored Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security is a gold-mine. Seriously, though: if you want a 50,000-foot view of the directions in which the US security apparat is headed, look no further. The theses themselves will be online shortly through the NPS Dudley Knox library. 1. The Significance Of The Fire Service Culture As An Impediment To Effective Leadership In The Homeland Security Environment. 2. National Guard Civil Support Teams: Success, Sustainment And The Challenges In Between. 3. Identifying Best Practices In The Dissemination Of Intelligence To First Responders In The Fire And EMS Services. 4. Countering Violent Extremism, The Use Of Non-Governmental Organizations. 5. Creating Unity Of Effort In The Maritime Domain: The Case For The Maritime Operational Threat Response (MOTR) Plan. 6. Toward A Common Standard For Law Enforcement Response To WMD Hazmat Incidents. 7. Emerging Threat To America: Non-State Entities Fighting Fourth Generation Warfare In Mexico. 8. Homeland Security Within State Departments Of Agriculture: Success Factors And Barriers To An Effective Security Program. 9. Where Do I Start? Decision-Making in Complex Novel Environments. 10. State And Local Homeland Security Professionals: Who Are They And What Do They Do? 11. Improving Disaster Emergency Communication. 12. Can Local Police And Sheriff Departments Provide A Higher Rate Of Homeland Security Coordination And Collaboration Through Consolidation Of Police Services? 13. Alternate Care Sites For The Management Of Medical Surge In Disasters. 14. Medicine For The Masses: Strategies To Minimize The Consequences Of A Terrorist Attack During Mass Gatherings... Growing ideas in homeland security

History of scientific thought as a tube-map Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:23 PM PDT Crispian Jago has created a delightful map of the history of scientific thought, superimposed on the iconic London Underground tube-map: "500 years of modern science, reason & critical thinking via the medium of gross oversimplification, dodgy demarcation, glaring omission and a very tiny font." I love it, but I fear for poor Crispian, giving Transport for London's notorious penchant for censoring tube-map takeoffs with abusive trademark threats. Crispian's Science Map (Thanks, Microchip08, via Submitterator) Tube-map cross-stitch Tube Map for Miss SC: The Iraqs and Everywhere, Like, Such As ... Tube map re-labelled with anagrams of station names Post-bombing tubemap London Tube Map as flowchart Digestion as tubemap tee Transport for London censors anagram Tube map Alternate history tubemap

Stickering London's Barclay's bicycles Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:19 PM PDT In London, the short-hire bikes that recently appeared on corners around the city are sponsored by Barclay's Bank, which, like most giant banks, is riddled with pure evil in the form of arms, oil, and other sleazy investments. London's merry pranksters are at pains to point this out, using the time-honored medium of funny stickers. Invasion of the Boris Bikes (Thanks, Alan!) Warning stickers for the Daily Mail US Gov't torture playlist stickers City fights illegal gig posters with CANCELLED stickers

PA school board pays $33K settlement for searching kid's phone and referring seminude self-portraits to DA for criminal prosecution Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:16 PM PDT Pennsylvania's Tunkhannock Area School District has settled a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of NN, a student whose mobile phone was searched by her principal. The principal dug through several screens' worth of menus to discover some partial nude photos of NN, as well as a blurry full nude that NN had intended for her long-term boyfriend. This may or may not have been advisable, but I'm with NN and the ACLU: it wasn't the principal's place to go digging through her phone for the pix. And the principal certainly shouldn't have done what he did next: turn the photos over to the DA's office for criminal prosecution (you see, the principal believed that in taking pictures of herself, a minor, NN became a child pornographer). The school district settled for $33K (which sounds like the ACLU's legal fees), and another suit against the DA remains ongoing. As a result of the settlement, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association is developing guidelines for searching students' phones. The ACLU-PA hoped to use this case to help alert school officials across Pennsylvania to students' privacy rights in their cell phones. Very little case law exists discussing student-cell-phone searches. While the settlement forecloses a court ruling, the case has led the ACLU-PA to contact the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA), which this week agreed to work with the ACLU towards crafting guidelines for teachers and school officials to help them better handle situations involving student cell phones and other electronic devices without unlawfully invading student privacy. Walczak noted that the goal was to prevent future violations of students' constitutional rights. ACLU Settles Student-Cell-Phone-Search Lawsuit With Northeast Pennsylvania School District (via Digg) High School Teacher Recounts "Sexting" Ordeal That Ruined His ... Wisconson DA Accused of Sexting a Domestic Abuse Victim School spying: infected laptops mandatory, jailbreaking grounds ... Massachusetts wants to imprison people for 10 years if they take a ... Authorities take note of Pedobear

Photos of nuclear weapons, narrated by the photographer Posted: 20 Sep 2010 10:46 PM PDT George Yoshitake, a photographer who documented US nuclear blasts (both on the testing field and in war) narrates this NYT slideshow of his work. I don't know what's more striking: the disintegrating materiel or the sight of all those scientists and VIPs watching from their Adirondack loungers. Capturing the Atom Bomb on Film (via Kottke) Swiss police foil plot to bomb IBM atomic/nanotech research ... Animated map of nuclear explosions, 1945-1998 An alternative to the atomic bomb? If an A-Bomb Falls RIP, Atomic Ed Grothus, curator and proprietor of the Black Hole ... HOWTO survive a nuclear attack - Mutual of Omaha, 1951

Urinals sort your pee by alcohol content Posted: 20 Sep 2010 10:39 PM PDT Spotted in the toilets of a restaurant next to the Burgerhaus Sonne Eduard-Schmidt-Saal in Alsbach, Germany on last night's tour stop: these urinals spoof the ubiquitous German recycling-bins with labels reading BEER, WINE, NON-ALCOHOLIC, and OTHER, under the heading PLEASE HELP US SEPARATE. I'm on tour here in Germany until Wednesday, then it's off to Amsterdam for PICNIC and the Bits Of Freedom event. Urinals that sort wee by alcohol content, Darmstadt, Germany It's not a urinal, is it? Overflowing urinal cascade Gentleman mistakes urinal and urinal cake for sink and soap ... Urinal targets and other helpful nudges Cute elephant urinal cleaning robot That's not a mouth-shaped urinal, it's a *travesty* Privacy urinals

Lady Gaga: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Meat-Dress Posted: 20 Sep 2010 07:25 PM PDT "Shouldn't everyone deserve the right to wear the same meat dress that I do?"— Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, better known as Lady Gaga, at a Maine rally to repeal the US military's ban on gay service members.

Never say "No" to Panda Posted: 20 Sep 2010 06:07 PM PDT Video Link. A series of supremely hilarious—and dark!— ads for Panda Cheese, a product from Arab Dairy which I understand is popular in Egypt and the Middle East. I am disappointed to learn that this cheese does not contain actual Panda milk, as suggested by the name. (via @helloflux).

Charges to be filed against WA woman who admits faking acid attack Posted: 20 Sep 2010 05:01 PM PDT The Vancouver, WA woman who now admits she faked an acid attack will face three second-degree theft charges. In an affidavit filed Monday, she says she was trying to commit suicide, or end up with a new face. "Then, when I realized it wasn't killing me, I thought maybe this was the answer to all my problems. To have a completely different face."

How becoming a Stoic can make you happy Posted: 20 Sep 2010 07:31 PM PDT Over at credit.com, I reviewed a terrific book called A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, by William B. Irvine. Irvine, a professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, writes that Stoicism was one of many competing philosophies (such as the Cynics and the Epicureans) that ran schools to teach a "philosophy of life" to students in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics were interested in leading a life of "tranquility," meaning a life free of "anger, anxiety, fear, grief, and envy." To achieve such a life the Stoics developed, in the words of historian Paul Veyne, a "paradoxical recipe for happiness," that included the practice of "negative visualization." By frequently and vividly imagining worst-case scenarios -- the death of a child, financial catastrophe, ruined health -- the Stoics believed you would learn to appreciate what you have, and curb your insatiable appetite for more material goods, social status, and other objects of desire. Reading the book, I had no trouble understanding how negative visualization could be an effective antidote against "hedonic adaptation." By imagining ourselves to be homeless, for instance, we can reset our desire for a more luxurious home and once again appreciate the roof over our head that we started taking for granted shortly after moving in. My review was edited down at credit.com because it was too lengthy. Here's a part that was cut out: I had a harder time buying into the idea that imagining the death of one of my children was good for my mental well being. The Stoic teacher Epictetus advised his students that, "In the very act of kissing a child, we should silently reflect on the possibility that she will die tomorrow." Why would anyone want to do that? Irvine answers the question by offering the example of two fathers, one who practices negative visualization and one who pushes such thoughts out of his head. The second father assumes his daughter will outlive him and will "always be around for him to enjoy." The first father assumes that every moment he spends with his daughter might be the last. Which father, asks Irvine is more attentive to and appreciative of his daughter, and which father is more likely to put off spending quality time with his daughter, believing that he'll have plenty of opportunities in the future? By thinking of our kids as precious gifts that could be taken from us at any moment we will come to treasure the time we spend with them. I've been trying this kind of negative visualization for the past week or so, and it really works. (But it packs a quite an emotional wallop.) Read the rest of the review at credit.com

Cat dumper Mary Bale charged with animal cruelty, faces prison Posted: 20 Sep 2010 04:05 PM PDT Mary "it's just a cat" Bale, the infamous alleged cat bin dumper, was charged with two counts of animal cruelty by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She will appear before Coventry Magistrates Court next month accused of causing unnecessary suffering to a cat and not providing an animal with a suitable environment. Both offences, which come under the Animal Welfare Act, can carry a prison sentence and a lifetime ban from keeping animals.

Long-running web series relaunches Posted: 20 Sep 2010 03:26 PM PDT The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has up a story about "Something to be Desired," which was one of the longest-running web-video shows on the net. Creator and director Justin Kownacki moved to Baltimore last year, bringing the show to an end after seven years. He now plans to relaunch the show under a new name, "Baristas," according to the Gazette. The modest Kickstarter project set up to fund it shows just how inexpensive it is, these days, to make moving pictures.

Behold, the "point your iPhone at a plane and know where it's headed" app! Posted: 20 Sep 2010 03:00 PM PDT I haven't downloaded this yet, just noting the buzz around the blogs today: Plane Finder AR is an iPhone augmented reality app that promises to identify the origin and destination of any plane you might point your phone toward, overhead in the sky. A quick peek at the app's entry in the iTunes store shows some very upset user reactions: the $2.99 app only works with planes carrying ADS-B equipment, and only in areas where the app developer has equipment in place to read those signals. Sounds like Australia is the only country so far with full ADS-B coverage. Again, the developer is not using FAA data, so caveat downloader. Still: I'll give it, oh, 30 minutes before a US lawmaker flips out over the app as a perceived terror threat.

Bill gives DoJ power to close sites accused of piracy anywhere in the world Posted: 20 Sep 2010 02:38 PM PDT David Kravetz, in Wired News today: "Lawmakers introduced legislation Monday that would let the Justice Department seek U.S. court orders against piracy websites anywhere in the world, and shut them down through the sites' domain registration. The bipartisan legislation, dubbed the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (.pdf) amounts to the Holy Grail of intellectual-property enforcement."

Kevin Costner, "Private Citizen," to testify at House hearing on BP oil spilltastrophe Posted: 20 Sep 2010 02:32 PM PDT "Kevin Costner, Private Citizen" will appear as a witness speaking before the house this Wednesday in a hearing entitled "DHS Planning and Response: Preliminary Lessons from Deepwater Horizon." I'm hoping he shows up in his Waterworld garb and prosthetic gill flaps.

Fed claims you need a permit to dig in the sand Posted: 20 Sep 2010 09:33 PM PDT A Fed from seeking a justification for chasing off reporters who're digging in the Florida sand to examine the efficacy of BP's oil-spill-mitigation efforts has scraped the bottom of the barrel: he claimed that you need a license to build a sand castle. "Are you digging for oil product?" the official asked. When Thomas did not immediately confirm his intentions, the man threatened to call law enforcement and advised the journalist to move down the beach. Moments later, an officer of the National Parks Service was demanding the reporter identify himself, insisting over and over, "you can't dig." "So, no sand castles?" Thomas asked. "None of that, huh?" "You're right," the officer replied. Building sand castles on Florida's beaches is illegal, feds tell oil-hunting reporter (via Consumerist) (Image: Sand Castle in the Sun, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from gilichu's photostream) Al Gore: Stop the censorship in the Gulf Photog detained by cops and BP security guard in Texas Photog detained by cops and BP security guard in Texas Video explains fair use for video (video video)

Joe Haldeman on writing without distraction Posted: 20 Sep 2010 12:58 PM PDT Mitch Wagner sez, "I talked with legendary science fiction author Joe Haldeman for the Copper Robot Podcast about why he writes with a fountain pen in bound books in a room lit by oil lamps, to create stories that explore advanced, future technology. Joe is a Hugo- and Nebula-award winner, author of 'The Forever War' and the recent 'Marsbound' and 'Starbound.'" "There's something special about writing by hand, writing with a fountain pen, and there's something special about writing into a book, to take a blank book and turn it into an actual book. I guess there's a sort of superstitious or mystical aspect to it," Haldeman said. "I like the physical action of writing down by hand, and I don't just use it for writing my fiction. I carry a notebook and write down things to do, and I write out thoughts and stuff like that." He added, "I think it goes way back to when I was a teenager, and I guess it's just a habit of thought that you either have or don't have. If I had had a thing like an iPad when I was a kid, then I never would have gotten into the habit of writing things down by hand." Science fiction writer Joe Haldeman discusses unplugging to create Ridley Scott to adapt Haldeman's Forever War Joe Haldeman's excellent online diary Photos of science fiction writers' nests

Juárez, Mexico: Amid escalating violence against press, local paper asks narcos, "What do you want from us?" Posted: 20 Sep 2010 01:16 PM PDT What do you want from us?: The title of a front-page editorial published this Sunday by the El Diario paper in Juárez, Mexico. The editorial is addressed to the drug cartels responsible for epic levels of violence in the area, including increasing incidents of torture, kidnapping, and murder of reporters—including two victims, just last week, from this same paper. I will try to translate, please forgive any errors in my clumsy grasp of Spanish: Gentlemen of the various [narco] organizations fighting in the square of Ciudad Juarez: the deaths of two reporters from this publication in less than two years represents an irreparable breakdown for all of us who work here, and in particular, for our families. We want you to be aware that we are communicators, not psychics. Therefore, as information workers, we want you to explain what you want from us, what is it that you would intend we publish or not publish, so that we know what is expected of us. You are, at present, the de facto authorities in our city, because the legally mandated institutions have not been able to do anything to prevent our colleagues from continuing to fall, although we have repeatedly demanded help from those institutions. That is why, faced with this undeniable reality, we are compelled to write to you and ask directly, because the last thing that we want is for another one of our colleagues to again fall the victim to your gunfire. ¿Qué quieren de nosotros? Image: mourners at the funeral of Luis Carlos Santiago, a photographer with El Diario in Juárez, shot to death last week. (El Diaro, Juárez, MX, via Blog del Narco, and Pablo Defendini) Leaking secrets, leaking blood

Volcano tornado Posted: 20 Sep 2010 01:37 PM PDT Volcanados? These volcanic water spouts spun off Kilauea volcano's eruption cloud during a 2008 blast. More than just a pillar of smoke, eruption clouds are, themselves, cyclonic, spinning around a vertical axis and mimicking some behavior patterns usually seen in storm cells, including the ability to give birth to smaller cyclones, water spouts and dust devils. This photo was taken by Stephen & Donna O'Meara and is part of the Extreme Exposures exhibit running at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, starting October 23. Via Bad Astronomy Fire tornado photos

DOJ: FBI faked terrorist threat, misled DOJ about spying on peace group Posted: 20 Sep 2010 12:25 PM PDT Over at the Washington Post, Jeff Stein writes that according to a Department of Justice report, "FBI officials, including the Pittsburgh office's top lawyer, engaged in distinctly COINTELPRO-style tactics after the ACLU sued for the release of documents" relating to surveillance of various peace groups after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Subjects of this spying included "an antiwar rally in Pittsburgh; a Catholic peace magazine; a Quaker activist; and members of the environmental group Greenpeace [and] PETA."

3-million-year-old whale fossil unearthed in CA Posted: 20 Sep 2010 12:15 PM PDT Unearthed during a construction dig at the San Diego Zoo in California last Thursday: The fossilized remains of a 24-foot-long baleen whale that lived 3 million years ago. The age of the find is remarkable, but what makes this even more rare is the fact that the entire skeleton appears to be more or less intact: head, vertebrae, flippers, and all. As Discovery News notes, "Our genus, Homo, wasn't even around 3 million years ago, so this wasn't some sort of super prehistoric zoo. The site then, during the Pliocene, was under water." Construction at the site will continue. (Photo by Ken Bohn, courtesy San Diego Zoo)

A Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:46 AM PDT Pop Chart Lab has produced a visually graceful and historically authoritative Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names poster, available for $20. You can view it large here. "266 sobriquets from the world of rap music, arranged according to semantics." (thanks, JG)

How to record the cops Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:39 AM PDT Radley Balko says, "My Reason.com column this week looks at the range of cameras, software, and other technology available for citizens interested in recording on-duty police officers." Qik and UStream, two services available for both the iPhone and Android phones, allow instant online video streaming and archiving. Once you stop recording, the video is instantly saved online. Both services also allow you to send out a mass email or notice to your Twitter followers when you have posted a new video from your phone. Not only will your video of police misconduct be preserved, but so will the video of the police officer illegally confiscating your phone (assuming you continue recording until that point). Neither Qik nor UStream market themselves for this purpose, and it probably would not make good business sense for them to do so, given the risk of angering law enforcement agencies and attracting attention from regulators. But it's hard to overstate the power of streaming and off-site archiving. Prior to this technology, prosecutors and the courts nearly always deferred to the police narrative; now that narrative has to be consistent with independently recorded evidence. And as examples of police reports contradicted by video become increasingly common, a couple of things are likely to happen: Prosecutors and courts will be less inclined to uncritically accept police testimony, even in cases where there is no video, and bad cops will be deterred by the knowledge that their misconduct is apt to be recorded. How to Record the Cops: A guide to the technology for keeping government accountable

Operation sheep drop Posted: 20 Sep 2010 12:22 PM PDT When the Italian army invaded East Africa in the mid-1930s, pre-packaged ration technology had not yet reached a point where one could carry a lot of food into a desert and expect it to say edible. The fascists solved that problem using a little ingenuity, some sheep, and a bunch of little parachutes. Enter the flying supply column, a new idea in warfare at the time, but one that would be used again in future conflicts. Twenty-five planes carried water, ammunition and rations for the Italians as they advanced on Emperor Haile Selassie's Army of the Ethiopian Empire. As they supposedly refused to eat the standard pre-packaged processed food that accompanied most armies and because fresh meat would spoil in the extreme temperatures of Danakil, the supply planes dropped living animals for the troops to butcher and cook. By the time the army had finished their trek, seventy-two sheep and two bulls had been pushed from planes, parachutes strapped to their backs. The Atlantic: Old, Weird Tech—Parachuting Sheep Edition Image: Click: The National Picture Monthly (Vol. 1 No. 7; August, 1938).

Reading Playboy to the blind Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:16 AM PDT Taping for the Blind is a Texas non-profit that does exactly what it says—turning printed material that isn't available in audio book format into custom-made tapes and CDs. They also do audio descriptions of live events, like the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo and various theater performances. Volunteers read and describe publications by request, and one of the publications requested turns out to be Playboy. NPR interviewed Suzi Hanks, a radio DJ who took over Playboy duty after the guy who used to read it got married, and his wife asked him to stop. Hanks reads the articles ... and describes the pictures. But that latter task is more than just titillatingly talking about tits. "Basically I'm their eyes. All I'm doing is providing accessibility to what's there on the page," she says. "I don't have to try to be sexy when I'm describing the pictures. I'm just a woman reading it, and it comes out sexy whether I want it to or not." It's more than just body parts, she says. "That would get boring. You're painting a picture. She's conveying something through her eyes, through her facial expressions." Hanks will look for details in the photos like nautical sheets on the bed, or make observations like, "interestingly enough, in the centerfold, it looks as if the tattoos have been airbrushed out. The tattoos are gone." Almost as interesting to me is the fact that Taping for the Blind has its own radio station that you can pick up in the greater Houston area. They don't seem to read Playboy on there, but programming is diverse—ranging from readings of People, Ebony and the Sunday funnies, to themed book readings like "Tales of Suspense with Pearl Hewitt", to a cooking show called "Cooking in the Dark." It sounds like both a great public service, and an interesting radio station in its own right. Anybody in Texas ever tune it in? Via David Brauer Pictured: Braille copy of Playboy belonging to Ray Charles. Photo: some rights reserved by imjoshdotcom. Martha's Vineyard: Birthplace of American Deaf culture Deaf children in Nicaragua create new language Concert for deaf people in Toronto Rubik's Cube for the blind Science Question From a Toddler: What do blind people see? - Boing ... Blind gamer speedruns Zelda with help of 100000+ keystroke script ... How blind people ski

Century-old lens on a fancy digital camera Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:25 AM PDT Over at the Submitterator, Daha points us to Timor Civan's fantastic photos taken with a 1908 camera lens mounted on a modern Canon EOS 5D. Lovely. From Cinema5D: I am a DP and photographer, 90% of the time i use my 5D for stills, professional and not. I have an upcoming photography project that needs a vintage look. Initially i was going to shoot it on 4x5 large format film, but found the equipment and processing cost prohibitive. My friend, a Russian lens technician, who loves nothing more than to frankenstein equipment, was assisting me in building the 4x5 camera. After we abandoned the 4x5 solution, i put the project on back burner. This morning he called me into his store on NYC. He has something for me.... He found in a box of random parts, hidden inside anther lens this gem. A circa 1908 ( possibly earlier) 35mm lens. Still functioning, mostly brass, and not nearly as much dust or fungus as one would think after sitting in a box for over a hundred years. This lens is a piece of motion picture history, and at this point rare beyond words. So i say to him, "Wow... what do you have in mind?" he smiles, and says, ( in the thickest russian accent you can imagine) " i can make this fit EF you know..." my eye twinkled, and then 6 nail biting hours later,he had it finished. My Russian Lens technician is a mad scientist and he took what sounded like an angle grinder to the lens to make its clear the flange distance and the mirror....... This lens' value is unclear. its sort of on loan. It's the only lens of its kind on a 5D... or any digital for that matter. "102 year old lens on a 5DmkII"

Own a Stargate! Posted: 20 Sep 2010 10:14 AM PDT You can have a Stargate of your very own! It's one of many Stargate SG-1 props, costumes, and related artifacts to be auctioned next weekend, September 25-26, at Seattle's Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum. You can bid online too. This "travel" Stargate is fiberglass on a welded steel frame and has working lights. "Please bear in mind that the stone pedestal and Dial Home Device are not included in this sale." Another choice item is the "Briefing Room Table." Stargate Auctions

Boeing's new spaceship for tourists Posted: 20 Sep 2010 10:01 AM PDT Seen above is an illustration of Boeing's proposed Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) capsule docking with the International Space Station. Boeing intends to use the capsule to shuttle NASA astronauts and space tourists to low Earth orbit destinations including the ISS and perhaps a commercial space lab planned by Bigelow Aerospace. For the space tourism side, Boeing has partnered with Space Adventures, the organization that already books civilian trips to the ISS on Soyuz rockets at $40 million/ticket. (In 2007, I interviewed Charles Simonyi who had such a great time up there that he went twice.) From Smithsonian Air & Space: "The price should be less emphasized than safety and reliability," said Eric Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures of Vienna, Virginia, which has so far sent seven people to the ISS on eight Soyuz flights (one person, Charles Simonyi, flew twice). "We're still talking tens of millions of dollars. People ask me, when is it going to get cheaper, like $40,000? I always say it'll never be $40,000 if it doesn't start at $40 million. We'll get there. The problem is, there's not enough access to space." The training to fly on the new Boeing capsule will be "much less arduous," Anderson said, than what is now required to ride on a Soyuz. For one thing, there won't be a need for Russian language training, which takes several months in Russia. And the CST-100 will launch from Florida's balmy Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas V, Delta IV, or SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, rather than from the barren steppes of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. "Boeing's New Spaceship"

Sarriugarte's Golden Zeppelini mini-dirigible car Posted: 20 Sep 2010 12:13 PM PDT The Golden Zeppelini is the latest creation of BB pal Jon Sarriugarte and his team at Form and Reform. Regular BB readers will recognize Jon's oilpunk handiwork from The Golden Mean snail car and the Electroybyte triolobyte-on-wheels. Like, the Electrobyte, the Golden Zeppelini was built on an old electric wheelchair. Check out Jon's build notes for the Zeppelini at Instructables! (b/w photo by Christoper Michel) The Golden Zeppelini

Dad arrested for confronting bullies who tormented his 13-year daughter who has cerebral palsy Posted: 20 Sep 2010 09:37 AM PDT I don't really blame this 42-year-old father for getting on a bus and yelling at some kids who were bullying his 13-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy. James Jones, 42, is facing two misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and disturbing a school function following his tirade on a Florida school bus on Thursday. A surveillance video from the bus showed Jones using profane language as he threatened students who his daughter said had put open condoms on her head and hurt her by smacking her on the back of her head and twisting her ear. "Now everybody sit down; sit down," Jones said on the surveillance tape. "Show me which one. Show me which one." The video showed Jones' daughter pointing him in their direction. "This is my daughter, and I will kill the (expletive) who fought her," Jones said on the video. I think the little assholes got off pretty easy. Dad boards school bus to accuse bullies (Via Arbroath)

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