The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Science by press conference: a modern scourge
- Vanity Fair profiles Julian Assange: Wikileaks threatened to sue Guardian over leaked cables
- CES 2011: Come gather tonight at the Cosmopolitan Hotel
- Sony at CES 2011: monolithic TVs, new Vaios, and loadsacameras
- Pedocouture: In Vogue magazine, 6-year-olds are sex vixens
- Bamboo Toast Tongs
- CES 2011: Motorola Xoom, the ten-inch Android 3 tablet
- CES 2011: ARM-friendly Windows 8 and more from round the 'net
- CES 2011: Samsung's Android phone goes the extra half-inch
- The Rap Guide to Evolution: Helping out with the music videos.
- US tightening security and secrecy, post-Wikileaks
- CES 2011: Moto Atrix cellphone also plans dual-core Android dominance
- How to avoid online tracking. (Hint: you can't.)
- CES 2011: body-mounted action camera
- Incoming US Homeland Security Chairman: NYT should be indicted for espionage
- CES 2011: Withings' net-connected blood pressure monitor
- Romania declares witchcraft a legally-recognized (and taxable) profession, pisses off witches
- CES 2011: Canon shows off "ultimate run-and-gun" pro camcorder
- Artists and designers reinterpret and reimagine existing album covers
- More music mashups: peer-reviewed edition
- CES 2011: Samsung 9 Series ultraportable
- Brazilians who dine on ants perturbed by pesticides on plants
- CES 2011: Bluetooth wristwatch runs for two years without a charge
- Cute little injured turtle now has wheels: "They see me rollin, they hatin"
- Bieber vs. Assange for Vanity Fair cover boy
- Real-life "Encino Man" caught in Australia
- Papercraft Andy Warhol
- Mars Attacks: scanned Flickr set of original, vintage cards
- 18 months without soap or shampoo: success!
- Tom the Dancing Bug: The Outer Reaches of Plot Twists
| Science by press conference: a modern scourge Posted: 06 Jan 2011 03:55 AM PST  In 2004, I started a Wikipedia article on science by press conference, one of the most irresponsible abuses of science. In it, I mentioned the canonical example: Pons and Fleischmann's press conference to announce their discovery of cold fusion, and the clueless journalists who uncritically published their sensationalistic claims. More recent examples include the Felisa Wolfe-Simon/NASA Astrobiology Institute announcement about the "GFAJ-1" arsenic-loving bacteria strain, and the announcement about the Gliese 581 g extrasolar planet. These stories got a lot of traction in our "First Post!" world, where everyone clamors to be the earliest reporter of this or that scientific claim, whether it's true or not. This was never more evident than in the December 2010 Twitter trending topic "HIV cured," where the media was complicit in dumbing down a complicated news story about Timothy Ray Brown, aka the "Berlin patient," to the point that average people ran with a grossly inaccurate version of the medical facts. This week, it's the "elaborate fraud" perpetrated by Andrew Wakefield for nearly a decade regarding vaccinations and autism. In 2001, the media were falling all over themselves to report Wakefield's claims: he was heralded as the "MMR Warrior" (MMR=measles, mumps, rubella, three potentially deadly childhood diseases that can be prevented through vaccination). Wakefield found an audience in people looking for something to blame for autism, and he sparked an anti-vaccination movement that got further traction through celebrities with access to the media. While journalists have a responsibility to report new findings, they also have a responsibility to make sure that these new findings are reported accurately and in a manner that is not sensationalistic. PROTIP: If someone is convening a press conference to announce their scientific discovery, whether it's a perpetual motion device or the first human clone, it's advisable to ask why they seem more focused on publicity than science. In the meantime, thanks to the media, "vaccination rates have hit record lows here in America, and measles rates have skyrocketed accordingly." Vaccine-Autism Link Not Only Wrong, But an "Elaborate Fraud" Image: Pons and Fleischmann, garnering money and fame for their 1989 press conference announcing their discovery of cold fusion. (via Wikimedia Commons.) |
| Vanity Fair profiles Julian Assange: Wikileaks threatened to sue Guardian over leaked cables Posted: 05 Jan 2011 11:22 PM PST  VF's feature on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is now available online. Snip: The partnership between The Guardian and WikiLeaks brought together two desperately ambitious organizations that happen to be diametric opposites in their approach to reporting the news. One of the oldest newspapers in the world, with strict and established journalistic standards, joined up with one of the newest in a breed of online muckrakers, with no standards at all except fealty to an ideal of "transparency"--that is, dumping raw material into the public square for people to pick over as they will. It is very likely that neither Alan Rusbridger nor Julian Assange fully understood the nature of the other's organization when they joined forces. The Guardian, like other media outlets, would come to see Assange as someone to be handled with kid gloves, or perhaps latex ones--too alluring to ignore, too tainted to unequivocally embrace. No standards at all! But among the more interesting revelations in this piece: at one point, VF reports that Assange threatened to sue The Guardian because he was upset that the newspaper secured an unauthorized copy of one leak "package" from a Wikileaks volunteer, and was considering breaking the embargo. In other words: Wikileaks was going to sue The Guardian over a leak, because Assange believed he owned the content which had been leaked to him. Enraged that he had lost control, Assange unleashed his threat, arguing that he owned the information and had a financial interest in how and when it was released.Go ahead and let that one sink in a minute. Related: Some guy named Graydon Carter wrote some stuffs about hackers. "It has all been quite a circus, these serial acts of aggression, reaction, and revenge." Hurr hurr! Hackers. |
| CES 2011: Come gather tonight at the Cosmopolitan Hotel Posted: 05 Jan 2011 06:43 PM PST Join Boing Boing publisher-at-large Jason Weisberger and I this evening for a drink. We'll be at the Queue Bar in The Cosmopolitan Hotel at 11 p.m. Las Vegas time. CES R&R! One round[1] is on us. |
| Sony at CES 2011: monolithic TVs, new Vaios, and loadsacameras Posted: 05 Jan 2011 06:28 PM PST  Sony's announced its marvels for 2011, including striking minimialist TV sets with gorilla glass and fancy internet TV features, a new ultraportable laptop, and plenty of cameras. • 2011's batch of Bravias look great and bring some interesting internet connectivity options, including WiFI models that offer "a future of cable-free connections and online entertainment" with Time Warner shows, movie rentals, and millions of music tracks. The
• Cameras: 3D handycams that record HD; budget Cybershots in cutesy colors; an upgraded Bloggie flip-style camcorder; and high-end point-and-shoots that save 1080p video and claim "DSLR-like" shutter lag. • Flimy is video management software for Playstation 3 that looks like it only works with Sony gear and AVCHD.   |
| Pedocouture: In Vogue magazine, 6-year-olds are sex vixens Posted: 05 Jan 2011 07:09 PM PST  The December issue of French Vogue, edited by Tom Ford, features an extensive spread of child models presented more or less like whores. The girl above is 6. Lemme spell that for you: s-i-x! I'm a big Tom Ford fan. Or, well, was. Artistic freedom and everything, and no, this shouldn't be made illegal—but I believe this is Totally Not Cool. More at NY Mag, Stylelist, and Gawker has scans of the whole photo spread. (thanks, Tara McGinley) |
| Posted: 05 Jan 2011 05:51 PM PST  My wife brought home a pair of bamboo toast tongs from a "Pampered Chef" housewares party, and I've been surprised at how useful they are. We have a standard toaster, and also make homemade bread in small pans. I hadn't realized how many times I'd been burning myself on the toaster or what a hassle removing smaller slices had been until I started using these. I guess I find the concept more useful than any particular implementation as I imagine that the adept use of chopsticks would serve the same function. [Note: Other commenters have pointed out a plethora of uses for a good pair of tongs in the comments at Cool Tools. -- OH] -- Mark Crane 12" Bamboo Toast Tongs $4.55 Comment on this at Cool Tools. Or, submit a tool!  |
| CES 2011: Motorola Xoom, the ten-inch Android 3 tablet Posted: 05 Jan 2011 05:27 PM PST  Motorola just announced the Xoom tablet (pronounced "zoom"), with a hot spec sheet centered on Google's forthcoming Android 3 "Honeycomb" operating system. As the first version of the software designed specifically with tablets in mind, Honeycomb will help Apple's competitors mount stronger challenges to the iPad, a runaway success that saw little competition in 2010. The Xoom's hardware also leapfrogs the pack: a 5 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, a 2 megapixel webcam, dual-core 1GHz processor and 1080p HDMI output. Its 1280x800 resolution display demands satisfaction. Motorola says it'll be out before the summer with integrated 3G, with a 4G model following later this year. Also announced was its newest Droid, the "Droid Bionic," another dual-core 4G phone. This one offers a 4.3-inch display (A smidgin smaller than Samsung's new one, but larger than the new LG's or that on its own Atrix, already let out the bag today by AT&T) and HDMI output. The "Droid Bionic" also marks the very limit of credible unused sub-branding options centered on the "Droid" concept, according to science. Press release [Motorola]   |
| CES 2011: ARM-friendly Windows 8 and more from round the 'net Posted: 05 Jan 2011 03:22 PM PST  • Microsoft offered a peek at its next version of Windows, which will run on ARM chips too. Seattle Times technology reporter Sharon Chan writes: "The ability of to run Windows on ARM chips means Windows could run on devices such as tablets at some point in the future. It also indicated a schism with Intel, the chip maker Microsoft has worked closely with throughout the history of Windows and the PC. ARM chip designs are now used in mobile phones and tablet devices." • Gizmodo's Kyle VanHemert has the word on a curious and cool little pocketcam from Casio, the Tryx (pictured): "Take your average camcorder and replace everything that's not the display with a super thin plastic frame, one that fits perfectly outside the display itself and can be swiveled 360-degrees." • Engadget's Myriam Joire writes that The first HSPA and LTE tablets will be coming to AT&T, but not until the second half of 2011. • CrunchGear took at look at Microsoft's Surface 2: "Gone is the gigantic, 500 pound box of death. The wall-mounted surface that Microsoft demonstrated on today was about the thickness of a mid-range LCD TV." • CNET reports that the Zeppelin Air iPod dock now has Airplay. Exceptional wireless sound quality is the claim. • Fujifilm announced 4,387 new point-and-shoot cameras; while NVidia announced just 1 CPU, it's first ever. • AT&T's plans to roll out its 4G HSPA+ and LTE networks were detailed today by USA Today's Ed Baig: "AT&T plans to deploy LTE service in certain markets by the middle of this year. ... In the meantime, AT&T says it has completed deployment of its so-called HSPA+ network to virtually its entire mobile broadband market ... [with] speeds in key markets of up to 6 Mbps." |
| CES 2011: Samsung's Android phone goes the extra half-inch Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:55 PM PST  Samsung's own new Android phone has a gigantic 4.5" AMOLED display, making it a little larger than fresh rivals from Moto and LG—and packing other features that drew a "holy shit" from Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan. Named the Infuse, its got a 1.2GHz processor, 4G (on AT&T's HSPA+ network), and an 8 megapixel back-side camera. A 1.3 megapixel webcam points the other direction. There's no word on availability, pricing or detailed specifics, but it's clearly top of the range, so expect to go poor if you want one.  |
| The Rap Guide to Evolution: Helping out with the music videos. Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:39 PM PST Now that classes have started, and I'm in the "teaching" zone again, it's always cool to check out folks who have come up with unconventional, and dare I say, innovative ways of talking science. One such example is Baba Brinkman, who does a great job of communicating the principles and various nuances of evolution using rap and hip-hop. In fact, there's a whole album's worth of material called "The Rap Guide to Evolution," which you can listen to for free or download/purchase if you so choose. As well, the artist recently received an educational grant to create a series of videos for the songs, but has been seeking out some additional funding to really open up post-production possibilities (i.e. animations, access to footage, etc). Quite a few biology and psychology teachers already use the rap songs in their classes to introduce evolutionary concepts to their students, and these videos will make an even more potent vehicle for communicating science in an entertaining manner. The initial funding from the Wellcome Trust allows us to shoot live footage for each video with a professional film crew, edit it, and set up a website to distribute the videos. This phase of the project will be completed by mid-December. The additional funding from Crowdfunder will allow us to produce original animation and digital effects and license high-quality nature footage from the BBC, to make the vision of each video really come to life.In any event, check out the songs, the video above and also the link below if you want to help out. The Rap Guide to Evolution DVD Project   |
| US tightening security and secrecy, post-Wikileaks Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:36 PM PST Steven Aftergood at FAS: "The Obama Administration is moving to increase the security of classified information in response to the massive leaks of classified documents to Wikileaks in recent months. The White House Office of Management and Budget yesterday issued a detailed memorandum (pdf) elaborating on the requirement to conduct an initial assessment of agency information policies and to initiate remedial steps to tighten security. Agency assessments are to be completed by January 28."   |
| CES 2011: Moto Atrix cellphone also plans dual-core Android dominance Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:41 PM PST  Motorola's Atrix cellphone is the second today to bring dual-core processing to the smartphone party. It has a 1GB of RAM, NVIDIA's new Tegra 2 chipset and, like the Optimus Black, will start out with Android 2.2 instead of the Google's forthcoming third toke. Also like the Optimus, it has a 4" display, 4G ratio and ostentatious boasts of Adobe Flash performance. A 5 megapixel camera looks outward onto a desolate and unforgiving world; Skype with your palz with the faceward-facing VGA one! Oh, it also has a "laptop dock," which does indeed look like something that finally drove Palm into bankruptcy in an alternative universe's 2008. Motorola Atrix [ATT]   |
| How to avoid online tracking. (Hint: you can't.) Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:20 PM PST Christopher Maag, writing for credit.com, says that any attempt to maintain your privacy online is doomed. Deleting cookies won't work, banning cookies won't work, and using privacy tools won't work, either. Even after you set your browser to delete existing cookies and ban new ones, download super-cookies and use the tools created by pro-privacy programmers, there's one data-gathering technique that you simply cannot avoid. Your computer has hundreds of settings that control things like the main interface language (English, Korean, etc.), sound and screen resolution settings, and the color schemes people set for their Microsoft Word documents.How to avoid online tracking. (Hint: you can't.)   |
| CES 2011: body-mounted action camera Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:41 PM PST  Oregon Scientific's Mike Rush has mounted his company's ATC action video camera on his fist, where it is clearly ready for action. The ATC action video camera is also compatible with heads and other bodily protrusions. Winner of an "Innovations" award at this year's CES trade show, the 1080p-recording camera saves directly to 32GB of internal memory or micro SD card, and is $300 with a couple of free ones thrown in. There is even a laser pointer on the gadget, which is waterproof to 20 feet and can also records the G-forces it experiences. [Oregon Scientific. REUTERS/Steve Marcus]  |
| Incoming US Homeland Security Chairman: NYT should be indicted for espionage Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:14 PM PST "They should be indicted under the Espionage Act. ... The New York Times is just basically being a mouthpiece for political correctness." Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the new US Homeland Security Chairman, who insists he was not referring to the paper's coverage of Wikileaks, but, whatever.   |
| CES 2011: Withings' net-connected blood pressure monitor Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:14 PM PST  At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Withings shows off its iPhone-connected Smart Blood Pressure Monitor. The device does the usual pressure-monitoring and uploads the results to your doctor's account online. It'll be available soon, with pricing to be announced. I feel compelled to suggest that the demonstrator talk to his doctor about those numbers, online or otherwise. Product Page [Withings. Photo: REUTERS/Steve Marcus]   |
| Romania declares witchcraft a legally-recognized (and taxable) profession, pisses off witches Posted: 05 Jan 2011 01:59 PM PST  The government of Romania has updated labor laws to officially recognize witchcraft as a profession, part of a "drive to crack down on widespread tax evasion in a country that is in recession." But some Romanian witches who will now have to pay taxes on income they earn for spellcrafting are not amused. The Washington Post reports that "On Saturday, a witch called Bratara told Realitate.net, the website of a top TV station, that she plans to cast a spell using black pepper and yeast to create discord in the government." (Ed. note: As an aside, that url won't load for me). That's Bratara Buzea, above (thumbnail via Yahoo News). The 63-year-old woman was imprisoned for witchcraft under communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's repressive regime. This AP article, via MSNBC, says she is expanding her planned anti-government spell recipe to include cat excrement and dead dog. Oh yes she did. Shit just got real.
And President Traian Basescu isn't laughing it off. In a country where superstition is mainstream, the president and his aides wear purple on Thursdays, allegedly to ward off evil spirits.More at AP. (via Angeliska) |
| CES 2011: Canon shows off "ultimate run-and-gun" pro camcorder Posted: 05 Jan 2011 03:31 PM PST  Canon launched an ultracompact "pro" camcorder and eight new models in its VIXIA range today, with the XA10 and Vixia HF G10 on the top shelf, three new M-series models in the midrange and three R-series budget shooters. The G10 comes in at $1,500 and shoots full 1080p HD video, at 24 frames per second, through a 10x 30.4-300mm-equivalent lens with a dedicated manual focus ring. It includes manual shutter speeds and color temperature adjustment, and, along with a 3.5" LCD display, has a viewfinder for "shooting on a sunny day." It includes 32GB of flash memory. The really fancy model, however, is the XA10 (pictured), described in the literature as "the ultimate professional camcorder for run-and-gun shooting." Recording full 1080-line HD at 60i, PF30, PF24 and native 24p using the AVCHD codec, it includes XLR audio inputs, infrared capture for shooting in darkness ("ideal for Military and Law Enforcement"), dual SDXC-compatible card slots, and the same 30.4mm - 304mm lens. At $2,000, it's the same price as Sony's hotstuff ultraportable camcorder, the NEX10 -- which lacks native 24p and XLR, but has interchangeable lenses and adapters. VIXIA press release [Canon] XA10 press release [Canon]  |
| Artists and designers reinterpret and reimagine existing album covers Posted: 05 Jan 2011 01:41 PM PST  33.3 is an art show of album covers, reimagined and reinterpreted by artists and designers. I like Andrew Kolb's remake of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album cover. I'm now using it as the album art in my iTunes library. (Amazon sells the 27-track MP3 album of Pet Sounds that was reissued in 1996 -- on the 30th anniversary of the original release of the album -- for $9.49.) At one point I was going to re-imagine The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band but then thought "Why do that when I could interpret the album that INSPIRED it?!?" I mean, who inspires the Beatles?! Frig The Beach Boys are cool.My other favorites include Brent Couchman's design for Surfer Blood's "Astro Coast" record and Luke Bott's version of The Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead." |
| More music mashups: peer-reviewed edition Posted: 05 Jan 2011 01:34 PM PST  After I posted about the Best of Bootie 2010 release, Chris DeLine at Culture Bully wrote to let me know about two collections they compiled, voted on by those who make 'em. Some overlap with Bootie, but a few others worth checking out. (Image via Culture Bully) As with many mashups - that first list is pretty hit or miss, but I think the compilation came together nicely. Thanks for supporting the genre - been following it for a number of years myself and still find gems along the way that keep me hoping that there's still a bit of life left in these things.50+ mashup producers voted on the top mashups of the year 10 track mix of original mashups reshaping the year in music   |
| CES 2011: Samsung 9 Series ultraportable Posted: 05 Jan 2011 03:33 PM PST    |
| Brazilians who dine on ants perturbed by pesticides on plants Posted: 05 Jan 2011 01:13 PM PST The New York Times reports that in a region of Brazil where people savor ants as a tasty treat, there are fears the culinary tradition may soon die out: pesticides are ravaging the ant population.   |
| CES 2011: Bluetooth wristwatch runs for two years without a charge Posted: 05 Jan 2011 01:11 PM PST  Even though it includes Bluetooth to relay your telephone's nagging messages to a point slightly closer to your immediate attention, Casio's prototype watch promises two-year battery life. The problem? No phones yet exist that are compatible with the low-power Bluetooth mode it uses.  |
| Cute little injured turtle now has wheels: "They see me rollin, they hatin" Posted: 05 Jan 2011 01:10 PM PST  (photos: REUTERS/Nir Elias) About two months ago Tzvika was run over by a lawn mower, suffering severe damage to her shell and a spinal injury that affected her ability to use her rear limbs. The wheels, attached by veterinarians at the Safari, elevate the turtle to keep the shell from being worn down and enable her to walk. More photographs below, the first of which shows you how the wheels were attached to her body. Mark blogged about an earlier turtle-mod project like this back in 2008. I like turtles.
  |
| Bieber vs. Assange for Vanity Fair cover boy Posted: 05 Jan 2011 01:28 PM PST  (UPDATE: fixed, at right, by Andrea James) Bieber won the cover. But *inside* the February issue of Vanity Fair, a feature on Wikileaks teased as WIKIGATE: The Twisted Inside Story of How Julian Assange Spilled the Government's Biggest Secrets. "For his WikiLeaks bombshells to land with maximum force, Julian Assange needed the mainstream media. Sarah Ellison reports on the Faustian pact between Assange and Britain's leading investigative paper." It's not online yet. |
| Real-life "Encino Man" caught in Australia Posted: 05 Jan 2011 12:25 PM PST  The strange saga of a 32-year-old barefoot and bedreadlocked gentleman named James D'Zilva appears to be at an end. Wanted in the stabbing of a policeman, he has evaded police for a month by running barefoot through the wilderness, covering 30km (19 miles) a day, traveling with nothing but the clothes on his back. Police say he suffers from schizophrenia, and is off his medication. The constable he is believed to have stabbed survived the attack. The Age has more here, and reports that he is "suspected of breaking into numerous homes and businesses in the Dandenongs in the past month, escaping with items including clothes, ice cream and chocolate." We will presume that Mr. D'Zilva does not bathe with soap. |
| Posted: 05 Jan 2011 12:10 PM PST  Via the Boing Boing Submitterator, reader Matt Hawkins shares this Papercraft Andy Warhol, which you can download and build yourself with this PDF. |
| Mars Attacks: scanned Flickr set of original, vintage cards Posted: 05 Jan 2011 11:45 AM PST  BB reader fergus1948 says, My friend Keith Bates has uploaded a lovely set of scans of his original full set of Mars Attacks bubble gum cards from 1962, purchased in Liverpool UK when he was a lad. They look particularly great as a slideshow. |
| 18 months without soap or shampoo: success! Posted: 05 Jan 2011 11:34 AM PST This week Sean Bonner reported on his success in staying clean and odorless by showering with water and not using soap or shampoo. Sean was inspired by a blog post I linked to on a site called freetheanimal.com. It's run by a fellow named Richard Nikoley, who self-experiments with various types of diet, nutrition, exercise, fitness, and health regimens, based on his research in evolutionary biology. Here's a little of what Richard has to say about his soap and shampoo free experiment 18 months after starting it: A Most Successful Self-Experiment: Over 18 Months Soap and Shampoo Free Photo by Madaise. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.   |
| Tom the Dancing Bug: The Outer Reaches of Plot Twists Posted: 05 Jan 2011 10:57 AM PST     |
• The Vaio Y has an 11.6" display, "up to" 6 hours of battery life, Intel Core i3 or AMD Vision processor options; and a maximum of 8GB of RAM. It comes with up to 500GB of storage, but looks like there's no SSD option. No pricing yet. 
What I've found over these 18 months is that I never even thought of the money I was saving. Hell, a decent sized bottle of shampoo and body wash would last me months anyway. Oh, and then there's the travel size versions. No, what has made this experience oh so satisfying is that I don't have to worry about any of that anymore -- ever. Don't have to buy it. Don't have to carry it. Don't ever run out of it. Don't have to get it tossed in the dumpster by TSA goons. | You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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