The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Castle Grayskull igloo in Brooklyn
- Lost luxury: the Boeing 314 flying boat
- Bald disinformation about Scientology critic
- Damselflies' curious mating posture
- Love, defined: soliloquy from Godard's "Alphaville"
- My essential Mac applications, part 4
- Cthulhu ski mask
- Report: Playboy mansion visitors acquire respiratory infection, for a change
- Kenneth Mars, who played Hitler-loving playwright in Mel Brooks' "The Producers," has died.
- Father & Son launch iPhone into Space
- LOLcat documentary with a "Glee" twist
- 100-ft-long drug-smuggling, Narco-crafted submarine discovered in Colombia
- John Elwood plays "Shortnin' Bread" on a canjo
- He Walked Among Granite Spires And Heard Celestial Music: short by Joaquin Baldwin
- Magic 8 Ball booby trapped with flashbulb
- MP3 music box in a cigar box
- The fun, exciting, potentially deadly world of Tactical Pens
- NASA's black light poster-esque artistic renderings
- BB's Jason Weisberger's "other" job
- Sneak-preview screening of "Happy" documentary in LA 2011
- Scientology's science fictional origins: thesis from 1981
- 10 year old extols his 3D printer's virtues
- Bollywood meets Acid House in 1982!?
- Simpsons house as a Quake III level
- More zombie V-day art from the Boing Boing Flickr pool
- Images from the Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary Art Exhibition
- Where to find scientific research with negative results
- Modern photos that recreate cherished childhood snaps
- Romantic advice from scientists
- The weird relationship between bacteria and their human hosts
| Castle Grayskull igloo in Brooklyn Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:10 AM PST Brooklyn artist Kilroy III celebrated the snowmageddon by building a huge, magnificent Castle Grayskull (of He-Man fame) igloo. It's the artist's second attempt at a Grayskullgloo, the first being one he attempted in the 1990s in Ohio. The primary sculpting tools were a Korean soup bowl and a spoon. SPOTLIGHT: Snowmageddon Spawns Castle Grayskull by Kilroy III & Friends | Brooklyn Igloo Castle Grayskull | Snowmageddon | Kilroy III (Flickr) (via Geekologie)   |
| Lost luxury: the Boeing 314 flying boat Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:47 PM PST  Here's a collection of images of the long lost Boeing 314 flying boat, the luxury skyliner that plied the skies in the 1930s and 1940s, and which came complete with sleeper bunks and formal dining: Vintage Luxury: Boeing 314 Flying Boat in Detail (Thanks, ghaitched, via Submitterator!)   |
| Bald disinformation about Scientology critic Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:32 AM PST An anonymous commenter's missive in response to yesterday's post on Hugh Spencer's Master's thesis on the Church of Scientology and science fiction is some of the dumbest disinformation I've seen yet. The commenter (using an IP address in Melbourne, Australia) tells ridiculous, easily falsified lies -- for example, claiming that the Associated Press called Spencer "the 20th century's answer to Glenn Beck," which would be a neat trick, given that Spencer's thesis was published two years before Beck's first on-air job at a small radio station in Texas. The commenter also claims that McMaster University threw out Spencer's thesis -- another patent falsehood that is revealed by the fact that the document is currently in McMaster's online archive of successful Master's theses. I don't know whether anonymous-of-Melbourne is working for the Church of Scientology, but this kind of disinformation campaign does the Church and its supporters no good. If you want to make the faith look like a sinister cult that viciously attacks its critics rather than addressing the criticism, consider yourself successful. |
| Damselflies' curious mating posture Posted: 15 Feb 2011 12:11 AM PST  National Geographic's photo of the day brings us a peek into the tantric lovelife of the damselfly. The male arches his abdomen to move sperm from his secondary genitalia so the female can bring her genitals into contact with it, making the heartlike "wheel position." Damselflies (Thanks, Marilyn, via Submitterator!)   |
| Love, defined: soliloquy from Godard's "Alphaville" Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:16 PM PST [video link] I am not much for Valentine's Day, or most holidays, really. But I love French New Wave cinema and old computers. And Anna Karina. For that reason, I present to you what I believe to be one of the most perfect pieces of motion picture art ever created: Natacha von Braun's soliloquy on love from Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville. |
| My essential Mac applications, part 4 Posted: 14 Feb 2011 07:27 PM PST I recently bought a new iMac computer, and I installed about 30 different applications on the first day. They are applications I consider essential (or at least mighty desirable for my purposes). Last week I talked about programs 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15. Today, I'm discussing apps 16-20. Second, Scrivener offers excellent research collection and organization tools. I was able to keep all of my notes, audio interviews, videos, and webpages that I came across in an organized outline that was also accessible from the left column. Once I was finished the manuscript I used Scrivener to export the text as a Microsoft Word document in the format required by my publisher. This is one powerful application. My wife is currently using Scrivener write a young adult novel, and she uses Scrivener's research tools to keep track of the characters in the novel. She uses the corkboard view to arrange virtual index cards, each containing a character description and back story. I haven't yet tried out some of new features the that Scrivener offers, such as synchronizing project text with mobile apps such as SimpleText (which sounds really cool). 18. SuperDuper (OS X, $27.95) Every evening at the same time, SuperDuper makes a scheduled bootable clone of my iMac's hard drive. I've been using SuperDuper for a number of years now, and it has saved my butt at least once a year (either from catastrophic drive failure or my own stupidity). The key strength of SuperDuper is that it makes a bootable backup, so if your system's hard drive fails, all you have to do is boot from the backup and you are back in business. After SuperDuper makes its first backup (which can take hours), subsequent backups take just a few minutes because SuperDuper compares the differences between the source and target hard drives and updates only the changes.
19. Things (OS X, $49.95) As far as to do lists/task managers go, 50 bucks is a lot of money. But for me, Things is worth the price. I use it to set up the projects I want to work on (the upcoming issue of Make, projects I'm working on for Boing Boing, personal and home projects, and other stuff) and then toss in all the tasks I need to do to complete each project. It's easy to set up recurring tasks, and I can tag, sort, and prioritize them to my heart's content. Each morning I like to click the "next" button and go through the list of stuff I have to do. Things also has an iPhone and iPad version, which syncs with the desktop version. Unfortunately, it doesn't do cloud syncing, and you have to pay extra for the iPhone and iPad versions. The company that makes Things promises to have a cloud syncing version sometime soon.
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| Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:37 PM PST  Ian J. Kahn of Lux Mentis, Antiquarian Booksellers, just received this hand-knit Cthulhu hat from his mother as a surprise gift. |
| Report: Playboy mansion visitors acquire respiratory infection, for a change Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:23 PM PST Those of us who've been around the block in Hollywood a few times know to associate the Playboy Mansion with sleaze 'n' disease, but legionellosis is a new one. 170 guests are said to have acquired an illness that may be caused by this bacterium, according to this Los Angeles Times article. It's a "milder form of Legionnaires' disease caused by a bacterium that grows in warm water and can take root in hot tubs or parts of air-conditioning systems, according to the CDC." Sexy.   |
| Kenneth Mars, who played Hitler-loving playwright in Mel Brooks' "The Producers," has died. Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:01 PM PST [video link] "Kenneth Mars, a Mel Brooks collaborator who played a Hitler-worshipping playwright in The Producers and an earnest police inspector with a malfunctioning artificial arm in Young Frankenstein, has died. He was 75." |
| Father & Son launch iPhone into Space Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:23 AM PST This video first hit the internets last year—but it's no less cool now. From the description: Father and Son team launch an iphone into space. The iphone along with a HD camera were lifted up to an altitude of 100 000ft above New York using a helium filled balloon. At this atitude the weather balloon burst and sent the iphone, camera and burst container hurtling towards the earth at 150mph even with the parachute open! Thanks to the iPhones internal GPS, the capsule and its contents were located intact in a tree 30 miles north of the liftoff site! Unfortunately it's covered with crappy ads and has a mountain of keyword spam on YouTube, but it's still a great video. (Thanks Glen) |
| LOLcat documentary with a "Glee" twist Posted: 14 Feb 2011 01:19 PM PST This LOLcat puppet mockumentary, "Who is Leopold Bonar," first hit YouTube a few months ago. What's new: a little LOLcat just told me the lead voice is Darren Criss of the hit Fox television show "Glee." (thanks, Mark Day) |
| 100-ft-long drug-smuggling, Narco-crafted submarine discovered in Colombia Posted: 14 Feb 2011 12:42 PM PST  Members of the Colombian Navy stand guard on top of a seized submarine built by drug smugglers in a makeshift shipyard in Timbiqui, department of Cauca, February 14, 2011. Colombian authorities said the submersible craft was to be used to transport 8 tons of cocaine illegally into Mexico. (REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga). Reported in the Colombian (Spanish-language) paper El Tiempo here: The sub presents the use of advanced technology seen for the first time in this country, and its construction must have cost the narcotraffickers more than 4,000 million pesos, according to the Naval police of the Pacific.There's a related MSNBC article here. More photos below, because who can get enough of a hundred-foot-long homemade cocaine sub?
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| John Elwood plays "Shortnin' Bread" on a canjo Posted: 14 Feb 2011 12:34 PM PST [Video Link] Fiddleback says: "John Elwood, a maker of fine stringed instruments from rural Washington state, crafts small, fretless banjos from cheese cans. In this video, John plays kid's classic "Shortnin' Bread" on his canjo, about the size of a ukelele." John Elwood plays "Shortnin' Bread" on a canjo (Submitterated by Fiddleback) |
| He Walked Among Granite Spires And Heard Celestial Music: short by Joaquin Baldwin Posted: 14 Feb 2011 12:11 PM PST Filmmaker Joaquin Baldwin shares a beautiful new short film with us: composed from footage shot with the Sony HVR-Z5U at some of California's most beautiful wilderness sights. The title "He Walked Among Granite Spires And Heard Celestial Music" came from a tombstone we found up on a graveyard on a hill north of Mono Lake, contemplated by a Saint Francis statue. It can seen in a few shots of the video. Sigur Rós' heavenly music fit perfectly with that image. More at Joaquin's blog here, and here's a direct video (YouTube) link. The song is All Alright, by Sigur Rós. |
| Magic 8 Ball booby trapped with flashbulb Posted: 14 Feb 2011 12:11 PM PST [Video Link] For your Sword of Fargoal playing friends who loathe battling Blitz Beetles -- here's a great way to stun them in the real world. This Magic 8 Ball has been rigged with a single use camera flash. Boo hoo, it's so heartless; only a sociopath would make one! Booby trapped Magic 8 Ball (Via Make) |
| Posted: 14 Feb 2011 12:02 PM PST  In the DIY world cigarboxes have replaced the OATH (Obligatory Altoids Tin Hack). Here, Matt Richardson shows how to make an MP3 music box from a cigar box. I decided I wanted to do a modern-day maker's riff on the old mechanical music box. I asked around for some advice on how to do it and got a lot of great suggestions such as using an Arduino Wave Shield, an MP3 trigger board, or my favorite idea, one of those electronic musical greeting cards. But I happened upon a $6 knockoff MP3 player that started playing songs when you flipped a switch on the side. When I opened it up, I was delighted to see that I could easily stop and start the music by opening and closing the circuit between the battery and the MP3 player's circuit board.MP3 Music Box   |
| The fun, exciting, potentially deadly world of Tactical Pens Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:51 AM PST  [Editor's note: Pesco posted about these weaponized writing implements here last year; today, enjoy a hands-on from guestblogger Sean Bonner. —XJ] What the crap is a tactical pen? A pen that kicks ass, basically. And I don't just mean it's "a kick-ass pen," I mean: this pen could literally kick your ass. To death, maybe. But it's also a pen, so it's civilized. No definitive answer on how mighty a tactical pen is in comparison to a sword, but the tactical pen is definitely mightier than the regular pen. After first hearing about these on Every Day Carry, I decided I needed to see one in person. So I picked one up. Then another. Then did some comparing and contrasting, all scientifical-like. I can now share my results with you. Here's a few that happen to be in front of me as I write this post.
From L to R: Smith & Wesson Tactical Pen, Emergency Survival Covert Spy Ventilator Pen (carbon fiber), County Comm Embassy Elite Pen (stainless), Pilot Easy Touch (fine point), Sharpie (standard). The first one I picked up was the Smith & Wesson Tactical Pen This pen is made from aircraft aluminum so it's pretty solid, but light weight. Since this pen costs a whopping $23 on Amazon I really wanted to do my research before buying it, and that research told me that the cartridge that goes in it kind of sucks so and people "in the know" generally advise buying a Fisher Space Pen Refill Right away I will tell you that the best thing about this pen, and the thing that made tactical pens suddenly make perfect sense to me is the pocket clip. I carry a pen everywhere and damn if I'm not always snapping off pocket clips and then losing the pen. These things have solid metal clips that are literally bolted on to the pen, making them really solid and reliable. But this pen is really thick, wider than a Sharpie which makes it feel a little weird to hold in your hand while writing. The really bad thing, and I'll be honest here, is that this pen is covered with Smith & Wesson branding and logos. Annoying. People are always like "Nice pen! Who makes it... hey waitaseccond, don't those guys make guns?"
Next up is the Emergency Survival Covert Spy Ventilator Pen I played with a few others before I got to what is by far my favorite and the one I haven't put down since getting it, the Embassy Elite Pen by County Comm. If you aren't familiar with County Comm you should be. They mostly sell overruns of government contracts and this pen is exactly that. Machined out of solid stainless steel and shipped with a Fisher Space Pen cartridge, this thing is solid and heavy and feels really amazing as a pen, which is important for obvious reasons. It also has a screw on cap and rubber O ring to keep it sealed tight. I love this pen. Everyone I show this to loves it. It's not cheap coming it at close to $50, but assuming I don't lose, it may last a lifetime. If you are really fancy and want bragging rights, they offer a titanium version as well. I am not that fancy. It's worth noting that with all of these items so far, the manufacturers are at the very least hinting to their value as striking and/or stabbing implements. The idea being: you can carry a pen some places where you can't carry a more obvious weapon, and these allow you to defend yourself in such situations, should the need arise. But really, the suggestion that you need a "tactical" pen for that is just stupid marketing. Tacticool would be more accurate.
Behold the Pilot Easy Touch Retractable. This pen is not a tactical pen at all, but it writes nicely and has a squishy grip to make it comfortable in your hand while writing. It's got a crappy plastic pocket clip that easy snaps off and may cause you to lose it, but with a price point hovering around a buck, that's no big deal at all. And in a pinch you could poke someones eye out just as quickly and easily as one of the above pens that cost 50x as much. Also, no cap to lose. The one in the photo has some chocolate cake smeared on the side of it. That's an aftermarket customization. Finally we have ye old trusty Sharpie. I have a suspicion this is patient zero for tactical pens. The body is much more solid than the Pilot, the clip doesn't snap off as easily, the ink is permanent and getting hit with one would hurt like crap. I bet some dudes were sitting around a table one day talking about how cool the Sharpie is and one of them suggested making a sharpie out of metal and the tactical pen revolution was started. I can't prove that of course, but that is my theory. I've had a Sharpie in my pocket or bag every day since high school and they've never let me down. So there you have it. Choose wisely, should you decide your life is incomplete—and insufficiently protected—without a tactical pen. |
| NASA's black light poster-esque artistic renderings Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:42 AM PST   LIFE's Ben Cosgrove compiled a glorious gallery of NASA artistic renderings that are probably best enjoyed while listening to "Midnight to Mars" by Ashra. "NASA's Wildest Artist Renderings"   |
| BB's Jason Weisberger's "other" job Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:42 AM PST Our publisher-at-large Jason Weisberger has apparently taken on a night job as an ad world bigshot. He was named COO of the Mediabrands Ventures division of Interpublic, one of the world's largest advertising companies. Congrats, Jason! Please don't let it interfere with your real work blogging about blind seals and working on the much larger Boing Boing media conspiracy. From Media Post (photo by Bart Nagel): "Mediabrands Taps Federated's (and Boing Boing's!) Weisberger As COO Of Ventures Unit"   |
| Sneak-preview screening of "Happy" documentary in LA 2011 Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:31 AM PST [Video Link] Sign up for a sneak-preview screening of the Happy documentary at LA's Downtown Independent Theater on Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 7:00 PM. HAPPY is a feature documentary that takes us on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy. Combining powerful interviews with the leading scientists in happiness research and real life stories of ordinary and extraordinary people around the world, HAPPY uncovers the secrets behind our most valued emotion.(Note to pro-unhappy readers: I couldn't find the trailer for the People who Seek Happiness are Selfish documentary, but I'm sure of you will provide a URL in the comments.) A ProjectFresh Screening: "Happy" inc. Q+A with Director Roko Belic |
| Scientology's science fictional origins: thesis from 1981 Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:34 AM PST  The recent New Yorker feature on Scientology has focused interest in the religion, but it has been a source of fascination to many for decades. Here is SF writer and museum designer Hugh AD Spencer's Master's Thesis on the role of science fiction in germinating Hubbard's strange faith, entitled "The Transcendental Engineers: The Fictional Origins of a Modern Religion. Hugh says, From 1979 to 1981 I had a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to research the cultural impacts of science fiction on real-world society. This was a part of my graduate studies at McMaster University's Anthropology programme. What I ended up with was a survey of some SF fan groups that had the potential to emerge as religious or political movements and a history of the early years of what would become the Church of Scientology - from the announcement of Dianetics in a 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine through to the mid-1970s. A lot of the recent discussion about billion-year contracts and accounts of abuse onboard the sea org sounds very familiar to me. Update: This post was attacked by an anonymous commenter who sought to discredit Hugh with vicious and ham-fisted lies. See this post for more. The Transcendental Engineers: The Fictional Origins of a Modern Religion (Thanks, Hugh!) (Image: Scientology Protest, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from manc's photostream)
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| 10 year old extols his 3D printer's virtues Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:08 AM PST In this Ignite Phoenix talk, young Schulyer St Leger, a 10-year-old 3D printer hacker, explains just why he loves his kit-built Makerbot 3D printer, and explains how your 3D printer might transform your life.   |
| Bollywood meets Acid House in 1982!? Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:09 AM PST  Other Music, my favorite NYC music store, included Charanjit Singh's "Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat" in their Best of 2010 list of reissues. This proto-Acid House record was recorded in 1982, five (!) years before Phuture's genre-defining "Acid Tracks." Curious to learn more about Singh, I turned up a short Guardian article about the reissue on Edo Bouman's Bombay Connection record label. In the early 1980s, Singh had a wedding band and was a session musician on Bollywood soundtracks when he was inspired by the imported sound of disco. From The Guardian:
"Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat" (MP3s on Amazon) |
| Simpsons house as a Quake III level Posted: 14 Feb 2011 10:53 AM PST YouTube user breisgaubrasilianer created this fantastic Quake III map based on the Simpsons house; nice place to play Capture the Flag! Simpsons Map for Quake III Arena (swapped audio, check my other version) (via Wonderland)   |
| More zombie V-day art from the Boing Boing Flickr pool Posted: 14 Feb 2011 10:36 AM PST  More V-day zombie goodness from the Boing Boing Flickr pool: Quinky Art's been making sweet zombie romance tokens. Here's the "making of" material. Linocut Zombie Valentines card #1 by Elliott Quince Linocut Zombie Valentines card #2 by Elliott Quince Linocut Zombie Valentines card #3 by Elliott Quince   |
| Images from the Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary Art Exhibition Posted: 14 Feb 2011 10:29 AM PST   This past weekend was the "In The Trees: Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary Art Exhibition" in Los Angeles that I posted previously, featuring BB faves like Tim Biskup, Chris Mars, Stella Im Hultberg, Glenn Barr, Jessica Joslin, and Liz McGrath! If, like me, you couldn't make the show, you're in luck. The exhibition is now viewable online and the dailyDuJour has photos from the opening. Above, Liz McGrath's "Crystal Deer" (mixed media sculpture with Swarovski crystals). Right, David Lynch's "Print #7 (pin), 14" x 14," "In the Trees" gallery
"Seen: In the Trees: Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary Art Exhibition" (Thanks, Stacey Ransom!) |
| Where to find scientific research with negative results Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:21 AM PST Health scientists, and health science reporters, know there's a bias that leads to more published studies showing positive results for treatments. Many of the studies that show negative results are never published, but there are some out there, if you know where to look. If you want to know what treatments don't work Ivan Oransky has three recommendations: Compare registration lists of medical trials to published results; step away from the big name books and read through some lower-ranked peer-reviewed journals; and peruse the delightfully named Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine.   |
| Modern photos that recreate cherished childhood snaps Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:04 AM PST  Irina Werning's "Back to the Future" project asks adults to visit the sites of their cherished childhood snapshots and recreate them with matching clothes and facial expressions. The effect ranges from adorkable to heartwarming, with all the shades in between. Shown here: "NICO IN 1990 & 2010, France." Back to the Future (via Reddit)   |
| Romantic advice from scientists Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:02 AM PST  For Valentine's Day, science blogger Jason Goldman has collected seven thematic studies that offer some surprising ways to woo your intended sweetie. Naturally, there are caveats. For one thing, few of these studies do a very good job of replicating the situations and environments natural to Western human mating rituals. Filling out a survey is rather different from making out in a dark corner. Also, being individual studies, without the weight of repeat confirmation by other researchers, following Goldman's advice may, or may not, turn out to be a terrible idea. But it is certainly entertaining. And if you have nothing to lose, then what the heck, right? Think of these suggestions as a science-inspired version of The Naked Man.
The Guardian: Valentine's Day Dating Tips from Lovestruck Scientists Image: Some rights reserved by Oscar E.   |
| The weird relationship between bacteria and their human hosts Posted: 14 Feb 2011 08:45 AM PST Perhaps gonorrhea should be worried about what it's catching from us. A team of scientists say they've found evidence that the sexually transmitted bacterium has, at some point in its long history, picked up fragments of human DNA. If this research is verified, it will mark the first known example of human DNA finding its way into a bacterial genome. So far, nobody knows whether the human DNA gives the gonorrhea some advantage, whether it's a detriment, or whether it's just a weird, neutral fluke.   |
The Passenger Compartment: The interior of the passenger cabin was the height of luxury for the time, and would surely impress today. In the lounge, travelers had room to spread out and play backgammon or put together puzzles. When it was meal time the lounge converted into a formal dining room, complete with fine china and five star service. When the evening arrived, all compartments converted into bunks with dark curtains and high quality sheets... perfect for dreaming of warm Pacific beaches. 
No matter how many times I watch it, I 
. I figured they make guns and bullets and stuff so they probably could make a pretty bad-ass tactical pen, right? 
to go in it instead. This writes better and also lets you write easily in zero gravity or underwater, should that need arise. That also brought the price up to almost $30. 
. This is easily the shittiest pen in the bunch simply because it's not a pen at all, despite the deceptive name. That said, it's definitely the most aggressive given that It's really just a Bic pen sized hypodermic needle made out of carbon fiber that "presumably" should you stab someone with it, would allow for easy blood flow. Not that I'm advising such a thing of course. But yeah. This was recommended to me on Amazon when I bought the first one. 
(Mediabrands Ventures CEO Matt) Freeman added that the appointment of Weisberger to oversee Mediabrands Ventures more than 2,000-person organization - about a third of Mediabrands 6,500-person workforce - is telling, because he does not have a traditional agency background, but instead comes out of the worlds of publishing and technology.
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