The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Russian Pirate Party must change name, contemplates "Pira7e Party"
- Jokes from the G+hole
- Wormholes on the Cheap
- Why we need to keep an eye on the ice sheets
- Bear breaks bear swimming record, hearts
- A love letter to the space shuttle
- Science on Screen coming to 8 theaters across America
- Comic-Con Bingo!
- Patti Smith: Just Kids, Horses, and Hey Joe
- Rupert Murdoch reveals demonic horns
- Monkeying with an iPhone
- Superhero graffiti in San Francisco
- A cream that slows down snakebites
- The problem with mining energy on the Moon
- Open joke thread
- Senator Franken shames homophobic imbecile
- Hi-rez Disneyland 1962 map
- Sophie Madeleine plays 30 uke songs in 30 days
- Benjamen Walker discusses McLuhan's most famous quote: "The Medium is the Message"
- Music video for BELL uses hacked Kinect
- Only You Can Prevent Buffer Overflows: Smokey the Bear remix
- Public special ed employee has $0 paycheck after health insurance deductions
- Debbie Harry interviewed on 1980s kids' TV show
- Finland's high-quality, consistent education system eschews tests, reveres teachers
- Man-from-Mars Radio Hat is Pith++
- Dave McKean signing at London's GOSH! Comics, July 30
- Who needs NASA? Life as an "independent astronaut"
- Act now! Congress wants to kill WiFi-like spectrum, sell it off to highest bidder instead
- Inside DARPA's secret Afghan spy machine
- Guatemala: lady awakens to giant gaping sinkhole appearing under her bed
| Russian Pirate Party must change name, contemplates "Pira7e Party" Posted: 22 Jul 2011 01:59 AM PDT A Russian judge has ruled that the Russian Pirate Party has to rename itself, citing a law that prohibits naming a party after criminal acts. The party is now debating what new name it will use for ballots. Options include "Unnamed Party" and "Pira7e Party" and "Pirrate Party." Judge: Pirate Party Name-Ban Decision Stands   |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2011 11:47 PM PDT  pic: via tonx I started an open "jokes" thread on Google+ today, and a lot of people contributed some very funny jokes I hadn't heard before. I thought I'd share some of them here on Boing Boing. I might post more later.
• An AT&T cell tower walks into a bar and says, "I wo...enj...blac...nin...ou.........."—Shane Sargent • How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A fish.—Craig Glassner • How many software engineers does it take to change a lightbulb? None, that's a hardware problem.—Dr. Elementary • Hear the one about the programmer that got stuck in the shower? The directions on the shampoo said "Lather, Rinse, Repeat"—Tony Gonzales
• How did the hipster burn his mouth? He started eating the pizza long before it was cool. —Mark McCorkell • Werner Heisenberg is pulled over for speeding. When the state trooper asks "Do you have ANY idea how fast you were going?", Heisenberg just smiles and says, "No, but I know where I was!"—Laconia Laconia
• Q. How many designers does it take to change a light bulb? • Q: What do you get when you cross your grandmother with an octopus? A: A whoooooole lot of cookies.—Jeff Deason • What does it mean when the drummer is drooling out of both sides of his mouth? The floor is level. —Karl Hakkarainen
• Q: How many screenwriters does it take to change a light bulb? • Two cannibals are having dinner, and one of them says to the other, "Man, I really don't like my mother-in-law." The other sighs and says, "Well then just eat the noodles."—Katie Mussman • Rene Descartes walks into a bar - a sleazy woman walks up to him and says "Hey handsome, buy me a drink?" He sneers at her and says, "Madam I think not" and disappears.—Genevieve Perdue
• How many Freudians does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Two. One to turn the bulb and one to hold the penis--I mean ladder!—James Cash
• Q: How many hipsters does it take to pay the electric bill? A: Mom —Spyro Poulos
• Why aren't math jokes funny in Octal? Because 7 10 11—Ranjan Bagchi • "Hey, know any good jokes about sodium?" "Na." —Rodrigo Jimenez • Knock Knock! • Hi... I am afraid I am unable to answer my mobile phone at the moment but if you leave me a message, The News of the World will email it to me later—Dave Saunders
"G+hole" is a registered trademark of Doctor Popular.   |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2011 05:33 PM PDT Matthew Gryczan, a MAKE contributor and the author of a great book that explains how carnival games are rigged, called Carnival Secrets: How to Win at Carnival Games, wrote about a cheap "wormhole system" from Google.
(Image: Those Canadian bastards!, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from dolske's photostream) |
| Why we need to keep an eye on the ice sheets Posted: 21 Jul 2011 04:44 PM PDT  Loss of Arctic ice isn't just a threat to polar bears. Climate scientist James Hanson has just published a science brief on the NASA website about why those ice sheets are so important (besides providing an habitat for polar bears) and why we need to keep funding research that uses satellites to monitor the state of the world's ice sheets.
Via Michael Noble   |
| Bear breaks bear swimming record, hearts Posted: 21 Jul 2011 04:21 PM PDT A female polar bear has broken the polar bear long-distance swimming record—covering 426 miles of water over nine straight days. If polar bears were influenced in their actions by things like the Guinness Book, then this feat would be pretty exciting (at least, until it turned out that the bear was on performance-enhancing drugs). As it is, the story takes a rather depressing turn when you realize that this wild bear had no choice in her record-breaking swim. She was forced into it by the loss of sea ice and had lost 22% of her body weight by the time she found solid land again.   |
| A love letter to the space shuttle Posted: 21 Jul 2011 03:53 PM PDT Adam Rutherford at the Guardian has put together a lovely tribute to the space shuttle.
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| Science on Screen coming to 8 theaters across America Posted: 21 Jul 2011 03:43 PM PDT Science on Screen is a cool program that provides funding to theaters so that they can host events pairing movies with related, pop-culturey lectures by scientists. Think: Night of the Living Dead + the neurobiology of zombies. The Science on Screen grant recipients were recently announced. If your local theater is on this list, rest assured, I envy you. California Film Institute, San Rafael, CA The specific programs haven't been finalized yet. But keep an eye on these theaters' calendars, to find out when you can attend a Science on Screen event!   |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2011 03:35 PM PDT  Are you headed to Comic-Con in San Diego? If so, make sure you have a go at Comic-Con Bingo presented by our pals at Last Gasp Books! "Using a camera, cell phone, etc., snap a picture and mark the square. Five in a row wins a prize" at the Last Gasp booth! Last Gasp's Comic-Con Bingo (Thanks, Greg Long!)   |
| Patti Smith: Just Kids, Horses, and Hey Joe Posted: 21 Jul 2011 03:23 PM PDT  Last night, I finished reading Patti Smith's absolutely wonderful book Just Kids, the story of her relationship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe that began on the streets of New York City in 1967. I found it to be a deeply personal, and moving memoir, and a fascinating document of the Manhattan avant-garde art/music scene that emerged around the Chelsea Hotel, Max's Kansas City, and the Bowery in the 1970s. Beautifully-written, Just Kids is a love letter to Mappelthorpe and also a loving tribute to what a friendship can be. After I closed the book, I immediately found this intense video of Smith and her band performing "Horses/Hey Joe" in 1976. "Just Kids" by Patti Smith  |
| Rupert Murdoch reveals demonic horns Posted: 21 Jul 2011 03:06 PM PDT |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2011 02:58 PM PDT [Video Link] (Via Arbroath) |
| Superhero graffiti in San Francisco Posted: 21 Jul 2011 04:02 PM PDT  I really dig the stylized superheroes in this massive graffiti piece in San Francisco's Mission District. I didn't see the artist's name and the background text was too hard to read from my vantage point. (Update: Thanks to TheEvilJeremy for identifying the artists as Keb, Wand, and Buter, which is what the letters spell behind the superheroes.) Click to enlarge, and check out Batman, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Wolverine, Dr. Doom, and others after the jump.
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| A cream that slows down snakebites Posted: 21 Jul 2011 03:30 PM PDT  Aaron Rowe found a recent research paper describing successful rat and human trials of an ointment that could help save the lives of people who get bit by poisonous snakes while far away from medical treatment. He says:
You can read more at Nature. Image: Milking for Venom, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from lawley's photostream   |
| The problem with mining energy on the Moon Posted: 21 Jul 2011 02:16 PM PDT Gerald Kulcinski, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, wants to create a Helium 3-powered world. (Yes! Just like in Moon!) The problem: Kulcinski's research is caught in a bit of a Catch-22. There isn't much Helium 3 on Earth and it's really expensive. Soon, he won't be able to afford to do the research necessary to prove that Helium 3 fusion can work as an energy source. There's lots of Helium 3 on the Moon. (Yes! Just like in Moon!) But to prove that it's worth going to the Moon to get it, Kulcinski (you guessed it) needs to prove that Helium 3 fusion can work as an energy source. (Via Christopher Baker)   |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2011 02:15 PM PDT I asked my "circles" on Google+ to tell me a good joke. There's quite a thread going now. Some of these are quite funny. Add one over there if you like!—Xeni   |
| Senator Franken shames homophobic imbecile Posted: 21 Jul 2011 01:11 PM PDT Think Progress: "During this morning’s Senate DOMA hearings, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) destroyed Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery’s argument that children are better off with opposite-sex parents by demonstrating how Minnery misrepresented an HHS study. The study — which Minnery cited to oppose marriage equality — actually found that children do best in two-parent households, regardless of the parents’ gender." |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2011 12:58 PM PDT   Paul sez, "Flickr user Wishbook has uploaded a beautiful hi-res scan of a 1962 map of Disneyland. The map shows the park, monorail lines, and the associated Disneyland Hotel. Check out the 'orginal' size image and you can read all of the tiny captions!" 1962-xx-xx 1962 Map, Disneyland, 1313 South Harbor Boulevard, Anaheim, California, USA (Thanks, Paul!) |
| Sophie Madeleine plays 30 uke songs in 30 days Posted: 21 Jul 2011 12:39 PM PDT [Video Link] The fantabulous Sophie Madeleine has been recording a ukulele song every day for a month. Here she is performing "Pure Imagination," from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. David and I love this song and Sophie's interpretation of it is delightful. For the 30 days leading up to the "official" release of my album "The Rhythm You Started" on CD (in the UK) and on iTunes (US & UK) on the 25th of July, I've been uploading a cover song video every day. I've done a mixture of old songs, new songs, famous songs and not-so-famous songs, most of which have been requested by fans. This one seems to be getting the most attention at the moment -- a cover of Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People.You can see all of Sophie's uke videos on one page here
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| Benjamen Walker discusses McLuhan's most famous quote: "The Medium is the Message" Posted: 21 Jul 2011 11:27 AM PDT  My friend Benjamen Walker (host of the stupendous WFMU radio show and podcast, Too Much Information) made a 10 minute podcast for The Guardian about Marshall McLuhan's most famous quote: "The Medium is the Message" and the book The Medium is the Massage, the title of which had its origin as a fortunate typo. But what does "the medium is the message" really mean? In the first episode of our new The Big Ideas series, Benjamen Walker gets to the bottom of the slogan with the help of Canadian novelist and McLuhan-biographer Douglas Coupland, academic Lance Strate, Marshal's son Eric McLuhan, record producer John Simon, and the Guardian's media correspondent Jemima Kiss.The Big Ideas podcast: The medium is the message   |
| Music video for BELL uses hacked Kinect Posted: 21 Jul 2011 11:01 AM PDT Marc de Vinck (my colleague at MAKE) showed me this video that his friend BELL made using a hacked Kinect. (Marc used her music in his Gakken Crab build video). Visuals by Zach Lieberman, Francisco Zamorano, Andy Wallace, and Michelle Calabro. (note: no post-production effects were used in this video. everything on the face is happening in real-time, via hacked Kinect, laptop and LED projector. It's built using FaceTracker code from Jason Saragih) |
| Only You Can Prevent Buffer Overflows: Smokey the Bear remix Posted: 21 Jul 2011 04:37 AM PDT  Joey DeVilla's modified Smokey the Bear poster is a timely reminder to programmers to take care with their strcats. The post's title hints at more to come, and I'd love to get a series of 'em. Best Coding Practices Poster #1: "Only YOU Can Prevent Buffer Overflows!" |
| Public special ed employee has $0 paycheck after health insurance deductions Posted: 21 Jul 2011 10:08 AM PDT Kevin sez, "At a time when some critics are trying to paint public employee benefits as lavish, special education paraprofessional Kathy Meltsakos provides a much-needed wakeup call. By the time she's done paying for health insurance, Kathy doesn't take home a dime -- and she hasn't since February. This is no way to treat people who work with our children." A Special Education Worker Talks About Empty Paychecks, Organizing (Thanks, Kevin!)   |
| Debbie Harry interviewed on 1980s kids' TV show Posted: 21 Jul 2011 09:55 AM PDT [Video Link] Dangerous Minds came across this interview with the great Debbie Harry from a kids' TV show that aired July 11, 1980. |
| Finland's high-quality, consistent education system eschews tests, reveres teachers Posted: 21 Jul 2011 04:31 AM PDT On Salon, David Sirota interviews Harvard's Tony Wagner about his documentary, The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World's Most Surprising School System, which looks at the way that the Finnish education system delivers consistent, high-quality education without testing, with long holidays for students, and with teachers who are considered national treasures. There is no domestic testing except a very quiet auditing program to test demographic samples of kids; not for accountability, not for public consumption, and not for comparison across schools. The fascinating thing is that because they have created such a high level of professionalism, they can trust their teachers. Their motto is "Trust Through Professionalism." The difference between the highest performing school in Finland and the lowest performing school in Finland is less than four percent, and that's without any testing at all...How Finland became an education leader   |
| Man-from-Mars Radio Hat is Pith++ Posted: 21 Jul 2011 09:22 AM PDT  As if pith helmets weren't stylish enough on their own, this 1949 ad from Popular Science features a beautiful pith++ version with a two-tube radio built into it, sporting the glorious moniker "Man-From-Mars Radio Hat." I mean, woah. |
| Dave McKean signing at London's GOSH! Comics, July 30 Posted: 21 Jul 2011 09:16 AM PDT Hayley sez, "Gosh! comics are celebrating the launch of their new shop in Soho with an exhibition and signing on July 30 by the illustrious Dave McKean, who is all set to be the bottle of champagne they smash over the ship's bow on opening day. McKean (who is most famous for his collaborative work with Neil Gaiman) will be signing copies of his first solo graphic novel since Cages, a pornographic work of art called Celluloid, published by Fantagraphics."   |
| Who needs NASA? Life as an "independent astronaut" Posted: 21 Jul 2011 09:26 AM PDT "The great thing that I found when I began to live my life as an astronaut was that the world seemed so different. It was as if I was viewing my environment with a fresh pair of eyes." - John Barlow, Independent Astronaut. More on this brilliant short film starring and directed by David Wilson at The Atlantic. You really need to read the interview. Wilson's website is here. (thanks, Alexis Madrigal) |
| Act now! Congress wants to kill WiFi-like spectrum, sell it off to highest bidder instead Posted: 21 Jul 2011 09:15 AM PDT  Harold Feld from Public Knowledge sez, "Republicans have proposed forbidding the FCC from allocating any more 'unlicensed' spectrum for WiFi and other uses unless they give wireless companies the opportunity to buy exclusive licenses first. This would effectively mean the end of open spectrum, cutting off investment in the TV white spaces/'Super WiFi.' Public Knowledge has issued an Action Alert, asking those who care about the future of open spectrum and wireless competition to sign up to call their member of Congress on Friday, July 22 and tell them that America needs more unlicensed spectrum that everyone can use -- not just the big wireless companies that can spend billions on licensed spectrum." Don't think it's worth the trade-off (less unlicensed spectrum and less wireless innovation for very little benefit to either the public or the government's bottom line)? Call your Member of Congress!Don't Let Fox, AT&T and Verizon Buy Their Way Out of Regulation (Thanks, Harold!)   |
| Inside DARPA's secret Afghan spy machine Posted: 21 Jul 2011 09:14 AM PDT  Noah Shachtman at Wired has an exclusive up involving "A secret intelligence program, never-before-revealed... a mad scientist who believes he can change the world.... an ambitious Pentagon official determined to make her mark on the war... deep questions about the strategy in Afghanistan... and an oddball balloon hunt, which (believe it or not) sparked the whole thing." (photo: Wired) |
| Guatemala: lady awakens to giant gaping sinkhole appearing under her bed Posted: 21 Jul 2011 09:34 AM PDT "When we heard the loud boom we thought a gas canister from a neighbouring home had exploded, or there had been a crash on the street. We rushed out to look and saw nothing. A gentleman told me that the noise came from my house, and we searched until we found it under my bed."—65-year-old Inocenta Hernandez of Guatemala, in whose home a 12-meter-deep sinkhole spontaneously appeared. (thanks, @arriabelli)   |
I would like to conclude with stating that our principles, ideas and our website remain unchanged. I ask the public, journalists and all reasonable people to continue calling us "Pirate Party of Russia" 
Education support professionals like Meltsakos and the rest of America's workers are doing their best to weather today's economy. But consider the numbers. 
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