Mobile cabinet of curiosities: The City Steam pioneers to grace £50 note Mouse and USB stick sandwich and garnish El-wire activity board for kids Line of clothes based on WWII Russian penal battalions Horizons Perspectives on Psychedelics, October 14-16, 2011 NYC No, you're not in love with your iPhone Interview with cartoonist Peter Bagge Darling Pet Munkee's songs based on old comic book ads HOWTO carve a pumpkin by hammering cookie-cutters into it Awesome mentor program for Toronto high schoolers A lesson for 3-year-olds from 1818 Surfing the red tide Canada's new copyright law punishes blind and visually impaired people Unicode's "right-to-left" override obfuscates malware's filenames Darth Vader's yacht in Greece How to escape from zip tie handcuffs Luna plays Bold as Love on a gayageum George Harrison on The Dick Cavett Show (1971) Another satellite will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in the coming months Adobe acquires Typekit Shell funded warring militias in the Niger Delta -- report Imperial March played on floppy drives Montage of awesome cephalopod camouflage clips The Wirecutter Great science lecture series in Minnesota First lady of Iceland climbs security fence to join protesters Widespread statistical error discovered in peer-reviewed neuroscience papers Counting crows? Kid learns who Luke's father is Mobile cabinet of curiosities: The City
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 10:00 am Wayne Chisnall's assemblage sculpture The City, a "mobile cabinet of curiosities," will be displayed at TROVE gallery, in the Engine Room of Birmingham's Science and Industry Museum for a show called The Event 2011. I'm delighted to say that I've been invited to exhibit work at the TROVE gallery (a heritage site located in the ...
Read in browser Steam pioneers to grace £50 note
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 09:06 am The new Bank of England 50 pound note features British steam pioneers James Watt and Matthew Boulton; it's a nice, makerish touch to the currency. (via Core77)
Read in browser Mouse and USB stick sandwich and garnish
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 04, 2011 05:29 am Here's a clever mouse-and-USB-stick sandwich, creator uncredited. (via Neatorama)
Read in browser El-wire activity board for kids
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 04, 2011 12:03 am Meon is like Lite-Brite with EL wire (electroluminescent wire). The manufacturer sent a review unit and my 8-year-old daughter and I have enjoyed playing with it. You basically weave strands of EL wire through holes and connect them to jacks in the back of the battery powered console. The kits come with different templates and ...
Read in browser Line of clothes based on WWII Russian penal battalions
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 03, 2011 11:55 pm MIR is a Brooklyn based clothing co. that features designs inspired by old Russian criminal tattoos. A while back, I asked Roman Belenky, the designer, to tell me about Russian criminal tattoos, which you can read here. The new line includes a military inspired sub-line called SHTRAFBAT, which repurposes military surplus items through reconstruction, alteration, ...
Read in browser Horizons Perspectives on Psychedelics, October 14-16, 2011 NYC
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 03, 2011 11:33 pm Kevin Balktik says: Horizons is an annual forum for learning about psychedelic drugs in New York City. Its goal is to open a fresh dialogue on their role in medicine, culture, history, spirituality, and creativity. 2011 is its fifth year. During the 1960s, psychedelics entered worldwide popular culture. Fueled by the wild social dogmas of ...
Read in browser No, you're not in love with your iPhone
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 03, 2011 10:45 pm The New York Times has an op-ed out today, which claims that fMRI studies show that, when people are exposed to a pretty, shiny, ringing iPhone, the experience lights up the part of their brains that signifies a deep, compassionate love for something. iPhones trigger the same brain activity that your parents and loved ones ...
Read in browser Interview with cartoonist Peter Bagge
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 03, 2011 10:35 pm [Video Link] Reason's Nick Gillespie talks to cartoonist Peter Bagge for Reason TV. He created great comic books: Neat Stuff and Hate, and was also the editor of Robert's Crumb's Weirdo for a while. Peter Bagge is the preeminent libertarian cartoonist. An intelligent, anti-authoritarian streak runs throughout his canon, especially in his hit comic book ...
Read in browser Darling Pet Munkee's songs based on old comic book ads
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 03, 2011 10:15 pm Glows in the Dark! by Darling Pet Munkee I was looking at the comments section for the Gweek 019 post and I learned about this terrific garage punk band called Darling Pet Munkee (Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling's Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola and Cathy Capozzi of Axemunkee) that has songs based ...
Read in browser HOWTO carve a pumpkin by hammering cookie-cutters into it
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 03, 2011 10:10 pm Here's a set of instructions for "carving" precise shapes into a pumpkin by knocking them through using a cookie-cutter and a mallet. Place a cookie cutter on the pumpkin and tap firmly with a rubber mallet until at least half of the cutter has pierced the pumpkin's shell. (If the pumpkin shell is thin, the ...
Read in browser Awesome mentor program for Toronto high schoolers
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 03, 2011 10:07 pm This year, six Toronto-area high school students will get to learn supercomputing from researchers at The University of Toronto. If you'd like to be one of them, check out the application materials. Deadline is October 21. (Via Jonathan Dursi)
Read in browser A lesson for 3-year-olds from 1818
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 03, 2011 10:06 pm A gem of a story, posted by The Futility Closet: "For Children Three Years Old," from Lessons for Children by Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Philadelphia, 1818: There was a naughty boy; I do not know what his name was, but it was not Charles, nor George, nor Arthur, for those are all very pretty names: but ...
Read in browser Surfing the red tide
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 03, 2011 10:01 pm Phytoplankton are tiny, plant-like organisms that live in the ocean and are, basically, at the very bottom of the food chain. But, sometimes, they get their revenge. When lots and lots and lots of phytoplankton get together, they can form what we call a "red tide," a discoloration of the water at a particular point ...
Read in browser Canada's new copyright law punishes blind and visually impaired people
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 03, 2011 08:05 pm Canada's Conservative government is set to bull through its copyright legislation, Bill C-11, which notoriously includes a special protection for "digital locks," making it illegal to remove such a lock even if you're not doing so for any unlawful purpose. That is, under Canada's proposed copyright law, it would be illegal to remove a digital ...
Read in browser Unicode's "right-to-left" override obfuscates malware's filenames
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 03, 2011 06:59 pm Unicode has a special character, U+202e, that tells computers to display the text that follows it in right-to-left order; this facility is used to write text in Arabic, Hebrew, and other right-to-left scripts. However, this can (and is) also used by malware creeps to disguise the names of the files they attach to their phishing ...
Read in browser Darth Vader's yacht in Greece
By David Pescovitz on Oct 03, 2011 05:52 pm My IFTF colleague Mike Liebhold just snapped this photo of a strange juxtaposition of a "Darth Vader yacht at the entry to Mandraki Harbor on Rhodes, Greece by Agios Nikólaos a ruined 15th century fortress, now a lighthouse. "
Read in browser How to escape from zip tie handcuffs
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 03, 2011 05:52 pm [Video Link] What to do if you accidentally zip-tie your wrists together. How to escape from zip ties (Via TYWKIWDBI)
Read in browser Luna plays Bold as Love on a gayageum
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 03, 2011 05:42 pm [Video Link] Gayageum is the new ukulele. (Via Cynical-C)
Read in browser George Harrison on The Dick Cavett Show (1971)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 03, 2011 05:19 pm [Video Link] Dan Colman of Open Culture says: [A] vintage interview with Dick Cavett. Recorded 40 years ago (November 23, 1971), the conversation starts with light chit-chat, then (around the 5:30 mark) gets to some bigger questions -- Did Yoko break up the band? Did the other Beatles hold him back musically? Why have drugs ...
Read in browser Another satellite will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in the coming months
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 03, 2011 05:09 pm In case you were curious, that atmospheric research satellite crashed to Earth without hitting a single person. It landed in the Pacific—scattering bits and pieces over an 800-mile-long stretch of ocean. But, if your great dream was to be killed by a piece of falling satellite, never fear. Phil Plait points out that you'll have ...
Read in browser Adobe acquires Typekit
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 03, 2011 05:06 pm Hrm.
Read in browser Shell funded warring militias in the Niger Delta -- report
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 03, 2011 04:51 pm In Counting the Cost: corporations and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta, Platform and a coalition of NGOs accuse Shell Oil of funding vicious conflicts between rival gangs in the Niger Delta, bribing local militias to gain access to oil, and contributing to terrible human rights abuses in the region, including devastation in the ...
Read in browser Imperial March played on floppy drives
By David Pescovitz on Oct 03, 2011 04:47 pm [video link] The Star Wars "Imperial March" played on two modded floppy drives. (Thanks, Jim Leftwich!)
Read in browser Montage of awesome cephalopod camouflage clips
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 03, 2011 04:37 pm Roger Hanlon is a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He studies cephalopods—octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. Specifically, he studies the way these animals change their skin color and texture to match with their surroundings. I've talked about his research before on BoingBoing Video and showed you some truly astounding footage he ...
Read in browser The Wirecutter
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 03, 2011 04:28 pm Brian Lam, former Gizmodo editor, today launched a "list of amazing gadgets" called The Wirecutter. I dig the look, and the Big Idea.
Read in browser Great science lecture series in Minnesota
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Oct 03, 2011 04:17 pm If you live anywhere near St. Peter, Minnesota, I highly recommend taking tomorrow and Wednesday off from work to attend the 47th Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College. Every year, the school brings in eminent scientists from around the country for a two-day public lecture series centered around a theme. This year, it's "The Brain ...
Read in browser First lady of Iceland climbs security fence to join protesters
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 03, 2011 04:12 pm Dorrit Moussaieff, the first lady of Iceland, made a dramatic gesture over the weekend by joining a group of demonstrators hit by the debt crisis. As the Icelandic president and MPs came under fire from angry protesters on Saturday, on their traditional walk to mass marking the opening of the parliamentary session, the President's wife ...
Read in browser Widespread statistical error discovered in peer-reviewed neuroscience papers
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 03, 2011 04:10 pm "Erroneous analyses of interactions in neuroscience: a problem of significance," a paper in Nature Neuroscience by Sander Nieuwenhuis and co, points out an important and fatal statistical error common to many peer-reviewed neurology papers (as well as papers in related disciplines). Of the papers surveyed, the error occurred in more than half the papers where ...
Read in browser Counting crows?
By David Pescovitz on Oct 03, 2011 04:02 pm A new study suggests that crows can recognize symbols that represent quantities of items. At Japan's Utsunomiya University, crows were shown two containers. Only the container marked with five symbols contained the food. The researchers trained the crows to identify the food container 70% of the time. Alfred Hitchcock could not be reached for comment. ...
Read in browser Kid learns who Luke's father is
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 03, 2011 03:29 pm The young lad in this video, four-year-old Faris, is about to learn who Luke Skywalker's father is. His face should be in Wikipedia under the (nonexistent) entry for "mindblown." Kudos to young Faris's parents for capturing this moment for scientific scrutiny. (via IO9)
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