WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
Bulgarian MPs wear Guy Fawkes mask for ACTA session SOPA, ACTA and WIPO: where is the copyfight headed? Chair with entrails U900 plays "Ben" on Ukulele What is this language game my daughter and her friends speak? The Happiness of Pursuit: What Neuroscience Can Teach Us About the Good Life, by Shimon Edelman - exclusive excerpt Unexplained 60 meter object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden Taj Mahal Travelers: Japanese ambient music from the early 1970s ID required to buy teaspoons, which are "drug paraphernalia" "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": The cyclops Dirk Staschke's first solo exhibition: "creamy and syrupy stacks of sweets, yet, decay and collapse is looming right around the corner" Your website is not a truck Artist Mike Kelley, RIP "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": Recreating an exhibit that no longer exists Funny note to Yellow Pages in Canada "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": Butterflies eating a piranha Here Comes The Sun: the lost solo guitar Poland's Prime Minister wants to put the brakes on ACTA How to build an art shanty London's anti-ACTA demonstration, one week from TOMORROW "Lifesize" Bigfoot statue! Senior citizens, MTV, and Mitt Romney Unicode's "Pile of Poo" character Circus Galop: the bonkers, non-human-playable anthem used to stress-test automatic pianos Test-tube chandeliers, named for Marie Curie Anon releases FBI conference call Mechanical Elephants in America Bulgarian MPs wear Guy Fawkes mask for ACTA session
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 04, 2012 08:47 am Apparently inspired by the Polish parliamentarians who showed up for work in Guy Fawkes masks for the signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (a US-driven secret copyright treaty), members of Bulgaria's parliament repeated the trick. The MPs say they support copyright laws, but oppose ACTA over its possible turning into an instrument to limit freedom ...
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By Cory Doctorow on Feb 04, 2012 04:43 am Michael Geist sez, "I've posted a video version of a recent talk on SOPA activism and what it means for the next generation of global copyright agreements such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Trans Pacific Partnership. The talk is about an hour as it also assesses the global strategies employed by the U.S. ...
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By David Pescovitz on Feb 04, 2012 03:15 am Chair, with entrails. (via Blood Milk) UPDATE: My pal Stacey Ransom found the original color photo of this fine resin/fiber piece, titled "Visual Temperature - Sofa," by Cao Hul, and posted it to her Tumblr, Held 4 Ransom.
Read in browser U900 plays "Ben" on Ukulele
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 04, 2012 12:09 am [Video Link] (Thanks, Gary!) Cute U900 Rabbit and Bear UkesCutest Japanese stopmotion crocheted beachside critter ukelele video everUkulele version of "Walk, Don't Run"
Read in browser What is this language game my daughter and her friends speak?
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 11:42 pm I heard my 14-year-old daughter and her friends talking to each other using a word-changing language game, like pig latin, but much harder for me to understand. I asked my daughter's friend to say something and I recorded it. Listen here She said it was called Finglish but a Google search makes me think she ...
Read in browser The Happiness of Pursuit: What Neuroscience Can Teach Us About the Good Life, by Shimon Edelman - exclusive excerpt
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 08:45 pm Excerpted with permission from The Happiness of Pursuit: What Neuroscience Can Teach Us About the Good Life, by Shimon Edelman. Available from Basic Books, a member of The Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) 2012. When Fishing For Happiness, Catch and Release I was teaching a big introductory course on cognition, which, I felt, had to ...
Read in browser Unexplained 60 meter object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 07:45 pm [Video Link] Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it's not alone. Nearby on the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even more fascinating, both objects have "drag marks" behind them on the sea floor, stretching back ...
Read in browser Taj Mahal Travelers: Japanese ambient music from the early 1970s
By David Pescovitz on Feb 03, 2012 07:34 pm In 1969, Fluxus artist/musician Takehisa Kosugi formed the Taj Mahal Travelers, an octet of Japanese musicians whose used traditional instruments like violin, double bass, tuba, trumpet, and mandolin in non-traditional ways and run through early electronic effects systems. Their compelling drone improvisations were decidedly different and, to my ears, more unsettling than the other avant-garde ...
Read in browser ID required to buy teaspoons, which are "drug paraphernalia"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 06:45 pm When Elinor Zuke went to the checkout stand of a store in the UK to buy a pack of teaspoons, a shop worker told her she wouldn't be allowed to buy then until she presented photo identification. The reason: "because of the risk they could be used for drugs -- heroin users 'cook up' the ...
Read in browser "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": The cyclops
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 03, 2012 06:28 pm "My Favorite Museum Exhibit" is a series of posts aimed at giving BoingBoing readers a chance to show off their favorite exhibits and specimens, preferably from museums that might go overlooked in the tourism pantheon. I'll be featuring posts in this series all week. Want to see them all? Check out the archive post. I'll ...
Read in browser Dirk Staschke's first solo exhibition: "creamy and syrupy stacks of sweets, yet, decay and collapse is looming right around the corner"
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 06:19 pm Inspired by the bountiful Vanitas still-life paintings of 16th-century Northern Europe and the excessive ornamentation of the Baroque period, Dirk Staschke seduces the viewer with his voluptuous organic forms while exploring themes of excess and its effects. A master ceramicist whose work has been shown internationally, Staschke is best know for his banquet style displays ...
Read in browser Your website is not a truck
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 03, 2012 05:59 pm Jeff Atwood on exactly how much attention to pay to feedback. 1. 90% of all community feedback is crap. 2. Don't get sweet talked into building a truck. 3. Be honest about what you won't do. 4. Listen to your community, but don't let them tell you what to do. 5. Be there for your ...
Read in browser Artist Mike Kelley, RIP
By David Pescovitz on Feb 03, 2012 05:54 pm Punk artist Mike Kelley, a force in contemporary art for more than three decades, has died. He was 57. From the Los Angeles Times: Writing in Slate in 2005, novelist Jim Lewis said: "I think I could walk into any collection in the world and spot the Mike Kelley piece immediately (and this despite his ...
Read in browser "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": Recreating an exhibit that no longer exists
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 03, 2012 05:53 pm "My Favorite Museum Exhibit" is a series of posts aimed at giving BoingBoing readers a chance to show off their favorite exhibits and specimens, preferably from museums that might go overlooked in the tourism pantheon. I'll be featuring posts in this series all week. Want to see them all? Check out the archive post. I'll ...
Read in browser Funny note to Yellow Pages in Canada
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 05:45 pm Yellow Pages Income Fund is trading at $0.18. (Via Reddit)
Read in browser "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": Butterflies eating a piranha
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 03, 2012 05:26 pm "My Favorite Museum Exhibit" is a series of posts aimed at giving BoingBoing readers a chance to show off their favorite exhibits and specimens, preferably from museums that might go overlooked in the tourism pantheon. I'll be featuring posts in this series all week. Want to see them all? Check out the archive post. I'll ...
Read in browser Here Comes The Sun: the lost solo guitar
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 03, 2012 04:57 pm [Video Link] "In this video we see Sir George Martin, Giles Martin (his son), and Dhani Harrison listening to the mix of “Here Comes The Sun.” Suddenly Dhani opens the channel with the “lost solo guitar.” And now, with the master track in the background, you can hear how it sounds in music." (Via Cynical-C)
Read in browser Poland's Prime Minister wants to put the brakes on ACTA
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 04:42 pm Tomo sez, "Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, announced ACTA needs to be reviewed and consulted with his ministers as well as internet community representatives. ACTA won't be ratified until all doubts will be explained. He added that that might mean the ACTA won't be ratified at all. In addition, he announced he wants to start ...
Read in browser How to build an art shanty
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Feb 03, 2012 04:42 pm Earlier this week, Mark told you about a couple of the cool art projects happening on a frozen lake in Minnesota. The Art Shanty Projects are a semi-annual wintertime tradition up here. And it's a sort-of send up of a much older tradition. Every winter, there's a lot of ice fishing that happens in Minnesota. ...
Read in browser London's anti-ACTA demonstration, one week from TOMORROW
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 04:40 pm JimKillock from the Open Rights Group sez, "Come to the London Stop ACTA Demo, one of many days across Europe protesting against the international attempt to impose SOPA and DEAct-style enforcement through anti-democratic treaty agreements. Make a donation and let us know you are coming! We are assembling outside UK Music's offices, as many of ...
Read in browser "Lifesize" Bigfoot statue!
By David Pescovitz on Feb 03, 2012 04:29 pm Years ago, the good people at the Imaginary Foundation gifted me a wonderful knee-high Garden Bigfoot statue that stands guard at my lair. Now, Loren Coleman reports that its makers, Design Toscano, have supersized their sasquatch statue. The new offering is 6 feet tall! Loren Coleman has the details at Cryptomundo. "Coming Soon: Giant Garden ...
Read in browser Senior citizens, MTV, and Mitt Romney
By David Pescovitz on Feb 03, 2012 04:23 pm My oldest pal Gil Kaufman, a reporter for MTV News, is on the campaign trail with Mitt Romney. Gil left me a voicemail yesterday sharing a funny/telling experience he had just before Romney spoke at the Villages, a senior community in Lady Lake, Florida. I'm glad he put the anecdote in his latest dispatch. From ...
Read in browser Unicode's "Pile of Poo" character
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 03:53 pm For many years, most of the Internet ran on ASCII, a character set that had a limited number of accents and diacriticals, and which didn't support non-Roman script at all. Unicode, a massive, sprawling replacement, has room for all sorts of characters and alphabets, and can be extended with "private use areas" that include support ...
Read in browser Circus Galop: the bonkers, non-human-playable anthem used to stress-test automatic pianos
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 02:42 pm Here's a video of a mechanical piano performing Circus Galop (sic), a composition created to test the performance of automatic pianos and other instruments. It apparently can't be played by humans. a single, two-handed human. Circus Galop is a piece for player piano written by Marc-André Hamelin. It was composed between 1991 and 1994 and ...
Read in browser Test-tube chandeliers, named for Marie Curie
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 02:00 pm Named for Marie Curie, this line of Maria S.C. chandeliers from Poland's Gangdesign uses test-tubes as pendants that can be planted with sprigs or flowers. Here's the sell-copy, Google Translated from Polish to English: This chandelier is made of tubes. It consists of two modules of different sizes, which can occur together or separately. Shape ...
Read in browser Anon releases FBI conference call
By Rob Beschizza on Feb 03, 2012 01:50 pm Someone jumped into a conference call between FBI investigators and UK counterparts, in which they discuss a turned Lulzsec wannabe, forthcoming arrests (!), and how horrible Sheffield is. If you ever suspected that police progress is often reliant on hackers being boastful, this won't disabuse you of the notion.
Read in browser Mechanical Elephants in America
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 03, 2012 01:00 pm Here's a fascinating history of Frank Stuart's Mechanical Elephants, a line of life-sized, rideable elephant automata that were sold to department stores and amusement parks in America in the 1950s. "Cybernetic animal and early robot" historian Reuben Hoggett has collected early print mentions of the Stuart elephants and traced their destiny through the rest of ...
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