WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
UK gov't: yes, we kidnapped people and sent them to be tortured by Qaddafi, but you can't sue us Backyard-sized western town for sale, $20K cheap SFPD corruption report from 1937 Canada's bull-moose civil libertarian on Canada's new domestic spying law EFF: Tens of thousands of websites' SSL "offers effectively no security" Canada's spying bill: be very afraid 34-foot tower of books about Abe Lincoln Taxi-window sticker: our security stinks and your credit card will be sniffed Soft robots: elastomeric origami Tank Girl vodka EU official who resigned over ACTA explains how the treaty will result in invasive border searches of personal devices, privacy-invading dissemination of public's personal information Adventures of a psychedelic truffle eater The Radium Age science fiction library 419/FBI poetry: "Issues of fraud crime against you" Teapot made from tickets VeriSign, pillar of Internet security, hacked Grand re-opening of the Cigar Box Guitar Museum near Pittsburgh, PA Trailer for Tim Burton's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" A walk in the woods with 42 Saint Bernards Revisiting Slashdot's faméd V-day marriage proposal from CmdrTaco Lessons from Prop. 8: why we shouldn't put our civil rights up for a popular vote Candy colored clowns Blackberry abandoned by US gov's main procurement agency Alexander Graham Bell, in love Arthur Goldwag: Big C and Little C Conspiracy Theories Man digs out basement with R/C construction equipment models ALARM TALK iPhone iOS appAlarm Talk iPhone app Bizarre V-day cards of yesteryear Mark's recommendations on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn The story of today's Valentine's Day Google Doodle UK gov't: yes, we kidnapped people and sent them to be tortured by Qaddafi, but you can't sue us
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 10:16 am After the fall of the Qaddafi regime, secret police documents were discovered linking the UK spy agency MI6 with the kidnap of two leading Libyan dissidents and their families, in order to deliver them to Qaddafi's torturers. The UK government has admitted that its spies are guilty of this crime, but point to a law ...
Read in browser Backyard-sized western town for sale, $20K cheap
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 09:50 am Boontdustie sez, "Topeka, Kansas craigslist - A man built entire 'Cowboy Town' in backyard and is now looking to sell it all for $20,000. Complete with bank, saloon and livery stable... Awesome pics included." The Bank is currently being used as a garden tool shed. Makes a great place for the mower, some deck chairs, ...
Read in browser SFPD corruption report from 1937
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 07:46 am Here's a long-lost 1937 report on police corruption in San Francisco: In 1935, the citizens of the city of San Francisco were indignant when tales of police officers having amassed huge fortunes through payoffs, graft and bribery came to light. In a convulsion of civic anger, District Attorney Matt Brady and Mayor Angelo Rossi were ...
Read in browser Canada's bull-moose civil libertarian on Canada's new domestic spying law
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 06:47 am On the always-excellent Search Engine podcast from TVOntario, host Jesse Brown interviews Alan Borovoy, general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Borovoy in one of Canada's most respected free speech and privacy activists, and he describes the state of Canada on the eve of the introduction of a sweeping spy-bill that will require ISPs ...
Read in browser EFF: Tens of thousands of websites' SSL "offers effectively no security"
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 05:39 am The Electronic Frontier Foundation's SSL Observatory is a research project that gathers and analyzes the cryptographic certificates used to secure Internet connections, systematically cataloging them and exposing their database for other scientists, researchers and cryptographers to consult. Now Arjen Lenstra of École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne has used the SSL Observatory dataset to show that ...
Read in browser Canada's spying bill: be very afraid
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 04:31 am Canadian comedy hero Rick Mercer nails the new Canadian spying bill and the political tactics that gave rise to it. Bravo! Rick Mercer: Rant: Be Afraid (Thanks, James!)
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By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 01:49 am Ford's Theater's Center for Education and Leadership sports a 6,800 volume, 34-foot-tall tower of (aluminum replica) books about Abraham Lincoln. The majority of the titles are histories and biographies about Abraham Lincoln. Also included are books of Lincoln's speeches, books of quotations or quips and one or two travel titles (i.e.: Indiana's Lincolnland by Mike ...
Read in browser Taxi-window sticker: our security stinks and your credit card will be sniffed
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 01:00 am On my way to Dallas-Fort Worth airport today, I snapped this picture of the sticker on the inside of the back-seat passenger-side window of my taxi. It warns "The method used to authenticate credit card transactions for approval is not secure and personal information is subject to being intercepted by unauthorized personnel." There's some history ...
Read in browser Soft robots: elastomeric origami
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 15, 2012 12:09 am Wired Science's Dave Mosher investigates elastomeric soft robots -- air-powered origami creepers that can go places that challenge their rigid metallic kin. Getting the soft robots to perform a particular action is a feat of origami: Folded in just the right way and glued in the right spots, for example, the researchers showed how a ...
Read in browser Tank Girl vodka
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2012 11:53 pm Absolut has commissioned Jamie Hewlitt (co-creator of Tank Girl and Gorillaz) to do a limited edition vodka bottle celebrating London's public drunkenness. It's a rather nice piece of work, too -- suitably grotesque. All it's missing is the grimy, mutilated pigeons squabbling over puddles of last night's binge-drinking lad and ladette vom. ABSOLUT London
Read in browser EU official who resigned over ACTA explains how the treaty will result in invasive border searches of personal devices, privacy-invading dissemination of public's personal information
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2012 10:48 pm Kader Arif is the former EU official who served as rapporteur on ACTA (the secretive copyright treaty pushed by the US Trade Rep) on Europe's behalf. He made headlines when he handed in his report on ACTA and his resignation, which damned ACTA as an undemocratic, overly broad and ill-conceived trainwreck. In this WSJ interview, ...
Read in browser Adventures of a psychedelic truffle eater
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2012 10:39 pm Here's Part 2. And here's Part 3. Juliette says: Following The New York Times Sunday profile on VICE's in house drug aficionado/chemist, Hamilton Morris and his original web series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, VICE today premieres the latest episode where Hamilton travels to Amsterdam to discover the Philosopher's Stone of psychedelics -- the [psilocybin-containing] truffle. In this ...
Read in browser The Radium Age science fiction library
By Joshua Glenn on Feb 14, 2012 10:30 pm Several years ago, I read Brian Aldiss's Billion Year Spree -- his "true history of science fiction" from Mary Shelley to the early 1970s. I found Aldiss's account of the genre's development entertaining and informative... but something bothered me, long after I'd finished reading it. So much so that I've since spent hundreds of dollars ...
Read in browser 419/FBI poetry: "Issues of fraud crime against you"
By David Pescovitz on Feb 14, 2012 10:14 pm My friend Vann Hall received the following email from the FBI. Apparently, they caught him through their, er, track light monitoring device. Vann, I hope you can clear this up quickly! respectively, pesco -------- Original Message -------- Subject: ISSUES OF FRAUD CRIME AGAINST YOU Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:25:36 +0200 From: Mr Ronald Anthony ...
Read in browser Teapot made from tickets
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2012 09:40 pm Brian Jewett makes various kinds of sculptural housewares, including ticket bowls ("Made by winding multiple rolls of tickets into one disc, shaping and sealing"). He made this ticket-bowl teapot as a commission for teapot collectors Gloria and Sonny Kamm. Ticket Bowls (via Craft)
Read in browser VeriSign, pillar of Internet security, hacked
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2012 09:07 pm VeriSign Inc., the company responsible for assuring that more than half the world’s websites are authentic, was hacked multiple times in 2010, and the thieves succeeded in stealing information, reports Christopher Maag in Credit.com When users click on a website, or on a hyperlink that would carry them to a website, their browser automatically checks ...
Read in browser Grand re-opening of the Cigar Box Guitar Museum near Pittsburgh, PA
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2012 09:02 pm Shane Speal says: The Speal’s Tavern Cigar Box Guitar Museum near Pittsburgh, PA has been expanded and improved for 2012. The museum now sports over 40 handmade instruments, cigar box amplifiers, antique photos and artwork along with historical facts and discoveries. The 2012 exhibit will be unveiled this Saturday, February 18 at 6pm followed by ...
Read in browser Trailer for Tim Burton's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2012 08:36 pm Here's a trailer for Tim Burton's forthcoming adaptation of the satirical horror novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Hard to tell how Burton will play it -- it will be tricky to maintain the relevance of the fact that the action hero is also Honest Abe without obliterating suspension of disbelief, since each reminder of this ...
Read in browser A walk in the woods with 42 Saint Bernards
By Dean Putney on Feb 14, 2012 08:21 pm Over at Submitterator, anelson sends us this surreal video of a child playing with a huge pack of Saint Bernards in a temperate rainforest in British Columbia. I love the idea of being surrounded by these panting, gallumphing beasts. Thanks anelson! [Video Link] Check out more wonderful submissions here
Read in browser Revisiting Slashdot's faméd V-day marriage proposal from CmdrTaco
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2012 08:20 pm Buzzblog sez, "Ten years ago today, at 9:25 a.m., Slashdot founder Rob 'CmdrTaco' Malda, used his insider access to the homepage of one of the tech world's most popular forums to send a very public Valentine's Day marriage proposal to Kathleen Fent. Fifteen minutes later she said yes -- and then called him a dork ...
Read in browser Lessons from Prop. 8: why we shouldn't put our civil rights up for a popular vote
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2012 08:13 pm [Video Link] "Dear God, we should not be putting civil rights issues to a popular vote to be subject to the sentiments, the passions of the day. No minority should have their rights subject to the passions and sentiments of the majority. This is a fundamental bedrock of what our nation stands for." -- Newark, ...
Read in browser Candy colored clowns
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2012 07:59 pm A gallery of clown portraits.
Read in browser Blackberry abandoned by US gov's main procurement agency
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 14, 2012 07:54 pm Bye-bye, Blackberry: "The U.S. federal government's main procurement agency is issuing iPhones and Android-based devices to some of its 17,000 workers." (Reuters)
Read in browser Alexander Graham Bell, in love
By Xeni Jardin on Feb 14, 2012 07:48 pm Marilyn Terrell of National Geographic Traveler magazine says, "I thought you might like this sweet story about Alexander Graham Bell, who was a 27-yr-old Scottish speech therapist and part-time inventor when he fell madly in love with 17-yr-old Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, who was deaf, and whose father was the first president of the National Geographic ...
Read in browser Arthur Goldwag: Big C and Little C Conspiracy Theories
By Arthur Goldwag on Feb 14, 2012 07:42 pm (In 2010, Boing Boing was pleased to feature as a guestblogger Arthur Goldwag, author of Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more. The following is an excerpt from Arthur's latest book, The New Hate: A History of ...
Read in browser Man digs out basement with R/C construction equipment models
By David Pescovitz on Feb 14, 2012 07:08 pm A fellow named Joe, from Saskatchewan, Canada, has been digging out his basement since 2005 with a fleet of remote-control scale models of tractors and trucks. He even has a conveyor belt to move the dirt. What fun! From Carscoop: "I feel quite fortunate to have stumbled onto this basement excavation idea, it's been a ...
Read in browser ALARM TALK iPhone iOS appAlarm Talk iPhone app
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2012 07:06 pm Alarm Talk is a handsome iPhone app that reads the weather and your agenda to you in an appropriately lo-fi robotic voice. It's $2 in the iTunes store.
Read in browser Bizarre V-day cards of yesteryear
By Cory Doctorow on Feb 14, 2012 07:00 pm Further to Mark's bizarre old Valentines post from yesterday: Flickr user Page of Bats has assembled a marvellous and often inexplicable collection of tasteless, gross and weird vintage V-day cards. I can't figure out of some of these were from the likes of MAD magazine, or if they were all created in earnest by clueless ...
Read in browser Mark's recommendations on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
By Mark Frauenfelder on Feb 14, 2012 06:58 pm "From Public Radio International's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn: Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing and the Gweek podcast joins us to share his recommendations this week: the drawing game Depict and the Blackwing 602 pencil." Listen to the whole Bullseye episode here: (with Daniel Handler, the Sklar Brothers and Nico Muhly).
Read in browser The story of today's Valentine's Day Google Doodle
By Michael Lipman on Feb 14, 2012 06:41 pm As a veteran character animator, I was beginning to doubt whether I'd ever again have the opportunity to create a short narrative piece -- then I got the call. When Google calls and says, "We'd like you to drop everything and make a short narrative piece that will be seen by hundreds of millions of ...
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