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Stephan Balleux strange photo/CGI-influenced paintings What's wrong with ACTA Pirate Bay to Anonymous: DDoS is censorship, cut it out Videos of Japanese trains and train toilets Couple arrested after fighting over possession of drug-filled teddy bear Turning kids' art into plush toys Glass gem corn Buttocks Humanoid that Represents Emotions with Visual and Tactual Transformation of the Muscles A World of Thinking Robots - 1950 Kirby and Simon comic WiFi Pineapple: an appliance to do WiFi snooping, password sniffing, and site-spoofing Reasons to love you, Game of Thrones Chimpanzee testing: the beginning of the end? (video) Such a Long Journey - An Interview with Kevin Kelly Modernizing Modesty: the Hijab and Body Image Incredibly detailed look at Internet marketing scams Science Tales: short comic stories about science, skepticism, evidence and woo Google search ranking is editorial in nature and qualifies for First Amendment protection Sh*t my students write R2D2 rain-barrel Mitt Romney was a homophobic bully in high school, say former classmates Navy: sonar and explosion tests may be harming dolphins, whales Fishbowl bras offer alternative cooling in Japan's summer heat, now that all nuclear power plants are shut down Dekalb County officers charged after beating cuffed teens Spectrum Fantastic Art Live convention, May 18-20 Kansas City, MO Ugly pancake contest seeks your entries History of the Animaniacs Foodies and aviation geeks, unite: A380-themed restaurant launches in China Joss Whedon on his success Flowchart: what is Weird fiction? Act now! Special offer! Stephan Balleux strange photo/CGI-influenced paintings
By David Pescovitz on May 11, 2012 12:56 pm To create his unsettling, phantasmagoric paintings, Belgian artist Stephan Balleux allows inspiration from ghostly black and white photography and 3D computer graphics to seep from his canvases but in wholly unnatural and strange ways. I"n a reversed perspective, I apply to painting other media's components," he says, "borrowing, for instance, from photography its quality of ...
Read in browser What's wrong with ACTA
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2012 12:47 pm Michael Geist sez, "Earlier this year, I appeared at the European Parliament's INTA Committee Workshop on ACTA. While I previously posted my opening remarks and a video of comments, I was unable to post the full report until granted approval by the European Parliament INTA Committee. That report is now available for download and is ...
Read in browser Pirate Bay to Anonymous: DDoS is censorship, cut it out
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2012 12:36 pm A good-tempered rebuke from The Pirate Bay to the Anons who staged a raid on Virgin Media in protest of the ISP's participation in blocking The Pirate Bay for its customers: Seems like some random Anonymous groups have run a DDOS campaign against Virgin media and some other sites. We'd like to be clear about ...
Read in browser Videos of Japanese trains and train toilets
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 11, 2012 12:09 pm This playlist from YouTube user hideyasann features more than 100 short clips of trains and train restrooms in Japan. Most of the train videos are of trains pulling into a station, or changing tracks. Most of the toilet videos emphasize the flushing mechanisms—of which there are a surprising variety. As a rail fan, it's interesting ...
Read in browser Couple arrested after fighting over possession of drug-filled teddy bear
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 11, 2012 12:07 pm [Video Link] Why isn't this couple smiling in this eerily silent video? Because they are being videotaped by police after they were spotted arguing over a teddy bear stuffed with heroin. Now, neither of them want the bear, but the police are making them hold the bear, and its contraband stuffing, for the video.
Read in browser Turning kids' art into plush toys
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 11, 2012 11:48 am Wendy Tsao will take your child's drawing and turn it into a plush toy. Her gallery of work is amazing. Child's Own Studio (Via Twisted Sifter)
Read in browser Glass gem corn
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 11, 2012 11:42 am This lovely ear of glass gem corn is featured at Seeds Trust. They will begin selling seeds for it in August. The story of glass gem corn. Seedsman Greg Schoen got the seed from Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee man, now in his 80's, in Oklahoma. He was Greg's "corn-teacher". Greg was in the process of ...
Read in browser Buttocks Humanoid that Represents Emotions with Visual and Tactual Transformation of the Muscles
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 11, 2012 11:31 am [Video Link] It's a robotic butt. (Via Geekologie)
Read in browser A World of Thinking Robots - 1950 Kirby and Simon comic
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 11, 2012 11:25 am From Real Fact Comics #2 (1946) - a Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 2-pager about robots who will undertake undesirable occupations such as secretary, housekeeper, and professional athlete. A World of Thinking Robots
Read in browser WiFi Pineapple: an appliance to do WiFi snooping, password sniffing, and site-spoofing
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2012 10:46 am The $90 WiFi Pineapple is now in its fourth iteration. The gadget does man-in-the-middle attacks on WiFi networks, allowing its owner to snoop on all the traffic, keylog password entries, and generally compromise the shit out of anyone using WiFi in the area. It's a damned good reason to use a VPN, like The Pirate ...
Read in browser Reasons to love you, Game of Thrones
By Leigh Alexander on May 11, 2012 10:27 am I became involved with the Game of Thrones TV series and books against all odds. After all, I don't think of myself as a "geek" or a "nerd", even if I am a video game journalist. My interested is in unnatural universes and the potential in interactive fictional worlds, but the traditional wheelhouses of SF ...
Read in browser Chimpanzee testing: the beginning of the end? (video)
By Xeni Jardin on May 11, 2012 09:46 am For PBS NewsHour, Miles O'Brien reports on whether there are ever instances in which the scientific value of research should offset the moral cost of working with chimpanzees. The US government has moved to limit some of the research it funds with chimps in recent months. Medical experiments on chimps can be invasive: one animal ...
Read in browser Such a Long Journey - An Interview with Kevin Kelly
By Avi Solomon on May 11, 2012 09:30 am Photo: Michelle Gray Kevin Kelly is a senior maverick for Wired magazine. Avi interviewed Kevin at his home in Pacifica. I The Technium Avi Solomon: Could you define the Technium? Kevin Kelly: We all realize that we're kind of surrounded with technology: there's little device here recording us, there's tables, chairs, spoons, light bulbs. Each ...
Read in browser Modernizing Modesty: the Hijab and Body Image
By Mariam Sobh on May 11, 2012 09:10 am Photo: Ranoush (cc) Illo: Rob Beschizza Recent trends in Hijab fashion modernize a form of modest dress once defined by local traditions. In seeking self-expression, however, Muslim women find themselves targeted by a media industry with its own taste for female objectification. "It's two-sided," says Aisha Ahmad, 30, a health care administrator from Ft. Lauderdale. ...
Read in browser Incredibly detailed look at Internet marketing scams
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2012 09:00 am The Verge's Joseph L. Flatley delves into the world of Internet marketing scams (those stupid spam pitches you get for "lead generation" and such) in eye-watering detail. Fundamentally, these things are exactly what they appear to be: con artists who suck money out of desperate people by lying to them about the money they can ...
Read in browser Science Tales: short comic stories about science, skepticism, evidence and woo
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2012 07:27 am Darryl Cunningham's Science Tales is a fantastic nonfiction comic book about science, skepticism and denial. Divided into short chapters with simple layouts and graphics, Cunningham's book looks into belief in chiropractic and homeopathy; denial of moon landings, climate change and evolution, the anti-vaccination movement, and related subjects. It concludes with a tremendous piece on the ...
Read in browser Google search ranking is editorial in nature and qualifies for First Amendment protection
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2012 04:09 am A Google-commissioned legal paper on the constitutionality of regulating search results concludes that the such a regulation would violate the First Amendment. "First Amendment Protection for Search Engine Search Results" was written by eminent legal scholar Eugene Volokh and attorney Donald Falk, who argued that search-results are like the table of contents in a magazine, ...
Read in browser Sh*t my students write
By Dean Putney on May 11, 2012 03:24 am "I firmly believe that the crucifixion is not something you can do to yourself simply because you do not have enough hands." Glorious. Thanks Noah!
Read in browser R2D2 rain-barrel
By Cory Doctorow on May 11, 2012 01:33 am Reb sez, "The Water Quality Forum in my hometown, Knoxville, TN has an annual contest/auction for custom designed rain barrels. This one really caught my eye!" "R2D2" by Curtis Glover (Thanks, Reb!)
Read in browser Mitt Romney was a homophobic bully in high school, say former classmates
By Xeni Jardin on May 10, 2012 11:14 pm REUTERS: Romney speaks at a campaign event in Wilmington, DE. In the Washington Post, testimonials by prep school classmates of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney paint the former Governor of Massachusetts as a homophobic bully. So, basically— he hasn't changed much. Snip: John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually ...
Read in browser Navy: sonar and explosion tests may be harming dolphins, whales
By Xeni Jardin on May 10, 2012 11:07 pm In an environmental impact statement covering future plans for U.S. Navy training and testing, an acknowledgement that the use of sonar and explosives "could potentially hurt more dolphins and whales in Hawaii and California waters than previously thought." (AP)
Read in browser Fishbowl bras offer alternative cooling in Japan's summer heat, now that all nuclear power plants are shut down
By Xeni Jardin on May 10, 2012 10:48 pm REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Models present lingerie maker Triumph's new concept bra, the "Super Cool Bra", during its unveiling in Tokyo on May 9, 2012. The bra, modeled after a miniature fishbowl, contains a gel material designed to draw excess heat out of the body in its cups. It was created to help women "feel refreshed" during ...
Read in browser Dekalb County officers charged after beating cuffed teens
By Rob Beschizza on May 10, 2012 09:45 pm Law enforcement in Dekalb County, Georgia, is not finished with you today, citizen. Greg Bluestein with the AP: Three DeKalb County police officers were charged Thursday with beating four handcuffed teenagers, three of whom were juveniles at the time, in an investigation that prosecutors say could be part of a broader pattern of abuse. You ...
Read in browser Spectrum Fantastic Art Live convention, May 18-20 Kansas City, MO
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 10, 2012 09:14 pm Bob Self says: Baby Tattoo Books is thrilled to be co-presenting a first of its kind art convention built around the Spectrum Fantastic Art community. For nearly two decades, the Spectrum juried competition and resulting art annual have promoted and elevated fantasy, science fiction and other genre art to new levels of respectability in the ...
Read in browser Ugly pancake contest seeks your entries
By Cory Doctorow on May 10, 2012 09:00 pm Saipancakes, who normally makes astounding pancakes like the ones above, had a rather spectacular pancakefail (right), prompting him to inaugurate an ugly pancake contest: "Rules: 1. It must be mostly pancake batter, and cooked like a pancake; 2. You (or someone) must eat it. You have until Saturday, May 19, to send me a photo ...
Read in browser History of the Animaniacs
By Cory Doctorow on May 10, 2012 07:17 pm Mental Floss's Rob Lammle has researched an admirably thorough history of The Animaniacs, one of my all-time favorite cartoons. Of the Warners, the voice of Wakko was the most difficult to cast. During auditions, the producers said they were looking for "wacky," so all the actors delivered a voice that was over-the-top crazy, but none ...
Read in browser Foodies and aviation geeks, unite: A380-themed restaurant launches in China
By Xeni Jardin on May 10, 2012 06:21 pm A waitress poses inside an egg-shaped dining booth at an A380 theme restaurant during a media event before its official opening in Chongqing municipality, April 25, 2012. Special Class, the name of the restaurant, is about 600 square metres in size, including the six private rooms, and can serve up to 110 customers, local media ...
Read in browser Joss Whedon on his success
By Cory Doctorow on May 10, 2012 06:02 pm A beautiful note from Joss Whedon to the world, his admirers, and his past self, explaining what it feels like to have directed a movie that broke all box-office records for opening weekend: What doesn't change is anything that matters. What doesn't change is that I've had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate ...
Read in browser Flowchart: what is Weird fiction?
By Cory Doctorow on May 10, 2012 05:00 pm Jeff Vandermeer sez, "As part of our celebration of weird fiction, centered around the release this week of The Weird -- 800,000 words of weird fiction from the past century--we've posted weird writer Stephen Graham Jones's flowchart showing the differences between weird fiction, horror, surrealism, and more...we're soliciting opinions. Did Jones nail it?" The Weird: ...
Read in browser Act now! Special offer!
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 10, 2012 04:50 pm Ridiculous subscription pricing policies at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Be prepared to headdesk so many times that you dent your furniture and/or give yourself a concussion ... especially when you get to the spreadsheets. (Via Nieman Lab)
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