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How Harvard Book Store combines the best of digital bookselling with the best of physical bookselling Can a kid be a psychopath? Salvaged lighting fixtures How Pixar almost lost Toy Story 2 to a bad backup Energy and geo-engineering: Maggie on the radio Camel vs. Plastic Bin Frazetta swiped from the best Quadcopter video tour of treehouse in BC Canada Yes Men punk TPP and US Trade Ambassador with fake "Corporate Power Tool Award" Game of Thrones S2E7: You Sad Little Kids South African 3D printing conference A fatal lack of accountability Anodyne Anonymity Screenwipe on anonymous sourcing Max Payne 3: Official Launch Trailer Moderator at Dell event in Denmark, on what men should say to women: "Shut up, Bitch!" Portal companion cube puzzle box Forming: dirty Gnostic creation-myth comic of high and lavish weirdness Pirates win more seats in German state elections Old cig ad: What to smoke when you're expecting RIP, Donald "Duck" Dunn Cards Against Humanity, a nasty, funny, CC-licensed card-game Mother's Day ad: support the energy industry and we'll give you flying cars! Zelda fire for your decorative fireplace Jam-smeared scamp and supernaturally calm mother shill dishwashers How Harvard Book Store combines the best of digital bookselling with the best of physical bookselling
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2012 01:00 pm Phil Johnson writes in Forbes about the unlikely (and quite wonderful) success of the Harvard Book Store, an absolutely terrific independent bookstore that was bought by Jeff Mayersohn, a high-tech entrepreneur who was determined to exploit the advantages of a great physical location along with print-on-demand, instant gratification. Essentially, Jeff installed a printing press to ...
Read in browser Can a kid be a psychopath?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 14, 2012 12:41 pm The New York Times has a fascinating (and, FYI, kind of disturbing) story about young kids who exhibit psychological symptoms similar to what you see in adult psychopaths. It's a complex subject because, while everybody involved agrees these kids could use some kind of intervention, nobody knows exactly what that intervention should be and definitely ...
Read in browser Salvaged lighting fixtures
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2012 12:19 pm I wandered into a temporary showroom for Trainspotters in London this weekend; they're a retailer specializing in salvaged industrial lighting, with a lot of crazy, chunk ex-Soviet numbers. Looks like you have to buy direct from them by phone, and the prices weren't low, but I'm still cleaning drool out of my shirt from my ...
Read in browser How Pixar almost lost Toy Story 2 to a bad backup
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 14, 2012 12:15 pm [Video Link] From Jamie & Adam Tested: "Pixar's Oren Jacob and Galyn Susman recount how the files for Toy Story 2 were almost lost due to an accidental Linux command and bad backup. It's probably a little over-dramatized from what actually happened, but is a good reminder to back up your important files!"
Read in browser Energy and geo-engineering: Maggie on the radio
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 14, 2012 11:45 am I'm going to be on the radio a couple of times today, talking about my book, Before the Lights Go Out, and the future of energy and climate. At 1:00 Eastern/Noon Central, you can listen to an hour-long interview with me on Minnesota Public Radio's Bright Ideas. You don't have to be in Minnesota to ...
Read in browser Camel vs. Plastic Bin
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 14, 2012 11:31 am [Video Link] A two-humped camel would have kicked that bin's ass. (Via Cynical-C)
Read in browser Frazetta swiped from the best
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 14, 2012 11:25 am Top: Detail from "Les Porteurs de Mauvaises Nouvelles," by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ. Bottom: Detail from "Conan the Destroyer," by Frank Frazetta. I'm not opposed to swipes. I like them! I look forward to the inevitable comment that comes with my posts about interesting swipes: "It's just a coincidence. There are only a limited number ...
Read in browser Quadcopter video tour of treehouse in BC Canada
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 14, 2012 11:13 am [Video Link] Here's a quadcopter video tour of a treehouse somewhere in BC, Canada. (Via Llyod Kahn's blog)
Read in browser Yes Men punk TPP and US Trade Ambassador with fake "Corporate Power Tool Award"
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2012 10:57 am US Trade Ambassador Ron Kirk was in Dallas to kick off a corporate power-event to drum up support for the foundering, secretive Transpacific Partnership, a secret treaty that builds on the work of ACTA to establishing punishing copyright laws that include mandatory surveillance and censorship. The Yes Men crashed the gala, taking the podium to ...
Read in browser Game of Thrones S2E7: You Sad Little Kids
By Leigh Alexander on May 14, 2012 10:19 am When I wrote about Game of Thrones last week, I talked about how I – someone generally averse to swords-and-dragons culture – found myself fascinated with the way this particular fantasy universe and its translation to high-concept television drama had some things to say about our modern environment. You know, the whole "questioning traditional social ...
Read in browser South African 3D printing conference
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2012 10:14 am Chris sez, "I'm helping to arrange a conference on 3D printing/additive manufacturing in South Africa. We have some world-renowned professors on the subject coming and its being held in a game reserve so it should be fun!" Rapid Prototyping remains a key technology in the Rapid Product Development suite of technologies. However, over the past ...
Read in browser A fatal lack of accountability
By Heather Brooke on May 14, 2012 10:03 am 
As long as secrecy and anonymity reign, public sector bureaucracies will be the hiding places for the incompetent, lazy and corrupt. Failures will be rewarded and successes stifled. It's easier to lie when no one knows your name. It's easier to do all sorts of unethical, if not criminal, things when you are promised anonymity.
Read in browser Anodyne Anonymity
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2012 10:02 am 
When we think of journalists' anonymous sources, we think of the proverbial whistleblower. Company insiders, or civil servants, ready to violate their nondisclosure agreements to expose some wrongdoing, or perhaps to settle some score. On the other, sleazier, end of the scale, we might think of tipsters: a cash-strapped waiter at a restaurant who sells the story of a celebrity food-fight to a tabloid, a blabby nurse at a plastic surgery clinic who spills the beans on some captain of industry's chin-augmentation.
But the most commonly cited anonymous sources in the news today are the official, on-the-record spokespeople for corporations. And the anonymous speech that is protected by the journalists who quote them is the most bland, anodyne stuff you can imagine.
Read in browser Screenwipe on anonymous sourcing
By Rob Beschizza on May 14, 2012 10:01 am In this segment from Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, Heather Brooke highlights the problems of anonymous sources in the UK media, where police spokespersons frequently mislead the public about suspects and investigations. [Video Link] Read more: Anodyne Anonymity, by Cory Doctorow A fatal lack of accounting, by Heather Brooke Everything tagged Journalism at Boing Boing
Read in browser Max Payne 3: Official Launch Trailer
By Advertiser on May 14, 2012 10:00 am ADVERTISEMENT For Max Payne, the tragedies that took his loved ones years ago are wounds that refuse to heal. No longer a cop, close to washed up and addicted to pain killers, Max takes a job in São Paulo, Brazil, protecting the family of wealthy real estate mogul Rodrigo Branco, in an effort to finally ...
Read in browser Moderator at Dell event in Denmark, on what men should say to women: "Shut up, Bitch!"
By Xeni Jardin on May 14, 2012 09:41 am Christiane Vejlø writes about attending a Dell corporate event in Denmark which was hosted by Mads Christensen, a "lifestyle speaker" who sounds like Copenhagen's answer to Rush Limbaugh: a troll known for doing routines about how women don't belong in the workplace (and worse). From Vejlø's account of the evening: "The IT business is one ...
Read in browser Portal companion cube puzzle box
By Xeni Jardin on May 14, 2012 09:29 am [Video Link] Genius animator Joaquin Baldwin, whose 3D-printed projects I've featured here before, says: For the fans of the Portal games, this is the latest 3d-printed weirdness I made, a puzzle box. It was much harder than I expected, went through 2 prototypes to get it to work out, and I still had to fix ...
Read in browser Forming: dirty Gnostic creation-myth comic of high and lavish weirdness
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2012 09:29 am Forming is Jesse Moynihan's ultra-weird graphic novel about the creation of the universe, filled with cursing, inexplicable violence, grotesque sexual acts, and primitive and strange illustrations. Set in the "Third Age of Total Bullshit," the story tells the tale of powerful aliens who visit Earth in the time of giants, set up camp in Atlantis, ...
Read in browser Pirates win more seats in German state elections
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2012 09:16 am The German Pirate Party has taken seats in the fourth consecutive regional election, this time in North Rhine-Westphalia, where it received 7.5% of the vote, which will likely translate to 18 seats. These state-level elections are being viewed in part as a referendum on austerity and other Merkel doctrines, and there's a growing tide of ...
Read in browser Old cig ad: What to smoke when you're expecting
By Cory Doctorow on May 14, 2012 12:50 am One more M-Day Vintage Ad: a Philip Morris piece from a 1956 Saturday Evening Post celebrating its new packaging by inviting an association between cuddling a newborn and smoking. There's a good case to be made for tobacco companies as the original sinners of corporatism, with their development of this kind of advertising, not to ...
Read in browser RIP, Donald "Duck" Dunn
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2012 08:53 pm The incomparably rhythmic bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn, who was the soul of Booker T's rhythm section and the heart of the Blues Brothers' band, is dead. He died on tour with Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, also of the Blues Brothers, in Japan. He was 70. His friend and fellow musician Steve Cropper, who was ...
Read in browser Cards Against Humanity, a nasty, funny, CC-licensed card-game
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2012 05:42 pm Cards Against Humanity is the perennially sold out, CC-licensed card-game that turns madlibs into an anti-social exercise. They're sold out, but you can put your name down for future runs and expansion packs, or download and print a set. To start the game, each player draws ten White Cards. One randomly chosen player begins as ...
Read in browser Mother's Day ad: support the energy industry and we'll give you flying cars!
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2012 05:00 pm Another Vintage Ads gem for Mother's Day: this bit of corporate futurism from the energy sector. Mother's Day
Read in browser Zelda fire for your decorative fireplace
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2012 03:34 pm For $110, Etsy seller JamesBit will custom-paint a Zelda-themed faux fire to size for display in your decorative fireplace. Zelda Fireplace Art (via Wil Wheaton)
Read in browser Jam-smeared scamp and supernaturally calm mother shill dishwashers
By Cory Doctorow on May 13, 2012 01:49 pm Oh that scamp. Poor Mom. Check out that beatific expression. Mother's Day
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