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by David Pescovitz on (#1PGM0)
Aerospace corporation Airbus's Light Rider concept motorbike looks a bit like something HR Giger would draw (although his, of course, would be much cooler). In reality, the 3D-printed frame was inspired by skeletal structures that enable its bare-metal frame to weigh just 13 pounds but support a 220 pound rider. From the BBC News:To design the bike's frame and swingarm rear section, (Airbus's) APWorks team collaborated with Altair Engineering, a US-based consulting company whose structural-design software works through the principle of "morphogenesis" — which in biology refers to process of environmental forces defining a natural organism's form and structure. Morphorgenetic software is written to create forms that achieve maximum strength with minimal mass, and Altair's system has contributed to the designs of such boundary-pushing machines as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Volvo Ocean 70 racing yacht, and the jet-powered Bloodhound SSC, which next year will attempt to break the land speed record...The 3D-printing process employed to produce the Light Rider's frame is a marvel unto itself. The system uses a laser to melt powdered aluminium alloy in thousands of layers, each only 60 microns thick — about the width of a human hair. Airbus Group Innovations, the company’s research arm, developed the frame's aircraft-grade alloy, called Scalmalloy, which it claims matches the specific strength of titanium. The fabrication process — and the strength of the material — allows the morphogenetic software to specify finer and thinner structures than traditional tooling or moulding methods of manufacturing can produce. In fact, notes Gruenewald, the Light Rider’s frame even features hollow branches that hide cables and other components.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1PGM4)
I'm flying into Kansas City for part of Midamericon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, and while there, I'll be on panels, give a reading, and sit down with fans for a kaffeeklatsch. (more…)
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by Carla Sinclair on (#1PGJ7)
In a new British TV show called A Granny's Guide to the Modern World (Channel 4), three adorable ladies ages 73, 78 and 82 try weed for the first time when they visit a coffee shop in Amsterdam. One of the weed-tenders helps them out, showing them how to use a bong, roll a joint (a job that is given to the nimble-fingered granny who is an expert embroiderer), and introduces them to one of Amsterdam's famous "space cakes." The video says it all, but check out The Guardian for more details on who these adventurous women are and for more info about the show.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1PFTZ)
Conway's Game of Life—the OG cellular automaton toy—is put in three dimensions by Samuel Levy. You can spin the playfield as it mutates, too! It beat the hell out of my computer on the higher settings, though.Cells (in this case, cubes) with only 1 or less neighbours die, as if by lonliness.If 5 cells surround an empty cell, they breed and fill it.If a cell has 8 or more neighbours, it dies from overcrowding.Strictly speaking, that means it's not the Game of Life but a more elaborate automaton. The results are rather obscure, visually, to me, in this particular setup. I hope this gets expanded to allow for more experimenting with rules.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1PFMS)
Moments before a crash-landed jet at Dubai airport burst into flames, amid screams and billowing smoke, passengers chock the aisle to fetch bags from overhead bins. The video starts sometime after evac begins, lasts more than 2 minutes, and ends before it's over: "Leave everything! Leave the bags!... Leave your bags behind! Jump!"https://twitter.com/rehanquereshi/status/760883989490040833
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1PFKX)
20 years ago, Congress ordered the FCC to begin the process of allowing Americans to buy their pay TV boxes on the open market (rather than every American household spending hundreds of dollars a year renting a trailing-edge, ugly, energy-inefficient, badly designed box that is increasingly the locus of networked attacks that expose both the home LAN and the cameras and mics that are more and more likely to be integrated into TVs and decoder boxes) -- now, at last, the FCC is doing something about it. (more…)
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by Michael Borys on (#1PE4S)
If you don't know who Handsome Jack is, let me get you up to speed. He is perhaps the most famous male model in the world - and has made the time to be a world class magician. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1PDYC)
Cyberpunk pioneer and games-writing treasure Marc Laidlaw writes, "The latest and for now final addition to my Kindle collection is now live. I've never had a collection; I put this one, 400 Boys and 50 More, together myself. It contains basically all my short stories, novelettes and novellas from the last nearly 40 years (except for the Gorlen series)." (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1PDRV)
When you've been caught appropriating that hottest of cakes—the name of a contemporary political movement—one has two fair options: either (1) take your work seriously and make a case why it's clever/smart/funny/interesting, or (2) apologize and fuck off. But Andre Vu, the "global executive brand director" of forthcoming sci-fi videogame Deus Ex:Mankind Divided, thinks he has a third way out: to claim it's a coincidence.A back-and-forth with BioWare designer Manveer Heir led to Vu’s comments and other defenses of the campaign slogan. Vu chalked up widespread interpretations of "Augs Live Matters" as piggybacking on the similarly named social media movement to an out-of-context "hate wagon.""You are criticizing our integrity and the fact we try to abuse of recent event when it isn’t the case," Vu wrote in response to Heir’s criticism that the ad was "a bad look... These words were thought in our game way before the current events," Vu said. "Unfortunate coincidence for sure."How on Earth does he expect to be taken seriously? The game, which tackles issues of segregation in a futuristic dystopia, already raised eyebrows after the company making it put out a bizarre statement reassuring players that 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s portrayal of government-mandated segregation is presented "as neutral as possible,"' as if apartheid itself were a subject upon which neutrality was a reasonable position.Looking forward to Deus Ex:I Love My Augness, And Yours and the sequel Deus Ex:Oh My God JC It's A Bomb
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1PDAK)
We have a potted lemon tree in out backyard. I water it by filling a watering can from the garden hose. The spigot for the garden hose is against the house, behind a scratchy bush. I didn't want to get scratched by the bush any longer, so I bought this Hose Bib Extender on Amazon for $30, along with a 6 foot hose to attach it to the existing spigot. Now I have an easy-to-access spigot and look how green the lemon tree looks!
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by Carla Sinclair on (#1PD4J)
Last month, a 90-year-old woman visiting an art museum in Nuremberg, Germany was drawn to a 1977 crossword puzzle on display called "Reading-work-piece." Next to the artwork, created by avant-garde artist Arthur Köpcke, was a sign that said, "Insert Words." The visitor took the sign seriously and began filling out the puzzle with a ball point pen.Police rushed to the scene and questioned the senior citizen, whose name has been released as Hannelore K. She said the museum should have warned visitors not to fill in the puzzle, and the police let her go. But now the woman is threatening to sue the museum for cleaning up her additions to the art piece. She claims that she now holds the copyright to the "collaborative" artwork, since she enhanced it, but the museum destroyed her creative work by restoring the piece to its original state....her lawyer has produced a seven-page rebuttal to the accusation of damaging property.He says that far from harming the work in question, his client has increased its value by bringing the relatively-unknown Köpcke to the attention of a wider public. Moreover, her "invigorating re-working" of the exhibit further increased its worth.Indeed, Frau K.'s lawyer claimed that her additions meant that she now held the copyright of the combined artwork—and that, in theory, the private collector might sue the museum for destroying that new collaboration by restoring it to its original state.The art is said to be valued at around $90,000.Read the full story at Ars Technica.Image by chipgriffin/Flickr
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1PCZX)
What's not to love?Here a NSFW parody.[via]
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1PCZB)
What a cool grandpa! I wonder if he knows that rhinoceroses can run 30mph and weigh over a ton? From IBI Times:Dublin Zoo have said they are investigating after pictures emerged over the weekend of a child inside the rhino enclosure. The images shared on social media show a boy standing on the other side of the fence while a man holds his hand.@ccferrie @DublinZoo this man had the child in behind the fence for good 20 minutes ! pic.twitter.com/BzhhUW5Obr— Adrianna Straszewska (@Adriannasss) July 31, 2016
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1PCXZ)
Marina Maral colorized this 1865 photo of Abraham Lincoln assassination conspirator Lewis Powell. I always forget that the world wasn't black and white in the olden days. (more…)
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by Peter Sheridan on (#1PCWD)
What’s in celebrity handbags this week? Is it lip gloss and sunglasses? Car keys and chewing gum? We’ll never know, because Us magazine this week deprives us of its weekly feature ‘What’s in my purse?’ which gives “celebrities" aspiring to rise to the D-List the opportunity to fill their tote bags with healthy snacks they’d never usually eat, products they’re paid to promote, and books they’d like to be seen reading. Has Us mag run out of celebrities? Has this window into stars’ private lives become too intrusive? Or could it be because every "celebrity†purse carries the same dull, predictable contents week after week? And why have we seen inside dozens of celebrities’ purses yet never encountered a single one with any condoms, soiled Kleenex, or medication for their bipolar disorder? They can’t have dropped the feature because there’s too much real news, because that’s one thing sorely lacking in this week's celebrity magazines and tabloids.O.J. Simpson attempted a jail break, scooping out a shallow trench beneath the razor wire surrounding Nevada’s Lovelock Correctional Center, claims the Globe, which says that he was caught red-handed. It’s hard to imagine that one of the most recognizable inmates in the US prison system would try to escape under the eye of 213 prison guards and CCTV into a flat expanse of desert without any accomplices outside to help him flee, yet that’s what the Globe would have us believe. Or maybe he was just walking too close to the fence, and tripped?The pro-Trump tabloids continue their attacks on Hillary Clinton, with mounting desperation. President Reagan’s shooter John Hinckley Jr has won release from a mental institution, and is “set free to kill!’ according to the Globe, which helpfully explains: “Why you should blame the Clintons.†Evidently the judge who released Hinckley was “appointed when Bill and Hillary Clinton ran the White House.†Because as every Globe readers knows, Hillary previously ran the White House for eight years, and personally appointed all members of the judiciary.The National Enquirer’s front page screams that Donald Trump will take “revenge on Hillary & her puppets,†and discloses his “plot to get even.†Explaining that “Donald is determined to protect America,†it unveils his “no hold-barred strategy to expose their darkest secrets.†According to a “well-informed source,†these secrets include â€shocking details of President Obama’s cocaine rampages and homosexual romps†in Chicago decades ago, and evidence that he was born in Kenya and is a “secret Muslim.†But these aren’t secrets. They are long-discredited, thoroughly disproved and unsubstantiated tabloid tales of yesteryear exhumed from the vault for the sake of political muckraking. Fortunately, the world knows that Trump would never recklessly repeat unproven allegations from the Enquirer. Unless, of course, it’s to accuse Ted Cruz’s father of plotting with Lee Harvey Oswald to kill President John F Kennedy, as Trump did in May.Are Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Garner pregnant? They are according to the Enquirer and Globe respectively, which means that both have simply been photographed with the slightest of stomach bulges, and the tabloids’ crack team of psychic gynecologists made the medical diagnosis.For those watching the Nick Nolte Death Countdown, the excitement mounts: there are only two weeks left before he shuffles off this mortal coil, according to the Globe, which two weeks ago gave the actor just a month to live.This week Nolte is joined by a host of other dying stars who “fight for life†in their “sad last days,†according to the National Examiner. Robert Redford, Julie Andrews, Al Pacino, Ryan O’Neal, Valerie Harper, Howie Mandel, Shelley Long, Gene Wilder, Joan Baez, Carol Burnett and Jim Nabors are all on their way out, claims the Examiner, which by the law of averages is likely to strike it lucky and be right with at least one of them in the coming year. Amazingly, Nick Nolte isn’t on the Examiner’s list. Don’t they know he only has two weeks left to live? Nor is Cher, who has been given “weeks to live†numerous times over the past decade. According to the Globe, that’s because Cher’s “life was saved†by “controversial stem cell treatments.†But there’s a catch: “The life-saving therapy destroyed her body - and her famous face,†says the Globe, which claims her visage is “drooping and sagging.†I believe doctors call this phenomenon “aging,†but evidently the Globe thinks that 70-year-old Cher should still look like she did at 30. Then they ruin it all by including a photograph of Cher without makeup looking, frankly, sensational for her age, with no sign of jowls, no wrinkles, no wattle neck. Maybe they didn’t bother looking at her photo when they wrote the article.Fortunately we have Us magazine’s crack investigative team to tell us that Yara Shahidi (Who she, Ed?) wore it best, that US Olympic athlete Simone Biles is “a Justin Bieber fan†whose favorite color is purple, and the stars are just like us: they skateboard, carry groceries, and walk their dogs.Country singing star Blake Shelton tells how Gwen Stefani “saved my life,†which evidently didn’t include a near-drowning rescue at sea, and had more to do with how they comforted one another as their marriages fell apart, according to Us mag, which simply lifted its quotes from an interview Shelton gave to Billboard magazine and put them on its cover.We don’t know what’s in a celebrity purse this week, but by way of compensation Us mag tells us what’s in the lunch box of the seven-year-old daughter of ‘American Pie’ actress Alyson Hannifin. Because enquiring minds want to know that her little girl loves “a banana and almond butter sandwich shaped like an owl.†Well, who doesn’t?TV’s ‘Bachelorette’ JoJo Fletcher’s choice of Jordan Rodgers as the love of her life dominates the cover of People magazine, which reveals that “she calls him ‘lovey;’ he calls her ‘babe.’†And that’s about as revealing as it gets.For truly chilling news we must turn to the National Examiner, which reveals that “children with soulless black eyes terrorize residents foolish enough to let them in†across the globe. Once considered an urban legend, inspiring a clutch of horror movies, the Examiner claims that there really are black-eyed children who appear on doorsteps seeking shelter, bringing paranormal mayhem in their wake. One woman who encountered two such children claims that since they departed, “three of her cats have gone missing and her husband has had severe nosebleeds and skin cancer.†There’s no way that could be a statistical anomaly - it has to be the curse of the “horror kids,†with eyes “as chilling and empty as the void of deep space.â€I fully expect the Enquirer to reveal next week that Hillary Clinton was a black-eyed child in her youth.Onwards and downwards . . .
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by David Pescovitz on (#1PCWE)
China's Transit Elevated Bus (TEB), a trippy transport that straddles the traffic below it, had its first test run yesterday in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. It was a very short trip, just 300 meters. According to Shanghaiist, an engineer on the project says that eventually the TEB "will be able to carry up to 1,200 passengers and travel at 60 kilometers per hour." It's expected to take one year to build out a practical version.
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by Carla Sinclair on (#1PCR1)
North Korea simultaneously launched two medium-range ballistic missiles this morning, and one landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone, in the Sea of Japan. This is an area that is protected by special rights given to Japan by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The other missile exploded right after launch. Although North Korea has launched more than 30 missile tests since 2011, when Kim Jong Un came into power, today's launch was one of the farthest ranging and has drawn strong condemnation from international leaders."It imposes a serious threat to Japan's security and it is an unforgivable act of violence toward Japan's security," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told AP. The United States condemned the launches as violating U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea's use of ballistic missile technology."This provocation only serves to increase the international community's resolve to counter (North Korea's) prohibited activities, including through implementing existing U.N. Security Council sanctions," said Navy Cmdr. Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman.NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also condemned the launches, saying North Korea should "immediately cease and abandon all its existing nuclear and ballistic missile activities in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner" and "refrain from any further provocative actions."The Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting set for this afternoon at the United Nations.Read the full story at AP and CNN.
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by David Pescovitz on (#1PCNX)
Yelldesign: "We thought it would fun to make a complete meal from start to finish, using only paper. Everything you see is made from paper, except for the hands."See more of their Papermeals here.
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by Boing Boing's Store on (#1PCE2)
As gamers, it's hard for us to find the next big title to pique our interest. Choice can be paralyzing, especially with the thousands of games out there today.That's why we're currently into Steamcrate. It's a subscription service that delivers 10 games directly to our inboxes each month—all of them ours to keep forever, no strings attached. (Really.)We're not just talking throwaway titles here. Past shipments have included Mortal Kombat X, Bioshock Infinite, and Wolfenstein: The New Order--all heavy-hitters and media darlings. And since each month's shipment is worth between $40 to $700, we know we're getting our money's worth. It’s our new favorite way to discover our next favorite game, without wasting time or money, and you can currently choose between 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month subscriptions. Sorry Xbox Live Gold, the next best thing is here.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1PCE4)
I'm enjoying the existential humor of Webcomic Name, a webcomic by Alex Norris. http://webcomicname.tumblr.com/post/148143828199/please-reblog http://webcomicname.tumblr.com/post/148007489824
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1PBVG)
Slobodan Simić is former Serbian parliamentarian who retired to become a conservationist who keeps a herd of Balkan rescue donkeys on the Zasavica Special Nature Reserve near Belgrade, along with wild pigs, cows and beavers, all Balkan species that had dwindled and that he's dedicated to bringing back. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1PBV7)
Yes, they made the "Asian" porn yellow -- apparently this is a pretty common sight in Georgia gas-stations, though the proliferation of network connections in big rigs will surely cut into that market (and create some serious potential for mischief).
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by Xeni Jardin on (#1PADH)
Peter Serafinowicz does Trump. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1PAB3)
In a two-month-long class assignment, researchers from the University of Michigan found vulnerabilities in J1939, the standard for networking in big rigs and other large industrial vehicles, that allowed them to control the acceleration, braking, and instrument panels of their target vehicles. (more…)
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by Jason Weisberger on (#1P9MJ)
Tim Powers has mastered mingling our present with elements of the fantastic, creating stories so immersive and believable I'm always disappointed when they end. Down and Out in Purgatory is a new, incredible example. Shasta DiMaio fell for the wrong guy, and it killed her. Her rejected lover Tom Holbrook still carries a torch, however. If Tom can't have Shasta he'll kill the man who took her heart, and her life, even if he's already dead.Powers has focused on ghosts, and had them as major characters in other works, but this novella gives us a glimpse into their world! His purgatory is a spinning, wild place where we learn a bit more about what death really means. While the characters are fun, the real joy of this was the mechanics, and lore Powers shares about the afterlife. If you loved his Fault Lines trilogy, you won't be disappointed.Down and Out In Purgatory by Tim Powers
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by Jason Weisberger on (#1P9JF)
Traveling with a giant breed dog can be tough! While lots of hotels have one or two rooms set aside for people traveling with their canine, eye pop out when a Great Pyr walks in. The folks at It's Dog or Nothing have shared a few pointers and a short list of national chains that'll take you and your big pal.La Quinta hotels are their top choice:LA QUINTAHands down, this is our number one choice. When we know where we plan to stop for the night, we will do a quick search for a La Quinta. If there isn’t one where we planned to stop, we will often change our plans to find one. With over 900 hotels in North America, there’s always one around the corner.Not only does La Quinta allow multiple giant breed dogs, but their rooms are great. Every room we’ve stayed in has had a fridge and a microwave – if you have food sensitivities you know how important this is! Add on a free continental breakfast and I have a happy husband (and puppies because he always gets them some bacon!).Mostly Nemo and I camp in our VW van, when we travel, but hotel stays can be hilarious.
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by Carla Sinclair on (#1P9DG)
Trump rallies never cease to amaze. This morning at a Trump rally in Ashburn, VA, a young boy about 10 years old stood up and shouted, "Take the bitch down!" He of course was referring to Hillary Clinton.His mother, Pam Kohler, defended her son. "I think he has a right to speak what he wants to," she told reporters. According to Los Angeles Times:Asked where he learned to speak that way, she answered, "Democratic schools."As more reporters began surrounding her, she walked out of the auditorium at Briar Woods High School, where the rally was held, using a Trump sign to block cameras. Behind her seats was a school sign, encouraging good behavior: "Trustworthy, Respectful, United, Excellent."
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by Boars, Gore, and Swords on (#1P9AW)
The Boars, Gore, and Swords book club continues with the Boiled Leather chapter order combining George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. On this week's "Holes Want Filling," Ivan and Red cover Cersei I (AFFC), Tyrion I (ADWD), and Daenarys I (ADWD), and discuss ceremonial robes that didn't make it to television, Cersei's continued fall down the priorities ladder, and which actors are too dignified to be stuck in a wine cask.]To catch up on previous television seasons, the A Song of Ice And Fire books, and other TV and movies, check out the BGaS archive. You can find them on Twitter@boarsgoreswords, like their Facebook fanpage, and email them. If you want access to extra episodes and content, you can donate to the Patreon.
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by David Pescovitz on (#1P99D)
I'm loving it: On Saturday, a fellow strolled into a McDonald's in Falköping, Sweden carrying a dead badger under his arm. The staff asked him to leave, which he reportedly did, but then began whipping the badger around the parking lot, hitting cars with it before tossing it onto the roof of one vehicle.“We were waiting for the food at the drive-in when we saw him swinging a dead badger,†a witness said. (Then he threw the badger and it) landed on the roof of the car and there are scraps of meat and scratches there now.â€According to The Local, police ejected the man from the property but did not file charges. No word on the dead badger.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1P97W)
Former Syrian National Council vice-president Nour Al-Ameer fled to Turkey after being arrested and tortured by the Assad regime -- that's when someone attempted to phish her and steal her identity with a fake Powerpoint attachment purporting to be about the crimes of the Assad regime. (more…)
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by Wink on (#1P97Y)
See sample pages from this book at Wink.The White Donkey: Terminal Lance by Maximlian UriarteLittle, Brown and Company2016, 288 pages, 7 x 10.5 x 1 inches $15 Buy a copy on AmazonMaximillian Uriarte served four years in the Marine Corps infantry and went on two combat deployments to Iraq. While on active duty, he created an online comic strip, Terminal Lance, which grew from a small following to being published in official armed forces publications. In The White Donkey, which he calls his “thesis project,†he tells a story about the existential crisis of the military experience and what it means to enlist during a time of war. Subjects like hazing and PTSD are covered in the course of the story as he explores what might drive a Marine to suicide.We follow Abe, a young, white middle-class kid who enlists after high school for want of a direction, trying to find something better to do with his life. He makes a friend in another “grunt,†Garcia, who’s there because there are no better paths for him. The contrast is stark. Garcia: “I didn’t have shit else going for me, you know? I was with the wrong crowd a lot, I’d probably be in prison by now if not here.â€Abe’s privilege is shown by his encounter with an Iraqi policeman who tells him: “I have met many of your type over the last few years, coming here to fulfill some personal conquest, but you never stop to think about how arrogant you are. You seek some enlightenment at the expense of my people.†The story follows Abe through training, his experience of the tedium of war, his need for validation and legitimacy in the eyes of fellow Marines, and finally, the horror of combat and the alienation of the returning veteran into his previous society. There are encounters with the locals, mistakes made, and the surreal encounter with the White Donkey, which holds up an entire column of armored vehicles as it plods slowly along in the middle of the road.The art employed in The White Donkey is minimalist, stylized and realistic. Uriarte makes excellent use of color and story-board style to convey dramatic scenes. He makes use of color washes to separate different episodes of the stories. The pages of boot camp and training in Hawaii is a verdant green, Abe’s trips back to the civilian life is rendered in shades of blue-gray and the scenes in Iraq are in shades of brown and olive. White space is deliberate and used to great effect.The language is punctuated with frequent profanity and the story is spiked with humor that is at times bitter and obscene. In other words, situation normal for a story set in today’s armed forces. This book hits you right in the gut. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to serve in the Marine Corps and the experience of deployment in a war-torn country like Iraq, this book will help you understand.– Carolyn Koh
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1P94B)
UK animator extraordinaire Cyriak Harris posted a side-by-side animation of two herds of dancing cows. Harris' cows are on the right, McDonalds' are on the left. I'll bet McDonalds didn't know that they'd hired a rip-off ad agency.Wonder how much @McDonalds paid someone to copy my video. I didn't even get paid to make the original pic.twitter.com/XGWjHQq0j6— cyriak harris (@cyriakharris) August 2, 2016Here's the commercial:https://vimeo.com/176208286By the way, if you are unfamiliar with Harris' work, you are in for a treat. Here's a sample:https://youtu.be/tnWP2Emps1M
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1P94D)
Media Access Australia is the only Australian nonprofit that advocates for making media accessible to people with disabilities -- and they're also a member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an open standards body that disappointed its supporters when it bowed to the big entertainment and browser companies and agreed to make a DRM system for online video. (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1P92S)
"Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell" have been making the best explainer videos on the planet. Their latest one is about gamma-ray bursts, which occur when stars collapse or collide. Gamma-ray bursts have been detected in far away galaxies, but not in the Milky Way. A gamma ray burst in our galaxy could wipe out all life on Earth,
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1P911)
Tavie writes, "Kevin McDonald of the classic Canadian sketch comedy troupe Kids in the Hall has just launched a brand-new podcast, 'Kevin McDonald's Kevin McDonald Show.'" It's an old-fashioned variety show with interviews, sketches, and musical guests." (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#1P913)
Oskar van Deventer made a colorful gearing system with a reduction factor of 11,373,076-to-1. "The application of this type of extreme reduction gears is unclear," says van Deventer. "A patient person could use it to move a heavy train locomotive with a dental drill."
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1P8Z6)
The Associated Press filed Freedom of Information requests with the US government to find the evidence behind the Surgeon General's admonition to floss regularly for dental health and found that there was no good evidentiary basis for flossing. (more…)
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by David Pescovitz on (#1P8VN)
....from 1997.On your mark, get setNow we're riding on the InternetCyberspace, sets us freeHello virtual realityInteractive appetiteSearching for a Web site...(Thanks, UPSO!)
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by Red Scott on (#1P8R2)
Randy Olson, a researcher at University of Pennsylvania Institute for Biomedical Informatics, has taken his genetic algorithm previously used to find Waldo, and has applied it U.S. National Parks. In August, the National Parks Service is celebrating their 100th year, and Olson has calculated the optimal route to hit every single park in one monster road trip.The trip would take 14,498 miles, which is only 9.29 days of pure driving time with no stops and no sleep. A bit longer if you want to see any of the sights.A great thing about Olson's posts is he open sourced his original code, so you can dig in and make your own route. Plan your own trip and support his patreon if you want to see more work like this.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1P8R4)
Edinburgh's Tony "Lasermad" Adams is kickstarting a levitating Nixie clock -- featuring vintage Soviet deadstock Nixie tubes -- that draws power wirelessly from its base, as it hovers magically in midair on a cushion of mysterious magnetism, displaying the time and date. (more…)
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by Ruben Bolling on (#1P8QF)
FOLLOW @RubenBolling on Twitter and Facebook.JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the INNER HIVE, for early access to comics, and more. BUY Ruben Bolling’s new book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. Book One here. Book Two here. More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)
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by Red Scott on (#1P8QH)
Recent comers to Game of Thrones may be surprised to discover that the first book in the series is 20 years old today. Though we now know it as the fantasy juggernaut keeping HBO and podcasting afloat, the scene George R.R. Martin describes on his livejournal at the book's release is much more modest.Reviews were generally good, sales were... well, okay. Solid. But nothing spectacular. No bestseller lists, certainly. I went on a book tour around that same time, signing copies in Houston, Austin, and Denton, Texas; in St. Louis, Missouri; in Chicago and Minneapolis; and up the west coast to San Diego, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Portland, and Seattle. Turnouts were modest in most places. The crowds didn't reach one hundred anywhere, and at one stop (St. Louis, if you must know), not only was attendance zero but I actually drove four patrons out of the bookshop, allowing me to set my all time "bad signing" record at minus four (on the plus side, I had the time for long friendly talks with the readers who did show up). In honor of the 20th anniversary, Martin is releasing Game of Thrones: The Illustrated edition, featuring "a total of seventy-three (73) black and white interior illustrations, and eight (8) spectacular full color plates" from artists such as John Picacio, Paul Youll, Gary Gianni, Didier Graffet, Victor Moreno, Michael Komarck, Arantza Sestayo, Magali Villeneuve, Ted Nasmith, Levi Pinfold, and Marc Simonetti.The latest book in the series is famously over deadline, with the TV show passing Martin's telling and revealing plot points before Martin himself is able to, but his inability to finish the series is even more incredible given his original ambitions:I'd thought the whole story could be told in three books, and that it would take me three years to write them, a year per book. That picture was taken just a few weeks after I blew my first (bot not my last, oh no) deadline on the series. Ah, how innocent I was... little did that guy in the picture imagine that he would be spending most of the next two decades in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros with Tyrion, Daenerys, Arya, Sansa, Jon Snow, Bran, and all the rest.But here I am, twenty years later... still working on book six... ((and no, sorry, I have no announcement to make on that front)).via George R.R. Martin's Not A Blog
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1P8EY)
Foundational to Trumpism is the idea that Islam and democracy are incompatible, so Muslims can never be true members of western, industrial states -- which is precisely what Isis believes about Muslims. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#1P8EC)
Grey White takes the guest-spot in Oh Joy Sex Toy this morning in order to defend and debunk the fursuit, long the butt of sniggering sex-jokes. (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1P80F)
What costs are the people of the world obsessed by? Cubans seem preoccupied with the prices of cigars, for example, and Venezuelans with gasoline. Koreans are fixated on rhinoplasty's damage to their plastic, while Russians just want to fly a MiG jet. (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1P7YZ)
On Reddit, Nephelus notes the shambolic and rather menacing state of the forthcoming Olympics in Rio. In honor of Zika, the disease that will spread like crazy once the tourists show up, they created this striking new logo. (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1P7XX)
One day of bad polls and Trump's feeling hopeless, telling a crowd that the November election could be "rigged" and adding that Hillary Clinton is the devil.He told a rally in Columbus, Ohio, that he had heard "more and more" that the contest would be unfair. He offered no immediate evidence.At another event he called Democratic rival Hillary Clinton "the devil".Mr Trump has come under fire from across the political divide for remarks he made about the parents of a US Muslim soldier killed in action.On the forthcoming vote, he told supporters "I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest".He later repeated the claim on Fox News, adding "I hope the Republicans are watching closely or it's going to be taken away from us."To call another candidate "The Devil" is unprecedented in predominantly-Christian America, where locals often place deep stock in religious traditions.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#1P7VW)
A Dutch man who flew to China to meet his mysterious online girlfriend ended up stuck in the airport for 10 days, eventually being taken to hospital for exhaustion. He'd surprised his companion of two months with plane tickets, reports the BBC, but she never showed up. On Chinese social media, the majority of users were keen to point out the apparent absurdity of the man's actions.The hashtag "Foreign man went to Changsha to meet his online girlfriend" has been trending on micro-blogging site Weibo."He must be stupid, why would anyone do this?" asked one user."Doesn't he know that everything in China is fake?" said another.Look at the man's photo and tell me that Steve Buscemi shouldn't play him in the movie.
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by Nurse Freckle on (#1P67E)
What if you could choose only ONE word to sum up Donald Trump? At Trump in One Word, 234,635 people have made their one-word submissions, and I chose the most fitting 13 out of the 21 most-submitted Trump descriptions to hide in this word search. Actually, I wanted to use "Asshole", which was the 5th most common word with 5,341 submissions, but the Word Search Maker I used wouldn't permit such profanity. I also tried to squeeze in "Ass" (which can mean "donkey" and should thus be permissible), but the program said that "Ass" wasn't a long enough word. So here you have it. The first person to put all 13 correct words in the comments section gets a No-Prize.
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by Richard Kaufman on (#1P61Y)
Do you trust Penn & Teller?Do you think that magic is just for kids?Do you have an urge to learn a few simple magic tricks?If you’re thinking “Yes, no, yes†then the Penn & Teller Fool Everyone Magic Kit is just the thing you need to add a little pep to your step in the unbearably hot dog days of summer. Really … who the hell wants to go outside when it’s 95 degrees? (Well, actually folks who live in Las Vegas like Penn & Teller do—go figure.)You may have even seen P&T give away some of these magic kits on their TV show Penn & Teller Fool Us as prizes.Here’s what makes this magic kit good: it’s filled with classic effects that can be performed by and for both young and old. Some, like the Ball Vase, are so simple that an intelligent 5-year-old can do them, while others, like the Penetration Frame, come from the repertoires of professional magicians of years past and will handily fool adults.The Penn & Teller Fool Everyone Magic Kit has been produced for Penn & Teller by Royal Magic of Chicago (who actually does all of its plastic injection molding in its factory in the U.S.A.; it’s actually possible to buy something that isn’t made in China). Royal makes a wide variety of tricks, which enabled those whose photo adorns the box to actually pick the tricks to include in this set. And in addition to all the plastic props you see in the photograph there are sheets of cardboard punch-out magic tricks, all customized with artwork of P&T to further delight.Teller — ex teacher of Latin! — edited the large instruction booklet, and the set also comes with a DVD to make learning simple. And if you take your time it truly is simple.As a person who’s been involved in the field of magic for many years, I’ll tell you truthfully that this is a great way for anyone of any age to stick their tippy-toe through the door and get started in magic.Fool your friends—it’s fun. Really. I swear.Here’s a video review of the set from TTP Toy Reviews.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6HYMRy7qSw
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