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by Rob Beschizza on (#16K2Y)
One of the funny things about Boing Boing is gaining access to the broken ansible in the lair's basement. Due to some as yet untheoretical relativistic cross-wiring, all it can access are random wikipedia articles from the distant future. We've been instructed in no uncertain terms never to use it, and the last editor to do so disappeared in a flash of late 1970s-era BBC special effects, presumably an extremely painful demise. This 24-bit PNG found on their laptop didn't make a lot of sense until lately; here it is for your topical interest.
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| Updated | 2025-01-14 22:17 |
by Xeni Jardin on (#16JXD)
Watch this beautiful homage to Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman's Mythbusters, the much-loved show now ending its epic TV run with a 19th and final season on Discovery.(more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16JTX)
Simply Secure is a nonprofit whose advisory board I volunteer for; they're devoted to making usable, human-centered interfaces to privacy tools that anyone can use, and they're hiring. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16JQG)
...instead of Spock's great-great-great-grandfather. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on Twitter on International Women's Day, and invited the public to nominate women to appear on the new notes. (more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16JGK)
A first edition of Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book (1889) will run you about $2000 for a copy in good condition. Amazon has a free Kindle edition.You can also download a free audiobook version.From Abe Books:
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16JF4)
I got this set of 7 fountain pens for my daughter, who is studying art in college. The pens have a stainless steel nib and come in seven different ink colors. The turquoise is my favorite, but I wish it had a pen with Brady Bunch Kitchen orange.
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by Wink on (#16JDK)
See sample pages from this book at Wink.If the enormous hairy solar chimneys that these architects once built in the middle of Long Island City don’t make you smile, then your sense of play might need renovation. The fun-loving, aggressively eccentric work of MOS Architects includes some recurring motifs: canopies, unusual materials, solar chimneys, shaft lighting, and buildings that look like blocks tumbled to earth. Engaging for architects and non-architects alike, this is a book that I keep picking up: to look through the illustrations, to wonder at, to think about how to work creatively, to show something weird and wild to a friend. While there is some discussion of theory in the included essays, this is a book refreshingly light on architectural jargon.The architectural historian Lucia Allais suggests in an included essay that one of the primary questions that the work of MOS poses is, “Is this simple or complex?†While the works presented are often simple, the reactions they provoked for me were complex, ranging from confusion to glee to disbelief. Crammed with 300 images, the just-released MOS: Selected Works demonstrates the firm’s unusual range of having produced buildings, installations, furniture, software, films, and pavilions, along with smaller works (like this book).MOS, as a firm, is on a very serious mission to advance the limits of architecture, but without taking themselves too seriously. Their hilarious office manual is included in the book and will inspire glee in anyone who has ever worked in a corporate office, advising, “You will arrive at the Office when you are awake and ready to work. We ask that you not come to work resembling a “bad version of yourself†(or someone else for that matter; however a good version of someone else is acceptable under § 2.1)...†While the MOS office manual insists that their work merely “mumbles, if anything,†I hope they keep mumbling in my ear for a while. – Brent GarlandMOS: Selected Works
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16JCC)
Note: This short story was written in 2009, but I didn't publish it because it was inspired by a real person. That person is now dead. Enjoy!HERSONNISOS, 2009That old media first reported my antics was the final insult, but only for my scapegoat.“I still don’t know how you pulled it off,†Miranda asked. We were at a beach restaurant. I’d flown her out to gloat, but also, perhaps, to relive old times. “Was it even illegal?â€The New York Times didn’t call it a scam, though there was certainly criminal misdirection involved. Bloggers were not so temperate. The consequences will be severe, but not for me.“Someone will think so. Yes. Of course it was,†I said. And smiled. “It’ll be in the papers, right?â€Rewind two years. 2007. I’m a blog repossessor. The duties involved had existed in the shadows for some time, but only as the economic meltdown built up and boiled over did it become a real profession. (more…)
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by David Pescovitz on (#16J56)
On Sunday, Oliver Stone showed his Snowden film, due out this Christmas, to a group at the Sun Valley Film Festival with a Q&A following. From the Hollywood Reporter:
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16J2N)
Here's an ostrich chasing after two bicyclists. Is the bird mad at them? There's no description on the YouTube page, but I was surprised to learn that ostriches can run fast and for a long time.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16HV8)
Over at MAKE, Mike Senese comments on this stock photo of a “Beautiful Woman Soldering.†It's an unintentional "how many things are wrong in this picture?" puzzle.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16HQ3)
I keep having to sign contracts where I waive all rights "throughout the universe." Lately, I've been crossing out "universe" and writing in "solar system." (more…)
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by Peter Sheridan on (#16HHH)
[My friend Peter Sheridan is a Los Angeles-based correspondent for British national newspapers. He has covered revolutions, civil wars, riots, wildfires, and Hollywood celebrity misdeeds for longer than he cares to remember. As part of his job, he must read all the weekly tabloids. For the past couple of years, he's been posting terrific weekly tabloid recaps on Facebook and has graciously given us permission to run them on Boing Boing. Enjoy! - Mark]If Werner Heisenberg were still alive, at 114 years old, by now the German physicist would surely have developed his celebrity uncertainty principle.Put simply, a celebrity cannot be observed and accurately reported simultaneously. The act of observing a celebrity makes accuracy impossible, and conversely getting to the truth of a celebrity makes observation impossible, most likely because they’re locked behind closed doors.This week's peer-reviewed scientific journals known as the supermarket tabloids and celebrity magazines ably demonstrate Heisenberg’s celebrity uncertainty principle in action.The stars are just like us, proclaims Us magazine: they ride bikes, go shopping and eat snacks at L.A. Clipper games (though I can’t remember the last time I had courtside seats, to be honest.). But the act of observation has changed these celebrities: they have dressed with care, brushed their hair, and take each step in public knowing that they may be stalked by paparazzi. Actress Minka Kelly, seen walking her dogs in Us mag, has donned her tightest body-hugging leggings and hidden her eyes behind sunglasses knowing that photographers lurk.When Taylor Swift tells Us mag “25 things you don’t know about me†spread over two vacuous pages, revealing that she kept hermit crabs as childhood pets, has double-jointed elbows and can’t spin cartwheels, she exposes nothing of herself, aware that she is under observation.Only if she was not being observed could she be close to her real self. Actress Angela Bassett exposes the contents of her handbag for inspection by Us mag’s crack investigative team of reporters, revealing that she carries honey roasted almonds, lipstick and keys. But why do we never see Xanax and Valium, a rolled joint, baggie of cocaine, birth control pills or condoms in any celebrity handbag? Because Heisenberg’s celebrity uncertainty principle states that the more closely you observe a celebrity, the less accurate the image becomes, and the stars’s publicists have purged their purses for public viewing.The tabloids offer the other side of this principle by looking with microscopic intensity at celebrity lives, and in doing so lose all sense of accuracy.“Humiliated Queen Gets Proof Uncle Was Jack The Ripper!†screams the Globe. It’s a story filled with details, but the closer it gets to its subject, the less accurate it becomes. “Uncle Albert†was actually her great-uncle: her father King George VI’s uncle. Two handwritten letters by Albert supposedly reveal that he spoke of symptoms similar to a venereal disease, which more than 40 years ago was posited as a theory to explain why a syphilitic Prince could have been the Ripper. Only one small problem: Royal records of 1888 prove that Albert was not in London when the Ripper’s murders were committed.“Old man†George Clooney “Quits Hollywood†proclaims the Globe, reporting that the 54-year-old actor is abandoning acting after Hail, Caesar and Tomorrowland were box office flops, adding that “he hasn’t had a big hit in 16 years, with the exception of the Ocean’s Eleven films.’ That’s a pretty big exception. And what about 2009’s acclaimed Up In The Air? Or Oscar winning 2013 drama Gravity? Or the fact that he recently finished filming Money Monster opposite Julia Roberts, has Suburbicon in pre-production, and 15 more films in the pipeline? Clooney would as soon quit Hollywood as Heisenberg would abandon wave particle duality.“Madonna To Adopt As Son Rocco Snubs Her," claims the National Enquirer. Because the singer allegedly visited an orphanage when on tour in the Philippines - and therefore had to be shopping for a new child. If parents adopted a new child every time their teenager screamed “I hate you,†the world’s orphanages would be empty.“Oscar parties were fueled by drugs,†states the Enquirer, which employed scientific tests - and science never lies! - to find “traces of narcotics†in bathrooms, handrails and bar tops “all around Hollywood†at venues where the stars partied. How significant is that?Heisenberg’s celebrity uncertainty principle demonstrates that it’s almost meaningless. After all, a 2009 study found that 90 per cent of paper money in the U.S. contains traces of cocaine. Researchers in 2011 found that 92 per cent of baby changing tables studied in the U.K. carried cocaine traces. Cocaine traces were found in nine toilets in Britain’s Houses of Parliament in 2013, and in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral last December. Traces of cocaine in Hollywood? I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.. I’m not saying that Hollywood celebrated the Academy Awards abstemiously, but those cocaine traces could have been there for months, even years. It’s just another story high on detail, low on accuracy, as Heisenberg would have predicted.Fortunately we have Us magazine to bring us the week’s hard-hitting news: Kate Upton and Alessandra Ambrosio wore it best, Margot Robbie mistook Prince Harry for Ed Sheeran (an easy error to make, except that Sheehan has talent and earned his fame), and Chrissy Teigen’s hair gets “megavolume - without mousse†thanks to a product it turns out she’s paid to hawk.Leave it to the Examiner to report on the “mysterious music in space†heard by Apollo astronauts - a story widely reported by mainstream media in the past week, despite the fact that the story has been around for years, and the “music†- an eerie whistling sound - was long ago explained as interference between the VHF radios on the command module and lunar module. But why let facts get in the way of a good story? Werner Heisenberg would be proud.Onwards and downwards . . .
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16H92)
Amendment 90 to France's penal reform bill provides for five year prison sentences and €350,000 fines for companies that refuse to accede to law enforcement demands to decrypt devices. (more…)
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16H5Z)
After an exhaustive (and, no doubt, exhausting) survey of Trump's speeches and interviews with his supporters, Thomas Frank concludes that while Trump's outlandish statements get all the headlines, the most consistent theme in Trumpism is that trade deals have destroyed the prospects of American middle-class workers, and this view is, if anything, even more heterodox to the parties' establishments than Trump's dumb wall. (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16H5E)
Welcome to Daniel's Broiler, sir. Would you like beef or steak?
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16H20)
Of course, they also ran two neutral ones during that period, so I suppose it all balances out -- it's not like he's raising more money, from more Americans, than any other candidate in history. Oh, wait. (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16GHV)
https://vine.co/v/iHuir3YZxQ5"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I INSIST THAT YOU NOT."Too late. You're pledged, pup!
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16GF5)
Bernie Sanders won a surprise victory in the Michigan Democrat primary Tuesday, pulling two points clear of rival Hillary Clinton in a late-night nail-biter of a count.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16EM7)
Pre-orders now being taken, ships Nov 2016. Sterling sez, "A new novella of mine set in an alternate Europe just after the Great War." I know what I'm doing next Nov. What. A. Cover.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16EEC)
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by David Pescovitz on (#16EAW)
On the season finale of The Muppets, Jack White and the Electric Mayhem covered Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life." The single will be released as a 7" vinyl single from White's Third Man Records.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16E97)
And I made an actually-infinite perfect-looping Yul GIF for you:Previously: Infinite Arnie.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16E78)
When a regular Sharpie line is too thin, get a Sharpie King Size. When the King Size won't do, get a Sharpie Magnum. I bought a red and a black Magnum for a card trick deck (they also come in blue). It has a chisel point, and its easy to get three line widths with it. If you're an Amazon prime member, you can get one for $3.99.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16E48)
https://youtu.be/kOjUL8LwUsEEleven minutes of enthusiastic combinatorial use of the words "wanker," "stupid," "cunt," "fucking," "dickhead," "hell," "tosser," "jesus," "asswipe," "prick," "bitch," "idiot," "knob," "twat," "bastard," and "silly cow."
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by Carla Sinclair on (#16E0M)
See sample pages from this book at Wink.I got my hands on a copy of The Art of Zootopia last week, days before the movie opened, and was so enamored with the fresh yet classic Disney-inspired art that I was already set on reviewing the book. Then over the weekend I watched the movie with my 12-year-old daughter and friends, and wow! What a brilliantly humorous and moving winner of a movie it was. Bravo to directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore! But this is Wink, so back to the book…The Art of Zootopia is such a treat in the way that it not only revisits the movie’s delightfully heartwarming characters and fantastic art, but gives us an engaging look at what went into the making of Zootopia. The book starts with author Jessica Julius describing the movie’s original story pitch – a 1960s spy story – and how it evolved over four years into the modern day tale of underdogs, prejudice, and fighting for justice for all. She gives us the scoop on how the characters were developed (balancing a feminine yet tough, naïve yet sharp, optimistic yet challenged bunny cop isn’t so easy!), shows us amazing “sets†I don’t even remember in the fast-moving film, and she lets us in on all kinds of fun details, like the fact that it took eight months to get the various animals’ fur just right (color, texture, and direction of fur growth takes more contemplation than I realized). We are also privy to many sketches and scenes that were eventually cut from the film.Just released today, The Art of Zootopia is both a captivating companion book to the movie, as well as a stand-alone coffee table book that doesn’t need any knowledge of the movie to be appreciated.The Art of Zootopia
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16E0P)
https://youtu.be/E2a3MhdsdMUCrazy Russian Hacker overinflated a soccer ball and recorded the pop at 25,000 frames per second.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16DYE)
The Jelly Bean Problem, told by Tim Urban of Wait But Why is a different way of describing the classic Monty Hall Problem. I think the Jelly Bean Problem is easier to understand for kids who've never seen Let's Make a Deal.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16DX1)
This brilliant dad secured a bunch of fascinating hardware items to a board and let his toddler have at it. The best toy ever and educational.[via]
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16DWG)
From TED Ed: Can you solve the frog riddle?
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16DNB)
On The Jerx (previously), "Andy" describes a fantastic magic trick that you can only pull off under very special circumstances: a day at the beach. (more…)
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by David Pescovitz on (#16DKT)
Chalk artist Chris Carlson created a fantastic 3D mural of Street Fighter that comes to life.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16DFA)
37 Signals' Jason Fried was there when the company launched Campfire, a pioneering group chat for business that made it easier for whole companies to follow each others' work; 10 years later, he's ready to talk about the ways that group chat gets in everyone's way. (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16D86)
White supremacists (and vaguely racist uncles on Facebook) occasionally pipe up with the idea that the Irish were, effectively, held as slaves in America. Though often subject to indenture and other forms of brutal labor conditions, the slavery claim is nonsense, writes Liam Hogan.It's one of those things that half-innocently surfaces in the media over and over again, though, because it looks like a strange fact, invites "curiosity gap" propagation, and offers the bittersweet pleasure of adversity oneupmanship. Particularly interesting are the images used to provide an illusion of truth. Above, a photo of some Texan farm kids commonly described as depicting Irish slaves.
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by Cory Doctorow on (#16D88)
Last summer, security researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek were so alarmed at the terrible state of information security in cars that they demo'ed a hack that let them take over Chrysler Jeep Cherokees over the public Internet, controlling the steering and the brakes and the acceleration. (more…)
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16D66)
Photographer Michelle Marshall shot this beautiful set of darker-skinned redheads: "I am currently interested in documenting the incidents of the MC1R gene variant responsible for red hair and freckles, particularly amongst black and mixed raced individuals of all ages."
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by Jason Weisberger on (#16B42)
The new Netflix series Fuller House is really just about perfect. Discovering this show is like finding an Irish bar in some far-away city you don't know--the show offers you a comfortable, familiar spot to sit down and know more or less what you're gonna get.(more…)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16A5N)
Gavin Newsom posted this video to Facebook, saying "This video is shocking. The way that Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush talked about immigration and the US/Mexico border in 1980 -- during a presidential debate -- you would think that they were Democrats. What has become of the Republican Party?"I like Vernon Reed's suggestion: "I think that the Democratic Convention should open with a montage of things that St Ronald Reagan said - that the Republican'ts would now take as the signs of a traitor to the Republican 'cause,' such as it is.....This would get INCREDIBLE press coverage - and be hilarious!!!"
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by David Pescovitz on (#16A41)
In Ridley Scott's classic 1979 science fiction/horror film Alien, the terrifying creature was played by a 6'10" Nigerian named Bolaiji Badejo. It was Badejo's only film credit. In fact Badejo, who died of sickle cell disease in 1992 at age 39, wasn't even an actor. He was studying graphic arts in London when casting agent Peter Ardram spotted him in a pub. From CNN:
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16A34)
On Saturday evening my friend Sharon Kessler was flying from Boston to Los Angeles on JetBlue flight 487. Sharon overheard a flight attendant tell a co-worker that she didn't like the way two Muslim women were staring back at her.The flight attendant "called authorities who boarded the plane when we landed and escorted these two women off," Sharon posted on Facebook. "It was a terrible moment -- honestly -- these women sat quietly, watched movies -- it felt like overkill from this flight attendant."I asked Sharon for more details. She said the flight attendant "casually relayed to a coworker that she didn't appreciate being stared at -- she did not seem rattled or scared -- just smug. Then -- after we landed - she announced that the authorities would be boarding the plane and to remain in our seats with seat belts."Sharon shot the above video of the woman being taken off the plane.I contacted JetBlue and asked spokesperson Morgan Johnson if he could provide further information. He said that while the plane was in the air, one of the crew members thought that the women were recording a security procedure. Johnson said that when the plane landed, authorities escorted the women off the plane and questioned them. The women explained that they were using a language translation app on their phone, and were released.I asked Johnson if he could clarify the flight attendant's "staring back" comments, but he said he had no information about that, and he probably wouldn't be able to share the details of the "galley conversation" with me, anyway. I invited him to call me back should he obtain further information.
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by Rob Beschizza on (#16A36)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDgy37kPOZ4&feature=youtu.beYou've seen Johnny Depp tear off Donald Trump's face. Now learn how to put on your own. F-Comedy's Tess Paras is "really excited to make your face great again."
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#16A0F)
https://youtu.be/OAH0MoAv2CII enjoyed learning about match dissolves, cross cuts, jump cuts, fades, and many other movie cuts and transitions. The video uses examples from famous movies.
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by Wink on (#16A0H)
See sample pages from this book at Wink.Darth Vader and Son is cute, and perfect for the little Star Wars fan in your life. It playfully posits the question “What if Darth Vader had actually raised Luke?†Author and illustrator Jeffrey Brown turns run-of-the-mill parenting activities into fun moments full of Star Wars references.This book isn’t so much a story as it is a peek into the hypothetical everyday life of Vader and Luke. Every page of the book tells its own complete story of sorts. Some pages are miniature comics while others are full-page illustrations. Brown does an incredible job of telling his story in these single images. I imagine this book would be great for children just learning to read, similar to how the Owly books help develop a sense of story without the need for lines and lines of text. If you have a child that enjoys books but isn’t yet able to read longer children’s books with more words, Darth Vader and Son is a great compromise. At 64 pages it is long enough to be engaging for an extended period of time, but you can basically jump in and out of the book at any point.Brown’s art style is colorful and light, reminiscent of childhood crayon drawings. Darth Vader always looks slightly goofy, which goes a long way to establish the tone of the book. The drawings include a number of visual references to the Star Wars films that will delight anyone with the eye to catch them (and there’s something on almost every page, so have fun looking for everything). Possibly the funniest parts are seeing Darth Vader engaged in totally mundane tasks like making breakfast or wrapping Luke’s birthday present. It’s a side to the character we've never had the opportunity to see, and Brown plays on the quirkiness perfectly. Overall, Darth Vader and Son is a fun read for adult Star Wars fans who like a good laugh, as well as for children just learning to love these characters. This book is actually the first in a series, so if you like it be sure to check out Vader’s Little Princess, Goodnight Darth Vader, and Darth Vader and Friends.– Alex StrineDarth Vader and Son
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by Rob Beschizza on (#169ZX)
Martin Bolton made these gorgeous copper dip pens with lengths of copper pipe, standard nibs and thermoplastic adhesive. He doesn't seem to have any for sale, but I bet they're pretty easy to make with one of those wee copper pipe-cutting gadgets.
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by David Pescovitz on (#169Y4)
Elena Marimon Munoz won the British Life Photography Award for this fantastic shot of Stonehenge, titled "Past Present.""By the time the sun started to rise above the stones, hundreds, if not thousands of people, had gathered inside the stone circle, phones and cameras up in the air ready to record the magical moment," Marimon Munoz said. "In the picture, I wanted to capture the mixture of ancient history and modern technology, fused together - past and present."(BBC News via Daily Grail)
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#169TE)
While ripping apart a bathroom to renovate it, apprentice plumber Dean Materi noticed something in the rubble underneath the old tub. “I seen a gold shimmery thing on the ground and I thought it was a copper light fixture,†Materi told the Calgary Herald. “But when I went to shovel it up, it seemed kind of heavy. I picked it up and it was a gold brick.â€It was a 1-kilogram gold bar, worth US$40,703. When Materi's boss, Alif Babul, showed the brick to the homeowner, the owner "confirmed a gold bar was unaccounted for in the abode."
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by Rob Beschizza on (#169RQ)
Proselint isn't a grammar checker. It's a "style" checker, warning writers when their work is hackneyed, inconsistent or very obviously not great.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#169RS)
https://youtu.be/Ii7bhLRy_hoHellen Barnaby used to enjoy a view of Perth, Australia from her apartment balcony. Now she sees a wall from a new high-rise that almost touches the balcony.
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by Mark Frauenfelder on (#169JW)
Pricenomics looks at the unusually popular cars in Republican and Democratic districts. One group favors American made pickups, the other group likes small foreign cars, especially hybrids.
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