Jumat, 25 Februari 2011

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Googlebombers turn "Abortion" into second result for "Murder"

Posted: 25 Feb 2011 02:34 AM PST


Someone has spoofed Google into making the Wikipedia entry for "abortion" into the second result in searches for "murder." However you feel about abortion, this Wikipedia page is pretty clearly not the second-most relevant document regarding murder on the entire English-speaking World Wide Web.

Reddit, can we PLEASE do something about this?

 


Breastmilk ice-cream

Posted: 25 Feb 2011 03:10 AM PST

Icecreamists, an ice-cream parlour in London's Covent Garden, is selling human breast milk ice-cream for £14 a scoop. The breastmilk is purchased from lactating mothers, and the product (called "Baby Gaga") is intended to raise awareness of breastmilk's deliciousness and encourage more breastfeeding. The milk is pasteurised and flavoured with lemon zest and vanilla pods.
"Some people will hear about it and go yuck - but actually it's pure organic, free-range and totally natural."

Mrs Hiley, who gets £15 for every 10 ounces of milk she donates to the company, said it was a great "recession beater".

"What's the harm in using my assets for a bit of extra cash?" she added.

"I teach women how to get started on breastfeeding their babies. There's very little support for women and every little helps."

Mr O'Connor said health checks for the lactating women were the same used by hospitals to screen blood donors.

Breast milk ice cream goes on sale in Covent Garden (via Neatorama)

(Image: The IceCreamists. Guerilla Ice Cream @ Selfridges, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from evert-jan's photostream)

 


Rare Alan Turing papers bought by Bletchley Park Trust

Posted: 25 Feb 2011 01:55 AM PST

A collection of Max Newman's hand-annotated offprints from sixteen of Alan Turing's eighteen books have been purchased by the Bletchley Park Trust with help from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and a USD100,000 donation from Google. The papers were up for auction, and had they not been bought by the Trust, they likely would have gone to a private collection. They will now be available to the public at the wonderful Bletchley Park museum.
The collection of articles belonged to Professor Max Newman, Turing's friend and fellow Bletchley Park codebreaking genius. It includes offprints of sixteen of Turing's eighteen published works including his momentous paper 'On Computable Numbers' A limited number of the offprints would have been produced at the time and Turing's gifting them to Newman bears testimony to their unique relationship. The set includes articles which have been annotated by Newman, along with Max Newman's name inscribed in pencil in Turing's hand. Accompanying the set of offprints is the Newman household visitors' book with several signatures of Turing, that of Turing's mother and, of special significance to Bletchley Park, signatures of other wartime codebreaking giants.

The Turing-Newman Collaboration Collection is particularly rare, important and valuable as very few physical traces of Turing's work or personal belongings still exist. Most of the wartime records at Bletchley Park were destroyed after the war, while Turing himself kept little of his work and very few personal belongings...

Turing's close relationship with Newman was crucial to the historic contribution Turing made, starting with Newman's encouragement to investigate 'mechanical processes' and his help in securing Turing a fellowship at Princeton to continue his research. In 1952 at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK, Turing was convicted of having a sexual relationship with another man. Turing was sentenced to a hormone treatment that amounted to chemical castration. The conviction robbed him of his security clearance for GCHQ, for which he still worked, and made him the target for surveillance at the start of the cold war. Having made one of the most outstanding contributions of the twentieth century, he died after eating an apple laced with cyanide.

ELEVENTH HOUR RESCUE OF TURING COLLECTION (Thanks, Martin!)
 


Wii spanking game announced

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 07:08 PM PST

Ubisoft's ad for "We Dare," its forthcoming Wii title, centers largely around the spanking subgame. [YouTube]

Headline of day: "Nebraska deputy stops pickup truck full of naked people"

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:56 PM PST

"Lancaster County authorities say a deputy investigating a suspicious vehicle near Lincoln got a surprise when he stopped a pickup truck -- all four people inside were naked. (...) The sheriff's office says the deputy noticed a strong smell of alcohol as he approached the truck. In the bed, he found clothes. In the truck were two men and two women, all naked." (thanks, Kirk! also spotted via @fark)

Jewish man turned jihadist who threatened "South Park" gets 25 years in prison

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:52 PM PST

21-year-old Zachary Chesser was today sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying to help a Somalia militant group and for making threats against Matt Stone and Trey Parker of "South Park," because of the show's depiction of the Prophet Mohammad.

A federal judge in Virginia handed down the sentence for Zachary Chesser, who pleaded guilty to making threats, soliciting others to threaten violence and material support to the group, al Shabaab. Chesser admitted he ran numerous websites and called for violence against Americans. In one instance he published the home addresses for the writers of "South Park" after they lampooned Mohammad and he urged readers to "pay them a visit."

The episode last year on the cable channel Comedy Central showed Mohammad in a bear suit.

Man in "South Park" threats gets 25 years prison (Reuters)

Worth revisiting: Boing Boing Video's interview with Matt and Trey just before the episode in question aired, and before Mr. Chesser's threats and the ensuing media frenzy.

Qaddafi's son bankrolling Hollywood movies including "Mafia Contract Killer" with Mickey Rourke

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:40 PM PST

Bloomberg reports on the Hollywood investment business of Al-Saadi Qaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi (and, before he failed a drug test, a rising soccer star).

The company name is "Natural Selection," they're based in West Hollywood, and here's the website. Don't miss the Flash intro on their front door: two elephants charge each other across the savanna, violently head-butt each other, then and morph into gold statues.

Snip from today's Bloomberg piece:

Saadi.JPG

Al-Saadi, a 37-year-old former professional soccer player, has invested in a $100 million Los Angeles-based film production fund called Natural Selection, founded by Matty Beckerman. He may be able to continue to push film productions for that fund as his father struggles to contain a revolt in Libya that has left hundreds dead.

"This son is quiet and legitimate and less political than his father," said Wendy Mitchell, head of news at London-based film trade magazine Screen International. "It's hard to get money to invest in films so I'm not sure people would necessarily go the other way. They were doing good business before all this happened."

Natural Selection is producing "The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer," with Mickey Rourke in the lead. The fund is also backing "Isolation," a thriller with Susan Sarandon's daughter, Eva Amurri. While the Qaddafi connection raised eyebrows when Al-Saadi announced in 2009 that he was getting into Hollywood, the crisis in Libya may not sway investors and actors from taking on films backed by his fund.

Nah, don't count on that—it's still Hollywood.

Qaddafi's Son Bankrolls `Mafia Killer' Movie While Father Clings to Power

More on Natural Selection in this 2009 archive story from Screen Daily. Here's a related Daily Beast story from 2010, and a Financial Times item from the same year.

Mudskippers. Check out this weird fish.

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:26 PM PST


[Video link]

This video from the BBC TV series "Life" (one of my favorites) shows these creepy, creepy fish crawling around in the mud and just looking weird. Rob thinks they look like a custom fleshlight, but I don't admit to seeing the resemblance.

Hang around for when they start fighting, it's totally worth it.

Tracing the pill-trails to America from Russia's e-pharmacy underworld

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:09 PM PST

Security reporter Brian Krebs has a fascinating piece up on Pavel Vrublevsky, founder of Russia's biggest online payment processor, ChronoPay. Krebs reports that this man also co-owns Rx-Promotion, an online pharmacy that sells tens of millions of US dollars worth of controlled pills to Americans each year: Valium, Percocet, Tramadol, Oxycodone, and other substances with high street resale value. Just before Krebs arrived in Russia to meet with Vrublevsky, "several truckloads of masked officers from Russian drug enforcement bureaus" raided a private party thrown for the top moneymakers of Rx-Promotion (that's their promotional banner, above). Snip:

pavelv-275x300.jpg

I hadn't told Vrublevsky that I was coming to Russia before I arrived on Feb. 8. But I wasted no time in phoning him via Skype, using the line he normally calls me on several times a week.

"Duuuuuuuudddde!," he answers. "It's 7 a.m. where you are, who died?"

I reply that I am in fact in his time zone and that we should meet. After another long "Duuuuuuuuddde!" Vrublevsky promises to send a car if I will wait in the hotel lobby. He tells me he'll be sending along with the driver his receptionist, named Vera. He proceeds to describe Vera as this grossly overweight, unattractive older lady but, hey, she speaks English and knows how to deal with Westerners, so she's coming, he says.

Fifteen minutes later, I am seated in the lobby waiting for Vera, watching incoming guests as they stomp off snow and trudge through the hotel's revolving door. I find it difficult to avoid staring at this unusually attractive, slender, dark-haired young woman standing nervously just beside the door. I notice she also keeps glancing at me. Finally, she comes over and asks if my name is Brian. I am momentarily alarmed (I know next to no one in Moscow yet) until she says her name is Vera and I suddenly remember with a smile why I can trust almost nothing of what comes out of Vrublevsky's mouth.

Russian Cops Crash Pill Pusher Party (via Joseph Menn)

Microhouses in the NYT

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 04:51 PM PST

17-year-old Tim Burton's rejection from Walt Disney Productions

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 11:41 PM PST

In 1976, a 17-year-old Tim Burton sent a hand-drawn manuscript for a children's book called "The Giant Zlig" to Walt Disney Productions, hoping for a publishing deal. They rejected the manuscript, but they still hired him a few years later, after he had graduated from CalArts and been out in the field for a few years.
February 19, 1976

Dear Tim:

Here are some brief impressions of your book, The Giant Zlig.

STORY: The story is simple enough for a young audience (age 4-6), cute, and shows a grasp of the language much better than I would expect from one of today's high school students, despite occasional lapses in grammar and spelling. It may, however, be too derivative of the Seuss works to be marketable--I just don't know. But I definitely enjoyed reading it.

ART: Considering that you suffer from a lack of the proper tools and materials, the art is very good. The characters are charming and imaginative, and have sufficient variety to sustain interest. Your layout is also good--it shows good variety in point-of-view. Consequently, I not only enjoyed reading about the Giant Zlig, but I got a chuckle watching him, too.

The manuscript and letters were on display at Kid City's Tim Burton@MOMA exhibit in NYC.

Letters of Note: The Giant Zlig (via IO9)

 


Sideshow Al, circus historian

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 03:51 PM PST

Images Front Picture Library Uk Dir 20 Fortean Times 10039 5 In 1958, Al W. Stencell, age 12, was hired by a traveling carnival. Since then, Stencell founded several circuses of his own and become a leading historian of his field. His most recent book -- Circus and Carnival Ballyhoo: Sideshow Freaks, Jabbers and Blade Box Queens -- is a history of North American sideshows, from the grifters and rubes to the talkers and acts. Fortean Times profiles Sideshow Al in the latest issue:
Images I 51Qpfzft5Wl The little heists and stunts Al's team used to pull at each town bear more than a little resemblance to those of the world of advertising – just reflected in a warped carnival mirror. Every aspect of the sideshow experience was designed to part punters from their cash. And as well as the efforts of the shills and barkers to get patrons into the shows, I'm amazed to hear about the professional brokering that went on behind the scenes with the local law enforcement.  

"The big carnivals all had professional "patches", as we called them, and they squared the police so that crooked games could work. They would tell the game operators and fortune-tellers what they could do and what they couldn't do.   

"You could maybe only take the mark for 20, maybe 30 bucks during the week, but then on the last night of the fair, the getaway night, there were usually no limits.   

"If the town was solidly squared you could work strong all week, but if it wasn't there would be certain levels you could work, and certain days you couldn't. On kids' day, for example, they would tone it all down because the state fairs were the lifeblood of the carnival. They had to go back and re-sign them for next year, so they didn't want too much heat."   

Palmists were amongst the craftiest and boldest tricksters. 'Screamers' would offer a young man a private reading, then threaten to scream for help once they were alone. Al doesn't seem to pay much attention to the claims of psychic or other paranormal abilities in any sideshow he has seen.   

"They would promise you anything," he laughs. "Many of those readers would say, 'Well for an extra two dollars I'll show you my privates', and then they would lift their skirt and there would be a cat tattooed onto the side of their knee or something."

"Sideshow Al" (Fortean Times)

Circus and Carnival Ballyhoo: Sideshow Freaks, Jabbers and Blade Box Queens (Amazon)

Alan Dean Foster: Predators I Have Known - great white shark

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 04:20 PM PST

predators-i-have-known.jpg Just-a-friendly-chat.jpg

It's a funny thing about great white sharks (and that's not a contradiction in terms). They smile. Exactly the kind of smile you would expect to get if you crossed the Cheshire Cat with Dracula. Coming straight at you, the expression is downright unnerving. Here's this one-ton plus eating machine, the top Piscean predator in the sea, with a mouth big enough to swallow you whole and teeth serrated like steak knives, and it's grinning at you as it makes its approach. A frozen grin, to be sure, but one as unmistakable as that of any porpoise.

Then it opens its mouth, and the grin goes away, to be replaced by a black gullet as dark and profound as the entrance to the River Styx. Which, if you are not suitably aware and guarded, it very well might become.

Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single ever

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 03:33 PM PST

If you loved Rob's post last year of "Every Billy Joel hit played simultaneously," this is sure to get you out of your chair and dancing: "Five Seconds of Every #1 Pop Single" ever.
Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 1 by mjs538
Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 2 by mjs538

(Thanks, Jason Tester, via Salon)

PayPal freezes Manning defense fund operator's account (Update: account unfrozen)

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 07:01 PM PST

Brad-Manning-in-uniform.jpegPayPal has frozen the account being used to raise money for Pvt. Bradley Manning's legal defense, because its owners refuse to give PayPal access to its bank accounts.
Asked why, if the Courage to Resist account was opened in 2006, PayPal hadn't raised the issue of linking it to a bank account earlier, Nayar did not have an immediate response. ... Courage to Resist says it repeatedly requested and was refused formal documentation from PayPal describing its policy. "They opted to apply an exceptional hurdle for us to clear in order to continue as a customer, whereas we have clearly provided the legally required information and verification," the group wrote.
Odd how PayPal suddenly starts caring about certain policies, but only for certain account holders. Update: PayPal released a statement. It says that its decision had nothing to do with Wikileaks and that it never withdraws funds without 'authorization.' It has, however, unfrozen the account. PayPal Freezes Account of Group Raising Money for Bradley Manning [Wired]

With a successful launch, Discovery's final mission begins

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 02:47 PM PST

Discovery and the six astronauts she is carrying are now in orbit, on a final mission to the International Space Station. And what a breathtaking and beautiful launch it was! I wasn't there, but watched the live stream here with SpaceFlightNow and Miles O'Brien. From the NASA updates just now:

The STS-133 mission is delivering the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), a facility created from the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module named Leonardo. The module can support microgravity experiments in areas such as fluid physics, materials science, biology and biotechnology. Inside the PMM is Robonaut 2, a dextrous robot that will become a permanent resident of the station. Discovery also is carrying critical spare components to the space station and the Express Logistics Carrier 4, an external platform that holds large equipment.

"With Discovery's mission, the United States once again reaches for new heights, pushes the boundaries of human achievement and contributes to our long-term future in space," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "Discovery's crew - including the first-ever dexterous robot crew member, Robonaut 2 - will continue America's leadership in human and robotic spaceflight, and support important scientific and technical research aboard the space station."

The post-launch news conference is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. ET on NASA TV.

NASA Space Operations Outreach Manager Beth Beck tells Boing Boing,

profile_pic.jpg Along with @Astro_Nicole, STS-133 crew member Robonaut2 has a twitter account: @AstroRobonaut. Robonaut is the first humanoid robot to live and work on Space Station. Tweet him. He's quite personable.
Previously: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133: Ready for Launch

MPAA: record-breaking box-office year is proof that piracy is killing movies

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 11:33 PM PST

Once again, the motion picture industry has smashed all annual box-office records. According to the MPAA, this proves that we need more laws allowing them to censor and spy on the Internet to prevent piracy.

Men with prosthetic arms making prosthetic arms

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:04 PM PST

prosthetics.jpg

Great, inspirational image from a Life magazine gallery of photos themed around the subject of prosthetic limbs. There's some other fascinating shots in here, as well. Including an artificial foot that laces up like a Chuck Taylor shoe, a prosthetic leg for an elephant, and a shot of the Cairo Toe—the world's oldest known prosthesis.

"I wish I understood string theory": The song

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 11:44 AM PST

It's the saddest song in the world, if you're a physicist. Musician Jonathan Mann offers a plaintive lament from the heart of a right-brained layperson.

All-American brawl at Denny's

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 11:12 AM PST


[Video Link] The entire world can enjoy this All-American Brawl over maple syrup at a Denny's in Chicopee, MA.

When one woman in a US restaurant asked a fellow diner if she could borrow the maple syrup, she got more than she bargained for. "Bitch, your pancakes look fine to me," came the response, sparking a brawl at the pancake house.
Update: Smoking Gun says the fight was related to a "road rage" incident.

Pancake catfight over maple syrup in Denny's (Via Arbroath)

Cat rides ram

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 10:44 AM PST

Sharing the power in Tahrir Square

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:37 PM PST


How Tahrir Square's protestors shared their power: an exuberant spaghetti, wall-warts, and charging handiphones of all variety.

cairofeb6_036

 


UK court orders Assange extradited to Sweden

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 10:18 AM PST

"A British court on Thursday ordered Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, to be extradited to Sweden to face accusations of sexual abuse. His lawyers have seven days to appeal the ruling and immediately indicated that they would do so." (NYT)

Report: Army deployed "psy-ops" on US Senators, for more war funding and troops

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 10:15 AM PST

Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone: "The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in 'psychological operations' to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned - and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators."

Anonymous hacks Westboro Baptist Church website during live confrontation

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 10:16 AM PST


From The David Pakman Show: "A source from Anonymous confronts Shirley Phelps-Roper from the Westboro Baptist Church, calling the supposed letter sent to Westboro by Anonymous a hoax." While he is talking on the show, the Westboro Baptist Church website and other affiliated sites were hacked and replaced with Anonymous notices.

Anonymous defaces Westboro site during live interview

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133: Ready for Launch

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 10:08 AM PST

sts133-s-002.jpg The space shuttle Discovery is set to launch today at 4:50pm EST, and there's an abundance of options for online coverage if, like me, you weren't able to make it out to the launch in person. Above, my friend Miles O'Brien's live coverage for SpaceFlightNow.

Another option: NASA TV. You can start with this YouTube channel, and this video featuring an introduction by Mike Curie, NASA launch commentator.

Below, the shuttle seen shortly after the Rotating Service Structure was rolled back at launch pad 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011.

Discovery will be on its 39th and final flight, and will carry the Italian-built Permanent Multipurpose Module, Express Logistics Carrier 4 and Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot in space, to the International Space Station.

You might also enjoy following these folks on Twitter on launch day, today: Robert Pearlman, whose live coverage journal is here; SpaceFlightNow; former Space Shuttle technician Jen Scheer; Space Operations Outreach Manager Beth Beck; The main NASA account and the NASA Goddard account; And the astronauts themselves: at the moment, the only one I could find on the 6-man STS-133 crew was Nicole Stott.



Old Man's War bought by Paramount

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 11:30 PM PST

John Scalzi's tremendous, Heinleinesque space opera Old Man's War has been greenlit by Paramount, and will be directed by Wolfgang Petersen and written by David Self. From my review:
Old Man's War is a cross between Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Haldeman's Forever War -- a raunchy, action-packed, thought-provoking book about galactic-scale warfare where lightspeed lag and distant, unimaginable alien technology are central to the story.

In Old Man's War, senior citizens can enlist in the space army, and when they do, they are taken away and rejuvenated, using secret technology, given a turn in battle, and the survivors are retired to a distant world, never to see the Earth again. For a certain kind of person, this is infinitely preferable to certain senescence and death, and that's the sort of person that fills the pages of Old Man's War.

Paramount Buys 'Old Man's War' For Wolfgang Petersen And Scott Stuber (via Scalzi)
 


The importance of well-secured stage props: video

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 09:27 AM PST

Maggie on how to talk about science

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:51 AM PST

sciencelecture.jpg

I'm speaking at two locations in Wisconsin, today and tomorrow. The topic: What scientists can learn from science journalists. This presentation is really aimed at professional scientists, but the lectures are open to the public and other people—like, say, teachers—might get some use out of them, too. At the very least, there will be tea and cookies. Because professors love tea and cookies (and so do I!)

•Thursday, Feb. 24 (today!): University of Wisconsin-Madison, Weston Roundtable Series—Room 1106, Mechanical Engineering
Tea and cookies start at 4:00 pm, I start speaking at 4:15

•Friday, Feb. 25: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Physics Colloquia—Engelmann 105
Tea and cookies at 2:45, presentation at 3:00

Image: Some rights reserved by eleanor ryan

Mutate or Die: spermy, bloody bioart made from preserved William S Burroughs turd

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 10:16 PM PST

A preserved turd from the colon of William S Burroughs is at the center of a plan to create a piece of "cutting edge bioart." The turd was preserved by WSB's pals, and his estate have donated it to the project. Artists Tony Allard and Adam Zaretsky will extract DNA from the bolus, and go on to produce a kind of bloody, icky mess called "Mutate or Die":
1: Take a glob of William S. Burroughs' preserved shit
2: Isolate the DNA with a kit
3: Make, many, many copies of the DNA we extract
4: Soak the DNA in gold dust
5: Load the DNA dust into a genegun (a modified air pistol)
6: Fire the DNA dust into a mix of fresh sperm, blood and shit
7: Call the genetically modified mix of blood, shit, and sperm a living bioart, a new media paint, a living cut-up literary device and/or a mutant sculpture.
Mutate or Die: a W.S. Burroughs Biotechnological Bestiary (Thanks, Igpajo, via Submitterator!)
 


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