The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Chinese censors ban time travel TV shows
- dj BC mashes up Jay-Z and Brian Eno: ANOTHER JAY ON EARTH
- Fake-make: counterfeit handmade objects from big manufacturers
- Elf ears
- India: corruption scandal sparks "Tahrir-like" citizen movement
- 235 Star Trek characters in pixel form, all on one poster
- If US government shuts down, many dot-gov websites will go dark
- 100 classic Atari games for iPad
- Sky Guitar (illustration from Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
- Opera house's fabric curtain looks like crumpled aluminum foil
- UK street artist D*Face talks advertising, skating, and punk rock
- Tools to track public health online
- CWA: The devil you know—antibiotic resistant bacteria
- Kem Weber, pioneer of flat-pack furniture
- Colombian Justice Minister ramming through extremist copyright legislation without public consultation
- Billie Holiday sings "Strange Fruit"
- CWA: Why no thorium reactors?
- Old lady is in yer soil, killin' yer Internets
- Gone Riffin': Rich Fulcher's new bizarro podcast (audio)
- USGS: California is not doomed to fall into the ocean
- Glenn Beck's brain
- WTF is ORM? Xeni talks social media scrubbing on NPR's "Tell Me More"
- Dagthulhu Tee
- Evacuation of war-wounded in Libya: first-person account by MSF nurse
- Jet Age chairs at Restoration Hardware
- Video: Ejection seat test
- Warhol gadget cases and bags
- Manning to get visits from UN, Amnesty, Rep. Kucinich; but only if monitored
- Maine legalizes switchblades for people with only one arm
- 3D printed Difference Engine
| Chinese censors ban time travel TV shows Posted: 08 Apr 2011 01:33 AM PDT The Chinese General Bureau of Radio, Film and Television has prohibited new science fiction TV dramas, following a vogue for shows where modern Chinese people travel to ancient China and discover that it's not a bad place to be (this having some counter-revolutionary subtext). They've also prohibited production of "the Four Great Classical Novels", ("the four novels commonly counted by scholars to be the greatest and most influential of classical Chinese fiction"), on the grounds that the widespread adaptations of them take too many liberties with the original texts. "No more time-travel drama", authority says it disrespects history (via Making Light) |
| dj BC mashes up Jay-Z and Brian Eno: ANOTHER JAY ON EARTH Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:40 PM PDT  dj BC writes, "dj BC returns with his latest mashup album that crosses the works of Jay-Z with Brian Eno. Known for his previous works 'The Beastles', 'Wu Orleans', and 'Glassbreaks', dj BC continues to make fantastically interesting music and shows no signs of stopping." I just downloaded this and gave it a spin, and as with all dj BC projects, the amazing thing isn't the incongruity of the two sources he combines, but how he finds their underlying similarities and brings them to the fore. I love dj BC's work, and a new album is always cause for celebration. dj BC presents ANOTHER JAY ON EARTH
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| Fake-make: counterfeit handmade objects from big manufacturers Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:27 PM PDT Make Magazine has started to publish my old "Make Free" columns online; today, they've posted "Untouched By Human Hands," in which I speculate about whether (and when) big manufacturing companies will start to produce fake "hand-made" objects, and what makers might do in response. Untouched By Human Hands (Image: Weaving by the Pool, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from 87739302@N00's photostream) |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2011 01:35 AM PDT  Today in elf news, the ears have it: pointy ones, that is, cut surgically from the standard round human set. Mark posted about a pioneer some time ago, but now the mainstream's caught on. The tabloids are Concerned. From the Daily Mail: Some fantasy film buffs in Arizona are taking their obsessions to new levels by actually having their ears cut open and sculpted to look like elves. The elf ears craze has many health risks but that isn't stopping sci-fi fans having the top of their cartilage sliced and sewed back together in a point. ... The elf ears craze is believed to have been brought on by films such as Lord of the Rings and Avatar, as well as HBO's comedy television series Bored to Death.Dr. Arthur W. Perry, quoted by the Mail, warns that scultping cartilage is dangerous and risks a "major deformity of the ear," though that would seem to be rather the idea. ABC ran a news segment about it, full of pointed criticism. Fans undergo elf ear operations to look like fantasy film characters [Daily Mail]   |
| India: corruption scandal sparks "Tahrir-like" citizen movement Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:48 PM PDT Boing Boing reader lokayukta says, "India is going through its 'Egypt moment,' and for our version of Cairo's Tahrir Square, we have the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, where a 72 year old social acitivist named Anna Hazare is fasting 'til death' to force the government to pass a comprehensive anti-corruption legislation, the Jan Lokpal Bill. The movement has already caught fire in hundreds of cities around India."   |
| 235 Star Trek characters in pixel form, all on one poster Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:46 PM PDT  John Martz says: Trexels is a limited edition print from John Martz and Koyama Press featuring 235 of your favourite Star Trek characters (give or take a few Tribbles) in pixelated form. The print, an edition of 300, will debut at the MoCCA Festival in New York City, April 9th and 10th, 2011 (I'll only have 25 of them with me). Following the festival, the majority of the prints will be available for sale here on my site (with a few copies reserved for TCAF and SDCC). More info here. (via BB Submitterator, thanks Hamster King) |
| If US government shuts down, many dot-gov websites will go dark Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:35 PM PDT Declan McCullagh at CNET reports that many federal Web sites will likely go offline if the government shuts down Friday night. "A 16-page memo (PDF) to federal agencies says their Web sites may stay online only in a small number of situations, including tax collection and handling 'exempted' activities such as payments and other functions that are paid for by previous annual budgets."   |
| 100 classic Atari games for iPad Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:12 PM PDT I don't have an iPad but the brand new "Atari's Greatest Hits" app looks like a blast. From touchArcade: By way of in-app purchases, Atari's Greatest Hits can deliver to your iOS device up to 99 more games from the historical studio's back catalog, a mix of both arcade and (then) cartridge-based VCS / 2600 releases that you just might've grown up with. These games can be had in four-title game packs available at $0.99 each, as well as in a 68MB lump download of the entire library for $14.99."Atari's Greatest Hits" Review – My God, It's Full of Pixels!   |
| Sky Guitar (illustration from Boing Boing Flickr Pool) Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:27 PM PDT  GUITAR OF THE SKY, An illustration contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by Yau Hoong Tang of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. |
| Opera house's fabric curtain looks like crumpled aluminum foil Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:19 PM PDT  Seen here is the fantastical curtain of the Oslo Opera House. Los Angeles-based artist Pae White created it by scanning crumpled aluminum foil and translating that data into instructions for a computer-controlled loom that wove the material out of cotton, wool, and polyester. "Pae White Uses Computer-Assisted Loom To Weave Opera Curtain Of Scanned Images Of Aluminum Foil" (FEELguide)   |
| UK street artist D*Face talks advertising, skating, and punk rock Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:09 PM PDT  Liz Ohanesian of the LA Weekly, who is a former Boing Boing guestblogger, shares with us an interview she just did with D*Face, in which the British street artist talks about advertising, punk rock, anonymity and more. LA Weekly photog Shannon Cottrell did a slideshow as well, documenting his latest mural, which went up on the side of Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, where his solo show opens this weekend. |
| Tools to track public health online Posted: 07 Apr 2011 01:53 PM PDT  One of the cool things I learned about during the Conference on World Affairs panel on "Superbugs and Pandemics" was the existence of Healthmap, a site that aggregates freely available information and turns it into maps showing what is happening in human and animal public health, and where it's happening. The info comes from sources ranging from Google News, to the World Health Organization, to ProMED Mail—a site that reviews and curates reports of disease outbreaks. For instance, the map above shows the location of reported measles outbreaks in the United States during the past month. The system isn't foolproof, but as a generalized information source, I can see it being very handy. If you were about to travel, you could see whether the place you were going had any current health risks you ought to know about. If you're wondering whether local news is blowing the risk of flu out of proportion, you could check and see how the number of reported cases in your state or country compares to others—and to last month. You can search by disease, or location. Many thanks to David Rosenman, my fellow panelist and an internal medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic, for suggesting this site!   |
| CWA: The devil you know—antibiotic resistant bacteria Posted: 07 Apr 2011 01:32 PM PDT  CWA is the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Now in it's 63rd year, the conference brings together scientists, politicians, activists, journalists, artists, and more for a week of fascinating conversations. It's free, and open to the public. Think of CWA as the democratic version of TEDtalks. I'm at the conference all this week and will be posting and tweeting about some of the interesting things that I learn. I'm speaking on three panels today at the Conference on World Affairs, and just finished up my second—all about "Superbugs and Pandemics". There's lots of information about antibiotic resistant bacteria that has become kind of old hat to me, and probably to you, as well. But Joel Gallant, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins, offered up a couple of interesting twists to facts I thought I already knew. First, while 1/3 of Americans still believe that antibiotics are the right medication to treat a cold, most of us are probably aware that colds are caused by viruses and, thus, antibiotics are little more than placebos in this case. Gallant repeated this fact, but added that ear infections, also, didn't need to be treated with antibiotics, even though they can be caused by bacteria.
Second, it's also relatively common knowledge that antibiotics are over-used in America. Gallant added some nuance to that, which I think is both interesting and important. So you get the context of this quote, he's specifically talking about the proliferation of antibacterial toys, cookware, soaps, etc.—not the overuse or misuse of antibiotics, themselves, which is different.
Gallant added that things like alcohol gels are fine, and useful. But they're useful because they're basically a substitute for handwashing, if you're in a place where you can't wash, or if the use of soap is drying out your skin. It's also worth noting that he's talking about everyday life, here. Not what should or shouldn't happen in a hospital setting. Image of MRSA growing in culture courtesy Flickr user Simon Goldenberg, via CC.   |
| Kem Weber, pioneer of flat-pack furniture Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:37 AM PDT  In 1934, designer Kem Weber pioneered flat-pack furniture with his Airline Chair. It sold for $24.75 but he only managed to move around 200 of them. From Collectors Weekly: "Kem Weber: The Mid-Century Modern Designer Who Paved the Way for IKEA"   |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2011 10:31 PM PDT German Vargas Lleras, the Colombian Minister of Interior and Justice, has proposed a new fast-track copyright bill that will require ISPs to spy on, disconnect and censor their users in the name of protecting copyright. The bill was introduced without any public consultation or debate -- rather, it is to be rammed through Congress without meaningful scrutiny from Colombians. Fundación Karisma has launched a campaign to get the government to conduct public inquiries into the proposal: Colombia's Bill to deter copyright infringement on the Internet must undergo public scrutiny (Thanks, Carolina!)   |
| Billie Holiday sings "Strange Fruit" Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:21 AM PDT |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:56 AM PDT I just finished speaking on a panel about alternative energy at the 63rd Annual Conference on World Affairs. I wanted to share a quick tidbit, which I think you all will find interesting. In the course of our conversation, someone in the audience asked us why the United States hasn't funded much research into thorium-based nuclear fission reactors. I have no idea. But Douglas Ray, who heads up alternative energy research at the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory had an interesting take on this. From his perspective, the lack of thorium research probably has less to do with any corporate lobbying on the part of the established nuclear industry, and more to do with the fact that the American public fears and mistrusts nuclear energy research, in general. Nuclear isn't a popular thing to fund, and so thorium doesn't get funding.   |
| Old lady is in yer soil, killin' yer Internets Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:59 AM PDT Last month, an elderly Georgian woman wielding a shovel accidentally cut off internet access to the entire country of Armenia. Local media has nicknamed her "the spade hacker". (Via Jad Abumrad)   |
| Gone Riffin': Rich Fulcher's new bizarro podcast (audio) Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:01 AM PDT  Rich Fulcher (Mighty Boosh, Snuff Box) and Abed Geith (Channel 101) have a new podcast titled Gone Riffin' in which they discuss "minor issues in the universe." The half-hour comedy show is "guaranteed to be totally unrehearsed and certifiably riffed."
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| USGS: California is not doomed to fall into the ocean Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:37 AM PDT  Yet another aftershock of the March 11 earthquake hit Japan today. So it seems like a good time to bring up the United States Geological Survey's fascinating FAQ on earthquake myths. Here's one new thing that I learned.
Image: Photo taken by Wikipedia user Ikluft, used via CC   |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2011 10:25 PM PDT  Mother Jones and Steve Brodner bring us a MAD-Magazine-style exploded diagram of the contents of Glenn Beck's brain, just in time for the news that the weeping millionaire goldbug conspiracy nut is going off the air (if life were a Warren Ellis comic, he'd reappear as a presidential candidate). What's Inside Glenn Beck's Brain?
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| WTF is ORM? Xeni talks social media scrubbing on NPR's "Tell Me More" Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:15 AM PDT I joined NPR's "Tell Me More" show yesterday for a primer on so-called Online Reputation Management services; companies that offer to help people and businesses protect their online image and repair ruined reputations. Do they work, and are they worth it? Audio here. (duration: 7'01") . Oh, hell, why bury the lede. My #1 tip for online privacy, as revealed in this clip: If you're drunk and naked at a party, stay away from cameras.   |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:04 AM PDT  DeliGrocery's Dagthulhu Tee illustrates a delightful Elder Dagwood about to devour a dagwood sandwich with relish, gusto, and tentacles. Dagthulhu Tee (Thanks, Appliance, via Submitterator!) |
| Evacuation of war-wounded in Libya: first-person account by MSF nurse Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:01 AM PDT [Video Link] Editor's note: Alison Criado-Perez, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) shares this first-person account of evacuating war-wounded people out of Misrata. Ali is a nurse working for MSF in Libya and Tunisia. She has previously worked in Nigeria, Colombia, Uganda and Central African Republic. The video embedded in this blog post shows Ali actually treating a patient on the boat described in the account shared below.
It's 11.30 on Sunday morning, and we are sitting in international waters, 20 miles off the Libyan coast, trying to make a vital contact to give us the all clear to enter the port of Misrata. The tension is rising, as we only have enough fuel to wait for another half hour or so. We've been here on stand-by for several hours - where has our contact disappeared to? Earlier this morning, in a briefing, we're told of precautions to take in a war zone....... Am I really doing this? It's all rather surreal. We are a team of 13, a mixture of international MSF expats and Tunisian volunteer medics, who have opted to come on this mission to rescue war-wounded from Misrata and transport them to the safety and medical care of Sfax in Tunisia. The trip has been discussed and planned for a couple of weeks, following a plea from overwhelmed medical staff in the hospital of Misrata for assistance, but the final green light only came a day or so ago. We left early yesterday evening, aboard the 216-seater San Pawl ferry, converted to carry about 60 patients on mattresses, and 30 walking wounded. We don't know what the exact patient list will be, especially as Misrata was shelled last night, but the potential list of 90 includes a couple on ventilators, many open fractures and amputations, those with multiple organ injuries, head injuries, post-gunshot chest injuries. It's all very daunting.
We've done our best to medicalise the boat, but the conditions will limit us. The boat has been pretty rocky since we boarded, and we rolled around like drunks as we worked flat out, shifting boxes of drugs and medical materials, intravenous fluids, bottles of oxygen, vital signs monitors to create a small intensive-care space as well as two separate wards, one for critical and severely-wounded patients, the other for less critical and walking wounded. All the material needs to be readily accessible as there'll be no time to hunt for things, and moving around in the limited space will be difficult. Our log, Annas, has tied thin rope between all the pillars, so that we can hang up intravenous infusions where they're needed. But the final organization can only take place once we've off-loaded the 6.5 tons of medical equipment and drugs (a mama elephant and a baby I'm told would be a pretty good visualization), which MSF is donating to Misrata. At the moment the cargo takes up half one of the ward spaces. Finally, at midday, Helmy, the emergency coordinator comes "We've made contact, we have the green light!" Helmy, the emergency coordinator, announces with relief and excitement. We all cheer. It looks like we'll finally make it. A pilot boat guides us into the harbour. We've refused offers of military protection, on grounds of MSF's neutrality and policy of lack of arms. But Misrata seems quiet as we pull into the dock. The whole team and crew form a human chain and we off-load the hundreds of heavy boxes onto the quay as quickly as we can, so that we can get mattresses onto the floor of the two wards and position our equipment before the patients start to arrive. Which they do within a few minutes: two doctors on the quay are carrying out a triage, and I'm waiting inside with Kate, the other expat nurse on board. The trickle quickly becomes a flood as the patients pour in through the doors, on stretchers, on crutches, with iv lines and drips and drains, young and not-so-young. There's a boy, a child of 13, with horrific burns to his face from the explosion of a petrol bomb. His father is beside him. There are young men - many young men - who will never walk again, paraplegic from gun-shot wounds to the spine. And those who've had amputations, who'll need prosthetic limbs. Some of them are very recent; I hope they don't start to haemorrhage. A couple have blood transfusions running. There are open fractures, terrible abdominal injuries, chest injuries causing pneumothorax and needing chest drains. One young man, with a tracheostomy because of severe burns to his face and neck, can see nothing as his face is covered in gauze. He has no caretaker with him to explain what is happening, but I see that the wonderful Egyptian nurse who has joined us in Misrata is talking to him. There's another young boy, only 16, who fell from a fleeing pick-up and has sustained severe head injuries. He was in a coma for 6 hours and is barely conscious now. And a patient who needs one-to-one care in our small intensive-care unit has suffered multiple bullet wounds all over his body, an amputation to one leg, open fractures on the other, with severe blood loss. Misrata has been utter carnage. How are we going to cope with this devastation? There are 71 patients in total, and our medical staff, although officially 12, is mostly down to four or five on the ground. Sea-sickness was an unlooked-for hazard and has decimated the medics. But we just get on with it, doing what we can, checking patients are stable, their intravenous infusions are running, administering analgesia and antibiotics as needed, emptying urine bags, changing drainage bottles, trying to keep patient notes up to date. I worry we are not meeting everyone's needs. We have to crawl on the floor in the narrow space between mattresses to reach the patients: the boat is so rocky that if we try walking we run the risk of falling on a severely-injured patient, a frightening prospect. The work is incessant, exhausting, as we work through the night. I hardly notice dawn approaching. But suddenly we hear, "Docking in 30 minutes!" The crossing to Sfax has taken nearly twelve hours. I am stunned by the welcome sight on the quayside: 36 ambulances, and scores of Red Crescent volunteers ready to carry stretchers off the boat. The immigration authorities are thankfully very unobtrusive and we manage to start disembarking the patients quickly. Kate's patient in the intensive care unit takes her hand. "Was it worth it?" he asks her. "Yes," she says quietly. What else can she say? Tears come to my eyes as these tragic young men, with whom we have spent such an intense 12 hours, are put into ambulances and taken off to hospitals in Sfax. The Tunisian doctor organizing the transit is calm and helpful. Suddenly it is all over. The ambulances and film crews have all left, and only the boat crew and mission staff remain on the dock. The bubble we have been living in for the past 72 hours is slowly dissolving into the real world. As we drive back to our base in Zarsis, five hours south of Sfax, our driver Said suddenly says, "They are talking on the radio about Medecins sans Frontieres ......about the evacuation from Misrata to Tunisia. And they want to send you a present - a song of thank-you from the Libyan people." A haunting tune, with words of love and loss, fills our ears as we drive back home.
More about MSF's work in Tunisia and Libya: msf.org   |
| Jet Age chairs at Restoration Hardware Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:03 AM PDT   Restoration Hardware has a new line of magnificent Jet Age-inspired furniture. For example, the aviator chair above is inspired by World War II fighter planes, and wrapped in aluminum airplane skin. And at left, they've recreated a classic mid-century Danish chair design and also skinned it in metal. The chairs are available in a variety of upholstery options for (gulp) $1500 or so. Chairs at Restoration Hardware   |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:46 AM PDT No, that's not a real person flying out of this rocket sled flying down the track at 600 mph. It's a mannequin test of a new ejection seat system for the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet. From BAE Systems: The system has been tested to its limits, as a full scale front section of the aircraft, complete with ejection seat and mannequin was launched at speeds in excess of 600 mph down a test track. More than 30 ejection seat tests have been completed in the UK, France and the USA."British Team Completes 600mph Ejection Tests for F-35 Aircraft"   |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:38 AM PDT    Incase partnered with the Andy Warhol Foundation on a fine line of iPhone cases, laptop sleeves/bags, and iPad folios. In the 1970s, Warhol referred to his handheld audio recorder as his "wife." Wonder what he'd have called his mobile phone. (Yeah, yeah, just look at the banana phone case...) Incase for Andy Warhol   |
| Manning to get visits from UN, Amnesty, Rep. Kucinich; but only if monitored Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:24 AM PDT The defense representing accused Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning reports that visits to Manning in army detention will be allowed by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Juan Mendez (the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture), and a representative from Amnesty International—but they will be "subject to Brig monitoring." (via Kevin Poulsen)   |
| Maine legalizes switchblades for people with only one arm Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:17 AM PDT The state of Maine has legalized switchblade knives for people with one arm. "Backers of the measure say legalizing switchblades would eliminate a need for one-armed people to be forced to open folding knives with their teeth in emergencies." (Reuters)   |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2011 08:55 AM PDT A Thingiverse user called Qwertyzzz18 is gradually designing and uploading models for all the parts in Charles Babbage's Difference Engine; no word on whether the Analytical Engine will be next, but man, that'd be pretty hot. Printable Difference Engine
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From the end of last year, the time-travel themed drama is becoming more and more popular. Most of these time-travel dramas are based on real historical stories but with many newly added, and usually exaggerated elements to make it funny and more attractive. Nothing is off limits in this television genre. While some find it hilarious, others think the exaggeration and even ridiculous elements added into the story is a real source of annoyance and is a disrespectful for history. 
Will the 21st-century equivalent of an offshore call-center worker who insists he is "Bob from Des Moines" be the Guangzhou assembly-line worker who carefully "hand-wraps" a cellphone sleeve and inserts a homespun anti-corporate manifesto (produced by Markov chains fed on angry blog posts from online maker forums) into the envelope? 
"It's probably the first example of a piece of furniture sent home in a box that was intended to be put together by the consumer," says (University of Texas design history professor Christopher) Long. "It was revolutionary," he says, "absolutely revolutionary." Today, thanks to Ikea, assemble-it-yourself furniture sounds obvious, but Ikea was not founded until 1943, and did not rise to international retail prominence until the 1960s and '70s.
Since amending Copyright law was part of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) agenda between Colombia and the U.S., it should come as no surprise that the bill is similar in many ways to the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act introduced in Title II of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Also France's anti-privacy/liberty law named HADOPI or Mexicos 'Three Strikes" approach, where controversy surrounds their adoption under domestic law. At first glance however the bill appears to implement its own features following the rules of both a take down and counter notice and domestic judicial procedure. 
As awesome as Babbage's difference engines are... my hat is off to Thingiverse citizen qwertyzzz18. Qwertyzzz18 is uploading, piece by piece, a DIY 3D printable difference engine to Thingiverse. Babbage dealt with theory - and qwertyzzz18 is making them accessible. Even if you travel out to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, no one is going to let you take it apart, turn the pieces over, or change out parts.2 Now anyone with a Thing-O-Matic can print out the parts and build their very own.3 | You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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