The Latest from Boing Boing

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• "Soon," the compilation
• WILL HE KILL HIMSELF? Aeoronaut poster
• Lord Kitchener sings on the boat, 1948
• Turn your home into a billboard in exchange for your mortgage payment?
• Xeni on Chris "@Nerdist" Hardwick's NERDIST podcast
• Tim Minchin's anti-woo poem, animated
• Make a short video for Curt Smith's first residency in two years, win prizes
• Worldreader: ebooks for kids in the developing world
• Friday Freak-Out: Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (1970)
• MotoArt's furniture from recycled plane parts
• Anti-viral/allergen nostril filters
• All New Square Foot Gardening
• Albums re-imagined as books
• Faux software interfaces in film
• Franken wants a balanced war budget
• Bike-seat-clamp with a built-in bottle-opener
• Sketch 3D: turn your napkin doodles into 3D models
• Travis Louie and Kris Kuksi at Roq La Rue Gallery
• Tune for Two: a short film by Alfa Primo
• Behavioral psychology and security blindspots
• Pillow in Space Invaders gingham
• Libyan rebels paint top of vehicles pink to avoid NATO "friendly fire"
• Mars Science Laboratory + Curiosity Rover: Interview with NASA JPL's Ashwin Vasavada
• FBI releases files on Biggie Smalls murder; still no killer named
• Homebrew vote-counting software from Clerk in conservative Wisconsin county gives Supreme Court win to Tea Party darling
• Software pioneer and ENIAC programmer Jean Bartik dies at 86
• YouTube rolling out streaming web video service to more partners
• Beastie Boys' star-studded, hilarious trailer: Fight For Your Right-Revisited
• US government shutdown could mean Space Shuttle launch delay
• Marketplace for hijacked computers

"Soon," the compilation Posted: 09 Apr 2011 04:01 AM PDT Soon. [Buzzfeed]

WILL HE KILL HIMSELF? Aeoronaut poster Posted: 08 Apr 2011 10:51 PM PDT He Jumps From the Clouds!

Lord Kitchener sings on the boat, 1948 Posted: 08 Apr 2011 04:16 PM PDT While visiting Ben "Bad Science" Goldacre's flat in London recently, he played me some fantastic cuts off a compilation LP titled "London Is The Place For Me: Trinidadian Calypso In London, 1950-1956." This incredible music hit the global scene during the massive Caribbean migration to the UK starting around 1948. I know next-to-nothing about Calypso, but one signer I was somewhat familiar with is the famous Aldwyn Roberts, aka Lord Kitchener. (Indeed, the record Ben played me was named for Kitchener's best-known song.) Kitchener emigrated to London from Trinidad, via Jamaica. Amazingly, just as Kitchener's boat, the Empire Windrush, pulled into the British harbor on June 22, 1948, a journalist interviewed him about his fledgling career as a singer. As Ben said when he sent me this clip, "It's such a great and improbable thing to have on film. Some guy, getting off a boat, who is shortly to become massively famous, singing into your BBC microphone."

Turn your home into a billboard in exchange for your mortgage payment? Posted: 08 Apr 2011 03:35 PM PDT Imaginary Foundation's Nick Philip just IM'd me: "Would you turn your house into a billboard to be free of mortgage payments for a year?" He's referring to the marketing gimmick/PR stunt of Ad firm Adzookie, who are looking to pay people's mortgages in exchange for turning their homes into giant advertisements for the company. (Mock-up seen here.) They haven't painted a single home yet, but the campaign seems to be working anyway. (Ahem.) According to CNN, the company only has $100,000 budgeted for the whole thing, so I'd imagine chances of getting chosen are slim. Anyway, to answer Nick's question... No. I would not. "Turn your house into a billboard, get free mortgage"

Xeni on Chris "@Nerdist" Hardwick's NERDIST podcast Posted: 08 Apr 2011 02:31 PM PDT Comedy genius and true-born nerd Chris Hardwick (@nerdist) invited me to join him as a guest on his very popular and very funny podcast. Here it is! Chris and his friendly LOL-sidekicks and I talked about what would happen if NPR and E! Television got married; the origin of Boing Boing; and the mainstreaming of geek culture. And here's his touring schedule. His live shows are incredible. Download MP3, or listen in a flash player here.

Tim Minchin's anti-woo poem, animated Posted: 08 Apr 2011 01:54 AM PDT Here's a fantastic animated adaptation comic/skeptic/awesomesauce purveyor Tim Minchin's poem "Storm," a verse-form rant about the miseries of woowoo, the glory of science, the delights of skepticism and the miracle of the actual world. Tim Minchin's Storm the Animated Movie (Thanks, Iguana, via Submitterator!)

Make a short video for Curt Smith's first residency in two years, win prizes Posted: 08 Apr 2011 12:50 PM PDT Photo: Justine Ungaro. Curt Smith (of Tears for Fears) is playing is first solo residency in two years at the Whitefire Theater in Sherman Oaks, CA, beginning next Thursday. Vocalist on the original hit single Mad World -- a song recently remixed here at BB as a backdrop to a collection of game deaths -- Curt & co. liked our video so much they want more! This is where you step in: if you create a video, animation or slideshow that would look good behind a classic Tears for Fears track on which Curt sings lead (such as Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Pale Shelter), or a favorite such as Fake Plastic Trees, Drive or Yellow, it might get featured in one of the dates (April 14, 21 and 28; May 18 and 25; and June 1), as part of a set list centered around Curt's own solo material. We'll feature anything that's selected and there will be FABULOUS PRIZES from the Boing Boing Dungeon of Stolen Review Loaners. All that's needed are imagery (abstract is fine) with no audio; it should be appropriate for all ages; and please avoid anything using other people's IP excessively or exclusively. Post entries to YouTube or Vimeo or wherever in HD, if possible, and add the link to the comments below and I'll embed submissions in the post. Remember, the first show is only a week away. While this isn't a Tears for Fears concert (i.e. there's no Roland) Curt will be backed by Charlton Pettus, Doug Petty and Jamie Wollam, all members of the Tears For Fears touring band. Set lists may change from show to show, but will be drawn primarily from Curt's solo material, all of which can be streamed: Halfway, pleased (album), Mayfield (album), and Social Media Project (singles.) The theatre is intimate (with just 84 seats), and you can get more info/tickets here. Don't miss Curt's homepage, curtsmithofficial.com.

Worldreader: ebooks for kids in the developing world Posted: 08 Apr 2011 01:43 AM PDT I've recently lent my support to Worldreader, an innovative nonprofit program that distributes ebook readers to children in the developing world and then exposes them to a large library of donated texts from writers from across the world, as well as newspapers and other materials. I was delighted to give them access to all my books (of course), and put them in touch with a large group of other kids' and young adult writers who were happy to do the same (including my hero Daniel Pinkwater, who travelled in and wrote about Kenya and has a real love of Africa). WR: What advice do you have for kids in developing countries who are just beginning to read and only have recently gotten access to books because of technology advancements? Cory: I have a couple of pieces of advice about reading. One is that the most dangerous thing in the world is someone who has only read one book. The great thing about reading is that you can triangulate your ideas among lots of different authors, different times, or different place. When you read widely and broadly it shows you that everything is relative. It shows that there is a lot of ways of looking at things, and often times, problems can become solutions if looked at creatively. The other piece of advice I would give them about reading electronically is to not allow their collections to be tied to one device or platform. Devices come and go, but data can live forever. The only way you can maintain access to them is if you insist on the ability and the right to move the books into any format or any platform you want to. Writers Changing Lives: A Chat With Cory Doctorow

Friday Freak-Out: Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (1970) Posted: 08 Apr 2011 12:19 PM PDT Friday Freak-Out: Donovan peforms "Hurdy Gurdy Man" at L'Olympia, Paris, 1970.   Friday Freak-Out: Arthur Brown's "Nightmare" - Boing Boing Friday Freak-Out: Julie Driscoll's "Season of the Witch" (1968) - Boing Boing Friday Freak-Out: The Golden Dawn's "Evolution" (1968) - Boing Boing

MotoArt's furniture from recycled plane parts Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:56 AM PDT Following my post yesterday about Restoration Hardware's Jet Age-inspired chairs, a commenter pointed me to MotoArt's fun sculptural furniture fashioned from old airplane parts. The desk above is a wing flap and the bed headboard/armrest was made from a 747 engine nacelle. MotoArt

Anti-viral/allergen nostril filters Posted: 08 Apr 2011 01:37 AM PDT First Defense Nasal Screens are tiny anti-pollen nostril-plugs you stick up your nose, made from "100 percent breathable non-latex, skin safe material." The manufacturer claims that lab tests show them to be "99 percent" effective against allergens and viruses. You can get seven sets for $10. First Defense Nasal Screens (via Red Ferret)

All New Square Foot Gardening Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:50 AM PDT I decided to try my hand at gardening again after last having a vegetable garden in college 35 years ago (which I remembered involving a lot of work). After doing some research online I found Mel Bartholomew's squarefoot garden method appealed to my inner geekdom. Bartholomew's method relies on building and gardening in four-foot by four-foot plots/boxes. He then provides details on how to plan the optimal mixture of soil, fertilizer, and supplements to match whatever you want to grow in them. After using the method for three years I am a sold. The method assumes you know nothing, does not require you to be very handy, is inexpensive, takes up a minimal amount of space and water, is very practical and detailed, can easily be entirely organic, requires minimal weeding, and, best of all, yields lots of fresh veggies. What more could you ask for? The other books I looked at required tilling, fertilizing and weeding rows or did not focus on the basics. --John Cowling All New Squarefoot Gardening Mel Bartholomew 2006, 271 pages $12 Don't forget to comment over at Cool Tools and/or submit a tool!

Albums re-imagined as books Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:31 AM PDT Designer Christophe Gowans created book jackets inspired by rock albums. "What If Your Favorite Album Was a Book?" (Mother Jones)

Faux software interfaces in film Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:22 AM PDT Access Main Computer File is a marvelous celebration in images of (mostly phony) computer user interfaces from Hollywood. Once there, mouse over the pictures to see the movie name and year. Notably absent is the instant messaging screen from Pretty In Pink's library scene. Above, Weird Science (1985) and Tron (1982). (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!) And in a similar vein, there's the classic "Let's enhance" montage of faux image enhancement scenes in movies.

Franken wants a balanced war budget Posted: 08 Apr 2011 12:01 AM PDT Senator Al Franken has proposed a "Pay for War" resolution that would require Congress to raise taxes and/or cut spending before authorizing new acts of war, so that American foreign adventures can't contribute to the national debt. "We have to ensure that Iraq and Afghanistan remain anomalies in American history," Franken said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "And that's what my resolution seeks to do. It will ensure that future wars don't make our deficit and debt problem worse. It will ensure that Congress and American citizens must face the financial sacrifice of going to war. And it will force us to decide whether a war is worth that sacrifice." "In the last ten years our wars have been paid for by borrowing," Franken said. "The Iraq War was accompanied by a massive tax cut. That failed fiscal experiment created the impression that war requires no financial sacrifice. We know that is just not true. The question is who will bear the financial sacrifice, the generation that has decided to go to war or its children and grandchildren?" Franken wants wars to be paid for (via Reddit)

Bike-seat-clamp with a built-in bottle-opener Posted: 08 Apr 2011 10:22 AM PDT Jon sez, "We've designed a bicycle seat clamp with a little bottle opener on the back. We love biking, and wish more people would commute this way. We also love beer- especially Utah's microbrews. We thought it would be a fun project to combine our two loves into a single awesome project. Enter the Nectar and Elixir. These are clean little seat clamps for your bike. Nectar is fixed, and Elixir is quick release. On the back, though, is a little nub that works perfectly as a bottle opener." They're 70 percent of the way to their Kickstarter goal. Nectar and Elixir- seat clamp / bottle openers (Thanks, Jon!)

Sketch 3D: turn your napkin doodles into 3D models Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:39 PM PDT Belgian 3D printing shop i.materialise has teamed up with GrabCAD for a service called Sketch 3D. For $80, you can have your napkin doodles and other designs converted into 3D models, suitable for printing at i.materialise or any of its competitors. It's a great way to open up the possibilities for 3D printing to people who don't know how to use 3D modelling software. i.materialise launches Sketch to 3D, A 3D modeling service for 3D printing

Travis Louie and Kris Kuksi at Roq La Rue Gallery Posted: 08 Apr 2011 09:42 AM PDT Opening at Seattle's Roq La Rue Gallery tonight, Travis Louie's astounding new daguerreotype-influenced paintings of Victorian folk "and their pets" Also in the show, the insanely-detailed "post-industrial rococo" sculptures of Kris Kuksi, who we've also previously featured on BB. Above, Louie's "The Family Yeti" (acrylic on board 26" x 20"). Left, Kuksi's "Ode to Herculaneum" (detail). The art is also viewable online. Travis Louie and Kris Kuksi at Roq La Rue Gallery

Tune for Two: a short film by Alfa Primo Posted: 08 Apr 2011 09:25 AM PDT Video Link. A short film by Alfa Primo. Mahna Mahna. (Thanks, Joe Sabia!)

Behavioral psychology and security blindspots Posted: 08 Apr 2011 01:27 AM PDT A Bruce Schneier essay from IEEE Security & Privacy describes a series of experiments in logical thinking, through which some of our security blindspots come to light: Consider the Wason selection task. Subjects are presented with four cards next to each other on a table. Each card represents a person, with each side listing some statement about that person. The subject is then given a general rule and asked which cards he would have to turn over to ensure that the four people satisfied that rule. For example, the general rule might be, "If a person travels to Boston, then he or she takes a plane." The four cards might correspond to travelers and have a destination on one side and a mode of transport on the other. On the side facing the subject, they read: "went to Boston," "went to New York," "took a plane," and "took a car." Formal logic states that the rule is violated if someone goes to Boston without taking a plane. Translating into propositional calculus, there's the general rule: if P, then Q. The four cards are "P," "not P," "Q," and "not Q." To verify that "if P, then Q" is a valid rule, you have to verify modus ponens by turning over the "P" card and making sure that the reverse says "Q." To verify modus tollens, you turn over the "not Q" card and make sure that the reverse doesn't say "P." Shifting back to the example, you need to turn over the "went to Boston" card to make sure that person took a plane, and you need to turn over the "took a car" card to make sure that person didn't go to Boston. You don't -- as many people think -- need to turn over the "took a plane" card to see if it says "went to Boston" because you don't care. The person might have been flying to Boston, New York, San Francisco, or London. The rule only says that people going to Boston fly; it doesn't break the rule if someone flies elsewhere. Detecting Cheaters (Image: Theory of Boundaries, 1969-1970, chalk on dry pigment on wall by Mel Bochner, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from nostri-imago's photostream)

Pillow in Space Invaders gingham Posted: 08 Apr 2011 09:12 AM PDT Etsy seller Voodoorabbit's AUD35.00 throw pillow is made from custom-printed, eye-wateringly fabulous "Space Invaders gingham." Handmade Gingham Invaded White Cushion / Pillow Cover 43 x 43cm (via Wonderland)

Libyan rebels paint top of vehicles pink to avoid NATO "friendly fire" Posted: 08 Apr 2011 08:58 AM PDT After a recent NATO air strike killed five rebel fighters in Libya, opposition fighters have reportedly begun painting the roofs of their vehicles bright pink as a message to NATO bombers: "we're on your side, do not kill us." (via Danger Room)

Mars Science Laboratory + Curiosity Rover: Interview with NASA JPL's Ashwin Vasavada Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:21 AM PDT Video link: An artist's animation of how MSL and Curiosity Rover will land on Mars. Courtesy NASA JPL. This week, Boing Boing visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a peek inside the clean room where NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, and other components of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft (MSL) have been built for launch in late 2011 from Florida. Our big photo gallery with first-ever media access for "hands-on" images is here. Spacecraft assembly and testing specialists showed Boing Boing the rover and the other spacecraft components, including the descent stage "sky crane." Shipment from the clean room to Florida is scheduled to begin within the next two months, with launch scheduled for late 2011 and landing on Mars in mid-2012. Xeni spoke with Ashwin Vasavada, Deputy Project Scientist at JPL for the MSL mission, to understand more about how MSL works and what its creators hope to accomplish, how one scores a job designing interplanetary explorer robots, and how this updated Mars rover is (or is not) like an iPad. Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing: So, the MSL and Curiosity unveiling this week represents a big milestone for you folks. Ashwin Vasavada, NASA JPL: Right. The rover is almost complete. We've been working on for several years now, it has all come together and works great and we're putting the final touches on. BB: So as I understand it, Curiosity will have a lot more science gathering capability than either Spirit or Opportunity. Ashwin Vasavada: Yes. You can think of it as having nearly everything that Spirit and Opportunity had in the sense that it's a rover capable of driving over some pretty rough terrain, have cameras to look around at the landscape, had some instruments on the end of a robotic arm to look at rocks up-close and do some chemical analysis up-close on the rock. But in addition to that, it has a major new capability of being able to take samples of rocks and soils, and analyze those samples in instruments on board the rover itself. BB: So much of the science and the public interest around Mars expeditions has been -- is there water on Mars, with the thought being that this would mean life on Mars. How does this change that question? Ashwin Vasavada: Well, that definitely is the kind of overarching question in Mars exploration, is there life on Mars today? Was there ever life on Mars in the past? As we've tried to answer that question over the past two decades, we realized it's a pretty difficult question to answer. Not only do you need very sophisticated instruments to be able to detect microbial life, but that may not be the kind of life that we're used to on Earth. But you also have to know a lot about Mars itself as a planet and where you might want to look for life, where the sort of environmental niches are on Mars. What the Mars Science Laboratory aims to do is not detect life directly, but ask those questions about the environment on Mars, and specifically early Mars, a period for which there's a lot of evidence that there were rivers and lakes and a much more kind of a life-friendly environment. So we're going to go to a place that dates back from Mars' early history, maybe three billion, four billion years ago and try to detect whether that environment at that time was an environment that could have supported life. Video Link: Space reporter Miles O'Brien visited JPL in 2010 as Ashwin and colleagues prepared the "rover on steroids" for departure for the Red Planet. BB: And the ability to gather and analyze soil samples, rocks is a big leap in that direction? Ashwin Vasavada: That's correct. The signatures that we're looking for would be, for example, different minerals that might be present in the rocks and soils that only form in the presence of water. So for example, we've detected clays from orbiting spacecraft around Mars, clays on the surface. And clay minerals are pretty interesting because they form in the presence of water that's interacted with more pristine rock. They also form in the presence of water that's basically neutral in pH, in other words, neither too basic or too acidic. So the presence of clay is a signature that there might be a life-friendly environment and we'll be able to confirm that on the surface. BB: So let's talk about the rover itself. As I understand, it's simply too big to run on solar power. So instead, this one as I understand it will be equipped with a radioactive thermal generator that uses basically decaying plutonium to generate electricity. Ashwin Vasavada: That's correct. That's the kind of device that we've used on missions to the outer planets for many years where the sunlight isn't strong enough to generate electricity through solar panels. But this time, we're using it on Mars mostly because Mars is a dusty place and solar panels tend to get covered up and degrade over time. BB: So the choice to use nuclear power is not just because it's a really large craft, it's the fact that the environment is so full of dust. Ashwin Vasavada: That's correct. It's primarily because of the dust but it's also the fact that this will be a very long-lived mission so we can't afford to have the dust accumulate and we wanted to design those vehicle to be able to go to higher latitudes if the science pushed us in that direction. And at higher latitudes like on Earth, there's less sunlight as well. It turns out that where we're probably going to go is more near the equator, but we still will benefit from being free of any constraints due to dust. BB: Who decides exactly where the rover will be aimed? Ashwin Vasavada: Well, we try to involve pretty much everybody who knows anything about Mars is open to give us [Laughter] suggestions and help us understand these different sites. So we've had an open process where we've invited all -- basically, all working Mars scientists from around the world and we've gathered them together in hotel conference rooms now four times over the past four years and we have some very vigorous discussions and people share ideas and propose sites. We've narrowed it down to four final sites. And we're also in parallel with the scientific studies studying the safety of those sites whether we can actually land successfully on those sites and we'll deliver all information to NASA and NASA will make the decision. BB: So you mentioned the landing. This CGI animation of what it will be like for this rover to land looks pretty Rube Goldberg! This is complicated and risky stuff, very far from home. Mars is a notoriously hard place to land a spacecraft, and the plan for how this one will get there is different than its predecessor rovers. Ashwin Vasavada: Right, and that's mostly due to the size of the Mars Science Laboratory. So we've gotten used to seeing Mars spacecraft land with the airbags and that turned out to be a nice way to land, but we can't use it for a vehicle that's this heavy. We weigh a metric ton. We're about 900 kilograms and it would just require more airbags than we want to carry with us to Mars. Because of this, we have gone back to the sort of the old school approach and landing with rockets firing and setting it down on the ground. But we've put in a little twist where the rockets are actually attached to what we call a "descent stage" that flies the rover down and the rover is attached to the underside of that stage. And the very final 10 feet or so above the surface, that descent stage lowers the rover down on a series of tethers to the surface and lands the rover on its wheels. And that turns out to be the most economical and safest way to land this particular vehicle on Mars. BB: I understand there is a James Cameron connection with the cameras on this rover? Ashwin Vasavada: Yes, there is. He became involved when he hooked up with the camera team that proposed cameras for these rovers and there are 3D cameras that were capable of video and that seemed to be very much along the lines of his interest. So he became a co-investigator on the camera team for this rover. He had previously worked with the camera team which is in San Diego to develop not only 3D video cameras, but also zoom-cameras so you could really be cinematic with them. And unfortunately, the zoom capability didn't make it in time for us to go on this mission, but we still have the 3D video cameras. BB: Will this basically be silent films or will there be audio gathering capability? Microphones? Ashwin Vasavada: They will be silent. Yeah, that's something we haven't done yet on Mars, is actually listen to the sound of Mars. If we did listen, we'd probably hear ourselves mostly, because we think Mars is a pretty quiet place. [Laughter] So we'd probably mostly hear the wheels driving along. BB: So the idea is that the data that's needed most right now, and the data that there's the most of, is visual data. Ashwin Vasavada: Right. The visual data really gives the public a sense of being there, which is one of the main reasons we want to do the 3D and the video. But scientifically, any imaging of the landscape is extremely valuable for detecting things like whether water flowed across the surface and basically, doing a geologic study of the landing site. BB: How soon will we here on Earth be able to see the footage that's gathered? Ashwin Vasavada: We hope to take a few pictures the very day that we land on Mars, which is pretty much customary for spacecraft. We land and then we take a few pictures and then we spend a few hours making sure everything else is working, but we take sort of an insurance picture right after landing. And then, in the next few days, we'll hopefully be able to send quite a few pictures back. We'll have a very good data link to Mars since we have some orbiters existing at Mars that will be relaying all the data for us. BB: So the rover is headed to Florida within the next couple of months. Ashwin Vasavada: That's right. BB: And then, is there a sense of when it's likely to go up? Ashwin Vasavada: Yeah. We have a fixed window which opens up on November 25th of this year and last until December 18th. And so, for about two hours, every day during that window, we have a chance to launch it to Mars and we'll launch at the first opportunity when everything seems to be ready to go. BB: So you're basically planning not to sleep during that month? Ashwin Vasavada: Well yeah. [Laughter] In fact, there's a lot of people who haven't slept in the past few months already. BB: I remember talking to Steve Squyres about that, like his personal sleep schedule during the earlier mission, adapting his circadian rhythms to "Mars days" instead of "Earth days." Ashwin Vasavada: Yeah. I mean when we land is when the scientists lose all the sleep because Mars has a twenty-four and a half hour day and to make the most out of the first few months on Mars, we actually start sleeping in sync with Mars. And so, we go to bed a half hour later everyday and that gets really fun after a month or two. BB: Let's talk about the design. Who designs the Mars Rovers and what kind of background do you have to have to get that totally awesome job? Ashwin Vasavada: JPL is a fantastic place to work exactly for that reason. We have some of the world's best engineers here who get to have the fun and really the challenge of designing these incredibly complex, but really cool vehicles. We have a lot of different kind of engineers. We need all the flavors, electrical, software, everything. And then, we have a few scientists like myself around to help the engineers understand the constraints of their designing, too, and what the eventual purpose of the rover is. So I get to basically advice all these really amazing engineers as they're building these things in there. They're very clever and interesting people. BB: Do the designs build off one another? So for instance, are these Mars Rovers sort of technological descendants of earlier models, like generations of iPhones, or iPads, or do you have to start more from scratch with each new series because it's doing different things than its predecessor? Ashwin Vasavada: It's a little of both. We definitely build on proven technologies. So even the first rover from JPL, the Sojourner Rover in 1997, which was just a little bigger than a shoebox—that still had the six-wheel design and the kind of Rocker-Bogie suspension and we've used that same six-wheel Rocker-Bogie suspension on the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers, which are golf cart size and then MSL, which is a car size. So that's been something we're not going to change, but we do have to invent new things every once in a while like a new landing system or this sampling system we have for MSL, which is the first time we are doing that. BB: And how difficult is it to build advanced technology that can do all the jobs you needed to do, but also be durable enough to survive in such an unforgiving environment where you can't just go fix it. What are some of the factors that you have to take into account and that make a robot built for Mars different from a robot you've built for here on Earth? Ashwin Vasavada: That's a great question. There are a lot of different factors. You have to choose the materials that you work with very carefully, things that won't wear down in the environment on Mars that can take the hundred degree fluctuations in temperature that you see on the surface every day. That's can actually be a hundred degrees centigrade. On Earth, you might see a few tens of degrees from day to night and you still wouldn't want to leave your laptop outside overnight. We're talking a couple hundred degrees of change each day. On Mars with these vehicles, they're just as complex as that and they're out in the environment all the time. Now fortunately, it doesn't rain, so we don't have to worry about water too much, but we have to worry a lot about temperature and ultraviolet light and the fact that we have moving parts. We have as few as possible, but we can't avoid having things like wheels and arms that move. We can't lubricate them once we launched them, so we have to design things where things will work as we -- after we finished them, they'll last for three or four years being used every single day. BB: Could the rovers ever be built to fix themselves? Ashwin Vasavada: We haven't tried that. We saw that in the Disney movie WALL-E, where he screwed on a couple of new -- BB: How did you know that's what inspired my question! Ashwin Vasavada: I remember seeing that,the robot screwed on a couple of new cameras when his eyes broke. Man, I wish we could do that, but what we do instead is, on these NASA spacecraft including MSL, we send redundant parts that we can switch to. So there's actually a good amount of electronics in the rover that are basically a spare and we can switch to a spare computer, we can switch to an entirely spare new circuits and that gives us some flexibility if something breaks. Other things like the robotic arm and the wheels itself and that sort of thing, we only have one set. Now, Spirit and Opportunity have each had one wheel fail and they can just sort of limp along by dragging that wheel along. And so, it doesn't necessarily mean the mission is over if these things break. But we basically do a mixture of trying to be very careful about having redundant parts and very robust software, and then just hoping nothing goes wrong. BB: Are these parts made in a factory, or sort of "made by hand" at JPL? Ashwin Vasavada: At the part level, we do make use of commercially available or at least space-qualified parts when we can. If we were building everything from scratch, it would be an enormously expensive and horribly long process. But at the macro level, the rover itself, it's definitely a prototype kind of process. This is the first and only of its kind and we invent a lot of things as we go along and do a lot of testing and experimentation. It's incredibly complex and there are many different aspects of it in terms of the mechanical work, then building the entire thermal system for the rover to work correctly. And it's all sort of a unique design. We build upon past experience, but this rover is new in a lot of ways and nothing else exists like it. BB: Well, and then with that in mind, so we talked a lot about the way technology that was originally developed for NASA has worked its way down to the commercial sector, Tang, there's the archetypal example. Ashwin Vasavada: Right, yeah. [Laughs] BB: Both of us can think of many, many other examples. Now, how has that played out with the different generations of Mars Rovers? What are some examples of technologies or ideas that originated with this program, but eventually became incorporated into commercial products, or perhaps if that hasn't happened, maybe you could venture a guess as to what might come out of this. Ashwin Vasavada: When I first started working on these spacecraft, there definitely was a lot more of that in the direction that NASA was inventing things for this spacecraft, but then would go out into society. And now, that society itself has become so driven by electronics and computers and things, the flow works in both directions. So we benefit a lot from the fact that other companies are spending a lot of resources making faster computers and 3D imaging technology and things like that, and so, there's kind of a partnership. We invent things here that go out and then we borrow a lot from other companies as well. BB: Any final thoughts for the space-loving audience at Boing Boing? Anything in particular that you would make sure that people not miss about this story? Ashwin Vasavada: I hope that people follow along as we launch in November and land in August of 2012. I think what will be really unique about this mission is the fact that we'll have these HD color video cameras on Mars and really for the first time, we'll be able to see Mars the same way that we see things on Earth in HD, in color and moving a little bit. BB: This is the first time ever that we'll have that opportunity with a NASA exploratory mission, right? This is it. Ashwin Vasavada: That's right. And so, we really hope to bring as best as we can a virtual presence to people on Earth to be exploring Mars with us. That alone is really exciting, but then we have an incredibly deep and rich science to deal with this rover as well: ten instruments, some of which are as complex as spacecraft themselves. We think we're just going to have a really great, hopefully a decade long mission if we're lucky. We're planning for two years, but we're hoping for ten. [ Editor's note: Special thanks to space journalist Miles O'Brien for guidance with this feature, and to Boing Boing science editor Maggie Koerth-Baker. Photos in this post courtesy Joseph Linaschke. ] NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover: first look (photo gallery)

FBI releases files on Biggie Smalls murder; still no killer named Posted: 08 Apr 2011 08:07 AM PDT Fourteen years after his death, the FBI has released a set of heavily redacted documents on the murder of Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace, (1972-1997), the rapper known as "Notorious B.I.G." The FBI closed the case in 2005 without determining who killed him. More at Time Magazine.

Homebrew vote-counting software from Clerk in conservative Wisconsin county gives Supreme Court win to Tea Party darling Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:51 PM PDT Saljake sez, "The Waukesha, WI County Clerk is allowed to design her own vote-counting-software(!) plus it lives off the network on a desktop computer in her office and has zero IT support after 5pm. Today, she found thousands of state Supreme Court votes for Tea Party darling Prosser that she somehow *forgot* to report to the AP yesterday." If these newly discovered votes are allowed to stand, it will reverse the upset in the state Supreme Court election that saw the judgeship go to a candidate who attracted a large anti-Walker protest vote. Today's announcement by Nickolaus drew immediate suspicions from Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, a liberal activist group. "Wisconsin deserves elections that are fair, clean and transparent," Ross said. "There is a history of secrecy and partisanship surrounding the Waukesha County Clerk and there remain unanswered questions." Nickolaus, a former staffer for the Assembly Republican Caucus, has been criticized in recent months for her handling of recent elections. The Waukesha County Board sharply condemned Nickolaus after past elections, demanding an audit of her practices last year. The auditors criticized Nickolaus for moving some sensitive files, such as election results, onto her personal computer. Newly discovered Waukesha County votes would give win to Prosser (Thanks, Saljake, via Submitterator!)

Software pioneer and ENIAC programmer Jean Bartik dies at 86 Posted: 08 Apr 2011 07:56 AM PDT The New York Times has published an obituary for Jean Jennings Bartik, "one of the first computer programmers and a pioneering forerunner in a technology that came to be known as software." She died on March 23 at a nursing home in Poughkeepsie, NY, at age 86. She was the last surviving member of the group of women who programmed the Eniac, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, regarded as the first all-electronic digital computer. (via Jim Roberts) Photo, via Wikipedia: "Two women operating the ENIAC's main control panel while the machine was still located at the Moore School. 'U.S. Army Photo' from the archives of the ARL Technical Library. Left: Betty Jennings (Mrs. Bartik) Right: Frances Bilas (Mrs. Spence)

YouTube rolling out streaming web video service to more partners Posted: 08 Apr 2011 07:45 AM PDT Mashable: "YouTube has been dabbling with live streaming across a variety of sectors in recent years -- from concerts to Q&As with U.S. President Barack Obama -- and now the video-sharing site is ramping up those efforts by expanding its live streaming efforts and opening them up to select partners." (via Nick DeMartino)

Beastie Boys' star-studded, hilarious trailer: Fight For Your Right-Revisited Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:33 PM PDT The Beastie Boys' trailer for "Fight For Your Right-Revisited" is a star-studded hilarity of a thing, as silly as you can imagine, funny and just plain great. It's to promote their next CD, Hot Sauce Committee Part 2, which comes out on May 3. I never met a Beastie Boys album I didn't like, and from the sounds of things, this will be no exception. (via Waxy)

US government shutdown could mean Space Shuttle launch delay Posted: 08 Apr 2011 06:50 AM PDT Here's one odd effect a government shutdown would have: NASA would likely have to scrub the launch of space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission, currently scheduled for April 29. If Republicans and Democrats cannot agree to budget terms by midnight tonight, Washington will effectively run out of money and the government will close. If that happens, according to a NASA memo distributed today, only operations critical to protect life and assets would continue. So, operations to support the astronauts on the International Space Station would go on during a shutdown, as would any operations critical to prevent the loss or damage of NASA assets. And if a launch were in progress when the shutdown went into effect, that launch would continue. But for new shuttle launches, and other new projects: an indefinite delay. Memo (PDF) and NASA furlough plan here (thanks, Miles O'Brien!).

Marketplace for hijacked computers Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:20 PM PDT Brian Krebs went browsing in an underground proxy marketplace, where criminals rent time on hijacked computers to other criminals who want to use the compromised machines as launching-grounds for untraceable networked attacks. Krebs traced down some of the people whose computers were up for rent and let them know that they were being bought and sold on the underground. Michelle Trammell, associate director of Kirby Pines and president of TSG, said she was unaware that her computer systems were being sold to cyber crooks when I first contacted her this week. I later heard from Steve Cunningham from ProTech Talent & Technology, an IT services firm in Memphis that was recently called in to help secure the network. Cunningham said an anti-virus scan of the TSG and retirement community machines showed that one of the machines was hijacked by a spam bot that was removed about two weeks before I contacted him, but he said he had no idea the network was still being exploited by cyber crooks. "Some malware was found that was sending out spam," Cunningham said, "It looks like they didn't have a very comprehensive security system in place, but we're going to be updating [PCs] and installing some anti-virus software on all of the servers over the next week or so." Is Your Computer Listed "For Rent"?

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