05/02/2012 15:36 A group of Anons are about to dump a torrent 2.6GB of email containing "detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records" about the Haditha massacre, in which 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women and children were killed by the USMC. The announcement states that Anonymous stole 2.6 gigabytes of e-mail belonging to [...]
05/02/2012 15:28 One of the first "physibles" available for download on The Pirate Bay's 3D object download site was a 3D model of TPB's pirate-ship logo. Canadian Charles Randall ordered one up from Shapeways, and it's arrived. ?I was entertained by telling shapeways.com that I owned the copyright on the design though, something they force you to [...]
05/02/2012 05:00 Tor.com's Irene Gallo gathers together an absolutely fantastic gallery of science fiction artwork that quotes famous works of fine art. I'm all over John Mattos's Mos Eisley reimagined as Picasso's Three Musicians. Art History Through Sci Fi-Colored Glasses
· Woman's infected jaw removed, 3D printed replacement implanted
05/02/2012 03:50 An 83-year-old woman with a badly infected lower jaw had the entire thing replaced with a 3D printed titanium/bioceramic replica. The surgery was performed by doctors from the University of Hasselt (Belgium) in collaboration with Dutch surgeons. The 3D printer prints titanium powder layer by layer, while a computer controlled laser ensures that the correct [...]
· 16-y-o girl, accepted to MIT, sends her admission letter into space
05/02/2012 02:45 Chris sez, "My name is Chris Peterson. I run web communications for MIT Admissions and have been a loyal BB reader for years. For the last several years we have been sending our admitted students their acceptance letters in cardboard tubes. First because we sent a poster, but now it's its own thing. 2012 is [...]
05/02/2012 01:24 I don't know an awful lot about fingernail painting, but this seems like a pretty straightforward painting task, and the effect is pretty awesome. Converse Nails (via Super Punch)
· Rebecca MacKinnon talks about her book "Consent of the Networked"
05/02/2012 00:19 Joly sez, "Rebecca Mackinnon discusses her new book 'Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom' (Basic Books) with Mark Whitaker, managing editor for CNN Worldwide, at The New America Foundation NYC on Feb 1 2012." I've got a copy of this book at the top of my read-for-review pile. I can't wait. [...]
· Map shows NYC's energy consumption, building-by-building
04/02/2012 20:17 Gmoke sez, "This statistical model uses 'zipcode-level energy consumption data to estimate the average annual energy use for every tax lot?at practically building level?through all five boroughs of the city.' Included are estimateans for space heating, space cooling, water heating, and base electric applications such as lighting. 'This map will enable NYC building owners to [...]
04/02/2012 20:05 Dan Sayers ("I am not a type designer") decided to explore "generative" type-design by seeing what happened when he "averaged out" a large number of fonts. Once he got his teeth into the problem, he realized that "averaging out" is a complicated idea when it comes to shapes, and came up with a pretty elegant [...]
· Impromptu to do today in SF: Johann Sebastian Joust in Yerba Buena Gardens
04/02/2012 19:31 This afternoon some friends and I will be playing this new game we really like in Yerba Buena Gardens, and you're welcome to join us. Johann Sebastian Joust is basically like high-tech tag. Each person has a Playstation Move controller, and the object of the game is to jostle other people's controllers so that you're [...]
· On the horrors of getting approval for an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco
04/02/2012 19:03 The NYT's Scott James recounts the insane red-tape endured by Juliet Pries, an entrepreneur who decided to open an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco's Cole Valley. She had to pay rent on an empty storefront for over two years while the necessary permits were processed, and tens of thousands of dollars in fees (including the [...]
04/02/2012 17:14 I blogged "Extermiknit!", a knittable Dalek, back in 2007, but it turns out that an even cooler knittable Dalek of the same name was created on Feather and Fan in 2010, with an opening hatch containing a Kaled mutant, and here it is. After completing the top of the Dalek as specified, I created an [...]
· Playing Black Sabbath on Tesla coils with an iron guitar, standing in a Faraday suit
04/02/2012 16:08 If you need me to explain why you should spend 1:26 watching a man wielding an iron guitar in a Faraday suit playing Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" on MIDI-compatible Tesla coils, you are in the wrong place, pal. ArcAttack is performing a Tesla Coil version of Iron Man by Black? Sabbath. The Guitar Player is [...]
· Canadian musician outsources his indie video to Bangalore, beauty ensues
04/02/2012 15:00 Derryl Murphy sez, "Drew Smith's lovely new song 'Smoke and Mirrors' needed a video, so he decided to outsource it. The result is wonderful." So I outsourced my video to Bangalore, India. Why? Well, I figured the last thing the world needed was another low-budget singer songwriter video. Fortunately, the first Virtual Assistant I found [...]
· Stephen Colbert's SuperPAC hurts the Supreme Court's feelings?
04/02/2012 14:00 In Slate, Dahlia Lithwick examines the impact that Stephen Colbert's SuperPAC is having on public perception of the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United, which establishes that "corporate personhood" means that corporations can make unlimited contributions to political campaigns. Dahlia implies that the Court, which has always maintained an aloofness from public life (no cameras, [...]
· Bulgarian MPs wear Guy Fawkes mask for ACTA session
04/02/2012 09:47 Apparently inspired by the Polish parliamentarians who showed up for work in Guy Fawkes masks for the signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (a US-driven secret copyright treaty), members of Bulgaria's parliament repeated the trick. The MPs say they support copyright laws, but oppose ACTA over its possible turning into an instrument to limit freedom [...]
· SOPA, ACTA and WIPO: where is the copyfight headed?
04/02/2012 05:43 Michael Geist sez, "I've posted a video version of a recent talk on SOPA activism and what it means for the next generation of global copyright agreements such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Trans Pacific Partnership. The talk is about an hour as it also assesses the global strategies employed by the U.S. [...]
04/02/2012 04:15 Chair, with entrails. (via Blood Milk) UPDATE: My pal Stacey Ransom found the original color photo of this fine resin/fiber piece, titled "Visual Temperature - Sofa," by Cao Hul, and posted it to her Tumblr, Held 4 Ransom.
04/02/2012 01:09 [Video Link] (Thanks, Gary!) Cute U900 Rabbit and Bear UkesCutest Japanese stopmotion crocheted beachside critter ukelele video everUkulele version of "Walk, Don't Run"
· What is this language game my daughter and her friends speak?
04/02/2012 00:42 I heard my 14-year-old daughter and her friends talking to each other using a word-changing language game, like pig latin, but much harder for me to understand. I asked my daughter's friend to say something and I recorded it. Listen here She said it was called Finglish but a Google search makes me think she [...]
· The Happiness of Pursuit: What Neuroscience Can Teach Us About the Good Life, by Shimon Edelman - exclusive excerpt
03/02/2012 21:45 Excerpted with permission from The Happiness of Pursuit: What Neuroscience Can Teach Us About the Good Life, by Shimon Edelman. Available from Basic Books, a member of The Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) 2012. When Fishing For Happiness, Catch and Release I was teaching a big introductory course on cognition, which, I felt, had to [...]
· Unexplained 60 meter object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden
03/02/2012 20:45 [Video Link] Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it's not alone. Nearby on the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even more fascinating, both objects have "drag marks" behind them on the sea floor, stretching back [...]
· Taj Mahal Travelers: Japanese ambient music from the early 1970s
03/02/2012 20:34 In 1969, Fluxus artist/musician Takehisa Kosugi formed the Taj Mahal Travelers, an octet of Japanese musicians whose used traditional instruments like violin, double bass, tuba, trumpet, and mandolin in non-traditional ways and run through early electronic effects systems. Their compelling drone improvisations were decidedly different and, to my ears, more unsettling than the other avant-garde [...]
· ID required to buy teaspoons, which are "drug paraphernalia"
03/02/2012 19:45 When Elinor Zuke went to the checkout stand of a store in the UK to buy a pack of teaspoons, a shop worker told her she wouldn't be allowed to buy then until she presented photo identification. The reason: "because of the risk they could be used for drugs -- heroin users 'cook up' the [...]
03/02/2012 19:28 "My Favorite Museum Exhibit" is a series of posts aimed at giving BoingBoing readers a chance to show off their favorite exhibits and specimens, preferably from museums that might go overlooked in the tourism pantheon. I'll be featuring posts in this series all week. Want to see them all? Check out the archive post. I'll [...]
· Dirk Staschke?s first solo exhibition: "creamy and syrupy stacks of sweets, yet, decay and collapse is looming right around the corner"
03/02/2012 19:19 Inspired by the bountiful Vanitas still-life paintings of 16th-century Northern Europe and the excessive ornamentation of the Baroque period, Dirk Staschke seduces the viewer with his voluptuous organic forms while exploring themes of excess and its effects. A master ceramicist whose work has been shown internationally, Staschke is best know for his banquet style displays [...]
03/02/2012 18:59 Jeff Atwood on exactly how much attention to pay to feedback. 1. 90% of all community feedback is crap. 2. Don't get sweet talked into building a truck. 3. Be honest about what you won't do. 4. Listen to your community, but don't let them tell you what to do. 5. Be there for your [...]
03/02/2012 18:54 Punk artist Mike Kelley, a force in contemporary art for more than three decades, has died. He was 57. From the Los Angeles Times: Writing in Slate in 2005, novelist Jim Lewis said: "I think I could walk into any collection in the world and spot the Mike Kelley piece immediately (and this despite his [...]
· "My Favorite Museum Exhibit": Recreating an exhibit that no longer exists
03/02/2012 18:53 "My Favorite Museum Exhibit" is a series of posts aimed at giving BoingBoing readers a chance to show off their favorite exhibits and specimens, preferably from museums that might go overlooked in the tourism pantheon. I'll be featuring posts in this series all week. Want to see them all? Check out the archive post. I'll [...]
