Nathan Myhrvold's TED talk: A life of fascinations

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:26:35 +0000

Here's a video of Nathan Myhrvold's absolutely terrific March 2007 presentation at TED. Nathan Myhrvold talks about a few of his latest fascinations -- animal photography, archeology, BBQ and generally being an eccentric genius multimillionaire. Listen for wild stories from the (somewhat raunchy) edge of the animal world. Link...

Clothing designed to fight back against intentionally uncomfortable furniture

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:01:03 +0000

I like Sarah Ross' line of leisure jogging suits made to counteract anti-sleeping benches. Archisuit consists of an edition of four leisure jogging suits made for specific architectural structures in Los Angeles. The suits include the negative space of the structures and allow a wearer to fit into, or onto, structures designed to deny them. Link (via CRAFT)...

Wonderful DIY pipe organ

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:56:09 +0000

In the 1960s, Leon Berry built an insanely incredible pipe organ. He dubbed it the "Beast In The Basement." Berry outfitted the Beast with a slew of electromechanical special effect sounds too, from birds chirping to a Chinese gong. John Brownlee has more on this amazing instrument over at Boing Boing Gadgets. Link to BBG, Link to YouTube clip (via MAKE:)...

TED Prize event streaming live now

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:27:50 +0000

The TED Prize event is streaming live now. I watched it last year and it was very moving. I imagine it will be again this year. About the 2008 TEDPrize The TED Prize was created as a way of taking the inspiration, ideas and resources generated at TED and using them to make a difference. Winners receive a prize of $100,000 each, and more importantly, a wish. A wish to change the world. During today's session, webcast live from Monterey, California, the 2008 TEDPrize winners will unveil their wishes for the first time. Prize winners Neil Turok, Dave Eggars and Karen Armstong will be joined by singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela. Link...

Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2008 call for artists, scientists

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:29:26 +0000

Each year, a string of Yuri’s Night World Space Parties around the globe celebrate humankind’s first foray into space. That first human was Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. The events are a lot of fun (I hosted one in Texas, had a blast!), and the 2008 Bay Area edition is calling for artists and scientists -- deadline is February 8. We’re looking for visionaries of the sciences and arts to join our celebration: artists who love science, scientists who love art, and those who blur the line between all disciplines. Exhibit or demonstrate your works in the spacious NASA hangars or adjoining tarmac and structures. ively for installations, performances and demonstrations. This is an exciting opportunity for unique collaboration between the science world and the art world. We encourage partnerships between scientific and artistic minds and may be able to assist in partnering. We are looking for: New installations of all sizes and types, interactive works, sound works, light works, large-scale sculpture, live demonstrations, working models, table top demonstrations, prototypes, new technology, presentations, impromptu lectures, and unique performances from international and local artists. We are also seeking new video works documenting arts, humanities, performances, installations and microgravity works. Link.UPDATE: Organizer Matt Hancher (of the NASA/Google Planetary Content Team at NASA Ames) says: Thanks for posting the Yuri's Night call for proposals to Boing Boing! Unfortunately, the event website doesn't yet have info about how to propose. Anyone who's interested can send email to proposals@worldspaceparty.org to get more info. Previously: Yuri's Night: spacemen branded me with Yuri Gagarin's head!...

Battle of Minas Tirith made of candy

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:40:47 +0000

The folks who made the brilliant Battle of Helm's Deep made of candy over last year's Christmas break have topped themselves with a followup: a candy scale model of Minas Tirith from the Battle of Pelennor Fields. It's giant. Stupendous. Edible! Link (Thanks, Miss(ed) Manners!)...

BBtv: Car Hacking with Gale Banks

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:51:50 +0000

In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, we visit the workshop of automotive engineering guru and multiple land speed record-holder Gale Banks, known to many as the godfather of speed. Who knew encryption played a role in high-performance engine design? We take an up-close look at diesel racing trucks capable of speeds over 220 mph -- and we peek at the software that commands their guts. Banks is an advisor to the Automotive X Prize, and the guy Jay Leno calls when he wants to double the muscle of an 810-horsepower racecar. Link to BBtv post with video and comments. (special thanks, Ruth and Coop) See also: Extreme Diesel Truck Racing....

Shadow Unit: award-winning sf writers create "fan site for a show that never existed"

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:04:14 +0000

My pal Elizabeth Bear -- award-winning sf writer and all-round swell cat -- has just launched an exciting new publishing project with a gang of pals: Shadow Unit is, more or less, the website for a serial drama in internet form. Or possibly it's a fan site for a TV show that doesn't exist. Over the next couple of months, the site will be updated on a weekly or biweekly basis with new information, vignettes, character sketches, character bios, a community message board, and other exciting things. And starting in mid-February, there will be a series of novellas and novellettes, and one complete novel. Approximately one story every two weeks for sixteen weeks (though we are still tweaking the schedule), comprising the first season (of hopefully many) of a television show that doesn't exist. Some of the content will be free. Some will be by subscription. (Subscriptions will be extremely reasonable.) There will be DVD extras, deleted scenes, background information, character-based digressions, and I dunno what all else. The staff writers (as of today) are Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Sarah Monette, and myself. The Brilliant Web Ghoul and Fabulous Artist is Amanda Downum. The Technical Supergeek is Stephen Shipman. Link to announcement, Link to Shadow Unit) (Thanks, Bear!)...

RIP: Philip Agee, former CIA agent and US foreign policy critic

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:53:50 +0000

Snip from AP obit: Former CIA agent Philip Agee, a critic of U.S. foreign policy who infuriated American intelligence officials by naming purported agency operatives in a 1975 book, has died, state media reported Wednesday. He was 72. Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years working mostly in Latin America at a time when leftist movements were gaining prominence and sympathizers. His 1975 book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," cited alleged CIA misdeeds against leftists in the region and included a 22-page list of purported agency operatives. Link (via Ned Sublette)...

Christian Atheism at Speaker's Corner

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:36:41 +0000

Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels: the Christian Atheism guy who stands quietly at Speaker's Corner in London every Sunday, with signs that proclaim: CHRISTIAN ATHEISM: TO FOLLOW JESUS, REJECT GOD. Link...

(Guatemala) Letter to a Forcibly Disappeared Son

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:56:44 +0000

I'm traveling in Guatemala for a few weeks, working on different projects here. One of the sources of insight I turn to often about this place and its history is the work of the very, very talented photojournalist James Rodriguez. One of the recent posts on his photoblog documents an event carried out to dignify the memory of a Guatemalan man named Oscar David Hernandez Quiroa. He was "forcibly disappeared" in 1984, during the civil war, and was the son of well-known activist Blanca Quiroa. She worked in FAMDEGUA, a group that worked (and still does) to support the surviving families of "desaparecidos," the victims of political assassinations. Here's a snip from the letter Mr. Quiroa's mom wrote to her son in 2005, two decades after his death. Oscar, there are so many things I would like to tell you which have happened over these past twenty years. Ever since you were abducted, on that February 23rd 1984, my heart has remained completely void. You know I considered you not just my son, but also my brother, my colleague. You were everything to me and ever since that day I swore I would neither rest nor give up the struggle to find you. More than twenty years have passed now and unfortunately I have yet to complete the objective I set for myself. If these walls could speak, they would recall everything we once talked about. How many sleepless nights of work we spent! I don’t know if you remember the amount of cigarettes we smoked together, the cups of coffee we drank while planning our work. Work intended for that struggle you took upon and eventually involved me in. Despite of it all, I do not regret a thing. If things were to go back as they were in the 1980s, now in 2005, I would do it all over. Even if it meant losing you again because I know everything we have done has been worth it. Unfortunately you were not able to see the progress. I won’t lie to you because in truth, most of the changes we set ourselves to make have not occurred. But certain paths have been carved and I am not alone – there are thousands of people who serve as your voices. Link. Image: James Rodriguez....

Bejewelled Singapore taxi dashboard

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:31:24 +0000

Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels -- this decor-encrusted dashboard of a Singapore taxi. This is apparently an infamous cab among the locals (at least everyone I showed it to immediately recognized it), and it's quite a contrast from the usual super-neat and tidy S'pore cab. I enjoyed the hell out of it, though. Link...

Mike Huckabee congratulates Canada on its "national igloo"

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:20:26 +0000

Mike Huckabee may have won the Iowa primary, but does he really think that Canada's Parliament resides in a "national igloo?" Rick Mercer's comedic Canadian TV show "Talking to Americans" (asking people on the streets of US cities nonsensical questions about Canada to see if they call shenanigans or whether they become genuinely alarmed at the idea that, say, the Canadian elderly are set adrift on ice floes instead of being sent to retirement homes) caught Huckabee on video during his days as governor of Arkansas and asked him to send a message of support to Canada and its struggling "national igloo," a notional ice-sculpture scale replica of the White House in which the Canadian Parliament meets and debates. Huckabee gave a stirring endorsement to the igloo, presumably after ascertaining that the igloo was not used by homosexuals. Link...

Architectually accurate gingerbread replica of home

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:18:30 +0000

Jeff's family got the plans for their 1950s ranch house and faithfully recreated it in gingerbread. Using elevations from a recent renovation, my wife constructed the sides and the girls set out to decorate. I, being the professional photographer in a previous life, was tasked with documenting the finished model. As we are a multicultural family, matzot was used for the hipped roof and garage doors. Link (Thanks, Jeff!)...

What a world of truly "safe aviation" would be like

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:16:28 +0000

Inspired by the never-ending news of new and ridiculous restrictions on flying, Grig Larson has written a grimly funny little science fiction vignette about what a world in which flying was really "made safe" would be like: When she gets to the counter, a uniformed woman takes her booklet, and compares it to her ID. She asks for a fingerprint scan. Uh oh! There's a problem. Jill can't remember what finger she used! But the lady helps her out, and within minutes, she's approved to go into the disrobing chamber. The lady gives her a neck tag, stamps Jill's forehead, and sends her on her way past the many guards down a hallway. Jill knows what to expect. Helpful pictograph signs show her what she will be doing when she gets to the disrobing room. At the end of the hallway, she steps into a free closet, and strips down naked. Don't forget those earrings and hair bands, Jill! Jill remembered that the safety of her personal belongings could never be guaranteed, so she came wearing nothing she couldn't afford to lose. She puts her belongings in a plastic bag, and seals it nice and tight. She sees herself in the mirror. Oh my, Jill. You have been gaining a little weight, haven't we? Better lay off those desserts at the buffet when you're in Los Angeles, Jill! Link (Thanks, Grig!)...

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