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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Boing Boing's LiveJournal:
| Thursday, April 4th, 2013 | |||
| 2:57 pm | Montreal police arrest young woman for instagramming photo of anti-police mural Jennifer Pawluck, a 20 year old woman from Montreal, was taken into police custody yesterday and questioned after she posted a photo of a graffiti mural on her Instagram. The mural showed a caricature of a Montreal police spokesman called Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière, with a bullet hole in his head. After she posted the image to Instagram, police came to her house and took her in for questioning, releasing her several hours later. The police say that there are secret reasons they detained her, beyond taking a picture of graffiti and posting it, but they won't say what they are. Pawluck participated in the mass student demonstrations in Montreal and was part of the ensuing mass arrests. She will have to appear in court on April 17, and is barred from going with a kilometer of police HQ and from communicating with Cmdr Lafrenière. She has not been charged.
Instagram anti-police pic sharing tied to Montrealer's arrest [CBC]
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| 1:46 pm | Life imitates "Fringe" with development of brain-to-brain interface Scientists managed to link the brains of a conscious human and an anesthetized rat, allowing the human to wiggle the rat's tail with his thoughts. And all God's creatures said, "Holy shitballs!" 
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| 1:41 pm | Read mystery novels to learn chemistry Deborah Blum — my favorite expert in the fine art of poisoning — writes a fascinating piece about the way mystery writers like Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers approached the chemistry in their stories with an almost mind-blowing accuracy. Not only did they get the symptoms of specific poisons correct, they were actually describe common chemical tests and techniques right in the narrative. 
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| 12:52 pm | Roger Ebert, 1942–2013
NPR:
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| 1:32 pm | When your heart was just a tube I've been linking Double X Science a lot lately. That's because they're great. It's rare to get such smart, fascinating, science-centered discussion about female anatomy and reproductive issues that goes beyond the surface dressing we all already kind of know. Case in point: This piece by Emily Willingham about the development of the human heart in utero. You've probably heard at one point or another that a fetus' heart starts beating around 6 weeks (an age which is, by the way, calculated from the date of the mother's last period, NOT from the date of actual conception; so the fetus itself is really only about 4 weeks old at this point, and its mother only missed her period two weeks ago). But what's the heart actually like at that point? Turns out, absolutely nothing like what you imagine. Very cool stuff. 
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| 12:20 pm | Paying patent trolls off makes you complicit in the next round of extortion Joel Spolsky's editorial on patent trolls is fabulous. As he points out, the developers who pay relatively small sums to make patent trolls just go away are part of the problem, and complicit in the next round of extortion. Paying mobsters keeps them viable, and able to attack new victims:
The Patent Protection Racket (via Copyfight)
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| 12:33 pm | Awkward science stock photography
A collection of evidence suggesting that the people who take stock photographs have absolutely no idea what the process of science looks like, beyond a vague understanding that it probably involves white coats (and also beakers full of liquid). 
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| 12:26 pm | A cat video about the science of cats Two things I learned from this video: 
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| 11:27 am | Slowmo shattering of Prince Rupert's Drop glass Prince Rupert's Drops are unusual glass objects made by dripping molten glass into water. The exterior is very compressed while the interior is under great tension. You can hammer on the head of a drop and it won't break but if you barely wiggle the tail, the whole thing explosively shatters. It's particularly amazing in super-slow motion.
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| 12:12 pm | How a differential gear works -- a-ha generating video I posted this in March 2011, but as Kottke says, "it's so good, here it is again." "How a differential gear works" is a short industrial film that does a better job of explaining how differentials work than any other materials I've seen -- a real "a-ha" generator.
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| 9:55 am | Locus Poll is open - tell them about your favorite sf/f of 2012 The 43d Locus Poll and Survey is open for your picks of the best science fiction and fantasy of the past year, as well as your survey answers (Locus has been collecting detailed statistical information about science fiction readers for, well, 43 years now). You needn't be a subscriber to fill in the survey, though subscribers' votes are weighted more heavily in the awards. I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that I have two books on the ballot this year: Rapture of the Nerds (with Charlie Stross) and Pirate Cinema; they're in some very good company as well. Locus Poll and Survey (via Tor.com)
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| 8:36 am | Ouya reviewed David Pierce at The Verge reviews Ouya, the $100 hackable games console. There's a huge problem with it: a feeble library, the death of many an otherwise great gaming machine. "Many of the 60,000 people who already bought an Ouya [will] just want to turn it on and play some games. Boy, will they be let down." 
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| 8:43 am | Slideshow of a visit to a dentist
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| 8:53 am | MONITOR: Los Angeles art punks, 1980  MONITOR was a short-lived Los Angeles art punk band that first performed on Halloween 1978. The group was part the experimental transmedia micro-scene of "Associated Skull Bands" like Nervous Gender, Human Hands, BPeople, and Boyd Rice's NON. Through the mail art network, MONITOR connected with DEVO pal Ed Barger who recorded MONITOR's self-titled LP in 1980. Writing for the Los Angeles Reader, Matt Groening (yes, that Matt Groening) said in 1981 that "MONITOR's debut album, a compendium of mutant amplified folk tunes is the best local release I've heard all year." Now, Superior Viaduct records has reissued that LP on CD with additional bonus tracks. Special note: the track "Hair" on the album was actually performed by The Meat Puppets at MONITOR's invitation. MONITOR: s/t CD
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| 7:12 am | Pong on the side of a skyscraper Britt Faulstick reports on Drexel professor Frank Lee's 29-storey game of Pong:
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| 7:25 am | Deejays suspended for "dihydrogen monoxide" April Fools joke Jim Leftwich says: "Two Deejays for "Gator Country 101.9" warned that 'dihydrogen monoxide' was coming out of peoples' water faucets. Georgians panicked. The DJs were 'suspended indefinitely.'" UPDATE: They're back on the air! 
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| 6:02 am | Trial of the Clone: great choose-your-own-adventure from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal creator I've finally gotten around to reading my copy and it's an absolute delight. Not only is it witty and often laugh-aloud funny -- it's also got a novel and well-thought-through game mechanic that introduces an element of tabletop RPG-playing to the system (instead of rolling dice, you flip randomly through the book and get your roll-value from the number at the bottom corner of the page). The premise is a fun spoof of the Star Wars trilogy. You're an orphaned clone (they decanted you in order to fill a hot market wherein rich people competed to adopt orphans, quickly exhausting the existing pool of orphans and giving rise to the practice of cloning; alas you were decanted just as the market crashed) and you're sent to live with a mystic cult of warriors who train you and enlist you in an intergalactic war. The humor is trenchant, never too on-the-nose, and never gets in the way of what turns out to be rather a good story. As an added bonus, "nearly all the proper names in the book are dirty words in Czech." Profits from this book are donated to Fight for the Future, one of the activist groups that led the charge that killed SOPA last year. Trial of the Clone [Amazon] Trial of the Clone [SMBC]
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| 9:29 am | AFA concerned about what children view on the radio AFA media release: “American society is moving further and further away from the Biblical standards of morals and decency set by God, to the point that we have to worry about what our children view in the supermarket checkout, in their school textbooks, and now even in their own homes on television and radio,” said American Family Association President Tim Wildmon. “We’re urging the FCC to uphold high decency standards in entertainment in order to protect America’s children and families.” 
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| 9:07 am | Photon 3D Scanner: fold-up easy 3D scanning on IndieGoGo Matterform's Photon 3D Scanner is a $350-$400 IndieGoGo-funded gadget from Canada. It promises to be operable by novices with no particular knowledge of 3D modelling or printing. It folds up to a small package, making it portable as well, and it can complete a scan in three minutes, working at dimensions up to 7.5" diam/9.5" height. The project is fully funded, but you can still pre-order by adding to the campaign; they're estimating general fulfillment by August.
Photon 3D Scanner (Thanks, Steven!)
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| 9:05 am | Magma Stainless Steel Grill Once again the Magma BBQ saved my camping trip. Copied from the pages of The Samba, where user Rhinoculips shared his install, this is one fantastic addition to my arsenal of VW Westfalia camping gear!
Set-up and break-down of the grill take me less than 3 minutes. The simple, small 1lb propane cans are easy to pack away in either the Magma's padded storage bag, or just stashed around my bus. It is easy to light and gets wonderfully hot, wonderfully quick! You can choose where to put yours, there are many, many mounting options. I really enjoy being able to grill right outside the door while frying, sautéing or otherwise working in the van's kitchen. Without need to build a charcoal or wood fire to BBQ, things are a lot easier (and lighter.) The grill would neatly pack away under the rear seat, if the PO hadn't put a giant bass tube down there! Magma Original Size Stainless Steel Grill
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Lafrenière is the head of the service's communications division and frequently appeared in the media during the student protests. 
The Photon allows anyone to take a physical object, and turn it into a digital 3D model on your computer. From there, you can print your file on any 3D printer, or online printing service. Or use the model you created in an animation or video game. 
