Gregarius » Boing Boing » July 30, 2008

Man places casino bet with marijuana

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 2:48pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

The gentleman was arrested in a Fresno, California casino after he placed a bet with marijuana in a card game. He was arrested, even though he produced a "cannabis club" card purchased on the internet. (via Neatorama)

Zimbabwe currency on eBay

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 2:38pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

Mugabe should just print trillion dollar bills and sell them directly on eBay. This $100,000,000,000 note is up to AU$87 with eleven bids.

Zimbabwe Banknotes on eBay

Ancient clock displays Olympic calendar and astronomical cycles

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 2:15pm CDT by David Pescovitz

The Antikythera Mechanism is a two-thousand year-old clock made in Greece that was discovered a century ago in a shipwreck. Two years ago, scientists studying the bits and pieces that survived under the sea were able to figure out that the device was used to calculate astronomical cycles. Now though, British mathematician Tony Freeth, part of the original research group, has determined that the Antikythera Mechanism also shows the timetables of the Olympic Games. Freeth and his colleagues published their findings in this week's issue of the science journal Nature. The magazine also posted a fascinating video telling the clock's story. It's a marvelous tale of technology, history, and curiosity. From Nature News:

The device had intermeshed toothed wheels that represent calendar cycles. By turning the wheels, a user could figure out the relationships between astronomical cycles to deduce the relative positions of the Sun and Moon and forecast eclipses.

But after two millennia under the sea off the island of Antikythera, near Crete, all that remains of the device are 82 fragments of flaking bronze, including parts of 30 gear-wheels2. The numbers of gear teeth are crucial, but must be inferred from the partial wheels that remain. And most of the inscriptions are hidden under corrosion and surface accretions. To read them, the researchers used a method called microfocus X-ray computed tomography, which provides X-ray images of slices through the sample, revealing inscriptions buried beneath the mechanism's surface.

Antikythera Mechanism video
"Complex clock combines calendars" Nature News article
"Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism" paper

TSA proud of confiscating non-dangerous items

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 2:09pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

The items show here are, according to the TSA web site, an "empty metal bottle and a home-made battery pack, consisting of 28 rechargeable batteries connected by multiple resistors and held together in two layers with a silicone-based adhesive."

Do you like the way the TSA put the wires from the battery pack under the empty water bottle and arranged the two separate items in such as way as to make them look more like a Hollywood version of a bomb?

The TSA website headline: "Explosive-Like Item Intercepted at Checkpoint"

Security expert Bruce Schneier's headline: "TSA Proud of Confiscating Non-Dangerous Item"

Here's an excerpt from the TSA report:

The passenger [at Jackson-Evers International Airport] was an engineer and said he built the battery to power his DVD player for the long flight to Hawaii. After recognizing that the item could be seen by other passengers as a threat, the man surrendered it to Supervisory TSO Raiford Patterson and was allowed to board the flight.

Here's an excerpt from Schneier's blog:

My guess is that if Kip Hawley [Administrator & Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for the Transportation Security Administration] were allowed to comment on my blog, he would say something like this: "It's not just bombs that are prohibited; it's things that look like bombs. This looks enough like a bomb to fool the other passengers, and that in itself is a threat."
Okay, that's fair. But the average person doesn't know what a bomb looks like; all he knows is what he sees on television and the movies. And this rule means that all homemade electronics are confiscated, because anything homemade with wires can look like a bomb to someone who doesn't know better. The rule just doesn't work.

And in today's passengers-fight-back world, do you think anyone is going to successfully do anything with a fake bomb?

Did he get to keep the water bottle?

Memory Hole obtains over 400 forms used by the NSA

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 1:52pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

Russ Kick's Memory Hole is back with a special treat for fans of government intelligence agency arcana:

Via a Freedom of Information Act request (which involved paying $700 and waiting almost 4 years), The Memory Hole has obtained blank copies of most forms used by the National Security Agency).
In response to a prior request, the NSA had sent a supposedly complete listing of forms that they use. (That list is located here.) I then requested a blank copy of each one. The NSA responded by sending a copy of more than 400 forms totaling 687 separate pages. (They also withheld 24 forms totaling 31 pages.)

I scanned the forms in the order (basically alphabetical) in which they appeared in the parcel. Some of them are standard Defense Department forms, but most originate within the NSA and have never been seen outside the agency. They range from the exotic to the pedestrian, but even the most prosaic form shines some light into the workings of No Such Agency.

Over 400 forms used by the National Security Agency (The Memory Hole)

Angry Youth Comix dolls available

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 1:46pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

These Angry Youth Comix dolls, modeled exactly from the characters in Johnny Ryan's comic of the same name, would make a welcome addition to any rejuvenile's curio shelf.

The Toxic Waste variants are especially appealing.

Angry Youth Comix dolls

BBtv WORLD: Migration, and a Mayan Sweat Bath. (Guatemala)

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 1:38pm CDT by Xeni Jardin

In episode 2 of our new BBtv WORLD series, Xeni reports in from a K'iche Maya village in the Guatemalan highlands, and we step inside a traditional Mayan steam bath, or "tuj."

This pueblo began as a settlement camp for"environmental refugees" -- people who became displaced after mudslides and floods caused by Hurricane Mitch made their ancestral village unsafe. Survivors packed what belongings they could on their backs and walked miles to a bare patch of cold, windy mountaintop nicknamed "Alaska" for its extreme microclimate.

Nearly ten years after the disaster and the subsequent loss of their homes, these people are still struggling for survival. Their traditions are a source of strength, and today we experience one of them -- a small brick hut filled with hot volcanic rocks, steam, and herb branches gathered from nearby mountains.

Previously on BBtv WORLD:

Episode 1: El Molinero (Guatemala)

(image: Xeni Jardin)

Sponsorship note: The BBtv crew wishes to thank Microsoft for underwriting this episode, and generously supporting the launch of the "BBtv World" series. In this ongoing video series, we will be looking at the intersection of social causes & technology around the world from a number of perspectives. Through their new "i’m Initiative," Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world’s most important social causes when users email or IM with tools such as Windows Live™ Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail®. For more information, visit imtalkathon.com or im.live.com.

How insects breathe underwater

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 1:32pm CDT by David Pescovitz

MIT mathematicians have learned more about how insects breathe underwater by trapping a layer of air around their bodies. The scientists determined that insects can dive as deep as 30 meters without the bubbles bursting. (Seen here, a Notonecta covered with a respiratory bubble.) From MIT News Office:

The air bubble's stability is maintained by hairs on the insects' abdomen, which help repel water from the surface. The hairs, along with a waxy surface coating, prevent water from flooding the spiracles--tiny breathing holes on the abdomen.

The spacing of these hairs is critically important: The closer together the hairs, the greater the mechanical stability and the more pressure the bubble can withstand before collapsing.

However, mechanical stability comes at a cost. If the hairs are too close together, there is not enough surface area through which to breathe....

"Because the bubble acts as an external lung, its surface area must be sufficiently large to facilitate the exchange of gases," said (study co-author Morris) Flynn, who is now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta. Other researchers have explored systems that could replicate the external lung on a larger scale, for possible use by diving humans. A team at Nottingham Trent University showed that a porous cavity surrounded by water-repellent material is supplied with oxygen by the thin air layer on its surface. The surface area required to support human respiration is impractically large, in excess of 100 square meters; however, other avenues for technological application exist. For example, such a device could supply the oxygen needed by fuel cells to power small autonomous underwater vehicles.

Insects breathing underwater (MIT News Office)

Secrets of the Royal Alberta Museum

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:48pm CDT by David Pescovitz

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman had a backroom tour of the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Alberta where he perused a natural history collection of nearly 70,000 items donated by a generous oilman and lawyer. Loren posted snapshots of his tour over at Cryptomundo. From Loren's post:

Walls were covered with trophy heads and taxidermy items were on several rows of shelves. Over in the corner, one might find a huge Galapagos tortoise. Turn around, look under a sheet of plastic, and there’s a baby musk ox.

Backrooms of the Royal Alberta Museum (Cryptomundo)

Previously on BB:
• Richard Banres's "Animal Logic" photography
• Justine Cooper's photos of the American Museum of Natural History

Cool animation of Wal-Mart's spread across US

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:40pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

Wal-mart stores are depicted as disease-green blobs in this neat animation of the retail giant's spread across the US.

Nathan says: "This is similar to the Walmart infection video you put up a while back, but this one is *interactive* - and a bit sexier."

Walmart Infection - Interactive Edition

Monster toys, prints, and shirts from Goblin-Fish Press

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:34pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

Mark Statford says:

Justin Parpan and Josh Parpan run a little store called Goblin Fish Press that's chock full of great kids toys, prints and shirts. All with a sort of monster theme.

I like the Insectoids from Mars T-shirt, on sale for $10!

Goblin-Fish Press

Bar in a tree

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:20pm CDT by David Pescovitz

This giant tree in Limpopo, South Africa is home to a tavern, the Big Baobab Pub. The 6,000-year-old baobab tree, on Sunland Farm, has a 155 foot circumference and walls 6.5 feet thick. Click the photo snips to see the entire images. From Life In The Fast Lane:

The tree has its own cellar, with natural ventilation to keep the beer cold...

More than 7,000 visitors come from all over the world to see the grandiose Baobab every year and have a drink in its pub, which has 13 foot (4 meter) high ceilings and comfortably seats up to 15 people.

“One year we had a party and squashed 54 people inside, but I wouldn’t recommend that.” said (proprietor Heather) van Heerden.

Bar inside tree (Life In The Fast Lane, via Fortean Times)

Peter Ward dives to meet a wild Nautilus

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:15pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

Avi Solomon says: "Peter Ward, paleontologist, dives at night to meet the Nautilus, a wondrous creature which has survived for 500 million years."

Peter Ward dives to meet a wild Nautilus

Parents question why Ozark police used stun gun on kid with broken back

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:08pm CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

Brett Burton says: "Police in Ozark, MO tasered a 16-year-old boy after he fell 30 feet from a bridge. Officers said he refused to comply with them and they had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. At the time, he was apparently lying on the ground with a broken back."

His dad says the use of the stun gun delayed what would have been immediate surgery by two days.
“The ‘Tasering’ increased his white blood cell count and caused him to have a temperature so they could not go into the operation.”

“He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he's also making statements such as, ‘Shoot cops, kill cops,’ things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers,” said Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset.

Police say although there are several unanswered questions; the reason for the use of a stun gun is not one of them.

“It's a big concern for the officers to keep this guy out of traffic, to keep him from getting hurt,” said Rousset.

Parents question why Ozark police used stun gun on injured son (KY3.com)

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Todd Lappin's Quinceañera ceremony photos

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 11:49am CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

It's hard to argue with Todd Lappin's Cardinal Rule of Elemental Photography:

Photos always turn out much better when you have a camera on hand to take the picture.
No camera? No photo. It's as simple as that. Who knew?

Happily, the solution turns out to be equally simple: Carry a camera as often as possible. Having tried many different makes and models, we tend to favor Casio's Exilim line of ultra-thin, point-and-shoot cameras. Telstar Logistics has owned several Exilims over the years, including the pocket-friendly Casio EX-S600 that's in service with us now.

This Sunday it did what it does best as we were running errands in the neighborhood around our global headquarters. While passing through San Francisco's Mission District under the bright midday sun, we came across a long line of Chevy lowriders idling outside a local church.

It was a Quinceañera ceremony — the Latina version of a sweet sixteen or bat mitzvah — and the lowriders were on hand to let the ladies ride in style. The wee Casio was tucked away in our pocket, so we unholstered it, pressed the shutter button a few times, and let the innate awesomeness of the spectacle do the rest.

Lowrider Love on a Sunday Afternoon (Telstar Logistics)

Orwell's diaries in blog form

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 7:32am CDT by Cory Doctorow

The Orwell Prize will mark the 70th anniversary of the Orwell Diaries by serializing them, one day at a time, on a blog -- reminiscent of the way that Phil Gyford syndicated Pepys's Diary.

From 9th August 2008, you will be able to gather your own impression of Orwell’s face from reading his most strongly individual piece of writing: his diaries. The Orwell Prize is delighted to announce that, to mark the 70th anniversary of the diaries, each diary entry will be published on this blog exactly seventy years after it was written, allowing you to follow Orwell’s recuperation in Morocco, his return to the UK, and his opinions on the descent of Europe into war in real time. The diaries end in 1942, three years into the conflict.
What impression of Orwell will emerge? From his domestic diaries (which start on 9th August), it may be a largely unknown Orwell, whose great curiosity is focused on plants, animals, woodwork, and – above all – how many eggs his chickens have laid. From his political diaries (from 7th September), it may be the Orwell whose political observations and critical thinking have enthralled and inspired generations since his death in 1950. Whether writing about the Spanish Civil War or sloe gin, geraniums or Germany, Orwell’s perceptive eye and rebellion against the ‘gramophone mind’ he so despised are obvious.

Orwell Diaries (via Memex 1.1)

Mom, Dad, I'm into Steampunk: an imaginary monologue

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:35am CDT by Cory Doctorow

McSweeney's Short imagined monologues presents, "Mom, Dad, I'm Into Steampunk" by Marco Kaye.

No, I won't take off my topcoat. And that's exactly my point. I understand your confusion. The nascent trend I have latched onto is difficult to define. Maybe I can explain it to you with the new mods I've been working on. No, Mom. Not like in Quadrophenia, although I appreciate those mods' fondness for tailor-made clothing. These mods.
This looks like a late-18th-century organette, correct? Look again. It hides the Dell laptop you got me when I went to college. This bronze hand crank turns it on, and I've hidden a miniature photo printer where the tune sheet is supposed to go. I even installed Linux. I've put a lot of time into this since I quit my job at Anthropologie, which is something else I wanted to tell you about. Don't get up and go to Lowe's yet. But when you're there can you get me a two-speed fan capacitor?

Mom, Dad, I'm Into Steampunk

To destroy Al Qaeda, we must end the war on terror: Rand Corporation

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:33am CDT by Cory Doctorow

A new Rand Corporation report comprehensively surveys the ways that terrorist groups have been disbanded in the past: "Military force was rarely the primary reason a terrorist group ended." Instead, historic wars on terror have been won with policing and settlements. Rand's conclusion? To defeat Al Qaeda, we need to end the war on terror.

A recent RAND research effort sheds light on this issue by investigating how terrorist groups have ended in the past. By analyzing a comprehensive roster of terrorist groups that existed worldwide between 1968 and 2006, the authors found that most groups ended because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they negotiated a settlement with their governments. Military force was rarely the primary reason a terrorist group ended, and few groups within this time frame achieved victory.

Terrorism’s End: Jon Taplin, How Terrorist Groups End: Rand Corporation

RIP Harriet Burns, first woman Imagineer

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:28am CDT by Cory Doctorow

Harriet Burns, the first woman Imagineer, died this week at 79. She was part of the teams that built Sleeping Beauty's Castle, the Matterhorn, Submarine Voyage, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean. and Great Moments with Mr Lincoln.

She also occasionally filled in for Walt Disney on "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color."
In 2000, the Walt Disney Co. named Burns as a Disney Legend, an honor that acknowledges people "whose imagination, talents and dreams have created the Disney magic."
Walt Disney Imagineering issued a statement this week, calling her "the best-dressed employee in the department."
It also released a quote from Burns in which she described her work for Disney in the 1950s: "I wore color-coordinated dresses, high heels and gloves to work. Girls didn't wear slacks back then, although I carried a pair in a little sack, just in case I had to climb into high places."

Link (Thanks, Mat!)

(Image: Harriet, Blaine, and some traveling companions, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike photo from Ste3ve's Flickr stream)

Gawker reports on "monster" washed ashore

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:17am CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

Gawker posted this photo of a dead beast of some kind.

This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there is "a government animal testing facility very close by in Long Island[.]"

Photoshop?
Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk (Gawker)

People who have killed their lawns

Posted: July 30th, 2008, 12:09am CDT by Mark Frauenfelder

I went for a walk in Sebastopol CA this evening and took some photos (crappy photos with my iPhone, sorry) of front yards that have gardens instead of lawns. They look much more interesting than grass, and some of them had vegetables growing among the flowers. I'm preparing to kill my own lawn and replacing it with a heavily mulched garden.

I hope more people take photos of front-yard gardens and tag them on Flickr with killyourlawn.

Kill Your Lawn Flickr set