Bootleg action figure gallery

By Cory Doctorow at 11:42 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

The Bootleg Action Figure site features page after page after page of photos of crummy bootleg action figures -- this Batman knockoff is adorable. Link (Thanks, Dan!)

Synthesizer ads for nuns

By Cory Doctorow at 11:36 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

The UK's Synthi synthesizers ran an old ad campaign, collected here, showing all the different contexts in which their gigantic electric keyboards were de riguer: picnics, Christmas, and nunneries. Link (Thanks, Tom!)

Image gallery of firecracker labels

By Xeni Jardin at 10:03 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

Link. (Thanks, Devon)

Sub-$20 Wonder Weapons

By Xeni Jardin at 9:43 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

For less than one Andrew Jackson, you too can own any number of wack-ass scifi defense tools. Shown here, the dreaded Hypnodisk, guaranteed by its manufacturer to "Produce Weird and Bizarre Effects." Defense technology reporter Noah Shachtman says:

I believed all those government and scientific reports that laser rifles and hand-held force fields were decades away from reality -- if they were possible at all. Cloaked in the dull skepticism of a flat-earther, I naively thought that advances like "Electro-Hypnotizers" and "Ion Ray Guns" were the stuff of science fiction, or merely hoaxes. (...) Not only are these items for real, but a helpful Internet retailer -- "Information Unlimited," out of Amherst, New Hampshire -- has been thoughtful enough to sell them all under one electronic roof. Huzzah!

My only question is what to buy first. Should it be the "Telekinetic Enhancer"? The "Sonic Nausea Device" Or maybe I should go with the "Magnetic Cannon." Luckily, the plans for most of these projects are only $20. So I can afford to make some mistakes.

Link

The Strange World of Blogspot Spam Blogs

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:05 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

Spam blogs are phony weblogs designed to game Google's pagerank system. They are automatically updated by scripts.

Justin Baeder says: "Blogspot spam blogs have gotten a lot more clever in recent weeks. Today I found a one that purports to be maintained by a real person, but upon further examination appears to be run by a bot that posts links to actual news articles (complete with excerpts). The spammy links are hidden using CSS, so you can only see them when you try to leave a comment or view the source of the page." Link

646-lb catfish caught in Thailand, may be record

By Mark Frauenfelder at 8:34 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

Fishermen in Thailand caught what might have been the largest freshwater fish known to man -- a 646-lb whopper of a catfish.

When wildlife officials caught wind of the catch they urged the villagers to release the adult male so that it could spawn, but it later died and was eaten, the groups said. They did not say when the massive fish was caught.

Link (thanks, Shawn!)

Badonkadonk mouse, gangsta gadgets

By Xeni Jardin at 7:15 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

This fanciful Sync mag roundup of gadgets for gangstas includes a number of chuckle-inducers -- such as the mouse shown here mit junk in trunk, and the Redman Redeye photo filter.
Link to the whole list. (via MeFi)

David Lynch now does daily weather reports on the internet

By Xeni Jardin at 7:02 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

The master auteur behind such works as Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, and Twin Peaks now reads you the weather, right here. It's strangely addictive! Well -- mostly just strange. (Thanks, Susannah Breslin!)

Google Maps, Reloaded: Animated Mozillas and Gnus attack Redmond

By Xeni Jardin at 6:38 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

Boing Boing reader paolo says:

Yesterday BoingBoing reported the Google Map hack "Star Wars Imperial ATAT attack on Palo Alto". Today I created an *animated* hack: invaders move around the map! And this time invaders are mozillas and gnus converging towards Microsoft Offices in Redmond! ;-) Here is the animated map: Link. Be sure to check the HTML code (with the Javascript code that moves invaders around). In the blog post I also ponder that "It should be very easy to create real playable games on Google Maps. Here are some ideas: - playing Risk on the real world map (with the ability to zoom in/out to combat at different scales). Extend Jrisk or JavaRisk (code available on SourceForge). - playing FreeCiv on real world maps. Modify FreeCiv source code. - driving a car race on streets of the real world. - much more I guess.

Link.

Previously: Google Maps API released / Star Wars ATAT attack on Palo Alto

Darth Vader fetish chick on Yahoo! Korea website

By Xeni Jardin at 6:34 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

Perhaps some Korean-speaking Boing Boing readers can tell me what in the Sith is going on here. Image found on Yahoo! Korea. Link
(Thanks, Swissfondue!)

Reader Comment: Random_Tangent says:

More in the Darth Vader fetish line. The model, Malady, decided to do her own homage to the release of Revenge of the Sith by wearing Thigh-high boots, a Vader mask and little else. A surprisingly disturbing combination of Geek Icon and sexuality. Twists the brain just to look at. Almost Safe for Work (that is to say no visible nipples). The photography is fairly boring and kind of flat, but the subject is enough to shine past the high key/Full Housian fill.

Link

Music video: "Reason" (dirty/hard bass + martial arts chic)

By Xeni Jardin at 6:24 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

This looks pretty badass. "Reason" video by DJ Maxximus featuring Soom-t (mov file): high-quality, low-quality, zip file. (Thanks, DJ Maxximus!)

Pakistan's internet slowly returns after countrywide outage

By Xeni Jardin at 6:20 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

Sean Bonner says,

The entire country has been without internet for the past few days, it's just now coming back, but VERY slowly

Link to Sean's blog post, Link to coverage on the Karachi metblog, and Link to related news coverage via Google.

PlayStation player zapped by lightning

By David Pescovitz at 6:14 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

David Robinson, 14, of Middleton, New Hampshire, was playing Grand Theft Auto 3 during a thunderstorm when he was zapped by lightning that struck outside his bedroom and traveled through his PlayStation controller. Fortunately, the shock only left Robinson exhausted and with a black spot on his left hand. From Foster's Daily Democrat:

"My TV went out a few seconds before I got a shock," Robinson said, adding the current traveled through the television, the gaming system and into him through his game controller.

Robinson said he doesn't remember what happened next, but believes the electricity traveled from his left hand and exited through a toe on his right foot, part of which he shot off with a .32 caliber rifle during an accident in October...

"I was shocked myself that it (the electricity) traveled through his whole body and didn't damage it," (his mother Wendy) Smith said, adding there was a distinct hole and black spot in Robinson's left hand where the electricity entered his body. His body was also severely stimulated to the point of exhaustion...

"I was worried my Play Station was broken," Robinson said, adding the television, the video game and the Play Station were undamaged, but the controller was fried by the charge.

Link

DOJ "Operation Site Down"

By Xeni Jardin at 6:00 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

Snip from United States Department of Justice press release:

Beginning yesterday morning, the FBI and law enforcement from 10 other countries conducted over 90 searches worldwide as part of â€Å“Operation Site Down,â€Â designed to disrupt and dismantle many of the leading criminal organizations that illegally distribute and trade in copyrighted software, movies, music, and games on the Internet.

Link, and Link to report of one such bust on a local ABC affiliate TV station. (Thanks, Santos Halper)

What science knows it doesn't know

By David Pescovitz at 5:49 pm Thursday, Jun 30 • Comments • Share

Scientific journal Science is celebrating its 125th anniversary by asking 125 big questions that science can't answer... yet. The ground rule in the selection process was that "scientists should have a good shot at answering the questions over the next 25 years, or they should at least know how to go about answering them." Here are the top 25:

What Is the Universe Made Of?
What is the Biological Basis of Consciousness?
Why Do Humans Have So Few Genes?
To What Extent Are Genetic Variation and Personal Health Linked?
Can the Laws of Physics Be Unified?
How Much Can Human Life Span Be Extended?
What Controls Organ Regeneration?
How Can a Skin Cell Become a Nerve Cell?
How Does a Single Somatic Cell Become a Whole Plant?
How Does Earth's Interior Work?
Are We Alone in the Universe?
How and Where Did Life on Earth Arise?
What Determines Species Diversity?
What Genetic Changes Made Us Uniquely Human?
How Are Memories Stored and Retrieved?
How Did Cooperative Behavior Evolve?
How Will Big Pictures Emerge from a Sea of Biological Data?
How Far Can We Push Chemical Self-Assembly?
What Are the Limits of Conventional Computing?
Can We Selectively Shut Off Immune Responses?
Do Deeper Principles Underlie Quantum Uncertainty and Nonlocality?
Is an Effective HIV Vaccine Feasible?
How Hot Will the Greenhouse World Be?
What Can Replace Cheap Oil -- and When?
Will Malthus Continue to Be Wrong?

Link