Improv Everywhere's new Mp3 Experiment video

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:53 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

[Video Link] Charlie Todd says: "3,500 people downloaded the same mp3 from our website and pressed play simultaneously along the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan.  What resulted was a massive silent party with glow sticks, camera flashes, and flashlights."

Science Fiction Message Board's annual "Author August"

By Cory Doctorow at 9:37 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

The Science Fiction Message Board is once again gearing up for its annual "Author August" in which a different author's work is featured for discussion each day. This year's authors include some of my favorites, including Vernor Vinge (Aug 1); Pat Cadigan (Aug 15) and Madeleine L'Engle (Aug 29).

Glenn Beck compares murdered Norway campers to "Hitler Youth"

By Cory Doctorow at 9:36 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

Glenn Beck has found new depths of depravity to plumb, this time by comparing the campers who fell victim to Anders Behring Breivik's murderous rampage to "Hitler Youth," because they were attending a "political camp." The camp in question is a 60-year-old annual event that where young people gather "learn about and be part of democracy." Which is weird, because that isn't very similar at all to the Hitler Youth, a paramilitary organization that "instill[ed] the motivation that would enable HJ members, as soldiers, to fight faithfully for the Third Reich."

"There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing," Beck stated in the first minute of his syndicated radio show Monday.

Glenn Beck hits 'new low'; compares Norway victims to Hitler Youth (via Reddit)

(Image: Glenn Beck, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from gageskidmore's photostream)

Mexico: another journalist killed

By Xeni Jardin at 8:56 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

Today, another reporter was murdered in Mexico: Yolanda Ordaz, a crime reporter who was investigating the murder of her boss at Notiver, the daily newspaper where she worked. Her body "was found beheaded next to a message whose contents have not been disclosed." She is the 7th reporter killed in Mexico in 2011. More than 68 have been murdered since 2000. Related: the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas has been mapping attacks on reporters in Mexico, which has emerged as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the press. Here is a map of attacks during 2010.

(via Rosental)

Sleepy Korean baby is mysteriously adorable

By Xeni Jardin at 8:42 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

[Video Link] "와~ 엄마다 근데 졸려 (Wow It's mom, but I'm sleepy)," by bobaepapa. The one where she laughs at the sound of tape being pulled off a roll of tape is also worth a view.

‪Market Bargaining in Nairobi‬‏: Joe Sabia (video)

By Xeni Jardin at 8:37 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

‪Market Bargaining in Nairobi. The bargainer in question is Joe Sabia, who collaborates with me on Boing Boing Video projects. He was in Kenya working on some interesting new things.

きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ - PONPONPON

By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:54 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

[Video Link] Can you see the deep truths being revealed here?

Make Vol 27, our special ROBOTS issue, is on newsstands

By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:39 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

The latest issue of MAKE (Vol 27) is out, and we have a ton of cool how-to projects in the issue.

The bots are back in Make: Magazine Volume 27 (O'Reilly Media, $14.99 USD), hitting newsstands July 26. This latest issue shows you how to build robots that can walk, roll, grab, spy, dance, chase a ball, and come when they're called. They're better than a puppy. Some of the buildable bots you'll meet include: • Yellow Drum Machine, which roves in search of things to drum on and then plays, records, and accompanies itself; • Roomba Recon, a robotic vacuum with a wireless router and webcam that drives around and lets you spy on whatever it sees, from any web browser; • Spazzi, a simple but lively dancing bot that bops to music, designed by the makers of the Keepon robot used to help autistic kids; • The Teleclaw, a dirt-cheap remote gripper designed by Gordon McComb, "the father of hobby robotics"; • And Chopsticks, the eight-legged winner of MAKE's Most Entertaining Robot contest. "Robots are a kind of a holy grail for makers, because they incorporate many different technologies: mechanisms, sensors, microcontrollers, and software," says Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of MAKE. "This makes them tremendously fun to build and interact with. The rate of progress in hobby robotics is incredible, and this volume of Make really captures the movement's state of the art." Our special robotics section also brings you the latest in hobby innovations (hamster power, anyone?), and shows you how to use the EZ-Robot controller board to turn any animated toy into a smart bot able to recognize objects and respond to voice commands. Elsewhere in Make: Magazine Volume 27, you'll learn how to create: • A jellyfish aquarium (these mesmerizing creatures are too delicate for standard fish tank filtration); • A budget version of the "virtual camera" used to film Avatar, by special-effects guru Glenn Derry; • A lightweight, portable LED sign with full keyboard that instantly displays any text in bright lights; • A treadmill desk that keeps you fit while you push papers and pixels; • A motion-sensitive Do-Not-Touch Box to surprise your friends; • A $30 gobo arm for capturing smartphone video from workbenches and countertops; • A solar backpack and wood-gas camp stove to technologize your camping; • A beer-pong cup that scoots around to increase degree of difficulty; • And a primer on ImageJ, the free open source program that manipulates video and photos to create brilliant and beautiful visualizations. Try these projects and show off your build in our Make project wiki.

Subscribe to MAKE

San Diego Comic-Con roundup, part 1

By Mark Frauenfelder at 3:48 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

I asked my friend Oric Scott De Las Casas to report on the stuff he encountered at San Diego Comic-Con. Oric has a good eye for comic art and illustration, and I am pleased to present the first of his post-show wrap-ups. Stay tuned for more in the coming days.

The San Diego Comic-Con was a more subdued show than in past years, partially due to new crowd control policies, including the spacing out of large events and panels. Over the next few days, I'll be sharing some of my personal highlights from the event. First up are two standouts from the often overshadowed indie/small press realm. 

Mike Bullock's Lions, Tigers and Bears: Greybeard's Ghost (below) premiered Saturday with a signing by contributing artists Adam Van Wyk and BoingBoing favorite Dan Hipp. (above) It was a wonderful to see a warm response for kid-friendly material in a venue dominated by corporate sponsored superheroes.

Dan Hipp also brought along his first ever art book, Mr. Hipp Strikes! (below) A limited edition gem featuring his favorite color illustrations and a sneak peek at his upcoming Stray Days! Luckily for you, that IS available online. 

More to come. Please stand by.

Technorati Tags: Art & Design

Baby cheetah gives you the stink eye

By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 3:10 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

Serious baby cheetah is serious. Suggested caption: "But, really now. You've got a way to solve this debt ceiling thing, right?"

This photo actually came from the baby cheetah's first medical exam. It, and four siblings, were born in May at the National Zoo's Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. For more adorable photos (including a sad baby cheetah being weighed) you must check out the Zooborns blog.

Via Nerdy Christie

Human gelatin: Vegans will probably stick to agar

By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 2:51 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

What's better than human-derived gelatin? How about human-derived GMO gelatin? On the plus side, no boiling down people bones. On the downside, you have to convince skittish consumers that inserting human gelatin genes into a strain of yeast is a good idea. I don't necessarily think I have a problem with this, based on the little that I've read. But, boy, is this invention ever going to be a doozy for the marketing department. (Thanks to John Christian, via Techdirt)

The secret of yogi levitation

By Mark Frauenfelder at 1:28 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

[Video Link] A neat trick, exposed.

Tiny kids hired as models for inflatable swimming pool photo 2

By Mark Frauenfelder at 1:20 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

Remember when Banzai hired tiny kids as models to advertise its "Wild Waves Water Park?" They've done it again. (Via Sociological Images)

EFF's limited edition, glowing ENCRYPTION SAVES tees for DEFCON signups

By Cory Doctorow at 12:20 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

If you're headed to Las Vegas for DEFCON this summer, you're one of the lucky few who'll be able to get one of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's limited-edition, glow-in-the-dark "Encryption Saves" tees, only available to people who join the organization at the event. I won't be there this year (sob!) but I will be in 2012, where I'll be delivering a keynote. Can't wait!

ENCRYPTION SAVES

The evolution of disgust

By Mark Frauenfelder at 12:07 pm Tuesday, Jul 26 • Comments • Share

The evolution of disgust by Scienceline

Scienceline has a 5-minute podcast about a new theory on the origins of disgust. Most scientists think there are four categories of disgust: 1. Core disgust: protects the body from contamination ("dirt, mold, and sick people"). 2. Interpersonal disgust: protects the soul and social order ("promiscuous sex"). 3. Moral disgust: protects society ("stealing or cheating") 4. Animal reminder disgust: protects the soul from recognizing the body's animal nature. ("Death, wounds, corpses, sexuality"). But Joshua Tybur, a psychologist at the University of New Mexico doesn't think these categories are correct, at least not from an evolutionary standpoint. "It's difficult to think of natural selection actually encouraging the evolution of these kinds of terror-management, anxiety-reducing kind of activities," he says. To test his hunch,Tybur asked volunteers to write down lists of things that disgusted them. He collated the results and ended up with 105 things that disgusted people, such as seeing mold on leftovers in the refrigerator, touching a stranger's feet, hearing two strangers having sex, touching a dead body, seeing someone's bone sticking out of their leg, stealing from a neighbor, and a student cheating. Tybur eliminated items that everyone found disgusting, such as eating someone else's vomit, along with extremely specific things that disgusted only one person surveyed. That narrowed down the number of disgusting items from 105 things to 58 "uniquely gross" things. Tyler presented this reduced set of disgusting things to a new group of people and asked to rank how disgusting the things were from 0 (not all disgusting) to 6 (extremely disgusting). He found that disgust comes in three, not four, varieties: moral disgust, sexual disgust, and pathogen disgust. His conclusion: "Whereas traditional models have suggested that disgust serves to protect the self or neutralize reminders of our animal nature, an evolutionary perspective suggests that disgust functions to solve 3 qualitatively different adaptive problems related to pathogen avoidance, mate choice, and social interaction." Here's a link to a paper Tybur coauthored, titled: Microbes, Making, and Morality: Individual Differences in Three Functional Domains of Disgust Scienceline: The Evolution of Disgust