Boing Boing » Rob Beschizza

America's most religious cities download lots of porn

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:07:42 +0000

Pornhub compared Gallup's survey of religiosity to its own records of smut-seekers, and learned that residents of America's most religious cities love themselves some porn. [Pando Daily]

Tim Curry "recovering after major stroke"

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:58:40 +0000

Actor Tim Curry suffered a stroke last night, but the 67-year-old is "doing great" and already recovering at home, according to reports. Get well soon, Tim!

• Rocky Horror Muppet Show
• Rocky Horror costumes
• LOLCats meet Rocky Horror

School safety officer throws student down flight of stairs

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:46:59 +0000

[Update: video removed.] This Chicago public school security guard was reportedly suspended after pushing a students down a flight of stairs. Damn! [via Sky News]

Five nights of rioting in Sweden

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:41:37 +0000

"The nightly riots began on Sunday in the north-western [Stockholm] suburb of Husby, a deprived, largely immigrant area. It is believed they were sparked by the death of a man nearly a week before, who was shot by police after he allegedly threatened to kill them with a machete." [BBC]

Copyright in space

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:39:13 +0000

Glenn Fleishman at The Economist:

Chris Hadfield has captured the world's heart, judging by the 14m YouTube views of his free-fall rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity", recorded on the International Space Station (ISS). The Canadian astronaut's clear voice and capable guitar-playing were complemented by his facility in moving around in the microgravity of low-earth orbit. But when the man fell to Earth in a neat and safe descent a few days ago, after a five-month stay in orbit, should he have been greeted by copyright police?

Germany, Canada and Britain the world's most-loved countries

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:05:05 +0000

59% of those polled view Germany positively, with 55% having warm fuzzies when they think of Canada or the UK. Everyone hates Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. The USA sits mid-table, more liked than not. China, India and Japan are the big slumpers, for some reason, compared to previous polls. [BBC]

Manson disciple tapes analyzed

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:58:31 +0000

Tapes of conversations between a Charles Manson acolyte and his lawyer have been handed to LAPD and may solve old murders: "A federal judge in Texas ruled in March that Charles 'Tex' Watson waived his right to attorney-client privilege when he allowed his lawyer to sell the eight cassette tapes." [AP]

Dyed chicks go for less than a dime

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:05:20 +0000

These chicks, dyed in the egg before hatching, were sold as pets for 4 pesos (8 U.S. cents) at a market in Manila, The Philippines. WikiHow offers instructions for dying your own chicks, while The New York Times reports the downside of all that impulse-bought cuteness: humane societies overflowing with now-normal chickens a few weeks after Easter. (Photo: REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo)

TerraCom and YourTel threaten journalists who exposed massive personal data breach

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:44:28 +0000

Journalists discovered that two companies had posted the personal data of 170,000 customers online. The leak, which exposed the victims to identity theft and fraud, was reportedly so bad that social security numbers, passport scans, financial data and home addresses were indexed by search engines. Rather than merely address the problem, however, TerraCom and YourTel threatened the reporters, referring to them as “hackers” and accusing them of “numerous violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.” Slate:

David Giles, Scripps’ deputy general counsel, responded to the accusation that the reporters “hacked” the information by calling on the companies to stop the “name calling and the legal posturing” and instead address the “apparent careless security practices” raised by the story. “Regardless of the flowery moniker you have used to characterize the bureau's newsgathering activities, the bureau's reporters have not violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or any other law or regulation,” Giles wrote in a letter sent to TerraCom and YourTel’s lawyers earlier this month.

It's interesting how readily many of us pattern-recognize this as a classic "hacker tragedy," whereby clueless stupids kill the messenger who was trying to help them. But it seems simpler than that, to me: is this not simply a case of criminals breaking data protection laws in pursuit of their own convenience, then threatening the people who caught them?

See, for example, this part of the legal nastygram they sent to the journos:

"Because the Scripps Hackers have put the Companies in the position of having to incur the costs of potentially complying with more than 20 state data breach notification laws, the Companies are likely to look to Scripps to reimburse them for those costs."

Translation: "If only we hadn't been found out, we wouldn't have to comply with the law. You'll pay for this!" *shakes fist*

Inflatable tanks tricked Hitler

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:18:24 +0000

Megan Garber on how the Allies "saved thousands of lives by embracing the artistry of war." [The Atlantic]

Pope cool with atheists

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:08:23 +0000

Steve Anderson at The Independent:

Pope Francis has said that atheists should be seen as good people as long as they do good, in a move to urge people of all religions - or no religion at all - to get along.

New console specs compared

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:06:48 +0000

Mashable compares the specs of this year's new game consoles, Microsoft's XBox One (Already affectionately nicknamed the XBone due to its awful branding), Sony's Playstation 4, and the already-out Wii U. The PS4 comes out ahead, but the XBone is architecturally very similar.

Mad World rap

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:42:24 +0000

Musician Daniel Acalá sampled my chiptune cover of Mad World for the intro track to his new album; quite an honor! You can pay-what-you-like for it at Bandcamp! I have no idea what the lyrics mean! (Thanks everyone for sending it in!)

Masturbation 'at the root of culture wars'

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 23 May 2013 02:42:44 +0000

The Atlantic's Hugo Schwyzer has a theory: that masturbation, as the most common sex act, is the heart of modernity's war between Christianity and secularism.

Many progressives were bewildered by Antonin Scalia's blistering 2003 dissent in Lawrence v Texas, in which he warned that state laws against evils such as "adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, and bestiality" might be invalidated as a result of the decision. Why, liberals wondered, was masturbation included on that list? The answer is simple: masturbation remains not only a grave sin in the eyes of the Catholic Church to which Scalia belongs, but its acceptance as benign and healthy is perhaps the foundational error of modern sexual culture.

Annoying lawsuit for Annoying Orange

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 23 May 2013 02:23:44 +0000

An advertising agency is suing the creators of Cartoon Network's The Annoying Orange, accusing them of ripping off a character, The Talking Orange, that they created for a 2005 public information ad. [Mercury News]

CNN's Wolf Blitzer to tornado victim: "You gotta thank the lord". Victim: "I'm an atheist"

Rob Beschizza — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:20:08 +0000

This is CNN.

NYT lawyers to indie dev: "you need to remove any reference to The New York Times from your website"

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:03:16 +0000

Cody Brown, developer of software that makes it easy to generate classy website news features in the style of The New York Times' "Snow Fall", made a mistake: he used photos from that legendary web layout in a youtube demo. The NYT sent a cease and desist letter, and he took it down. But then something strange happened: the NYT ordered him to remove all mention of the NYT from his own website.

In defense of the selfie

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:06:45 +0000

Sam Kassé defends the selfie, blight of social networks: "I know most people hate selfies. They groan and complain about them, from the duck lips to the filters. Why, just the word “selfie” can induce legendary amounts of eyerolling. What people seem to miss, is that selfies are actually great. No, scratch that, selfies are brilliant! One of my favourite pastimes at work is to (discreetly) scroll through my Instagram feed and see pictures of my friends feeling good about themselves."

Paul Verhoeven eyes director's chair in new Schwarzenegger Conan flick

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:37:14 +0000

Robocop director Paul Verhoeven, noted for his films' ultraviolence and politically-tinged black humor, wishes to direct Arnold Schwarzenegger as an older, grayer Conan. 65-year-old Schwarzenegger starred under Verhoeven in the original version of Total Recall; no director has officially been selected for the new project, provisionally titled Conan The Legend.

Here are the top 5 movies that should have been directed by Paul Verhoeven, but were not.

1. Dredd (2012)
2. Hunger Games (2012)
3. Machete (2010)
4. Avatar (2009)
5. Hollow Man (2000)

Just think how awesome those movies would have been if Paul Verhoeven had directed them.

How to get cinematic video from a point-and-shoot camera

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:29:43 +0000

The first step, unfortunately, is that you have to have Sony's remarkable but rather expensive RX100, whose larger sensor makes much of the difference. Fortunately, the rest is all menu settings to get a flat image profile and 25fps. Guides from Run, Gun and Shoot and from EOSHD have the technical goods, but you'll need to cough up your own mise en scène.

Pixel art from obscure video games

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:14:12 +0000

Obscure Video Games collects splendid character art and workmanship from weird, unsuccessful or foreign-only titles of the 8- and 16-bit eras.

Hacker News, "a community for Ex-Redditors"

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:32:00 +0000

TechCrunch's Leena Rao reports on Hacker News, the code demo that quickly became a major aggregator. Now enjoying 1.6m page views a day, its success was due in part to minimalism ("he wanted Hacker News to look like your list of processes in a terminal window"), well-made moderation features, and the arrival of technically-minded Redditors overwhelmed by that site's explosion of trivial and trollish subject matter. With growth, however, HN is beginning to observe similar patterns within itself: "I wish the community would behave the way they did when it was a little village," says creator Paul Graham.

Indie games made with Unity

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:18:17 +0000

Make Games! published a huge list of indie titles, many of them free or trivially inexpensive, made using the wildly popular game-making software Unity—I know what I'll be doing next weekend! If you're feeling inspired, Make Games!' getting started page links to essential articles and Unity alternatives for developers of any skill level.

Yahoo buys Tumblr

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:53:38 +0000

Yahoo announced today that it is buying blogging site Tumblr for $1.1bn, mostly in cash. In the posting, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made clear that the cooler, younger company would not be smothered by her firm's notorious corporate culture, under which many other purchases have withered and died.

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr! We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.

Yahoo! even set out to prove its noble intentions with an amusing animated GIF, adorning its post with a flashing remix of the "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON POSTER", edited to say "NOW PANIC AND FREAK OUT."

Amid the announcement's language of respect and cultivation, however, Reuters' Ant DeRosa spotted a purple sheep already making itself comfortable:

This is the first scary part of the new post—Yahoo Tumblr: Marissa Mayer writes: “Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology”

But as we all know, Tumblr's users have been clamoring for Yahoo personalization technology. This pressure from within surely played a strong role in shareholders' calculations. Meyer also promised seamless advertising opportunities that enhance the user experience, another well-defined idea that's sure to please the crowd.

Indeed, what DeRosa calls the "scary part" actually bodes well for the heightened efficiency of Yahoo!'s usually-tardy purchase management and integration efforts. In the past, it's often taken several months or even years before any change at all is heralded in one of its many acquisitions.

Here, though, it took mere a mere 24 seconds to read from the introductory paragraph to Yahoo!'s announced intention to make a curiously unappetizing, corporate-sounding revision to the product. Using this as a normalizing metric for future developments, I feel confident that we can offer the following predictive timetable for the ongoing evolution of Tumblr.

8 a.m., Monday, May 20, 2013 — Official announcement.
9:32 a.m. — First implementation of traditionally unappetizing, corporate-brained, systematic revision of the product.
9:40 p.m. — Reports filter in of infant seizures, nightmares, following the first major apperance on national television of Tumblr CEO's eyes.
10 a.m. — First big revision to Tumblr's terms of service. Yahoo reports in a press release that the company had observed "positive uplifting sharp intakes of breath" from users paid to read them.
12 p.m. — Brunch.
1:15 p.m. — It is observed that there has yet to be a second unappetizing, corporate-brained, systematic revision of the product. People start getting nervous.
2:18 p.m. — Yahoo! announces that Tumblr! will be profitable by 3 p.m.
2:50 p.m. — EXIF data stripped from photos; it is Terry Semel's fault.
3:40 p.m. — Tumblr! press releases start to contain the phrase "a good fit" with alarming regularity.
4 p.m. — Just when everyone thought it would never happen, a great mobile app is launched. In the resulting flurry of excitement and social activity, long-dormant accounts are reused for the first time since the morning. Embarassing hours-old avatars are updated.
4:45 p.m. — Tumblr! logo appears in a leaked powerpoint under the heading "Sunset."
4:47 p.m. — Yahoo! denies that Tumblr! is to be sunsetted.
4:55 p.m. — Yahoo! announces that Tumblr! is to be sunsetted.
4:55:07 p.m. — Buzzfeed runs a list titled "40 bizarre Tumblr pages from the web's good old days."
4:56 p.m. — Yahoo! announces that Tumblr! is to be turned off in three minutes.
4:58 p.m. — The Internet Archive completes a massive project to backup Tumblr before it goes away.
5 p.m. — Yahoo! announces its acquisition of Medium.

Is this the best song from this year's Eurovision Song Contest?

Rob Beschizza — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:20:31 +0000

The battle of the bands, featuring acts from Ireland to Israel, is underway as we speak. Embedded above is Cezar Ouatu's particularly excellent It's my life, this year's Transylvanian entry. Our Europe Correspondent Leigh Alexander will be filing a report, but not until she's had a bit of a lie down.

Draw freehand fractal art with Doodal

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:14:03 +0000

As delightful and intuitive as it is, the creator explains how it works. [Pishtaco]

A timely and topical single-serving site, part II

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:18:45 +0000

Rob Ford Smokes Crack

Mammal school

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:26:35 +0000

A teacher shows a preserved dolphin to students during a class about mammals at Ancol Smart House in Jakarta May 16, 2013. Ancol Smart House has about 20 animals preserved as means to "educate visitors about their life in the wild." 15m visited the park in 2012, according to PR Officer Aldhita Prayudi Ancol. [Photo: Reuters/Beawiharta]

Robot made from recycled scrap

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:17:23 +0000

Chinese inventor Tao Xiangli tinkers with a hand-made robot at his house in Beijing, May 15, 2013. Tao, 37, spent ¥150,000 ($24,400) to build it out of recycled scrap metal and electric wires found at second-hand markets. The robot, which took a year to complete, is 7ft tall and weighs about a quarter of a ton. [Photo: REUTERS/Suzie Wong]

Sissyfight, cult game of sexist stereotyping, returns

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:04:30 +0000

Sissyfight, the groundbreaking 1990s online game of playground politics, is to receive an open-source, crowdsourced remake: "We've gotten some “interesting” press about how the game delves into uncomfortable territory around bullying and sexist stereotypes, but we've always meant Sissyfight to be an intervention into the male-dominated culture of games," writes co-author Eric Zimmerman. It'll be a launch title on Venus Patrol's Indie Arcade; Sophie Prell at Penny Arcade and Leigh Alexander at Gamasutra take a look at how the game fits in a decade on.