Boing Boing » Xeni Jardin

The Northern Lights, as seen from the Shetland Islands

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 25 May 2013 15:07:38 +0000

Boing Boing reader Keane Beamish shot this wonderful photograph of the Aurora Borealis in Unst, in the Shetland Islands to the north of Scotland. There are more northern lights photos, and wonderful landscape shots, in his photo set, here. Shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

[Click for large size]

Caturday: Boing Boing readers share photos of their cats, in the Boing Boing Flickr pool

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 25 May 2013 14:35:45 +0000

Photo by Gouldina1, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

Photo by David Glicksman, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

Photo by Stuart Watson, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

Photo by Doran, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

Photo by donovanbeeson, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

F.T.C. eyes new antitrust inquiry into Google's online display ad business

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 25 May 2013 14:21:43 +0000

Antitrust investigators at the Federal Trade Commission are looking into whether Google is abusing its market dominance in online display advertising, reports the New York Times. Reports Edward Wyatt, "People who have been contacted in connection with the inquiry said that the F.T.C. had begun asking questions about Google’s practices, specifically whether the company was bundling advertising services together in a way that prohibited rivals from competing for the business of advertisers."

Watch the latest hand-picked videos in Boing Boing's video archives

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:52:46 +0000

Among the most recent video posts you will find on our video archive page:

• Laptop with thermite self-destruct mechanism
• SIGGRAPH 2013 computer graphics technical breakthroughs
• Van Halen's "Eruption" guitar solo shredded by 14yo girl
• Apple "corporate tax evasion" product parody video: iRS
• Conversations with my 2 year old: a web video series.
• 3D printing saved a baby's life.
• Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" music video.
• New Boards of Canada video!

Boing Boing: Video archives

After Justice Dept. press probes, a new chilling effect for US national security reporters

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:43:59 +0000

"President Obama’s conciliatory gesture toward the press this week — a review of Justice Department investigations involving journalists — struck some national security reporters as closing the door after the sources have already bolted," writes Elizabeth Haughey in the New York Times. And this just as news breaks at CNN that US Attorney General Eric Holder was personally involved in the Justice Department's decision to seek a search warrant for Fox News reporter James Rosen's private e-mails. So, wait, why again is Holder now tasked with reviewing the DoJ's policies involving journalists?

Court rules that racist profiling by Arizona Sheriff was, in fact, racist profiling

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:37:43 +0000

A U.S. district court today ruled that Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's department violated the rights of brown drivers in the state by racially profiling them, and issued an injunction to halt the practice. It's the first time the Maricopa County sheriff's office has been found to be engaging in systematic racial profiling.

How to survive a Japanese monster attack

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:09:49 +0000

Matt Alt, author of "Yokai Attack," gives a Pecha Kucha talk on how to survive some of the ickiest monsters from spooky Japanese fairy tales.

And below, Matt writes:

A few months back, I gave a talk about yokai to a group of students visiting Tokyo from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. There are a lot of Norwegian folktales that resemble those from Japan - trolls and such - so they were a very receptive bunch. A few weeks ago, one of the students, Stian Tranung, mailed me photos of this beautiful yokai stamp set he made by hand after reading Yokai Attack. Very cool and I hope he considers mass producing them!

Saudi student mistakenly suspected after Boston Marathon bombing speaks out

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 25 May 2013 00:55:43 +0000

Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi, the “easy-going, good humored” Saudi Arabian student who was the target of intense suspicion after the bombings in Boston, spoke out for the first time this week. In an interview with The Islamic Monthly, he says media attention since the attacks “double injured” him. You can hear the interview in full here.

“They were really scared of me. I am injured, I don’t have anything and they asked me “What you have in your hand!” I told them “Nothing, it’s just a napkin!” and I throw it to them and they were like “ahh!” … All the police officers and the FBI … and all the nurses and all the doctors were staring at me … I was looking [at] them like, is it because of the color of my skin or is it because of the name of my country?”

Father, white, says he was accused by Walmart security of kidnapping his kids, who are mixed-race

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:55:27 +0000

A man in Virginia says he was accused by security guards at a local Walmart of kidnapping his daughters. The father is white. The mother is black. They have been married for about 10 years and have three daughters: a 4-year-old and 2-year-old twins, all of whom are mixed-race. The incident happened last week on Thursday, May 16, and involved a police officer being sent to their home to question them on whether the children were, in fact, their children. The couple says they will never shop at Walmart again. (image: MyFoxDC)

Guatemala: protests condemn annulment of Rios Montt trial, while ex-president Portillo extradited to US

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:34:44 +0000

In Guatemala City and throughout Latin America today, protests are taking place to condemn the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's decision this week to effectively throw out the trial of Ríos Montt.

On May 10, the former US-backed general was found guilty, and sentenced to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity. But just ten days later, the historic trial was overturned when the nation's highest court voted 3-2 to uphold complaints put forth by Rios Montt's attorneys.

While legal proceedings will continue, most agree that the trial has been effectively destroyed. Indigenous people throughout Guatemala, and their supporters, are outraged.

The protests happen on the same day that another disgraced former Guatemalan president, Alfonso Portillo, is being extradited to the United States where he will face trial in a Manhattan court on US money laundering charges, filed against him in 2010.

The former president is accused of using financial institutions in the United States to launder more than $70 million.

Photo: El Periodico. Guatemalan Police escorting Portillo to the airport, where he will be extradited to the US on money laundering charges.

During his 2000-2004 presidency, Portillo represented the FRG party founded by Rios Montt, and was allied with the former general for many years.

In an interview with a Guatemalan radio network today, Portillo described his extradition as "a kidnapping."

For the most part, word of today's protests around the genocide trial has been spreading through social networks: Facebook, the smartphone texting service WhatsApp, Twitter, and more traditional communication networks within indigenous communities. Most people in Guatemala are poor, and because of their poverty, aren't very internet-connected. For them, text messages, phone calls, and word shared in town squares is how news of protests spreads.

From the sound of it, today is shaping up to be a significant day in Guatemala.

A few of the protest "signs" circulating online are below.

More coverage in our Guatemala archives.

Marcha contra la anulacion de la sentencia contra Rios Montt. #Juiciogenocidio twitter.com/PzPenVivo/stat…
— PlazaPública en Vivo (@PzPenVivo) May 24, 2013

Van Halen's "Eruption" guitar solo shredded by 14yo girl

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:09:45 +0000

The guitar solo from Van Halen's song "Eruption" played by Tina, who is 14. More than 3 million video views in 3 days. She was taught and filmed by Renaud Louis-Servais, and she's playing a Vigier Excalibur Custom.

Below, Eddie Van Halen performing the same, live.

Apple "corporate tax evasion" product parody video: iRS

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:53:46 +0000

The troublesome thing is that only about half of what's in this video is made up. From Sourcefed. Background: Apple, like many other large US corporations, does interesting things with money overseas to minimize the amount it must pay in taxes, and maximize the amount it can keep as profit.

My Own Private Westeros: hand-made scale model of Game of Thrones map

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:22:12 +0000

[Click to enlarge]. Mikeal is making an incredibly labor-intensive scale model of the Game of Thrones Westeros map, and you can watch him build it at his tumblr: myownprivatewesteros.tumblr.com. 3D-printed castle models, walls of putty, hand-painted rivers and hills. This guy is serious.

(Thanks, Tom Osborn)

Why is Eric Holder in charge of reviewing Eric Holder's surveillance of journalists policy?

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:02:11 +0000

During Obama's national security speech yesterday, the president unexpectedly mentioned the AP and Fox News press freedom scandals. “Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs,” he said, adding that he is “troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.” Trevor Timm from Freedom of the Press Foundation asks why, then, Eric Holder is in charge of reviewing Justice Department policy, when he is "the same man who has overseen the Justice Department prosecute leakers to the press at a record rate."

The unsung heroes of early Tumblr culture

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 24 May 2013 01:31:08 +0000

A good read in The Daily Dot about a "major piece of the puzzle" in Tumblr's origin myth that’s often overlooked: "[Founder David] Karp wasn’t the first person to create a tumblelog, the term used to describe the stripped-down blogging and content curation he has become known for. He wasn’t even the second. The true origin of Tumblr involves a German and an American, hundreds of lines of code, and their common desire to change the way we think about blogging."

Watch the latest hand-picked videos in Boing Boing's video archives

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:49:23 +0000

Among the most recent video posts you will find on our video archive page:

• Conversations with my 2 year old: a web video series.
• 3D printing saved a baby's life.
• Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" music video.
• New Boards of Canada video!
• 3D printed shotgun slugs (suck).
• Law Enforcement's Guide to Satanism, 1994.
• Open source hardware 3D printer for pizza-on-demand.
• Nikola Tesla pitches VCs.

Boing Boing: Video archives

Boards of Canada: Reach for the Dead (from "Tomorrow's Harvest," 2013)

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:41:13 +0000

A first music video from the long-awaited new album 'Tomorrow's Harvest' by Boards of Canada. New album due Monday June 10 worldwide except for North America, where it will be released one day later on June 11. Pre-order on Amazon here. Video directed by Neil Krug.

"I feel like I have been force fed tranquillisers and cake," says one YouTube commenter. "This is fucking beautiful."

And that about sums it up.

Full text of Obama’s speech on national security, drones, and new promises to close GTMO

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:04:01 +0000

Here is the full text of President Obama’s May 23 speech on national security, as prepared for delivery today. The President was interrupted by Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, who challenged him on the urgency of closing Guantanamo Bay prison. He then spoke off script, allowing his heckler to speak at length, and he responded to her statements. A footnote: Ms. Benjamin, whom the President addressed as “that young lady interrupting me,” is 60 years old.

NYT Editorial Board: "Justice Interrupted in Guatemala"

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:55:37 +0000

The New York Times Editorial Board: "The United States, which supported [General Ríos Montt] and his regime during the war and apologized for that in 1999, provides aid for the justice system. It should urge that the case be pursued through an independent process. It would be a travesty if a mishandled legal proceeding were to deny victims justice now."

Guatemala's Genocide on Trial: Kate Doyle

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:49:31 +0000

Kate Doyle of the National Security Archive, whose work led to the uncovering of secret Guatemalan Army documents that served as critical evidence in the genocide trial of Rios Montt, writes in the Nation about the road to that historic "guilty" verdict on May 10— and what happened ten days later, when "the forces of impunity struck back."

On May 20, the Constitutional Court vacated the sentence, ordering the proceedings to rewind to April 19, the day a lower court judge called for the trial’s suspension due to unresolved appeals by the ex-dictator’s defense attorneys.
The ruling was the latest blow in what had been a sustained dirty war waged by Ríos Montt’s supporters since his indictment in 2012 to delay, obstruct, divert and otherwise sabotage the genocide case. It was also evidence of the persistent and grievous weaknesses in Guatemala’s justice system.
The road to justice has been long and tortuous; it just got a little longer. The court’s judgment makes the genocide verdict vulnerable in unforeseeable ways, potentially opening it to a new wave of procedural challenges by the defense. The prosecutors are gearing up for a fight to protect the outcome of their case, combining their legal strategy with political will, public pressure and judicial independence. Whatever happens, the witnesses’ powerful survivor tales from the trial can never be annulled, and the genocide sentence stands as a testament to what they achieved.

Read more: Guatemala's Genocide on Trial | The Nation. (AP Photo/Moises Castilo)

As Google maps the Galapagos, odd encounters with locals occur

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:31:10 +0000

[Click for larger size]. Google today announced a new adventure with the Street View Trekker: The Galapagos Islands. In early May, Google representatives traveled to the islands to collect 360-degree imagery on land and in water. The imagery will be available on Google Maps in late 2013. Here are more photos of the data collectors in action, sometimes while eyed by local creatures.

Andy Kaufman "alive in Albuquerque" rumors persist

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:03:48 +0000

A local TV news channel in Albuquerque, New Mexico and The Huffington Post are among the more credible-ish outlets reporting a periodically resurfacing rumor that comedian Andy Kaufman is alive and well in ABQ. …

Conversations with my 2 year old: a web video series

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:01:05 +0000

"Actual conversations with my 2 year old daughter, as re-enacted by me and another full grown man." Episode 1 of what I hope will be a regular series by Warmland Films. (via Dangerous Minds)…

"Eat rainbows. Shit stars."

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:51:58 +0000

Click for full size. Text lifted from Fengi. It's shopped, you can tell by the pixels. No apologies whatsoever to the Holstee Manifesto…. This has been around for a couple years, but it's making the rounds anew.

"I will punch you right through that sign"

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:11:28 +0000

You know those inspirational text-wall photos that friends of friends post to Pinterest and Facebook, full of blithe clichés and maudlin motivational monologues? Dude. Fengi, on livejournal, fixed them for you. [UPDATED: And here we go….]

Crowdfunding campaign for Soylent "default meal" product wildly successful, despite inherent grossness

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:08:16 +0000

Why, yes, a project called Soylent Corporation, promising a "default meal product" called Soylent, did just raise a quarter million bucks: crowdfunding is also made of people.

* Correction: an earlier version of this post erroneously stated that the campaign was on Kickstarter. "It was actually rejected by Kickstarter, they specifically forbid nutritional supplements and energy drinks in their guidelines," Andy Baio tells us.

** Update: And Ajay Mehta of Crowdtilt, the crowdsourcing tool used for this project, says: "Just to further clarify, the Soylent page is actually one of the first campaigns to launch on Crowdhoster, our new open-source tool for putting up a Kickstarter-esque page. Soylent went with us because Crowdhoster is totally open and customizable (e.g. they were able to put the page on their own domain)."

Steve Silberman on how he became a "professional Deadhead"

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:43:06 +0000

"I was 14 years old, all on my own because my friend bailed on me at the last minute, and relatively clueless," says science writer Steve Silberman in the story of how he became a Grateful Dead devotée. "Then the Dead came out... I knew I had never heard music as beautiful, adventurous, and alive as this in my entire life. That was the moment I became a Deadhead, and I never stopped."

US admits killing 4 Americans in drone strikes

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:38:40 +0000

Charlie Savage at the New York Times: "One day before President Obama is due to deliver a major speech on national security, his administration on Wednesday formally acknowledged that the United States had killed four American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan." But don't worry, guys, it's fine: they were all brown bad guys with weird names.

Law enforcement guide to Satanic Cults, 1994: classic terror-TV clip

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:33:38 +0000

Via Dangerous Minds, a rare clip from a 1994 television program warning of the dangers that lurk within local neighborhood parks throughout America: namely, homosexuals and Satanists. More background on the series here. One word, people: mullet.…

Watch the latest hand-picked videos in Boing Boing's video archives

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:24:55 +0000

Among the most recent video posts you will find on our video archive page:

•Nikola Tesla pitches VCs
•Open source hardware 3D printer for pizza-on-demand
• Controversial banana-touching.
• NASA solar flare video with Lars Leonhard music.
• HOWTO make a "Swiss Army knife" key ring.
• Museum home of Oddities' Ryan Matthew Cohn.
• The Life of astronaut Sally Ride.
• Ray Manzarek, founding member of The Doors, has died.
• HOWTO survive an elephant charge.

Boing Boing: Video archives