Boing Boing » oops

Find the unfortunate typo in this Livestrong "nutrition" article

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:50:35 +0000

There are three things very wrong in this article at Livestrong.com, which my friend Meredith Yayanos pointed me to just now via Twitter. One, "nutrition" and "Velveeta" used in the same sentence at a website associated with cancer prevention and treatment. Two, the message in the yellow band—probably something they want to downplay right now, but no-one has gotten around to updating on the site. And the third is the real kicker, but you'll have to read the copy closely to find it.

The Livestrong dot-com site is basically a content farm populated with Turked-out SEO-bait by Demand Media; the dot-org is where the cancer advocacy organization does its thing.

Taliban uses CC instead of BCC, exposes identity of 400+ contacts

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:23:05 +0000

A Taliban spokesperson sent out a press-release and used CC instead of BCC, exposing a long list of Taliban press-contacts, as well as several parties friendly to Taliban communiques.

The list, made up of more than 400 recipients, consists mostly of journalists, but also includes an address appearing to belong to a provincial governor, an Afghan legislator, several academics and activists, an l Afghan consultative committee, and a representative of Gulbuddein Hekmatar, an Afghan warlord whose outlawed group Hezb-i-Islami is believed to be behind several attacks against coalition troops.

Taliban Oops Reveals Mailing List IDs [Muhammad Lila, ABC] (via Techdirt)

Ikea to women: we 'regret' airbrushing you out of Saudi catalog

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:12:29 +0000

The Swedish flatpack furniture company Ikea says it "regrets" that images of women went missing from the Saudi version of its mail-order catalog. Women are visible in the version of these same images in the English-language Ikea catalog. "Excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue is in conflict with the Ikea Group values," said a spokesbot this week. And, check it out: they're also PUTTING SOCKS ON PEOPLE! (HT: Antinous + Maciej Ostaszewski)

The hilarity of CNN + Fox's bungled Health Care Act reporting, in a single 'shoop

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 22:31:44 +0000

Gary He of Inside Images today tweeted his photoshopped interpretation of an epic CNN gaffe. His 'shoop visually references the historic 1948 photo of just-elected President Harry Truman displaying before a crowd a newspaper that incorrectly reported his defeat.

The image went viral after inclusion in this New York Daily News article on how CNN and Fox totally blew it, by incorrectly reporting that the health care mandate championed by Obama was voted unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, when the opposite was in fact the case. More on Poynter. (thanks, Miles O'Brien!)

How early electric experiments destroyed the University of Missouri's main academic hall

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:58:07 +0000

I'm completely fascinated by stories from the early days of electricity ... specifically, stories of experiments that went horribly (and sometimes, comically) wrong.

For me, it's a great reminder that, no matter how much of a sure-thing a technology like electricity seems in retrospect, there was always a point in history where the future was uncertain, where mistakes were made, and where even the "experts" didn't totally know what they were doing. In general, I think it's good to remind ourselves that the real history of innovation is a lot messier than high-school level textbooks make it out to be.

In this short video, retired University of Missouri engineering professor Michael Devaney tells the tale of how a group of engineering students—armed with an early-model Edison electric generator—burned their school's main academic building to the ground. At the heart of the disaster: An attempt to see how many light bulbs the generator could light at once. To paraphrase Devaney, everything was going okay until the fire reached the ROTC's supply of cannon powder.

Read about how Thomas Edison himself set W.H. Vanderbilt's living room on fire.

Read about Thomas Edison and his staff accidentally turning a New York City intersection into a giant joy buzzer.

Read more on my thoughts about the messy history of innovation, published in last weekend's New York Times Magazine.

Thanks to Robert Solorzano and The Missourian for the tip on this story!

How to buckle a brick column

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:11:09 +0000

[Video Link] There are probably easier ways to cause a column to buckle, but this way looks like fun.

(Via Cynical-C)

Random network security tip for those about to appear on TV

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:51:26 +0000

Don't do this. (via @ryanaraine + @kimzetter)

I brought you a transplant heart, but I dropped it

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:44:02 +0000

In Mexico City, butterfingers medics dropped a donor heart being rushed to a hospital for a transplant operation. Rolled right out of the container and everything, right on to the street. All worked out in the end.