The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
| Super Mario theme played on a balalaika Posted: 01 May 2009 11:05 PM PDT A worthy addition to the subgenre of videos of the Super Mario theme being performed on various instruments by young people who were too young to have played the NES games as kids. These musical game-historians give me hope for the future, they truly do. Mario Theme on Balalaika (Thanks, Putinoid!) Previously:
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| Posted: 01 May 2009 11:02 PM PDT  Dave sends us this: "Beautiful 1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo. A 3,200-lb. motorcycle with training wheels that lower at slow speeds for stability, a V8 engine and enough copper tubing to provide every hillbilly in the Ozarks with a still. The Bi-Autogo does enjoy the historical distinction of being the first V8-powered vehicle ever built in Detroit." 1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo (Thanks, Dave!) |
| Pirate animal photoshopping contest Posted: 01 May 2009 11:01 PM PDT  Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contents: "Critter Pirates," animals duded up to look like awesome pirates. |
| Make Vol. 18 -- building a sustainable future at home Posted: 01 May 2009 04:31 PM PDT  The theme for MAKE Vol. 18 (on newsstands and in bookstores on May 18) is about building a sustainable future at home. The articles include geeked-out gardening tips (like an Arduino-controlled automatic indoor garden called the Garduino, micro-irrigation, and worm composting) and lots of energy related projects (like how to make a Tweet-a-Watt so you can twitter your electricity usage, and other ways to measure and reduced power usage in your home). Eric says, "On a sunny day, it works great, and the water returns to the tub 2 or 3 degrees hotter than it left. That may not sound like much, but it adds up. The basic rule of thumb of this system: if it's the kind of day when your parked car is hotter than the outside air when you get in, you'll get heat." |
| Posted: 01 May 2009 02:11 PM PDT |
| HOWTO bake awesome pizzas by lining your oven with bricks - Boing Boing Gadgets Posted: 01 May 2009 02:15 PM PDT Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Steven's leveled up his pizza stone by building a cheap, effective refractory brick enclosure in his oven that lets him attain very high temperatures and kick-ass pizzas. How To: build the ultimate, cheap home pizza oven |
| Posted: 01 May 2009 02:13 PM PDT Molly sends us this clockwork study desk built by naturalist John Muir while at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1861-1863: (Thanks, Molly!) |
| The Aporkalypse: Researchers Want Your Help Posted: 01 May 2009 01:39 PM PDT Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine. A Stanford team that's studying the public's knowledge of, and response to, H1N1 flu, has a survey and they're looking for willing participants to fill it out. Here's team member Marcel Salathé: There is a possibility that the situation might develop into a pandemic if the virus continues to spread around the globe. The news media report excessively about this threat, and while health officials urge people to stay calm, there is an increased level of anxiety in the population. Short version: They're trying to figure out whether the info dump about H1N1 flu that you're getting from the media and the Web might really be enough to educate us all right out of a pandemic. I know that theory has come up in the comments threads on my previous flu postings. Let's help find out it if it works! EDIT: Marcel Salathé answers a couple of reader questions from the comments thread here. First, about when the results will come out and how you can see them: There are a number of options. We will collect data while the epidemic runs its course - how long that's going to take is unpredictable, so I cannot really say more about the timeline - we just don't know yet. But we're constantly monitoring the data, and once we start finding interesting patterns we will certainly publish those quickly and make them open access. Feel free to publish my Stanford email address, and people who want to the results can send me an email." Second, are Boing Boing readers completely screwing up the data by virtue of their savvyness? Salathé says it's a concern, but he doesn't think it will mess things up too badly, and he needs the volume of response more: I am relatively confident that once we have a large enough sample we will get a good feeling for the average level of concern in the population. Yes, it might be that the ones responding to the survey are not the ones most panicky. On the other hand, one could also make the argument that people who are absolutely unruffled and calm might not be bothered to take the survey either. There can always be bias in any direction. In principle, any online survey has the potential for bias (by the fact alone that the survey is online) - but with a large enough sample one can avoid most of the problems regarding bias." Boing Boing also isn't the only large-volume return place Salathé has published the survey link, so he's confident his results won't be all-BB, all the time. He does say that if you've got suggestions on more places to publish the survey link that are likely to be BB's polar opposite, you should contact him. |
| Posted: 01 May 2009 11:46 AM PDT Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine. As with every spring, the rains fall, the sun shines, and I remain hopelessly inept as a gardener. Or, maybe, "inept" isn't quite the right word. "Lazy" and "impatient". There, that's the ticket. So, despite fantasizing repeatedly about the wonderful life we would lead if only we got around to putting in some vegetables this year, my husband and I have never gotten around to putting in some vegetables. At best, we keep the lawn mowed and free of vehicles on blocks. But that may be changing because, last week, Baker brought home a copy of The All New Square Foot Gardening guide, a book written by a retired engineer, which manages to make home veggie patches appealing to both my laissez-faire approach to plant life, and Baker's (who is, himself, an engineer) tendencies towards efficiency-obsession and Maker glee. The book promises to help you grow more, in less space, with less work. OK, I'm game.
The basic idea is that most people try to garden like they're making a miniature farmstead---with wide rows, hills and furrows, plowed into the earth of your backyard. And, frankly, all that adds up to a pain in the ass. Tilling sucks. Your dirt probably isn't ideal for growing things. You get weeds that need to be dealt with every day. The watering process wastes water and usually ends up with some plants drowning and other plants parched. And all you want is a freakin' salad. Square-foot gardening, on the other hand, is all about eliminating those problems. Instead of tilling the dirt and pumping in fertilizer, you build a big box, put a liner on the bottom, and fill it with a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite and compost. Great soil. And no weed seeds to sprout up.Because you make the box small enough to reach everything without stepping in the dirt, your soil stays aerated. Because you don't have to weed, you can grow plants from fewer seeds, closer together, with each box broken down into neat, anal-retentive grids. The idea of a garden that can be plotted out on graph paper is already making Baker salivate. The watering solution is particularly slick. Instead of moving around a sprayer that never seems to successfully dampen the full area you've aimed it at (and chucks water onto places that don't need it), you hook up a pipe system to your box and screw in the hose. Plant stuff than needs lots of water closer to the pipe, and stuff that needs less further away. Then you can turn the water on (at a lower pressure than you'd use for spraying) and let it trickle down. I'll be honest, as the wife of an engineer, I end up poking a lot of fun at the hyper-planning, "let us sit down and work out the numbers before we toast that bread" mindset. But it's all in fun. I promise. You engineers can be as detail-oriented as you want to be, as long as you keep offering up great solutions like this. Image of a nicely gridded-up square foot garden courtesy shygantic, via a Creative Commons license. |
| Make: Talk 008 -- Kelly and Erik of The Urban Homestead, Friday, May1 , 2009 at noon PDT Posted: 01 May 2009 10:40 AM PDT  We'll also present some news from the world of making, and our favorite tricks, tips, and tools of the week. Be sure to call in for prizes that we'll award during the program! The number is (646) 915-8698. Below is the show player, where you can listen to the live program on Friday, and to past episodes.
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| BB Video: "Manifestations," An Animated Love Story, by Giles Timms Posted: 01 May 2009 01:22 PM PDT (Download the MP4 here, or watch on YouTube.) Today's edition of Boing Boing Video is an animated short by Giles Timms -- "Manifestations" stars a cartoon critter named Mr. Chip who seeks anime love in a psychedelic, ever-morphing virtual world. The music is by Welsh composer Ceri Frost. Mr. Chip also stars in a mini Flash game which you can play here.
RSS feed for new episodes here, YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video. (Special thanks to Boing Boing's video hosting partner Episodic). BB VIDEO Q&A: ANIMATOR GILES TIMMS BBV: Where are you based, and what do you do? Giles: At the moment I live in Santa Monica, LA and attend the Animation Workshop at UCLA's Department of Theater, Film and Television. So I'm a student in the MFA program, but I also work freelance, such as the recent Deathcab for Cutie "Grapevine Fires" video with Walter Robot Studios. BBV: What is the story behind this lovely animation? Giles: That it's important for us to find love in this world, whoever and wherever we may be. And that love can exist between the most unlikely of characters, such as the cartoon creature Mr. Chip and the Tadahiro Uesugi inspired girly girl. Love knows no boundaries. BBV: I love the cute little boxy central character. Who is he, and what's his story? Giles: The little green guy is Mr. Chip. He originally appeared as the central character in a mini puzzle flash game that I made. Mr. Chip is quite small and unassuming, but he has the heart of a lion and isn't afraid to go after what he seeks. And he can be very resourceful in a MacGyver sort of way. It was these qualities that led to his development as the main character in Manifestations. (Interview continues after the jump) BBV: What are some of the sources of visual or cultural inspiration that drive your work? Giles: Visually I'm inspired by work that is textural, stylized and painterly. So for animators I like Yuriy Norshteyn, Igor Kovalyov and Koji Yamamura. I also reference a lot of comic book artists and illustrators, such as Rhode Montijo, Mike Mignola and Ashley Wood for similar stylistic inspiration. Culturally, history and its motifs are important so that my work can seem grounded in something real even if quite surreal. I'm particularly inspired by history that shows us the indomitable human spirit rising above tragedy. Recently I've met lots of people both in LA and at UCLA who have helped me find my voice as an artist and filmmaker but the four biggest influences have been Ceri Frost, Walter Robot, Celia Mercer and Howard Suber. Ceri is a Welsh composer who has been very generous with his music and support, both of which have helped me grow as an artist. I also had the good fortune to take a class from Bill, of Walter Robot Studios, at UCLA and work first hand with him and Chris on their 'Grapevine Fires' music video. Celia Mercer is the Area Head of the MFA program at UCLA and has been very supportive of my trials in animation and filmmaking. Also, Howard Suber, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, is an amazing guy whose lectures, anecdotes and insights inspire me as an artist (I like to think of him as the Yoda of UCLA). And lastly, my girlfriend =) BBV: What are you working on now? Giles: Another animated short with music by Ceri Frost, for a song called 'Dead All Along' with dancing bones and skeletons. And trying to graduate in June! |
| ArtWerk's map of his "beloved Europe" Posted: 01 May 2009 10:01 AM PDT  ArtWerk drew this map of Europe, titled "Where I Live." Be sure to read the lively debate over at Flickr, both in the annotated notes and the comments. |
| Posted: 01 May 2009 04:05 PM PDT  artistic tanks fairy doors new islington interactive floorplans 50 strange buildings 12 moving building facades archidose previously on web zen: architecture zen 2008 Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!) |
| Game console carved from a tree Posted: 01 May 2009 09:24 AM PDT  Brandon sez, "I'm currently studying in Leiden in the Netherlands and upon exploring just outside the south side of town, I discovered this handsome sculpture of an arcade machine carved out of a tree trunk. The URL carved into it leads to a Dutch art group called Uitschot. For those who are unfamiliar with Dutch (not that I'm fluent), 'boom' (rhymes with 'home') means 'tree.'"' |
| Hobby robot actuator can destroy your finger in an instant Posted: 01 May 2009 10:47 AM PDT Andrew Alter of Trossen Robotics says: I was working on my mech Hagetaka [a bipedal combat robot] the other night and made the mistake of grabbing at the robot to stabilize it while it was moving, and managed to graze my finger in one of the joints. It drew blood and immediately reminded me that working with these types of servos was an entirely different ballgame than your standard hobby servo. With that in mind, we put together a little demonstration video of just how powerful these servos can be! Enjoy!RX-64: Just one more weapon in Skynet’s arsenal |
| DMZ 6: Blood in the Game, the vote comes to Manhattan Posted: 01 May 2009 07:54 AM PDT  I've just finished Blood in the Game, the sixth collection in Brian Wood's remarkable comic book series DMZ, a nail-biting, blood-boiling story of America gripped by civil war and the cynics who profit from it. America's civil war has its front lines in Manhattan, in the DMZ where the Free States (separatist militiamen), the USA and its military contractor, Trustwell (a stand-in for Halliburton or Blackwater) all clash. For years, Matty Roth, a roving reporter who has an on-again/off-again relationship with Liberty News (think Fox News) has cataloged the human cost of the manipulative, cynical profiteering on all sides of the conflict, but now he's even more in the thick of it than ever. It's election season in the DMZ. New York will elect its own governor and become independent -- supposedly. In reality, it appears that the fix is in, with the USA prepared to install a "Paul Bremer wannabe" as a puppet ruler. Then Parco Delgado, a street-fighting charismatic (derided as "a cross between Al Sharpton and Che Guevara") throws his hat in to the ring, declaring himself to be the real choice of the people. Matty is swept up in populist fervor (only slightly dimmed when he discovers that the Delgado Nation has hired his estranged mother, a left-wing political operative, to run the campaign) and breaks with Liberty News just as an unsuccessful assassination attempt puts Delgado in hospital. A story about the limits of democracy and the power of populism, about the role of the press and the bravery of the voter, Blood in the Game furthers the fantastic work that Wood has done thus far on his story set in an utterly plausible America at war with itself. This is the kind of storytelling I read comics for. DMZ Vol. 2: Body of a Journalist Previously:
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| Posted: 01 May 2009 07:58 AM PDT  • Lisa reviews the Flip UltraHD. But which pocket cam should you buy? • Xeni checked out Tricaster, the future of budget broadcasting. • The Plantronics Voyager Pro is a bluetooth headset for suits with serious requirements. • Luxeed's U5 keyboard works on Macs. • What would Wii do without soap? Speaking of Wii, Energizer-branded inductive Wiimote chargers are out soon. • HP's new MediaSmart home server cuts the price, and some corners. • THEY WANT YOUR POD. • Would you like a letter-size touch tablet from Apple? • A diseased light fixture, courtesy of 3D printing technology. |
| Posted: 01 May 2009 08:22 AM PDT  Videogames should be more violent, not less.Recently on Offworld, Ragdoll Metaphysics columnist Jim Rossignol takes the occasion of J.G. Ballard's death to argue that, with his future of boredom -- of calm consumer choices and deadened emotions -- realised, that videogames are an ideal safe excursion to violence and excitement, outlets for Ballard's "vast systems of competing psychopathies." Elsewhere we took a longer look at WINDOSiLL (above), the latest Flash creation from Vectorpark artist Patrick Smith, and its magical hyper-real surreality -- certainly one of the most physically expressed worlds in recent game memory. We also saw fantastic footage of Q-games' latest PixelJunk game, showing off the interplay of its realistically modeled particle/fluid mechanics, saw Bandcamp's hidden Defender stats-graph easter egg, watched Infinite Ammo's gorgeous paper-cut planar-platformer Paper Moon in motion, and cut paper of our own to assemble adorably lethal Team Fortress 2 models. Finally, we launched a 'One Shot' series of single-serve art doses with Katamari-head jellybeans, a Super Mario graveyard, and a Nintendo Entertainment System mouse, dug on Dr. Mario Dunnys, and showed off easily one of the best bits of press swag ever put to paper, with a neo-futuristic Space Invaders Extreme print signed by original game creator Tomohiro Nishikado himself. |
| The Mind-Blowing World of Human Chimeras Posted: 01 May 2009 07:10 AM PDT Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine. One person outside: But two people "inside": That's the gist of the chimera, a human being who carries the DNA (and sometimes the body parts) for two. It sounds crazy, but it happens. In fact, doctors think it probably happens more often than we realize. Unless there were some reason to test the DNA from cells in different parts of your body, you could easily be a chimera and never know it. Happy Freaky Friday, everybody.
First: Get That Meddling Sibling Out of Your Way Then: Discover That They Aren't As Dead As You Thought For some fun further reading, check out the story of Lydia Fairchild. Like Karen Keegan, Fairchild's chimeric nature was discovered after DNA tests said she wasn't the mother of the children she was pretty sure she remembered giving birth to. Unlike Keegan, however, Fairchild's kids were still young and the initial DNA test almost cost her custody. Much like Professor Xavier of the X-Men, illustrator Michael Rogalski is locked in deadly, psychic battle with his evil, chimeric twin. |
One of the projects in the magazine I'm looking forward to making myself is the solar powered hot tub heater. Eric Muhs, the author, built a 3' x 3' plywood box, painted it black, drilled a couple of holes in a corner, and dropped a 100 foot coil of cheap black vinyl hose inside. The ends of the hoses go into the water, and a solar-powered pump moves water through the coils. The cool thing Eric's design is that the pump stays off when it's dark or cloudy, preventing the system from cooling the hot tub water. 
In this episode of Make: Talk, we'll be joined by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, authors of 
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