Mike Boyd decided to make a show called "Learn Quick," where he tries to learn a skill from scratch as quickly as possible. As a roundup for 2016, he did them all in one single impressive long take. (more…)
Saturday, 31 December 2016
Need a cheap diffuser for your camera flash? Try a white balloon
The Koldunov Brothers put together this simple demonstration of how using a standard white party balloon can give your flash photography a nice diffused look. (more…)
Adult site data reveals 2016's top trends: Melania and Matures are way up
No, Russia didn't hack Vermont's power grid
Despite what you might have read in this alarming story in the Washington Post, Russia did not hack Vermont's power authority. (more…)
White House report documents the "hidden fees" that pick America's pockets
In The Competition Initiative and Hidden Fees, the White House's National Economic Council documents the widespread use of deceptive "service charges" that businesses levy, allowing them to advertise prices that are wildly divergent from what you'll actually pay -- think of the $30, unavoidable "resort fees" added to a hotel bill; the $25 "processing fees" added to concert tickets, the random fees added to telecom bills, etc, all adding up to billions transferred away from American shoppers to big business. (more…)
Your smart meter is very secure (against you) and very insecure (against hackers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRB781duYTE
In On Smart Cities, Smart Energy, And Dumb Security -- Netanel Rubin's talk at this year's Chaos Communications Congress -- Rubin presents his findings on the failings in the security of commonly deployed smart meters. (more…)
The best deals of 2016 from the Boing Boing Store
The Boing Boing Store had plenty of great items over the past year, but these 8 deals top each catagory. From course bundles in an array of professional programming and IT subjects to futuristic vaporizers, this guide features healthy discounts on leading tech finds.
Twisty Glass Blunt – $34.99
Rolling your own without destroying the paper with saliva is tricky without ample practice. This elegant glass pipe eliminates the hassle with a clever corkscrew design that holds up to 1.5 grams of tobacco. This deal will only be available until midnight of December 26th .
Ultimate Unity3D Game Building Bundle – $32
The Unity3D development environment has made creating video games remarkably accessible. With this game development bundle, you will learn the fundamentals of 3D modeling, physics simulation, and game analytics.
A-Audio Legacy Noise Cancelling Headphones – $79.99
Eliminating background noise is an easy way to significantly improve your music listening experience. These headphones go beyond passive over-ear sound isolation with additionally enhanced bass and active noise cancelling. This deal goes away at midnight on December 27th.
The Complete Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit - $99
The Raspberry Pi compact computer offers a welcoming platform for creating custom electronics projects. This introductory bundle supplies a Raspberry Pi 3, a variety of components, and six detailed courses.
Buy Now: The Complete Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit
Python Programming Bootcamp – $39.00
With a design that encourages equally readable code in small- and large-scale programs, Python is one of the most popular programming languages around. If you want to learn the language behind everything from YouTube to a variety of scientific computing applications, pick up this course bundle.
Code Black Drone with HD Camera – $89
Quadcopter drones are great fun, and this one doubles as an aerial photographer with its built-in HD video camera. Enjoy ultra-smooth flight right out of the box for up to 10 minutes at a time with the intuitive remote control.
Ghost Indoor HDTV Antenna – $15.99
You don’t need an expensive cable subscription to get local broadcasts on your television. This antenna receives high-quality HDTV signals without any monthly fees. This deal lasts until midnight on the 25th of December.
Pax 3 Vaporizer – $274.99
Enjoy a healthier, smoother alternative to combustion smoke with this sleek vaporizer. Easily switch between extracts and herbal leaves for equally pure vapor with the included insert. The PAX Vapor app provides ample customization options to give you a tailored experience.
Become an Ethical Hacker Bundle – $44.99
White-hat hackers are essential to computer security. By studying the vulnerabilities exploited by nefarious actors, companies can vastly harden their defenses to keep user data safe. Learn the fundamentals of penetration testing, password cracking, keylogging, and more with this Ethical Hacker Bundle.
Friday, 30 December 2016
Are you ready for robots skinned with sensitive hairs?
Biomimicry in robotics has led to robots that can climb, fly, and swim better. Now researchers have developed hair-like filaments for robots that allow them to have more fine-grained senses of touch, sensing even forces as delicate as coming in contact with a piece of tissue. (more…)
Artisans revive the polissoir, a nearly-forgotten woodworking tool
André Roubo's series on carpentry called L'Art du Menuisier mentions a polissior, a small device made of broom straw for polishing wood. In the two centuries since Roubo's book, the device had faded from memory until a couple of years ago, when Don Williams recreated one from an illustration in Roubo's book. It turned out to work amazingly well. (more…)
World's highest bridge opens to traffic
Duge Beipanjiang Bridge crosses a gorge 565 meters above China's Nizhu River. That's a bigger height than One World Trade Center, and beats the previous record-holder by about 70 meters. (more…)
More than 20,000 dead fish mysteriously washed up in Nova Scotia
Tens of thousands of fish, starfish, scallops, crabs, lobsters, and other ocean life washed up dead this week at Savory Park on the western coast of Nova Scotia. The cause of the massive fish death is not yet known. From CNN:
Environmental officials are testing the water for pesticides and oxygen levels for possible clues...
While toxic chemical exposure can be one cause, most fish kills are attributed to low concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the water, according to the USGS.
Just this year, mass fish deaths were reported in Florida's Indian River Lagoon and Hongcheng Lake in Haikou,China.
Watch Zach Mueller's card wizardry from California
Cardistry wizard Zach Mueller works his magic on the Santa Monica Pier. Special guest appearance by cardist CJ Ocampo.
Watch George Michael and Morrissey discuss breakdancing and Joy Division
In May 1984, George Michael and Morrissey, promoting respectively “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and The Smiths' "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now," appeared on the BBC program Eight Days A Week. They discuss such urgent matters as the film Breakin' (released as Breakdance outside the US) and Mark Johnson's book An Ideal for Living: A History of Joy Division.
(via Dangerous Minds)
Will malfunction or incompetence start World War Three?
Eric Schlosser's book and film Command and Control look at the terrifying prospects of nuclear friendly fire, where one of America's nukes detonates on US soil. It also looks at what might happen if a false alarm gets relayed to a trigger-happy general or President. He starts this New Yorker piece with a terrifying story from June 3, 1980:
President Jimmy Carter’s national-security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was asleep in Washington, D.C., when the phone rang. His military aide, General William Odom, was calling to inform him that two hundred and twenty missiles launched from Soviet submarines were heading toward the United States. Brzezinski told Odom to get confirmation of the attack. A retaliatory strike would have to be ordered quickly; Washington might be destroyed within minutes. Odom called back and offered a correction: twenty-two hundred Soviet missiles had been launched. Brzezinski decided not to wake up his wife, preferring that she die in her sleep. As he prepared to call Carter and recommend an American counterattack, the phone rang for a third time. Odom apologized—it was a false alarm. An investigation later found that a defective computer chip in a communications device at norad headquarters had generated the erroneous warning. The chip cost forty-six cents.
Lots more scary info at the Command and Control film website.
• World War Three, by mistake (New Yorker)
Image: Maxwell Hamilton
One professor's nightmare renting her house through the sharing economy
Making rainbow magic with dissolving Skittles
Hot water on a ring of Skittles! (via The Kid Should See This)
Robert Hulseman, creator of the Red Solo Cup, RIP
Robert Hulseman, creator of the iconic Red Solo Cup seen at frat parties, sizzurp celebrations, and Midwestern family reunions everywhere, has died at age 84. Hulseman, with friend Jack Clements, followed up that iconic container design with another: the Solo traveler coffee cup lid, such a classic design that one of them is now in the New York Museum of Modern Art. From NPR:
Solo was one of the first companies to market small paper cone cups that were common to see alongside water coolers in the 1940s.
The company went on to develop the wax-lined cups used by drive-in movie theaters and fast-food restaurants.
In the 1970's, Hulseman invented the Red Solo Cup for families to use at picnics but use of the ubiquitous cup took off and it was embraced by all beverage drinkers.
Paul Hulseman, Robert's son, told The Associated Press that "his father never fully understood how massively popular the large red plastic cup became in pop culture."
Pan Pan, 1985-2016
The world's oldest male panda, Pan Pan, has died in China.
Pan Pan, 31, was diagnosed with cancer six months ago, having lived almost all his life in captivity. He was captured in Sichuan as a six-month old cub. The BBC reports that his name means "Hope."
The centre described the news of the death of the "hero-father" panda as "heart-wrenching". Keepers said he had stopped moving and eating, and lost consciousness, as his health had deteriorated rapidly over the preceding three days.
In September, the International Union for Conservation of Nature announced that the status pandas had been changed from "endangered" to "vulnerable", as numbers had begun to increase.
The latest Chinese estimates show a population of 1,864 adults, as well as - according to China's State Forestry Administration - 422 in captivity.
Pan Pan is survived by 130 descendants — reportedly a quarter of the world's captive-bred pandas — with family in California, Washington D.C., Edinburgh, Brussels, Ya'an, Chengdu, Chiang Mai and Taipei.
Lovely animation of the virus that melts gypsy moth caterpillars
In the 1860s, illustrator and idiot Leopold Trouvelot deliberately brought gypsy moths from France to America. Some outsmarted him and escaped, and they now cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage each year. This charming film tells the tale and explains our greatest and grossest hope for eradicating them: baculovirus. (more…)
How much energy can dust-sized computers harvest from sun and motion, and how much work can they do with it?
Pete Warden reports in from the ARM Research Summit, where James Myers presented on "energy harvesting" by microscopic computers -- that is, using glints of sunlight and the jostling of motion from bumping into things or riding on our bodies to provide power for computation. (more…)
Creative Prodikeys combined both types of keyboard in one
In the ingenious world of consumer electronics, we often have the thought "why didn't anyone think of that?" The Creative Prodikeys instead leads to the thought "why did someone think of that?" A MIDI controller keyboard and a typing keyboard all-in-one, it appears to have enjoyed several generations in the 1990s and 2000s. [via r/MechanicalKeyboards]
I covet this, and they're cheap on Amazon and eBay. (more…)
Antarctica's massive gravity anomaly explained by UFO enthusiasts
This extremely informative video describes in detail how scientists discovered a huge gravity anomaly under the Antarctic ice. Even better, they slowly draw viewers in to their theory that the likely impact basin is part of a larger UFO conspiracy. (more…)
Kissenger "simulates" kissing loved ones
Touted as Earth's "first mobile kiss messenger," Kissenger is a rubbery-looking dock that humans put their phones in. It has a tactile surface they depress with their meat. The movements are then transmitted in realtime over the internet, so that a replica of them may be experienced by another human.
Plug in to your phone and give your loved ones a kiss over the Internet. Kissenger can sense your kiss and transmit realistic kissing sensations to your partner in real time. You can also feel the force on your lips when your partner kisses you back. Share an intimate moment with your friends and families while chatting with them on your phone.
The device comprises six sensors, corresponding actuators, and a meat-colored silicone sheath. There's an app that goes with it so the humans can interact on a audiovisual-discursive level at the same time. It's at the prototype stage with nothing to buy, yet, but obviously we should keep an eye on this. It should suffice to say that our previous recommendations with respect to establishing contact with this species have not changed.
High precision force sensors are embedded under the silicon lip to measure the dynamic forces at different parts of your lips during a kiss. The device sends this data to your phone, which transmits it to your partner over the Internet in real time. Miniature linear actuators are used to reproduce these forces on your partner's lips, creating a realistic kissing sensation. Kissenger provides a two-way interaction just like in a real kiss. You can also feel your partner's kiss on your lips when they kiss you back.
[via The Verge]
The Dark Side doesn't make sense
After considerable thought, Jenny Nicholson weighs in on why the Dark Side doesn't make sense. In what would make an excellent PowerPoint presentation to the Sith, she lays out her five key objections: (more…)
DIY concrete lamps with LED string lights
Here's an inexpensive little project that's pretty easy and looks cool: LED-filled glass lights with concrete bases. Glen at DIY Creators takes you through the process. (more…)
Video on how to make 3D kirigami stars
Here's a fun and easy decoration for your new year's or award show viewing parties, or a craft to do with kids: make some 3D kirigami stars with just some paper and a pair of scissors. (more…)
Suggestions for improving Twitter
Twitter's wonderful, but it's also horrible a lot of the time &endash; especially for the people using it. And we all complain about it, too! Anil Dash weaves the obvious and not-so-obvious threads of criticism into a billion dollar gift for Twitter. It comes down to these five key points: (more…)
Elmer Long on life, truth, and his Bottle Tree Ranch
Mohammed Kerawia shot this charming interview with Elmer Long, owner of the Bottle Tree Ranch on Route 66 in Oro Grande, California. Elmer accepts donations but it is free to enter. (more…)
Petra Hadens' stunning a capella cover of the Blade Runner theme
Petra Haden is a talented violinist and singer who has performed with everyone from The Decemberists to Victoria Williams to Sunn O))). On her YouTube channel, she also posts really impressive a capella versions of such movie themes as The Exorcist (Tubular Bells), Star Trek: The Original Series, and the theme to the 60s Batman TV show. She's also done a capella covers of Bowie's Life on Mars, King Crimson's Frame by Frame, the Furs' Ghost in You, and other pop and progressive tunes.
Here, she does a seriously beautiful and haunting rendition of the Vangelis Blade Runner theme, complete with Deckard's voice commands as he navigates an image of the replicant Zhora.
George Eastman Museum releases a quarter million photographs online
How Americans spend their money in the last 75 years
Land one of the highest in-demand tech jobs as a DevOps pro
Running a cloud-based service requires much more than just software developers. Developer Operations engineers are crucial to the growth, maintenance, and security of online products. Mastering the skills required to be a DevOps engineer can be overwhelming, but this Ultimate DevOps Mastery Bundle will provide a solid foundation.
This 9-course bundle will introduce you to a variety of IT subjects. Prepare for the Amazon Web Services Solutions Architect Professional exam. Dive into the fundamentals of Systems Administration with Linux/UNIX to manage users and software on servers. Explore network security by studying for a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.
Additionally, this course bundle will familiarize you with the basics of coding, database management, modern software deployment techniques, and large-scale data analysis. Proficiency in all of these areas is essential to becoming a successful IT professional, and this curated course bundle provides an accessible introduction. For a limited time, get this Ultimate DevOps Mastery Bundle for just $43, over 92% off the regular price.
Thursday, 29 December 2016
Two wonderful GIFs of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill having fun on Star Wars sets
The Fun is strong with these two.
General Organa's obit
Leia Organa's commitment to the cause placed her at the heart of the Rebellion, the Republic and the Resistance.
Her uncanny ability to predict the actions of enemies and allies alike made her essential, but the Alliance treated her warily, concerned she might manipulate its forces for her own ends. ... Operation Rogue One remains controversial; critics note that Organa sacrificed the entire volunteer cadre, hundreds of troops and much of the Alliance fleet to acquire Designation Stardust intelligence, and that its ultimate success owed itself to her activation of a Jedi asset, Obi-Wan Kenobi, as she was captured by Imperial forces. Indeed, the coincidences behind her subsequent escape and organization of the defense of Yavin IV have been ascribed to the Force, singular tactical genius or pure luck – all ideologically fraught options.
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