By David Pescovitz at 5:19 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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Several university laboratories introduced three new bipedal robots at this week's American Association for the Advancement of Science conference. While other mechanical bipeds like Honda's
Asimo depend on a complicated system of motors and sensors in every joint under intense software control, these new robots employ much simpler techniques. (Unlike Asimo though, these bots can't yet climb stairs.)
"The walking looks more natural, because it is," says Richard Walker, who works at the Shadow Robot Company in the UK. "To get human-like walking, and then to go from there to more complex bipedal movements, this is the right approach."
The researchers took their inspiration from mechanical walking toys that automatically stroll down a slope in response to gravity. By attaching a few motors to such mechanisms they were able to make robots that will happily amble along a flat surface.
Two of the three robots, those developed at Cornell and Delft, are relatively simple, yet exhibit remarkable power efficiency. Whereas Asimo consumes about 10 times as much power as a walking human, these robots use about the same amount of energy as the average person.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 5:14 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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Cartoonist Jason Little is creating the best comic strip on the Web. The drafting style is very tight and reminds me just a tiny bit of Chris Ware. His sense of color is fantastic. In this interview from Fright X magazine, Little describes he first Bee story.
It's about a girl named Bee who works as a photoprocessing technician in downtown New York City. And weird people bring photos in to be processed. For example, on one day of work she prints a roll of film from this sorority chick [points at page] who has taken homemade boudoir photographs of herself as a Valentine's Day present for her boyfriend, who's a frat rat. Later, the boyfriend brings in a roll of film where he's barged into the bathroom and taken a picture of her on the toilet. There's a motorcycle outlaw who has taken pictures of strippers at a biker party…you get the idea. Licentious images. Later on, a mortician brings in before and after photos of dead bodies. Bee certainly finds this intriguing. So she sneakily presses the doubles button every time an exciting roll comes in. At one point this handsome fellow brings in pictures of a dead woman in a tub full of blood. So Bee follows him home and starts taking pictures of him through his windows and basically gets involved in his sinister activities. So, basically, it's a mystery story.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:59 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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Cliff Figallo says: "Being in my mid-50s and not being one of the fortunate few who hit the dot-com jackpot, I'm now blogging my attempt to plan a reasonably secure future with not much savings in "What Retirement?" It's a mix of scary Social Security news, potential job opportunities for the old and experienced, and future living arrangements that can help us avoid nursing home hell. There are about 30 million of us in the same leaky boat. We don't want to become a crisis."
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:25 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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The cover of the latest Seattle Stranger has a portrait of Michael Jackson made from kids' cereal bits. Yuks says: "My studio mate Jason Huntley worked on this piece for weeks, buying and then sorting all sorts of different children's cereals by color and hue. He then applied them using silicone glue. The smell of sugar, preservatives and silicone will be indelibly associated with Michael Jackson's mugshot in my brain forever."
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:03 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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Naughty Scott Moschella of Plastic Bugs stripped the DRM out of an iTunes song he won from buying a bottle of Pepsi. He broke another law by making the song available as a free download on his site. The song is called "(Silence)" by Ciccone Youth. It's a silent song, like John Cage's "4' 33"," but it is just a little over a minute long. Grab it now before Apple shuts him down!
Link (Thanks, Caines!)
UPDATE: Alistair Twiname says: "Parallel to the post about the ripped silent track, New_Matt over at b3ta
created the ultimate remix... using the gaps and pauses in many famous
songs.. here's the subtitled flash version." Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 3:32 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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Here's a fun "now and then" gallery of famous cartoonist's work as adults and when they were kids. The fun is only slightly diminished by the use of a Flash interface. Artists include Jack Davis, Mitch O'Connell, Kirsten Ulve. (Shown here, Charles Burns.)
Link
By David Pescovitz at 2:44 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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David Pieski, a high school chemistry teacher in Orlando, Florida, was arrested for allegedly teaching his students how to make homebrew explosives. From the Associated Press:
In Pieski's classroom in Orlando, authorities found a book labeled "Demo," which includes the chemical breakdown for a powerful explosive, the arrest report said....
Pieski told investigators he detonated chemicals in a coffee can by a ball field four times for his students, the sheriff's office said. He said he did this as a chemistry project to show a reaction rate...
School officials told investigators that Pieski previously had been told he was not allowed to have any form of explosive on campus.
I certainly would have benefited from Mr. Pieski's guidance in
my high school years.
Link
By David Pescovitz at 2:21 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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Last year, I
posted about video artist Amy Jenkins who was invited to create an artwork inspired by Salvatore Ferragamo's 5th Avenue shoe store. The company then decided that her artwork was "distasteful" because it showed Amy's daughter breastfeeding and then falling asleep. (More background
here.) Now, using a plasma display loaned to her by a
BB reader, Amy is finally showing the piece, entitled The Audrey Samsara, in NYC at her solo show at the Kustera/Tilton Gallery. The opening is tonight and the show will run through March 26.
Link
By Xeni Jardin at 12:24 pm Thursday, Feb 17
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David Dixon, "Webmaster of Puppets" for Metallica/Beatles parody/mashup site
beatallica.org says:
Boing Boing recently linked to a site I administrate, beatallica.org, in your post about punk cover bands. I'm writing to let you know that today I received a cease-and-desist notice from Sony Publishing (via my ISP, ThePlanet.com), demanding that all music, lyrics, etc. be taken down immediately or legal action will commence.
You can read the C&D notice David received right
here (PDF).
By Cory Doctorow at 11:32 am Thursday, Feb 17
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Chicagoist has a good followup on the controversy around the public sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park (a park that cost Chicagoans $270 million) which photographers were being prevented from taking pictures of (
earlier post).
Millennium Park security guards were told to look for "sophisticated equipment and/or tripods as an indication that a photographer might be a professional." And this is where the confusion seems to have begun. The guards, when stumbling upon such professional-looking folk, should have simply asked the photographer if they were a professional and, if the answer was "yes," directed them to the permit office. However, as just about every Web site in the Chicagoland area reported last week, some of them just plain kicked the photographers out with claims of copyrighted public works.
In light of this conduct, community concerns and an "increased understanding of how the public uses the space (including photographers)," the city has recognized the need to re-evaluate these policies. While they do so, they have stopped enforcing the permit requirement, and are focusing on improving their security guard training to ensure both complete understanding of the rules and better communication between guards and the public. City, Chicagoist appreciates your effort to get this situation resolved.
The write-up goes on to talk about how the copyright in the sculpture rests with the sculptor, which still makes no sense. My reading of copyright law says that statues on display in public parks have no copyright -- and even if it does, the city has the repsonsibility to clear the rights to the sculpture before putting it where it will get in the way of the photos that Chicagoans take of their public spaces -- whether for commercial or noncommercial use.
Link
(
Thanks, Rachelle!)
By Cory Doctorow at 11:27 am Thursday, Feb 17
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Aymeric sez, "I was at the
Brussels demo [against software patents] today and the result, it appears, was slightly positive." That's an understatement: the software patent issue is dead again in the European Parliament and has to be rebooted from start if the other side wants to get it through!
The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented.
Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law.
During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped.
Link
(
Thanks, Aymeric!)
Update: Tom sez, "the directive won't
necessarily be rebooted, it depends on whether or not the Commission want to.
They're free to ignore Parliament's request, and given their track record
this may happen. Hurrah for democracy."
Update 2:Ronan sez, "The implementation of the directive at hand is governed by a process called codecision, meaning both the Commission and the Parliament have to agree on it; either can veto it. As such, if the Commission disregards the restart request, Parliament can simply vote the unmodified directive out of existence. Further detail on the processes of European legislation can be found at the URL (ok, so it's not a complete red herring) in a variety of languages."
By Cory Doctorow at 11:24 am Thursday, Feb 17
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Dug makes "contemporary automata," hand-cranked robots carved from wood that perform animations when they're activated. They're gorgeous tchotchkes and the videos on his site are fascinating.
Link
(
Thanks, Dug!)
By Xeni Jardin at 7:37 am Thursday, Feb 17
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Boing Boing reader Willenberg says,
"Juergen Specht has a huge collection of Japanese warning signs online, and another with Hawaiian warning signs. It's an interesting comparison -- Japan is a mono-cultural country but the signs are pretty easy to understand and very international while the signs in USA require always English language skills."
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 7:37 am Thursday, Feb 17
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We depend on the suggestions we get from you folks for the raw fodder for Boing Boing. We get a
lot of suggested sites. Here's an explanation of the best way to get a link published here:
Dos:
- Do use the Boing Boing form
or the Boing Boing Gadgets form.
The Boing Boing suggest-a-site form gets sent to all four editors, quadrupling your chances of getting your link posted. It pre-formats your suggestion for easy posting. It helps us sort through and categorize our mail, ensuring your suggestion isn't lost in the shuffle. Half the time when we get a link suggestion by email, we can't figure out whether it's spam, a suggestion or just something the sender thinks we might want to look at. We never, ever post suggestions we get by email -- only stuff that comes in via the form.
- Do describe the link
This is the second most important thing to do if you want your suggestion to show up on Boing Boing. Tell us what the link is, and why you think we'll be interested. We get a lot of suggestions and we visit a lot of sites and life is too short to click on links that we've probably already seen -- if you can't be bothered to describe the link, we won't be bothered to look at it.
- Do include your email
It's optional, but if you send us a suggestion and don't include an email address, then we can't write back to you with questions and clarifications. (We don't publish your email address, we don't spam your email address)
- Do include your URL
If you have a URL that you'd like us to link back to in the attribution section, include it in the form, and remember the http:// !
Don'ts:
- Don't submit links by email
See Do number 1: we mean it. Sending stuff by the form is the only way to suggest a link for Boing Boing. No exceptions.
- Don't follow up your submissions with email
Don't send us emails telling us you sent us links -- we get thousands of emails and getting your suggestion and your reminder of your suggestion just adds work. We look at every submission we get.
- Don't be cute in your description
When we say "Describe the link," we mean just that: where does the link go, and why is it interesting? Don't be cryptic in your description, don't obscure it with humor, don't bury the description under paragraphs of preamble about something that's not the link.
- Don't send in stuff without links
If you saw something cool on TV or received something interesting in email, you need to either find it on the Web or publish it on the Web before suggesting it. Boing Boing publishes links -- so if there's no link, there's not much chance we'll link to it.
We know how much fun it is to share cool links with other people and we're really glad when you choose to share them with us. But when you send us links without describing them, or by email, or when you send in followups, or write confusing descriptions, you're wasting your time. The best way to get something on Boing Boing is to try to do what we try to do: find something interesting, write an informative blurb about it, and send it along.
Boing Boing Link
Boing Boing Gagdets Link
By Xeni Jardin at 7:15 am Thursday, Feb 17
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Guillaume Sorge and the folks at
D-I-R-T-Y.com produce compilations and remixes that always prove to be a few steps ahead of everyone else's style radar. The stuff they plucked first, you'd hear all over clubs in Brooklyn or LA six months later. They used to release these long, luscious, free MP3 mixes at secret urls that would vanish without warning, like temporary speakeasy bars. Somewhere along the way, the French fashion/lifestyle store
Colette began offering some of their work on on CDs. Here's their latest -- the soundtrack for an art installation which premiered
at the Villa Noailles in France last December...
Guillaume says:
Babydisco is an oneiric and playfull introduction to club land : children take possession of a reduced-scale entirely rebuilt club with strong design, where night-club clichés meet childlike universe in a soft jewel box. The discotheque becomes a free space, to which adults have no access, except for a minute glance through the door. This space is also an initiation to different forms of contemporary culture (design, video, music...). 10 to 12 children gather by appointment for a one hour session.
Like a pizza party at Chuck-E-Cheese, with better music and decor but no pizza.
Link to project info and tracklisting, and link to QuickTime videos:
lo (4MB),
hi (12MB)
By Xeni Jardin at 7:06 am Thursday, Feb 17
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Jon says, "I found another plastic surgery magazine at the super market here in Kuala Lumpur. It's called
Cosmetic Surgery & Beauty and it's tagline --
Because Nobody is Perfect - is pretty awesome. The contents, however, are pretty trashy; lots of huge, plastic breasts and what-not." click image for full-size.
Previously:
New Beauty magazine launches in USA,
Denmark's Plastique magazine
By Xeni Jardin at 6:55 am Thursday, Feb 17
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Boing Boing reader
Kevin says,
It would appear that John Stewart has done another mention of the Blogosphere, this time covering the breaking of a Jeff Gannon media cover-up with ties to gay escort sites. Torrent links to last night's Daily Show appear in this entry.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 3:08 am Thursday, Feb 17
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If you own a Comcast PVR you may be in for a surprise when you record American Idol or 24. Some users of these boxes report that they can't fast-forward through their recorded episodes of the shows. While Comcast denies any shenanigans, I am confident that there is a flag lurking in the Comcast PVR's guts that lets broadcasters disable the fast-forward button, the record button and all other features. Another reason to
build your own MythTV.
Link
(
via Waxy)
By Cory Doctorow at 3:01 am Thursday, Feb 17
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This small gallery of hand-painted rural Russian movie posters is fascinating (pictured here, poster for "50 First Dates"). Here's the story behind them: "the posters were made in response to a nascent form of mobile cinema - entrepreneurs brought the latest foreign videos and films to Russia's rural hinterlands where they set up make-shift movie houses and they hired 'professionals' to promote the films with outrageous naive paintings. some theaters even had in-house artists to keep up with the torrent of releases."
Link
(
via We Make Money Not Art)
By Cory Doctorow at 2:58 am Thursday, Feb 17
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This Katamari Damacy hand-puppet is too cool for words: oh, to live in Japan!
Link
(
Thanks, Stx!)
By Cory Doctorow at 2:55 am Thursday, Feb 17
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This $50 Black-and-Decker special-purpose robot sits on your counter and opens jars of many sizes.
Link
(
via Red Ferret Journal)
Update:: Jen sez, "This link is to a video of the 1999 early prototype of the Lids Off Black&Decker jar opener you posted today . I worked on this for my senior project in Mechanical Engineering at Yale University and won the BF Goodrich Collegiate Inventors prize for it. It was picked up by a group that looks for opportunities for products for the disabled and they pushed B&D to make it. Here's the story of the case study."
