NASA's new 3D images of the sun are bitchun

By Xeni Jardin at 10:04 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

NASA announces that the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft have produced the first stereoscopic 3D images of our sun. Snip from press release:

The new view will greatly aid scientists’ ability to understand solar physics and thereby improve space weather forecasting.

"The improvement with STEREO's 3-D view is like going from a regular X-ray to a 3-D CAT scan in the medical field," said Dr. Michael Kaiser, STEREO Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The STEREO spacecraft were launched October 25, 2006. On January 21 they completed a series of complex maneuvers, including flying by the moon, to position the spacecraft in their mission orbits. The two observatories are now orbiting the sun, one slightly ahead of Earth and one slightly behind, separating from each other by approximately 45 degrees per year. Just as the slight offset between a person’s eyes provides depth perception, the separation of spacecraft allow 3-D images of the sun.

Link, more info here, and still more info here.

NASA provides PDF papercraft plans for groovy Apollo-era 3D spex here: Link. If, like me, you are the lazy, non-papercrafting type, you can instead buy a pair from vendors here: Link. (Thanks, ScottG in NYC)
Reader comment: Steve says,

The really good stuff is here: Link. Including this rad video of an eclipse: Video Link. And where they are right this very minute: Link.

China: more on Hu Jintao's new net censorship regs

By Xeni Jardin at 9:43 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Following up on a BB post about news reports of new internet regulations in China, BoingBoing reader Will says,

This is from the blog of an English-language "polisher" who works for Xinhua news agency. The piece that got picked up by Reuters (and passed on to CNN) actually crossed his desk. His view, like those of many observers here in China, is that Hu Jintao's statements are, at this stage, typical government claptrap. "Duffman says a lot of things."

Although China still labors under an uneven regime of censorship, there is a surprisingly wide array of opinion and internal debate that goes on, in print and on the 'net. danwei.org is always a good place to start if you're curious about what's going on in the Chinese media. They publish interviews, translations, and provide a very down-to-earth perspective on the Chinese press and its travails.

Previously on BoingBoing:

China: government's new campaign to "cleanse" the internet

Bill Gates and Free Software heckler in China

Google, China, and genocide: web censorship and Tibet

Yahoo aided China in torture, says dissident in lawsuit papers

China dissident's wife: "Yahoo betrayed my husband."

Jailed Chinese dissident's wife to sue Yahoo for ratting out her husband

Yahoo rats out Chinese reporter to Beijing, writer gets 10 years in jail

China: gov to expand "Great 'Net Firewall," censor web even more

Report: Yahoo helped jail another Chinese 'net dissident, Li Zhi

Journalism school won't return Yahoo's controversial $1M grant

Report: Yahoo implicated in 3rd China dissident case

Yahoo could stay in China and stop sending its users to jail

Harsh words for US tech firms from House at China 'net hearings

Report: verdict confirms Yahoo helped jail China dissident #2

Xeni's LAT op-ed: war, blogs, news, and profit.

Amnesty Int'l. confronts Yahoo over jailed Chinese reporter

NPR "Xeni Tech": Yahoo may have aided in jailing of second China writer

Tech firms blasted over China policies on Capitol Hill

HK lawmaker: Yahoo unit had role in Shi Tao's jailing

Chinese activist to Jerry Yang: You are helping to maintain an evil system

Potentially Earthlike planet discovered outside our solar system

By David Pescovitz at 9:37 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

European astronomers have discovered what may be an Earthlike planet 20 light-years away from here, in the Libra constellation. The planet, named Gliese 518c, is five times more massive than Earth and orbits a red sun at a distance that could support the presence of water and, possibly, life. The Geneva Observatory scientists and their collaborators couldn't observe the planet directly, so its discovery was actually an inferrence. Using a 141-inch-diameter telescope in Chile, they measured the wobble of the parent star, a phenomenon caused by the orbiting planet's gravitational pull. Based on those measurements, they could then deduce the planet's approximate mass and other information. From the New York Times:

“On the treasure map of the universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X,” said Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University in France, according to a news release from the European Southern Observatory, a multinational collaboration based in Garching, Germany...

The most exciting part of the find, Dr. Sasselov said, is that it “basically tells you these kinds of planets are very common.” Because they could stay geologically active for billions of years, he said he suspected that such planets could be even more congenial for life than Earth.

Link

Man chops off penis in crowded restaurant

By David Pescovitz at 8:59 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

A man ran into the Zizzi restaurant on The Strand, London, and cut off his penis with a kitchen knife. Police arrived and used tear gas to restrain him. From the BBC News:

The man was then taken to hospital in south London where his condition is stable. It is understood surgeons were unable to reattach his penis.

Link

UPDATE: Thanks to all the readers who point out that zizi is French slang for penis! Coincidence? You be the judge.

Rudy Rucker's science fiction webzine Flurb #3 is out

By Cory Doctorow at 7:38 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

The third issue of Rudy Rucker's sporadic but wonderful free webzine Flurb is live today, filled with original sf stories from king-hell sf writers like Paul Di Filippo, John Shirley, and Eileen Gunn. Link (via Futurismic)

See also:
Cory's "I, Row-Boat" live on Flurb
FLURB: Rudy Rucker's new literary zine
Rudy Rucker's science fiction webzine Flurb #2 is out

Floating jellyfish pool-lights

By Cory Doctorow at 7:33 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

These jellyfish pool-lights run on four AA batteries and float on the surface of your pool, looking luminescent, deadly and plasticky. Link (via Cribcandy)

Real-life underwear perverts in the news

By Xeni Jardin at 5:12 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

I don't mean to make light of the actual story behind this headline, which is not funny. But this has got to be the weirdest headline of the week:

DOCTOR DRESSED AS SUPER HERO ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT

...followed by the weirdest buried lede of the week:

"Authorities said Adamcik was in possession of a large burrito and drugs."

Link to news story. And more about the term "underwear perverts": Link. (stolen from T. Bias on Wayne Correia's list)

Reader comment: W. Vann Hall says,

The guys at The Smoking Gun have Dr. Raymond "Captain America" Adamcik's mug shots and arrest report posted: Link.

Parody of Jack Chick tract warns against tiki worship.

By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:49 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Funny faux religious tract warns people to stop tiki idolatry before it's too late. Humuhumu uploaded a complete scan of the tract to her evil tiki-worship blog. Link

Craft Vol 3 on newsstands

By Mark Frauenfelder at 3:51 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

The latest issue of CRAFT, Vol 3, is out on newsstands. Edited by my lovely wife, Carla, CRAFT is the sibling publication to MAKE and this issue features a bunch of crafts from Japan. My favorite project in this issue is hikaru dorodango, the art of making beautiful shiny balls out of mud.

Konichiwa Crafters! CRAFT: 03, the Japanese Style issue is available today on the newsstands! We are so excited to bring you this issue that shares our love of Japanese crafts and style. In this issue you'll learn how to stitch the cute cover kitties featured in Aranzi Aronzo's The Cute Book. Diana Eng shows you how to make a punk Harajuku-style T-shirt, Suzi Pakhchyan makes blushing finger puppets, and Susan Beal shows you how to make your own sweet smelling bath scrub. Other DIY projects include Sumi paper marbling, hypertufa planters, gorgeous dorodango mud balls, knitted kimonos, and way more than we can list here, get ready to have no shortage of exciting crafting projects.

Find out more about what's in CRAFT: 03 | Subscribe now to CRAFT

Interview with John Kricfalusi

By Mark Frauenfelder at 2:29 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Cold Hard Flash has a great interview with Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi. It's loaded with videos and art samples, both new and old.

AARON: You once mentioned that your "breakfast diet was planned by Bugs Bunny, Yogi Bear and Rocky Squirrel." Recent studies have revealed that "less than 2% of television commercials are for foods that promote a balanced diet." With the spiraling obesity and childhood diabetes epidemics in America, do you think that children's advertisers should be regulated?

JOHN: No. But companies that make healthier products should jump on the bandwagon and get me to create mascots for them and cartoons that entertain kids and sell the healthy foods. Lots of healthy food actually tastes good and most fast foods taste like crap.

When I was a kid I ate whatever cereal had the best cartoon character on the box and had the best prize. Most cereal doesn't taste very good anyway. We just ate it so we could get the next box and prize.

I'm amazed at how amateurish the graphics are now even on the big name cereals. They don't even look fun anymore. I could cure that so easily. Hell, kids wanted to buy Log just because of the commercial! I'm obsessed with packaging and would love to find sponsors that see that making their products seem fun will sell a lot more products.

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• bOING bOING interviews John K.
• John Kricfalusi on the art of Milt Gross
• Outline for John Kricfalusi's new cartoon
• John K's animation for Weird Al's video
• BB Digital Emporium: John K's "George Liquor Xmas" video
• John K on the "Death of Form"
• John K's drawing school
• John K's storyboard for "Stimpy's Invention" episode
• The $100000 animation drawing course (for only $8!)
• Foolish Warner Bros. lawyers trying to clobber John K.
• Jack Black Tenacious D video directed by John K
• Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes
• John Kricfalusi has a blog

Kryptonite found in Serbian mine

By David Pescovitz at 1:40 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

When mineralogist Dr. Chris Stanely of London's Natural History Museum did a Web search on the chemical formula of a recently-discovered unusual mineral, he was shocked to find out that the rock is Kryptonite. The mineral, found in a Serbian mine by the company Rio Tinto, consists of the same chemicals as fictional Kryptonite as described in the film Superman Returns. From the BBC News:

"Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide - and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns.

"The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite..."

The mineral cannot be called kryptonite under international nomenclature rules because it has nothing to do with krypton - a real element in the Periodic Table that takes the form of a gas.

Link (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

Daylight savings time tied to global warming?

By David Pescovitz at 1:14 pm Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

See update below. From the "you can't make this up" department, comes this letter to the editor that was published in last Monday's Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The author, Connie M. Meskimen, may or may not be this person, a lawyer in Little Rock, Arkansas. Also note the headline, "Daylight exacerbates warning," which perhaps was supposed to read "warming." Link to read the letter (Thanks, Jane McGonigal!)

UPDATE: Whew! BB reader Mike Avent says, "It's a tongue in cheek joke...a quick search of the authors name on the NWAnews.com website reveals a long history of tongue in cheek & snarky letters to the editor." Link and search "Connie Meskimen"

China: government's new campaign to "cleanse" the internet

By Xeni Jardin at 11:50 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

A state-run news network in China reported Monday that China's President Hu Jintao has launched a campaign to cleanse the nation's booming internet of "unhealthy" content, and make it a more effective platform for Communist Party doctrine. Link.

Previously on BB:

Bill Gates and Free Software heckler in China

Google, China, and genocide: web censorship and Tibet

Yahoo aided China in torture, says dissident in lawsuit papers

China dissident's wife: "Yahoo betrayed my husband."

Jailed Chinese dissident's wife to sue Yahoo for ratting out her husband

Yahoo rats out Chinese reporter to Beijing, writer gets 10 years in jail

China: gov to expand "Great 'Net Firewall," censor web even more

Report: Yahoo helped jail another Chinese 'net dissident, Li Zhi

Journalism school won't return Yahoo's controversial $1M grant

Report: Yahoo implicated in 3rd China dissident case

Yahoo could stay in China and stop sending its users to jail

Harsh words for US tech firms from House at China 'net hearings

Report: verdict confirms Yahoo helped jail China dissident #2

Xeni's LAT op-ed: war, blogs, news, and profit.

Amnesty Int'l. confronts Yahoo over jailed Chinese reporter

NPR "Xeni Tech": Yahoo may have aided in jailing of second China writer

Tech firms blasted over China policies on Capitol Hill

HK lawmaker: Yahoo unit had role in Shi Tao's jailing

Chinese activist to Jerry Yang: You are helping to maintain an evil system

Hong Kong: debate rages over proposed copyright law changes

By Xeni Jardin at 11:45 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Rebecca McKinnon has a blog post up today about debate surrounding proposed changes to online copyright law in Hong Kong. They amount to an emulation of America's Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), with a few crap-provements to make a Hong Kong version even more onerous:

Intellectual property law professor Peter Yu and Charles Mok, head of the Hong Kong Internet Society, spoke at a seminar here at Hong Kong University last Thursday. They pointed to a lot of ways in which the proposed legal changes would be potentially harmful to freedom of expression in Hong Kong.

(...) Peter didn't say this outright, but a couple of questions arise in my mind, also unanswered by the consultation document: Might the existence of illegally obtained movies on the hard drive of a government critic be used as an excuse to put him in jail??? What about a journalist who does a hard-hitting, muckraking report? Might she get a call from somebody the night before it is published saying "Greetings. We have learned from your ISP that somebody using your home computer downloaded 100 songs illegally in the last month. (meaningful silence)...."

Link

Available emblems of belief for US govt headstones

By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:50 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Here's a full list of religious (and belief system and non-belief system) emblems allowed on US goverment headstones. This list has not yet been updated to include the recently-approved Wiccan pentacle.

I especially like the groovy looking emblem shown here, for the Eckankar religion, which was founded in 1964. It makes me think the government should also approve the old EC logo for dead die-hard comics fans. Link

Todd Goldman loves Threadless T-shirt designs

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:58 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

If you are wondering whether or not Todd Goldman of David & Goliath fame copies other artists, here is another example to help you make a decision:

(Left: Todd Goldman design. Right: G. Dan Covert design)

(Thanks, Esther!)

Campaign to ban Comic Sans typeface

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:47 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Earz Mag interviewed Dave Combs, a designer who hates Comic Sans so much he has launched a campaign to eradicate every last vestige of it off the planet.

Earz: I found a weird website on typography, it was written in Italian I think, and had images of a gravestone lettered in comic sans. What does that say to you?

Combs: That would only be appropriate if the deceased were a clown or comedian, but other than that, I'd come back to haunt whoever did that if I were the dead guy.

Link

Reader comment:

Rogier says:

In your Campaign to ban Comic Sans typeface, Earz mentions the language on the tombstone depicted is Italian. Actually, it’s Dutch. It says: “Here rests our loving mom and granni [translated sic] RIE SPANS -- BROERE, March 23 1936 -- January 24 2004”. Her name was Rie Spans-Broere.

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:33 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Naomi Wolf wrote an essay about the ten steps a corrupt government takes to create a fascist state, and provides examples of what the Bush administration is doing to fulfill the requirements of each step. Some of Wolf's examples are quite a stretch, but others are spot on.

1 Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2 Create a gulag

3 Develop a thug caste

4 Set up an internal surveillance system

5 Harass citizens' groups

6 Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7 Target key individuals

8 Control the press

9 Dissent equals treason

10 Suspend the rule of law

It is a mistake to think that early in a fascist shift you see the profile of barbed wire against the sky. In the early days, things look normal on the surface; peasants were celebrating harvest festivals in Calabria in 1922; people were shopping and going to the movies in Berlin in 1931. Early on, as WH Auden put it, the horror is always elsewhere - while someone is being tortured, children are skating, ships are sailing: "dogs go on with their doggy life ... How everything turns away/ Quite leisurely from the disaster."

As Americans turn away quite leisurely, keeping tuned to internet shopping and American Idol, the foundations of democracy are being fatally corroded. Something has changed profoundly that weakens us unprecedentedly: our democratic traditions, independent judiciary and free press do their work today in a context in which we are "at war" in a "long war" - a war without end, on a battlefield described as the globe, in a context that gives the president - without US citizens realising it yet - the power over US citizens of freedom or long solitary incarceration, on his say-so alone.

Link (Thanks, Rachel!)

Next Tuesday, May 1, USC Free Culture sendoff/BBQ

By Cory Doctorow at 9:10 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Next Tuesday, May 1, is my last teaching day at the University of Southern California in LA. This year, I've had the privilege of being faculty advisor for the USC FreeCulture club, and we're having an end-of-year barbecue to celebrate a fine semester after class. All are invited -- see you there! OMGWTFBBQ! Link

Homebrew cars of 1954

By Cory Doctorow at 8:59 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

The March, 1954 edition of Popular Science carried a great article about homebrew car builders and their killer creations. I love this "Manta Ray" car!

MATE A MANTA RAY with a jet plane and this is what you get. Builders V. F. Antoine and G. K. Hire, of Whittier, Calif., work on guided missiles for a living. Shout is a chromed aluminum casting. Bumpers were fabricated from Hudson parts.

Link

Update: Coop sez, "That car was patterned after the 1951 Buick Le Sabre concept car, designed by legendary GM design god Harley J. Earl."

Update 2: Todd sez, "The Harley Earl show car was the 1951 GM LeSabre, not a Buick. General Motors didn't badge the car for a specific division, but it's often mistaken for a Buick because the LeSabre name was used for a Buick model beginning in the 1959 model year."

HOWTO hack Australian terrorism security: dress like an American

By Cory Doctorow at 5:49 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Aussie TV show The Chaser performed an experiment to see what happens if you try to video the the Sydney Harbor Bridge and a nuclear reactor that produces medical isotopes. If you do it dressed like an Arab, you get intercepted by security within three minutes.

If you do it dressed like an American, you get instructions on getting inside the nuclear facility. As Bruce Schneier notes, "Moral for terrorists: dress like an American." Link (via Schneier)

Canadian professor denied US entry for taking LSD in 1967

By Cory Doctorow at 5:41 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Vann sez, "Vancouver psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar has been barred from entering the United States. The reason? During a random stop-and-search at a US/Canadian border crossing, a Google search of his name led to his article from the Spring 2001 'Janus Head: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts.' In it Feldmar describes two acid trips he took under the supervision of his graduate advisor in psychology -- in 1967. This turns out to have been enough to earn him a life-time ban under the grounds of 'admitted drug use.'

"Feldmar *was* told he could apply for a waiver, and that after a year, and at a cost of around $3,500, he had a '90% chance' of its being granted.

"Oh -- and he'd have to go through the process each time he wanted to travel to the US."

The official said that under the Homeland Security Act, Feldmar was being denied entry due to "narcotics" use. LSD is not a narcotic substance, Feldmar tried to explain, but an entheogen. The guard wasn't interested in technicalities. He asked for a statement from Feldmar admitting to having used LSD and he fingerprinted Feldmar for an FBI file...

Feldmar was determined, in the months after the aborted border crossing, to turn things around. He was particularly determined because the idea of not being able to visit his children at their homes was unthinkable.

Link (Thanks, Vann!)

(Image ganked from The Tyee, where it was credited to C. Grabowski.)

Dumb inventions that got patents

By Cory Doctorow at 5:34 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

IZ Reloaded sez, "Here are 6 patents filed with the US Patent and Trademark office that are some of the dumbest inventions out there. Take for example the Helmet-Mounted Pistol. It's a gun strapped to the top of a hat. You have to blow into the connected tube to shoot the gun. Can you imagine using it during war? There'll be a lot of blowing."

Airbag Undershorts (2006)
What better way to magnify the humiliation of falling on your ass than with inflatable undies? These brainy briefs feature accelerometers that detect a tumble in progress, sending compressed gas into balloonlike pockets throughout the knickers. Phew – that was almost embarrassing.

Link (Thanks, IZ Reloaded!)

Universal and Amazon to sell DRM-free MP3s

By Cory Doctorow at 5:34 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Amazon has signed up Universal Music's classical division to sell its music as DRM-free MP3s.

Initial reports about Amazon's MP3 store came from Billboard, saying that that Universal Music Group had partnered with Amazon to sell unprotected music, mostly in the form of classical tracks. Such a move would be crucial to DRM-free music sales, as Universal currently holds the top position among all music labels and would send a strong message to labels who are nervous about following EMI's lead. "If Universal goes [DRM-free], then everyone has to follow," an anonymous music executive told Reuters on Friday. However, today's report in the Times debunks the speculation about Universal as "wide off the mark."

Link (via Wired Gadgets)

Russian ecommerce hack tricks post-office in US/Canada

By Cory Doctorow at 5:28 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

Here's a fascinating hack used by Russian netizens to trick e-commerce stores into delivering US/Canada-only merchandise to them in Russia:

It’s no secret that many bigger shops use electronic systems processing orders. So in order to see if this address is in USA or Canada it uses ZIP code, state or province name and words “USA” or “CANADA”.

So what was possible to do is to put totally Russian address in the order delivery form, like: Moscow, Lenin St. 20, Russia in the address fields, usually there is a plenty of space to enter long things like this, and in the field country they put Canada in the field ZIP code – Canadian zip code.

What happens next? The parcel travels to Canada, to the area to which the specified ZIP code belongs and there postal workers just see it’s not a Canadian address but Russian. They consider it to be some sort of mistake and forward it further, to Russia.

Here is a sample parcel that a guy in Russia got this way.

Guys at Canadian post stroke out the words “CANADA” and Canadian zip code, wrote RUSSIA and forwarded the parcel further.

People say this trick works perfectly, but warn not to order expensive things way like this because there are some risks that a parcel would be returned, though this method is perfect for different free merchandise that companies give out to USA and Canada citizens.

Link (via Make)

Postcards from 1900 depict tech of 2000

By Cory Doctorow at 5:24 am Tuesday, Apr 24 • Comments • Share

This collection of German postcards were originally give-aways in Hildebrands chocolates in 1900 -- they depict the world as it would be in 2000. Included are a water-unicycle, slidewalks, locomotives pulling houses, personal airplanes, weather control systems, amphibious railways, police X-rays for seeing through walls, and, of course, zeppelins. Beautiful artwork, too. Link