August 2007
Remote Control Plane With Feathers →
The RoboSwift is a remote controlled micro airplane with wings that can reconfigure in flight, mimicking the flight characteristics of swifts. There are four “feathers” on each wing that can fold over one another to increase or decrease lift and speed, and a propellor that can turn off and fold against the fuselage for better gliding performance. Cameras in the nose allow the operator to know what...
Congratulations Facebook! You've Made It... To... →
There’s been a lot of buzz lately that Facebook has surpassed MySpace as the hot social network du jour — and it looks like Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has confirmed it by saying he’s looking into the social networking site to determine its liability for letting sexual predators use the site. This comes just months after similar claims from Blumenthal about...
Britt: Listening to Teri Gross shamelessly hit on Paul Rudd
Britt: Fleeing the office but work resumes at home…ugh
July 2007
Once Again, Online Availability Doesn't Dampen Box... →
For years, people have been pointing out that the MPAA’s fears over movie downloading are overblown. After all, the experience of watching a movie that you download is quite different from actually going to the theaters and enjoying a social night out. Yet, the folks in the movie industry continue to misunderstand this simple fact. They insist that movie piracy is destroying the business...
Britt: This monkey’s gone to heaven
riotclitshave @ 2007-07-31T18:55:00 →
Internet Archive: Netlabels →
These ‘netlabels’ are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres. Styles include:
Britt: @msfleck Google Reader is the best web-based aggregator I’ve found.
German Court Says eBay Should Be Able To Tell A... →
For many years, various luxury brands have had problems with people selling counterfeit goods on eBay — leading to a variety of lawsuits. Of course, most of these lawsuits are incorrectly targeted. They’re usually filed against eBay, rather than the seller of the goods. eBay doesn’t inspect the goods or make any claim to the authenticity of them. That should be up to the...
NY Public Library giving away free public domain... →
Cory Doctorow:
The New York Public Library has just installed an Espresso book-on-demand machine and they’ll print any of over 200,000 public domain titles from the Open Content Alliance free of charge for any patron.
Library users will have the opportunity to print free copies of such public domain classics as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, “Moby Dick” by Herman...
NPR : Why It's Hard to Admit to Being Wrong →
Amazon will distribute the US National Archive on... →
Cory Doctorow:
Archivist Rick Prelinger sez,
The world’s largest repository of public domain film and video has signed a distribution deal with Amazon’s CustomFlix subsidiary to sell DVDs of its holdings.
This isn’t another Smithsonian-Showtime debacle. It’s a nonexclusive deal, and the Archives gets copies of digitized materials and can make them available to its...
Peer to Patent, Community Patent Review →
The Peer to Patent Project - Community Patent... →
Printer particles may pose health risk →
Sitting next to the office printer could be as bad for your health as working sitting next to with a chain smoker
Britt: @entropyblues Are we doing go-karts this week?
Shivraj Giri #2, Varanasi. India 2007 →
Shivraj Giri #2, Varanasi. India 2007, originally uploaded by fredcan.
Shivraj Giri is a very charismatic naga sadhu i spent some time with in Varanasi in February 2007. Here, taking a little chai (tea) break. Indian pilgrims would sometimes wait in line in front of him to receive his darshan (blessing), making him a very popular and busy man in Varanasi.
When not on the pilgrimage routes,...
Growing clean energy down at the Crowd Farm →
Here’s a different sort of crowdsourcing. The “Crowd Farm” is the brainchild of two MIT architecture students, and it’s a system designed to harness the physical movements of large masses of people and turn it into usable electricity - imagine contributing to the metro station’s lighting by climbing the stairs, for example. It’s a great idea - and like a lot of great ideas, a couple of people have...
Peer to Patent: keeping the Patent Office honest... →
Cory Doctorow:
The Peer to Patent Project is a pilot program to enlist the technological community in the patent review process. To date, the US Patent and Trademark Office has practically rubber-stamped any software or business-method patent that crossed its desk — no matter how obvious, trivial, or non-inventive it was.
Peer to Patent invites you to examine pending patents, discover...
BayUploader →
Use your iPhone as an XBMC remote - The Unofficial... →
Sen. Ted Stevens' home raided by FBI, IRS →
Xeni Jardin:
BoingBoing reader Paul says,
Various news outlets are reporting that FBI and IRS agents are raiding the Girdwood, AK home of Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) this afternoon. Stevens is most known for explaining the “…internet is a Series of Tubes” last year [ed note: and for wanting to switch phones “while i ride my motorcycle”].
“All I can say is...
Britt: FBI+IRS search Sen. Ted Stevens’ house http://tinyurl.com/2lr4zu Mu hahahaha!
Movie-Plot-Threat Presidential Debate Questions →
Funny:
Gentlemen, here’s the scenario: As you are flying home from Moscow — having told the world you will never deal with terrorists — hijackers, posing as reporters, seize Air Force One. They vow to kill a hostage every half-hour, including your wife and daughter, until you release a murderous Russian general. I’ll start with Senator Obama. Do you negotiate with the...
Magic Model Generator →
Futurama Makes Its Triumphant Return November 27 →
I know this is neither gear or gadget, but it’s sweet nerd news and let’s face it, you people are nerds. Mark November 27 on your calendar and clear out your entire schedule because Futurama is making a return to the small screen. It won’t be joining Family Guy on FOX, though. Comedy Central will be its new home and the first four episodes will actually be released on DVD as features with...
Synthetic Resveratrol Passes Early Tests in Humans →
In other life extension news, resveratrol, a naturally occuring compound found in red wine, has been demonstrated to increase the lifespan of rats sharply. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals has been testing a synthetic version of the compound, said to be 1000 times stronger than the natural form, in medical trials for type 2 diabetics. As writer David Ewing Duncan points out, the synthetic SRT501 still has...
Active Merchant →
LA hospital will give out your info "to protect... →
Cory Doctorow:
Check out the incredible “Notice of privacy practices” given to patients at the Cedars-Sinai hospital in LA: you “agree” that they’re allowed to share your private information for fundraising, national security, and for protective services for the President.
Link
Footbridge made from cardboard tubes →
Cory Doctorow:
A new bridge made of cardboard tubes has been erected over the Gardon river in southern France by a Japanese architect named Shigeru Ban.
Built half a mile from the Pont du Gard — a section of ancient Roman bridge classed as a UN World Heritage site — Shigeru’s cardboard-tube structure is strong enough to carry 20 people at a time.
Reaching over the water to a...
Delete One Protein To Live Longer →
The protein type 5 adenylyl cyclase (AC5) seems to act as an amplifier of adrenaline response in the heart. Mutant mice that don’t make AC5 live up to 30 percent longer, weigh less as they age than normal mice, and may be more resistant to heart disease and cancer. Researchers are already developing drugs that inhibit AC5, but cardiologist H. Kirk Hammond cautions against hoping for a...
New multiple sclerosis genes identified →
New gene variants that increase the risk of the disease by 20 to 30 per cent have been identified after 30 years of searching
Britt: FLed North to escape the fog and went hiking.
Web contracts can't be changed without notice →
Cory Doctorow:
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a web “contract” — that is, the ridiculous “terms of service” that you agree to just by looking at a web-page — can’t be changed without notice, something that’s standard in most of these “agreements.”
This is a rare, overdue moment of sanity from the legal system about web...
Britt: Headed to the Alemany farmer’s market and then to the Giants game.
Britt: On my way to see Labyrinth
Britt: dammit why am I still hungry?
Mojave Space Port blast kills 3 Scaled Composites... →
Xeni Jardin:
A third person died Thursday night from injuries suffered during the explosion of an experimental rocket fuel tank at Mojave Air and Space Port in the California desert. BoingBoing readers may recall this site as the location from which SpaceShipOne and other innovative, privately-financed craft have taken off in recent years.
“We don’t know why it exploded,” said...
Britt: Eating beets and looking forward to orange urine.
qc_juillet2007_26 →
hasemeister posted a photo:
BBC's online media now requires MSFT player, DRM →
Xeni Jardin:
DefectiveByDesign says:
Today the BBC made it official—they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With today’s launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating system to view BBC programming on the web. And you...