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Posted A Klingon Christmas Carol to Boing Boing
An after-Thanksgiving treat for the whole family... Scrooge has no honor, nor any courage. Can three ghosts help him to become the true warrior he ought to be in time to save Tiny Tim from a horrible fate? Performed in the Original Klingon with English Supertitles, and narrative analysis from The Vulcan Institute of Cultural Anthropology. Playing November 27 through December 13 at Minneapolis' Mixed Blood Theater. No really, this is for serious. (Thanks Joel!)...
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Posted Mishap at the Electrical Substation to Boing Boing
As a little kid, I used to think electrical substations would make really awesome jungle gyms. This video helpfully demonstrates why 5-year-old Maggie was an idiot. This is the Eldorado Substation near Boulder City, Nevada. What you're seeing: A substation like this one is connected to long-distance transmission lines and electricity has to be very high voltage to travel on those. The substation "steps up" the voltage so the electricity can travel. Everything at a substation is hot, in that shock the bejeezus out of you sense. So that maintenance can be done, substations are built with switching functions that allow you to disconnect and reconnect various parts of the system in modular sort of way. The big, crazy spark in this video happened when some of the switching mechanisms failed. The Arcs 'n Sparks page at Stoneridge Engineering explains what happened next......
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Posted Evolution Among the Cannibals to Boing Boing
The South Fore people of Papua New Guinea used to eat their dead relatives' brains as a sign of respect, passing on the deadly prion disease kuru--a relative of mad cow disease--in the process. But long before the Fore stopped the tradition on the advice of scientists in the 1950s, evolution was already at work. Less than 200 years ago, according to New Scientist, a member of the Fore was born with a gene mutation that protected against kuru. They passed it to their children. Because having the mutation helped you live longer (and, thus, have more children), it quickly spread through the Fore population. Today, several Fore families descended from people who took part in the brain-eating rituals owe their existence to the reality of evolution. (Via Mind Hacks.)...
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Posted Invasive Slugs Run Amok in Canada (Relatively Speaking) to Boing Boing
It's actually quite pretty (again, relatively speaking), but this slug is most likely an Arion rufus, a species that's native to Europe, but has been found in British Columbia and is apparently now also at large in Ontario. Hermaphroditic in nature, some slugs can even knock themselves up, so it only takes a single invader to build an army. Once the population is established, the slugs become (and I quote) the "slow moving lions of the vegetable world." So how do you get rid of them? The story offers two possibilities. First, you can leave out beer for the slugs. They're attracted to fermented yeast, but they're a little dumb and they can't swim, so they'll end up crawling in and drowning themselves. The other option: Collect the slugs when they come out at night and "immerse them in boiling water." The article, unfortunately, does not mention whether you can then eat Arion rufus in a nice butter sauce. 10 cm Etobicoke Slug a Big, Slimy Mystery in the Toronto Star (Thanks, Margaret Atwood. Yes, that Margaret Atwood.) Image taken by Etobicoke, Canada resident Lisa Bendall. Used under fair use....
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Posted Slider Stuffing to Boing Boing
The Chicago Sun-Times is offering a suggestion that could vastly improve your Thanksgiving meal, or turn this year's family gathering into a disaster of Michael Bay proportions. Depending on your point of view. Behold, the recipe for slider stuffing, which calls for "18 White Castle hamburgers (no pickles), chopped into 1-inch pieces," along with more usual suspects like button mushrooms, chicken stock, butter, onions, celery and sage. Nutrition facts per serving: 162 calories, 10 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 22 mg cholesterol, 13 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 259 mg sodium, 1 g fiber Oddly, the recipe does not seem to clarify what the size of a serving is, just that the recipe makes 12 of them. Whatever they may be. Article about the couple who came up with this wonder/abomination in Chicago Sun-Times Image courtesy Flickr user Marshall Astor - Food Pornographer, Via CC...
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Posted Is It Too Early To Start Drinking at the Airport? to Boing Boing
If you're sitting in an American airport this morning, wondering why you're sitting there and not on a plane that was supposed to leave an hour ago, we have an explanation for you. There seems to be a glitch in the FAA's flight plan computer system today, and it's causing delays and cancellations nationwide. If they won't open the bars yet, we think you at least deserve a conciliatory Cinnabon. (Thanks Sparky!)...
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Posted The Coming Apocalypse is Pretty Funny Actually to Boing Boing
Barring any major uptick in stupid, this will be the last time I poke the 2012 believers with a stick. I swear. (At least, until January 2013.) Besides, this is a slightly different take than the usual debunking. The Santa Fe Reporter (the paper) sent Santa Fe reporter (the person) Corey Pein into the heart of the End of the World Industrial Complex to capture a slice-of-life that is by turns frustrating, fascinating, depressing and hilarious. To be precise, there are 1,149 days until Dec. 21, 2012, when something will--nay, must--happen. It won't be the end of the world but, if it is, SFR regrets the error. And later, One nine-part YouTube film claims "The Illuminati Freemasons" have conspired over centuries to erect the new tower of Babel, aka the Freedom Tower, over the World Trade Center site in 2012. ("Anti-Semitism tends to float behind some of the conspiracy theories," Hoopes says.) The sublimely paranoid film also claims that since the 1970s, this cabal has "conveniently conditioned you to accept that global warming is all your fault," when actually "Your SUV's have little to do with it.. THEY.. conditioned you to become AFRAID of the SUN and CO2." Another production--by a man whose résumé boasts a few years' work long ago as a CNN field producer--makes the exact opposite argument, assailing "global warming deniers" for hiding evidence of the coming catastrophe. "In 2012, Americans will be burying their dead as their forefathers did during the Civil War--by the thousands. By the tens of thousands," the narrator says solemnly. (He goes on to pitch a "2012 Survival Guide," $34.90 plus shipping.) My Oh Mayan! from the Santa Fe Reporter Previously:2012 Debunking: The Short-Attention-Span Version Mark Dery on 2012 bunkum What actual Mayans are saying about 2012 - Boing Boing Daniel Pinchbeck video - Boing Boing Image courtesy Flickr user schoschie, via CC...
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Posted Separating the Green from the Wash to Boing Boing
From $50 bamboo T-shirts to environmental coloring books handed out by petroleum companies, greenwashing continues to be high on my list of "Things That Make Me Want To Rip My Hair Out and Then Go Do Worse to the People Responsible." The worst part, of course, is that it's often not easy to know when your green is coming to you heavily laundered. ClimateCount is an organization that's trying to help on that front. They put together an annual scorecard of Fortune 500 companies that breaks down these firms' real record on the environment. Then they rate the company's commitment to environmental responsibility as Stuck, Starting, or Striding. Everything is separated out by sector, so you can easily find the companies you want to check up on. Granted, I'm not convinced that Airlines, as a category, are ever going to move much beyond Starting. But I'm also frankly impressed that any are even at that point. So, tradeoffs. Couple of major downsides. First, this list is by no means comprehensive. We're talking Fortune 500 here, so that won't help you if you don't do a lot of business with those companies to begin with. For instance, the Beer category is sadly limited to Anheuser-Busch, Molson Coors, and SAB Miller. And what a cold, sad world that would be. Second, this is all a little subjective. Proctor and Gamble may get a Striding rating, largely for setting up energy use reduction goals that produced some results, and that may make them more green than their competitors. But does that really make them a green company? Overall, I think this might be better for helping you figure out which companies are totally blowing smoke up your various orifices than it is at helping you know which companies are truly awesome. But even that is useful. ClimateCount 2009 Scorecard Interview with ClimateCount's Executive Director, from New Hampshire Public Radio...
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Posted What the $*@&#! is the Nephroid of Freeth? to Boing Boing
I'll give you a hint: It has absolutely nothing to do with Star Trek, Star Wars or Dr. Who. (To my knowledge. Fanboy schooling commences anon.) More commonly called Freeth's Nephroid (which makes it sound less like a tentacled devourer of souls and more like a little boy's pet monster), it's actually a special plane curve--which is also not as weird and confusing as it sounds. Yeah, we're talkin' about a math thing today. (This was always my "B" subject, so feel free to let me know if I'm being wrong on the Internet. Again, fanboy schooling commences anon.) Onward to knowledge... Pictured: Not the Nephroid of Freeth. Courtesy Flickr user cole24, via CC...
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Posted Klingon as a First Language to Boing Boing
In the "social experiment" to end all "social experiments", a Minnesota father claims he put his computational linguistics Ph.D. to good use by speaking Klingon--and only Klingon--to his baby. Yes, for the first three years of its life, this kid was subjected to in-real-life parental trolling. The story doesn't explain why the experiment was stopped, but apparently it ended too soon to produce any lasting effects. The child, now a teenager, does not speak a word of Klingon. Thanks to Julio Ojeda-Zapata....
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