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Posted Fantastic faux-floor illusions to Boing Boing
I was reading a Cool Tools review of a company that puts any image on blinds, wallpaper, or flooring, and one of the comments led me to some fantastic illusions made using photo prints on the floor. More info on the bathroom floor and elevator from the Amazing Illusions blog. UPDATE: Turns out the bathroom was for a Photoshop contest and so, is faux. I hope somebody makes it real though! (Thanks, Dean Putney!)...
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Posted Witch bottle from the 18th century to Boing Boing
Above is an 18th century "witch bottle," used to fend off evil spirits. Discovered at a construction site in the London borough of Greenwich, this example is particularly rare because it's still corked. Retired chemistry professor Dr. Alan Massey analyzed the bottle and its curious contents. From Fortean Times: (The bottle) contained 12 bent iron nails (one of which pierced a small leather heart), eight brass pins, 10 adult fingernail pairings (sic) (not from a manual worker, but a person "of some social standing"), a quantity of hair and urine with traces of nicotine, indicating it had come from a smoker. There were also traces of sulphur, then known as brimstone, and what is thought to be navel fluff. The brimstone recalled the passage in Revelation where the beast and the false prophet were "cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone". "Discovery of witch bottle used to drive away evil spells" Previously:Witches on Drugs - Boing Boing Petitioners seek pardon for "witch" jailed in 1944 - Boing Boing Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials - Boing Boing Witch doctor orders death of Hollywood snow cone man - Boing Boing...
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Posted Rats in the urban ecology to Boing Boing
(CC-licensed image by Flickr user laverrue) Gregory Glass is a disease ecologist -- he studies the relationship between pathogens and hosts. A professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Glass's laboratory is Baltimore's urban underbelly, where he hangs out with beefy sewer rats. Apparently, Baltimore is a hotbed of rat research. I wonder if Glass has encountered any Rat Kings. From Smithsonian: Glass has been following the secret lives of wild Norway rats – otherwise known as brown rats, wharf rats, or, most evocatively, sewer rats -- for more than two decades now, but Baltimore has been a national hotspot for rat studies for well over half a century. The research push began during World War II, when thousands of troops in the South Pacific came down with the rat-carried tsutsugamushi disease, and the Allies also feared that the Germans and Japanese would release rats to spread the plague... Glass – who started off studying cotton rats in the Midwest – traps the animals with peanut butter baits and monitors the diseases they carry. (Hantavirus, once known as Korean hemorrhagic fever, and leptospirosis – which can cause liver and kidney failure – are of particular concern.) Lately he’s been interested in cat-rat interactions. Cats, he and his colleagues have noticed, are rather ineffectual rat assassins: they catch mainly medium-sized rodents, when they catch any at all. This predation pattern may actually have adverse effects on human health: some of the deceased mid-sized rats are already immune to harmful diseases, while the bumper crops of babies that replace them are all vulnerable to infection. Thus a higher proportion of the population ends up actively carrying the diseases at any given time. "Crawling Around with Baltimore Street Rats" Previously:Massive rat in China - Boing Boing How rats think - Boing Boing Huge rat discovered in Indonesia - Boing Boing Rats are ticklish! - Boing Boing...
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Posted Beard worn as cage around head to Boing Boing
This fellow apparently won a facial hair competition in 1991 for his beard head-cage with working door. (via Imaginary Foundation) UPDATE: In the comments, lots of speculation that this is fake. May very well be, but I still think it's delightful....
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Posted Brilliant meteor over Utah to Boing Boing
A gorgeously glowing meteor flew over Utah on Wednesday night, alarming some citizens and delighting others. The image above is from a security camera at the IMFT plant in Lehi, Utah. From KSL-TV, were you can also see some video of the fireball: Clark Planetarium Director Seth Jarvis said the stony meteorite was probably traveling 80,000 miles an hour when it hit our atmosphere. He said it happened 100 miles up in the air; so despite the brightness, Utah was never in any danger. "These collisions can do damage, but they are extremely rare; and literally once in a century do you observe something that's actually doing damage," he said. Witness Andy Bailey said, "Oh, it lit up the whole sky, like almost brighter than the day. It was bright." Don White was in Wyoming and told KSL Newsradio for a moment he suspected a nuclear strike. "With something that brilliant and that fast, it was like, whoa, did we just get hit or something? It would have been some bigger noise I guess if a nuclear device had gone off," he said. "Meteor lights up early morning sky, alarms Utahns"...
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Posted Chuck Prophet documentary to Boing Boing
My film director pal Scott Compton just finished shooting a documentary about singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet. Scott and collaborator John Behrens joined Prophet and his band in Mexico City earlier this year where the group recorded ¡Let Freedom Ring!, an album of "political songs for non political people." My favorite Prophet quote from the trailer: "I walk into the (recording studio's) control room and I could not believe what I saw -- I was looking at a studio that is totally state-of-the-art... for 1957." So with a background of earthquakes, H1N1 hysteria, power outages, sirens, and corrupt police, the band plugged in their instruments and set to work. "The best thing about Prophet as a film subject," Scott told me, "is that even as things fell apart around him, he always was looking for the bright side of the mayhem." I can't wait to watch the whole film, slated for completion by March. I'll see Scott later today when he'll be directing a Boing Boing Video interview I'm doing with Swell Season, aka Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from the film Once. They're performing tonight at Oakland's Paramount Theatre....
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Posted Two curious antique Oddfellows items to Boing Boing
Michael-Anne Rauback spotted these two antique Oddfellows items on eBay and they're quite, er, odd. The first item up for bid is this wire mesh ceremonial mask with real hair. From the same seller come three pairs of "ceremonial goggles/blinders." The goggles/blinders "are made of leather, with metal over the eyes, which open and close."...
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Posted First photo of baby coelacanth to Boing Boing
Above is the world's first photograph of a baby coelacanth, recently taken by Japanese researchers off Indonesia's Sulawesi Island. A cryptozoology favorite, coelacanths were thought to have been extinct for 65 million years until one was found alive in 1938. "First Baby Coelacanth Photos Taken" (Cryptomundo) "Aquarium snaps world's first photos of young coelacanth" (Japan Times) Previously:Plastic coelacanth figurine - Boing Boing Fossilized coelacanth fin reveals evolutionary secret - Boing Boing Coelacanth caught on video - Boing Boing Video: Indonesian coelacanth - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Fisherman catches coelacanth Boing Boing: Coelacanth in danger...
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Posted MTV's Buzz: fantastically forward-thinking TV from 1990 to Boing Boing
In 1990, MTV aired a groundbreaking TV documentary series called Buzz. Created and directed by Mark Pellington (Mothman Prophecies, Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" video), Jon Klein, and Mark Neale in partnership with MTV Europe, Buzz was a fantastic experiment in non-linearity and cut-up that drew heavily from -- and presented -- avant-garde art, underground cinema, early cyberpunk, industrial culture, appropriation/sampling, and postmodern literature. Experientially, it feels like what Mondo 2000 would have looked like as a television show, and in fact Mondo founder RU Sirius was interviewed on the first episode. Other notable contributors/subjects included William S. Burroughs, Jenny Holzer, Genesis P-Orridge, Syd Mead, and many other happy mutants. This was the future of television, circa 1988. Too bad it didn't quite pan out this way. I'm delighted that YouTube user BlackFlagParty has posted the first episode online. I wish the full 13-episode series would be issued on DVD! Above is segment 1 from episode 1. The rest of the segments are after the jump....
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Posted Strange sightings of futuristic rocketmen and flying platforms to Boing Boing
For nearly a century, there have been strange sightings of people flying through the air, or hovering anyway. Now, I'm not talking about Superman, but rather groups of people on floating platforms or rocketmen launching through the sky propelled by jetpacks. I think it's intriguing that these sightings are so very different (and more interesting, in my opinion) than classic flying saucer reports. Fortean Times surveyed these accounts of "aeronauts from the future," or hallucinations, or platforms hanging from zeppelins, or, depending on the year, maybe experimental flying platforms in development. For example, the Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee was built in 1954, but the first report referenced the Fortean Times article is from 1916 (and published decades later as a letter-to-the-editor in the Daily Mirror.) Details after the jump....
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Posted IBM computer brain simulation as complex as a cat's to Boing Boing
I recently posted about IBM's Big Blue supercomputer built to simulate a human brain. IBM now reports that they've used a supercomputer to simulate a brain that exceeds that of a cat's in complexity and scale, in near real-time. I, for one, welcome our new feline A.I. overlords....
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Posted Placenta treatment reportedly helped injured soccer players to Boing Boing
Yesterday, I posted that injured soccer player Robin van Persie flew to Serbia for a "placenta oil massage" he hoped would heal him. Apparently, the placenta treatment worked, but the Telegraph reports that it may have been more invasive than a massage: "The injection of horse placenta on to the affected area is claimed to speed up the recovery process and, while it is not known whether (teammate Yossi) Benayoun and Riera have been subjected to that treatment, both have returned to Liverpool ahead of schedule with their rehabilitation." (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)...
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Posted Jacques Vallee on Boing Boing to Boing Boing
I'm delighted to introduce a new occasional guest blogger on Boing Boing, Dr. Jacques Vallee, who will contribute posts every so often. In the world of computer science, Jacques is best known for his pioneering database research in the 1960s at Stanford Research Institute and then, during the next decade, for leading the development of the the world's first network-based computer conferencing system for the ARPANET. He launched that project, called PLANET, in 1972 at Institute for the Future (IFTF), the non-profit thinktank where I'm a researcher. At IFTF, Jacques and his colleagues studied the social impact of online communication and explored its applications in industry. In 1976, Jacques founded InfoMedia, the first computer conferencing and groupware company. I met Jacques in person several years ago when he popped into IFTF for a visit. It was quite exciting for me as I was quite familiar with his work, albeit in a very, very different context. For nearly fifty years, Jacques has studied the history and culture of the UFO phenomena and written a slew of fantastic books on the subject, always calling for a scientific investigation of reports rather than an approach rooted in belief. Among ufologists, Jacques is very much a "heretic among heretics" for opposing the typical opinion that UFOs are nuts-and-bolts spaceships piloted by extraterrestrials. Jacques once said, "I'll be disappointed if (UFOs) turn out to be only spacecraft from outer space." Whenever I see the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I get a kick out of François Truffaut's character Claude Lacombe insisting that the UFO phenomenon "is an event sociologique!" That is exactly something Jacques would say, and indeed Steven Spielberg based the character on him. My favorites of Jacques' books are Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers, Messengers of Deception, and The Invisible College, where he considers whether we're living inside an information-based control system, a mind-spinning idea that's now embraced by many physicists. Recently, Jacques published the second volume of his personal journals, titled Forbidden Science, and is now completing a new book about ancient UFO sightings. He also works as a partner in a venture capital firm investing in emerging technologies with potential space applications. Jacques's intellectual rigor around anomalous phenomena and weird science has inspired me since I was a teenager. I'm thrilled to have his voice on Boing Boing....
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Posted Sculptures inspired by quantum physics to Boing Boing
"Father" from the series "Spin Family (Bosons and Fermions)" 2009, steel and silk, 7" x 6" x 6". We've posted previously about physicist, software designer, and artist Julian Voss-Andreae whose work lies at the intersection of science and sculpture. Last year, he created a massive metal protein sculpture linked to Leonardo's Vitruvian Man. Now, Julian has made 30 objects inspired by his former physics research area of quantum physics. The objects are currently on display at the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland. More images and background on the work after the jump....
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Posted Placenta fluid massage to treat soccer player's injury to Boing Boing
Dutch soccer player Robin van Persie who plays for the Arsenal and Netherlands teams is seeking an unusual medical treatment for partially-torn ankle ligaments that have sidelined him. He's headed to Serbia for a massage with placenta fluid. From The Guardian: Speaking to Dutch television programme Studio Voetbal, the Arsenal striker revealed: "I will fly to the Balkans to meet with a female doctor who helped [PSV Eindhoven midfielder] Danko Lazovic. She is vague about her methods but I know she massages you using fluid from a placenta. I am going to try. It cannot hurt and, if it helps, it helps. I have been in contact with Arsenal physiotherapists and they have let me do it." "Arsenal's Robin van Persie to soothe ankle pains with placenta massage" (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)...
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Posted Cannibals reportedly sold body parts to kebab vendor to Boing Boing
Three homeless men in Russia were arrested for allegedly killing a man, eating some of him, and then selling hunks of his flesh to a kebab kiosk. From Reuters: "After carrying out the crime, the corpse was divided up: part was eaten and part was also sold to a kiosk selling kebabs and pies," the prosecutor's main investigative unit for the Perm region said. It was not immediately clear from the statement if any of the corpse had been sold to customers. "Body parts sold to kebab stand, police say"...
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Posted After parties held in abandoned newspaper boxes to Boing Boing
Prankster/artist Jason Eppink threw "Print After Parties" inside newspaper boxes in honor of the the death of print. Very clever. From Eppink's project description: Abandoned by floundering media conglomerates, thousands of neglected newsracks command valuable real estate on busy street corners across New York City, remnants of diminishing demand and a disintegrating economy. Many have already been reclaimed and transformed by urban alchemists, whether as canvases for stickers and paint or clever conceptual works that turn the once important vessels of information into repositories for garbage. The Print After Parties continue this line of collaboration with blinking LEDs, disco balls, cut-out silhouettes, and handheld radios. When the last vestiges of a collapsed empire litter the landscape, there's only one thing to do: throw a bumpin' party and dance on the ruins. Jason Eppink (Thanks, Imaginary Foundation!)...
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Posted Laser interface for bionic limbs to Boing Boing
Researchers are developing a laser-based system to connect the human nervous system to robotic prosthetic limbs. Brain-machine interfaces provide the output for controlling prosthetics but ideally the system would also provide feedback, for example the sensation of picking up an object. The challenge is that electrodes wired to a particular nerve can also zap surrounding nerves, triggering false sensations. Vanderbilt University researchers developed a method to precisely stimulate nerves with pulses of a laser. From IEEE Spectrum: Using a similar laser aimed at the sciatic nerve of laboratory rats, they caused some part of the animal’s legs to involuntarily twitch with each laser pulse. A slight movement of the beam across the nerve bundle—which causes the narrow beam to shift its focus from one fiber within the nerve to another—can cause the rat to switch from, say, curling its toes to flexing its foot....
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Posted Animation: Lil Cthulhu to Boing Boing
Lovecraftians rejoice! Thanks to Lil Cthulhu, it's much easier to initiate our young ones into the magic of the Great Old Ones! Animation by Zachary Murray with the voice of Erika Fontana. From the video description: Meet little Cthulhu, who lives in the magic city of R'lyeh with all his friends, as you and your child embark on a fun and educational journey through the world of the Great Old Ones, meeting all kinds of new buddies from the Necronomicon along the way, from Azathoth to Yog-Sothoth! This series has won multiple awards and has been enthusiastically approved by the department of child-developmental psychology at Miskatonic University. The Adventures of Lil Cthulhu (Thanks, Gareth Branwyn!)...
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Posted Laughing Squid at Kennedy Space Center for shuttle launch to Boing Boing
The Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-129 is set for liftoff today and BB pal Scott Beale is a few miles from the launch pad with camera-in-hand. He's participating in the NASA Tweetup at the Kennedy Space Center. Check out Laughing Squid for Scott's launch day photos. "NASA Tweetup At Kennedy Space Center For Launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-129"...
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Posted Clémentine Henrion's Eternal Balloons made from fabric to Boing Boing
Parisian artist Clémentine Henrion created these Helium Eternal Balloons. They're made from fabric. I think the effect is rather lovely. From Henrion's etsy shop: This “illusion” of an helium balloon is entirely made of precious or fancy fabric. There is no helium in this Helium Eternal balloon : it is stuffed with kapok, like a soft pillow. A tiny flap fixed at the top of the balloon helps hanging it to your interior’s ceiling, hook it to a curtain rod, the top of a wall etc. The key thing is to hang it up as high as possible, in order to recreate the magic illusion of a real flying helium balloon! The most beautiful effect is obtained in setting a bunch of several balloons together, forming a “balloons bouquet”. Clémentine Henrion (Thanks, Kelly Sparks!)...
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Posted Alternate Star Trek pilot to be released to Boing Boing
The forthcoming DVD release of Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 includes a pilot episode previously only available on the bootleg circuit. Apparently a German film collector found a print of this alternate version of the second Star Trek pilot, titled "Where No One Has Gone Before," and brought it to Paramount. Above are some clips from that alternate version of the pilot, which has never officially been released until now. From The Live Feed: The alternate version is in three parts with 1970s-style act breaks, an entirely different version of Captain James T. Kirk's opening monologue ("But now a new task. A probe out into where no man has gone before") and music that contrasts from the famous opening theme and an extended action sequence. From the (press) release: This version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was completed in 1965 and features archived footage that was not included in the pilot episode ultimately broadcasted. Never-before-aired, this newly recovered version is believed to be what was originally screened for NBC, and the basis for their decision to broadcast STAR TREK. Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3, Blu-ray (Amazon, thanks Jason Weisberger!) UPDATE: From Memory Alpha, more background on this alternative version of the pilot episode: There is a different, pre-broadcast cut of ("Where No One Has Gone Before") in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution. This unique cut includes a few brief scenes trimmed from the aired cut of the episode, different opening titles, and a unique closing theme. The alternate closing theme can be heard on the GNP Crescendo CD Star Trek: Original Series (Volume 1) "The Cage" / "Where No Man Has Gone Before". The pre-broadcast cut is commercially available only in bootleg form, although it has been screened at numerous conventions. Paul Carr was credited as "Navigator" in the end credits of the original cut. The version on the first season box set may contain the alternate ending theme, but does have the changed credits. This cut will be finally be available commercially on the Season 3 Blu-Ray set....
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