#14 - golden =)

Old Jeff Simmermon has a barn
E-I-E-I-O
And in his barn he has some chicks
with-a-CAS-I-O

With a MiniMoog here and a MiniMoog there
Here a Moog there a Moog
Everywhere a Moog Moog
Old Macdonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O

Dammit! He does say on ther rules that

* Donations cannot be accepted from non-U.S. citizens.

So what are the risks (for him) if non-US citizens do?

(From the ethical point of view, I'm here to stay, and it's only a matter of time before I become one. Might as well participate now..)

Again, thanks to CRBrown for stirring a discussion.

My girlfriend is a math grad student in Kansas State university, so I go there nearly every month (I live in New York). There are many people in Kansas who don't care, and many who are very opposed to the bullshit that the government pushes.

However, a lot of them live in two university towns - Lawrence and Manhattan - where they are shielded from the outside world. The schools there teach evolution, since the professors' kids go there; the environment is multi-national and liberal. So there's almost no need to do anything...

Almost. If no action is taken, scary thing might happen. It is indeed up to the people there to vote, but it certainly is ethically/legally OK to help the guy spread the message across.

PS: The town of Manhattan boasts itself as "the little apple", so I get to fly roundtrips between the apples.

"Hey guys... I'm sooo sick of all this fighting going around.."

OK, one last note: IMHO, the easiest viewing experience is downloading a bunch of these photos from the LOC site into a folder, open one with Stereo Photo Maker, hit X to swap the images in the pair and view cross-eyed. Then for the next image hit Space, the software will open the pair cross-eyed so that you don't have to cross/uncross eyes between the pairs.

As a side note: Damn ! The photos are so great !
You simply cannot feel the scale when you view them in 2D.

And one last happy note. The article talks a lot, but I couldn't find the link to the actual photos, just crappy slideshow. The photos are actually stored in Library of Congress website (Oh, joy!)

Here's the link to all of them:

http://tinyurl.com/6qrdc8

There you shall find previews, and ability to download 150kb JPEG's and full uncompressed(!) huge 35mb TIFF scans for all your printing/viewing/editing joys.

Also, for everybody who might find the above procedure difficult or too annoying to do for every image, I highly recommend the small, powerful and free stereo pair viewer/editor
Stereo Photo Maker:

http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/

Just save your stereo files and use Stereo Photo Maker to:
-view as stereo pair as is
-swap left/right image in pair
-view as anaglyph with red-blue or red-green glasses you got from a movie theater (!!!)

It can also do a gazillion of other things, yet somehow the install is 621Kb.. It's my favourite tool for 3D photography, so I just have to tell everyone =)

#7, you beat me to posting that the photos are in parallel view =) Most 3D stereo are parallel view, just as they come out on the film: left picture corresponds to left eye/lens. In cross-eyed view the pictures are swapped.

Here's how to view cross-eyed, with an excellent example:
http://dogfeathers.com/3d/lookcrossed.html

The comments are so brilliant ! #1,4,5 are really full of win!

For the uninitiated: see
http://io9.com/391826/in-russia-the-flying-penises-of-second-life-are-real

(Press conference: $???
Flying penis : $50
Photographer's smile: priceless)

Guys, you all DO realize that the RFID tag is just slapped over an VFID tag, right ? (where VFID is Visible Frequency ID). So instead of using EYES or a CAMERA someone needs RADIO EQUIPMENT to read the tag within a huge range of CENTIMETERS ! Freaky.

Oh, yeah..
12. Read post #16 by Racingchickin, it's full of eternal truths

Well, I commute nearly every day to campus 6 miles one way (here, stalk me: Googlemap
), and I can tell you that the guy has some decent points.

One of them is that road bikes are not applicable in some areas. I am really happy that I have a mountain bike. Of course, road bikes sometimes fly by me, but at some points the road is just not present. As a bonus, I can take shortcuts on the grass, etc.

Another thing he noted right is that all the drivers are trying to kill you, and you can take pedestrian rights for safety. Roads in a lot of areas were designed for car traffic, not bike traffic. The difference is that if a car slightly hits a car, there is no consequences; car-bike collision are much likely to be worse.

Here are my bit od pseudo-wizzdom about bike commute (please comment on those!):

1. Get a basket. And, ideally, a back rack to which a milk crate can be attached. This will allow you to shop easily (I think I just brought more than 10 kilos of food from Waldbaums).

2. Get fenders if you don't have ones (unless you will only ride on dry roads). Not really necessary, but quite nice to have.

3. Always, I mean ALWAYS have your lights when you bike at night (unless you are biking on well-lit areas on sidewalk in an ideal universe)

4. Whatever pepople above side, it's OK to ride on sidewalks. I'm talking about Brooklyn and Long Island here, where either drivers are crazy, or there's no bike path/shoulder, or both. Of course, it depends on the amount of people there.

5. Carry a spare tube and a pump, because nails do grow on roads (and so do broken glass bottles). (I just got my last nail in the tube yesterday)

6. "Self-healing" tubes with magic slime (and similar products) are a lie, there always exists a nail of the right size that the slime won't stop. And nothing heals glass cuts.

7. Tube patches work; however, tubes can be as cheap as $2. In case of failure, shop around and get whatever is accessible.

8. Learn to replace the tube, you'll have to do it often. (I timed myself today - it took exactly 15 minutes, and I am slow) Also, oiling the bike does not take much skill, but is good.

9. Get a wider softer seat. Every bike that is not a "cruiser" comes with sadomasochisitic thin and hard seat. I can't comprehend how this might be comfortable on long, bumpy rides.

10. Get bells and whistles - for the heck of it =)

11. Don't get a bike in Walmart. Ever. Read what people above have said. It's all true. Get an old Schwinn, if you like, not the new ones from Walmart. Bikes from Walmart or Target are targeted to landfill in a month.

fooh... that's all I can think of.. now comment ! -)

#28: Awesome ! I was looking for it ! This line is what Pulp Fiction is to me.

I played with camera capacitors in high school. I didn't shock others, but, of course, I shocked myself many times. It is not pleasant; it can be compared to being to slapped on the face (on the emotional response level). Thus if the 'prankster' device got into the hands of a school official or a police officer, they are really inclined to put the guy into jail, just out of revenge. But, of course, the whole 'ordeal' is incredibly stupid. As someone who tried it on myself, I confirm that the device is harmless.

№15: Not really. The rope only needs to span the diagonal of the maze, which is enough for the owner to peek out to see who is there. This is how chains are usually made anyway, to complement the locks, not to replace them. The eyepiece in the door came much later.

#2: Thank you =)

#10(Xenu): Thank you !!! This mad my night. Time Cube FTW!

(Oh, dammit, #35 KID beat me to thanking you =) I should have commented before reading all the other comments)

Boo fridays.

Actually, some products are better in "real life" (that is, the website photographer did a better job than the ad photographer =) I myself think that a lot of Super Associated products her in US look at least as good in real life. But yet again, for a lot of products on the page, the 'real stuff' just looks better. Or maybe I am too hungry now =)

Guys, I've been away from BoingBoing for a while... What's up with these weird text over the articles ?? "CITIGROUP 30 MILLION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VERTERAN AFFAIRS etc."

Awesome ! I always thought - why don't they do that. Another device that they should make is a MIDI controller (pitch to note), or maybe something that reads hand muscle strain, so that I woudln't actually have to play the piano =)

#8 won't pass a turing test =)

#8, agreed. It's quite sad that it ends up like that.

#7, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

#89 : Thornae

Thanks for making my day ! =) The brains in the background are awesome !!

Great, I'ma fricking terrorist. I take a lot of photos and (you wouldn't believe) switch SIM cards on my cell phone. SIM cards were never meant to be taken out of cell phones, only terrorist would do that (and people whose cell phone battery died.. terrorists!) They forgot to mention people with several cameras.

I suggest to continue this line of posters in the following manner:

Thousands of people have brains. What if one of them thinks suspiciously ? Terrorists rely on using brains to terrorize. Report that smart-pants to police and let experienced officers who couldn't pass a test to get into a good school decide what to do.

Thousands of people use toilets every day. What if one of them smells suspicious? Terrorists rely on taking multiple smelly dumps to get toxical chemicals used for bomb-making out of their bodies. If it smells like someone is taking a dump, we need to know. Let the experienced officers decide what to do.

Millions of people have sex. What if some of them sound weird ? Terrorists rely on sex to multiply and transmit terrorism sexually. If you hear sex, we need to know. Report your loud neighbors now, and let experienced officers decide what to do.

.......................

And I thought "If you hear something, say something" was annoying...

#2: I thought the same =) What immediately jumped to my mind was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBFQssLOn94 (Also, I frist ps0t'ed this link, but somehow the comment didn't go through.. or I left it in some other thread)

HILLARY WRITES EVERYTHING IN COMIC SANS

Brilliant.

Hah, what immediately comes to my mind is this skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBFQssLOn94

If you're going to mass produce stuff, you could as well use CNC machines/laser cut - that's what they're for. In the end, they're still going to look the all the same. Usually you would do something by hand to give it appeal of uniqueness and to giv it personal touch - which I don't exactly see happening here.

More praise to Rob ! That was AWESOME ! It was so fascinating and easy to read - I bought into it, until the last line ! =)

The spiderman says something like "My socks have never washed been, that's why to the ceiling I cling"

#3 yes =) I can't really translate the text (it's in archaic russian), but the text mentions that =)
Overall, the plot of the picture is someting like this: Neo dodged the bullet, but can't bend himself back to normal position, and asks the pharmacist Morpheus to give him a pill for that, but he smells/farts, so Morpheus denies him the pill... approximately like this =)

#56 You know, even putting the whole abortion != baby murder thing aside, some people might be sorry for the mother that lost a child that she actually wanted.

I hope I never get to live in a nursing home.. I do get to see quite old people who don't. @Stony Brook University we have prof. Barcus who seems to be about as old as these people (got his PhD in '55), and he's still active in teaching classes. I hope to be like that in my late years.

The US, UK and Canada governments should cooperate. This young terrorist lady should be thrown into Gitmo, together with that "tripod"-carrying guy and ATHF-sign guys. Mod me troll. (ah, this ain't slashdot =)

Offtopic: what is this fad of not using vowels ? I know it saves space, but, although I can read it, it's kind of hard (especially it is for people for whom English is not native language) [don't go Hebrew on me =) ]

(#22 posted by knellotron) Thanks ! I knew that they were using 16fps instead of 24fps probably to save film, but I didn't know that there were multiple-speed projectors (which is reasonable, like 33/45 rpm disk players). Are timing problems reeally that noticable with hand-crank cameras ?

Come on, how can you NOT notice that it wasn't sped up for more fun ? Why do you even NEED to refer to Youtube comments ? Just look at the damn video (how people walk, cars stop, etc.) It's like in old b/w movies which were 'sped up' to save film. Here the speed-up saves your time =)

...which is the same as saying that they don't know a heck about Canada. I liked the last scene in one the other video, though:

Rick: a survey shows that 70% of Canadian grade 7 students cannot find the state they live in on the map. Do you think that it is an indication of a problem with Canadian public education system ?

Mom: Absolutely !

Little son: HANG ON, Canada has provinces !!!

So there is still some hope =)

Dammit !! It's 4:05, I hope I didn't wake up the whole house with my laughter =)

Aaaaaah !! Now I won't be able to sleep at night because someone pointed out that there's no second Huge Quote mark. SYNTAX ERROR !!!

#1 - YAY!
#11 - Hilarious =) Also reading 'married to the sea' ? That was one of my most favourite ones !

Guys, here's your unicorn chaser, sort of:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3032876

the guy had his hand re-attached.

As for the 'photoshop dude' - did you even try googling for it ?! You know, as in 'look for other sources'. Reminds me of http://xkcd.com/331/

As an aside, I'm happy that even CIA agrees that being subject to rap music is akin to white noise and listening to it is torture (not that they would admit it, but they use it as such)

"A speaker blasted him with continuous white noise, or rap music, 24 hours a day."

Not that I'm against rap, but I'd prefer white noise to most of what you can get on the radio.

Each time I read news like these I begin to think that maybe use of tasers against civilians without any reason IS justifiable... if only it were against those dnastygram distributors !

#11: Ahh, those neo-modern weapons like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-47 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosin-Nagant !

That's just like the xkcd aquarium ! Great ideas are indeed floating in the air.

See, even #1(Maryr) posted the same info before me =)

Heh, that was actually the way I saw 2G1C =) I immediately thought that they have substituted chocolate or chocolate ice cream, for two reasons: 1)to keep my sanity =) 2)by placing myself in the place of the director: just makes so much easier to find actors/film/etc. Way more practical. As for puking, well, that was for real.. but that's not as disgusting, since the vomit goes through mouth anyway.. Agh, introducing a measure on disgust is a hopeless/useless task anyway =)

OMG, link to scitoys.com ! I read it looooong time ago, even tried to make some of their projects =) I even planned to make their Simple Laser Commuicator this winter (even though last time I read it was like 5 years ago).

@sidhebaap: Thanks ! The first thing I thought of (after getting to the point of a near-guaranteed win) was "Is it always possible to catch the cat ? Can the cat always escape ? How many dots need to be removed initially for that to happen ?" But yeah, Conway has done way too much fun stuff =) Thanks for the link !

OMG that's insane ! I hope he sells this for enough money to compensate for all the expenses + time & work, leaving enough to create more stuff like this =)

As an aside, the idea of old/modern blend is kewt, but the car obviously belongs more to displays & exhibitions, as opposed to actually being used as a means of transportation. I wish he makes something of equal awe that can still be used practically (like those wooden mice/keyboards, but with cars =)

Wonderful thing indeed, even though the title is misleading. From TFA:

Retrospective permission was eventually granted and today the 'Damanhurians' even have their own university, schools, organic supermarkets, vineyards, farms, bakeries and award-winning eco homes.

Still, I didn't know that this thing exists. When it all was 'real news', I was a 4-year-old living in the Perestroika-era USSR falling apart, so I kinda missed out on these news. Thanks to BoingBoing, I am amazed by the story now.

@Evil Jim: I only found this.

..But do they have Cthulhu ? I desperatel need one for the inner side of the cover =)

"MC Escher is my favourite MC!" YAY!!

..But do they have Cthulhu ? I desperatel need one for the inner side of the cover =)

I think the project really worked. One thing is the subtle attention to details, such as detailed info on the mine that brought the person to the contest, so to speak. Russia, China, Cuba, Romania, etc. - except for Russia, I didn't even know all these countries were selling weapons there ! This juts shows how big the interests are in maintaining war in general.

It also (hopefully) helps to bring the horror of war closer, by introducing the victims. Just because, you know, "One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic"

OK, here we go indeed =) I hope this is not useless work.

Chemical Snakes

For hundreds, if not thousands of years, chemists conduct spectacular experiments in which the products of chemical reactions appear as snakes crawling out of the reaction zone. Some of these reactions are quite simple, so why don't we try them on our own ? Let's start with the simlest snake - the soda snake.

1. Soda snake

Make a little pile of sifted sand, make a small crater in it and pour alcohol generously into it (just take care to not wash out the pile of sand). Try to pour directly into the center of the crater.

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8015.jpg

Prepare the reaction mass. What can be simpler - take on part of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) per four parts of powdered sugar (aka confectioner's sugar, icing sugar etc.), and mix thoroughly with a stirrer in some small vessel.

(on the picture: baking soda, powdered sugar)
http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8026.jpg

Place then the reaction mass in the crate on top of the sand pile. Ideally, the mixture should be slighly less than the crater; otherwise you may get a mutant snake with horns and tentacles.

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8017.jpg

Carefully iginite the alcohol. Don't foget about fire safety ! At first, black balls and other boring stuff will appear...

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8022.jpg

...And then THE SNAKE crawls out ! (video, 2x speed: http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/01.wmv)

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8007.jpg
http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8005.jpg
http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8023.jpg

Impressive, isn't it ? Imagine how this trick, perforemed by alchemists or high priests, impressed the people of antiquity, who had aboslutely notion of chemistry, but believed in magic =)

The snake-creating reactions are:

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/r.jpg

The more alcohol you put - the longer the snake is. It consists of a hard foamy material, similar to burnt paper or a wasp nest. This is sodium carbonate with carbon particles in it. Carbon dioxide, produced in the reaction, makes it foamy. In the beginning the foam forming is pretty much random, but the process is more stable later on; this forms an articulate "head", followed by the "body", which strengthens the likeness to a snake. The snake formation ends when the alcohol is exhausted, leaving the snake with a white piece of unreacted mixture.

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8011.jpg

WARNING ! NEVER add more alcohol after the burning is complete. The sand is burning-hot, so the very first drops of alcohol may ignite, igniting the whole stream and alcohol in the vessel you are holding. This may end quite sadly for you.

2. Niter snake

The technique is the same as with the soda snake, except for the mixture one would take soda and ammonium nitrate in 1:1 proportion.

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8029.jpg

Here's the selitroid the crawls out:
(video link: http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/02.wmv)

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8030.jpg

3. Green dichromate snakes

Take two parts of ammonium nitrate, one part of powdered sugar, and one part of ammonium dichromate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_dichromate

(link to how to make a tabletop volcano with ammonium dichromate: http://www.mntc.ru/projects/bic/)

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8033.jpg

Crush the mixture into powder, slightly moisten with water and roll up into a sausage shape.

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8034.jpg

Let it dry out (you may use a hair dryer for that) and ignite. Green snakes will start to crawl out - slowly, at first, but then at a good pace:

(video link: http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/03.wmv)

http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8036.jpg

REMARKS:
1) to INVITUS: раскален is "red-hot"
2) you can make powdered sugar from regular sugar using a coffee grinder (set on "fine").