Posts Tagged ‘policies’

Whether you’re in London, Ontario; London, England; or London, Kentucky, a penny is now all but worthless. Canada is the first to stop minting new ones; with the evidence suggesting that resulting inflationary pressure is insignificant, will the US and UK follow? [Freakonomics]

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Canada kills the penny coin

[Video Link] Created by Peter Serafinowicz.

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The Dalek Relaxation Tape (by Peter Serafinowicz)

The Daily Telegraph has determined the world’s ugliest buildings. Some of them are hideous indeed, but the collection is perhaps more interesting as an illustration of what the fancier echelons of British conservative like to be told about architecture. [Telegraph via The Awl.

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The world’s ugliest buildings, according to…

In The Guardian, Alexis Petridis penned a fantastic reflection on the UK’s scary public information films of the 1960s to 1980s. For more than 60 years, the government’s Central Office of Information (COI) created FUD-fostering films about talking to strangers, playing with matches, sticking things in electric outlets, rabies, slippery floors, etc. (Back in 2009

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Scary public information films of the UK

This was posted to Twitter by Dan Porter, CEO of OMGPop, in response to an employee who did not wish to stay on after the company was bought by Mark “Just copy what they do” Pincus’s Zynga. There are two men who clearly deserve one another’s company. Update: There’s more! An anonymous source within OMGPop

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OMGPop CEO Dan Porter: staffer who quit rather than join Zynga is a weak, selfish failure

Superman can be a real jerk! “Comics Showing Superman Crazy Sociopath WTF Funny” (Happy Place)

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Sociopathic Superman comics

Thank you to our sponsor ShanaLogic, sellers of handmade and independently designed durable goods, apparel, delightful gifts, and other fine kit. Check out this clever unisex ”

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Sponsor shout-out: ShanaLogic

Regina Spektor is a Russian-born, classically-trained pianist who started making the downtown NYC avant-folk scene as a singer-songwriter in the late 1990s. She eventually rose to international prominence with her exquisite fourth album, “Begin to Hope” (2006), featuring the popular single “Fidelity.” My whole family has enjoyed her music for years and so I was

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Regina Spektor: new video for "All the Rowboats"

“Biografias,” an installation by Alicia Martin at Casa de America, Madrid. “5,000 Books Pour Out of a Building in Spain” (via Imaginary Foundation)

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Building spilling books

“He explained to me, quite sincerely, he had been hanging curtains naked in he kitchen when he fell backwards on to the kitchen table and on to a potato,” said Sheffield, England A&E nurse Trudi Watson. “But it’s not for me to question his story.” [Metro]

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Potato removed from clergyman’s anus

At the JavaOne 1998 conference, Sun gave out rings like this one. It’s embedded with an iButton chip containing a Java Virtual Machine. Based on the 1-Wire device communications bus system, IButtons can act as a token for access control, e-cash, data logging etc. 1-Wire systems are still in common use and someone is selling

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Java Rings from 1998

The contract presented by Paul Ceglia, who claims he paid Zuck to build Facebook, was forged, according to a forensic report(PDF) by Stroz Friedberg. Wired’s David Kravetz: “The metadata shows they were backdated to 2003 when Zuckerberg, as a Harvard University student, agreed to perform the contracted work for Ceglia. But the copies of the

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How Facebook ownership contract was ‘forged’

Dain Fagerholm creates animated GIF art similar to traditional stereo 3D photos. Pictured here is Daydreamer. Other favorites of mine include Four creatures in a room and “Seven Headed Creature”. Dain’s latest, Creature in Cube with Gem looks alagyphic as well as stereoscopic (but I’m not sure if it is)! [via Illusion 360]

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Dain Fagerholm’s incredible animated GIFs

Kyle Orland writes that Sony is preventing customers from re-downloading games they’ve already paid for, because code flaws in them may be used to run unsigned code on the portable console. The hack is reportedly useful only for homebrew, not for piracy. [Ars]

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Sony takes down game downloads to prevent homebrew

A few days ago, AOL fired the staff developing AIM, its long-running instant messaging system. Having done this, it reset user accounts, locking them out of third-party IM clients until they confirmed and updated decade-old personal information. Having done so, I was displeased at such a shameless data mining ploy and tried to cancel AOL/AIM

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Trying to close your AOL account is suspicious activity

Dr. Joline Zepcevski, a sci/tech history researcher, quoted by Jeremy Hsu on why much science fiction is as interesting for the technologies abandoned as those newly invented: “Technology is not pre-determined as ‘better’—it becomes better when a society deems it to be better or more advanced. With respect to “The Hunger Games,” there is no

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On sci-fi and technology

Chair, with entrails. (via Blood Milk) UPDATE: My pal Stacey Ransom found the original color photo of this fine resin/fiber piece, titled “Visual Temperature – Sofa,” by Cao Hul, and posted it to her Tumblr, Held 4 Ransom.

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Chair with entrails

Years ago, the good people at the Imaginary Foundation gifted me a wonderful knee-high Garden Bigfoot statue that stands guard at my lair. Now, Loren Coleman reports that its makers, Design Toscano, have supersized their sasquatch statue. The new offering is 6 feet tall! Loren Coleman has the details at Cryptomundo. “Coming Soon: Giant Garden

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"Lifesize" Bigfoot statue!

Should non-millionaires be able to invest small amounts, like up to $100 or $1000, in small, local businesses or other ventures that they believe in, without the ventures having to spend tens of thousands (or more) on state or federal securities compliance?  I believe so, provided that the offerings can be seen and discussed openly,

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Crowdfunding exemption – WeFunder and other Senate nudging

I approve of this meme. (thanks, Antinous!)

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First World Cat Problems

My friend Ken Hollings is a master at connecting the dots between avant garde art history, outré culture, weird science, and basically everything that interests me. You might recall that Ken is the author of the absolutely fantastic radio series and book “Welcome to Mars,” about the “fantasy of science in the early years of

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Ken Hollings lectures on John Cage

Toys And Techniques posted several wonderful scans from Christopher Hills’ fantastically-titled “Rays From The Capstone: The story of the psychotronic generator of the pi-ray and the incredible coffer.” It was published in 1976 by the University of the Trees press. According to Amazon, Hills has written several books, including “Secrets of the Life Force,” with

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Psychotronic generators, pi-rays, Egyptology, and orgone accumulators

NYT’s David Carr, on the News Corporation CEO’s foray into Twitter: “The rules of effective tweeting for business leaders are no different from the ones for us mere mortals who want to both express ourselves and remain employed: Don’t be boring, don’t curse, and for heaven’s sake, don’t always be shouting about how some junior

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Rupert Murdoch’s Mind, 140 at a time

At Los Angeles International airport early this morning, TSA screeners mistook a woman’s insulin pump for a gun. Screening and boarding at Terminal 4 were delayed as airport authorities searched for a woman they thought had a weapon.

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LA airport security scare caused by TSA mistaking insulin pump for gun

“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product…He would proof it.” Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Ron Paul’s company and former supporter of the Texas congressman, in the Washington Post today about those wacky racist newsletters previously mentioned here on Boing Boing.

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Those racist, crazy 1990s Ron Paul newsletters? He signed off on every single one, associates say