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Awesome decoupage superhero Chucks


Phil Torrone from Adafruit sez, "Here's a project from one of our team members at Adafruit. These cool Chucks are the work of Angel Rodriguez, one of our shippers. Not only is Angel gifted with lightning shipping speed, she's also got some sick wearable decoupage skills. She made these Jean Grey/Phoenix shoes (and the equally cool box) for one of her coworkers."

chucks! (Thanks, Phil!)

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Even Amazon can't keep up the "you only license ebooks" shuck


There's a whole bunch of things you're allowed to do with books that you own: sell them, give them away, lend them out -- stuff you can't do with your ebooks, by and large. Why not? Because ebook sellers characterize the transaction that you undertake when you plunk down your money as a "license" and not as a sale. You don't buy an ebook, you license it -- hence all the fine-print "license agreement" you click through at regular intervals in the course of paying for and reading books.

But everyone knows that's a shuck. Buying books is what we do. Owning books is what we do. To get a sense of how ingrained the idea of buying and owning ebooks is, have a look at this screenshot from Amazon, shown after a "license" to a book: "Now that you own your Kindle book..." it begins. If you own it, rather than a limited license to it, then you should get the full suite of ownership rights. Let's label this one "Exhibit A."

OMG WTF TSA

Matthew says: "The TSA is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases, including records such as car registrations and employment information." From the New York Times:

At the heart of the expanded effort is a database called the Automated Targeting System, which is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and screens travelers entering the United States.

Data in the Automated Targeting System is used to decide who is placed on the no-fly list — thousands of people the United States government has banned from flying — and the selectee list, an unknown number of travelers who are required to undergo more in-depth screening, like Mr. Darrat. The T.S.A. also maintains a PreCheck disqualification list, tracking people accused of violating security regulations, including disputes with checkpoint or airline staff members.

When I flew out of Burbank to Oakland on Sunday, the agent at the ID/boarding pass station had a mobile computer that he used to look up my information. It was the first time I'd seen something like this.

Security Check Now Starts Long Before You Fly

Dear Tony: an unauthorized, distributed Tony Smith retrospective


Fred writes, "Over the course of nearly two decades (1961-'79), the artist Tony Smith made forty-seven monumental public sculptures using an iterative process for arranging monochrome, modular triangular units into different configurations. Smith made very few advance drawings of these sculptures, instead designing them ad-hoc with three-dimensional models in his studio space, often times borrowing pieces from an earlier sculpture to begin or finish the next."

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HOWTO make a $10 digital microscope kit for your phone


On Instructables, Yoshinok explains a clever, simple method for building a digital microscope stand that uses your phonecam, focused by a laser-pointer lens.

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Apple's big iPad problem: How do you convince owners to upgrade when their old machines work just fine?

I have a first-generation iPad that works well as a Netflix streamer, game platform, writing tool, and web and email machine. I have no desire to upgrade to the latest model. Rob Walker, writing for Yahoo News, reports that I'm not the only one who feels this way. "A recent report by Localytics concluded that 38 percent of all iPads in use — a commanding plurality — are iPad 2s," he writes.

So what does it take to make a device seem obsolete? I’d say there are two categories of answer. One is some sort of relatable spec improvement: Twice the memory that your straining laptop has, or the ability to hold three times more songs than your current MP3 player.

The other category basically involves aesthetics and form: A remarkably lighter object, a flashy new color that signals to the world you’ve got the latest thing. Apple is skilled at this, as the intense interest in the gold version of the most recent iPhone proved yet again. Indeed, the Macbook Air’s form-factor success even got an indirect nod in one of today’s few surprises: The new iPad is called the iPad Air.

Maybe these gambits just don’t work as well in the context of tablets. I’ve never bumped against the technical limits of my iPad 2. And since I don’t flash it in public very often, I’m ambivalent about whatever stylistic statement it may or may not make.

Apple's big iPad problem

Fixing Breaking Bad: funny parody series

In "Fixing Breaking Bad," a disgruntled visual effects artist on the series shows how he could have improved Breaking Bad, if only that meddlesome Vince Gilligan had stayed out of his way.

Watch the series here

Antibiotic resistance: Watch a documentary tonight, join in a live chat tomorrow

Tonight at 10:00 Eastern/9:00 Central, PBS Frontline will air a documentary about the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. I got a chance to see a preview of the show, and it's definitely interesting, including details I wasn't previously aware of, despite having written about this topic before. Particularly interesting: An emphasis on naturally occurring gene transfer between different species of bacteria, which is allowing antibiotic resistance to spread at an alarmingly quick rate. I had also not realized that antibiotic-resistant bacteria probably kill more Americans every year than AIDS — "probably", because nobody is required to actually track and report this stuff. Your local hospital could be in the midst of a serious outbreak of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and, unless they choose to voluntarily release that information, you might never know.

Whether or not you get a chance to watch the documentary tonight, we hope you'll join us here tomorrow for a live chat session with the producers and a doctor who specializes in treating patients with antibiotic-resistant infections. That starts at noon Eastern/11:00 central, and will be moderated by either me or Rob. We've got some questions we're looking forward to addressing with the panel, and we hope you'll bring in some great questions, too. The first half of the chat will focus on the documentary. The second half will be aimed more at a practical understanding of what you can actually do to protect yourself, your family, and your community.

Announced: $3k Mac Pro, retina iPad Mini, iPad Air, and OS X free-of-charge

The new Mac Pro will start at $2,999. A retina-display iPad Mini will be out November for $399. The 9.7" iPad Air, at $499, replaces its larger sibling. OS X Mavericks is available free of charge. The MacBook Pro lineup got a big spec bump and is also out now.

VPN company shuts down after Lavabit case demonstrates threat of state-ordered, secret self-sabotage

Cryptoseal has shut down Cryptoseal Privacy, a VPN product advertised as a privacy tool, citing the action against Lavabit, the privacy-oriented email provider used by Edward Snowden. Court documents released in the wake of Lavabit's shut-down showed that the US government believes that it has the power to order service providers to redesign their systems to make it possible to spy on users. Cryptoseal had been operating under the assumption that since it had no way of spying on its users, it was immune to wiretap orders, and the revelation that they may be forced to break their system's security was enough to put them off altogether. Like Lavabit, Cryptoseal was unwilling to advertise a service that was immune from snooping if they might someday be forced to secretly redesign their systems to make snooping possible.

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How crocodiles have sex

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a link to a research paper on crocodile genitalia, which included a really helpful diagram showing how the male crocs' penis works as part of an all-purpose mating/elimination hole called a cloaca. Now, with the help of reader Eirik Lande, you can see what those genitals look like in, er, action. The above photo is part of a series of shots Lande took of a 661-pound Nile crocodile named Samson (and an unnamed/weighed female partner) as they did what comes naturally in a tank at Bergen, Norway's, Akvariet zoo.

For clarification, that's the female on top in this shot, but they started out in a different position. In Lande's photos you can see the two crocodiles flip, with the help of a "death roll" style move near the end of their mating. That photo is a bit more explicit, but gives you a fairly clear view of what it looks like when Samson shoves his genitals out of his cloaca.

Skull painted on old vacuum tube

Noah Scalin says: "I created a new Skeletube for the Think Small exhibition opening this week at Artspace in Richmond, VA. The show requires all work to be 3" x 3" (x3") or smaller and this hand-painted vacuum definitely fits that requirement. More about it, including a 360 view here." (Via BB G+)

Restore the Fourth adopts highway in front of NSA super-center in Utah

Dan sez, "Hi, I'm one of the organizers for Restore the Fourth (Utah) and we've successfully adopted the highway in front of the NSA spy factory in Bluffdale, Utah. Clean up the NSA!"

Fourth Amendment activists adopt a highway next to NSA surveillance center in Utah (Thanks, Dan!)

Boing Boing readers' favorite mobile games

On Boing Boing's G+ community, I asked "What is your favorite smartphone game? I have two: Kingdom Rush and Sword of Fargoal." Take a look at the recommendations here.

Darwin's kids used now-priceless manuscript as scrap paper

Out of the more than 500 pages that make up the published version of On the Order of the Species, only 28 pages of Charles Darwin's original manuscript survive today. At least two of these later became scrap drawing paper for the 10 Darwin children. The picture above, a watercolor done on the backside of one page of Charles Darwin's seminal work, is believed to have been done by his son Francis.