"I can't look a gift bong in the eye"
Wow, I don't remeber this episode of Fact of Life where the girls bring home water pipes. --AB

It's nice to have a set of robotic eyes in the sky. But surveillance drones tend to be loud, and rather obvious, as they keep watch above a Middle Eastern city. Many guerilla types know by now to avoid the things.

That's why a small company out of Minneapolis, VeraTech Areo, has built a hand-held spy drone that it says is practically invisible. Battery powered and shaped like a boomerang, the "Phantom Sentinel" unmanned aeiral vehicle (UAV) "is in constant motion and the center of [its] mass is located outside of the fuselage," Catherine MacRae Hockmuth tells us in the current issue of Defense Technology International. "As the aircraft spins, it disappears from vision," an AeroTech fact sheet adds.

Even better, the company promises, is that the folding, backpack-ready drone "has a uniquely minimal cross section allowing it to 'slice' through even the most adverse weather conditions that would keep conventional UAV systems on the ground. The rotational inertia generated in flight allows the UAV to self level and maintain a very high degree of stability, even while hovering."

There don't seem to be any military orders for the Phantom, yet. But the company does have a patents for its hard-to-spot flights -- and a wacky, techno-themed video, too.

Cory Doctorow: The Suspicious Looking Device is a bright orange box with a countdown timer on the top. If you touch it, it lets out a loud siren and then scoots away on a set of hidden wheels. Its entire purpose is to look suspicious -- it has no other function. Link (via Digg)

Xeni Jardin:

The Expedition 13 crew have returned from the International Space Station to Earth -- specifically, the dry steppes of Kazakhstan, where they landed Thursday night local time in a Soyuz TMA 8 spacecraft. No word on whether Borat was around to welcome them home.

In the NASA image above, from left: Anousheh Ansari, the first female space tourist, who accompanied Expedition 13 crew members Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams.

Just a few minutes before this photo was taken, they were extracted from their Soyuz capsule after landing on the home planet.

Expedition 13 was up there for six months, and a NASA report says their tasks included ..."the arrival of two space shuttle missions, resumption of construction of the orbiting laboratory and the restoration of a three-member crew."

They'll now spend a few weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical exams.

Ansari ascended to the ISS with the crew of Expedition 14, and spent eight days there. Her trip was arranged through the Russian Federal Space Agency.

BoingBoing reader John Parres recaps Ansari's Awesome Adventure:

On September 18, Russians launched a Soyuz supply ship carrying a replacement ISS crew and the first female private space explorer, Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari, from the very same pad used 45 years ago to launch the first man into space - Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.

Ms. Ansari is the first female Muslim to view the Earth from weightlessness. (Prince Sultan ibn Salman ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia was the first Arab, the first Muslim and the first member of royalty in space on Discovery in 1986 1985).

In 2004 Ms. Ansari and another relative put up the title sponsorship of the $10 million reward for the winner of the Ansari X Prize aimed at encouraging the development of a privately built, reusable spaceship which which SpaceShipOne achieved in October 2004.

Anousheh Ansari maintained a space blog during her trip.

Correction: John Schwartz, who writes about this stuff for an obscure little website called the New York Times, says: "Oops. it's 1985 on flight STS-51G. January 1986 Challenger, STS-51L, fell apart during ascent, and there were no other flights that year... next one was sept. '88."

Below, a close-up of Ansari just after landing in Kazakhstan, and a snip from one of her blog entries:

The time went by really slowly, but finally the moment arrived and they were ready to open the hatch. Mike and Misha called me closer and told me to take a good whiff because this would be the first time I would smell “SPACE.”

They said it is a very unique smell. As they pulled the hatch open on the Soyuz side, I smelled “SPACE.” It was strange… kind of like burned almond cookie. I said to them, “It smells like cooking” and they both looked at me like I was crazy and exclaimed:”Cooking!”

I said, “Yes… sort of like something is burning… I don’t know it is hard to explain…”

(Thanks to the many BB readers who wrote in, including Ali and Avi)

Update: BoingBoing reader Ivan Reyes says, "Borat was actually on the flight. See photo below."

Click for full image.

Reader comment: Jennifer Saylor says,

Anousheh Ansari isn't the first to describe outer space as smelling like something burnt. In a 2001 "Fresh Air" interview, NASA astronaut Capt. Jerry Linenger describes the smell of space this way:

Flying into MIR, it smells sort of like dirty sweat socks in a guys’ locker room. Actual smell of space, though, that’s a very interesting question. When we would open a hatch, for example, that was exposed to the vacuum of space, uh, there’s always a double hatch, and so you open the one hatch, you now have the pure smell of space. And it’s a uh, tough — you know, any aroma is tough to describe, but it has a distinct smell, and it’s sort of a burned-out, uh, after-the-fire, the next-morning-in-your-fireplace sort of smell. And that’s the real smell of the vacuum of space.

The interview: Link.

Karrie says,

Couldn't help but point out that NASA published a short article speculating on why moondust smells the way it does... Kinda related to the 'smell of space' mentioned in today's article. Link.

Update: This just in -- a snapshot from on board the ISS. Why did Ansari say space smells like burnt almond cookies? Clearly, they were cruising the Cookie Monster Nebula.

Video games could have a serious role to play in the classroom, says a survey of teachers and students.

I've abandoned spin class in favor of juggling tae bo

Cory Doctorow:
Don sez, "Bruce Sterling gave a keynote at the UBICOMP 2006 conference in Orange County on 9/17/2006 titled either 'The Spime Meme Map' or 'UBICOMP: The majesty of the ideas and the lyricism of the language' depending on where you look for the title. The video has been posted at the LUCI blog. The question and answer period is interesting with discussions of the power of infrastructure and the role of 'magic' in the technology design process." Link (Thanks, Don!)

Made by C in Belgium, mostly from bicycle parts: the saddle, brake handle, springs, cables, bolts...

Yesterday we posted a short commercial made by Nike, not knowing at the time that the commercial appropriates without attribution, that work of an amazing South African artist named Robin Rhode.

For the last few hours we've been checking out Robin's work on the web and have been blown away by how brilliant it it.

Rather than link to one article, we suggest that you Google Robin and check out all of the amazing stuff that he has done. Here's the link

Kaza Razat took it upon himself and created the terrific video above as a donation to Amnesty International and the ControlArms campaign. Check out the video and then click here to learn more about Control Arms and how important it is.

Too cool for school --AB

Here's a remarkable video shot from the cockpit of a radio-controlled airplane.

MAKE Flickr photo pool member Macro_girl has a great "Wordless pancake" recipe - Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Check out this fun stop motion photo gallery - [via] - Link.

has anyone else heard about this modeling program? Draw in 2D, it renders it out in 3D



http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm

Cory Doctorow: From the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: video-games rendered as photorealistic scenarios (love this Pong!). Link

My husband is one of those "I am most happy with my tees and jeans" people. Because he's in the technology industry, everyone around him dresses more or less in the same fashion. It's only when he has to meet up with the big bosses or customers, either personally or increasingly via videoconferencing, that his suits get to see the light of the day. In spite of my genuine appreciation of how good he looks in those suits, he is still convinced of their complete uselessness. His strong distaste is reflected in his view that a tie serves no purpose other than as something to wipe one's face after dinner!

It's no wonder then that he sent me this link on Businessbibs. It's basically a half suit that you can put on over virtually anything, to give you that professional appearance during video conferences or web chats. Each Businessbib has a slit back Velcro-sealed design and can be slipped over your T-shirt and shorts to give you to that sophisticated look in a jiffy. Once you're done with the meeting, you can remove the Businessbib and get back to your casual lifestyle. Since this will work only for videoconferences, its usage is pretty much limited to telecommuters. Also, the product is a no-no for people who use their hands to do the speaking or have a habit of moving around during meetings. For those adventurous ones, who believe that they can try this out in face-to-face meetings, it would be nothing short of suicidal.

Businessbibs are hand-made from recycled materials and are supposed to be sturdy and stylish. Priced between $135-150, they can be ordered online.

There is something in the air, and it's steam... A few Makers sent in some steam powered bicycles, here's a round up... know of others? Post in the comments.

The Roper Steam motorcycle "Bob Jorgensen of Memphis took "Motocycles 1899" and immediately fabricated the engine that Sylvester H Roper used on his steam motorcycle. The original boiler which Bob has yet to build provided 160 to 225 psi of steam. Roper died while racing his motorcycle at the age of 73!"- Link.

The Hudspith Steam Bicycle, by Geoff Hudspith The engine is a horizontai single-cylinder, double-acting one of my own design. The bore is 1 3/8" and the stroke is 1 1/4", giving about 1/4hp, depending on the pressure of the steam. I ran and exhibited the engine and boiler for several years as a stationary unit driving a 12V dynamo. During this period I made several improvements to the engine, eg: making a boiler feed pump driven by an eccentric on the crankshaft, and controlled by a by-pass valve to the right of the engine. - Link.

Michaux-Perreaux steam bicycle - This is normally considered to be the first motorcycle. Built in France, 1868-1869. The engine is mounted at 45 degrees on the main frame member; behind it is the boiler, with what appear to be fuel and water tanks. Note that this is a velocipede, not a Safety Bicycle, and the pedals are mounted directly on the front wheel. - Link.

1896 Geneva steam bicycle "This authentically restored bicycle, manufactured by the Geneva Bicycle and Steam Carriage Co. in Geneva Ohio, is fitted with a steam engine built on the design of Lucius Copeland, who built his first steam vehicle based on a Star high wheeled bicycle in 1886. It will travel at 12 miles per hour, although maintaining a head of steam at that speed is difficult." - Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

There's an open letter published in the Daily Telegraph calling on the government to help prevent the "death of childhood" - basically, video games and consumer electronics are killing imaginations... maybe, but why wait for the gov - we're all about solutions here at MAKE, we're proposing that these handy safety labels be applied to all packaging, enjoy.

Related:

• Modern life leads to more depression among children - Link.
• Consumer electronics ate my child's imagination - Link.
• MAKE 07 "Kids safety labels we want to see" - Link.
• Tinkering school - Link.
• High(er) res versions... Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

That’s the real reason Paris Hilton is really famous. Because she is the queen of links.

When Paris first came on the scene with her own user generated sex video she used that attention to create a career. Here’s how she did it.

Though she hired a publisist to get her on Page 6 She never really talked about herself. She talked about other people. She would mention the designers of her clothes, the club she was going to, who made the sweater for her dog, all without any guarantee of any return. She just threw out links.

It didn’t take long for designers and club owners to realize that Paris Hilton was a walking billboard. So they embraced her. She paid attention to them, so they paid attention to her. (CHARTREUSE.WORDPRESS.COM)

XD!

Proof again that nature is weird and insanely beautiful. More than your average sky photos.

Happy One Web Day!

Had a mini party in Tokyo. Robert Pepper and Kenneth Carter joined Fumi and me. Fumi shot some video of us talking. Here's the first video. I'll upload the second one as soon as I finish converting and uploading.

(Use this link if you have trouble viewing the video above.)

Great energy and excitement in a meta new-meta kinda metadata way. --AB

a series of dynamic garments that demonstrate how electronics can be incorporated into fabrics & garments to express the emotions & personality of the wearer, including 'Bubelle', a dress surrounded by a delicate 'bubble' illuminated by patterns that chang dependent on skin contact, & 'Frison', a body suit that reacts to being blown on by igniting a private constellation of tiny LEDs. the garments were designed to respond to an individual's body & create non-linear visual representation of emotions accordingly.
[links: philips.com & philips.com (images)|via we-make-money-not-art.com]

British guerilla artist Banksy's much touted LA debut has hit a snag: the elephant he'd painted with a non-toxic paint to match the wallpaper of an installation was ordered washed off. Animal rights activists have protested the inclusion of the animal at all, and finally the general manager of LA's animal welfare department ordered that "the elephant be completely scrubbed down to bare skin and

You know those USB flash drive bracelets no one is wearing? Well, consider 'em bumped to a full 1GB in your choice of 8 colors to match you collection of ironic T-shirts. And if you feel like branding your enslaved wage donkeys, you can even order in bulk replete with your own corporate logo. On sale in Japan starting September 21st. Good times.

[Via Impress]

These shirts from One Horse Shy are pretty brilliant. Definitely makes me think twice about whether or not I should keep writing this blog. Maybe I’ll stop writing now…

Cory Doctorow: The C64 Orchestra performs orchestral renditions of classic music from games for the Commodore 64 personal computer -- Monte on the Run, One Man and his Droid, Cybernoid 2 and others. Link (Thanks, Viper Fantastic!)

David Pescovitz: I've posted previously about San Francisco urban prankster group Rebar, who among other stunts converted a downtown parking space into a public park. (Link) Today, Rebar is celebrating PARK(ing) Day again, transforming several parking spaces into temporary parks, including the mayor's personal City Hall spot. Laughing Squid's Scott Beale is working out of Ritual Coffee Roasters today where the nearest parking space is now a little greener. As usual, Scott has the photo goods over at his blog.
Link to Laughing Squid, Link to PARK(ing) Day site

UPDATE: Rebar is also celebrating PARK(ing) Day in NYC. Link to Gothamist coverage (Thanks, Jeremy!)

Cory Doctorow: A project in the handle of the Pileus umbrella paints the brolly's interior with a series of wirelessly-fetched Flickr photos while a camera in its tip lets you document your day.

The system is constructed by the Pileus Umbrella and the Pileus WebService. User can see and take a photo and video with the PileusUmbrella. User can hand on own experience in rainy day to next user with an umbrella type photoset. User Connects the Grip with the Screen, then the Grip reads the Screen’s ID and login to own Pileus Account. When user takes photos or videos, Pileus WebService evaluates media-type of data and uploads it to Flickr or YouTube, and then set a tag by screen ID. In addition, user twists the grip, it searchs contents at Flickr and YouTube by tag of screen ID, and displays contents in order.

Link (via We Make Money Not Art)

A Hybrid Documentary about Video Games

»Desk Project« a video installation by Saki Satom.

reBlogged on Sep 19, 2006, 5:38PM

Originally from artificialeyes.tv reBlog by mail reBlogged on Sep 20, 2006, 11:19PM

Glasbead is a multi-user persistant collaborative musical interface allowing players to manipulate and exchange sound sample files and create a myriad of soundscapes and rhythmic musical sequences. Current bandwidth allows as many as 20 people to play glasbead at the same time.

Originally from artificialeyes.tv reBlog reBlogged on Sep 21, 2006, 12:58AM

The boots were created by a russian scientist Viktor Gordeyev. Each boot includes a single diesel cylinder which is powered by diesel fuel. The boots make it possible for the wearer to increase their running and walking speed up to 25 miles per hour or more.



These boots can also be fueled by biofuels, such as biodiesel, straight vegtable oil, SVO, waste vegtable oil, WVO, (veggie fuels).

Woooo music videos! There are some great ones here, and it's amazing how many are from the same people (yes, I'm looking at you, Gondry).

In at #15: Peter Gabriel / Sledgehammer


Simply put, a work of absolute, cheeky genius. There’s a sense of childlike playfulness throughout, from the opening shots of blood pumping along to the music (What part of the body is that? Hmm.) to the literal manifestations of the countless sexual metaphors. Makes me laugh every time, especially during the lines “You could have a steam train / If you’d just lay down your tracks,” and “Show me round your fruit cage / Cause I will be your honeybee.” The impressive claymation and pixelation techniques gel perfectly with the playful atmosphere of the song while also expanding the boundaries of what a music video could be. I sometimes wonder if this video would air on MTV if it premiered nowadays, what with moral conservatism running rampant. Oh Peter Gabriel, we thought you were such a nice boy! [Jeff Shreve]

Cory Doctorow: These £4 wearable utensils turn you into Edward Fingerforks. They're made of stainless steel and "Sharp enough to pierce your food but not enough to skewer your other fingers!" Link (via OhGizmo)

Machinima music video using Trackmania. Over 1000 cars all racing at once, set to Moby.

Brendan Walker, the "thrill engineer" (pictured on the left wearing the prototype equipment), is curating Thrill Laboratory, an exhibit which will open on October 17 at London's Science Museum.

At the Thrill Lab, volunteers will be asked to try several fairground rides while hooked up to equipment that tracks their emotional state.

This includes an accelerometer that measures the G-force their body is subjected to and an ECG monitor that keeps track of their heart rate. In addition, a helmet-mounted camera will film their facial expressions as they ride the machine.

Information will be beamed in real time to a computer and the measurements will be reproduced on several public displays. Besides, physiologists and psychologists will discuss how thrill, anticipation and fear are affecting them.

"Eventually we hope to incorporate an adaptive element, to allow rides and computer games to react in real time according to the thrill levels being experienced," explained Walker.

The Science Museum installation will include 3 different rides – the Booster, to measure the physiology of excitement and thrill; a ghost train, to measure fear and anticipation; and a ride called Miami Trip, a gentler ride designed to explore pleasure.

Steve Benford, of the mixed reality lab at the University of Nottingham, says it will enable people to better reflect on the experiences that generate their emotions. "We will be able to see if bio-signals reliably map onto the subjective experience of thrill," commented Benford. "The key question is to understand the reliability and predictability of the thrill experience," he says. The data can then be used as an analytical tool to design more-immersive rides and games, so-called "real-time adaptive spaces", he says.

One of the first such interactive feedback experiences is a game Benford has helped develop, called 'Ere Be Dragons. In this game, a player is hooked up to a heart sensor and a GPS device, and must walk through the real world while also exploring one created on a pocket PC.

Illustration of Walker's system

Via new scientist. Images courtesy of Brendan Walker.

The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft carrying the International Space Station's next crew and the world's first female space tourist successfully blasted off into space from it's Baikonur Cosmodrome launchpad at 12:09 a.m. EDT. Credit: NASA TV

rotoscoped anime mashup combining footage from over 100 anime movies to create a "Whacky Race." Music by Weezer and Island in the Sun.

This is a video showing how to crumple a napkin to form a organic paper object. this technique was shown at the "masters of origami" exhibition in salzburg in a workshop from paul jackson.

totally insane. cant believe he actaully found a way to do this. i wonder if he has ever seen the douglas gordon vid,..........:)

Xeni Jardin: "Banksy, Banksy, Banksy! Enough, already!" wrote Defamer. A hella-hyped LA warehouse show by the self-described British "art terrorist" is taking place this weekend in LA. And in it, there's an actual live elephant, painted pink.

A lot of people are upset about that, and the timing is somewhat sensitive. Just three months ago, an elephant at the LA Zoo named Gita died amid allegations of neglect. If the LA Zoo wasn't a hospitable environment for such an intelligent, wild critter, is a downtown warehouse full of Brangelina and chardonnay better?

The technicolor elephant lives on a private reserve in Southern California. The paint she's wearing doesn't hurt her, says her caretaker, and Nelly has appeared in a number of commercials and movies so she's "used to wearing makeup." Stil, others believe her inclusion is exploitative and abusive.

Blogging.la has more here on the controversy. There's an LA Times article here. Snip:

'I think it sends a very wrong message that abusing animals is not only OK, it's an art form,' said Ed Boks, general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services. 'We find it no longer acceptable to dye baby chicks at Easter, but it's OK to dye an elephant.' Boks found himself decrying the presence of the elephant in the exhibit even though his agency had issued the two permits necessary to have the elephant there - 'to my chagrin,' he said. He tried late Friday to revoke the permits on grounds of public safety.

'Some of the experts I've talked to have told me there's no way of predicting when an elephant will go berserk,' he said. 'We want to do what's right by the public and the animal.'

However, Boks would have to give five days' notice to revoke the permits. And in five days, the exhibit will be gone. It is to run today and Sunday from about noon to 8 p.m. 'This situation is causing the department to rethink its permitting procedures so there will be more scrutiny, so permits will not be issued for such frivolous abuse of animals in the future,' he said. Although people may be drawn for artistic reasons, he added, 'they don't understand what the animal is suffering. I think we're dealing with the psychology of an animal that needs to roam over large areas of land.'

(thanks brian)

Reader comments: Paul Mitchum says,

Where's Peter Sellers when you need him? Link.

Edith says,

Despite one photographer's poorly exposed (or deliberately adjusted) photos, Banksy's elephant is not pink - It's red and gold, painted to match the walls in another part of the show. We saw it entering the warehouse in the full light of day and it's definitely red.

I know people reference the "big pink elephant in the middle of the room", but the point of the installation is that the large elephant in the room has been painted to try to make it seem like part of the room, as if people wouldn't notice. Thanks for reporting on it - it was a great art show to see.

Dave Bullock (eecue) says,

Last night I got a private tour of the Banksy show in Downtown LA. The elephant was probably either sleeping or working in the factory making ground corn, but I did spend some time and photograph nearly every piece in the show. Link.

Over at ultrabrown, Manish says,

The activists would have a fit over elephants in India.

Bob Cooley writes,

Just a quick note of little consequence; but as a photog of 20+ years, I wanted to correct a comment. In one of the reader comments posted on boing boing regarding banksy's "pink" elephant, a reader replies:

Despite one photographer's poorly exposed (or deliberately adjusted) photos, Banksy's elephant is not pink - It's red and gold, painted to match the walls in another part of the show. We saw it entering the warehouse in the full light of day and it's definitely red.

The photographer (lucinda) didn't expose the image poorly, nor did she deliberately modify the color of the elephant; this is simply a matter of the image being shot indoors, without flash (because that probably would have freaked out the elephant) and likely in the evening. Tungsten lights (which includes most indoor lighting that involve bulbs and in this case the clearly-seen chandelier) illuminate at a color temperature which is actually quite yellow/orange to film (or in digital that is set to white balance as film). The human eye naturally adjusts for this and makes any indoor scene you view seem correctly colored, but film captures the scene as it actually is (including the true color of the light).

The only mistake the photog made was to not filter the image as they shot it or to correctly adjust it in post-processing. I applied the equivilent of #82 cooling filter (the filter that a knowlegable photographer or motion picture creator would use to compensate for shooting with tungsten lights), and as you can see (image below and attached) the elephant (as well as the rest of the scene) are more true to what you see/experience live: Red elephant, gold designs, white light. There is also a slight drop in saturation that is characteristic of the extra yellow shift of the light on film.

Truth is, most americans find a slight shift to the yellow more pleasing in photos due to the extra color saturation and overall warm "feeling" of the image (europeans tend to prefer a cooler color shift). But in this case it is just the photog not adjusting/filtering properly for the light. Its not incorrect exposure nor is it likely on purpose.

Okay - I understand that this is pretty tech-geeky; but it is an obvious mistake to any pro or experienced shooter, and I wanted to point it out.

Update: The elephant is now naked. This is an atrocity. Someone call PETA, stat. Ashley says,

Here's a picture of the elephant at Banksy's Barely Legal show today; as you can see -- no longer pink (or red).

Mark Frauenfelder: YouTube has a nice collection of LSD related videos, including a "Hot Girl on LSD" ("I can do everything"), and a nine-year-old explaining why acid is more enlightening than "reading the bible six times." Link (Via Beware of the Blog)

Cory Doctorow: This youtube mashes up the classic Monty Python sketch "No. 42 How not to be seen" with machinima from the game Halo (as seen in Red vs Blue) -- the results are surprisingly funny! (via Wonderland)