Happy Hols from Boing Boing tv! In this week's Friday Unicorn Chaser episode, Sculptor Chris Yates creates laser-cut robots for the holidays, based on the Diesel Sweeties webcomic by R. Stevens.
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Unicorn Chaser: Diesel Sweeties Laser Robots
Happy Hols from Boing Boing tv! In this week's Friday Unicorn Chaser episode, Sculptor Chris Yates creates laser-cut robots for the holidays, based on the Diesel Sweeties webcomic by R. Stevens.
Star Simpson's first interview on the Boston airport LED sweatshirt scare.
Update: Complete and unedited transcript of our interview here.
In today's episode of Boing Boing tv: One year ago, a 19-year-old MIT engineering student named Star Simpson got dressed to go pick up a friend at Boston's Logan airport. She pulled a hoodie out of her closet, a wearable tech design she'd made with a light-up LED-circuit on the chest. In her hand was a small pink rose she'd crafted from hardened clay, a gift for her friend.
A few hours later at the airport, after an airport employee mistook her sweatshirt for a bomb and the rose for an explosive implement, Star found herself surrounded by 40 armed police who believed she was a suicide bomber. She was arrested for "possessing a hoax device," and an unprecedented media frenzy ensued. Here was the Boing Boing post from that day.
A year later, after a long series of court dates, a Boston judge ruled that Star must perform community service and make a public apology. Star says she intended no harm. She believes the authorities were unfairly harsh with her long after it was obvious she posed no threat, and that legal proceedings were unduly influenced by a prevailing atmosphere of anxiety over terrorism (this just months after a similar case in Boston).
She has since dropped out of MIT, and says the school's reaction felt like "being disowned." She moved out of Boston in part because of recurring threats and attacks from strangers.
Star has finally come forward to tell her side of the story publicly, and she does so on Boing Boing tv today.
If you'd like to make your very own LED breadboard hoodie, the folks at Instructables have just published Star's plans here. They're too graceful to say this, but I will: do not wear this to airports. Make a Breadboard Sweatshirt (Instant Wearable Electronics!)
MAKE will soon be publishing a related article.
Previous Boing Boing tv episodes :
* Star Simpson's fuzzy logic, MacGyver, MIT lasers, and trippy glasses: Maker Faire with Phil Torrone
Related Boing Boing blog posts:
* MIT student arrested for entering Boston airport with "fake bomb"
* Improvising electronic devices is not a crime
* OK Go's LED Jackets
* ATHF LEDs all over Boston today
Best of BBtv: Leslie Hall is gem-tastic
Boing Boing tv is taking a week off for organic yak-yogurt wrestling on a private Himalayan island; we leave you to enjoy some of our crew's favorite past episodes in the meantime.
"Gem sweater diva" and midwestern maven Leslie Hall has appeared twice on our show. The video featured above is a tour diary she recorded just for us. If you like that, check out our backstage visit with her during a stop in San Francisco, below. "With these shoulder pads, I have the strength to destroy villages, homes and crops."
Original BBtv posts:
*
Leslie Hall: Dear Diary
* Leslie Hall: ceWEBrity, gem sweater diva, jammer of jams.
HOWTO: guerrilla t-shirt silkscreening with "5t311a"
BBtv guest teen haxxor correspondent 5t311a teaches us how to do guerilla t-shirt silkscreening, as described in Cory Doctorow's novel Little Brother, and as detailed in a recent series of Instructables posts. (Thanks, Charis Tobias!)
TCHO Chocolate, part 2: magical machines, mysterious molecules.
Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni and Pesco dive deeper into the magical chocolate factory founded by a NASA software developer.
In this installment of BBtv's 3-part series on TCHO Chocolate, we learn more about the hacked-together, home-tinkered machines and high-tech wizardry that keep the factory running. The philosophy is "scrappy, not crappy," as founder Timothy Childs explains.
TCHO's R&D lab contains such diverse components as Space Shuttle tape, a modded RONCO turkey oven, stone grinders used in Indian restaurants, and deconstructed space heater parts from the local hardware store.
Next, we zoom in to the molecular-level science behind this most delicious confection. Science buffs, rejoice! This episode is as fun for your eyes and brain as the "obsessively good" chocolate is for your mouth -- Polymorph fun for the whole family. Warning: this episode is NSFC (not safe for chocoholics).
Previously on Boing Boing tv:
* TCHO, part 1: chocolate origins.
Related: read a feature about TCHO by David Pescovitz in the current issue of MAKE Magazine, Timothy and the Chocolate Factory.
Here are some iPhone snapshots from Xeni on Flickr: TCHO, Boing Boing tv.
(Special thanks to Amy Critchett, and Wayne & Breanna)
Pesco and the "Eccentric Genius," Xeni gets zapped, ironic t-shirts: More Maker Faire 2008.
More gems from Bay Area Maker Faire 2008: Boing Boing co-editor David Pescovitz speaks with Kaden Harris, author of Eccentric Cubicle, and the brains behind Eccentricgenius.ca -- eccentric antiques from a parallel universe. He shows us his Silicon Projectile Centrifuge (a lovely lethal weapon that shoots marbles at high velocity), a combination lamp/bong, and other exotica from the halls of beautiful Eccentric Manors.
Then, Xeni is zapped by Jack Sparx, who uses his body as an electrical transformer, zapping all who come near with low-level shocks in the name of science. As Xeni demonstrates, the jolts from his mini-Tesla Coils are not *that* low-level, either.
Bonus: ironic t-shirt catwalk; Xeni and the BBtv crew stopped Maker Faire attendees in their tracks, and asked them to explain their hipster t-shirts.
Previous Boing Boing tv episodes from Maker Faire:
(special thanks to Scott Beale, Eddie Codel, and Waneco Leisure Industries)
Leslie Hall: Dear Diary
The gem sweater bedazzlements and lyrical besnazzlements of "internet ceWEBrity" Leslie Hall have graced Boing Boing tv before -- but in today's episode, Ms. Hall submits an exclusive tour diary for BBtv viewers, a veritable world exclusive. "With these shoulderpads I have the strength to destroy, villages, homes, and crops," she warns. Her ladyfire is mighty, as all ye who gaze upon this video shall witness.
Ms. Hall was among the internet personalities who participated in the recent ROFLcon gathering in Cambridge, Mass. Her presence there among fellow internet memesters is documented in this Wired gallery, and in a photo set from Scott Beale of Laughing Squid. See also his short video of the Tron Guy talking about geek women. Which brings us back to the 26-year-old Ms. Hall, straight outta Iowa, believed by her many followers to be the fiercest gold-lame-wrapped geek woman on the planet.
Related Boing Boing tv items:
* Leslie Hall: ceWEBrity, gem sweater diva, jammer of jams.
* Leslie Hall iPhone snaps, "Blame the Booty" remix - Boing Boing
Cupcake Cutthroats: muffin-shaped electric art cars gone wild.
Boing Boing tv presents CUPCAKE CUTTHROATS, a cakesploitation epic exploring the dark side of electric art-cars shaped like baked goods. These homemade vehicles are crafted by Silicon Valley nerds (including one engineer from Tesla Motors) and Burning Man enthusiasts in a Berkeley, California, warehouse. In today's episode, Xeni joins the marauding muffineers for a 15-mph thrillride down mean, sugar-sprinkled streets.
CBS News almost blew our cover! The muffineers say, "We dedicate our efforts in memory of Keith Taft." A full list of cupcake art car bakers designers and drivers, after the jump.
Continue reading Cupcake Cutthroats: muffin-shaped electric art cars gone wild..
Leslie Hall: ceWEBrity, gem sweater diva, jammer of jams.
DON'T BLAME ME, BLAME MY BOOTY. Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni visits the bedazzled world of "internet ce-WEB-rity" Leslie Hall, whose gem sweaters are as sparkly as her jams are funky. We speak with the Iowa-based star of stage, YouTube, and craft marts, and experience a live performance by Leslie and the LY's.
BBtv Vlog: David Meets Artist Liz McGrath.
Boing Boing editor David Pescovitz visits the dark, surreal, creepy, and, er, frightfully cute world of Los Angeles artist Liz McGrath. Mutant beasts run amok in her decadent circus sideshow of sculpture where flesh and blood is replaced with resin, paint, and faux fur. No dead animals were used in the creation of this artwork.
Previously on BB:
• Liz McGrath show in Los Angeles Link
Felt Club tour with Carla from CRAFT
CRAFT Magazine editor Carla Sinclair (who co-founded the original bOING bOING zine) gives us a tour of Felt Club 2007, an annual showcase of cool handmade crafts.
The Galaxy Is Fabulous
Today on BBtv, part two of our coverage of "Space Style 2007: A Giant Leap for Couture," an intergalactic couture show which took place during the TRANSFORMING SPACE conference hosted by the California Space Authority (CSA) and the California Space Education and Workforce Institute (CSEWI).
Part one of our series is here: "Space Couture runway show."
BBtv's Xeni Jardin was there, with two pro fashionistas providing live critique and comic relief: Nony Tochterman of Petro Zillia, and Oren Shepher of Spear Collection.
In today's episode, we meet Syuzi Pakhchyan of SparkLab, and check out her cool LED light-up bracelets (which have been covered in Make:CRAFT -- 1, 2).
Below, and after the jump: LOLspacemodel macros.
Continue reading The Galaxy Is Fabulous.
Space Couture runway show
What would you wear in outer space? Fashion designers, space entrepreneurs, and intergalactic travel advocates gathered to answer that question recently on a runway (the couture kind) near Los Angeles International airport. BBtv's Xeni Jardin was there, with two pro fashionistas providing live critique and comic relief: Nony Tochterman of Petro Zillia, and Oren Shepher of Spear Collection.
"Space Style 2007: A Giant Leap for Couture" took place during the TRANSFORMING SPACE, an annual conference hosted by the California Space Authority (CSA) and the California Space Education and Workforce Institute (CSEWI).
Participating designers included Louise Bisby, Rain Sherman, Danielle Kelly, Samantha Ceora, Payam Emrani and Syuzi Pakhchyan of SparkLab (her cool LED light-up bracelets have been covered in Make:CRAFT -- 1, 2). Misuzu Onuki, creator of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) space couture fashion show, presented the finalist designs from that competition. Martin Bergstrom of Sweden showed off burka-like headdresses, and "mathematically-inspired" Japanese designer Eri Matsui presented a zero-G-inspired wedding gown.
The event was co-produced and co-hosted by Randa Milliron of Interorbital Systems, a Mojave-based rocket company working to make space transportation a reality, and Karyl Newman, an artistic consultant to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. California Space Authority (CSA) hosts included Andrea Seastrand and Celeste Volz Ford. Link to photos by Sam Coniglio.
Music: Casino Mansion, David Habif, and Roman Kovalik. Video art: Steve Nalepa.
Below: BBtv fashion analysts Oren (left) and Nony (right) glimpse the future of spacewear, and they're not sure quite what to make of it.
Online Knitting/Burma Internet Crackdown
In today's edition of Boing Boing tv:
0:11 -- Knitters find a community online in Ravelry.com. One of the site's 21,000 beta users, Ruth Waytz, tells us why she digs Ravelry for swapping patterns, tools, yarns, and "ugh" files (perfectly good projects that went crappy) with fellow knitting fanatics.
Online knitting isn't always precious. Sure, baby booties, tea cozies, and hippie shawls abound. But how about a hand-knitted version of The Fantastic Four character The Thing by knittycat? Craft becomes anti-craft in a lovably loathsome knitted teratoma tumor (by Zabet Stewart, Jane Roth, Heather Hard, and Sarabeth Brownrobie). BTW, image search for "teratoma tumor" at your own peril: it's goatse-grade gross.
2:29 -- More on the internet crackdown by the government of Burma (or Myanmar). As military violence against pro-democracy forces continues, information channels are increasingly blocked. The 'net blackout there gave free speech activist Shava Nerad (also Development Director for the Tor project) deja vu.
Hear the rest of Shava's story, then look for rolling updates on the situation inside Burma at this website, along with other Burma blogs and independent media sites.
Correction: The teratoma tumor is misidentified in the video as being the work of Shelley Batts. Shelley kindly blogged about it, and pointed to related medical photos on her blog post -- but Zabet Stewart explains:
It's not based on an actual medical photo at all. Heather (a doctor who was pregnant at the time) and Sarabeth came up with the idea, I designed and knitted it, and Jane crocheted the attachable parts. It was gifted back to Heather after the birth of her son, Sam.We regret the error.
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