tech@vedella

Want to check out the surface of Mars the way you'd use Google Earth? HiRise makes it possible. (Via artimusclyde on Submitterator)

Medical doctor Heng Khuen Cheok saw a pedestrian hit by a car in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday. He rushed to help but was initially rebuffed. Why? Because he was dressed as Superman -- part of his bachelor party hijinks that evening. "One of the man's friends was crouching next to him and he took one [...]

BoingBoing reader davidsongray visited Biosphere 2 recently, and took some photos of the site. Today, Biosphere 2 is owned by the University of Arizona. It's also being used for scientific research projects, including the Landscape Evolution Observatory, which will study the natural cycles of carbon, water, and energy, and how those cycles are affected by [...]

On Submitterator, Musicman pointed me towards this great presentation on LOLspeak as a form of language play, and why people engage in that play. According to Lauren Gawne, who gave this speech last week at the Australian Linguistics Society conference, the choice to use LOLspeak has a lot to do with establishing identity—the playful identity [...]

Emmanuel Goldstein from 2600 Magazine sez, "As part of a massive archiving project, 2600 Magazine is releasing all of the remastered videos from the second Hackers On Planet Earth conference - Beyond HOPE in 1997. Last month, videos from the first HOPE conference back in 1994 were put online. This weekend's hour-by-hour video release from [...]

China keeps the identities of its taikonauts a closely guarded secret. But a philatelic cover—postmarked envelope, to those of us who don't collect stamps—may have given away the names of the seven military pilots who are being trained go to space, including the woman who could be China's first female in space. Collect Space says: [...]

Some archaeologists get to discover Tutankhamun's tomb. Others go down in history for finding Kaiser Wilhelm's urinal. (Via A blog about history and Cort Sims)

Our thanks to Watchismo for sponsoring Boing Boing Blast, our once-daily delivery of headlines by email. Watchismo is introducing new collections from 01 The One Watches and Nixon Watches. There is nothing quite like the 01 The One Spinning Disc Watches out there. These unusual timepieces look amazing on the wrist; a blend of digital [...]

The government seeks to block every defense witness named by alleged wikileaker Bradley Manning's defense team. [Threat Level, Wired]

I talk a lot about the importance of context in understanding science. The results of one, single research paper do not tell you everything you need to know on a given subject. Instead, you have to look at how those results fit into the big picture. How do they compare to the results of other [...]

Telemarketers may soon be permitted to call cellphones at the owner's expense. Here's a campaign to throttle the legislation in committee. [Credo Action]

This heroically impractical Nest Chair, designed by Tjep, is composed of fifty soft branches and can be expanded as needed with more branches as your family grows. I love the shot of the transport problems presented by it. Nest Chair by Tjep (via Crib Candy)

A simple, well-executed idea: a macro lens embedded in a rubber band, making it work with practically any phone that shoots pictures. It is $15 from Photojojo.

Russia's contested election have roused the ire of the Russian people, who have risked brutal crackdowns to take to the streets and protest irregularities like ballot-stuffing, which returned Putin to power. Some of that anger is being vented on the Web. Russia's power-brokers may be thugs, but they aren't technologically naive or unsophisticated. A network [...]

In this video from the kettling of Occupy San Francisco protesters, SFPD sergeant Peter Thoshinsky (helmet #2197) is recorded walking the police line, ordering his officers, "If they do not do what you tell them, strike them." The protesters who record this are understandably upset and try to engage the officers in a dialog about [...]

BBC: "Iranian TV has broadcast footage of an advanced US drone aircraft that Tehran says it brought down using electronic methods to override its controls." Does anyone else remember the story in the back of Vaughn Bode's Junkwaffel comic book about intelligent drones that kept fighting long after the humans were gone? I thought of [...]

Patrick Meighan, a writer on Family Guy, describes his arrest at Occupy LA, part of a brutal crackdown on 292 protesters whose belongings were destroyed and who were then subject to cruel (and in Mieghan's case, possibly crippling) detention. Meighan explains why he did it: So that’s what happened to the 292 women and men [...]

Our friend Dan Woods at TechShop (a growing chain of membership-based workshops) has some great DIY-based gift ideas. He says: The folks at TechShop are pretty proud of the role the doors they’ve helped open for some of the independent makers who call TechShop home. Like… Wood ties made by Wood Thumb DODOcase’s book bound [...]

Rogier van Bakel says: As a photographer, I developed repetitive stress injury (RSI) in my right shoulder and wrist last year, due to too much mousing around in Lightroom and Photoshop. The pain got worse this summer so I decided to switch to a trackpad and a Wacom tablet. Much better, but it bugged me [...]

TED's new iPhone app (based on the iPad app that has been downloaded almost 2 million times) has a neat feature called TED Radio, which streams audio of curated TED talks 24/7. As a podcast junkie, I love this feature. At $0.00 the TED app is an incredible way to hear amazing stories told by [...]