tech@vedella

Becky Stern had some leftover Vicodin tablets from her recent knee operation, so naturally she fashioned them into a pair of Vicodin earrings. As I posted earlier, Becky also created an embroidered replica of her knee MRI. I really like the way she turned this otherwise painful and time-sucking event into an opportunity to create some cool works of art. Previously:HOWTO knit a skeleton cardigan - Boing Boing Copper bandaid - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Down Home Archives World's creepiest ski mask - Boing Boing Steampunk sewing machine - Boing Boing Boing Boing: January 4, 2009 - January 10, 2009 Archives Boing Boing Boing Boing: March 2, 2008 - March 8, 2008 Archives Portraits of CAPTCHAs in acrylic - Boing Boing...

Carl Bidleman of OpenRoad.TV is now producing videos for the George Lucas Educational Foundation's Edutopia. Here's a delightful piece about public elementary schools in Tucson, Arizona where arts are integrated into every "academic" subject, from math to social studies. For example, first graders write their own operas and fourth graders learn science by playing the violin. Music and Dance Drive Academic Achievement...

On a recent flight, I noticed this little pile of pull tabs from soda cans on a napkin in the galley. I asked what they were for and was told that one of the flight attendants was collecting them to help people get free kidney dialysis. A well-meaning act for sure, but also pretty much pointless. Those pull tabs aren't worth more than their weight for recycling. And according to Snopes, "a million pull tabs have a recycle value of about $366." That means the dozen or so in the photo have a value of less than 1/2 of one penny. These kinds of "redemption rumors" have been going around since the 1950s. Forwarding urban legend emails is one thing (and an annoying one, at that), but I was surprised to see someone physically acting on such an oldie. More info on the pull tab redemption rumor at The Straight Dope and Snopes....

Annalee Newitz, Editor and Time Distortion Field Operator at io9.com, is in New Zealand digging up little sparkly bits of future. One of those involves concept artist Greg Broadmore, and she has posted a really interesting interview with him with lots of cool photos. "He created the ray gun-saturated world of Doctor Grordbort," she explains, "and is about to launch a new graphic novel and series of web shorts devoted to the retro scifi adventures of Cockswain and the Moon Mistress." The Savage World of Dr. Grodbort (io9)...

WATCH: Flash video embed above, click "full" icon inside the player to view it large. You can download the MP4 here. BB Video YouTube channel is here, you can subscribe to our daily video podcast on iTunes here. VIEWER WARNING: This episode contains verbal descriptions of graphic violence. Discretion advised. The folks at WITNESS, with whom Boing Boing Video partnered to bring you the story of Guantanamo detainee and torture survivor Binyam Ahmed Mohamed, above, tell us he is finally being freed and going back to the UK. Here is the initial the BBC News report about his release, here's the WaPo item. The NYT and others report that he has today arrived in the UK, and that the UK will allow him to remain there. Rebecca Lichtenfeld of WITNESS says, We are all beyond ecstatic about the news. After meeting Binyam's family and seeing how much pain Binyam's illegal detention has caused them, this news could not come a moment too soon. I head from Binyam's brother when Obama was elected and he expressed gratitude to WITNESS for paying attention when hardly anyone else was willing to. Binyam's family are reportedly heading to the UK to meet him when he arrives. In related and less optimistic news: Obama Upholds Detainee Policy in Afghanistan (NYT). Snip: The Obama administration has told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush’s legal team. In a two-sentence filing late Friday, the Justice Department said that the new administration had reviewed its position in a case brought by prisoners at the United States Air Force base at Bagram, just north of the Afghan capital. The Obama team determined that the Bush policy was correct: such prisoners cannot sue for their release. And below, snip from the prepared statement released today from Mr. Mohamed: I hope you will understand that after everything I have been through I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain. Please forgive me if I make a simple statement through my lawyer. I hope to be able to do better in days to come, when I am on the road to recovery. I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Before this ordeal, "torture" was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways — all orchestrated by the United States government. While I want to recover, and put it all as far in my past as I can, I also know I have an obligation to the people who still remain in those torture chambers. My own despair was greatest when I thought that everyone had abandoned me. I have a duty to make sure that nobody else is forgotten. Statement from ex-Guantanamo detainee Mohamed (Associated Press) Update: Matisse from WITNESS says in the comments on this blog post, If you are interested in learning more about extraordinary rendition and how to take action to support the call for closing Guantanamo (there are active campaigns by both the ACLU and Amnesty International) please visit this short blog post by my colleague on our Hub blog: hub.witness.org. (Special thanks to Boing Boing Video's hosting and publishing provider Episodic.)...

The American Chemical Society is holding a contest seeking short videos that answer the question "What is "nano?'" For their entry, UC Berkeley grad student Patrick Bennett and his colleagues submitted the absolutely wonderful "Nano Song." Nanotation Video Contest...

The Huffington Post has a funny roundup of the 9 purportedly weirdest/funniest PSA tv ads of all time. I am fond of the potsmoking karate guy above. The Nine Weirdest PSAs Ever Made (Thanks, Alex Leo)...

Discover has a huge gallery of science- and engineering-themed tattoos. Some are amazing and some are, well, less so. Above from left, RFID tag, quadratic formula, and LSD. "Science Tattoo Emporium" (Thanks, Marina Gorbis!) UPDATE: This appears to be a photoset that author Carl Zimmer had uploaded to Flickr a while back but has since moved to the Discover site....

Boingboing's new guestblogger, Paul Spinrad, is a freelance writer/editor with catholic interests. He is currently Projects Editor for MAKE magazine and the author of The VJ Book and The Re/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids. He lives in San Francisco. please give him a warm welcome!...

Uncrate offers spotted this "Bigfoot vs. Bunyan" t-shirt for $10. It's cute, but of course Sasquatch would win. Bigfoot vs. Bunyan t-shirt (Thanks, Gabe "TuneUp" Adiv!)...

Recently on Offworld we've seen things you'll only find here: Margaret Robertson on what it means to go home again in World of Warcraft, a brilliant exclusive vintage arcade music video from Adventure, James Kochalka's latest Nintendo Mii comic, and the Lost Levels bringing 8-bit characters dancing into real life. Things from the indies: Introversion toying with augmented reality global thermonuclear war, a new look at Polytron's upcoming Fez, Braid coming to the PC, a phantasmagoric trailer for Super Meat Boy, a game that only one person in the world can play at a time, two fantastic games for the DIY Meggy Jr RGB, and the gloriously backward looking/forward thinking Jumpman. Also, things for iPhone: an early look at IG Fun's version of BioShock, a typographer's game that'll sate your lust for Helvetica, CrossFyre, a tower defense/shooter mashup, a new look at Konami's Metal Gear Solid Touch, the still-secret retro-futurist The Plumber Is Dead, the new deeply AI-driven pet sim Touch Pets Dogs, and Aurora Feint making the platform communal with a social networking SDK. Nintendo things: a new side-scrolling real time strategy game from the makers of de Blob, the first news of America's version of the new DSi, Katamari Damacy coming to the DS (above), the much under-loved Mr. Driller doing the same, and Mario and Animal Crossing DS apps coming alongside brilliant looking new ArtStyle puzzle games. Oh right, and lots and lots and lots and lots of Noby Noby Boy....

• Guest blogger Mat Honan told us about Ramune and the Mystery of the Codd Stopper Bottle. • Samsung went retro with its latest point-and-shoot camera: analog dials! • We learned that Power Factor correction is a scam. • An office chair's hydraulic column reportedly exploded, killing its occupant in horrible fashion. • There was an At-At Walker that was also a Boombox. • A googly-eyed clock demonstrated awe-inspiring simplicity. • The NYT reported that the plasma TV is dead. • You took a look at our new office. • Rob took a closer look at Arthur C. Clarke's hard drive. • A reader told us of a new Mac Mini with 8,474,255 USB ports. And yet it's never enough! • Review! We found the Xperia X1 to our liking, if not its price. • Joel found a striking "Adult Fantasy Album." • There was video of the purported new Mac Mini. • You fixed the nib of that old fountain pen in the drawer....

When normal duct-tape won't cut it, you need nuclear duct-tape, whose "slate blue color makes it ideal for use in nuclear tape facilities and it is certified for low leachable halogens and sulfur. It also provides sunlight and UV resistance for up to one year without the backing deteriorating or delaminating. This product is especially ideal for applications in the shipbuilding, nuclear power plant and stainless steel industries." 3M Performance Plus 8979N Nuclear Grade 48-Millimeter-by-54.8-Meter Duct Tape, Slate Blue (via OhGizmo!) Previously:Duct tape saved Apollo 17 moonbuggy, while on the moon. - Boing Boing HOWTO Make a duct-tape corsage - Boing Boing Robber disguised face with duct tape - Boing Boing Using tape to repair plane wing -- video - Boing Boing HOWTO make a duct-tape wallet - Boing Boing Duct tape festival in Ohio - Boing Boing Camouflage Duct Tape - Boing Boing Clear duct tape - Boing Boing Duct-tape band-aids - Boing Boing Ska-anthem about duct tape - Boing Boing...

Danny Choo was a guestblogger on Boing Boing. Danny resides in Tokyo, and blogs about life in Japan and Japanese subculture - he also works part time for the empire. Final post on BoingBoing. Would like to thank Joi Ito for the introduction and to Xeni, Mark and the rest of the BB team for having me. It really has been an honor! The biggest thanks goes out to BB readers for putting up with my ramblings for the past two weeks - hope I have not done too much damage ;-) Many BB readers found my FaceBook and Twitter and I would like to say thanks for the add! If you would like to keep up with life from Japan and subculture without having to look at the loud UI at dannychoo.com, you may want to RSS Subscribe (raw feed here) or get updates in your inbox instead. All my articles are also automatically pushed out to my Flickr account and I update my FaceBook and Twitter with the most significant updates too - feel free to add me ;-) I often hook up with readers so if you are in Tokyo then ping me and hopefully we'll go for some sushi or something. I also host an event called Tokyo CGM Night where the top bloggers and YouTube directors in Japan get together with IT folks in the aim of creating Bodacious Harmonious Awesomeness - if you want to meet other bloggers/IT folk or plug your goods or services to potentially millions of users then drop me a line though my LinkedIn. As for the photo - blog a bit about Mac life too and was recently featured in Japans premiere Mac magazine "MacFan" which you can see in the above photo - pics and other magazine coverage in this article. Do or do not. There is no try. Do it today - not tomorrow....

Danny Choo is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. Danny resides in Tokyo, and blogs about life in Japan and Japanese subculture - he also works part time for the empire. As a student living back in the UK many moons ago who wanted so badly to live and work in Japan, I know how others in the same position feel like. One of the things I try to do with my blog articles is to give a feel of what life is like in Tokyo and started the A Week in Tokyo series where I document and post extensive photos of my life. Tourist photos are great from time to time but I felt it was important to show the every day stuff too like going to the ward office, going to external meetings, attending events, shopping and what have you. The latest A Week in Tokyo 34 is up and this week includes dinner at the German embassy, live broadcasts, electric costs, recruiting for the fire brigade, Tech Crunch networking meetings and how to make a Mac into a media server for the Playstation 3....

Brendan sez, "The Orphan is a nascent webzine dedicated to publishing the otherwise unpublishable: marketless short stories, chunks of abandoned novels, beautiful photographic errors, bizarre brilliant blather, even first sentences impossible to expand upon... The net is wide. The first issue features work from Rudy Rucker and David Markson among others." The Orphan is incomplete, unpublishable, moloch-less, disrespected, bizarre and roundly rejected. (Thanks, Brendan!)...

The Tonga Room, one of the greatest tiki bars in the world, is under threat now, because the San Francisco Fairmont hotel in which it is housed is slated to be turned into luxury condos (seriously? Is anyone buying luxury condos for anything except scrap copper these days?). Laughing Squid has a great piece on what makes the Tonga so special (here's one thing: it has an actual indoor monsoon several times an hour!): The last decade has seen nearly $100 million invested in updates to the Fairmont hotel itself which included a $1 Million restoration of the Tonga Room completed in the last few years. So it’s strange that all that history and fairly recent money could soon be bulldozed. There’s been no explicit statement that the Tonga Room is being destroyed, and no press account that mentions it (except a quizzical commenter on Curbed SF). But clearly the plans for the new condo-ized version of the Fairmont do not include the landmark bar. Will The Tonga Room Be a Casualty of The Fairmont’s Condo Plans? (via JWZ)...

Street demonstrations, netwide campaigns, unfavorable press attention and sustained lobbying have moved the New Zealand government to temporarily suspend its new copyright law, which would have required ISPs to terminate their customers' net access on the basis of three unsubstantiated accusations of infringement. It remains to be seen whether the law is truly dead, but this is an amazing development: In a surprise announcement this afternoon, prime minister John Key says the government will delay the implementation of the controversial Section 92a of the amended copyright law. Computerworld spoke to technologist Nat Torkington who attended Key's press conference this afternoon at 4pm. Torkington says the government may suspend the controversial S92a until the 27 March if no agreement is reached between the parties on how to implement it. John Key delays copyright law (Thanks, Hayden and everyone else who suggested this!) Previously:New Zealand netizens go black in protest of new "no-proof ... Geeks go to New Zealand Parliament to protest new copyright law ... Kangaroo Court: a video explaining New Zealand's new "guilt-on ......

I survived the bush administration t-shirt, $16 from Print Liberation (via Constant Siege)....

Over at Hasbro.com right now on Sunday afternoon, the official "SCRABBLE Word of the Day" is, er, "DILDO." For 7 points. Click image above for screenshot of full Web page. Scrabble Crossword Board Game (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!) UPDATE: Well, they've since changed the word to "Triply," but the screenshot of "DILDO" on the Hasbro.com Web page will live on in perpetuity here. Previously:Scrabble Gram suggests naughty answer - Boing Boing Scrabble cufflinks - Boing Boing Scrabble-tile benches - Boing Boing Leet Scrabble tiles - Boing Boing Crap Scrabble hand gallery - Boing Boing...