tech@vedella

Three longtime Boing Boing friends/influences/contributors -- Jacques Vallee, Rudy Rucker, and John Shirley -- delivered fascinating presentations at the recent TEDxBrussels event, themed around "A Day In The Deep Future." Jacques talked about possible new models in physics as we look 50 years out while Rudy shared his vision for "biological computing" of the year [...]

Gizmodo lists the worst gadget gifts this holiday season. Do not buy cheap cameras or Android tablets, the iPod Touch, "4G" cellphones, or anything with the phrase "Beats by Dre" on it. To these choices I add portable hard drives (prices are high), the iPad (good chance of a major upgrade soon), and "desktop replacement" [...]

From CNET's Zack Whittaker: "features in Facebook give users access to personal, private and hidden photos that would normally be hidden from view. The flaw, spotted by members of a body building forum, no less, allows Facebook users to access photos revealed by the report abuse tool."

On Submitterator, ecodeathmarch linked a news report about a new study that found that people with undergraduate degrees in astronomy and astrophysics had a 0% unemployment rate. Is that for real? First: The details. This fact came not from a recently published study, but from a Wall Street Journal interactive tool that allows you to [...]

For decades, the US military has experimented with weather warfare, controlling weather to make it a weapon. For example, the US's Operation Popeye seeded clouds over the Ho Chi Minh Trail to hopefully flood the enemy's logistical system. And while the official word is that proper weather warfare technologies never advanced much, some conspiracy theorists [...]

I love Sugru, the polymer clay that sticks anything to anything and dries to a durable, dishwasher-safe finish. In this little Sugru ad, they demonstrate how using Sugru to stick single Lego bricks to various surfaces turns anything into a mount for anything else. It's really fun, and reminds me of another great Sugru use: [...]

For more than thirty years, the managers of the London Dungeon tourist attraction have assumed that a human skeleton they have on display must be fake. Turns out, it's genuine. A curator from Guy's Hospital medical museum thinks a second skeleton there may also be the real thing. From the BBC: London Dungeon operations manager [...]

Reader iainmclean works in research and development, which means iainmclean reads a lot of patent-ese. Via the new, awesomer Submitterator, iainmclean sent us an excellent example of how the language used in a patent application can make it very difficult to tell what, exactly, is being patented. Here's how the game is played. First, read [...]

Sculptor Sara Asnaghi has produced a series of sculptures of the human brain molded from various foodstuffs, called "What have you got in your head?" The series includes pieces made from barley, chilis, hemp seeds, candy balls, black rice, canary chow, bread crumbs, sugar, and hay. (via Neatorama)

Recoding Innovation is a National Science Foundation-funded documentary that's basically about the anthropology of science and engineering. If you're a scientist or an engineer, you can participate. How does your culture, values, and beliefs make your work happen? The idea here is that ethics aren't something that hold science back. Instead, applying ethics helps scientists [...]

"They said when the collider goes on Soon they'd see that elusive boson Very soon we shall hear Whether Cern finds it this year But it's something I won't bet very much on." — Shelly Glashow, Boston University. Nobel prize in physics, 1979 From a collection of physicists' statements on the Higgs boson in The [...]

Kepler-22b is a newly confirmed exoplanet, orbiting a Sun-like star 600 light years away from Earth. The exoplanet sits in the "habitable zone"—a range of orbits around a star that are, based on what we know about life on Earth, most likely to provide the right conditions for life to happen. That is pretty damn [...]

On Reddit, a wonderful thread where redditors detail their favorite "mind tricks." Here's a smattering: When I walk through large crowds of people, to avoid walking into anyone, I simply stare at my destination. I look no one in the eyes. People actually will watch your eyes and they avoid the direction you are going. [...]

Harmony or stability in the celestial and terrestrial spheres is expressed in the celestial mechanics of Newton and the theory of evolution of Darwin. If these two men of science are sacrosanct, this mixtape is a heresy.

SammichesBeCrazy, a redditor, posted these fancy fleas that his grandpa dressed up in tiny clothes, back in olden times. Found these fleas in an old box. Apparently my grandpa caught and dressed them... When he was TWELVE. (i.imgur.com)

The head of Canada's secret police has asked the government to fight against a proposed ban on information gleaned through torture. The chief of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says that torture is essential to Canada's security in its fight against terrorism. In the letter, Judd urges the minister to fight an amendment to C-3 [...]

The Swiss government commissioned a study on the impact of copyright-infringing downloading. The independent study concluded that downloaders use the money they spend to buy more legitimate entertainment products. So they've concluded to maintain Switzerland's extant copyright law, which makes downloading for personal use legal. It's a rare victory for evidence-based policy in a world [...]

Love the colors of these 1961 bathroom scales -- pretty much every old person I knew when I was a kid had one of these. Contest Entry--Borg Scales, 1961

Colbert explains the science behind the net-killing SOPA, the worst proposed Internet law in American legislative history. (UPDATE: Autoplaying videos moved after the jump) Stop Online Piracy Act