Boingboingvideo Videos

Weird Wheeled Wonders and Maker Faire Bay Area 2013

Just a few of the fun robots, rovers, and rides I came across at Maker Faire Bay Area 2103

Guatemala: courtroom just after Ríos Montt genocide trial guilty verdict

iPhone video I shot on May 10, 2013, inside the courtroom in Guatemala City moments after former US-backed dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, and sentenced to a total of 80 years in prison.
—Xeni Jardin

Guatemala video snapshot: Youth protest in Supreme Court during genocide trial

A video snapshot: youth protesting in favor of the historic trial against former US-backed military dictator Rios Montt and his then-intelligence chief, Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez. They are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity during the bloodiest phase of Guatemala's 36-year internal armed conflict, in which some 200,00 people died, most of whom were Mayan indigenous.

Guatemala: Banner with names of dead, at genocide protest

Relatives of people killed during Guatemala's armed conflict hold up a banner with the names of the dead, during a protest on April 22, 2013 outside the Constitutional Court. On this day, the court was deliberating over whether to allow the continuation of a historic trial for charges of genocide and crimes against former general and dictator osé Efraín Ríos Montt and his chief of intelligence Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez. Montt's regime was supported by the United States, and the general received military training at the School of the Americas.

Quadcopter Fun

I bought Jane a $60 quadcopter from Banggood for her 10th birthday. One of the motor wires was broken on arrival so I had to solder it back on, and the battery charger was for a European power outlet so I broke it open and soldered on a US plug. Now it works and it's a lot of fun. It has a built in video camera, too!

It has two control modes. Mode 1 is the "beginner mode," which doesn't allow for tight turns. We like Mode 2, because it's actually easier to control. You can flip the captor 360 with the touch of a button on the transmitter, which Jane loves.

Here's a video of Jane flying it and me being paranoid that she's going to get it stuck in a tree. She ends up landing it in the street, and I say a naughty word.

Michael Madsen Talks to Boing Boing about His Hot Sauce

Michael Madsen came to my house to talk about his line of hot sauces. My favorite is his hot mustard. I put it on a frankfurter and devoured my "Reservoir Dog." http://michaelmadsenhotsauce.com/

Kal Spelletich's "Huggerer" robot

Post here:
http://boingboing.net/2013/04/11/hugging-robot.html

And check out Kal's work here:
http://kaltek.org

Remote Operated Vehicles recovering Apollo F-1 engines 3 miles beneath Atlantic (Bezos Expeditions)

Remote Operated Vehicles recovering Apollo F-1 engines three miles beneath the Atlantic. Video courtesy Bezos Expeditions. Boing Boing blog post: http://boingboing.net/2013/03/20/apollo-f-1-engines-recovered-f.html

More on the mission, from Bezos Expeditions: http://bezosexpeditions.com/updates.html

Excerpt from Jeff Bezos' blog post, March 20, 2013:

"What an incredible adventure. We are right now onboard the Seabed Worker headed back to Cape Canaveral after finishing three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface. We found so much. We've seen an underwater wonderland -- an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program. We photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces. Each piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of engineers who worked together back then to do what for all time had been thought surely impossible."

"Many of the original serial numbers are missing or partially missing, which is going to make mission identification difficult. We might see more during restoration. The objects themselves are gorgeous."

"The technology used for the recovery is in its own way as otherworldly as the Apollo technology itself. The Remotely Operated Vehicles worked at a depth of more than 14,000 feet, tethered to our ship with fiber optics for data and electric cables transmitting power at more than 4,000 volts. We on the team were often struck by poetic echoes of the lunar missions. The buoyancy of the ROVs looks every bit like microgravity. The blackness of the horizon. The gray and colorless ocean floor. Only the occasional deep sea fish broke the illusion."

Interview with Gizmodo's Gadget Testers

Former Boing Boing gadget guv'nor Joel Johnson will have his own TV pilot, Gizmodo: The Gadget Testers, tonight at 10:20/9:20c on BBC America, right after the season finale of Top Gear. He'll be joined by Veronica Belmont, Greg Foot and O.J. Borg, Joe Brown and Chris Hardwick, and they will all play with their gadgets. Mark Frauenfelder interviewed Joel, Veronica, and Greg about the show.

Mailing from Quarterly.co: EL Wire, Tiny Microscope, and a Black Light Flashlight

Quarterly.co is a subscription service for wonderful things. Subscribers select one or more curators (Joel Johnson, Veronica Belmont. Tim Ferriss, Joshua Foer, Gretchen Rubin and others) and pay $25 per quarter to receive a box with one or more things selected by the curator. I'm a curator (https://quarterly.co/contributors/mark-frauenfelder) and my most recent mailing includes things to stimulate your sense of vision: EL Wire, a Tiny Microscope, and a Black Light Flashlight. Take a look at what people are saying about my latest mailing on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23mlf02&src=typd

Tibetan Sand Mandala: Ven. Losang Samten and the "Wheel of Life," Santa Barbara Tibet Summit

Boing Boing post:http://boingboing.net/2013/01/25/a-tibetan-wheel-of-life-ma.html

Lama Losang Samten, mandala master based in Philadelphia (http://losangsamten.com), explains some the symbolism of the "Wheel of Life" mandala in Tibetan Buddhism.

The mandala creation took place during the Santa Barbara Tibet Summit (http://sbtibet.com), a "Tibetan Cultural Week of Celebration and Education to increase awareness of Tibetan cultural, philosophical and spiritual richness, and educate citizens about current affairs in TIbet."

The site where the mandala and this video were created: the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara (Boing Boing post:http://boingboing.net/2013/01/25/a-tibetan-wheel-of-life-ma.html

Lama Losang Samten, mandala master based in Philadelphia (http://losangsamten.com), explains some the symbolism of the "Wheel of Life" mandala in Tibetan Buddhism.

The mandala creation took place during the Santa Barbara Tibet Summit (http://sbtibet.com), a "Tibetan Cultural Week of Celebration and Education to increase awareness of Tibetan cultural, philosophical and spiritual richness, and educate citizens about current affairs in TIbet."

The site where the mandala and this video were created: the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara (http://ussb.org).


More on Lama Losang Samten: http://losangsamten.com/biography.html


Related: A petition to the Obama Administration, to "Implore China to prevent Tibetan self-burning suicides by lifting suppression of Tibet's cultural practices and religion." http://goo.gl/xH6qj

Foolproof card trick your kids will love

Here's a great self-working card trick to teach your kids. If they are old enough to spell, they will love performing it for their friends. I learned about the trick, which was invented by magician Jim Steinmeyer, on Greg Ross's Futility Closet blog.

"Remove any nine cards from an ordinary deck, shuffle them, and deal them face down into three piles. Choose any pile and note its bottom card. Then assemble the three piles into one, being sure to place the chosen pile on top.

Suppose the card you chose is the three of spades. Spell T-H-R-E-E, dealing one card face down onto the table with each letter. Place the remaining cards on top of these five and take up the whole packet. Now spell O-F, and again place the remaining cards on top of these two. Then spell S-P-A-D-E-S and place the remaining cards on top.

Now pick up the packet and spell M-A-G-I-C, dealing the final card face up. It's the three of spades."

It boggles my mind that Mr. Steinmeyer could invent such a trick!

Denny's The Hobbit Menu Review

When we saw that Denny's offered a Hobbit-themed Menu to coincide with the release of the major motion picture, we knew we had to check it out. What could be more enchanting to a J.R.R. Tolkien fan than hearty meals which evoke the rustic grandeur of The Shire?

The music is "Darkest Child", by Kevin MacLeod.

Giant Bubbles

When we had our epic fun day at the beach recently, we brought along a bottle of bubble solution. The included wand made wimpy bubbles, so we made a larger wand out of sticks and strands of seaweed. It worked pretty well! Today we decided to take bubble making to the next level by making a giant sized bubble wand. Read the how-to here: http://boingboing.net/2012/12/18/how-to-make-giant-bubbles.html

How to watch the Geminids Meteor Shower: Miles O'Brien and Mark Armstrong of Astronomy Now

Reporting for Boing Boing, PBS science correspondent Miles O'Brien talks to Mark Armstrong of AstronomyNow.com to understand how best to watch the Geminids Meteor Shower.

Picavet

Here's a simple picavet we made to take videos from a kite. The video camera we used is here: http://amzn.to/VNiWlQ

3D Flexible Bracelet

We've got several 3D printers at the makezine.com offices and they are in near-constant use. Here's a neat 3D flexible bracelet I saw on the workbench. I'm not sure who printed it, or if it really is a bracelet or a component for a mechanism. Whatever it is, I like it! (Check out Make's Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing here: http://blog.makezine.com/volume/make-ultimate-guide-to-3d-printing/)

Epic Fun Day at the Beach

Our sponsor Hyundai asked my family and me to take a new 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe on what they described as an "Epic Fun Day." The first step was coming up with where we wanted to drive! We chose a beautiful beach near our home in Los Angeles where I knew we could pack lots of fun activities into a short time. Then we invited our pal and video maker Eric Mittleman along to document our day. Watch the video above for a glimpse of the fun! Here's what we did:

• Used our homemade kite aerial video rig to shoot some bird's-eye-view video.

• Hunted for sea glass, which we brought home and used to decorate polymer clay creations.

• Made a bubble wand out of sticks and strands of seaweed.

• Explored the cool caves and tidepool lifeforms on the beach.

Keep your eyes out for future posts where I'll share the details of our kite aerial video rig and our polymer clay creations, and tell you how to make them yourself!

Star Trek Federation Book

A jaw-droppingly professional unboxing video of the book, Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years, by David A. Goodman. http://amzn.to/UdxNiz

Die Antwoord's Ninja and the Prawn

Ninja of Die Antwoord encounters a Parktown Prawn [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parktown_prawn] , which he and Yo-Landi take as proof that Lady Gaga is indeed visiting South Africa.

Button Maker Kit

Jane shows how to make buttons using Sukie Button Factory http://amzn.to/SvdIIk.

John Hodgman's Complete World Knowledge Boxed Set

Author John Hodgman describes his Complete World Knowledge Boxed Set (http://amzn.to/STgIuW), which will be available until the world ends on December 21, 2012.

Catwoman from The Dark Knight Rises

An exclusive clip from Warner Bros.

Gravity Falls: Paul Robertson pixel art animation, part 2

An excerpt from the 9/14/2012 episode of the Disney Channel's Gravity Falls featuring animation by Paul Robertson. (Posted with the kind permission of the Disney Channel.)

Gravity Falls: Paul Robertson pixel art animation, part 1

An excerpt from the 9/14/2012 episode of the Disney Channel's Gravity Falls featuring animation by Paul Robertson. (Posted with the kind permission of the Disney Channel.)

Irken invader from the popular old Nickelodeon show "Invader Zim"

Marielle Riley: Making costumes has always been one of my favorite hobbies. Another favorite hobby of mine is attending anime conventions. I primarily became interested in anime conventions because of the aggregation of creative people and their collection of homemade costumes of inspired media characters. These costume gatherings are known as "Cosplays".


Of all the fashionable styles to emulate, I prefer generic and American media characters to be amongst my favorite subjects to Cosplay as, such as the generic Irken invader from the popular old Nickelodeon show "Invader Zim". Having tinkered with Arduino-driven animatronics in the past, I decided to go beyond simple blinking LEDs and by exploring the realm of flex resistor-driven servos.


Inspired by videos of people's theatric mechanical wings and robotics that mimic the movements of the controller, I decided to create a way to seamlessly control the antennas of my costume. To do so, I took one flex sensor for each antenna and stitched them into the fingers of my alien glove. Every time I bent one of my fingers in the glove, the associated antenna would bend in unison via a small servo affixed to a headband.


The most difficult part of the process was writing the code and determining the right mapping values for the servos to bend accordingly. Then I had to find a material light enough so the servos could move without being bogged down by the fabric. Eventually I settled on a lightweight cardboard wrapped in thin black cloth. Thankfully, my generic character has a "PAK" (kind of like a backpack) in which I could store the Arduino, circuit board and batteries. In the end everything worked out as expected.


Of course, there is always room for improvement. My next revision will incorporate lighter wires and also fine tuning of the programming and servo motion. I hope to have a renovated version available for the big annual anime convention called ACen. Even though making Cosplays is just a side hobby, I want to explore even more ways to improve my work using digigrade limbs, mechanics, audio integration and the use of prosthetics.

Apps for Kids 29: Yodel-Oh

Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 9-year-old daughter, Jane Frauenfelder.

In this week's episode Jane and I talk about Yodel-Oh, a target tapper game where you have to keep a Swiss mountain climber from falling off the edge of a cliff. It's $0.99 in the iTunes store.

Visit appsforkidspodcast.com for more information.

Curiosity landing: NASA and JPL Mars mission engineers high-fiving each other.

As the post-landing press conference begins, NASA and JPL MSL leaders high-five and cheer with the Mars rover engineering and flight control team. Shot for Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin (on an iPhone, pardon the shakiness) inside the Jet Propulsion Lab, at 11:15pm PDT on August 5, 2012.

Present on the podium: Charles Bolden, John Grunsfeld, Charles Elachi, Richard Cook, Peter Theisinger, Adam Steltzner.

More: http://boingboing.net/tag/msl

How to prepare for Google's acquisition of Sparrow

Given today's announcement of Google's acquisition of Sparrow, the popular minimalist email app, you're probably wondering how to get ready for forthcoming enhancements and developments.

Breaking Bad: Top 11 Chemistry Moments, with Xeni and Miles (Boing Boing Video)

*WARNING: SPOILERS!*

To celebrate the launch of Breaking Bad's Fifth Season this week, Xeni Jardin (@xeni) and Miles O'Brien (@milesobrien) dig into the show's vaults to explore the top 10 chemistry moments in Breaking Bad, seasons 1-4. Only, there was so much awesome science, we had to choose 11 top chemistry moments.

Also, check out our excellent adventure: air-dropping in to a random Breaking Bad fan's premiere party in the show's hometown of Albuquerque, NM: http://boingboing.net/2012/07/16/breaking-bad-season-5-xeni-ai.html

More Boing Boing coverage of Breaking Bad:
http://boingboing.net/tag/breaking-bad

Assembled by Joe Sabia (@joesabia and http://joesabia.co) for Boing Boing (@boingboing and http://boingboing.net). Thanks, Joe!

Xeni air-drops into the best Breaking Bad viewing party in the world, in ABQ

To kick off the premiere of Breaking Bad Season 5 for Boing Boing, Xeni Jardin (http://boingboing.net) and Miles O'Brien (http://milesobrien.com) flew to Albuquerque, NM (the home of Breaking Bad) and connected with fellow fans of the AMC series. And by connected, we mean, we crashed their Episode One viewing party.

More in this Boing Boing blog post: http://boingboing.net/?p=171353

Check out our "Top 11 Chemistry Moments in Breaking Bad" video!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UN6PJaBIYKU&feature=youtu.be

Boing Boing's Breaking Bad archives (http://boingboing.net/tag/breaking-bad).

Party participants you'll meet in the video:

Shanna Schultz (@shantr0n)
Matthew Reichbach (@fbihop)
Kim Shay (@chezshay2)
Miguel Jaramillo (@muggle505)
Charlie Pabst (@charliepabst)
Don Jarrett (@theGZA10304)
Laura Enciñas (@llaurs)
Deandra Marie (@deandra_marie)
Mike Daniels (@mikedaniels)

(thanks, Christopher J. Ortiz! @chrisjortiz)

Man Carrying Dartboard

A quick cellphone tribute to John Smith's Girl Chewing Gum (1976). A lot's changed in East London!

X-O Manowar Talking Comic Book Cover

The wonders of technology have delivered Clutch Cargo style realism to comic books!

Pixel Dude

Pixel Dude is an image editing app for the iPad. Like the name suggests, it's pixel based, and is good for drawing chunky graphics. The drawing area is a 32 by 32 grid of squares, which I find to be more than enough for my purposes.

I've always liked the look of the Space Invaders aliens, and by using Pixel Dude's symmetrical drawing tool, it's very easy to create characters that have that Space Invaders look. The application has a lot of other features, like layer support and unlimited undo and redo.

Once you are done drawing something you can email it or save it to Dropbox.

Eventually, I would like to use these patterns to silkscreen onto t-shirts. Keep an eye out for a how-to project on this at the Boing Boing family channel.

Zelda the kitten plays with the iPad

Our kitty enjoys an iPad app called "Game for Cats."

Top iPhone apps and gadgets for better photos

The best things in life last forever when captured by camera. But even with the iPhone 4S's 8 megapixel camera and faster CPU, it takes practice to get even reasonable results. But you don't need to spend hundreds on a point-and-shoot to get great shots on the go: get there faster with Boing Boing and MyLifeScoop's look at the best apps and add-ons.

Unchained Reaction: Team Aerospace

Judges Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters challenge a team of rocket scientists from NASA, Team Aerospace, and a family of special effects artists, Team NAC, to build a Fire and Ice themed multi-step machine. In the end, they will choose only one machine as the most innovative and creative.

UNCHAINED REACTION, the new series executive produced by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of MYTHBUSTERS, airs Sundays at 10PM/ET/PT. The six-part series, for which Adam and Jamie also serve as judges, pits two teams of varying backgrounds against each other to build an elaborate chain reaction contraption. But they're not creating a mere string of dominoes - teams must utilize ingenuity, innovation and know-how to build contraptions on a massive scale.
For UNCHAINED REACTION, teams made up of artists, rocket scientists, construction workers, animatronic specialists, engineers and motorcycle mechanics are provided with identical sets of tools and materials and given five days to complete a series of mechanisms based on a specific theme. It's the ultimate build-off pressure cooker, where refined mechanical movements, pyrotechnics and large-scale destruction are encouraged. Making a refrigerator a pendulum? Totally possible on UNCHAINED REACTION. Catapults? Flying saucers? Guillotines? Anything goes as long as they trigger the next link in the chain.

Pesco's Vibrobot

David and his son built this Vibrobot featured in http://makeprojects.com/Project/Vibrobots/12/1

The Man From Primrose Lane

The publicist for the James Renner's novel, The Man From Primrose Lane, sent me an old 8-track tape cartridge player along with a few different tapes, including one with the first chapter of the novel. My kids were fascinated by the device, and I enjoy ed pressing the spring-loaded lever to switch programs on the tape. The clunking sound it makes when it switches programs is deeply satisfying.

TED2012: Joshuah Foer - Moonwalking with Einstein

At TED2012 I interviewed Joshuah Foer, who gave a presentation about his recent book, Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. In his book, Joshua writes about covering the United States Memory Championship for a magazine. He decided to enter the contest himself and learned many ancient as well as cutting-edge techniques for memorizing long lists of numbers, the order of cards in a deck, pictures of things, etc. He ended up winning the championship.

TED2012 Lucy McRae, Body Architect

Lucy McRae was trained as a classical ballerina and an architect, and her work as a "body architect" incorporates these interests and more. She is the recipient of a TED Fellowship. I interviewed her at TED 2012.

TED2012 Post Secret - Frank Warren

Frank Warren is the founder of Post Secret. He's received over 500,000 postcards from anonymous people around the world who have shared a secret they've never told anyone before. I interviewed Frank right after his fantastic TED talk, which got standing ovation.

TED2012: littleBits creator Ayah Bdeir

Ayah Bdeir is the founder and lead engineer of littleBits, an open source library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping and play. littleBits won Popular Science's "Best of Toy Fair 2012" and Ayah was named a TED Fellow this year.

Backyard Brains

Gregory Gage of Backyardbrains.com showed me how to measure the electrical activity of a neuron in a cockroach leg. At around the 12:00 minute mark, Gregory pumps the electrical signal from music on his iPhone into the cockroach's leg, causing it to twitch in time with the beat. (The cockroach's leg will grow back.)

MakerBot at TED2012

I'm here at TED2012! Here's a short interview with Bre Pettis, co-founder of MakerBot Industries. Bre shares news about the new Replicator 3D printer, and the printing of an old school mechanical clock with an escapement mechanism. (I called it a "catchment mechanism" in the video -- oops.")

book of sith

Apps for Kids 008

Mad Chef. Subscribe to the Apps for Kids podcast at appsforkidspodcast.com

Boing Boing on Jeopardy!

Boing Boing was a clue on Jeopardy, February 6, 2012!

"Who was Steve Jobs?"