Toluu : Boing Boing

Boing Boing

UK to punish "publishing police info" with 10 years in jailToday

Ken sez,

Indymedia UK has info on an update to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This amendment will make it an offence, punishable by up to ten years imprisonment, to publish or elicit information about any police constable "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".
Given the overreach of basically all legislation having to do with the Global War on Nouns, there's fear in blogging, independent journalism, and activist communities that this could make publishing information that the police finds disconcerting, embarrassing, or troublesome problematic (to say the least).
The amendment also apparently applies to internet service providers and web hosting services...no safe harbor there. Hopefully enough of an outcry will be heard to get some realistic analysis brought to bear!

We will not be intimidated – Mass resistance to new offence of publishing inform (Thanks, Ken!)

Steampunk sewing machineToday

Becky Stern's Steampunk Sewing Machine still functions as a sewing machine -- and the superfluous propellor spins when the drive-wheel moves! "I got an old sewing machine at goodwill and steamed it up with brassy bits!"

Steampunk Sewing Machine (via Make)

Previously:

Dentata photoshopping contestToday

Today's Worth1000 photoshopping contest is Om Nom Nom Nom, "Inanimate objects eating people and stuff." Pictured here, "banana eat banana !!!!" There's some great dentatae here!

Why Candyland doesn't suckToday

The latest installment in Greg Costikyan's indespensible game-review site, Play This Thing!, is a long, serious, thoughtful look at Candy Land, the game everyone loves to hate. Not so fast, says Greg, there's plenty of juice in that orange. Pieces like this are why Greg's one of my top five games-writers of all time.

To begin with, let us view Candy Land as a mathematical entity. It is very nearly a Markov chain, a stochastic process in which, given the current state, future states are independent of past states. (It would be a pure Markov chain if the deck were shuffled after each play; instead, it is a crippled Markov chain coupled to a push-pop stack.) As such, it is a metaphorical representation of the fundamental ideology of the United States; the past is no constraint on the future, and each individual should strive resolutely for personal advance despite whatever the past may hold. The child born in a log cabin may achieve the presidency, an immigrant boy who grows up in the slums of Brooklyn may become a real-estate magnate, an Ivy-educated scion of wealth may wind up on a bread line, and a double green will speed you to the fore. Though there are winners and losers, initial conditions are no determinant of outcome in the freedom of America. The subtext, of course, may be that success and failure is entirely random and has nothing to do with individual initiative a

Chainsaw "bayonet" mounted on rifleToday

In this short but riveting video, YouTube's Pfcthiel demonstrates a chainsaw "bayonet" he mounted on an assault rifle (he'll make you one for $300). As Neatorama points out, this may just be the world's greatest anti-zombie weapon. Also handy for loggers who fear attack-squirrels.

Chainsaw Bayonet (via Neatorama)