Sunday, August 20th, 2017

Time	Event
3:19p	2017 EFF Pioneer Award winners: Chelsea Manning, Mike Masnick and Annie Game http://boingboing.net/2017/08/20/the-electronic-frontier.html http://boingboing.net/?p=542350 The Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced the winners of the 2017 Pioneer Awards, "which recognize leaders who are extending freedom and innovation on the electronic frontier." They are whistleblower Chelsea Manning, Techdirt editor Mike Masnick and free expression defender Annie Game. (more…) (Comment on this)
4:29p	Watch people whiz down this steep Swiss alpine slide http://boingboing.net/2017/08/20/watch-people-whiz-down-this-st.html http://boingboing.net/?p=542132 On the toboggan run (rodelbahn) overlooking Oeschinen Lake near Kandersteg, Switzerland, some people go in summer for the breathtaking view. Others go for the speedy thrill. Either way it looks like fun! (more…) (Comment on this)
4:29p	Crocheted pigeon costumes for dressing them up as extinct birds http://boingboing.net/2017/08/20/crocheted-pigeon-costumes-for.html http://boingboing.net/?p=542279 Laurel Hope Roth, a former park ranger turned artist, has spent parts of the last decade creating intricate crocheted Biodiversity Reclamation Suits for Urban Pigeons. (more…) (Comment on this)
5:05p	Compare tiny PC cases with this useful online spreadsheet http://boingboing.net/2017/08/20/compare-tiny-pc-cases-with-thi.html http://boingboing.net/?p=542353 Looking for a tiny PC that still has space for a gaming-quality video card? SFF PC Cases is a remarkably detailed spreadsheet listing dozens of models, complete with cost, dimensions, volume and even important build tips. The very smallest are not practical for powerful builds, but the critical "Maximum GPU length" field is right there to help you out. The gold-standard NCase M1 turns out to be only the 27th smallest case that can accommodate a GPU, and even the ultrawee Dan Case A4 doesn't hit the top ten! But it's also true that many on the list require fat external power bricks (if you're happy with that, the Custom Mod and S4 Mini models are astoundingly tiny, though good luck finding them for sale) or impose other brutal compromises, such as proprietary power supplies, too-severe limitations on GPU size, or plain goofy design. The smallest case that's widely-available, attractive, and (relatively) inexpensive? And not so small that assembly will be a nightmare? Probably the Fractal Node 202. (Comment on this)
6:25p	How the Voyager Golden Record happened (and no, The Beatles actually weren't on the wishlist) http://boingboing.net/2017/08/20/how-the-voyager-golden-record.html http://boingboing.net/?p=542362 Today marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 2, the first of the two spacecraft that carried the Golden Record on a grand tour of the solar system and into the mysteries of interstellar space. Science journalist Timothy Ferris produced this enchanting phonograph record that tells a story of our planet expressed in sounds, images, and science for any extraterrestrial intelligence that may encounter it. Tim wrote a beautiful essay telling the story behind the Voyager record for the Voyager Golden Record vinyl box set that I co-produced. And today you can read an adaptation of it over at The New Yorker. Happy anniversary to Voyager 2 and the Golden Record! From the New Yorker: Im often asked whether we quarreled over the selections. We didnt, really; it was all quite civil. With a world full of music to choose from, there was little reason to protest if one wonderful track was replaced by another wonderful track. I recall championing Blind Willie Johnsons Dark Was the Night, which, if memory serves, everyone liked from the outset. Ann stumped for Chuck Berrys Johnny B. Goode, a somewhat harder sell, in that Carl, at first listening, called it awful. But Carl soon came around on that one, going so far as to politely remind Lomax, who derided Berrys music as adolescent, that Earth is home to many adolescents. Rumors to the contrary, we did not strive to include the Beatles Here Comes the Sun, only to be disappointed when we couldnt clear the rights. Its not the Beatles strongest work, and the witticism of the title, if charming in the short run, seemed unlikely to remain funny for a billion years. Anns sequence of natural sounds was organized chronologically, as an audio history of our planet, and compressed logarithmically so that the human story wouldnt be limited to a little beep at the end. We mixed it on a thirty-two-track analog tape recorder the size of a steamer trunk, a process so involved that Jimmy (Iovine) jokingly accused me of being one of those guys who has to use every piece of equipment in the studio. With computerized boards still in the offing, the sequences dozens of tracks had to be mixed manually. Four of us huddled over the board like battlefield surgeons, struggling to keep our arms from getting tangled as we rode the faders by hand and got it done on the fly. "How the Voyager Golden Record Was Made" by Timothy Ferris (The New Yorker) Pre-order the Voyager Golden Record on vinyl or CD (Ozma Records) Listen to excerpts from the Voyager Golden Record sourced from the original master tapes: (Comment on this)

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