How Much Disgusting Junk is in Your Food?

February 18, 2009 cohenaaronboing boing, eww, Food, nytimesLeave a comment

This type of article comes out once in a while and it never makes me feel better. In fact, it makes me want to stop eating anything, ever. I don’t want to eat anymore bug parts.

Peanut butter â€” that culinary cause cÃ©lÃ¨bre â€” may contain approximately 145 bug parts for an 18-ounce jar; or five or more rodent hairs for that same jar; or more than 125 milligrams of grit.

In case youâ€™re curious: youâ€™re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it, a quantity of insects that clearly does not cut the mustard, even as insects may well be in the mustard.

(Via Boing Boing)

The Somerville Gates – Four Years Old

February 11, 2009 cohenaaronart, boing boing, boston, boston globe, design, hargo, nytimes, photography, somerville, union squareLeave a comment

A chance encounter hipped me to the fact that it was four years ago yesterday that Hargo built The Somerville Gates. At which point, the internet went crazy and 4 million people looked at The Somerville Gates’ website in a week. The site had to be taken down to cool the viral internet’s greedy bandwidth needs, but the entire installation is now happily back online where it should be. More coverage from The Boston Globe, Big RED & Shiny, msnbc.com, The New York Times, and of course Boing Boing.

Steven Johnson’s Auspicious Start To Guest Blogging

January 24, 2009 cohenaaronboing boing, new york city, steven johnson, travelLeave a comment

On January 14th, Steven Johnson was celebrating the release of his newest book, The Invention of Air by blogging for a couple weeks on Boing Boing. One of his first posts, was about how safe air travel in the US had become and that a child had a better chance of being elected President than dying in a plane crash.

25 hours later, while BoingBoing commenters were debating the veracity of this claim, US Air Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson. Johnson quickly vowed not to talk about aviation safety anymore.

In somewhat related news, US Air won’t charge travelers for their tickets.

Shepard Fairey Is All Over My (Internet) TV

January 23, 2009 cohenaaronart, boing boing, boston, design, obama, shepard faireyLeave a comment

What do you need cable for anymore when you can get programs about stuff you want to see so easily on the internet? Sports. That’s what. (I was just looking to see if the Superbowl is being streamed this year, but couldn’t find any reliable results.)

Also, you know what? I don’t care that the Shepard Fairey backlash is in full swing, I’m still going to the Supply & Demand show at the ICA, and you should to. Let me know how much of a hack or farce or fake or fraud or rip off he is in the comments, I’ll be at the museum.

http://cdn.episodic.com/player/EpisodicPlayer.swf?config=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.episodic.com%2Fshows%2F53%2F742%2F2%2Fconfig.xml

http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf30can10cbsnews/rcpHolderCbs-3-4×3.swf

Eric Massa – Fuel Cell Fail

January 18, 2009 cohenaaronboing boing, cars, fail, the environmentLeave a comment

Eric Massa wanted to drive a hydrogen fuel cell car from NY to his swearing in in DC. Hydrogen fuel cell cars go 200 miles on a charge, but DC is 300 miles from his district. Shades of Auto CEOs taking private jets to Congress to ask for help. FAIL:

Massa drove one fuel cell car while a hybrid SUV [Chevy Tahoe] towing an additional SUV followed along. Once he got half way, he switched to new fuel cell car [which I assume was towed to the half way point sometime earlier so that it would be waiting for the environmentally-conscious congressman]. The empty fuel cell was then towed back by the first SUV. As he continued on his journey, the second SUV followed. Once Massa arrived in DC, the second SUV then towed the second fuel cell car back to NY.

(Via Boing Boing)

What if “Cops” had been called something else?

October 11, 2008 cohenaaron24, boing boing, Television, tortureLeave a comment

Interesting post quoting a letter from the creator of “Cops” about his intentions – the steady stream of questionable police behavior as social commentary. Essentially, what if “Cops” had been called “Pigs”? I used to think the same thing about the way “24” portrayed torture until I found out I was DEAD wrong. It turns out they were actually glorifying torture, not trying to make the Bush administration look stupid for employing it as a strategy.