UFOCapture is a Windows application that helps you videotape meteors and other fast-moving stuff in space. You hook up a sensitive video camera to your computer, point it out your window, and while you slumber, the software saves all the good bits.

It’s full of falling stars! But wait a minute. There are even more videos from this same user. Does he waste every night looking at the sky? Does he goes through hundreds of hours of videos searching for meteors? Is this a hoax?

No, he just uses a fantastic piece of software that automates mostly everything: the UFOCaptureV2! It’s joined by the UFOAnalyzer and the UFOOrbit. The whole package automates the process of detecting unusual phenomena in the sky, and even attempts to automatically classify and analyze it.

Check the samples of videos captured by the software: meteors, birds et al and, what I was quite skeptical when I first saw it, even sprites, elves and jets! Of course, it wouldn’t be worth its name if it didn’t also capture UFOs.

The software is free for use for 30 days, and the price is more than worth it, as the developer actively adds features and corrects bugs, being also available in support forums. For less than U$5,000 one would be able to set up a system, and that’s from scratch: the most expensive parts would be the high-sensitivity night camera and associated optics, and the dedicated PC.

This is my favorite. What is it?

Link (Forgetomori)

Photog Kem McNair snapped this amazing shot of a spinner shark jumping out of the water behind surfers at New Smyrna Beach, Florida. No, it isn't Photoshopped. CNN.com has a video interview with McNair. Shark and surfers (CNN.com)

FSM knows this isn't new, but for some who stop by Boing Boing, it may be yet-unseen. Dramatic Lemur [actually Tarsier, but whatever, the Chipmunk upon which it's based was a hamster or something IIRC. ]

Phil Torrone, whose work you may know from MAKE magazine, shares his latest online video project with us -- it looks pretty awesome! Hats off! He explains.

Citizen Engineer is an online video series about open source hardware, electronics, art and hacking. The first video debuted at "The Last HOPE" conference today in New York City. Volume 1is about phones: SIM card & payphone hacking. Learn how a SIM card works (the small card inside GSM cell phones) make a SIM card reader, view deleted messages, phone book entries and clone/crack a SIM card. Modify a "retired" payphone so it can be used as a home telephone and for VoIP (Skype). Then learn how to modify the hacked payphone so it accepts quarters - and lastly, use a Redbox to make "free phone" calls from the modified coin-accepting payphone.

Gentleman proves Christianity is the one true religion by electrocuting a pickle. (via Filled with Chocolate Pudding!)

As Filled with Chocolate Pudding! points out, "this is a great day for science."

Cory visits his favorite comic book store in all the world -- Secret Headquarters, in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. With shop owner Dave Pifer, he walks us through some of the graphic novels and comics he loves, everything from manga to zine howto manuals to Jodorowsky to Warren Ellis. Cory is particularly fond (as are all of us at BBtv) of the shop's awesome simultaneous tribute to Stan Lee and the Sex Pistols in this t-shirt, "God Save Stan Lee."

Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on how to subscribe to the BBtv video podcast.

Rachel sez, "Yesterday the Melbourne Museum conducted a dissection of a giant squid that was open to the public. Now the whole 1.5 hour operation can be downloaded or viewed online. " Link, WMV Link, Coral Cache mirror of WMV

Michael Geist sez, "Tens of thousands of Canadians have spoken out against Bill C-61 [Ed: the Canadian DMCA] over the past month. In addition to the letters, MP meetings, and town halls, many have created mashups, videos, comics, posters, photos, and other creative art to express their disappointment and concern with Industry Minister Jim Prentice's plan for copyright in Canada. To build on this creativity, the Fair Copyright for Canada group is launching a new YouTube video competition. C-61 in 61 Seconds invites everyone to post a video - whether rant, mashup, or something new - on the copyright bill." Link (Thanks, Michael!)

MIT's FreeCulture club has started "YouTomb" -- a graveyard for youtubes taken off the Internet due to copyright complaints.

YouTomb is a research project by MIT Free Culture that tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged copyright violation.

More specifically, YouTomb continually monitors the most popular videos on YouTube for copyright-related takedowns. Any information available in the metadata is retained, including who issued the complaint and how long the video was up before takedown. The goal of the project is to identify how YouTube recognizes potential copyright violations as well as to aggregate mistakes made by the algorithm.

Link (Thanks, Marilyn!)

David Markland, the Captain/Author of LA Metblogs (formerly Metroblogging LA) says:

This dude, Andrew Goldenberg, has a bunch of music videos he's made putting lyrics to every note of some of the best known film themes of our times. Absolutely brilliant. Take note of Batman and Back to the Future especially!

Odd L.A. Spotlight: Andrew Goldenberg [LA Metblogs]

Today on Boing Boing tv, a music video for the Pinker Tones song "S.E.X.Y. R.O.B.O.T." produced by Bill Barminski's "Walter Robot" studio. The whole album ("Wild Animals") is great: Amazon link, iTunes.

Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on how to subscribe to the BBtv video podcast.

Previous BBtv episodes featuring Walter Robot Studios and Bill Barminski:

Bill Barminski animation: "Drive-In"

Mark makes a mini amp / Funky cowboy (BBtv's 50th!)

Roachbot / Walter Robot

In this video, a shirtless inventor explains how he made a cell-phone activated stun gun to administer a shock to bike thieves.

Bike thieves suck, so I decided to get even. Why not track and, if you'd like, shock these most egregious of folk?

With a $40 pay-as-you-go cell phone, stun gun, and some basic electronic components, you can teach bike thieves a lesson and, hopefully, foster a small social change through individual action:)

How to end bike theft (Instructables)

Spurred by my post yesterday about the surreal bird formation video, filmmaker Bob Jaroc pointed me to this captivating music video he made in 2006 for the electronica group Plaid. Bob says, they're "real birds, shot in Brighton, England over a year or so then sequenced." The video is from Greedy Baby, a CD/DVD combination with Plaid's music and Jaroc's videos. Plaid/Jaroc bird video

Previously on BB:
• Video: surreal bird formation

Fortunately, the woman who shot this video was uninjured when she was struck by lightning. Her scream is more chilling than the Wilhelm Scream, if you ask me.

Lightning Strikes Woman As She Is Shooting Video (Laughing Squid)

In keeping with the creepy crawly theme started by David today, here's a BBC video and story about the discovery of a new slug species. It's pure white and carnivorous, feasting on worms instead of the typical slug diet of plants and decaying matter.

Because it was found in Wales, it's been christened with a partially-Welsh name: Selenochlamys ysbryda. Ysbryd is the disemvowel-proof Welsh word for ghost. I think trolls should post their comments in Welsh from now on.

Worm-eating slug found in garden (BBC) (via Arbroath)

Artists Mark Ryden and Marion Peck, the dynamic duo of pop surrealism, made this dark, sweet, and strange short film Sweet Wishes. It's about a dolly, a baby, and a bear who are granted a wish. Peck and Ryden are also publishing a picture book based on the film. Sweet Wishes (Hi-Fructose)

Gordian worms are parasites that live inside the likes of beetles, cockroaches, and crickets. The worms can be as long as one meter and 3 millimeters in diameter. Here is a video of a gordian worm emerging from its host in a swimming pool. Gordian worm (YouTube, via 37 Signals, thanks Sean Ness!)

Today, part two of Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter's conversation with Toby from Transgressive Records, and Tom from the alternative music news and community website rockfeedback.com.

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Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on subscribing to the daily BBtv video podcast.

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Transgressive was founded by two 20-year-old music fans who wanted to create a company that was "ethically sound and would release the best records in the world." Bands represented include The Young Knives (featured in previous BBtv episodes with Russell Porter, part 1, part 2), The Subways, Ladyfuzz, Jeremy Warmsley, and the Noisettes. Snip from the Transgressive manifesto:

It would be a label not linked to a style or genre, but one which would be represented by a logo that would be simply a stamp of quality on each perfect disk.

After a couple of pints in a Holborn boozer (not too far away from where Andy Gill would later record the classic debut LP from the Young Knives – although neither of the Trans twins knew it at the time) they had planned the first three releases and strove to grow the label to the stage where they could fund and make records that otherwise would not be released, and build a community of like minded people who could realise that anything is possible…

Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:

Russell Porter roundtable: Transgressive Records, rockfeedback.com, pt. 1

Russell Porter with Alice Russell, pt. 2

Russell Porter with Alice Russell

Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

Russell Porter with George Pringle

Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2

Russell Porter with The Futureheads

Russell Porter with The Guillotines

Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates

Russell Porter with Dockers MC

Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip

Joi Ito points us to a new video just released by Radiohead for the song "House of Cards" from the album In Rainbows. Snip from a blog post at the Google Developer site, which has videos and images about the making of...

No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

And Joi, who is the CEO of Creative Commons, adds...

Exciting for Creative Commons is that the data (although not the music) used to produce this music video are being made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License on the Google Code site. The Source code to the software used is being made available under a Apache License 2.0. This combination of Open Source licenses for code and Creative Commons licenses for data/content is very "good idea".

Radiohead "House of Cards" and Creative Commons [ joi.ito.com ]

RA DIOHEA_D / HOU SE OF_C ARDS [ Google Code ]

(Disclaimer: the writer of this post is the hugest Radiohead fan ever, and will personally whup all comers who may hit me up on my Myspace to dispute said claim. Aight? Later.)

This video of a lovely and strange bird formation is quite amazing.
Amazing bird formation (Yahoo!, thanks Brad Keech!)

Chris Blake says:

For my latest music video, I compiled some of the weirdest, funniest and most touching real-life regrets I found on the Web. Then I set them to my new song 'Someone Else' about unrequited love.

Andrew Heart of Panopticist says:

Amateurs are doing amazing things these days with consumer-grade high-def camcorders, especially Canon's HV30 MiniDV unit (which retails for about $800) and its predecessor, the HV20. [This] impressive clip is the work of a Memphis college student named Kyle Shields, who acquired a new audio library and wanted to test out some of the gunshot sounds.

There's a whole channel on Vimeo devoted to people's experiments with Canon's HV30 and HV20 camcorders.

I like this one. You keep expecting it to be a commercial for insurance or some kind of medicine, but it's a guy trying out his camera techniques on his annoyed wife, who just wants to be left in peace so she can go through the coupons in the Sunday paper. Link

UPDATE: Original BB Gadget post about this video here.

An obnoxious TV reporter went to Burbank to ask stupid questions to people waiting in line for the new iPhone. I was delighted to see that my pal Jeff, or his identical twin brother (he really has one) told the reporter he was a jackass. (via Merlin Mann)

This fellow has figured out a way to dip his fingers into boiling oil to retrieve morsels of food.

Ram Babu, a small vendor in the busy by lines of Allahabad has been selling Pakoras for twenty years now. The fact that astonishes everyone is that though he uses his hands to take out the Pakoras from the frying pan full of boiling oil,but he has never burnt his hand.

(via Arbroath)

Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter takes a break at the recent Great Escape festival in Brighton to discuss the state of the British indie music scene with Toby from Transgressive Records, and Tom from the alternative music news and community website rockfeedback.com.

Transgressive was founded by two 20-year-old music fans who wanted to create a company that was "ethically sound and would release the best records in the world." Bands represented include The Young Knives (featured in previous BBtv episodes with Russell Porter, part 1, part 2), The Subways, Ladyfuzz, Jeremy Warmsley, and the Noisettes.

Snip from the Transgressive manifesto:

It would be a label not linked to a style or genre, but one which would be represented by a logo that would be simply a stamp of quality on each perfect disk.

After a couple of pints in a Holborn boozer (not too far away from where Andy Gill would later record the classic debut LP from the Young Knives – although neither of the Trans twins knew it at the time) they had planned the first three releases and strove to grow the label to the stage where they could fund and make records that otherwise would not be released, and build a community of like minded people who could realise that anything is possible…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on subscribing to the daily BBtv video podcast.

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Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:

Russell Porter with Alice Russell, pt. 2

Russell Porter with Alice Russell

Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

Russell Porter with George Pringle

Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2

Russell Porter with The Futureheads

Russell Porter with The Guillotines

Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates

Russell Porter with Dockers MC

Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip

Here's a new YouTube channel from Nottingham University in the UK -- here, scientist-vloggers are in the process of posting a video for each element of the periodic table. Sort of "Mythbusters" meets chemistry, with real live awesome mad scientist hair. This is one of the neatest, most clever, and most enduringly valuable things I've seen on YT in a while.

Periodic Table of Videos channel, and The "sodium" video, above, is a good place to start.
[ YouTube, thanks Mark "coolest Scottish dude in Silicon Valley" Day ]

Tom Stern was commissioned to make a video for a Russian heavy metal band called ANJ. It's funny-strange and worth watching. From Stern's description:

When I saw the lyrics it seemed to be an earnest tribute to Mikael Gorbachov (that's how the Russians spell it), so I was a bit confounded about what the video concept should be, but then I had a brainstorm to take it way over the top and I think it was just the thing. Suffice to say it's half Russian History allegory as told through an old zombie movie made in the Soviet Union, and half animated Soviet Propaganda posters.

Gorbachov: The Music Video (Vimeo, thanks Vann Hall!)

If you ever doubted, even for a second, that non-Newtonian goo (e.g., cornstarch and water) is from a totally different (and infinitely preferable) universe, behold! Cornstarch paste + subwoofer == proof positive. Link (via Neatorama)