7/23 Boing Boing

Mariachis covering unlikely songs July 22, 2009 at 10:59 pm There's a roundup of YouTube vids over at urlesque, but none so funny as this cover of Sade's "Smooth Operator." (Thanks, Stephen Lenz) A Few Questions July 22, 2009 at 9:09 pm Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist, started a webcasting company, and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap. 1. You just got change, and you have a Canadian penny. What do you do? a. Demand a real penny, damn it, not one of these cheap knock-offs b. Check with those nearby to see if you really are in Canada, and if so, find out why c. Swallow it, quick, before they find you d. Unwrap it and eat the chocolate 2. You find an eclair in your sock drawer. You: a. Put on a pair of socks b. Put on the eclair c. Look for the other eclair, cause there must be a pair d. Pinch yourself cuz you must be dreaming 3. What can I say to God to get into heaven? a. Do you have any idea who I am? b. I just need to get in for a minute I want to see if my friends are there. c. I can make your life very difficult d. Come on god, be cool, man, be cool 4. If you were a tree, where would you go out to eat? a. Miracle-Gro Casino Sunday Morning Champagne Brunch Buffet b. Taco Bell because trees always seem to be broke c. Tree food court at the tree mall d. Red Lobster e. Anything off the trunk of a $1000-a-night tree hooker 5. You catch your lover in bed with C-3P0. You: a. Congratulate the better man. b. Ask for a C-3some-0. c. Get really C-3P.O.'ed. d. Ask him to autograph the VCR. e. May as well watch, because it's hard to picture how this goes down (Thanks, Van Gogh-Goghs) Web Zen: Book Zen July 22, 2009 at 6:17 pm (Image above from Things to Do With Books Other Than Read Them). harry potter pitch turning the pages coveted covers nameless letter bookjournals things to do with books book mooch sense and sensibility and sea monsters Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store, Twitter. (Image courtesy Eric Curry. Thanks Frank!) Ads as Soulcatchers July 22, 2009 at 5:55 pm Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap. So my wife Sally saw this ad on her Facebook page: Now, this is confusing for many reasons. Most obviously, why does that gothed-out hotula want me to advertise my church so badly? I swear, she's looking right at me. When you click the ad, you end up here, which is a part of Truth Advertising, a direct-mail marketing company that specializes in churches. I'm sure the churches that use this have noble intentions, but there's just something profoundly creepy about it all. The strange meshing of religion and corporate-type business never sits well-- and this works both ways, both when religion is infused with corporate culture or when corporate culture becomes quasi-religious, like some of those Steven Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People weirdos I've met. Plus, and I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but there's some overdone quality about almost everything that tries to mesh religion and mainstream commercial culture that makes things look just a bit off. Maybe it's too many Photoshop filters. I bet, given a lineup of these ads with their copy blocked out, you could pick out the ones for a church and the ones for a godless business. Maybe I'll try praying at a Staples for a while and see how it goes. US military blows up piles of poppy seeds to win the "hearts of minds" of Afghan citizens July 22, 2009 at 4:38 pm According to antiwar.com, the US military has "dropped several tons of explosives on a field in the Helmand Province, destroying mounds of poppy seeds which had been gathered there." State Department official Tony Wayne says the attacks are part of the campaign to win the "hearts of minds" of Afghanistan's civilian population. He claimed farmers were being "intimidated" into growing poppies instead of wheat, which the US has been attempting to subsidize as an alternative crop. US Bombs Poppy Seeds in Afghanistan 'Show of Force' Devices for storing your baby July 22, 2009 at 4:11 pm Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine. Too bad I don't live in the 1920s or I'd purchase one of these Boggin's Window Cribs, a 2' x 2' x 3' metal box that you could store your baby in at night (kind of like an air conditioner, but for babies). According to The Health-Care of the Baby by Louis Fisher (1920), window cribs were "admirably adapted for city apartments." Twenty-plus years later, B.F. Skinner made a more sophisticated version, with temperature and humidity controls, clean modernist lines, and no danger of falling several stories down to the sidewalk. (Photo here.) Seeking John Dillinger's preserved privates July 22, 2009 at 3:41 pm Celebrity bank robber John Dillinger died on this date, 75 years ago. In honor of the iconic American outlaw, Oxford University Press posted a blog entry about Dillinger's reportedly massive penis, rumored to be stored in formaldehyde at the Smithsonian. The post was penned by Brown University professor Elliott J. Gorn, author of Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One. From OUPblog: The story of Dillinger's legendary proportions originated with a morgue photo that circulated just after he died. There he is on a gurney, officials from the Cook County Coroner's office gathered around, and the sheet covering him rising in a conspicuous tent at least a foot above his body, roughly around his loins, though truth be told, it looks more like where his naval should be. Probably his arm, rigid in rigor mortis, was under the sheet. No matter. It looked like he died with an enormous hard-on. Newspaper editors quickly realized how readers interpreted the photo, withdrew it, retouched it, then reprinted it in later wire-service editions, with the sheet nice and flat against the dead man's body. But the damage was done. Soon, Dillinger's likeness appeared in crude pornography. Mostly, however, rumors of his enormous manhood persisted in oral tradition until roughly thirty years after his death, when it congealed into the urban belief tale centered on the Smithsonian. In a literal sense, the story is almost certainly not true. Dillinger's autopsy reported nothing unusual about the man. Government workers just look perplexed when asked about the legendary object. No one has ever produced substantial proof that the famed member exists. "Is It True What They Said About John Dillinger?" (Oxford University Press, thanks Megan Branch!) Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One by Elliott J. Gorn (Amazon) Previously: Ann Magnuson and John Dillinger's Johnson - Boing Boing Aliens invading vintage postcard scenes July 22, 2009 at 3:34 pm Image above: "Two Girls And a Space Crab: Simpatici alieni invadono le cartoline del nonno." From Invading the Vintage, a photoset of space alien invaders 'shopped onto old tourism postcards, uploaded by (posssibly created by?) a Mr. Franco Brambilla. From BeDifferent magazine N.5: MUTATIONS (Italy). (thanks, KodakCB) Montreal World Science Fiction Convention program is live July 22, 2009 at 3:21 pm Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention (to be held in Montreal this year) is almost upon us, and the programming committee has put together a kick-ass program, and they've put it online. Here's my program items -- hope to see you there! Friday 10 AM: Intellectual Property and Creative Commons, with Laura Majerus and Felix Gilman (2-032, P-512CG) 12:30PM: The New Media, with Melissa Auf der Maur, Tobias Buckell, Neil Gaiman, and Ellen Kushner (2-126, P-511BE) 3:30PM: Reading, with Charlie Stross and Connie Willis (2-224R, P-512AE) 8PM: Prometheus Awards, with Fred Moulton, Jo Walton, John C. Wright and Charlie Stross (2-349, P-524A) 9PM: Cecil Street Irregulars: A Canadian Writing Group, with Doug Smith, Karl Schroeder, Madeline Ashby, Michael Skeet, Dave Nickle, Jill Snider Lum and Sara Simmons Saturday 9AM: Stroll With the Stars (a morning walk!), with Ann Vandermeer, Gay Haldeman, Joe Haldeman, Peter Atwood and Stu Seigel, 3-005, Riopelle Fountain 10AM: Autographs, with Ellen Datlow, Jean-Claude Dunyach, David Anthony Durham, Felix Gilman and Robert Silverberg, 3-053S 5PM: Kaffeeklatsch, 4-263K, P-521C 9PM: Gaiman Reads Doctorow (Neil records one of my stories for an upcoming audiobook), with Neil Gaiman, 3-342, 5-511BE Monday 9AM: No User Servicable Parts Inside, with C Meeks, Howard Davidson and Jack William Bell Oh, and a note to Montreallers: the convention centre WiFi is CAD$395 a day!, so I'm hoping to rent someone's 3G modem, like the Fido Stick modem. I'll pay your whole month's data-tariff and I promise not to download porn or warez or anything else likely to get you in trouble with your ISP. I'll need it from Aug 6-10 (and ideally, I'd like to rent two, so my wife can have one.) If you're headed to the cottage for the weekend or similar, I'd really appreciate it. Programming Brooklyn-based artist Gertrude Berg plays with trash July 22, 2009 at 3:15 pm Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine. I do a "useless lectures" series in Brooklyn, Adult Education, and one of my favorite talks last year was by the delightfully peculiar artist Gertrude Berg. Here are a couple of short films of her doing her thing: In "Waste Carrier," she stores the trash that she uses during the day in a specially designed dress that she wears all over town. In "Pick Up Artist," well, you just have to watch... Meet Baron Ambrosia, "The Ali G of Food." July 22, 2009 at 2:59 pm Through this Esquire blog post, I learned today about Baron Ambrosia, aka Justin Fornal, the "outsider foodie" whose Bronx Flavor public access cable show is -- well, surprisingly watchable. Sort of like Anthony Bourdain meets Paint, Exercise and Make Blended Drinks TV meets Don the Magic Juan. He also reminds me of Gary Vaynerchuk. Looks like I'm among the last to know about him, though: John Law guest-blogged about him back in January on Laughing Squid. More: NYT profile, Slashfood, Wikipedia. I hope some profit-hungry web video carpetbaggers don't come along and mess it all up for him by trying to slickify it. Keep doing your weird thing, Baron, keep it raw and real, baby. That cake don't need no icing! (thanks, Matt Sullivan) Todd Schorr print by Pressure Printing July 22, 2009 at 2:50 pm Timed with the phenomenal Todd Schorr "American Surreal" retrospective at the San Jose Museum of Art, the fine artisans at Pressure Printing have issued this mind-blowing hand-stained intaglio print. Funnily enough, this particular artwork, titled "Wish Fulfillment From Another Planet," was like a magnet to me at the exhibition. It's small, powerful, and exquisitely painted. Even with Schorr's huge masterworks all around me at the museum, this is one I kept coming back to. The print (6.375" x 9.5"), in a limited edition of 100 and encased in a resin frame with curved glass, is $395. Todd Schorr's "Wish Fulfillment From Another Planet" by Pressure Printing Previously: Todd Schorr exhibition at San Jose Museum of Art - Boing Boing Freak with bullhorn stands on Verizon CEO's lawn berating him over the freak-with-bullhorn-related privacy implications of Verizon's crappy database security July 22, 2009 at 2:46 pm Pissed off to discover that cell-phone companies leak personal information -- customer addresses, calling records and more -- to sleazy resellers, the Zug.com guy paid a couple bucks to discover the home address of Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg. Then he went to Seidenberg cushy mansion and stood on his lawn with a bullhorn, broadcasting: "I'm here on behalf of Verizon customers. PLEASE DO A BETTER JOB PROTECTING YOUR CUSTOMERS' CELL PHONE RECORDS! Everyone has the right to privacy, including you Ivan! When we don't have privacy, then freaks with bullhorns start showing up on our front lawn." How Easy Is It To Get the Private Cell Phone Records and Address of Verizon's CEO? (via Consumerist) The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics July 22, 2009 at 2:46 pm MAD creator Harvey Kurtzman's influence extended far beyond his famous comic book. He was also the discoverer, mentor, and inspiration to a large number of brilliant artists, filmmakers, comedians, and artists. Here's biographical snippet from the dust jacket of the new book The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics: Harvey Kurtzman discovered Robert Crumb and gave Gloria Steinem her first job in publishing when he hired her as his assistant. Terry Gilliam also started at his side, met an unknown John Cleese in the process, and the genesis of Monty Python was formed. Art Spiegelman has stated on record that he owes his career to him. And he's one of Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner's favorite artists. Harvey Kurtzman had a Midas touch for talent, but was himself an astonishingly talented and influential artist, writer, editor, and satirist. The creator of MAD and Playboy's "Little Annie Fanny" was called, "One of the most important figures in postwar America" by the New York Times. Kurtzman's groundbreaking "realistic" war comics of the early '50s and various satirical publications (MAD, Trump, Humbug, and Help!) had an immense impact on popular culture, inspiring a generation of underground cartoonists. Without Kurtzman, it's unlikely we'd have had Airplane, SNL, or National Lampoon. The above is no exaggeration. if you want to know the roots of modern American comedy, you need to study Kurtzman. In addition to his comedic genius, Kurtzman was also a tremendously gifted visual artist as well. This book, written by comic books historians Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle, showcases hundreds of examples of Kurtzman's work throughout his career, including many never-before-seen examples of his earlier comics and art school figure studies and landscapes. It's especially interesting to see his conceptual sketches for magazine covers and comic book stories, which show Kurtzman's powerful command of composition and art direction. This is a book worth consulting and treasuring for a lifetime. The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics Previously: Fabulous Harvey Kurtzman collection - Boing Boing Rare Harvey Kurtzman art from 1964 - Boing Boing Will Eder and Harvey Kurtzman's "Goodman Goes Playboy" comic ... Harvey Kurtzman Retrospective - Boing Boing Short Harvey Kurtzman profile. - Boing Boing Al Capp's "Fearless Fosdick" inspiration for Kurtzman's Mad ... Humbug original art on auction block - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Short article about Little Annie The production evolution of a Humbug page - Boing Boing Death and Taxes, the 2010 edition July 22, 2009 at 2:20 pm Jess Bachman, creator of the "Death and Taxes" posters I've blogged about before, sends word that the 2010 version has just been released. The posters display an intricate visual representation of where your US tax dollars go. Jess says: I was excited to get this done because it is Obama's first budget and I wanted to see if budget each year was a 'more of the same' process, of if the administration in power really had their hands in its crafting. I can say that the changes from the Bush administration are many, and mostly positive (depending on who you talk to). Public radio no longer gets cut every year, Education, Energy and Health are all up, and get this, there is tons of cuts.... on the military side! More about this year's poster here. Jess is offering a discount to BoingBoing readers: enter 'boing' during checkout to get 50% off if you buy two or more posters. Previously: Death and Taxes, and a Boing Boing story Visualize taxes: a graphic chart of US tax spending @BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com) July 22, 2009 at 2:08 pm (Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.) Richard Metzger: Pink Floyd jammed live on the BBC during Apollo Moon landing! Link Andrea James: Cool total eclipse footage from NHK: Link Richard Metzger: Zany (and very catchy!) space disco from Italy (1980) Link Robin Sloan: Steam-punk stop-motion! I can't believe how much personality these camera parts have: Link (via @shamptonian) Susannah Breslin: Antony and the Johnsons cover Beyonce's "Crazy in Love": Link Andrea James: Dan Meth's visual influences, set to "Ca Plane Pour Moi" by Plastic Bertrand (thx @gwenners): Link Jesse Thorn: The Human Giant and Reno 911 take on "Point Break," the classic Busey/Swayze/Keanu vehicle:Link Sean Bonner: This bird will kick your ass. With karate! Link Richard Metzger: Emotional Japanese Fangirls Shock Harry Potter and Ron Weasley Link #harrypotter Jesse Thorn: Tales of Fraud and Malfeasance in Railroad Hiring Practices. Probably the most important comedy sketch ever. Link Xeni Jardin: Darth MC Hammer + Stormtrooper backup dancers: U Cant Touch This on stage at Disneyworld.Link More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com Jasmina Tešanović: "The Murder of Natalya Estemirova." July 22, 2009 at 1:42 pm Image above: Natalya Estemirova, courtesy Human Rights Watch. The following guest essay was written by Jasmina Tešanović. Full text of essay continues after the jump, along with links to previous works by her shared on Boing Boing. See also this related New York Times piece, written by a journalist who knew Ms. Estemirova. On 15 July Natalya Estemirova, 50, was kidnapped and murdered by unknown assailants in the Chechen capital Grozny. The mother-of-one worked for the human rights organisation Memorial and was a close friend of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, also murdered in 2006. A human rights activist is killed like a dog, executed, dumped and humiliated in front of the eyes of a million people, who know that what she was saying was true, right, honest and proper. Because, you see, WE ALL DO KNOW THAT. Good and bad guys know Natalya was telling the truth, in Russia, in Chechnya, in US in Europe. And yet we all stay silent about her death. Most of us turn the head the other way, as if it is none of our business, as if it is inevitable, as if it were somebody else's world. Presidents sometimes say: a serious inquiry should be done in this case. Violence on journalists is not permitted. How could they say otherwise? Today when words count almost nothing compared to the escalating violence, to the human annihilation. Where are the movie stars, those celebrities who adopt poor children, sing songs in the deserts, catwalk all the politically correct arenas? Why don't the superstars for once raise their voice and protect ONE peaceful human rights activist -- who in her or his life has done more than the whole constellation of stars shining from their heaven on the global poor? Where is the solidarity, the everyday culture of us normal human beings, who know that the freedom to behave humanely, with all those habeus corpus human rights, is challenged every day in the streets, in the workplaces -- not only in wars, battlefields, mass graves? Why don't people of any city flock out to the squares as they did for the death of Michael Jackson, or some other mass media idol? Have we grown so stupid and blind to allow assassinations to be part of our daily life? Is this our present-day normality, and if so, what of our future? When I hear Natalya speaking, I have no cultural, racial or language misunderstandings to bridge. I know exactly what she is saying, and to whom she is appealing. She is telling us just like Anna Politkovskaya and many other humanist activists, to live in truth, band together and defend the common denominator of basic human rights. You don't need to be Russian or speak Russian to understand that we are all in the same boat. The abuse of civilians by an armed shadow state within the state is happening everywhere. Democratic regimes have abandoned state control over their military machines; the modern gunmen are privatized, offshored, clandestine and deniable. The best voices, the best actions come not from politicians but from relentless activists, journalists, lawyers. These are the Hypatias of 21 first century: the voices of reason and science. They are not gurus, they are not visionaries, they are not leaders, they are not stars. They bear witness with their lives and write what they know first hand. We must be clear and forthright about what it means to all of us, when assassins burn their books and bodies, as witches, as testimonies of uncomfortable truths. Jasmina Tešanović is an author, filmmaker, and wandering thinker who shares her thoughts with BoingBoing from time to time. Email: politicalidiot at yahoo dot com. Her blog is here. Previous essays by Jasmina Tešanović on BoingBoing: - Less Than Human - Earthquake in Italy - 10 years after NATO bombings of Serbia - Made in Catalunya / Lou and Laurie - Dragan Dabic Defeats Radovan Karadzic - Who was Dragan David Dabic? - My neighbor Radovan Karadzic - The Day After / Kosovo - State of Emergency - Kosovo - Christmas in Serbia - Neonazism in Serbia - Korea - South, not North. - "I heard they are making a movie on her life." - Serbia and the Flames - Return to Srebenica - Sagmeister in Belgrade - What About the Russians? - Milan Martic sentenced in Hague - Mothers of Mass Graves - Hope for Serbia - Stelarc in Ritopek - Sarajevo Mon Amour - MBOs - Killing Journalists - Where Did Our History Go? - Serbia Not Guilty of Genocide - Carnival of Ruritania - "Good Morning, Fascist Serbia!" - Faking Bombings - Dispatch from Amsterdam - Where are your Americans now? - Anna Politkovskaya Silenced - Slaughter in the Monastery - Mermaid's Trail - A Burial in Srebenica - Report from a concert by a Serbian war criminal - To Hague, to Hague - Preachers and Fascists, Out of My Panties - Floods and Bombs - Scorpions Trial, April 13 - The Muslim Women - Belgrade: New Normality - Serbia: An Underworld Journey - Scorpions Trial, Day Three: March 15, 2006 - Scorpions Trial, Day Two: March 14, 2006 - Scorpions Trial, Day One: March 13, 2006 - The Long Goodbye - Milosevic Arrives in Belgrade - Slobodan Milosevic Died - Milosevic Funeral Websites that sell services to deceive others July 22, 2009 at 1:34 pm I just wrote a piece for GOOD about shady online services that make it easy to lie and cheat. Alibi Network alibinetwork.com After you've hooked up with some honey whose fallen for your ATM receipt trick, you'll probably want to start spending a little quality time with her at that $29.99 motel across town. But what about that nosy spouse of yours at home, the one who is always interfering with your personal life? Get yourself over to the Alibi Network and set yourself up with a bulletproof excuse that will fool even the shrewdest shrew. From their website: The basic concept is rather simple: we invent, create and provide alibis and excuses for people wishing to justify absences. These alibis can take various forms: a telephone call simulating work emergency or car accident, an invitation to a classical music event, a letter documenting your participation in a sales seminar, a Dallas Cowboys football game or a Britney Spears concert ticket… They'll even "provide you with seminar handout and certificate of achievement or the program of an event to which you were invited." Won't wifey be proud of your accomplishment. Fees for the alibi service start at $75. Deception, Inc. Geodesic dome solar greenhouse for growing vegetables July 22, 2009 at 1:30 pm Photo credit: Jim Dunn Treehugger has a slideshow about building a great-looking geodesic dome solar greenhouse for growing vegetables. What do you do when you want to grow your own food, but live here? That's the question my dad wanted to answer when he started this project about a year ago: Living at 7,750 feet above sea level, with a summer growing season of 80 days, at best, between killing freezes, how can you grow your own food? The answer, as it turns out, is pretty cool: A geodesic dome solar greenhouse. Click through to see what it's like to build one for yourself, and how the garden grows inside once you're done. Build a Geodesic Dome Solar Greenhouse to Grow Your Own Food Torchwood, reviewed (Metzger likes it) July 22, 2009 at 1:13 pm Richard Metzger has just posted a review of Torchwood: Children of Earth, which just began a five consecutive night run on BBC America and BBC America HD. Snip: For those of you who agreed with me about how much I hated the new Harry Potter movie, believe me again when I tell you that the new Torchwood season three mini-series is one of the finest, most action-packed, unpredictable, FREAKY and most deeply moving sci-fi tales I've ever seen. Totally raises the bar for the genre in so many, many ways. Torchwood: Children of Earth boasts one of the most intelligent and sophisticated long form scripts in the history of the genre. I don't want to give anything away to American viewers who still have four shows left to go, but my god when you find out what the aliens really want with the kids, WHOA, it is fckng dark! The lead actors John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd are terrific and guest star Peter Capaldi proves once again that he's one of Britain's finest acting talents. It's truly a milestone. Go read the entire review at Dangerous Minds. Previously: Richard Metzger's Tell It Like It Is Review of "Harry Potter and ... 1950s Beauty Pageant Judging Guidelines July 22, 2009 at 1:01 pm Gwen of Sociological Images compares a chart used by judges in the 1950s to pick Miss Universe with the 4H market steer charts she used to to see when she was in 4H. First, some people like to suggest that men are programmed by evolution to find a particular body shape attractive.  Clearly, if judging women's bodies requires this much instruction, either (1) nature has left us incompetent or (2) cultural norms defining beauty overwhelm any biological predisposition to be attracted to specific body types. Second, the chart reveals the level of scrutiny women faced in 1959 (and I'd argue it's not so different today).   It made me think of my years in 4-H. I was a farm kid and I showed steers for several years and also took part in livestock and meat judging competitions. I was good at it, just so you know. Anyway, what the beauty pageant image brought to mind was the handouts we'd look at to learn how to judge livestock. 1950s Beauty Pageant Judging Guidelines Shotgun expert shows his stuff July 22, 2009 at 12:52 pm This guy needs to hook up with the slingshot sharpshooter. (Via Bits & Pieces) Iran: Five technologies the Iranian government is using to censor the web. July 22, 2009 at 12:41 pm There's a good roundup article over at Network World about "both blunt and surgical tools" the government of Iran is using to surpress online speech. (Via Oxblood Ruffin) Baboons ransack car luggage carrier July 22, 2009 at 12:26 pm These baboons are having a great time. The baboons at Knowsley Safari Park have taught themselves how to open roofboxes onthe top of visitors cars as they go through. Visitors with the boxes are now advised to take the car friendly route and to demonstrate why we produced a press release with a box set up by staff. (Via Arbroath) Vanish: self-destruct your own data July 22, 2009 at 12:21 pm The Vanish project proposes to give web users control over the lifespan of the data they post online, or to cloud computing services. Vanish encrypts your data, and all of it, even cached or archived chunks, become "permanently unreadable" at a date of your choosing, without any action on the part of the service provider or end-user. For example, using the Firefox Vanish plugin, a user can create an email, a Google Doc document, a Facebook message, or a blog comment -- specifying that the document or message should "vanish" in 8 hours. Before that 8-hour timeout expires, anyone who has access to the data can read it; however after that timer expires, nobody can read that web content -- not the user, not Google, not Facebook, not a hacker who breaks into the cloud service, and not even someone who obtains a warrant for that data. That data -- regardless of where stored or archived prior to the timeout -- simply self-destructs and becomes permanently unreadable. Vanish: Self-Destructing Digital Data. See also this related University of Washington press release. Vanish authors: Roxana Geambasu, Yoshi Kohno, Amit Levy, Hank Levy. (via Jake Appelbaum) Afghanistan mass grave coverup: update on evidence. July 22, 2009 at 12:06 pm Following up on last week's post about our government's attempts to block investigation into mass killings in Afghanistan by a US-backed warlord (see this NYT article by James Risen): There is an update to the story today from Mark Benjamin at Salon, where you can also read through the archive of related FBI documents in PDF form. And Ben Greenberg writes in from Physicians for Human Rights, the organization that discovered the mass grave where the victims were buried. They've been investigating the case and advocating for appropriate action since 2001. Ben says: We've produced a 10 minute documentary video about the massacre and the three federal investigations that were impeded by the Bush Administration. It's called War Crimes and the White House: The Bush Administration's Cover-Up of the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has also produced a report based on high resolution satellite imagery that shows evidence of when and how the mass grave site was subsequently dug up. A blog post on the satellite imagery report is here and the main images from the report are available here, along with a .kml file that can be used with Google Earth. Since the New York Times story by James Risen, President Obama has stated on national television that he is asking the National Security Council to gather the facts concerning the massacre and the alleged cover up. We are petitioning Attorney General Holder to resume the FBI investigation that was shut down bu the Bush Administration. All of these items, as well as other photos and documents, are available at a website that we've set up for the case: AfghanMassGrave.org . Previously: Afghanistan: US discouraged inquiry into mass killing of Taliban ... Skateistan.org: A Skateboarding School in Afghanistan - Boing Boing Soldier won't go to Afghanistan because he doesn't believe Obama ... Chief Army Chaplain in Afghanistan distributes local-language ... Afghanistan: Peace Through Accordions - Boing Boing Afghanistan: death sentence for downloading, distributing report ... John "enhanced interrogation" Yoo gets punk'd July 22, 2009 at 12:06 pm The Chaser's War on Everything (TV show in Australia) punks torture memo author John Yoo while he teaches a class. (Via The Agitator) Recently on Offworld: rapid prototyping time lapse, Experimental Gameplay Wii-bound, headbanging for love July 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm Recently on Offworld, Crayon Physics creator Petri Purho showed us a fantastic time lapse video of what it looks like to rapid prototype a game in seven days (including Team Fortress breaks), watched the latest footage of the multi-part harmonizing in Rock Band: Beatles with newly confirmed tracks, and saw Sega announce a new Wii Fit Balance Board enabled Super Monkey Ball. We also watched Namco's bizarre puppet show video for PS3 collection Katamari Forever, and saw Katamari's Prince -- as well as the PS3's PixelJunk series -- coming to Sony's Home virtual space (above), and found an unofficially fashionable Tetris T-shirt. Finally, we saw the World of Goo and Henry Hatsworth devs behind Experimental Gameplay Project collaborating on a new WiiWare game, and our 'one shot's for the day: soft-shaded 3D pixelcrafter Dotter Dotter does more Super Mario, and Die Gute Fabrik tease a game where a couple, by "synchronising their headbanging, reach new planes of heavy metal love." If Advertisers Were Supervillains, or Vice Versa July 22, 2009 at 11:45 am Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap. If you were a mad scientist evil genius who happened to only be interested in advertising, it would make sense for you to come up with this: a way to brand the moon with a giant ad. You'd call the UN, get on that big screen, and blackmail the world into caving into your demands, otherwise you were going to deface the moon with a colossal ad for Gold Bond Foot Powder or Cool Ranch Doritos. This idea has been around a while, and I have no doubt it's possible. The only way I think this could be justified is if the advertiser paid each and every moon-gazing person some amount to do this, since the visual image of the moon in the night sky can be thought of as public property; you can't legally throw a billboard up on land that you don't own, so I don't see how this is different. But, if someone wants to rent the moon from the collected people of Earth, who knows? Feel free to make us an offer; someone's almost always here. The greatest pharmaceutical commercial ever? July 22, 2009 at 11:39 am Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine. I'm so inured to pharmaceutical advertising, it took my husband to point this one out to me: this Latisse spot may appear to be just another by-the-numbers pharma spot, but in fact it's the greatest bad pharma spot ever. Let's count the ways: 1) "The first and only approved FDA treatment for inadequate and not enough lashes," "also known as hypotrichosis." Hypotrichosis has all the makings of a fake illness: enough of a medical basis to sound real (it's a condition of "no hair growth") and yet vague enough to invite creative interpretation. In December, the same month the FDA approved Latisse, someone at Allergan--the company that makes the drug--repeatedly tried to alter the Wikipedia entry of hypotrichosis to include eyelash hypotrichosis. Fortunately, Wikipedia moderators caught the changes and removed them (here and here). 2) Brooke Shields as spokesperson In case it wasn't perfectly clear that eyelash hypotrichosis is a fiction, we're asked to believe that Brooke Shields--a woman with well over 30 years in modeling--isn't pretty enough without this new drug for her lashes. 3) "May cause eyelid skin darkening, which may be reversible, and there is potential for increased brown iris pigmentation, which is likely permanent." Also "itchy eyes and eye redness" and, though the commercial never says it, the active ingredient in Latisse is also linked to optic nerve damage and blindness. Ok, so you get longer, dark lashes, but your eyes might turn brown, itchy, and useless. 4) "Full results in 12 to 16 weeks" and "If discontinued, lashes will gradually return to their previous appearance." So you have to wait four months for this stuff to work and as soon as you stop, you're back to your old bald lids. It's worth noting that the message about discontinuing Latisse appears only as text on screen at the same time that the voice-over lists side effects. The makers of this commercial are hoping to cram the drawbacks in as little space as possible to free you, the consumer, from reflection. 5) "Find a doctor at Latisse.com." Gee, I wonder what those doctors will think of Latisse.... Perhaps this serves a useful purpose, though: any dermatologist on here is probably one you'd want to avoid. Modular Snake Robot July 22, 2009 at 11:26 am If you've ever thought to yourself, gosh, I wish I had a modular snake robot with which to inspect these pipe joints I've just welded, well -- you're gonna love this video. Modular Snake Robot: Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute. This robot also has him a website. (Thanks, Katrina Corley) Previously: The snakebots are coming Great Ad, seen in Popular Science October 1976 July 22, 2009 at 11:26 am Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap. How can there be so much goodness packed into so little space? From the moment your eye is grabbed, slapped, and dragged to the ad by the headline "LASER" you know you're in for a hell of a ride. Complete plans for a laser or phaser (whatever that means, exactly) pistol, $2.75! Invisible force fields, moon men robots, two bucks a piece-- why hadn't this Jack Ford just taken over the world with his army of laser-equipped, invisi-shielded moon men bots, all built for less than the cost of a used Hyundai? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that his horoscopes cost more than his Moon Man robots or lasers. Plants as stencils for truck camouflage July 22, 2009 at 11:24 am Todd Neiss camouflaged his 1979 Chevy K-10 Blazer using real plants as stencils. He calls his vehicle the "Squatchmobile." From Cryptomundo: I would spray the color (flat) I wanted for [what] plant first, then lay the plant over the paint and spray a background color over it. I intentionally arranged ground plants low on the body and trees on the upper half. The whole truck took me two days. Technically it is a work in progress as I carry cans of paint with me in case I run into a plant I haven't captured yet." "Cryptocamouflage Vehicle" Previously: Secret camouflage tips of the WWII Allies: inflatable tanks and ... Urban vehicle camouflage - Boing Boing Camouflage Duct Tape - Boing Boing New ebook publisher from publishing veterans with novel ideas July 22, 2009 at 10:56 am John Oakes sez, "Article in New York Business describing OR Books, a new sort of publishing house being started up by two longtime indy publishers. We plan to take existing tech and apply it to old-fashioned publishing values--and to commit to massive marketing for our authors, and to do so within a progressive framework, releasing fiction and nonfiction." Believing that e-books and print-on-demand technology have reached a tipping point with the public, Messrs. Oakes and Robinson will launch OR Books this fall as a Web-only house selling straight to consumers. The plan is to operate at a drastically reduced cost--blowing up a model whose inefficiencies have helped make this past year so painful for publishers large and small. The Association of American Publishers reports that revenues from adult hardcovers fell 16% through April, while revenues from adult trade paperbacks plunged 26%, compared with the same period a year ago. Some specialty publishers have built businesses around e-books, but OR would be the first general-interest press to try the model. The partners are betting that the new-media opportunities that all book people are rushing to exploit will let a startup thrive even in a dismal retail environment. "The whole system of stuffing as many books as you can into stores, whether or not buyers want them--it's broken," says Mr. Oakes, who co-founded and ran the left-leaning Four Walls Eight Windows for 17 years. The press disappeared in an indie shakeout in 2007. A stint as executive editor at Atlas & Co. ended last fall when the small publisher ran into financing problems. John published my first short story collection, as well as books by Octavia Butler, Abbie Hoffman, Kathe Koja, Rudy Rucker and many other writers whom I adore and admire. This sounds like a great, exciting project! Betting on e-books Video: Mass of ascending hot air balloons July 22, 2009 at 10:09 am Here is a lovely time-lapse video of more than 100 hot air balloons ascending for the 2006 Reno Balloon Race. Commissioned paintings using ashes of dead person July 22, 2009 at 10:06 am Artist Val Thompson creates commissioned paintings incorporating the ashes of people who have died, as memorials for their surviving loved ones. Above is a beach scene that Thompson painted for Anne Kearney, using some of her husband John's ashes mixed into the paint. It depicts the couple's last vacation together. From Sky: (Kearney) was so pleased with the results that Ms Thompson did three more paitings for her before starting up her new business 'Ash 2 Art'. "My brother and I did a bit of research on the internet and discovered nobody else is providing this sort of service," she said. Val Thompson's Ash2Art "Brush With Death: Painter Uses Ashes For Art" (Sky) "Widow uses dead husband's ashes for painting" (Telegraph) Previously: DIY funerals - Boing Boing Boing Boing on GOOD: "DIY Funerals and the Quest for Authenticity ... Who is copyright for? July 22, 2009 at 8:33 am Here's Google's senior copyright counsel, William "Patry on Copyright" Patry, with a pithy little zinger about the idea that copyright law is made for creators: While one hears, constantly, corporate chieftains claiming that they're out there fighting for the creators, we all know that is b.s.: the creators are merely an expense item on a balance sheet, to be reduced as much as possible. We also hear politicians make similar paeans to creators, yet when was the last piece of legislation that was passed that benefited creators at the expense of corporations? When was the last time you heard a government official suggest such a thing? Barbara Ringer (via Blogzilla) Local Man Rambles About Obsolete Tech: One Plane Displays! July 22, 2009 at 3:55 am Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap. For some reason, I've always found old, obsolete display technology fascinating. I'm hoping some of you out there will too, since I drone on about it for over four minutes here. Still, one plane displays are pretty obscure and hard to find information about, so hopefully you'll find your four minutes adequately spent. If not, let me know and I'll see about giving you four of my minutes to make up for it. Sussex cops try to suppress publication of damning traffic-cam photos by claiming copyright July 22, 2009 at 2:25 am The Sussex, England police are trying to suppress publication of images from speed cameras -- images that show technical shortcomings in the cameras -- by claiming that they are copyrighted. Copyright is meant to protect creativity; I'm not sure who the aggrieved artist is meant to be here. Is there some tortured constable who spent hours on a ladder getting the composition of the camera's shots just right? "It has been brought to our attention that the photographs from the Gatso camera, produced for your recent court case, have been published on TheNewspaper.com website," Sussex Police Solicitor Alexandra Karrouze wrote to Barker in a June 28 letter. "The content of these photographs are the property of Sussex Police and publication of them is a breach of copyright. They should be removed from the website forthwith. If they are not removed further action may be contemplated." Sussex Police did not send any copyright notice to TheNewspaper, nor did Karrouze respond to requests for clarification and comment. The agency became particularly upset with Barker in May after he threatened legal action against the Sussex Speed Camera Partnership for insisting that he had been speeding even after his court acquittal. The agency had no choice but to issue a swift apology. "The partnership accept that such an assertion should not have been made and have apologized unreservedly to Mr Barker for this error," the partnership said in a statement. Barker believes that the local council and police do not want motorists to know that a time-distance calculation can be performed on the images to check the vehicle's speed against the radar reading. A difference of more than ten percent between the two figures renders the machine's speed estimate "unreliable" under UK guidelines. UK Council Considers Speed Camera Photos Copyrighted (Thanks, Richard!) Cthulhu mask -- the sequel July 22, 2009 at 2:20 am Ukrainian arts collective Bob Basset have put another leather Cthulhu mask up -- I hadn't realized it was possible to top their previous effort, but...wow. New Cthulhu. Новый Ктулху. Previously: Cthulhu mask on eBay - Boing Boing Leather Cthuhlu mask from steampunk gas-mask artist - Boing Boing Steampunk leather doll - Boing Boing Claw gloves - Boing Boing Claw shoes - Boing Boing Steampunk fetish mask with goggles - Boing Boing Leather fetish pilot mask - Boing Boing Giant database of English medieval soldiers online July 22, 2009 at 2:18 am Kudos to Professor Anne Curry of the University of Southampton and Dr Adrian Bell of the University of Reading for putting a 250,000-record database of the English medieval soldiers online; a great boon to historians, scholars, and the curious: The detailed service records of 250,000 medieval soldiers - including archers who served with Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt - have gone online. The database of those who fought in the Hundred Years War reveals salaries, sickness records and who was knighted. The full profiles of soldiers from 1369 to 1453 will allow researchers to piece together details of their lives. Medieval battle records go online (via /.) Why we should(n't) go to space -- Kim Stanley Robinson July 22, 2009 at 2:16 am Here's Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the stupendous Red Mars books, in the Washington Post explaining why we shouldn't go to space -- and why we should. The creation of a cosmic diaspora is just one argument for putting humans in space -- a bad one. But now, as human-made climate change has thrust us into the role of stewards of the global biosphere, new reasons, good ones, have emerged. Indeed, keeping our space ambitions relatively local -- within our own solar system -- can help us find solutions for the climate crisis. It has been said that space science is an Earth science, and that is no paradox. Our climate crisis is very much a matter of interactions between our planet and our sun. That being the case, our understanding is vastly enhanced by going into space and looking down at the Earth, learning things we cannot learn when we stay on the ground. Studying other planets helps as well. The two closest planets have very different histories, with a runaway greenhouse effect on Venus and the freezing of an atmosphere on Mars. Beyond them spin planets and moons of various kinds, including several that might harbor life. Comparative planetology is useful in our role as Earth's stewards; we discovered the holes in our ozone layer by studying similar chemical interactions in the atmosphere of Venus. This kind of unexpected insight could easily happen again. Return to the Heavens, for the Sake of the Earth (via Making Light) Previously: Kim Stanley Robinson and James Patrick Kelly talk about writing ... Kim Stanley Robinson on what Martian water means for science ... Kim Stanley Robinson talks ecotastrophe - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Kim Stanley Robinson on eco-disasters on Earth and Mars Kim Stanley Robinson on "Comparative Planetology" - Boing Boing Kim Stanley Robinson's new book, Forty Signs of Rain - Boing Boing PowerPoint considered militarily harmful July 22, 2009 at 2:13 am Writing in the Armed Forces Journal, retired Marine T.X. Hammes excoriates PowerPoint and its impact on decision-making in the military: Our personnel clearly understand the lack of clarity and depth inherent in the half-formed thoughts of the bullet format. In an apparent effort to overcome the obvious deficiency of bullets, some briefers put entire paragraphs on each briefing slide. (Of course, they still include the bullet point in front of each paragraph.) Some briefs consist of a series of slides with paragraphs on them. In short, people are attempting to provide the audience with complete, coherent thoughts while adhering to the PowerPoint format. While writing full paragraphs does force the briefer to think through his position more clearly, this effort is doomed to failure. People need time to think about, even perhaps reread, material about complex issues. Instead, they are under pressure to finish reading the slides before the boss apparently does. Compounding the problem, the briefer often reads these slides aloud while the audience is trying to read the other information on the slide. Since most people read at least twice as fast as most people can talk, he is wasting half of his listeners' time and simultaneously reducing comprehension of the material. The alternative, letting the audience read the slide themselves, is also ineffective. Instead of reading for comprehension, everyone races through the slide to be sure they are finished before the senior person at the brief. Thus even presenting full paragraphs on each slide cannot overcome the fundamental weakness of PowerPoint as a tool for presenting complex issues. The next major impact of slide-ology has been the pernicious growth in the amount of information portrayed on each slide. A friend with multiple tours in the Pentagon said a good rule of thumb in preparing a brief is to assume one slide per minute of briefing. Surprisingly, it seems to be true. Yet, even before the onslaught of the dreaded quad chart, I saw slides with up to 90 pieces of information. Presumably, some thought went into the bullets, charts, pictures and emblems portrayed on that slide, yet the vast majority of the information was completely wasted. The briefer never spoke about most of the information, and the slide was on screen for a little more than a minute. While this slide was an aberration, charts with 20 items of information portrayed in complex graphics are all too common. This gives the audience an average of three seconds to see and absorb each item of information. As if this weren't sufficient to block the transfer of information, some PowerPoint Ranger invented quad charts. For those unfamiliar with a quad chart, it is simply a Power Point slide divided into four equal quadrants and then a full slide is placed in each quadrant. If the briefer clicks on any of the four slides, it can become a full-sized slide. Why this is a good idea escapes me. Essay: Dumb-dumb bullets (Thanks, Bill!) Previously: The case for PowerPoint in the White House - Boing Boing Cognitive science vs. crappy PowerPoint slides - Boing Boing Boing Boing: David Byrne hearts PowerPoint Boing Boing: HOWTO make a VC pitch in PowerPoint Boing Boing: Turning Heads With PowerPoint: David Byrne David Byrne loves PowerPoint - Boing Boing Tufte shreds PowerPoint - Boing Boing Beautiful, sustainable, *glowing* Penny Arcade conference table July 22, 2009 at 2:11 am Jeffrey sez, "We just finished making this fancy table for Penny Arcade. It's full of crazy teak and resin inlay, all sustainable woods, and get this: the moon center bit glows in the dark. We made it that way as a surprise, and didn't tell them about it prior! You can see it in the 'making of' video that's at the end of the blog post. To make it even better, it costs the same as a normal boring 'mid-level' large conference table from an office furniture store. Take that, Ikea and DWR.com!" Penny Arcade themed conference table (Thanks, Jeffrey!)