Are the alligators in New York City sewers just an urban legend? Not according to Salvatore Condoluci, 92, who in 1935 claimed to have caught and killed an 8-foot-long gator in a sewer on 123rd Street near the Harlem River. However, it wasn't until the publication of Robert Daly's 1959 book The World Beneath The City that the sewer alligator stories slithered into popular culture. In honor of the book's 50 year anniversary, the New York Times found and interviewed Conduluci. The article also quotes BB pal Loren Coleman who has studied this curious bit of urban folklore in great depth, covering it in his book Mysterious America. According to Daly's book, the former superintendent of city sewers, Teddy May, saw the reptiles firsthand. From the NYT:

Mr. May decided to go down to sewers himself to determine whether there was anything other than an excess of whiskey behind his inspectors' reports of narrow escapes from alligators. That startling description of what he found, given by the man affectionately known as the King of the Sewers and recounted by a journalist, was immortalized in "The World Beneath the City":

Alligators serenely paddling around in his sewers. The beam of his own flashlight had spotlighted alligators whose length, on the average, was about two feet. Some may have been longer. Avoiding the swift current of the trunk lines under major avenues, the beasts had wormed up the smaller pipes under less important neighborhoods, and there Teddy had found them. The colony appeared to have settled contentedly under the very streets of the busiest city in the world...

"These tales had a journalistic background," said Loren Coleman, director and curator of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Me., who has researched and written about the topic for decades. "Daley's book came along, and it was almost like independent confirmation."

"The Book Behind the Sewer-Alligator Legend" (NY Times)

More background at Cryptomundo

Novation Launchpad - $200

With Ableton Lite bundled free of charge, this bizarre USB-powered light box is easy to set up and fun to use. An 8x8 grid of glowing pads surrounded by context-setting controls, it's a clever way to control playback of readied tracks--but not so fluid as a compositional tool. Though a gorgeous stage prop, it's not a toy, either: don't get it for folks who don't know a DAW from a doorstop.

After posting his excellent series of instructional videos on YouTube for 3-string cigar box guitar, Keni Lee Burgess has started posting videos for the 4-string cigar box guitar.

Ryan sez, "Geeky clean sells soap with d20's embedded in the center. I'm getting these for a few of my paper and pen game friends."

Geeky Clean! -- Soap with d20s (Thanks, Ryan!)

We used to call our original video episodes "BBTV," and we don't anymore. We call it Boing Boing Video now.

Well, ladies and germs, allow me to present to you the inheritor of that acronym: BBTV is now the name used by Bedbug TV, a guy who makes episodic web video content about how to deal with bedbugs. I think he runs a pest control company. His videos crack me up, particularly the first 15 seconds or so. The one above deals with how to cope with bedbug infestations in your home electronics products, like if your "electronics, books, paintings, pictures, dvd players, radios, alarm clocks, boxes and just clutter in general" is crawling with bedbugs.

The online dating site OKCupid has a blog where they post analyses of the tons of data they collect, and it's really fascinating.

For instance the attractiveness of woman on OKCupid, as judged by the men on OKCupid, is a symmetrical bell curve. In other words, half the women are better-than-medium looking and half are worse-than-medium looking. But OKCupid's women rate 80% of OKCupid's guys as worse-than-medium looking! Even more interesting: while men are much more likely to send messages to the most attractive women, woman send are much more likely to send messages to men who are slightly less-than-average looking.

As you can see from the gray line, women rate an incredible 80% of guys as worse-looking than medium. Very harsh. On the other hand, when it comes to actual messaging, women shift their expectations only just slightly ahead of the curve, which is a healthier pattern than guys’ pursuing the all-but-unattainable. But with the basic ratings so out-of-whack, the two curves together suggest some strange possibilities for the female thought process, the most salient of which is that the average-looking woman has convinced herself that the vast majority of males aren’t good enough for her, but she then goes right out and messages them anyway.

Your Looks and Your Inbox (Thanks, Vann!)

Yesterday, in Mark's post about new technology that could one day generate power from slow moving currents in rivers and oceans, commenter SamSam wondered whether "any weird and new generators ever get out of the lab and start providing meaningful amounts of power?" It's a fair question, and I think a lot more technologies are announced than do (or ever will) make it to market. Partly, that's just the nature of invention. Partly, it has to do with the fact that it takes a long time to develop this stuff and we're still kind of at the beginning of the alternative generation industry. But sometimes, the crazy ideas do work, at least well enough to move out of the lab and into beta-testing. For instance, today, Norway's state-owned utility opened a prototype generator that produces electricity via osmosis.

The plant is driven by osmosis that naturally draws fresh water across a membrane and toward the seawater side. This creates higher pressure on the sea water side, driving a turbine and producing electricity. The main issue is to improve the efficiency of the membrane from around 1 watt per square meter now to some 5 watts, which Statkraft says would make osmotic power costs comparable to those from other renewable sources.

The prototype is very small--it only produces about a coffee-pot's worth of electricity--but if the kinks with the membrane can be worked out at this small scale, the utility could have a full-scale plant powering 30,000 homes by 2015. Also, I have to give a shoutout to the Norwegians for not claiming that their osmosis-based generator will magically solve the world's energy problems--instead describing it as part of a mix of different technologies that, together, could make a difference.

Norway Opens World's First Osmotic Power Plant in Reuters

Image courtesy Flickr user neogabox, via CC

The Rationalizer is a concept design for a bracelet that provides feedback on the stress level of day traders. Developed by Philips Electronics and Dutch bank ABN AMRO, it's like a high-tech mood ring. The aim is to help traders avoid rash decisions. From Physorg:

The Rationalizer consists of an "EmoBracelet" and an "EmoBowl" and incorporates sensors and signal processors designed by Philips. The EmoBracelet's galvanic skin response sensor measures the level of emotional arousal in a similar way to a lie detector. The result is displayed on either the bracelet or the EmoBowl as a light display that intensifies and changes to reflect the wearer's intensifying emotional arousal. At the highest emotional stress level the display has a greater number of elements moving at higher speed, and the color changes to a warning red.

Concept video after the jump.

In the 1930's Dutch furniture designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld made a set of chairs out of crates. He said of his crate chairs:

"A piece of furniture made of high-grade wood and manufactured completely according to traditional production methods is transported in a crate to avoid damage...no one has ever ascertained that such a chest embodies an improvised, highly purposeful method of carpentry...there must therefore at long last be someone who chooses the crate rather than the piece of furniture."

Rietveld's grandchildren now sell "Crate Chair Juniors" for $415 each. I wonder what kind of container they are shipped in? Homegrown Evolution thinks it would be pretty easy to use pallet wood to make a crate chair for a lot less.

When the Crate's Better Than the Chair

Epic, genius, perfect. Video in glorious 1080p (select HD button on embed above for full glory).

Music: the original's here. Video: the original's here. (via Tim Shey, and Happy Birthday Tim!).

On her Green Frieda blog, Audrey writes that her chickens, which are not easily frightened (even by dogs and cats) are terrified by a dried sunflower head she placed in their pen. She thought the hens would enjoy picking the seeds out. Instead, they hid in their coop, refusing to come out until the fear-inducing object was removed.

When I entered the chicken run with the sunflower, Peggy immediately flipped out. She started squawking and flapping and jumping back and forth across the coop. Tina joined in, but with less gusto, as if she wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but trusted Peggy that it was serious. Eventually, both hens scrambled their way into the coop to hide. I was a bit confused about what the problem was, and, honestly, I was late for work. So, I figured I'd just put the sunflower head up as planned and the chickens would eventually calm down and come outside to have their treat. I had also scattered some carrot peels, which they love, in the run, so I figured they would venture out for those for sure.

The following morning, when I went down to let the chickens out for their morning free range, it was clear Peggy and Tina had not left the coop since I last saw them. The carrot peels were untouched, their feeder still had food in it and there they were, huddled together inside the coop. Now, my chickens are extremely food motivated and there is no food inside the coop (just water). They spent a whole day inside, not eating their feed, which they love, or the carrot peels, which they really love, because they didn't want to risk walking past the dreaded sunflower head. That is how afraid they are of this inanimate object.

Any idea why chickens would be so frightened of a sunflower head?

Terror in the Coop

Snip: "At the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency paid $3,000 to renowned magician John Mulholland to write a manual on misdirection, concealment, and stagecraft. All known copies of the document were believed to be destroyed in 1973. Turns out one survived - and is now available on Amazon."

Wired Danger Room item here, and I'm gonna go buy a copy right now. (thanks, Noah Shachtman)

My friend Justin says, "I'm thankful for many things this year, but in particular, I'm thankful for Animals with Lightsabers."

So say we all, Justin. (Wait, now I'm getting my metaphors mixed up...)

Video: YouTube, MP4 download, or Dotsub (subtitles)

On Sunday, a man named Sal9000 married the love of his life. Her name is Nene Anegasaki, and she lives inside of a Nintendo DS video game called Love Plus. The wedding took place during a Make: Japan meet-up held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In attendance were a live audience, an MC, the bride's virtual video game girlfriend — who made a speech — and a real human priest.

The event was livecast on Nico Nico Douga, a popular video sharing web site that I wrote about in Wired Magazine back in 2008. (Watch this clip of hot shot Wired folks making total fools of themselves on Nico Nico Douga.)

Nico Nico Douga is home to thousands of video projects by anonymous users — mashups of original art, pop music, anime, and web memes that only an insider to Japanese web geek culture can completely decipher. Sal9000 is an active member of the Nico Nico Douga community, so it was important to him that his offbeat wedding ceremony was broadcast on the site. The footage seen here of Sal and Nene tying the knot between real and virtual is a highly imaginative, multimedia project orchestrated by a guy determined to officiate his devotion to his video game, and to pay homage to the otaku subculture that nurtures this type of creativity. Enjoy!

Tomorrow: Interview with the groom!

A record executive who refused to send out a tweet asking for unruly fans at a scheduled Justin Bieber appearance was arrested for "[putting] lives in danger and the public at risk."

Police arrested a senior vice president from Bieber's label, Island Def Jam Records, James A. Roppo, 44, of Hoboken, N.J., saying he hindered their crowd-control efforts by not cooperating...

He was in custody Friday night, pending charges that could include criminal nuisance, endangering the welfare of a minor and obstructing government administration, Smith said...

In an interview on WBLI 106.1-FM at 7 p.m., Bieber talked about the scene at the mall. "It was so crazy that I couldn't get to even come in the building," the singer said. "They [the authorities] basically threatened to put me in cuffs and send me away to jail."

Aggressive Roosevelt Field crowd cancels Bieber visit (Thanks, Rick!)

Two years ago, my wife surprised me with one of the coolest presents I've ever received: an original Goliathon raygun from effects-house Weta (best known for doing the effects for the Lord of the Rings movies). It's a cast-iron monster, with delicate blown-glass fillips, and it comes in its own molded carrying case lined with red velvet. I've made it a point not to look up what it cost (it's a gift, after all), but I do know that people who collect these things tend to suck air over their teeth appreciatively when they see it, so I'm assuming it's rather a lot. It's among my top ten favorite inanimate objects in the universe, and it gives me pleasure every time I come through the door of my office.

So I was excited when Weta offered to send me two of their latest rayguns for review. The new line, "Dr. Grordbort's Rayguns," are not made from cast-iron, but rather from "Real Imitation Metal" (e.g., molded plastic), and comes in toylike packaging that wouldn't look out of place in a Toys R Us aisle. But as with the more expensive originals, the detail on the unit is exquisite, the best I've ever seen on a mass-produced item (this even carries over to the teeny-weeny desk-toy-sized "Minisculized" versions, which have details that even look good under a magnifying lens). They're still not cheap -- the "Righteous Bison" they sent me costs about US$85 -- but they're a lot more affordable than the hand-made iron monsters.

I have a small collection of rayguns here, some from professional houses, others hand-crafted by Etsy makers, but the Righteous Bison is the first plastic/mass-made version I'd consider adding to my wall. It's a beautiful piece, truly. And the little teensy Victorious Mongoose desk-toy gun (with its own stand) now lives beside my monitor, where I can enjoy it every time I look up.

Dr. Grordbort's Rayguns from Weta

The audiobook of my latest novel, Makers has been published by Random House Audio, strictly in DRM-free formats over the net (this means that Apple won't carry it in the iTunes store, even though Audible was willing to carry it without DRM).

The reading is by Bernadette Dunne, a very talented actor. I just listened to this for the first time yesterday and I was blown away by Dunne's reading. I'm a huge audiobook nut, and I'm incredibly glad to have professional audiobook adaptations of my books from Random House -- and doubly grateful to them for supporting my commitment to DRM-free distribution. When you buy this book, you own it. The "terms of service" are "Don't violate copyright law," not "By buying this audiobook, you agree that we get to come over and kick you in the ass."

Makers, read by Bernadette Dunne

MP3 Sample

Buy Makers Audiobook on Borders