An anonymous friend is starting up an anonymous media-monitoring program. The company is likewise anonymous for now. He's looking to interview some test subjects. He sez:

We're looking for roughly 20-25 volunteers to participate in a 30-45 minute phone interview. If you fit the below criteria, I'd very much appreciate your feedback! If you or anyone you know is interested, please contact us at rfaris55@hotmail.com with your availability.!

Candidate Criteria:
- Must have Tivo Home Media Option working for at least 2 weeks
- Cannot work directly in Market Research industry in any way
- Cannot work for Tivo or a company affiliated with Tivo
- Must have listened to MP3 files through their Tivo Home Media Option

Discuss

Oxytricha and Stylonychia, two ciliated protozoans, are Turing-complete biocomputers that rewrite their DNA to perform calculations. They've been at it for several million years. Keen. Link Discuss (via Coherence Engine)

Original SARS couture designs from the Philippines:

"Len Nepomuceno-Guiao embellished hers with beads for glam cocktail wear. Eddie Baddeo put Swarovski stones and dangling beads for that Tessa Prieto-Valdes look while Rhett Eala used denim rhinestones for casual chic.

It should be pointed out that these designer creations do not meet World Health Organization standards for filtering out particles the size of 0.3 microns. No one is sure how big the droplet causing SARS is, so better to wear your designer mask over the N95 surgical mask."

From the Philippine Sunday Inquirer, Story One, Story Two, Discuss (thanks, Eric!)

Someone morphed a bar of Zest into a digital camera, then auctioned it off for cash on eBay. I love it when people turn the eBay auction process into a wacky, post-modern form of online performance art. It's not the object, it's the auction itself that becomes the art/prank/fun online thing. Link, Discuss , (Thanks, Eli the Bearded)

SARS fetish pinup: the second feature in an open-ended series of reader-contributed online viral folk art.

Link to full-size image (yes, worksafe). Discuss (Thanks, Matt! Thanks, John!)

Parisian BoingBoing pal Jean-Luc sends word of a new experimental moblog:

Twenty-seven-year-old Swedish postal worker Patrik Ahlvik is attempting a North to South European crossing by riding his mail delivery bicycle on a 3 month trip from the Northern tip of Norway down to Gibraltar. Patrick's efforts will be recorded with a Benefon Esc GPS mobile phone and a Nokia 3650 mobile phone. His position will be tracked through his Benefon Esc GPS mobile phone which will be sending positioning information to the Mobilett Position service.

A web page will display the latest report position on a European map. Patrick will be sending information about his journey by sending e-mails, photos, and SMS messages from his Nokia 3650 to this Moblog.biz mobile blogging site created for the occasion. The Mobilett Position / Noll7Noll site is here.

Discuss

(1) Hop over to sixspace gallery and check out Rich Colman's show, which continues through May 31. Centerpieces are giant 8' - 10' narrative drawings of little girls with knives and stuff (like the image above).
(2) An interactive art event/performance party about digital-age anonymity, privacy, and identity called AlterEgos. "Come as You Aren't! Do you have a secret identity, alternate personality, alias, avatar, invented persona, or pseudonym?" Link, (thanks, Susannah!)
(3) Cremaster is at the Nuart in Santa Monica now through the end of the month. Bev says, "This is a rare chance to see all of the films, since only 35 signed DVDs were produced -- and not only were they $200,000 each, but they've all been sold. Link to schedule.
Discuss

Scanned by popular demand. A few weeks ago, robot developer John Wiseman sent us digital scans of the Robodex trade show guidebook from Japan (link to original BoingBoing post). He mentioned he'd left out this wacky ad. You asked for the fermented bean burger pix, and here they are. Finger-lickin' good. Update: oops, turns out it's not natto. Just a chicken curry burger. But you asked for it.

Link, Discuss

Designers at MIT and Advanced Research Apparel have created a wearable anti-assault tool for women that fends off would-be attackers with an 80,000-volt electric shock. The No-Contact Jacket is described as "exo-electric armor," and looks like an ordinary women's jacket. Makes a crackling electric sound when it goes off. WIRED News story snip:

"An inner layer of conductive fiber carries a low-amp charge that delivers a nasty but non-lethal shock to anyone who messes with its wearer. Unlike weapons and sprays, the jacket can't be grabbed from a woman and used against her. And it's not as lethal as a gun. 'We initially thought the idea was a little extreme,' said Whiton. 'But we got a lot of positive feedback. It defends, it protects and it gives confidence to women. By encasing the whole body in this electric fence, it forms a barrier that people just shouldn't enter into.'

No "do they make thongs?" jokes, please. Link, Discuss, (Thanks, Matt Watson!)

I'm collecting SARS-related digital folk art to share on BoingBoing.

Both "found art" and farkified photoshop constructions are welcome. Got a contribution? Then e-mail me your urls (no attachments please), or post them in the discuss link at the end of this post.

Here's our first exhibit: Outbreak Girl, whose masked mug graces t-shirts that you can buy online here, Discuss (Thanks, Eric!)

CommonCause and MoveOn.org are convening a series of meetings across America for people to meet with their Congressmembers and voice their opposition to the FCC's plans to allow for unprecendented media concentration. Link Discuss (Thanks, Keith!)

Grow-your-own facelift: your skin-cells are grown in vitro and then injected into your face for a healthy, biotech glow.

Isolagen claims that the implanted cells grow in the same way as ordinary skin cells and that, unlike collagen fillers or the nerve-paralysing toxin Botox, the effect does not wear off. In fact, it claims, the effects get better over time. If so, it may be the closest anyone has come to achieving true skin regeneration.

"I'm very excited about it. I see the results with my own eyes," says Peter Ashby, a plastic surgeon in London, UK, who adds that he has no financial ties to the company. If the success of Botox is anything to go by, Isolagen has a hit on its hands. Botox sales totalled $440 million in 2002.

Link Discuss (via Die Puny Humans)