A guy writes about finding an old beat-up rocket on a farm. It was made in the 1950 to promote the Rocky Jones TV show.

The farmer had hoped to restore the rocket but never got around to it. The child who won the rocket and his friends pretty much trashed the interior, the instruments are broken and the years of rain have rusted the rear bottom (near the fins) out. The shell body and doors are still amazingly strong and could be fixed without too much effort. The interior is in fantastic shape compared to the exterior. The owner has collected electrical equipment over the years, which can be seen in some of the shots, also he has new fluorescent lights for repairing the interior lighting.

Link (Thanks, Kirby Bartlett-Sloan!)

Sunjit Kumar of Suva, Fiji, was raised by chickens. OK, they didn't really raise him, but as a young boy, his grandfather locked him in a chicken coop where he lived for several years. After Kumar escaped, he was taken to an old age home where the baffled staff confined him for twenty years. Now though, Elizabeth Clayton, president of a Rotary Club in Fiji's capital city, has, er, taken Kumar under her wing.

"Sujit would mostly hop around like a chicken, peck at his food, perch like a chicken and make noises like a chicken," she said. "He would prefer to roost on the floor to go to sleep rather than sleep in a bed."

Kumar currently resides in a former factory while undergoing therapy. Video available here, although he doesn't act very chicken-like in the footage. More of the story here.

Chris sez, "SciFiMage, a new section in Ultraverse, takes a unique approach story-telling. Instead of the editor -- that's me -- writing a story and then soliciting an artist to illustrate it, I take a submitted image and write a story about it. Anyone may submit an image -- one of their own, or someone else's." Link (Thanks, Chris!)

This is a really cool visualisation of the causes of cancer from Nature magazine, in which a faux subway map is dotted with cell types required for malignancy that are joined by the molecular pathways that generate these behaviours. Link

My cow-orker Jason Schultz reports on a breaking new DMCA horripilation: a court has ordered a company to stop fixing tape-drives because in so doing, it makes unauthorized access of a copyrighted "Maintenance Code."

A district court in Boston has used the DMCA to grant a preliminary injunction against a third party service vendor who tried to fix StorageTek tape library backup systems for legitimate purchasers of the system.

How is this a DMCA violation? Well, it turns out that StorageTek allegedly uses some kind of algorithmic "key" to control access to its "Maintenance Code", the module that allows the service tech to debug the storage system. The court found that third party service techs who used the key without StorageTek's permission "circumvented" to gain access to the copyrighted code in violation of the DMCA, even though they had the explicit permission of the purchasers to fix their machines.

Link

Arlen sez, "This site has (I think all) of the television ads from 1952 to the present. You can view them broken down by year, the type of commercial (BackFire, Biographical, Fear, Real-people). It is interesting that, while less slick, ads haven't changed all that much, and the rhetoric seems just as strong (at least to me). It is also quite amusing to see things such as Carter's ad accusing Reagan of being a Flip-Flopper on, of all things, nuclear proliferation." Link (Thanks, Arlen!)

Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain has jumped the tracks again (last year it killed someone) -- there are plenty of first person accounts and photos. Link (via Waxy)

It's now easy and free to send SMSes via iChat: " simply type Shift-Command-N for a 'New Chat with Person,' and enter the phone number in the above format [+16175551212]. When you send the message, you'll receive confirmation from AOL that it was sent." Link (via EvHead)

Verified Voting, a nonprofit devoted to fighting paperless electronic voting machines, is holding a national day of "Computer Ate My Vote" protest on July 13. They're asking sites to display a badge and help fight the good fight. See the page below for info on rallies and events in your state. Link

Eric Eldred, an Internet Bookmobile driver and poster child for the public domain, was threatened with arrest for handing out free copies of Walden at Walden Pond:

Yesterday (July 8, 2004) I took the Internet Bookmobile to Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. It was the 150th anniversary of H. D. Thoreau's book "Walden." The Thoreau Society had a dawn to dusk reading.

After an hour of having readers print and take away free copies of "Walden," I was asked by the Walden Pond Reservation police to pack up and leave and threatened with arrest. I left.

The park supervisor (Denise Morrissey, 978-369-3254) told me I could not pass out free literature without a permit. And she would not give me a permit because, as she explained, the state park gets money from a concession by the Thoreau Society, which operates a store that sells "Walden"--and I was competing with them by giving away free copies.

There is no place to park at Walden Pond except in the state parking lot, for which I paid $5.

Link

Mack sez, "Fark is hosting a magnificently self-imploding thread of Photoshop mashups based on the New York Post's erroneous July 6 headline proclaiming that John Kerry had chosen Dick Gephardt as his running mate. Scroll down and let the thread's developing visual syntax make you dizzy ..." Link (Thanks, Mack!)

Alex sez, "The now out of print The Illustrated Story of Copyright is now available online. Unfortunately it's not under any sort of Creative Commons license. The permissions page is here. Personally I find the current online layout a little bit hard to read and confusing, this is the sort of thing that could really be improved if only people were allowed to 'remix' it for better legibility." (I agree) Link (Thanks, Alex!)

In this week's NTK Danny O'Brien breaks the most exciting -- and underreported -- news about the forthcoming version of Mac OS X, called "Tiger":

Why have so few people noticed the key element of Tiger? Dashboard provides javascript access to some safe operating system stuff, like drawing primitives on the window canvas. And then, when you load the gadgets up *in Safari*, you get the same access. Meanwhile, Apple made a deal with Opera and Mozilla the same week to add enough to the browser plugin API to provide the same javascript objects on other platforms and browsers. And they all forked off from the W3C last month to set their own standard committee, WHAT-WG. For creating web applications. Just like Joel Spolsky was asking them to do. So we have low-level (but not insecure) javascript access to the desktop, an open (but non-W3C) standard, and cross-platform plugins to support it. DON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND? It's BROWSER WARS II - ELECTRIC BOOGALOO!

Link

Börje Karlsson has translated my DRM talk into Portuguese! Link

The drama continues in the case of University at Buffalo professor Steve Kurtz, a member of the Critical Art Ensemble. Kurtz has been under investigation since May when police--who Kurtz called to his home after he awoke to find his wife dead of a heart attack--discovered biological materials used in the respected artist's work. (More background here.) Yesterday, Kurtz was charged with four counts of mail and wire fraud with a maximum prison sentence of 20 years each. Professor Robert Ferrell, chair of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, was also indicted for helping Kurtz obtain a bit of harmless bacteria.

"I am absolutely astonished," said Donald A. Henderson, Dean Emeritus of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and resident scholar at the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Henderson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush for his work in heading up the World Health Organization smallpox eradication program and was appointed by the Bush administration to chair the National Advisory Council on Public Preparedness.

"Based on what I have read and understand, Professor Kurtz has been working with totally innocuous organisms... to discuss something of the risks and threats of biological weapons--more power to him, as those of us in this field are likewise concerned about their potential use and the threat of bio-terrorism." Henderson noted that the organisms involved in this case--Serratia marcescens and Bacillus atrophaeus--do not appear on lists of substances that could be used in biological terrorism.

Link

Last night, Sean Bonner, Caryn Coleman and I finished setting up the SENT phonecam art show installation at LA's Standard Hotel Downtown. 25 invited artists contributed images taken with Motorola V600s. The participants are as diverse as they are talented: photographers, indie photobloggers, two famed filmmakers, a billionaire b-ball team owner, and a celeb or two or three.

The work looks incredible, regardless of how they shot it -- two shots from SENT artists are shown at left. Tattooed LA gangstaz lean out of low-rider cars. A girl gazes into the eye of a phone. White vapor rises off dark water in a Hollywood pool. A needle drops into a black vinyl groove. Little slices of digital life. Lovely stuff.

As I watched Caryn tack invited participants' photos along the wall in a grid resembling a gigantic SMS message (come to the show, you'll see what I mean), all I could think of was this: what's fascinating about people using new gadgets like phonecams to make art isn't the gadget. Human beings need to communicate just like we need to breathe, eat, and drink water. As new tools emerge, the way we communicate changes -- but the need to connect with each other, and reflect on the visual, sensual, tactile world around us remains the same.

If you're in LA, please join us tomorrow night from 7-10pm for the big public opening event -- the first time invited artists' phonecam pics will be shown. We'll be on the 4th floor of the Downtown LA Standard Hotel, 550 South Flower Street. Or, stop by Sunday 11 through Saturday 17 from 12-5pm and check out the show. Saturday's reception and the ongoing show are free and open to the public -- and we've set up free WiFi in the 4th floor gallery space to complement the free WiFi in the hotel lobby. Blog on! More details here. Press clips, including this week's LA Times review, are here.

Update: Here is a sneak preview of some of the images shot by invited artists: Link

No, silly, not that kind of hump rug. Neither shag nor shagging to be found here. FunFurde is an awesome new furniture design blog (a topic close to my heart, because my sis and I run this online office furniture company together). This post about a laptop-friendly floor-level lounger is a perfect example of why the site's bookmarkworthy:

"The KLOC Floor Lounger from Ligne Roset is basically a padded rug with a built-in hump. If you're thinking, 'There must be more to it than that' then you're thinking too hard. Rug. Hump. That's all you get."

Now, if only you could cram a wireless access point under that thing... Link

Ernest Miller says:

The INDUCE Act will make "whoever intentionally induces" copyright infringement liable for that infringement. Unfortunately, the definition of "intentionally induces" is extremely broad and the proposed law would give copyright holders (such as the RIAA and MPAA) tremendous flexibility in suing developers of new technology and effectively quashing progress that the copyright holders don't like. To foster reasoned debate on this topic, I'm inaugurating a new daily feature at The Importance Of ..., called "Hatch's Hit List." Each entry will give an actual example of a new and innovative device or technology that would be threatened by the INDUCE Act.

Link

The European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatory, and NASA just released a free Photoshop plug-in that gives anyone access to archival astronomical images and spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and others:

"If there is anything that unites astronomy, it is the worldwide use of a single file format - nearly all the images of stars and galaxies produced by telescopes on the ground and in space are stored as so-called FITS files. Unfortunately this file format has been accessible to very few people other than professional scientists using highly specialised image-processing tools."

The ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator provides direct access to the full 16-bit color images. For example, this image of the planetary nebula NGC 5979 was made with the FITS Liberator by compositing four individual exposures taken through various filters. Link

Phil Gyford asked a bunch of bloggers (including me) what they're reading this summer and compiled the results:

Danny O’Brien
I’m currently reading Little Bear’s New Friend by the Reader’s Digest Young Editions collection, and Moo, Baa (La La La) by Sandra Boynton. When I’m after something less demanding (or less demanding than Ada demanding that I read the above), I’ve been skimming:

David McCullough’s John Adams. I’ve started this by looking up Ben Franklin in the index, and working back. All the people I admire in the American revolution seemed to have been somewhat creeped out by John “Sedition Act” Adams, so I’m going to enjoy seeing what the other side has to say.

Link

Here's a video of an Asian man wearing a blindfold, performing a very sprightly rendition of the theme and atmospheric music from Super Mario Brothers on a piano. His work on the atmospheric music is particularily inspired. 7.6MB WMV Link (Thanks, Robert!)

Here's another great novelty track from Thurl Ravenscroft, the lead baritone in the Haunted Mansion's themesong, and the voice of Tony the Tiger: it's Thurl and Roberta Lee performing a medley of "Wing Ding Ding" and "You Wanna Talk About Texas." Link (scroll to page-bottom) (Thanks, LondonFilter!)

Update: Duane sez: "I can't believe you have two items about this guy and at no point do you mention that he sang 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch' for which his voice is perhaps the most famous of all! There's even a story that goes along with that, as he received no credit in the final production, and when Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) called him and said 'What did you think?' he said 'Well, Ted, I apparently wasn't in it!'"

Cops in Minnesota and Ohio have developed a fleet of "bait cars" -- cars left on the street with the keys in the ignition as a honeypot for snagging car thieves. The cars are equipped with hidden cameras and satellite trackers for evidence gathering and apprehension, and with specially fitted car-radios that play the theme from "Cops" during the bust itself.

I remember the Toronto cops once tried a bait-bike and were quite successful, snagging dozens of bike-thieves in a short time, but had to give it up because the bait-bike got stolen while the cops were busy arresting someone for trying to steal it. Link (via Engadget)

This beast is a music vending machine that sells tunes to play in your Game Boy Advance movie player. Gizmodo notes the deliciously superfluous giant mechanical dial on the front. Link

Update: Lampbane sez "That story you posted about the GBA download service - it's for cartoon episodes (specifically Pokemon) only. Music downloads (among other things) are not available yet."

This August 20-22 will see the first large-scale conference for community wireless networking projects, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Making the Connection: The 2004 National Summit for Community Wireless Networks will be the largest community wireless networking event to date and will bring together technology and policy leaders, decision-makers, students, researchers, and other participants in wireless networking and community networking initiatives for the express purpose of discussing policy issues and practical solutions to problems facing community wireless networks.

Link

Creative Commons is creating a "Wikipedia of Free Culture" with links and annotation for every bit of open-licensed material in the universe. You're invited to help. Link

Ewan, a Scotsman living in London, is moving back to Edinburgh, and before he does, he has resolved to visit every tube station in Zone 1, and he's inviting the general public along on his tube-crawl:

Here's the deal, I'll be starting at 12.30 on a weekday in the last week of July (probably Friday the 30th July, but don't quote me just yet). If you'd like to join me as I rattle round Central London and visiting every station of note (and Hyde Park Corner) then make sure you're at Vauxhall Ticket Office for around 12.20 to find me.

Anyone wishing to set up a Rival team to try and beat me on the day is more than welcome, I'd only ask you to also start at Vauxhall with us. Once it's all over, we'll retire to a pub at around 4pm for a late lunch/early dinner, some farewell drinks, and I'll invite you all to the housewarming in Edinburgh.

Link (Thanks, Ewan!)

Update: Quin sez: "I'm visiting every tube and train stop in Zone 6, saying what people can find there, who lives there and how to get back. "

Disney's 1950s television show Tomorrowland, a stunning example of the future's history, is now out on DVD. This morning, National Public Radio aired a nice history of the program by commentator Andrew Chaikin. The story goes that famed Disney artist Ward Kimball pitched Tomorrowland to Walt after reading a series of articles about space exploration in Collier's Magazine. Real rocket scientists like Wernher Von Braun were then brought in to Disney as consultants on the show. The first episode, Man In Space, aired March 9, 1955. From the NPR piece:

"Man In Space got rave reviews. President Dwight Eisenhower personally requested a copy of the show to screen for military brass at the Pentagon to help them understand plans to launch a satellite."

Link (Thanks, David "Swapdrive" Steinberg!)

UPDATE: BB pal Stefan Jones says "I first learned about the Tomorrowland episodes from a book that a friend self-published, the Spaceship Handbook. It also has a history of the Collier's articles, plus scale drawings of the von Braun spaceships."

UPDATE: Jesse Mazer says: "If any boingboing readers are interested in buying that DVD, it seems to be out of stock at amazon and the cheapest used copies there go for $44.95, so you might want to include a link to a place that sells it for cheaper...the DVDpricesearch.com page lists two places that sell it for under $30."

Many thanks to our outgoing guestblogger, filmmaker Christopher Coppola, for a fantastic job -- complete with audblog posts from the road.

The BoingBoing gang is very proud to welcome our next guest, legendary author John Shirley.

His most recent novels are Demons and Crawlers, both from Del Rey books. He wrote the cyberpunk novels City Come A-Walkin' and the Eclipse trilogy (now out from Babbage Press). His first non-fiction book is Gurdjieff: An Introduction to his Life and Ideas from Tarcher/Penguin. He was also co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He won the Bram Stoker award for his story collection BLACK BUTTERFLIES (Leisure Books). The authorized fan-created website is here. His blog is at johnshirley.net. John, it's an honor to welcome you to the BoingBoing guestbar!

My next novel is called "Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, and Tor Books will publish it next spring (here's an excerpt). It's a bit of a departure for me: it's a fantasy novel -- well, more of a magic realist thing, actually -- about community wireless networking. I'm really happy with how it's come out. Really, really happy.

Happy as I am with it, I'm unbelievably ecstatic over the cover-art. Tor Books commissioned superstar Dave McKean (whom you may know from the covers of Neil Gaiman's Sandman books), and then the genius art-director Irene Gallo applied her skill and turned it into this wonderful work of art (my editor's strapline, "A miraculous novel of secrets, lies, magic -- and Internet connectivity" doesn't hurt either!).

Colour me ecstatic. 336K JPEG Link

A bunch of blog-spammers and google-spoofers (the euphemism is "Search Engine Optimization" -- no doubt you've received spam offering you this "service") set up a competition to see who could become the number one Google result for the previously unused phrase "nigritude ultramarine." So they set about creating their link-farms and so forth.

Then Anil Dash, a blogger who works for SixApart, decided to kick their asses. These spammers' google-whuffie was puny relative to Anil's popular, much-linked blog, and when he created a post and asked his readers to link to him using "nigritude ultramarine" as the link-text, he won the competition handily.

To Dash, then, winning the flat-screen television awarded to the second-round victor was testament to the power of good content and a longstanding online presence.

"A lot of people are trying to increase their page rank unethically," said Dash. "I think if we show them (that) the best thing you can do is to write really good material, then hopefully, they'll spend their time doing that (instead of) spending time coming up with ways to graffiti other people's pages."

Furthermore, Dash maintained, his victory proves one thing: That the Web is a meritocracy.

"A page that's read by people instead of robots is going to do better," he said.

Link

My pals Johannes and Evelyn sent me a fantastic early birthday present today, a CD of Tom Waits covers recorded by Wolfgang Ambros, a 1970s Austropop great. Austropop was an Austrian musical movement who recorded music from all genres in Austrian slang.

My German's pretty rotten, but I quite liked hearing Tom Waits standards like "Romeo Verliert Bluat" (Romeo is Bleeding) and "Es Is Vorbei" (Ruby's Eyes) sung in soulful Austrian German. Link

Aliased BoingBoing reader "humboldt 11" provides instructions for obtaining a digital copy of Michael Moore's latest film:

1. download BIT TORRENT 3.4.2.exe (Link) and install
2. download Fahrenheit.911.CAM-POT(1).torrent (Link) on your desktop
3. open it with BitTorrent
4. start download
5. download "wrar330d.exe" (Link) open it
6. unpack the file "pot.911a.rar" in the CD1 file (as well as the "pot.911b.rar" in the CD2 file - this is why there are 36 parts on each desk. In order to assemble it, opening the file will automatically identify all the segments and put them together) this will create a "pot.911a" (and a "pot.911b") file
7. download "vlc-0.7.2-win32.exe" (Link) install
8. open "CD1.cue" from the "pot.911a" file

Link

Update: BB reader antrix says: "You provided a link to a Fahrenheit 9/11 torrent with split rar files - and a bin/cue which needs vlc. That's too much work when there's a torrent available with convenient mpeg's playable in any player. No rars, nothing. Link." Alternately, you could try this BT client, says reader G1ZM0.

And reader Jaap Vermeulen adds, "Daemon Tools is a utility for windows that will allow you to mount CD / DVD images from windows. This way you can open the .CUE files from the Fahrenheit 911 images with Daemon Tools, which will then mount a new drive. Then these can be played with Windows Media Player, or Media Player Classic. I think many people would rather use the media player of their own choice. I haven't used VLC, but I can say that especially for Camcorder recorded movies Windows Media Player is good because the graphic equalizer allows you to remove a lot of the noise in the sound recording."

On September 24 2001, stock in Stewart Kaiser's start-up company R-Tec was selling for 46 cents a share. That day, Kaiser issued a press release about R-Tec's new device called C-BAND (Chemical & Biological Alarm and Neutralization Defense System.) Four days later, R-Tec shares had risen to $2.40 each and Kaiser sold the 50,000 shares he had just given to his mother. The funny thing is that C-BAND was actually nothing more than a filing cabinet painted yellow and outfitted with a flashing red light. Today, Kaiser and his wife were indicted for securities fraud, obstructing justice, and other bad things. Link

The Associated Press has an interesting article about the translucent concrete developed by Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi. During the mixing process, glass fibers are added to the traditional stone, cement, and water. This enables light to shine through the material. Several variations of the new material are on display as part of a National Building Museum exhibit called Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete. Judging from the Web site, it looks to be a stunning exhibit. Link (to AP article) Link (to Liquid Stone) (Thanks, Gabe!)

Thurl Ravenscroft, the amazing baritone voice of the Haunted Mansion's Ghost Host and Tony the Tiger (among others) recorded an album of gospel, called "Great Hymns In Story And Song." The Basic Hip Digital Oddio archive has MP3s of every track on the disc. (Lots of other great stuff on this page -- Gershwin performed on bongo drums, vintage IHOP and Sears radio ads, and nice linkage). Link

As Brett points out, the Ghost Host is voiced by Paul Frees -- Ravenscroft's contribution to the Haunted Mansion was as the lead baritone in the theme song, "Grim Grinning Ghosts" (he's the singing bust that bears a striking resemblance to Walt Disney)

My pal Jim Munroe is taking his punk performance Vaudeville show back on the road with a seven city US/Canada tour that includes Gavin Grant, co-publisher of Small Beer press and all-round swell guy, sign language poet Liisa Ladouceur and "off-kilter ranter" Geoffrey H. Goodwin -- with a "movie shot on location in Antarctica shown between the acts."

If you're in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, NYC, Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Chicago be sure to catch 'em! Link (Thanks, Gavin!)

Jon "DVD Jon" Johansen has released FairKeys, a program for extracting your iTunes DRM FairPlay keys from Apple's servers. Link (Thanks, A.S.!)

The Guardian has published a wonderful profile of my pal Phil Gyford, whom you may know from the Pepys's Diary blog -- but who has also helped hack together some of the UK's best political advocacy websites.

His latest project, TheyWorkFor You.com, was launched last month with the intention of bringing parliament closer to the British people. With a team of almost 20 volunteers, Gyford helped build the site, which provides information on members of parliament and a readable version of Hansard, the parliamentary record.

"There's lots of interesting stuff," he says, explaining the motivation behind the site. "But it's so unappealing to read the Hansard site. For example, there's no way that webloggers can link into it. Presenting it in a readable way was something that had been talked about a lot before, but never done. We started making plans for it last August or September, but we probably started working on it properly just before Christmas."

Link

NEC has announced that its batteries will have cryptographic authentication schemes to prevent "low-quality counterfeits." Jason Schultz comments on the way that the DMCA turns such a sytem into a license to screw your customers by shutting out competitors who make cheaper batteries:

The software will be introduced in Japanese digital cameras by year's end and is expected to be used in 50 million units by 2007. The software is ideal for use in mobile phones and batteries, but NEC Electronics is also considering extending this technology to "smart" keys, printers and ink cartridges, as well as bundling the technology into hardware options.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, software-based authentication is the wave of the future. And now, with the DMCA, a near-monopoly! Future, here we come.

Link

Gizmodo has posted a screamingly funny review/commentary of a new automated circumcision device:

I'm a penis slicer luddite, I know, but no, for real, no. So why do the people that make SmartKlamp think that -- when I wouldn't let a robot, which can maneuver with mathematical precision, touch me -- I would use a Bris-O-Matic on my or my progeny's spurters? Is there a market need here? Are scapel-wielding doctors and rabbis not fast enough to get the job done? Is there a worldwide circumcision shortage?

Link

They Might Be Giants have put their new album online as MP3s, for $0.99 each, with the whole disc available for $9.99. The disc costs $18, and the band has refused to withhold material from the Web version to make up for the discrepancy, listening to fans who insisted that they wanted to buy the disc online. Link (Thanks, Jon!)

Great interview with They Might Be Giants from Wired Magazine, about the a compilation album of patriotic songs they've put together to benefit MoveOn.org. TMBG recorded a cover of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" for the disc!

We did an electronic version of a song from the 1840s called "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." It was originally used during the Harrison-Van Buren presidential race, and it's really harsh, like a drinking song. It was the very first hip campaign song! Lots of the music on the compilation was recorded specifically for the album, and all of it will be new material.

Link

This month's "Play" section in Wired reviews three super-sexy high-tech oven mitts -- a synthetic rubber one, a translucent silicone one, and a kevlar-and-nomex fingered glove adapted from a welder's glove. It's a sweet application of new materials science to housewares. Link (scroll to page-bottom)

Blogger Ernest Miller says:

The FCC has been cracking down on supposedly indecent broadcasts (and chilling free speech) ever since Bono was really impressed by the Golden Globes and Janet had her malfunction. Under the current rules, in order to send in an indecency complaint, the complainer had to provide a "tape, transcript or significant excerpt." Broadcasters weren't required to maintain copies of a show, so complaintants faced a minimal burden to complain. However, now the FCC is going to require broadcasters to maintain copies of broadcasts for 60-90 days. They are considering letting people issue complaints with no evidence (since the broadcaster will be able to produce the tape), and if the complaint is late (after the 60-90 days) broadcasters can still be hit. This will really open the floodgates to indecency complaints.

Link

Jon Gales says, "Finally a megapixel cam phone for the US, but too bad it's on Sprint. Looks pretty stocked, but could be better. It's progress though!" Link

Someone's taking Mr. Moore at his word. You can download the entire film here, while it lasts. Link Update: Tai Freligh says the download's been taken down. Link to message from site host.

Seattle-based blogger and photogger Ian Spiers says:

About a month ago I had a little run-in with 3 Homeland Security agents, 3 Seattle Police officers, 2 security guards and a German Shepherd while I was at a local park with my camera. The DHS agent told me that it's illegal for me to take pictures of federal property. The ACLU of Washington disagrees. My blog is my attempt to chronicle this outragous situation and bring some common sense and public awareness to it.

Link

An article in the Guardian about a recent scientific study that indicate marijuana consumption can improve night vision -- if you can keep your eyes open, that is.

Their results backed up claims by the Observer columnist Sue Arnold, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa and is officially registered blind. She noticed several years ago that drawing on strong Jamaican skunk suddenly and temporarily enabled her to see things clearly. But Ms Arnold has since warned of side-effects that could impede night-time navigation.

"Only trouble was," she said, "I couldn't stand up."

Link (Thanks, Bill!)

Link, and also check out the "This was supposed to be the future -- where's my jetpack?" design. Link (Thanks, Susannah!)

Blogger and Reason editor Matt Welch says:

Tonight in LA, the L.A. Press Club hosts a panel about how LAX border guards have been stopping European and Australian reporters at the airport, cuffing and searching them, and shipping them back home, for failing to have a previously undemanded Journalist Visa. If you're unfamiliar with the topic, here are three critical columns I've written about it: 1, 2, 3.

Basically, customs enforcement personnel LAX started last May to enforce a law that had previously been unenforced. Most all other visitors (including tourists, businessmen, and publicists) from the 27 "Visa Waiver" countries can enter the U.S. for 90 days without a visa, but journalists are required by law to apply in advance for an I-Visa, shell out $100, present a letter from their publication on letterhead, and wait for up to several weeks for approval. And the wording is not at all clear as to whether freelancers or even webloggers must also heed the requirement. Needless to say, this makes it difficult to cover breaking news; and it's hard to see how this would prevent any terrorist acts considering all a murderous Frenchman would need to do is say he was a tourist.

Still, immigration officials say, a law's a law, and Sept. 11 taught us to take such laws seriously. Also, LAX has been a target in the past, and many security officials say that the Visa Waiver program is the single most dangerous loophole in our consular system. What makes tonight's panel potentially newsworthy is that A) the Bureau for Immigration and Customs Enforcement has recently announced new guidelines on the matter to all major points of entry; and B) a BICE official and the U.S. Consul for Tijuana will be there to field questions, along with German Consul pro Michael Wolff. At the very least, we might finally understand what the actual rules are. And today's American visa tightening can be tomorrow's foreign crackdown on American travelers; American journalists and webloggers may find themselves in some uncomfortable situations in Paris and Sydney, if this keeps up.

Link to event details, starts at 630pm. Also, blogger Ernest Miller suggests two posts from other weblogs for related reading: discourse.net, and buzzmachine.

BoingBoing reader Marc says:

After reading this previous BoingBoing post in May about the Nepal Wireless project, I decided to interview Mahabir Pun about his work. Some of the responses surprised me, and many of the decisions are in direct contrast to a project in Laos I covered two years ago: they're using Windows and Microsoft NetMeeting instead of open source; they're not localizing; and social mobility isn't necessarily one of the project goals. I think in many ways the Nepalese project is more successful because it's less ambitious. Mahabir also talks about working while living through the Maoist insurgency.

Link

If you have ever been to a biker bar on the West Coast, or an Orange County shopping mall filled with be-doo-ragged white male teens, you'll get the humor here. If not, click this link first, before you check out these funny blogosphere in-joke t-shirts. BoingBoing reader David says, "Could this be the start of the east coast/west coast blogging rivalry? Will the bloggies become a scene for chaos, frustration, and gunfire? I can see it now ... 'Ain't no blogger like a west coast blogger 'cause a west coast blogger don't stop...'"

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Quirky feature in Japan's Mainichi Daily about ice cream flavors popular with Japanese consumers. Move aside, rocky road -- make way for lettuce-potato, tulip, horseflesh ("with meaty chunks," shown here at left), and cherry blossom. Link (Thanks, Mustafa)

This article in the SF Bay Guardian reports on a new ballot meaure in Berkeley, California to legalize prostitution -- another measure in SF is on the way. Link (Thanks, Creative_ten !)

The US is trying to extradite an Australian who broke DRM systems to stand trial in America.

US justice agencies allege that Griffiths, whose online name was BanDido, was the ringleader of an internet group called DrinkOrDie (DOD). Its members played a global game of one-upmanship with manufacturers, cracking security codes and reproducing software, games and music worth $US50 million ($A70.2 million).

It is not claimed that 41-year-old Griffiths, who is unemployed, made any money from the alleged piracy.

Link (Thanks, Gwen!)

This is pretty stunning: it's a stop-motion-animated short version of Spiderman 2 done entirely in Lego. Link (Thanks, Graham!)

Foofbags are Powerbook/iBook sleeves handsewn out of fun-fur and fleece. Link (Thanks, Dirtymouse!)

Grassroots Wi-Fi activist Anthony Townsend, co-founder of NYCwireless and Wireless Commons, has published a new article in the architecture journal Praxis. The paper is called "Digitally Mediated Urban Space: New Lessons for Design." From Anthony's blog:

"I sought to lay out the way I've been thinking about the rapid and sometimes chaotic introduction of four classes of digital technology into urban space (wireless, GPS/positioning, GIS, and displays). I investigate these trends in four cases: Times Square and Union Square in New York, Tokyo's Shibuya Crossing, and Seoul's proposed Digital Media City."

Link (via Howard Rheingold's journal on TheFeature)

Mechanical designer Jim Peters, 54, was disappointed that a certain Scottish celebrity was missing from last year's Saline Celtic Festival in Michigan.

"I was down there at the festival. It was full of bagpipe music and Scottish sights and activities. Viewing the long body of water, one can't help think of the Loch Ness area in Scotland and its famous legend. I asked myself: "Where's the monster?"'

So this year, Peters built a 24-foot-long wood-and-steel mechanical Loch Ness Monster. "Millie" was named for Mill Pond Park, the location of the festival. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any photos of Millie online. Link (Thanks, Carlo!)

Located in an historical Queens elementary school building, P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center has been a hub of avant-garde art and culture for nearly three decades. Now, P.S.1. also has an Internet radio station. As you might expect, WPS1 features an eclectic mix of programming. No Clear Channel station is going to give you the voice of Marcel Duchamp, the techno of Todd Sines, and a discussion with Taipei City mayor Ma Yingjiu about public art. From this week's schedule:

11:30 am The Bio-Blurb Show, Edition #3: Bio-Art or Bio-Terror? - In this most provocative program, host Suzanne Anker speaks with former Whitney Museum director David Ross, art journalist Stephen Henry Madoff, and filmmaker Virgil Wong about the federal government's Patriot-Act case against the activist artist Steve Kurtz and the Critical Art Ensemble and the criminalization of the American artist in general. Must-hear listening!

12:00 noon Love Crazy, Edition #4 - Whazzup workaholics! For this session of her music series for WPS1, chanteuse Nora York zeroes in on how much we love our labors, especially when they're lost to song.

1:00 pm Curbside Cassette, Edition #3 - Okay, work's covered. How about school? Recent high-school grads Joe Ahearn and Max Kagan celebrate their diplomas with a science-and-math music mix. Indeed, where would we be without "Calculus Man"? Without the Beastie Boys, for one thing, joined here by Mos Def, Sun Ra, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, White Stripes and more.

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A loosely-formed alliance of congresscritters, attorneys general, religious organizations, and anti-porn advocates announced a "War on Pornography" Monday afternoon in Utah. The coalition of American and Canadian groups trotted out fact-free stats like "pornography is more addictive than alcohol, cigarettes or illicit drugs," and cautioned against the growing moral dangers for youth posed by an unregulated Internet. In the spirit of Nigritude Ultramarine, Fleshbot makes a pitch to googlebomb the anti-porn campaign: "It would be really funny to have this [Fleshbot] post wind up as the top Google result for 'War On Pornography' in the future ..." Link to Salt Lake Tribune story, Link to WarOnPornography.com, and Link to Fleshbot's coverage.

Nope! The New York Post got some bad information and ran with it to the presses a little too early. According to a Reuters article, Post rival Daily News "sent a case of champagne to Post editors and a note, 'Congratulations on your front page. Have a nice day,' with a smiley face. The barb refers to a Post advertisement near the Daily News building showing improved circulation figures, with the words 'have a nice day' and smiley face." Link (via a great notion)
UPDATE: Mike Harris has the text of the incorrect New York Post article on his blog! (Link)

The second issue of Classic Gamer magazine is out. CM is a lush, web-only hymn to the lost games of the 8-bit Golden Age, well-written and lavishly illustrated with images from classic game ads and other bumpf.

I would include a quote here to show you how nice this mag is, but the authors have opted to turn on PDF's ineffectual "protection," which keeps me from copying and pasting unless I go look up a crack, something I can't be bothered doing. Pretty regrettable -- and inexplicable -- decision. 7.6MB ZIPped PDF Link (Thanks, Cav!)

Domenico Della Side has posted another Italian translation of my DRM talk. Link (Thanks, Nico!)

The Extreme Tech crazy casemod winners are online -- including this case with an integrated hamster cage that has hosted a live rodent for years now. Link (via Wonderland)

Some jackass analyst at Gartner is advising employers to ban iPods and other personal storage tech from the workplace to prevent leakage of s33kr1ts from within the corporate hive. Likely successor recommendation: decapitating all outgoing employees.

"Portable storage products can bypass perimeter defences like firewalls and antivirus at the mailserver, and introduce malware such as Trojans or viruses onto company networks."

Devices mentioned include "disk-based MP3 players, such as Apple's iPod, and digital cameras with smart media cards, memory sticks, compact flash and other memory media"...

"Businesses must ensure that the right procedures and technologies are adopted to securely manage the use of portable storage devices like USB keychain drives. This will help to limit damage from malicious code, loss of proprietary information or intellectual property, and consequent lawsuits and loss of reputation," the report stated.

Link

The sound of an E and E-sharp rang out of an abandoned German church yesterday. They were the latest organ notes in a musical piece that will take another 636 years to finish playing. Avant-garde composer John Cage (1912-1992) composed Organ2/ASLSP in 1985. The title comes from the tempo Cage had in mind when the work would be played: "as slow as possible." This performance at St. Burchardi Church in Halberstadt began September 5, 2001, but until last February the only sound was the building's natural ambience. Since then, a total of five notes have been played. National Public Radio has a page about ASLSP, including audio samples and an "All Things Considered" radio piece from last fall:

In a 1982 interview with NPR, John Cage revealed that he wanted to make his "music so that it doesn't force the performers of it into a particular groove, but which gives them some space in which they can breathe and do their own work with a degree of originality. I like to make suggestions, and then see what happens, rather than setting down laws and forcing people to follow them."

Link (to NRP site) Link (to AP article from yesterday)

The Vienna Metblog is a group blog with a bunch of fun Viennese bloggers working on it, linking to items of local interest. My pal Johannes from Monochrom's on-board. Link (Thanks, Johannes!)

My Tokyo Death Cult is a science fiction novel released under a CC license by Marc Horne -- haven't read it, but it's got a hell of an opener:

Japanese policemen's guns are small and sort of puny. Except when they are shooting at you. Right now, they are shooting at me and my companion and we are running scared. The Policemen's shots are a little tentative, like someone picking chewing gum out of their hair. In fairness to the police, I should mention that we are in Shinjuku station, the world's busiest. Currently it is occupied by... oh, I don't know... 2.5 Lichtensteins. I am on average 4 inches taller than those around me, and a crucial 4 inches to boot, so as I barge through the crowd, hurting everyone, I must remember to crouch. To help me remember this, I visualize two things: the cloth that hangs in front of every drinking establishment in this country and those photos of JFK's autopsy that my father and I discussed over breakfast in 1977.

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On this American holiday, two pieces that merit considered reading -- both via Dan Gillmor's blog. The first from Pete McCloskey in the SFChron: Patriotism (and shame) on the Fourth of July. "The word patriot is too precious to allow it to be used by the thundering rhetoric of politicians that patriotism requires not only supporting the troops but also supporting the foreign policy that puts them at risk."

The second, a Sunday column from Dan Gillmor in the SJMerc: "On Independence Day, 2004, how fares American liberty? Brilliantly, if you compare the United States with the tyrannies that still control the lives of countless people. Not badly, if liberty means the right to seek economic gain in a capitalist system -- especially if you're starting with the right connections and a privileged background. Not as well, when you look at growing pressures on longstanding freedoms."

And when you're done with those, may I suggest downloading the United States Constitution for your iPod, inserting earplugs, cranking up the volume, and taking a walk out there in the fresh summer air.

David sez, "I just wrote my first book and posted it online under a creative commons license. It is entitled Dr. Lewis B. Turndevelt's Big Book of Forewords and is a fictitious collection of fictitious forewords written by this fictitious guy, Dr. Turndevelt." Link (Thanks, David!)

Japanese researchers in Ritsumeikan University have built small, rolling "soft robots" that pull themselves along by shifting their shape. The wheels are fabricated from a flexible plastic with spokes made from shape memory alloy, a common robotics material that shortens when heated from current flowing through it. From a New Scientist article:

"The rolling robots perform well on flat surfaces and can even scale 20-degree slopes. By flattening itself as much as possible and then pinging back to a circular shape - driven by the elasticity of the outer rim - a robot can leap 8 centimetres into the air. The engineers say that by combining three wheels in a mutually perpendicular arrangement, it should be possible to build a ball-shaped, steerable robot."

Link

It's been over two years since Dan Clowes put out an issue of Eightball, one of my favorite comic book series. I haven't seen it yet, but the cover looks neat.

[Eightball #23 is] another self-contained, full-color, oversized masterpiece like the award-winning previous issue! Featuring the first appearance of... THE DEATH-RAY! The best-selling author of Ghost World tells the story, set mostly in the 1970s, of a teenager granted mysterious powers and the irrevocable changes in his life that accompany them.

Link

No entries from me for the next week -- I'll be in the unwired hills until Saturday.

I spent the 4th of July with a bunch of pyrotechnic geeks. By day, they're pyro experts, prop creators, and special effects managers for movies in Hollywood. For fun, a bunch of them -- all pals of a special effects technician named Hutch -- got together to do a fundraising fireworks display for the Southern California city of La Crescenta. I followed them around all day long as they wired mortars and stuffed them with shells, I learned the difference between concussion and detonation, and finally -- witnessed a beautiful fireworks display. Afterwards, everyone walked the firing field performing a safety sweep for un-exploded shells, embers, or other dangerous debris, and there was this. What you see here is what happens when one of the fireworks units doesn't blow up as planned (shoot up into the air to make a pretty display). Instead, the composite detonated down inside the shell, creating what's known as a "flower pot." There's not much left of the pot part, but the stunted blast did create a beautiful sort of pyro flower. Link to full-size image, more snapshots later.

Ben Hammersley has hacked a way to turn the tracking data from your FedEx package into an RSS feed. Link (Thanks, Jean-Luc!)

ID Magazine has given honourable mention in its annual design awards to Manabu Nishikawa's "ring plug" -- an improvement on the traditional mains-power-plug with a finger-sized ring for easy tugging. Link (Thanks, Douglas!)

The US Centers for Disease Control offer print-and-clip collectable disease trading cards. Link (Thanks, Abby!)

Dan Glickman, the former US Secretary of Agriculture, has been named the new head of the MPAA, replacing Jack Valenti. Link (Thanks, Bill!)

Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus and EFF) and friends have started a group-blog devoted to the way that the net is changing politics.

The modern corporation must be reformed. Accounting of a corporation's impact must include people's work lives, family, community, and the environment. More than this, we must discover what it will take to save capitalism from itself.

In an era of ever greater communication and more information, the need for education becomes ever more essential as a key to both economic opportunity and active citizenship. We must look at education as a lifetime endeavor and recast our entire education system. Quality education must be available to all, not just an elite.

Link (via Mitch Kapor's Blog)

A new BBC Dr Who series will not have any Daleks in it, because the estate of the creator of the Daleks has demanded creative control over any show that licenses the ambulatory homicidal pepper-mills.

For its part, the Terry Nation estate accused the Corporation of attempting to "ruin the brand of the Daleks". Estate representative Tim Hancock said: "We wanted the same level of control over the Daleks that we have enjoyed for the last 40 years. If the BBC wanted to re-make any of George Lucas' films, you can bet George Lucas would have something to say about it."

Link

After Maria Sharapova won a Wimbledon tennis tournament, she had her dad pass down his cellphone to her on the court so she could call her mother in Russia in front of the crowd and on camera, a moment of perfect 20th Century techno-upstartness in the hidebound world of tennis. But in a moment of perfect 21st Century sods-law-itude, the phone wouldn't work. Link Update: Dan sez, "I heard Maria Sharapova interviewed on ESPN this morning. She is Russian by birth but has lived in the U.S. from a young age, since she was around 3-6 years old. Her Mother lives in Florida and she was not trying to call her in Russia but in Florida. When Sharapova was calling her mother she realized that her Mom was most likely on a plane flight and couldn't be reached. Her mother was on a Jet Blue plane flight when she saw her daughter win Wimbledon. Apparently Jet Blue broadcasts live TV on their flights. Her mother asked the stewardess if she could turn on her cell phone to try calling her daugher (which probably wouldn't have worked anyway) but was denied the request."

A Welsh inventor has created a tamper-evident beer-bottle seal that women are meant to put over their drinks while they're in the toilet, as a means of foiling date-rape-drug dopers.

The plastic cap fits on the bottle and locks when a small 'key' is pulled from it.

When the drinker returns from the bar or toilet, it can be unlocked and a red warning light on the top of the cap lights up if anybody has attempted to remove it.

Link (via Engadget)

The Masai Barefoot Technology shoe is a big raveware-looking sneaker that changes your gait to something like that of a barefoot Masai treading the grasslands and is rumoured to elliminate cellulite.

The shoe feels strange at first. The top two-thirds of it look like a fairly orthodox running shoe, but the sole is bizarre. Two inches thick at the midpoint of the heel, it tapers gradually toward the toe and swoops upward at the rear, creating a cutoff effect. The wearer steps down on the fat part of the heel, the "sweet spot," and a springy sensor bounces back, encouraging the foot to roll forward toward the toe.

This, we are told, is the gait of the Masai people, renowned for walking great distances as they move their herds of cattle across the savannas of Kenya and Tanzania. They have no apparent cellulite.

Link

Here's a fantastic clip of the Daily Show discussing the class-action suit against Wal-Mart for gender discrimination in payment (Wal-Mart pays women workers $2,000 less than the poverty line in annual wages). 6.7 MB Quicktime Link (via On Lisa Rein's Radar)

Lisa Rein has posted some captures from Michael Moore on the Daily Show (19MB Quicktime Link) and the Daily Show on Fahrenheit 911 (9MB Quicktime Link). (via On Lisa Rein's Radar)

Bootleg RSS, a service for scraping websites and turning them into RSS, is taking requests. If there's a site you'd like RSS-ified, ping Carlo and he'll make it into a feed for $2.

Now, I've thought about the how. Hosting feeds costs money, scraping feeds is taking time, and maintaining a feed can take some time as well. So, I'm offering you the following service. First read the list of things you get, then see whether you'd be willing to shell out a small one-time fee of $2.

Link

The video is online from NotCon, the UK geek conference that I spoke at a couple weeks ago along with Danny O'Brien, Brewster Kahle, Matt Jones, Bill Thompson and others. Brewster's talk was fantastic. Link (Thanks, Tom!)

Update: Etienne sez, "a better link for the notcon boinboing entry would be http://ejhp.net/notcon/, which has links to all of the video *and* mp3/ogg encoded audio fd sessions, plus many more for which we only got audio."

My cow-orker Jason Schultz made the NYT this weekend in a piece about EFF's fight to bust crappy Internet patents. My favorite bit of the article is this bit of deadpan juxtaposition:

Another patent on the foundation's list covers a way to make telephone calls over the Internet. Mr. Schultz said the company holding that patent, Acceris Communications of Toronto, had drawn the group's attention by filing an infringement lawsuit against a relatively small service provider, ITXC, rather than larger companies like Vonage Holdings. Small companies rarely have the resources to fight infringement suits, Mr. Schultz said.

The president of Acceris, Kelly D. Murumets, rejected the charge that the company was pursuing only small rivals.

"Acceris has not targeted smaller players," Ms. Murumets wrote in an e-mail message. "In point of fact, and only after offering a license, Acceris filed a lawsuit against a major player" in the industry, ITXC.

Link (Thanks, Jason!)

A pending amendment to a bill in the House of Lords will allow parents the option of "moderate smacking" but remove the defence of "reasonable chastisement."

Under the amendment, tabled by Liberal Democrat Lord Lester, parents causing harm, such as bruising or reddening of the skin, could be prosecuted.

Link

Here's a good guide to some undocumented and/or obscure Google search operators:

If you start your query with allinurl:, Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the URL. For example, [ allinurl: google faq ] will return only documents that contain the words "google" and "faq" in the the URL. This functionality can also be obtained through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.

In URLs, words are often run together. They need not be run together when you're using allinurl:.

In Google News, the operator allinurl: will return articles whose titles include the terms you specify.

Link (via MeFi)

Researchers have devised software that churns through sports video and automatically grabs the highlights. A New Scientist article describes several of these projects--from snooker analysis at Trinity College to soccer game scanning at the University of Florence. Computer vision problems are notoriously difficult, but, according to the article, "as sports follow fixed rules, and take place in predictable locations, computers ought to be able to pick out the key pieces of play and string them together." Link

Last year in Lab Notes, I wrote about a similar project at UC Berkeley. Computer scientists there are using soccer and ballet video footage to demonstrate machine vision software that recognizes humans and their activities. Link

Michael Moore was quoted in the Sunday Herald today as welcoming the free copying and distribution of his film on the 'Net for noncommercial use.

The activist, author and director told the Sunday Herald that, as long as pirated copies of his film were not being sold, he had no problem with it being downloaded. "I don't agree with the copyright laws and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose that," he said. "I do well enough already and I made this film because I want the world, to change. The more people who see it the better, so I'm happy this is happening."

Significant words, to be sure, but reading these comments -- made after the film's unprecedented big bang opening -- how amazing it would be for a director of Moore's stature to release work under a Creative Commons license, or to make comments of that nature before the movie comes out? That's not likely any time soon, for a variety of business reasons. As BoingBoing reader Alex Strasheim writes, "I don't think [Moore's comments about filesharing were] so much an endorsement of piracy as it was him saying that he's not losing much sleep over it."

Quentin Tarantino made similar "laissez-faire" comments about unauthorized copying and distribution of Kill Bill v.2 a few weeks ago. All of this is interesting stuff, but it points to how confused we are as a society about the economic and cultural role of filesharing. Some say it's all too convenient for high-profile filmmakers to give P2P the thumbs up as an afterthought, when their work has already performed well at box office. Others argue that Moore has a sort of ethical obligation to support the free distribution of F9/11, because some of the under-reported facts it contains "belong" to the American people.

But laws that make filesharing punishable by fines or imprisonment don't take into account whether or not a given film had great box office numbers, or contained information that was of social significance. Anti-P2P laws exist already. More of them, with broader enforcement resources and heavier penalties, are on the way. Isn't saying that we're sort of okay with noncommercial P2P filesharing some of the time, but not others, like being a little bit pregnant?

The position of Lions Gate Films, F9/11's distributor, isn't vague. Some of Moore's detractors have been posting copies of the film and Bittorrent pointers online. In response, Lions Gate Films Releasing president Tom Ortenberg told CNN:

"I think it's deplorable what enemies of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' are doing. We are currently looking into our legal options. We are not going to tolerate anybody trying to infringe on (this film's release)."

Link (Thanks, Boris, and Jean-Luc)

Update: An American BoingBoing reader who's a military man in Afghanistan (requesting anonymity) writes, "Every other week here in Kabul, a bazaar is held on our base where local products are sold. Some of those "local products" are pirated movies. I just thought you'd like to know that Fahrenheit 9/11 was the big seller here this Friday."

Update 2: BoingBoing reader J. Greely asks whether or not Moore's comments could disqualify this film from Oscars consideration, based on this section of the 2003 Academy Awards rules (2004 rules aren't yet online). IANAL, but I think this language means that the Academy intends to bar films "officially" released online by the film's maker or distributor, and has nothing to do with online distribution initiated by the public -- whether or not the filmmaker condones it. Snip:

3. No television or internet transmission shall occur at any time prior to, or within the six months following, the first day of the qualifying run or the festival win. Any documentary which is transmitted anywhere in the world in any version as a television or internet program within that period will automatically be disqualified from award eligibility.

Heirs of the Zulu composer who wrote the song "Mbube" -- aka "The Lion Sleeps Tonight, used in The Lion King -- have sued Disney in South Africa for royalties. link (Thanks, Denise Howell)