Here are a couple of Daily Show clips pillorying The Gates of Central Park, also courtesy of Lisa Rein. Link

This fan of The Shining has replicated the Overlook Hotel -- in which Jack Nicholson went spectacularily nuts -- as a Duke Nukem level. Link (via Waxy)

Lisa Rein has posted two Daily Show clips on Howard Dean winning the head of the DNC. Link

I'm working on a novel right now in which scroungers build exciting new devices out of really high-tech toys that failed to sell -- the favorite being an Elmo doll from 2008 called "Boogie Woogie Elmo" that can learn to dance by watching you (this turns out to be a great tool for clustering: install Linux on five or ten of them, teach them to speak and hear several rudimentary commands, and they can drive a car as a cluster of homeostasis-seeking cellular automata).

The Associated Press has an article on this year's robotic toys -- new Furbies and Elmos and such -- imagine what a boon these things will be to assemblage sculptors in five years when they can be had for a nickel apiece and when someone's standardized a GNU/Linux distro for each.

Pixel Chix from Mattel. The handheld gadget in the shape of a house lets a child interact with an animated girlfriend and will retail for $30.

Winnie the Pooh or Elmo Knows Your Name from Mattel's Fisher-Price. A doll that can learn a child's name and other personal details, such as a birthday and favorite games, is programmed by the parents. Using a cable connection and a CD-ROM, parents can download information into the characters, which will be priced at $40.

Furby (a new version) from Hasbro. The toy's new technology is called emotronics, which supposedly brings the plush toy more to life because it speaks interactively with the child and reacts to words like "hungry." All this for a mere $40.

Amazing Amanda from Playmates Toys. The 21-inch doll can recognize her "mommy's" voice and respond after hearing it just three times. The doll should cost around $100.

Link

I really like the vintage illustration style of Darling You Shouldn't Have, a line of t-shirts and baby bibs(!) that my friend's sister recently launched. Some of the drawings remind me of old editorial cartoons or Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoloy. Link

My cow-orker Annalee Newitz has just published a white-paper on End User LIcense Agreements (EULAs) -- those long screens of legalese you don't ever read before clicking "I Agree." What are you agreeing to? Basically, you're agreeing to get royally screwed:

The Windows license, however, is less invasive than the terms of Pinnacle's Studio 9 movie-making software. See the DRM-related provisions in Section 6 of the Pinnacle EULA8 :

"You acknowledge and agree that in order to protect the integrity of certain third party content, Pinnacle and/or its licensors may provide for Software security related updates that will be automatically downloaded and installed on your computer. Such security related updates may impair the Software (and any other software on your computer which specifically depends on the Software) including disabling your ability to copy and/or play ‘secure' content, i.e. content protected by digital rights management."

Clicking through this EULA appears to allow Pinnacle to install software automatically from third parties onto your computer – software which the vendor admits may "impair" the program ("the Software") you have just purchased, as well as "any other software on your computer which specifically depends on the Software."

Link (Thanks, Donna!)

If you've got a Senseo coffee maker -- the kind that takes little proprietary, pre-measured coffee "pads" and converts them to hot mud -- then you've got a DRMed kitchen appliance. Those little pads contain countermeasures to keep them from being refilled and/or replaced by third-party coffee delivery-systems. This HOWTO explains how to circumvent your coffee-maker's DRM and roll your own pads.

Step 1: find the right glass
You’ll need a glass with a round bottom that’s just the size of a Senseo coffee pad. This shouldn’t be too difficult.
Tip:It doesn’t really have to be a glass, but it helps if you can see what you’re doing. Go out and buy a glass of the just right size if necessary.

Step 2: draw the filter shapes
Lay the tea filter bag flat on the surface. Place the Senseo-sized glass on top. Use the pencil to draw a circle on the filter. Read step 4 to help you decide where to place the glace and draw the circle.
Tip: Do not substitute a pen or marker instead of a pencil. You do not want ink or mystery chemicals in your coffee. Even so, use a soft pencil to avoid ripping the fine filter fabric and don’t push too hard. You do not want graphite in your coffee either.

Link Link to commercial refillable compatible pad (via MAKE Blog)

RU Sirius's latest issue of NeoFiles is online, including interviews with transgenic art provocateur Eduardo Kac, creator of the green flourescenet rabbit, Howard "Lucifer Principle" Bloom whose latest book is the Global Brain, and psychedelic spiritualist Jonathan Bethel. RU says:

"Start the universe with a few rules. Watch it iterate and accumulate complexity over billions of years. Add in some nanotechnology, robotics, and super-chemistry. Now, take the transgenic bunny rabbit and put it in Professor Schrödinger’s box. Wait several decades … stirring frequently. If things work out, you will have a perfectly divine singularity … to serve up to family and guests. If not, you will have an entertaining read, to be savored until we issue again."

Link

Yesterday's post about the lawsuit tied to Koko's nipple fetish reminded many readers about Koko's guest starring role on Monster Garage that could possibly be used as evidence for the claimants. Link (Thanks, Michael Golamco and Jonathan Hendry!)

And this from another reader who says that in the 1990s he worked on a video involving Coco:

One day our editor had a mad case of the giggles when we came into the room and we couuldn't figure out why, until he showed us a clip of Koko's 'sign language.'

Over and over, she kept making the motions for the phrase 'Koko nipple love."

...Keep me anonymous please. I don't want Koko coming over to my house and giving me a titty twister.

UPDATE: Readers Jean Dudley and Suebob Davis point out that Koko's trainer, Francine "Penny" Patterson, has claimed for years that Coco "uses nipple to refer to people." Link to Penny's Team Journal, Link to Straight Dope column

Ikea is selling a rug called the Anja Rand -- for the objectivist crank libertarian in you. Link (Thanks, Simon!)

Kirby sez,

Our friend "waltsentme" over at webjay links us to the 1956 film "People and Places - Disneyland U.S.A.". A Disney made film to promote the less than one year old park!

Part one starts with a flyover of the park that is fascinating in what is NOT there. The film is narrated by the laconic narrator that Disney used a lot then. The hill they eventually built the Matterhorn on is clearly visible. Visit the Disneyland MOTEL. No tower. A trip up Main Street on a streetcar, America at the turn of the (20th) century with lots of people in the fashion of 1956. After a brief stop at the hub we visit Frontierland. More aerial views of the newly planted Disneyland. Tom Sawyer's Island had just opened in 1956. You could fish and "keep what you caught". That didn't last long. Gunslingers in Rainbow Ridge threw the perspective of the buildings off. (These buildings are still visible in the queue of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.). There is some footage of "The Indian Village is a permanent and popular attraction here". How many times did they move that?

Part 2 starts in Adventurland and has footage of the Jungle Cruise when it was serious and populated with very primitive animatronic figures. No "back side of water". They do shoot the hippos, though! Tomorrowland in 1956 was mainly Autopia. You can see the short lived Phantom Boats in an aerial shot. Fantasyland has no footage of the interior of the dark rides, but lots of reaction shots of people entering and exiting them. Storybookland had just opened when the film was made. Long section of footage of it. The footage of the Disneyland Band in the Mad Tea Party is classic. "Tempo in a Tea Cup". Views of various parades end the film, including Walt and Fess Parker on horseback.

Be aware that both videos are over 77MB in size. No slow connection here.

This is an absolute classic. I don't know how long it will last a boingboing hit, so grab it now.

Link (Thanks, Kirby!)

Update: Lucas Emery's got a torrent of these up.

This Flash video is a commercial for a pirate captain-cum-lawyer who will help you sue ninjas who have injured you through kicklash, elbow face, or medical malpractice. Link (Thanks, Mark LL!)

This iced-out $150 Mickey Pez-dispenser is covered in hand-applied Swarkovski crystals, glued on by "artisans" at a shop in Beverly Hills. Definitely the gift for the Disney fan who has everything and who you never want to have to speak to ever again. Link (Thanks, IZ Reloaded!)

The loathesome, unprecedented Broadcast Flag comes into effect this summer, and thereafter, the feds will be mandating DRM in all technologies that can interact with a digital television signal, forever driving a nail into digital television uptake in the USA.

There's a single ray of hope, though: EFF, Public Knowledge and several other public interest groups are suing the FCC over this, arguing that they don't have the jurisdiction to impose the Broadcast Flag -- the appeals hearing kicks off on Feb 22.

The oral arguments on the broadcast flag case in the U.S. Court of Appeals Court will be held next Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Public Knowledge and other organizations challenged the authority of the FCC to institute the broadcast flag rule, which requires consumer electronics and other devices such as TiVos, iPods, digital VCRs and cell phones to be able to block copying of over-the-air digital TV content at the wishes of content owners. Organizations including the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and several libraries said the FCC exceeded its authority to institute the broadcast flag rule.

Link (Thanks, Donna!)

Danny O'Brien's "To Evil" column is a monthly salute to terrible behaviour on the part of tech companies and individuals. This month's is out, and contains a good rant on a subject near to my heart: secret spam-filtering rules:

The American ISP, according to several news reports, had decided a unique filtering technique for eliminating spam: banning email coming from countries outside the USA.

Given that most spam comes from American companies, this sounds a bit like fighting stings by locking yourself in a beehive, and smearing yourself with royal jelly. But mostly, it's odd because eventually those foreigners are going to find someone they *can* communicate with. And once they snap out of that crazy bloo-bloo language they all speak, and talk proper English to a journalist, Word Will Get Out.

What's really crazy, though, is that it's not entirely clear that cutting off the world is really was what Verizon is up to. Some European e-mail gets through; others do not. Strangely-configured SMTP servers are rejected; others slipped right by.

But when the world was reporting that Verizon was dropping mail, the company kept everyone in the dark, including their customers. They didn't tell them they were filtering; they didn't tell them how they were filtering.

People had to draw their own conclusions: and what they concluded is that Verizon hates foreigners.

Link (Thanks, Steve!)

The second installation in Boing Boing's coverage of works inspired by Christo's "Gates" installation in Central Park -- "The Crackers" is comprised entirely of orange cheese crackers.
Link. Previously: The Gates of Hargo.

A young woman in the Phillipines with a personal fixation on Ronald McDonald documents her life as his imaginary consort. On Miss McDonald's livejournal, we find pictures of the lucky lady doing laundry, hanging out at the beach, and cuddling up with the tall, red, striped one who has served so very many. Many of the image tags are broken -- a pity, because snapshot descriptions like "yeaaargh Alex and his Droogs from A Clockwork Orange VS. Miss McDonald" do sound enticing.
Link. (Thanks, Sho).

This parody of Christo's "Gates" art installation in New York's Central Park features "Gates of Hargo" placed in various places throughout a home. The "about" page includes some rip-snortin' comparisons between "Hargo's" gates and those of Christo. Highlights include "The Feeding Gates," featuring a fat tabby cat, and "The Poopatorium Gates," leading to you-know-where.
Link (Thanks, Pinato).

The Clovis resident who nabbed by cops for slapping a sexually suggestive Coop "devil-babe" sticker on his car is once again a free man. Link. Previously: Buy A Coop Sticker, Go to Jail

The Oregon tattoo artist who inked NBA star Rasheed Wallace's arm is suing for copyright infringement because Rasheed's tatoo is featured prominently in a Nike TV and internet ad campaign.

According to the suit filed last week in U.S. District Court, former Trail Blazer Wallace approached Reed in 1998, saying he wanted an Egyptian-themed family design with a king and queen and three children and a stylized sun in the background. Reed researched the idea and came up with a design and put it on Wallace's arm. Reed said the $450 charge was a relatively small amount, but he expected to benefit from the exposure.

Wallace has one of the more distinctive tattoos in the NBA. Sports Illustrated for Kids used it in a feature asking readers to match each tattoo with the NBA player who wears it. But Reed claims he became aware last year of a Nike ad that centers on the tattoo and its creation. He claims the ad violates the copyright he holds to "the Egyptian Family Pencil Drawing."

Link (Thanks, tom brennan)

"Cabir," the first mobile phone virus documented "in the wild" has now spread from its origin in the Philippines to the United States. It took eight long months to get here, so -- I'm guessing it traveled by way of the same shitty mobile carrier I use.

Cabir was found on Monday in a technology gadgets store in Santa Monica, California, when a passing techie spotted a telltale sign on the screen of a phone in the store.

Link (thanks, uh, "cabir"...)

Busboy Productions, the production team led by "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, just inked a deal allowing them to develop television projects for possible airing on networks other than Comedy Central.

Comedy Central has agreed to finance Stewart's Busboy Productions and its development of television projects, but part of the deal lets Stewart flirt with outsiders when looking for a home for those projects. The deal does give Comedy Central the right of first refusal on all Busboy creations, however

Link to story (via /.)

The Gorilla Foundation, home to Koko the gorilla who speaks sign language, is being sued for $1 million by two former employees. Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller claim they were fired because they wouldn't show Koko their breasts. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

One example (from the lawsuit): "On at least two incidents in mid-to-late June 2004, (foundation president Francine) Patterson intensely pressured Keller to expose herself to Koko while they were working outside where other employees could potentially view Keller's naked body. ... On one such occasion, Patterson said, 'Koko, you see my nipples all the time. You are probably bored with my nipples. You need to see new nipples. I will turn my back so Kendra can show you her nipples.'"

...The suit, in any case, says that Patterson would interpret hand movements by Koko as a demand to see exposed human nipples. She warned Alperin and Keller that their employment with the foundation would suffer, the suit says, if they "did not indulge Koko's nipple fetish."

During at least three visits, the suit says, "Patterson communicated to Alperin that exposing one's breasts to Koko is a normal component to developing a personal bond with the gorilla."

Link (Thanks Casey, via Monkeys In The News!)

Richard Kadrey sez: "American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares." Link

Warner Bros. is "revisioning" WB cartoon characters for the 21st Century.

Warner Bros. has created angular, slightly menacing-looking versions of the classic Looney Tunes characters for its new series, dubbed "Loonatics" and set in the year 2772. Names for the new characters haven't been finalized, but they are likely to be derived from the originals: Buzz Bunny, for example. Each new character retains personality quirks of the original. The new Bugs, for example, will be the natural leader of the Loonatics' spaceship; the new Daffy will remain confident that he is the one who should be in charge.

Link

Federal authorities now say they will return the State of Sabotage faux passports confiscated last week on their way to Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center where they were to be exhibited. From the Associated Press:

...A reviewing office of the customs and border protection bureau, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, decided the items didn't fit the parameters for confiscation as immoral or harmful materials, customs spokeswoman Cherise Miles said in a telephone interview from Chicago.... The exhibit now includes a statement by (State of Sabotage artist Robert) Jelinek, along with the Department of Homeland Security's confiscation receipt.

"Who would think that the U.S. government has a pronounced interest in contemporary fine art these days?" the statement reads. "The homeland art obsession goes so far that our luggage and personal items were almost all damaged and all artistic materials were confiscated."

Link (Thanks, Mark Crummett!)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and RSA Laboratories have demonstrated how too crack the encryption of a Texas Instrument RFID transponder used in many "immobilizer-equipped" car keys and ExxonMobile SpeedPass e-payment fobs. From the press release:

Security verification takes place through a procedure called a challenge/response protocol. When the key or tag is nearby, the reader transmits a random string of ones and zeroes to it. The transponder in the key or tag then processes these numbers in a specific way and sends a numeric message back to the reader for authentication.

The researchers from Johns Hopkins and RSA Laboratories were able to unravel the mathematical process used in this verification. They then purchased a commercial microchip costing less than $200 and programmed it to find the secret key for a gasoline purchase tag owned by one of the researchers. By linking 16 such chips together, the group cracked the secret key in about 15 minutes... The researchers had similar success with a chip-equipped car key.

Link to Johns Hopkins press release, Link to Science News article, Link to the technical report

Sam Harris sez:

Thanks for posting the "Sony Nastygrams Beatallica" story the other day. Us fans, known affectionately on the Beatallica message board as Beatallibangers, are rallying round to help the lads fight back at the bullies from Sony Music. To start with, we have an online petition asking Sony to basically get a grip and realise that the music Beatallica distribute is parody, and therefore legal.

Link

BB reader seays: "Strip club in Boise tries to get around nudity regulations by having 'art night' where customers can sketch 'models.'"

"As far as the Boise city code, it specifies it has to be a serious artistic manner and this is a serious artistic manner," said Chris Teague, Erotic City owner.

Link

My friend and editor, Chris Null, has written a fantastic piece for Mobile PC called "The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time." He includes gizmos from the early 20th century (Zippo Windproof Lighter, 1932; Master Lock Padlock, 1924) all the way up to 2005. The photographs of the gear are terrific. He obviously spent an awful lot of time researching this and tracking down the photos.

83. ACCUSPLIT MEMORY STOPWATCH, 1972
Before the digital stopwatch, when you timed something, you had to do it on a wacky round device that ticked and was just as hard to read as a wall clock. But in 1972, Accusplit introduced the digital stopwatch. Gone were hands and tick marks, replaced by easy-to-read numbers. Better yet, the thing expressed time in hundredths of seconds, a boon to athletes and scientists.

Link

Responding to my post about the State of Sabotage art "passports" confiscated from an artist's luggage on the way to exhibition, reader Jussica Hummel says:

Maybe the US Department of Homeland Security "State of Sabotage" passports knew about the use of NSK passports during the war in Bosnia.

In 1991 (Slovenian industrial musicians) Laibach and the (art collective) Neue Slovenische Kunst founded the state of NSK and published an official NSK passport, to be applied for at different embassies or consulates around the world. Link

In 1995 NSK passports made it possible for a group of people to leave occupied Sarajevo, according to a quote from a Laibach interview:

"So we decided to give away these passports, and in some cases, they were used in very different ways, in very creative forms. In some cases they were used in a very pragmatic way: many people were able to get out of Sarajevo while it was occupied and they couldn't get out with Bosnian passports. We gave them NSK diplomatic passports, and they went out with those. There was a French solider who just saw a diplomatic passport and let them go through. We are using it whenever there's a chance to cross other borders, sometimes successfully, sometimes with less success, but you know it actually works." Link

Lauren Cerand says: "An artist in the Detroit suburb of Roseville was given 30 days in jail, two-years' probation, and a $500 fine for painting a bare-breasted woman and the word "love" in a classically-themed mural on the side of his shop. The whole affair sounds quite incredible."

[Judge Marco] Santia ordered Stross, 43, to serve 30 days in jail, do two years' probation and pay a $500 fine for violating a city sign ordinance. Roseville officials said letters were prohibited on the mural and Eve's exposed chest is indecent.

Besides jail time and the fee, Stross is to tastefully cover Eve's breasts before reporting to the Macomb County Jail on Monday morning, and to paint over "love" by May 1.

"Removing the work is the ultimate punishment. The jail time is nothing compared to removing what I painted," Stross said Thursday.

Link

The legendary club that played a central role in careers of countless punk and new wave acts -- Blondie, The Ramones, Patti Smith -- may close. The culprit: rent hikes throughout the surrounding Bowery 'hood. I smoked many an unfiltered cigarette at CBGBs when I was a teen. We used to always try to exhale through our nose piercings. Good times. Link to blurb on aversion.com which references a Village Voice article I can't find. Here's a related story in the NYT (site reg required): Link.

CBGB, as The Village Voice reported this week, is facing a lease renewal in August, and its landlord has nearly doubled the rent, to about $40,000 a month, said Lisa Kristal, a lawyer and the daughter of Hilly Kristal, who opened the club in 1973.

(Thanks, Dusty)

Update: Andrew Raff sez:

Here's the Village Voice article you mentioned not being able to find: Link. It also discusses the other clubs in the East Village and LES closing, or threatened to close: Luna Lounge (at the end of Feb.), Fez (mid-March), and Tonic (currently having a fund-raising drive to keep its current location.)

Boing Boing reader Steve Waters says, "The New York Times is buying about.com! I wonder if I'll have to give personal information to look up info on the top 100 snow boots for under $100?" Link

There's been a lot of debate recently over whether governments should be allowed to get into the WiFi business -- whether Internet connectivity should be provided through municipal wireless networks. Glenn Fleishman has written a delightful satire of the debate, asking the hypothetical question: should municipalities get into the electricity business?

Electricity is too important a resource for America's future to be left in the hands of cities and towns, the council argues, which are inefficient enterprises that take profits from industry in their pursuit of ever-greater control of the flow of capital within their borders. "How big may these so-called public utilities grow in their efforts to stifle free enterprise and increase the size of government?" the report asks.

The report notes that 97 percent of all neighborhoods in the U.S. have at least one functional electric street lamp running built through private enterprises' effort, and that some urban areas have two electrical lamps on each corner, as well as lighting available at different times of the day and night both within and outside of homes and businesses.

The report dismisses the concern that in many areas, only a small percentage of all buildings are equipped with electricity and rejects the fact that private utilities in some municipalities only provide enough voltage and amperage to power a few dim lights.

His Honor, Mayor Charles Franklin Warwick of Philadelphia has recently said that he intends to provide universal electrical service, but critics argue that merely providing electricity will not ensure that the "electrical divide" will be bridged because poorer inhabitants of cities and towns will not use their hard-earned pittances to pay for electrical appliances, such as a motor-driven wringer or electrical lamp, much less power. And, in any case, most of them are illiterate and work 16-hour days, and thus have no need for the modern wonder of electrical lighting which would merely disturb their few hours of rest each night.

Link

Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch has come to life and moved to Israel, wehre it is the subject of intense litigation:

An indignant Israeli is suing a pet shop that he says sold him a dying parrot, reports the Ma'ariv newspaper. Itzik Simowitz of the southern city of Beersheba contends the shop cheated him because the Galerita-type cockatoo not only failed to utter a word when he got it home, but was also extremely ill. Mr. Simowitz adds that the shop owner assured him the parrot was not ill but merely needed time to adjust to its new environment.

Link (Thanks, Betsy!)

This post, made by "alexwcovington" in the Slashdot discussion of the fact that Brits lead the world in downloading TV shows, is a really pithy piece of advice that TV execs everywhere would do well to heed:

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but it's television. Signals broadcast through the air. Sorry to burst the bubbles of the folks in Hollywood, but you can't control the genie if you're throwing it out of the bottle at the speed of light. Accept the fact that people have the right to record their television shows, and don't complain when they trade them.

Link

Everquest has added a simple in-game command to order pizzas while playing. I'm surprised that they don't pre-populate the pizza-ordering form with the info from your Everquest account -- usually games have such crazy, one-sided terms of service that the privacy implications of such a thing would shred like wet kleenex.

You're in luck - pizza is just a few key strokes away! While playing EverQuest II just type /pizza and a web browser will launch the online ordering section of pizzahut.com. Fill in your info and just kick back until fresh pizza is delivered straight to your door.

Link (via Foe Romeo)

Several university laboratories introduced three new bipedal robots at this week's American Association for the Advancement of Science conference. While other mechanical bipeds like Honda's Asimo depend on a complicated system of motors and sensors in every joint under intense software control, these new robots employ much simpler techniques. (Unlike Asimo though, these bots can't yet climb stairs.)

"The walking looks more natural, because it is," says Richard Walker, who works at the Shadow Robot Company in the UK. "To get human-like walking, and then to go from there to more complex bipedal movements, this is the right approach."

The researchers took their inspiration from mechanical walking toys that automatically stroll down a slope in response to gravity. By attaching a few motors to such mechanisms they were able to make robots that will happily amble along a flat surface.

Two of the three robots, those developed at Cornell and Delft, are relatively simple, yet exhibit remarkable power efficiency. Whereas Asimo consumes about 10 times as much power as a walking human, these robots use about the same amount of energy as the average person.

Link

Cartoonist Jason Little is creating the best comic strip on the Web. The drafting style is very tight and reminds me just a tiny bit of Chris Ware. His sense of color is fantastic. In this interview from Fright X magazine, Little describes he first Bee story.

It's about a girl named Bee who works as a photoprocessing technician in downtown New York City. And weird people bring photos in to be processed. For example, on one day of work she prints a roll of film from this sorority chick [points at page] who has taken homemade boudoir photographs of herself as a Valentine's Day present for her boyfriend, who's a frat rat. Later, the boyfriend brings in a roll of film where he's barged into the bathroom and taken a picture of her on the toilet. There's a motorcycle outlaw who has taken pictures of strippers at a biker party…you get the idea. Licentious images. Later on, a mortician brings in before and after photos of dead bodies. Bee certainly finds this intriguing. So she sneakily presses the doubles button every time an exciting roll comes in. At one point this handsome fellow brings in pictures of a dead woman in a tub full of blood. So Bee follows him home and starts taking pictures of him through his windows and basically gets involved in his sinister activities. So, basically, it's a mystery story.

Link

Cliff Figallo says: "Being in my mid-50s and not being one of the fortunate few who hit the dot-com jackpot, I'm now blogging my attempt to plan a reasonably secure future with not much savings in "What Retirement?" It's a mix of scary Social Security news, potential job opportunities for the old and experienced, and future living arrangements that can help us avoid nursing home hell. There are about 30 million of us in the same leaky boat. We don't want to become a crisis." Link

The cover of the latest Seattle Stranger has a portrait of Michael Jackson made from kids' cereal bits. Yuks says: "My studio mate Jason Huntley worked on this piece for weeks, buying and then sorting all sorts of different children's cereals by color and hue. He then applied them using silicone glue. The smell of sugar, preservatives and silicone will be indelibly associated with Michael Jackson's mugshot in my brain forever." Link

Naughty Scott Moschella of Plastic Bugs stripped the DRM out of an iTunes song he won from buying a bottle of Pepsi. He broke another law by making the song available as a free download on his site. The song is called "(Silence)" by Ciccone Youth. It's a silent song, like John Cage's "4' 33"," but it is just a little over a minute long. Grab it now before Apple shuts him down! Link (Thanks, Caines!)

UPDATE: Alistair Twiname says: "Parallel to the post about the ripped silent track, New_Matt over at b3ta created the ultimate remix... using the gaps and pauses in many famous songs.. here's the subtitled flash version." Link

Here's a fun "now and then" gallery of famous cartoonist's work as adults and when they were kids. The fun is only slightly diminished by the use of a Flash interface. Artists include Jack Davis, Mitch O'Connell, Kirsten Ulve. (Shown here, Charles Burns.) Link

David Pieski, a high school chemistry teacher in Orlando, Florida, was arrested for allegedly teaching his students how to make homebrew explosives. From the Associated Press:

In Pieski's classroom in Orlando, authorities found a book labeled "Demo," which includes the chemical breakdown for a powerful explosive, the arrest report said....

Pieski told investigators he detonated chemicals in a coffee can by a ball field four times for his students, the sheriff's office said. He said he did this as a chemistry project to show a reaction rate...

School officials told investigators that Pieski previously had been told he was not allowed to have any form of explosive on campus.

I certainly would have benefited from Mr. Pieski's guidance in my high school years. Link

Last year, I posted about video artist Amy Jenkins who was invited to create an artwork inspired by Salvatore Ferragamo's 5th Avenue shoe store. The company then decided that her artwork was "distasteful" because it showed Amy's daughter breastfeeding and then falling asleep. (More background here.) Now, using a plasma display loaned to her by a BB reader, Amy is finally showing the piece, entitled The Audrey Samsara, in NYC at her solo show at the Kustera/Tilton Gallery. The opening is tonight and the show will run through March 26. Link

David Dixon, "Webmaster of Puppets" for Metallica/Beatles parody/mashup site beatallica.org says:

Boing Boing recently linked to a site I administrate, beatallica.org, in your post about punk cover bands. I'm writing to let you know that today I received a cease-and-desist notice from Sony Publishing (via my ISP, ThePlanet.com), demanding that all music, lyrics, etc. be taken down immediately or legal action will commence.

You can read the C&D notice David received right here (PDF).

Chicagoist has a good followup on the controversy around the public sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park (a park that cost Chicagoans $270 million) which photographers were being prevented from taking pictures of (earlier post).

Millennium Park security guards were told to look for "sophisticated equipment and/or tripods as an indication that a photographer might be a professional." And this is where the confusion seems to have begun. The guards, when stumbling upon such professional-looking folk, should have simply asked the photographer if they were a professional and, if the answer was "yes," directed them to the permit office. However, as just about every Web site in the Chicagoland area reported last week, some of them just plain kicked the photographers out with claims of copyrighted public works.

In light of this conduct, community concerns and an "increased understanding of how the public uses the space (including photographers)," the city has recognized the need to re-evaluate these policies. While they do so, they have stopped enforcing the permit requirement, and are focusing on improving their security guard training to ensure both complete understanding of the rules and better communication between guards and the public. City, Chicagoist appreciates your effort to get this situation resolved.

The write-up goes on to talk about how the copyright in the sculpture rests with the sculptor, which still makes no sense. My reading of copyright law says that statues on display in public parks have no copyright -- and even if it does, the city has the repsonsibility to clear the rights to the sculpture before putting it where it will get in the way of the photos that Chicagoans take of their public spaces -- whether for commercial or noncommercial use. Link (Thanks, Rachelle!)

Aymeric sez, "I was at the Brussels demo [against software patents] today and the result, it appears, was slightly positive." That's an understatement: the software patent issue is dead again in the European Parliament and has to be rebooted from start if the other side wants to get it through!

The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented.

Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law.

During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped.

Link (Thanks, Aymeric!)

Update: Tom sez, "the directive won't necessarily be rebooted, it depends on whether or not the Commission want to. They're free to ignore Parliament's request, and given their track record this may happen. Hurrah for democracy."

Update 2:Ronan sez, "The implementation of the directive at hand is governed by a process called codecision, meaning both the Commission and the Parliament have to agree on it; either can veto it. As such, if the Commission disregards the restart request, Parliament can simply vote the unmodified directive out of existence. Further detail on the processes of European legislation can be found at the URL (ok, so it's not a complete red herring) in a variety of languages."

Dug makes "contemporary automata," hand-cranked robots carved from wood that perform animations when they're activated. They're gorgeous tchotchkes and the videos on his site are fascinating. Link (Thanks, Dug!)