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