I've just spent the evenng playing Blokus, a board-game that combines the best of Tetris and Go. It was ferociously addictive and fiercely competitive. Play with three others for maximal heart-wrenching tension between the need to attack and to defend. Of course, you can play online, too. Link (Thanks, Raph!)

Last week, I did a phone interview with Denise Howell about the Google Autolinks "controversy," along with Robert Scoble and Marty Schwimmer from the Trademark Blog, for Denise Howell's new IT Conversations Internet radio show, "Sound Policy." The one-hour debate was quite lively -- you can download or stream it and see for yourself.

But those who have been watching the Web long enough to remember see a resemblance between AutoLink and Microsoft's Smart Tags feature, an unpopular link-adding "enhancement" to Internet Explorer that never made it out of the starting gate. Many wonder too whether AutoLink demonstrates a shift in Google's "don't be evil" approach toward making search profitable. Does AutoLink do enough to make it clear to users which links were put there by the Web page author and which were added? Could AutoLink or something like it alter the meaning and intent of the original page? Don't Web authors have the right to have their work distributed as written? Don't Web users have the right to view material in their browser however they'd like, and can't developers make tools that help this process?

Link

Paul Boutin wrote a profile of controversial longevity scientist Aubrey de Grey for Slate. Paul sez:

[De Grey's] "M Prize" competition for longevity research topped $1M in jackpot last week. Will we really conquer aging and death by 2025? I don't believe so, but unlike those spoilsports at Technology Review I'd be happy to be wrong.

Link to "Methuselah Mouse Man".

Note: as my blog-mate Mark has reported previously, Mr. De Grey is also an honorary member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. See also this earlier BB post by David Pescovitz: Why Die?

fireball island
deadly toys
corgi toys
optical toys
vladmaster
my little borg pony
world domination toys
the cubes
art army
the real toy story
hazard cards
Shown here: My Borg Pony. web zen home, web zen store, (Thanks, Frank).

Via Declan McCullagh's politech list: William Knowles writes about a Canadian blogger who claims he was harassed and strip-searched by US immigration officials when he told them his profession was "blogger." Snip:

This sounds like an unbelievable story, but it happened to Canadian blogger Jeremy Wright last week. As already reported on quite a few blogs, Jeremy was detained and interrogated by US Immigration when he arrived in New York last week for a meeting with McGraw-Hill (Ed. note: an unnamed media company -- see update) to discuss a great business opportunity for Jeremy in the area of blogging.

It appears that the immigration people simply did not believe that Jeremy could make a living as a blogger. And they gave him the third degree - including an humiliating strip search - as a result for some hours. And banned him from entering the US. Incredible. Jeremy wrote detailed commentary on his blog about his experience, but he's now pulled those posts (this post explains why). While the details aren't yet clear on exactly why Jeremy had such an awful experience at the hands of the guardians of freedom and liberty (hard to get true irony here), this appears to be disgraceful behaviour on their part.

I met Jeremy in the US in January. Shel and I interviewed him for a podcast. You couldn't meet a nicer and more honourable bloke!

Link to William's post, and link to an update posted by Jeremy Wright on The End of The Story.

This t-shirt makes punny nerd fun of Mao's red book and RTFM ("read the fucking manual" in geek parlance). The Chinese characters say, more or less, "closely following Chairman Mao through strong wind big waves and advance forward".
Link to more info on tian's blog, buy the shirt here.

Previously on Boing Boing: Chinese commie death purses: lost in translation

Houston's famed Beer Can House will undergo a much-needed rennovation thanks to a $125,000 grant from the city to the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, owners of the property. John Milkovisch, a retired employee of Southern Pacific Railroad, began decorating in 1968. From Roadside America:

Beer cans quickly became John's exclusive medium -- a convenient one, since John drank a lot of beer. He worked on the house for the next 18 years, incorporating a six-pack a day into its adornment -- roughly 39,000 cans. He linked pull-tabs into long streamers to make curtains that chimed when the wind blew. "This curtain idea is just one of those dreams in the back of my noodle," he explained at the time.

"John thought beer cured everything," explained Mary, his wife, after John had died (in 1988).

Link to Houston Chronicle article about the restoration

That's /FRAHHHN-ken-steen/, of course. Newsweek's Brian Braiker did a really neat interview with film legend Gene Wilder, whose memoirs were just published. I can't wait to get my paws on the book. Newsweek's online feature includes links to video clips of five classic Wilder scenes (including a moment from Willy Wonka, shown below), and background on each. Snip from interview:

Q: I didn’t realize that you had had a stem-cell transplant. Have you done any advocacy for more stem-cell research or are you staying out of that debate?
A: I wasn’t a friend, but I was an acquaintance, of Chris Reeve, and we talked about it the last time I saw him, which was at the U.S. Open. The Bush administration has this—I don’t know what to call it—I’d like to say Neanderthal outlook about it. Generally, I don’t like it when actors get up and start preaching, but it’s something that should be obvious and it’s hard to speak with vehemence when you think that the people you’re addressing it to aren’t going to understand what you’re saying. I think it’s something Congress should take up.

Q: You write about this compulsion to pray you had when you were younger. What’s so fascinating about it is that you called the compulsion your “Demon” when ostensibly you were praying to God.
A: Actually, I never thought of it as God. I didn’t know what to call it. I don’t believe in devils, but demons I do because everyone at one time or another has some kind of a demon, even if you call it by another name, that drives them. It came in March of my freshman year at the university in Iowa and it lasted a long time. I never knew when it was going to come or go. Every time I was happy it seemed to rear—well, I say his ugly head, but I don’t know if it was a he or a she.

Link to interview and video clips, and Link to amazon listing for Wilder's Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art.

Boing Boing reader Dave sez, "IMAX theaters in the southern USA are refusing to air documentaries that merely mention evolution. One of the sad parts is that the theaters in question are in museums and science centers -- institutions of science, not faith." Link to NY Times story "A New Screen Test for Imax: It's the Bible vs. the Volcano."