In today's NYT, a fascinating interview with "father of acid" Albert Hofman, who turned 100 this week.

His work on ergot produced several important drugs, including a compound still in use to prevent hemorrhaging after childbirth. But it was the 25th compound that he synthesized, lysergic acid diethylamide, that was to have the greatest impact. When he first created it in 1938, the drug yielded no significant pharmacological results. But when his work on ergot was completed, he decided to go back to LSD-25, hoping that improved tests could detect the stimulating effect on the body's circulatory system that he had expected from it. It was as he was synthesizing the drug on a Friday afternoon in April 1943 that he first experienced the altered state of consciousness for which it became famous. "Immediately, I recognized it as the same experience I had had as a child," he said. "I didn't know what caused it, but I knew that it was important."

When he returned to his lab the next Monday, he tried to identify the source of his experience, believing first that it had come from the fumes of a chloroform-like solvent he had been using. Inhaling the fumes produced no effect, though, and he realized he must have somehow ingested a trace of LSD. "LSD spoke to me," Mr. Hofmann said with an amused, animated smile. "He came to me and said, 'You must find me.' He told me, 'Don't give me to the pharmacologist, he won't find anything.' "

Link. Image: Marc Latzel. (Thanks, John)

Author and Boing Boing "band manager" John Battelle has a few thoughts on the search giant's CES announcements:

The ability to sell video is great, but not news. We've known that was coming. What is really interesting is the pricing leverage: Google is splitting revenues 70/30 - that's 70 to the content producer. Also very important is that the producers of content are the ones who set the price - again, totally different from traditional models. Thirdly, Google is doing its own DRM. That's very interesting, and probably best left as the subject of another post. Producers can decide to not use DRM, as Charlie Rose did, Feiken told me.

Link. Google Pack is up now, too.

Just kidding about the last part. Snip: "A cow that escaped a slaughterhouse dodged vehicles, ran in front of a train, braved the icy Missouri River and took three tranquilizer darts before being recaptured six hours later. News of the heifer's adventures prompted a number of people to offer to buy the animal." Link (Thanks, Oswaldo)

Reader comment: Jon Power says,

I take it no Brit has trumped your heiffer yet? We had two very famous pigs that did a runner from the abbattoir, way back in 1998! Link. They had to swim a river, and so got nicknamed Butch and Sundance. One was on the run for days, it was a huge story at the time. Ask any Brit, they'll remember.

On Monday, I posted about how some copies of the interactive talking book Potty Time With Elmo reportedly say "Who wants to die?" instead of "Who wants to try to go potty?" BB reader Maria Burke reports a similar surreal situation involving her "Shout!" Dancing Elmo Doll. Here's what she writes:

My Shout Elmo said you make Elmo wanna shout beat up elmo, shoot his foot out. If Fisherprice had taken my concerns seriously perhaps this book (Potty Time) may have never been produced and each book have been scrutinized before it went out for sale. I had requested that Fisherprice check each puppet or modify it so it was more audible....

I did discuss the matter in a web site that I belong to .... and I wrote to Sesame Street, FisherPrice and even the Toy Guy as well as have a short clip on channel Ten. Fisherprice considered my case isolative and not worthy of investigating further seeing that all their "Elmo's" appeared to sound appropriate but I asked several people on the street what they heard and they did not hear BE LIKE ELMO clearly. Now this new book is out and it worries me that bad subliminal messages are being infiltrated and the target is people who don't speak English and those children are getting the message. I would advice all parents to monitor all the new toys and really really listen.

I don't buy the effectiveness of (read BoingBoing!) subliminals (read BoingBoing!), but Maria sent me an audio clip of what indeed sounds like Elmo singing "beat up elmo" and "shoot his foot out."

These Elmo oddities remind me of the famous Barbie Liberation Organization action of 1993 when the group switched the voiceboxes of hundreds of Barbie and GI Joe dolls and placed them back on store shelves.

Link to the Evil Elmo thread on Weird Reality, an MSN Group where Maria posted her story. Link to the sound file. (If you're using Firefox, you may have to hit "save link as" to download and then play the file as it seems to cut off otherwise.)

UPDATE: Thanks to Matt Tolley and the other readers who point out that Elmo could actually be singing the less offensive (and less interesting) phrases, "be like Elmo" and "stick your foot out."

On Wednesday, Pierre Pinoncelli attacked a replica of Marcel Duchamp's famous sculpture Fountain on display at the Dada exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris. (Previous post about Fountain here.) Apparently, the artwork was only slightly chipped and Pinocelli was arrested. From the New York Times:

Mr. Pinoncelli, 77, who urinated into the same urinal and struck it with a hammer in a show in Nîmes in 1993, has a long record of organizing bizarre happenings. Police officials said he again called his action a work of art, a tribute to Duchamp and other Dada artists.

Indeed, "Fountain" itself was rejected for being neither original nor art when Duchamp offered it for the first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York in 1917. That version of the urinal, displayed upside down and signed "R. Mutt," was subsequently lost. The Pompidou's "Fountain" is one of eight signed replicas made by Duchamp in 1964.

After the attack on Wednesday, Mr. Pinoncelli was held by the police overnight. He was released on Thursday and ordered to appear in court here on Jan. 24 to answer charges of damaging the property of others. As in 1993, he could face a prison term or a fine. (After the first urinal attack, he was jailed for a month and fined the equivalent of $37,500.)

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

UPDATE: BB pal Jim Leftwich reminds us that in 1995, Brian Eno collected some of his urine and used plastic tubing to splash it onto Fountain even though the work was displayed behind glass at the MoMA. Link

Danny O'Brien says: "Kid in Canton, Ohio puts up a webpage telling his friends to go to their school website, and hit refresh. Now the local prosecutor wants to charge him with a felony and threatens him with jail time." Link

Reader comment: Jason Roos says: "It is interesting to see how facts can get distorted when they are quoted and then re-quoted. The original article says: 'But, prosecutors say community service is more likely and disciplinary action from the school,' yet your headline for this post says, 'City prosecutor wants to put kid in jail...'

Color me boggled:

After planes, trains and mobile phones [Ed. Note: they forgot spaceships! --XJ], Richard Branson is plunging into the world of film production.

The entrepreneur is launching Virgin Animation, a company that will produce animated films from comic book characters developed by another newly-created venture, Virgin Comics. He is teaming up with Elizabeth director Shekhar Kapur and Gotham Chopra, a film producer and the son of new age guru Deepak Chopra.

Link to Guardian story, and here is virgincomics.com.

Reader comment: Spencer says,

Interestingly, the virgincomics.com page that you linked is marked "Copyright 2003-2004 Gotham Comics." Gotham Comics is the company behind the launch of Spider-Man India last year. A little Googling reveals that it's a joint venture between Deepak Chopra and film director Shekhar Kapur intended to create original Indian properties based on mythology and folk tales. Also of interest, Gotham Chopra is also the author of the well-known comic title Bulletproof Monk, which was turned into a Chow Yun-Fat film a few years back.

Link

Posted on Gareth Branwyn's Street Tech:

Julian Dibbell has an interesting piece in the Jan/Feb issue of Legal Affairs where he explores the idea of whether the trading of virtual "goods" in virtual worlds could constitute an income-generating, and therefore, taxable exchange under the IRS rules of barter. This may sound ridiculous on the face of it, but because virtual world goods now have real-world market values, there is a legal argument here (albeit an unsettling one for anybody who plays online multiplayer games or hangs out in SecondLife). The good news is that, when he pursued the question with IRS officials, they cocked their heads to the side like dogs hearing a high-pitched noise, i.e. don't expect to see 1099 forms shipping with multiplayer games anytime soon.

Link

Reader comment: OM says: "…This whole “can profits off of selling WoW items be taxed” rings of a similar predecessor incident from the Golden Days of the dial-up BBS world. Back in the early 90’s, some former IRS worker was running a WWIV-based BBS, and somehow – probably through a drug-and-kiddie-porn induced brain hemorrhage – concluded that downloads are taxable income. That’s right, according to his addled excuse for a mind, if you downloaded a Doom .WAD file, or a .JPEG of Ginger Lynn taking on five guys, or even a text file showing you how to cheat at Trade Wars, you owed Uncle Sam and the IRS money. Of course, the Sysop in question also required real names *and* addresses to access his BBS, and was actually sending 1099 forms back to anyone using his BBS, telling them they needed to file them with their income tax returns or they’d get nailed in an audit. This caused a major uproar in the WWIVnet community, and actually spread across to other BBS networks as a major threat to everything associated with BBSing. One WWIVnet Sysop – Filo – took the matter before a judge *and* an IRS official, and the two of them concluded this former IRS worker was nuts, and that downloads *not* taxable income. In fact, the IRS official made it clear that it would have been virtually impossible to have enforced such a ruling in favor of taxing downloads, due to the sheer logistics of the situation – decentralized networks, stand-alone systems, unpublished phone numbers, lack of proof of identity, etc, etc. In fact, the best they could have hoped for was to collect sales tax on any fees collected for actual access to the BBS, and even then most Sysops were declaring that as donations for non-profit, and going after so little an amount – he estimated the average tax collected per BBS for just access fees at less than $5-$10 a year – would have been far more costly even with penalties than it would have been worth.

…And when you think about it, the BBS downloads case probably set a precedence of sorts; the same reasoning the IRS took at the time is probably the same reason why you don’t see the IRS trying to tax BitTorrent, eDonkey, Kazaa, Napster and iTunes downloads, much less those off of “legit” filesharing sites such as those run by some of the online computer rags, or the WAD and Mod sites for the hundreds of games out there. It really would be akin to charging a tax on farts and then trying to enforce collection on each and every outgassing. The IRS may be greedy, but they’re not *that* dumb."

Link (Thanks, Coop and Ruth!)

Remember the sad saga of PearLyrics -- the iTunes helper app that acted like a specialized web browser, searching the internet for song lyrics while you play music in iTunes?

Walter Ritter, the Austrian tech researcher who coded it in his spare time for fun, received a forceful cease-and-desist letter in December from music publisher Warner/Chappell . They demanded he take the popular app offline, and cc'd Apple, insisting they also remove links to the software from apple.com.

It seems Warner/Chappell attorneys originally misunderstood just what PearLyrics does. It's a search tool, and it looks for content others have published on the internet. Ritter says he created it for noncommercial use. It was ad-free, and Ritter earned no money from its distribution. It's not one of those illicit lyrics websites with tons of popup ads -- it does not publish copyrighted content without permission. If the music industry would get its act together and provide a "legal" version of what the unauthorized lyrics sites do, presumably PearLyrics would search those sanctioned sites, too.

After EFF attorney Fred Von Lohmann circulated an open letter criticizing the company's actions, Warner/Chappell issued a public apology.

But nothing's changed. Weeks later, PearLyrics is still offline.

Warner/Chappell did not return my repeated requests for comment this week, but Walter Ritter tells Boing Boing "There's still nothing new," and says he's still waiting for follow-up word from the office of chairman Richard Blackstone, as promised.

If everyone agrees that consumers have a right to search the web for lyrics (or other data) about songs they have legally obtained, and this helper tool isn't evil, why is PearLyrics still forced to remain offline?

An apology is nice, but actions speak louder than words.

Previously on Boing Boing:
Warner/Chappell Music apologizes to PearLyrics
EFF's open letter to Warner Music
Xeni on NPR: Warner/Chappell vs. Pearlyrics
Lyrics Dustup Ends in Apology
Warner Music attacks specialized web-browser

Boing Boing reader Numair Faraz wrote:

version: 2.1p
subject: Contact Intel, New Logo
about: Question, YOUR NEW LOGO SUCKS. Ugh. What a waste of money.
fieldorder: inorder
resulturl: http://www.intel.com/intel/thankyou.htm

To which Intel's soul-less robots croaked:

From: channelfb@mailbox.cps.intel.com
Date: January 7, 2006 12:11:41 AM GMT+08:00 Subject: RE: Contact Intel, New Logo

Hello:

Thank you for contacting Intel. We sincerely appreciate your taking time to provide your comments and feedback.

The new corporate logo signals that the Intel® brand, and what it stands for, is evolving. It is the most visible representation of our company, and the new logo serves a powerful tool that strikes the right balance between building on our heritage and signaling the evolution to platforms. This emphasis on the corporate logo aligns with how people buy their technology today-in a complex marketplace with many devices, people look to the source brand first. Overall the strategy is tightly aligned with our business strategy, and our approach to the specific markets where we are playing-mobile, home, health, and enterprise. This change in brand identity does not affect the Intel Inside® program.

Intel does have one of the most valuable brands in the world, but we want to increase the value and make it even stronger. We believe this brand evolution will allow Intel to be better recognized for our platform vision and contributions (beyond the microprocessor), establish a stronger emotional connection with our audiences, and strengthen our overall brand value and position in the marketplace.

Again, thank you for your interest in Intel.

Sincerely, Intel Customer Support

Boing Boing reader Dave says,

While at my parents over Christmas, I ventured into the loft and found issue 1 of ST Format, dating from 1989. Naturally I scanned in some select pages, in particular a bunch of adverts. A few gems in there, if you can find them... and some of the companies even still exist (see the Datel hand-held scanners? Datel now make console accessories!)

Link

Reader comment: Dougie Henderson says,

The atari.st website has a list of all the articles and reivews from almost every ST Format published: Link

Link

Snip from a News.com story by Declan McCullagh:

Dozens of federal agencies are tracking visits to U.S. government Web sites in violation of long-standing rules designed to protect online privacy, a CNET News.com investigation shows.

From the Air Force to the Treasury Department, government agencies are using either "Web bugs" or permanent cookies to monitor their visitors' behavior, even though federal law restricts the practice. Chart: Federal Web tracking

Some departments changed their practices this week after being contacted by CNET News.com. The Pentagon said it wasn't aware that its popular Defenselink.mil portal tracked visitors--in violation of a privacy notice--and said it would fix the problem. So did the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

"We were not aware of the cookies set to expire in 2016," a Pentagon representative said Wednesday. "All of the cookies we had set with WebTrends were to be strictly (temporary) cookies, and we are taking immediate action." WebTrends is a commercial Web-monitoring service.

Link

Reader comment: Paul says,

I was the web designer for a major naval web page quite a few years ago, chosen because I had my own personal geocities site (so I was the expert). It was a collateral duty, in addition to my main job, and I had learn as I went. There wasn't any place where I could go to learn all the rules and regulations, so I just did the best I could. I never would have known I couldn't have used cookies for stats -- I probably would have thought it was a good idea. I suspect the same thing is happening now; people with very little knowledge and less experience are trying to do the best they can. I don't think it's malicious coding.

Reader comment: Damien says,

Ben Forta, a well respected geek working for Adobe (and previously for Macromedia), takes Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache to task for their article over government use of website cookies. A worthwhile read for another viewpoint on this debate. Link, and Link 2.

During his CES keynote tomorrow at 4pm, Google co-founder Larry Page is expected to announce details on two rumored product offerings:

* Pay-per-download content through Google Video, including programming from CBS and the NBA.
* "Google Pack," a software bundle that looks, walks, and quacks a lot like the beginnings of a web OS.

A Wall Street Journal article (Link, paid subscription required) broke details this morning, citing a source familiar with Google's plans. Tim Beyers at Motley Fool provides astute analysis here, including thoughts on how tomorrow's anticipated announcements might relate to the company's rumored plans to offer a sub-$200 thin client computer. Saul Hansell's New York Times piece (reg-free link) compares the company's video-related plans with those of competitors Yahoo and Microsoft. And in Technology Review, Eric Hellweg dissects the "Google Cube" rumors (Link).

A Google rep I spoke with this afternoon said the company would not confirm the contents of the WSJ article or related reports, deferring comment until tomorrow's 4pm announcement. Author and Boing Boing "band manager" John Battelle will no doubt have much to say on his blog after that time.

Update: I'll be a guest on ABC's "Good Morning America" Friday for a segment exploring what announcements from Google, Microsoft, and others this week mean for consumers.

Reader Comment: Damon Haidary says,

I've found some small evidence validating the 'Google Pack' rumor that some of your more impatient readers might like. After reading the post I immediatly hit pack.google.com (as I'm sure a lot of people did) and noticed it redirects to a beta tester login page for the new offering.

The first time I attempted to login it gave me some error about not being able to auth because the service is down. Now all it gives me is "invalid request".

If there's no truth to the pack news then why bother with a redirect? It's hardly a 404. :)

Reader Comment: Punk Sergeant in Fallujah found proof in Iraq that Google really does want to take over air, water, and food, too:

I found this water over here in Iraq. Currently, I'm serving over here in Camp Fallujah, Iraq with the Marines. I work with TCNs (Third Country Nationals) on regular basis for supplies and contracting issues. One day I was talking to contractor and I happened to run across this bottled water.

Yes, it is GOOGLE WATER. Obviously a clear copyright violation. But is it? This is deionized water and is non-potable. It is meant for steamers and radiators and is made by Zena Water. It is bottled in the "free zone of Syria Jordan" (I don't know where that is).

Part of the reason I'm auctioning it on Ebay is two fold. 1. I want to expose Google's attempts to take slowly take over the world. LOL. 2. Also, 75% of the proceeds will go to the Fisher house. This organization is very similar to the Ronald McDonald house, with focus on military families.

I would also consider this a limited edition bottled water. Because once Google's lawyers get a hold of this, it won't be around much longer.

Link

Reader Comment: Michael Cicconi says,

Remember Google's April Fool's joke about Google Gulp? That's what I'm reminded of a little here.

Reader Comment: kdt says,

The "Google water" listing has been removed. Hopefully the folks at Google have decided to lob a hefty donation the way of Fisher House.

5653615339 - Google Water
was removed because the intellectual property rights owner notified eBay that the listing potentially infringes its copyright, trademark or other rights. Due to this claim, and the fact that the feedback system is no longer available, we strongly urge you not to complete this transaction.

If only I were talented enough to make shit like this up. Myles Weissleder of meetup.com tells Boing Boing,

Bosley, a well-respected Meetup.com pug [Ed note: as opposed to, what, pugs of ill repute?], was abducted from a CARNIVAL by a CARNIVAL WORKER during OKTOBERFEST in La Crosse, Wisconsin and THOUSANDS of people around the nation are up in arms.

See the front page article in the La Crosse Tribune here.

The owners are doing DNA TESTING -- and casting a wide net. The Pug Meetup community is rallying hard.

Link to the hard-rallying Pug Meetup Community. How they manage to type so many big words with those tiny, clumsy little paws, I'll never know.

Ray has scanned and posted 16 photos from a 1979 brochure for an IBM 4331 Processor: "Exceptionally compact, yet more powerful than many larger systems, the IBM 4331 Processor is designed to provide advanced computing benefits at a cost comparable to what you're probably paying now for a system with less application capability." Part 1 Link, Part 2 Link (Thanks, Ray!)

This LED flashlight consists of five bright LEDs in a row on a clip that is meant to be mounted on the brim of your baseball cap or other peaked cap, transforming any peaked cap into a headlamp. Link (via Red Ferret)

SFcrowsnest.com, a great science fiction review and community site, has just awarded Boing Boing an award for best science-fiction blog in its third annual Wooden Rocket Awards! The Wooden Rockets are awarded by popular vote and we're awfully grateful to all of you who supported us in the award. It's an honor to have pleased you enough to bestow this accolade upon us. Thanks!

Best Blog.
Any SFF blog presented in the English language.

Winner

Boing Boing

Runners-Up

The Early Days of a Better Nation
Making Light

Link (Thanks, Shaun!)

Sony-BMG is being sued in class actions in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, just as it begins to settle some of the cases against it in the USA.

The revelation that Sony had deliberately infected its music CDs with invisible spyware and rootkits that installed themselves without your consent and left you vulnerable to cyber-attacks prompted several class-action and state lawuits across the US. Sony has settled some (though individuals can opt out and take Sony to small-claims court), but just as fast as they make one claim go away, another pops up.

The Merchant Law Firm, based in Calgary, launched class action suits in both the Ontario and B.C. courts yesterday (Ontario brief, B.C. brief). This follows a less-publicized class action launched in Quebec against Sony last November. All of these cases arise from the rootkit issue. The briefs make for interesting reading as the Canadian cases raise a long list of legal issues including the violation of Canadian privacy law, breach of contract, violation of the Competition Act, and a host of tort claims.

LinkThanks, Michael!)

Previous installments of the Sony DRM Debacle Roundup: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

(Cool Sony CD image courtesy of Collapsibletank)

Earlier this week, I blogged about Coldplay's DRM on their latest CD, X&Y, which contains a supercilious disclaimer that sternly instructs you that "in order for you to enjoy a high quality music experience" the CD is crippled with DRM that can prevent the disc from being ripped to MP3, played in game consoles, DVD players, car stereos, personal players, and half a zillion other devices.

What we didn't know is whether the CDs in your corner store were infected with this DRM, and since the insert in the CD told you that you could only return the CD for material defects, and not if you disagreed with these restrictions, that was bad news.

Now we know a little bit more about who's likely to get an infected CD. A knowledgeable source has identified this as a Macrovision DRM and disclaimer, and noted that the label only bought licenses to sell this CD with that DRM in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

However, the original report originates in India, which suggests that the CDs are either being exported out of the region, or that the label is issuing the discs without a license for their DRM.

Bottom line: wherever you are in the world, there's a chance that your Coldplay CD came with this DRM, and there's no way to find out without buying the disc and taking it home, and once you do, it's too late to take it back to the store. Link

Update: Ben sez, "Not sure if it is of interest---- but I received one of the ColdPlay DRM CD for Christmas. It was originally bought in Toronto at the Future Shop on Eglington near Laird in East York. When I insert it into my Windows XP PC is doesn't let me play it using the standard CD player applications nor does it let me rip it using Windows Media Player."

Update 2: Santiago sez, "I bought the Coldplay CD as a Christmas present for my girlfriend in Mexico City (the CD is manufactured here in Mexico). When she tried to convert it to mp3's so she could upload it to her iPod, her computer didn't recognize the CD." Update 4: John in Australia sez, "My office-mate bought the Coldplay CD and it wouldn't rip. I had her try reinserting the disk holding down the shift key and it ripped, but with intrusive noises added every few seconds, so there were at least two levels of copy protection."

Mark Lyon, the law student who runs SonySuit.com (a clearinghouse for information about the lawsuits arising from Sony's practice of putting malicious spyware and rootkits on its music CDs) has filed a personal small claim against Sony for the damage done to his PC when he played one of the company's audio discs.

This is on the heels of a class-action settlement that Lyon is opting out of. He's included information for people who want to file their own individual small claims against Sony:

So, today, I filed an individual action against Sony BMG Music Entertainment in the County Court of Hinds County, Mississippi. I sent Mr. Andrew Lack, Sony BMG's CEO, a letter almost two months ago asking for help removing their program without downloading additional software, a replacement cd, and compensation for my time and other damages. Stephanie Yu of Sony BMG answered on December 21, 2005 with the unhelpful suggestion that I download their "uninstaller".

Watch for updates as the matter progresses. If you are also dissatisfied with the class action settlement, you are allowed to send an objection to the Court or opt out and pursue Sony BMG on your own. If, however, your problems will be solved by the settlement, and you trust Sony BMG's "uninstaller", then you should get copies of your reciept ready so that you can file a claim form.

Link

Previous installments of the Sony DRM Debacle Roundup: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

(Cool Sony CD image courtesy of Collapsibletank)

The latest edition of LA Weekly has a hugh and terrific collection of lists, edited by Joshuah Bearman.

Josh says, "It was an insane amount of work, like law school finals or something. By the end, everyone was in here for 20 hour stretches, with pages laid out and marked up and the Sugar Bowl on the conference room TV, and at 2am on the final we were all drinking Crown Royal with Royal Crown cola, which is my new drink: CR&RC, aka The Bearmaniac."

I wrote a list of "5 Wonderful Things" for the issue. There are plenty of other great lists, like "4 Reasons to be Glad Bush is Still President" (which is pretty convincing, actually), and an excerpt from Boing Boing favorite John Hodgman's book, Areas of My Expertise.

Thankfully, there's an informative list of "Monkey News":

An experiment at Duke University Medical Center offered thirsty monkeys a choice: their favorite drink, in this case, Juicy Juice brand cherry drink, or the opportunity to look at computer images of the dominant, “celebrity” monkey of their pack. Despite their thirst, they chose to look at the pictures. Monkeys with status have food, power and sexual magnetism — everything the others crave. The impulse to look at these “celebrity” monkeys was so strong, it superseded thirst.

And Doug Harvey's outsider music list is intriguing. Link

Esteemed BB readers:

A year or so ago we asked all of you to tell us a little bit about yourselves (link to survey) and you sure did.

Well, we're back at it again. We're teaming up with Federated Media (band manager John Battelle's new company), and to make sure our advertisers are as relevant as they can be to you, we once again ask you to fill out a quick Boing Boing reader survey. We promise to show you the results.

Knowing more about our readers helps us attract advertisers that you actually might want to start a conversation with, and that helps us do what we love to do - author Boing Boing. So please help us by taking this short survey, we really appreciate it.

Thanks,

the BB editors

Link

Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman comments on the first purported eyewitness sketch of the Malaysian "Bigfoot" that has been the subject of a media "monster flap" in recent weeks. This illustration comes from an article today in the New Straits Times, titled "Closing in on Bigfoot, foreign media set to descend on Johor." About this sketch, Loren writes:

The sketch appears to illustrate the more distinctive Malaysian unknown hairy hominid, which technically is a more humanlike cryptid, and very different that the classic, stocky Pacific Northwest USA’s Bigfoot or Sasquatch. I have previously discussed in my and Patrick Huyghe’s field guide, as has Mark A. Hall in his books, how the Malaysian unknown hairy hominoid reports divide into two quite separate types: those of the True Giant and the accounts of the more humanoid, Erectus Hominid variety.

This drawing, if it actually does originate from eyewitness sightings in Malaysia - and there’s no guarantee that this is the case - clearly shows one of the latter. If this is an image that we are to definitely now associate with the new wave of Malaysian encounters, it does reinforce the diversity of unknown hairy hominoids, and adds weight to calling this something other than "Bigfoot."

Link

The US Military is showing off a handheld Radar Scope that they claim detects motions as subtle as someone breathing inside a building. Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the $1000 gadget works through 12-inches of concrete and fifty feet beyond. They plan to field test the Radar Scope in Iraq as soon as this spring. From the American Forces Information Service:

"It may not change how four-man stacks go into a room (during clearing operations)," (DARPA's Edward) Baranoski said. "But as they go into a building, it can help them prioritize what rooms they go into. It will give them an extra degree of knowledge so they know if someone is inside."

Even as the organization hurries to get the devices to combat forces, DARPA already is laying groundwork for bigger plans that build on this technology.

Proposals are expected this week for the new "Visi Building" technology that's more than a motion detector. It will actually "see" through multiple walls, penetrating entire buildings to show floor plans, locations of occupants and placement of materials such as weapons caches, Baranoski said.

Link (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

This product listing on Wal*Mart's website for a Planet of The Apes DVD suggests films about black historic figures Dorothy Dandridge and Martin Luther King, Jr. as "similar items." Maybe it's just a metadata anomaly (some readers have suggested that the entries might all share keywords for "race" or something), or maybe the cause is less innocent. Full-size screenshot, url link here. (Thanks, Carol, also spotted on crooksandliars and firedoglake)

Reader comment: Mike Harris says,

It's made even more suspicious by the fact that the larger "Similar Items" listing further down the page includes two more African-American movies, "Unforgiveable Blackness: the Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson" and "What's Love Got to Do With It".

Reader comment: Nate Heasley says,

The Walmart references could be just a fluke or perhaps someone trying to be hurtful, but there is a third possibility: it's intentional and anti-racist. Planet of the Apes is widely considered to have anti-racism social commentary woven into the sci-fi storyline. Beneath the Planet of the Apes was even more blatantly about racism and classism. So it could be that rather than having some racist idiot (person or bot) inserting those links to black historic figures, it's actually someone who's got knowledge of the more subtle references in the the movies.

Reader comment: Oh nooo, Planet of the Crackahzzzz! Alastair sez:

The original link now shows Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Fifth Season (Widescreen) and Friends: The Complete Tenth Season as the "similar items." This is a product listing for planet of the apes again? Another cruel joke?

Reader comment: Jacob Rome says,

I recall seeing something like this before. In that case, inappropriate Amazon books were recommended, such as sex guides being shown for people browsing a Pat Robertson book. It was theorized that a large number of people caused this by visiting one page then the other, in order to game the system.

Perhaps the same thing is happening here. A group of racists could get together & view "Planet of the Apes" then immediately view movies about prominent African-Americans. This could lead to Wal*Mart providing the recommendations shown.

I just found an old story about the Amazon case, Link . You guys discussed similar instances here.

Reader comment: Elías Gómez says,

The novel Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, on which the TV series and movies were based is in fact a metaphor, or an alegoric view of the interracial struggle that took place in the States in the sixties. I think it tried to make people - mostly white people - somehow realize the way the oppressed ones lived and make them change their minds. So perhaps the MLK suggestion isn't really a racist suggestion at all. Anyway, I have no explanation for the other film.

Reader comment: Jeff says, Wal-Mart has pulled all movie suggestions on its site because of the Apes debacle. From the AP story,

"We are heartsick that this happened and are currently doing everything possible to correct the problem," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said in a statement. "Walmart.com's item mapping process does not work correctly and at this point is mapping seemingly random combinations of titles. We were horrified to discover that some hurtful and offensive combinations are being mapped together," she said, adding that the company was "deeply sorry that this happened."

Reader comment: John Pappas III ("San Diego Johnny") says,

The story regarding Walmart.com was broken by my blog back in October: Link

Ethan Zuckerman, founder of Tripod and Geekcorps, wrote a hilarious account of making a hot tub from scratch in the dead of winter. He says it was a horrible idea, but the photos and humor in the entry tell me that he and his friend had a great time making it.

After four hours of a roaring wood fire, the temperature in our tub had warmed up to a balmy 11C. This isn’t quite the failure that it sounds like - after all, the water began at 5C, the air temperature was -5C and it was snowing. Somewhere in the heating process, Nate raided my shop for excess extruded foam insulation, hoping to hold more of the heat in the water. It didn’t work, but the pink insulation adds some nice color to the photos, I think.

Link

Reader comment: Jamie McCarthy says: "A friend of mine was burned very badly on much of her upper body when the burn barrel in her friends' homebrew hot tub tipped onto her."

"Ethan Zuckerman's site is down now, so I don't know what kind of disclaimers he includes (except "horrible idea," which sounds about right). But in any case, please let your readers know: unless their idea of a good time includes lengthy hospital stays, months of physical therapy, and maybe death and stuff, they might want to skip the DIY hot tub."

ParentHacks is a new geeky parenting blog from my friend Asha (who is married to Rael Dornfest, who edited the Hacks books for O'Reilly). It's full of short, practical tips for parenting:

Jim has generously shared a brilliant and uber-geeky parent hack: entertain the kid by clicking Flickr photo tags! Who's gonna complain when presented with random photos of dump trucks, or elephants, or volcanoes, or whatever the latest toddler obsession happens to be? Great learning tool, too.

Link (Thanks, Rael!)

Wonderful painter Amy Crehore has announced three new prints for sale. They're from her playfully psychosexual "Little Pierrot" series.

Each "Little Pierrot" print is individually hand-signed and numbered by the artist in limited editions of only 250 each. Ready for framing or collecting, each print comes in an archival sleeve with a certificate of authenticity. First order includes a free postcard of "Pussycat Rag". Limited-time offer while they last.

Link

Boing Boing reader Tiara says,

On New Years Eve, a punk-rock concert organized by Paul's Place, a live jam establishment in Malaysia, was raided by police over accusations of "indecent behavior" and "engaging in Satanic black metal activities".

They detained the patrons of the concert (mainly youths with some professionals too), the organizers, and some of the performing band members (including some from Japan and Singapore).

They also detained some people who were eating at foodstalls nearby Paul's Place. The detainees were made to do drug tests and be interviewed by the media, which painted them as hooligans worshipping Satan (they even claimed that the concert was a replacement for a sex party in Langkawi). Among their claims of Satanism included black t-shirts, fanzines with "elements of violence, pornography, Judaism, and curse words like 'fuck'", and men and women mingling together in a place that served alcohol.

This blog provides a good summary of the event as potrayed by the media, and there are many links out there by the Malaysian blogging community. The Malaysian bloggers are really coming together, providing information and discussion space.

Link to blog coverage of the latest Malaysian Metal crackdown by the merciless Man.

Previously on BoingBoing:
Black Metal for Dummies
Malaysian metal and the Man: a first-hand account

Reader comment: DJ Carlito says, "I googled one of the bands and found photos links. Here are pics from a concert at that same venue last month: Link"

Update: Tiara writes,

The Centre for Independent Journalism has started a blog covering what the Malaysian media says about Black Metal. Link

Groklaw has produced a hilarious parody of a restrictive license that is distributed with X&Y, Coldplay's latest CD. Some people who've bought the CD have discovered that the CD comes with an insert telling them all the things they've "agreed" to by buying the disc, like waiving their rights to listen to it on some car stereos (and to only be allowed to return the CD if there's a material defect and not if this agreement doesn't suit them).

Groklaw's license, ColdPizza, sets out the terms under which a pizza pie can be consumed:

This FOOD PRODUCT has been manufactured for usage only in specific FOOD PRODUCT cooking devices and storage containers and might not be usable with the following devices:

* Some FOOD PRODUCT reheaters that have the capability of reheating competing products
* Some microwave heating devices with pre-defined "Pizza" or "Sandwich" buttons
* Any FOOD PRODUCT cookers which operate utilizing Celsius temperature scale
* Some FOOD PRODUCT cookers or reheaters with convection capability
* Some FOOD PRODUCT (FP-R/RW) reheaters designed for use in dormitory settings
* Some portable FOOD PRODUCT carrying containers
* Some serving and/or warming trays
* Some FOOD PRODUCT cleaning devices, such as generic napkins, paper towels or wet wipes-style products
* Some denture products, including partial bridges and unapproved full ceramic teeth replacements

Link (Thanks, Rob!)

Microsoft admits it pulled the plug on Zhao "Anti" Jing's blog, with the shameful but familiar excuse that it was only complying with local law. Where have we heard this before? Oh yeah. And as long as there's money to be made in China, we're likely to hear it again.

Microsoft said in a statement that the decision to unplug Zhao was inline with its practice of "ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms, and industry practices."

"Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users," the company said. "Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements.”

Link to Information Week article. Rebecca McKinnon has been covering the story in detail on her blog -- see today's post, "Why Microsoft censorship in China matters to everybody." (Thanks, IZ Reloaded)

Previously on Boing Boing:
Chinese blogger censored by Microsoft
Seven Dirty Blogs
Yahoo rats out Chinese reporter to Beijing
Xeni's LAT op-ed: war, blogs, news, and profit

Blois Olson, a Democratic public relations exec, is suing blogger and former Minnesota GOP employee Michael Brodkorb for $50,000 and removal of a blog post about Olson and his PR firm.

In the Dec. 28 item, Brodkorb suggested that Olson had publicly criticized former FBI agent Coleen Rowley's campaign for Congress because Rowley's campaign staff last summer refused to hire Olson's firm, New School Communications. Olson insists the item was a fabrication; Brodkorb says he's confident it was true.

"Here's an anonymous blogger that wasn't willing to retract something that could damage my reputation and my business — and that's false," Olson said Wednesday. Brodkorb said, "It's as simple as a Democratic operative trying to silence a Republican operative's blog. He's going to proceed with this through the courts, and I will, too."

Link (Thanks Jeff)

A deaf geek diligently tinkered with the firmware on his cochlear implant, trying to get it to faithfully render out Ravel's composition, Boléro, eventually meeting with success. Michael Chorost was born with partial hearing, and at 15, he discovered that Boléro was audible to him, and it became a touchstone for him, a piece of music that he developed a deep emotional attachment to. In 2001, Chorost experienced the sudden, total loss of the remains of his hearing, and Boléro was lost to him, seemingly forever.

In this Wired feature, Chorost chronicles the amazing journey he embarked upon, learning the science of acoustics, of music, and of signal processing, reprogramming the firmware in his implanted prosthetic with the help of experts around the world with various theories about the psychoacoustic basis for music.

The story is gripping, fascinating and informative -- a template for a tale that I believe will become more and more prevalent in times to come: a person who relies on computerized prosthetics not being satisfied with the features that were included with it out of the box, taking it upon herself to improve it, to extend it, using her own body and perceptions as a labratory for experiments on human perception and performance.

I spent two and a half days hooked up to the computer, listening to endless sequences of tones - none of it music - in a windowless cubicle. Which of two tones sounded lower? Which of two versions of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was more recognizable? Did this string of notes sound like a march or a waltz? It was exacting, high-concentration work - like taking an eye exam that lasted for two days. My responses produced reams of data that they would spend hours analyzing.

Forty minutes before my cab back to the airport was due, we finished the last test and the postdoc fired up the programs he needed to play Boléro. Some of the lower pitches I'd heard in the previous two days had sounded rich and mellow, and I began thinking wistfully about those bassoons and oboes. I felt a rising sense of anticipation and hope.

I waited while the postdoc tinkered with the computer. And waited. Then I noticed the frustrated look of a man trying to get Windows to behave. "I do this all the time," he said, half to himself. Windows Media Player wouldn't play the file.

I suggested rebooting and sampling Boléro through a microphone. But the postdoc told me he couldn't do that in time for my plane. A later flight wasn't an option; I had to be back in the Bay Area. I was crushed. I walked out of the building with my shoulders slumped. Scientifically, the visit was a great success. But for me, it was a failure. On the flight home, I plugged myself into my laptop and listened sadly to Boléro with Hi-Res. It was like eating cardboard.

Link

This "Liposuction" toothpaste squeezer gets the last of the toothpaste out of the tube while accomplishing a visual pun. Link (via Crib Candy)

The annual Bloggie nominations are open. Boing Boing has been honored to receive many of these prestigious, reader-voted awards in previous years (2004: Best American Weblog, Best Group Weblog, Weblog of the Year; 2005: Best Group Weblog, Weblog of the Year) and we're here to testify that winning these things is an amazing experience.

Please take a moment to go and nominate your favorite blogs. The Bloggies run on reader-participation, so you need to go and do your bit! Link

A Forrester research report on advertising to teens concludes that the best way to reach them is to buy in-game ads or produce "advergames:"

[G]aming presents the best opportunity for marketers who wish to reach this audience. Over 90% own a gaming device, and three-quarters play online and offline games on their PC.

Two main avenues are open for advertising through games: in-game advertising and advergaming. The former is an extension of the product placement common in movies and television, and can range from graphical representation of a product in a game to wholesale sponsorship of a gaming title. With the increase in open-ended gaming that allows a player to wander around a virtual world (such as the Sims or Grand Theft Auto), opportunities for product placement are numerous. Advergaming refers to a game, usually online, that is wholly intended as a promotional device.

I don't know how good or bad this is for gaming, but it's pretty telling when buying ads in a game is smarter than buying ads on TV or product placement in a movie. Link (via Wonderland)

Misguided activism from Ralph Nader's Public Citizen group has resulted in the withdrawal of a drug that has greatly enhanced some peoples' quality of life. My friend Teresa Nielsen Hayden of the Making Light blog has narcolepsy, and used the drug Cylert to effectively control it, which meant that she no longer fell asleep suddenly when surprised (e.g., when told a funny joke or cut off on the freeway). Having access to good treatment for her condition was the difference between disability and ability.

However, Cylert has been linked to liver problems in some of the people who take it (Teresa gets her liver screened regularly and is not experiencing any problems) and Public Citizen launched a successful campaign to have the drug de-certified by the FDA:

Cylert has been implicated in some people’s liver problems. Teresa is regularly tested and her liver is fine. Evidently Abbott, makers of brand-name Cylert, discontinued it in March—but Sandoz intended to keep making the generic version, until the FDA, pressured by Nader’s group, weighed in to discontinue it entirely—despite a last-minute appeal from the Narcolepsy Network.

Link

Update: Patrick Nielsen Hayden clarifies:

Cylert/pemoline overcomes the symptoms of EDS, Excessive Daytime Sleepiness; it allows her to be normally alert and to have a working life, instead of feeling like she's been awake non-stop for the last 72 hours. Teresa also has the falling-over-when-abruptly-surprised symptom you mention; it's called cataplexy, and it's the other classic symptom of the disorder formally known as "Polysymptomatic Narcolepsy/Cataplexy Syndrome." But cataplexy doesn't entail "falling asleep," merely losing muscle control and falling over. Narcoleptics are generally quite conscious during cataplectic attacks.

Teresa has always declined the various medications offered to control cataplexy, on the grounds that she doesn't regard it as a critical problem and she doesn't need the side-effects. Her position is that if she can deal with the comic aspects and occasional inconvenience, the people around her damn well can too. She just wants to be adequately treated for EDS. Pemoline does that for her in a way that the other anti-narcolepsy drugs never quite do.

In a new study, a professor of geriatrics reports that nursing home residents would rather hang out with just a dog than a dog and other residents. The study, led by William A. Banks of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, included 37 residents who scored high on a loneliness scale and desired half-hour dog visits once a week. Half of the group spent the time alone with the dog. The others participated in group visits with one to three other residents and the pooch. Those who had the one-on-one time with the dog "experienced a much more significant decrease in loneliness after five to six weeks of visits." From a press release:

“It was a strange finding,” said Banks, who also is a staff physician at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Louis. “We had thought that the dog acts as a social lubricant and increases the interaction between the residents. We expected the group dog visits were going to work better, but they didn’t.

“The residents found a little quiet time with the pooch is a lot nicer than spending time with a dog and other people,” he said.

Link

Retrievr is a neat Flickr hack from System One that searches a database of images based on simple drawings rather than tags. I drew the branch on the left and the image on the right was one of the search results. From the project description:

Does it actually work?

Yes! That is, it depends. (Mainly on your expectations!)

In my experience, the results are usually fairly good, sometimes even stunning - considering the artistic sophistication most of us are able to come up with (gallery forthcoming); and in the cases they're not so stellar, they are at least entertaining ;-) But clearly, the approach has its limits.

One thing to keep in mind is that retrievr doesn't do object/face/text recognition of any kind, so if you're drawing an outline sketch of a chair, it almost certainly won't get you one back (except your index only contains images of chairs). The same holds for corporate logos, icons &c.
It helps to think of it as matching the most pronounced shapes and slabs of colors.

Link to Retrievr, Link to info about other "Search By Drawing" projects (via Drawn!)

Charlie says: "With all the silly putty on your site lately I thought this would be interesting. It's a 1945 Popular Science article about silicone rubber, including silly putty.

Quote from the article:

"A use remains to be found for the most curious silicone product discovered which has been nicknamed “bouncing putty.” The white substance can be pulled like taffy - but roll it into a sphere, and it bounces like rubber."

Link

Frequent Make contributor Tom Owad just published a mind-blowing how-to on his website explaining how to mine Amazon's wish list database to uncover "subversives."

Using a pair of 5-year-old computers, two home DSL connections, 42 hours of computer time, and 5 man hours, I now had documents describing the reading preferences of 260,000 U.S. citizens.

I downloaded all the files to an external 120 GB Firewire drive in UFS format. The raw data occupied little more than 5 GB. I initially wanted to move all the files into a single directory to facilitate searching, but as the directory contents exceeded 100,000 items, the speed became glacially slow, so I kept the data divided into chunks of 25,000 wishlists.

Next comes the fun part – what books are most dangerous? So many to choose from. Here's a sample of the list I made. Feel free to make up your own list if you decide to try some data mining. Send it to the FBI. I'm sure they'll appreciate your help in fighting terrorism.

Link

Reader comment: Anonymous says: "[This] method for grabbing the wishlists is overly complicated. Amazon's web services API allows programmatic access to wishlist information, making it even easier for a savvy programmer to quickly compile a list of customers interested in certain books."

A group of researchers have used a functional MRI to map out the parts of the brain that respond to brand identity, showing how Pavlovian conditioning generates response to a brand-mark.

They developed a Pavlovian-type association by flashing a geometric shape on a computer screen and giving a squirt of juice into the volunteers' mouths. However, the volunteers did not realise that they were being conditioned in this way - they were simply told to press a button to indicate on which side of the screen the shape had appeared.

The team measured how the volunteers had become conditioned by measuring their anticipation of the juice squirts following an image by measuring the dilation of their pupils...

The fMRI scans revealed significant responses reflecting learning in the ventral midbrain and the ventral striatum. Crucially, they found that the strength of the response correlated with the volunteer's like or dislike of the juice.

Link

Steve Silberman (my favorite Wired Magazine investigative reporter) has a fascinating and disturbing feature out in this month's issue about lie-detection using functional MRI (fMRI) devices that detect physiological changes in the brain brought on by prevarication.

The story is fascinating in that the science of lie-detection with fMRI is part of a wave of new technologies arising on the back of fMRI's ability to observe brains at work in a wide variety of tasks, deepening our understanding of what's going on in our own hands.

But it's disturbing in the callous attitude of the companies that are commercializing the technologies to civil liberties -- one of them gives a backhanded endorsement to Guantanamo Bay detentions ("If these detainees have information we haven't been able to extract that could prevent another 9/11, I think most Americans would agree that we should be doing whatever it takes to extract it").

Likewise disturbing is the casual interpretation of the Constitution offered by the Center for Democracy in Technology (an organization known for offering "compromise positions" on civil liberties issues) who propose that you grant "consent" to invasions of your privacy when you are coerced into doing so by the threat of police harassment if you decline.

Present-day lie-detection via polygraph is pure junk science, an abusive technology badly in need of replacement. fMRI might offer a superior mechanism for uncovering the truth, but the social harm that could arise from being compelled to testify against yourself, from being compelled to submit your mental state to coercive oversight are truly frightening.

After taking a job at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine later that year, he mapped the brains of undergraduates who had been instructed to lie about whether a playing card displayed on a computer screen was the same one they'd been given in an envelope along with $20. The volunteers - who responded by pressing a button on a handheld device so they wouldn't have to speak - were told that if they "fooled" the computer, they could keep the money. Langleben concluded in 2002 in a journal called NeuroImage that there is "a neurophysiological difference between deception and truth" that can be detected with fMRI...

The introduction of fMRI evidence at trial may have to be vetted against legal precedents designed to prevent what's called invading the province of the jury, says Carter Snead, former general counsel for the President's Council on Bioethics. In 1973, a federal appeals court ruled that "the jury is the lie detector" and that scientific evidence and expert testimony can be introduced only to help the jury reach a more informed judgment, not to be the final arbiter of truth. "The criminal justice system is not designed simply to ensure accurate truth finding," Snead says. "The human dimension of being subjected to the assessment of your peers has profound social and civic significance. If you supplant that with a biological metric, you're losing something extraordinarily important, even if you gain an incremental value in accuracy."

Link (Thanks, Steve!)

Kevin has digitized a home-movie of his 1963 family Christmas in Texas, and created a Flickr set of annotated stills as well as posting the video itself. He says, "If you look closely in the movie, you'll see a few things you might wish you had now... like an all aluminum Christmas tree and a Flinstones Pebble doll from when they mass produced 250,000 of them for the year 1963. (Pebbles was introduced early in 1963 on the Flintstones and was wildly popular as a doll)" Link to Flickr set, Link to video

Seth, a cartoonist whose work ranks right up there with Clowes, Woodring, the Hernandez brothers, and Ware, is profiled in the latest issue of Toronto Life. Link (via Drawn!) (While you're at it, check out Seth's new book, Wimbledon Green.)

Reader comment: Donna Bowman says: "Seth-loving Boing Boing readers should also know about Noel Murray's interview with Seth in the AV Club, November 16. He talks about the reasons for his fascination with the past, the genesis of Wimbeldon Green, the real-life analogs of the imaginary kiddie comics he holds up as fetish objects in that book, and the audience for the kind of comics he draws."

After an extended break, Merlin Mann has published another pithy 43 Folders podcast. The subject this time -- poorly thought-out New Year's resolution and what to do about it. Link

Even more damning information surfaced on Sam Bulte, a dirty Canadian Member of Parliament who took funds from entertainment company and later introduced extreme copyright laws/

I've been blogging about the Canadian Liberal MP who has used American-style political hucksterism from US copyright industries to finance her campaign, and who has introduced numerous extreme copyright laws.

Now the Hollywood Reporter has reported on Bulte's influence peddling, prompting Toronto Star columnist Michael Geist to write a stirring piece on the inappropriateness of Bulte's campaign:

Yet the revelations of recent days suggest that we are not in a balanced debate searching for the policies that are best for all Canadians. Sam Bulte accepts thousands of dollars in contributions from the stronger copyright law lobby and brazenly holds a fundraiser for more money days before the election. The funders justify their contributions by noting that they needed to avoid the annual financing cap and that they balance the process by funding MPs from both parties.

Indeed this last point requires further discussion as the most striking revelation in the Hollywood Reporter article is that the "U.S. interests" (as they are appropriately described in the article) have hedged their bets by also funding Conservative Bev Oda (the Canadian Heritage critic) and James Rajotte. The Oda funding is noteworthy because it suggests that the leading candidates for the Minister of Canadian Heritage position from both the Liberals and Conservatives have accepted copyright lobby campaign contributions.

Link, Link to Digital-Copyright.ca's Wiki for Parkdale organisers, Link to campaign site for Peggy Nash, Bulte's NDP opponent

(Click on thumbnails for enlargement) Like me, my friend Colin Berry is a huge admirer of Mark Ryden's work. I guess we both assumed he's always lived in Southern California. Imagine Colin's surprise when he was recently going through his old high school yearbook from Longmont, Colorado and learned that he actually attended high school with Ryden! Link