During WWII, soldiers sent "V-mail" ("victory mail") home in the form of letters that were opened, photographed onto microfilm, flown to the US and printed out, re-addressed and delivered. This saved tons in freight expenses and it was delivered by speedy airmail, while regular letters went by slow sea-freight.

The BBC has photos of period v-mails along with audio of soldiers reminiscing about their v-mail adventures.

[T]he soldiers wrote their letters on a form provided and it was then photographed onto microfilm which was simply flown to the USA. A reel of 16mm microfilm could contain 18,000 letters and in terms of bulk and weight the roll of film took up only a fraction of what 18,000 real letters would take. Upon arrival in the USA the letters were printed from the film and then posted onward to the addressee.

This clever method was employed at the suggestion of the US Army Postal Director Col. Bill Rose who actually copied the idea from a system then currently in operation in the British services which was called an ‘airgraph’.

The process might seem to be laborious with the collection of mail, the actual photographing of thousands and thousands of letters and a similar process at the other end of re-printing the photographs, addressing envelopes and mailing them on. It did really all boil down to a space issue and it is on record that for every 150,000 letters microfilmed like this over a ton of shipping space was saved.

Link (via Neatorama)

The wily thrifters at the Imaginary World site made a major score with this two-volume scrapbook of gum wrappers spanning three decades of the gum-packager's art:

One of the more interesting things we ever found out the flea market was a giant collection of bubble gum wrappers - not the kind for gum cards but actual bubble gum. It was in two volumes titled GUM BOOK 1 & 2. There were probably over 500 wrappers and packages, many cut down and all taped in the album. The earliest stuff was from 1974 and the last stuff from 1991. These 66 pages are the earliest and most interesting. Almost everything is dated.

Link (Thanks, Heath!)

If your computer was infected with spyware or rootkits when you tried to play a Sony BMG CD on it, Sony owes you money, music and an uninstaller, per the terms of a class-action settlement. SonySuit.com has the full details:

The settlement provides relief for persons who bought, received or used SONY BMG CDs with either XCP or MediaMax software. Under the settlement, any person in possession of an XCP CD can exchange it for a replacement CD, an MP3 download of the same album, and either (a) cash payment of $7.50 and one (1) free album download from a list of 200 albums, or (b) three (3) free album downloads from that list. Purchasers of CDs containing MediaMax 5.0 software will receive a free MP3 download of the same album and one (1) additional free album download. Purchasers of CDs containing MediaMax 3.0 software will receive a free MP3 download of the same album.

Link (Thanks, Mark!)

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

(Sony taproot graphic courtesy of Sevensheaven)

Mary Sue Coleman, the President of the University of Michigan, gave an unbelievably wonderful speech about Google Book Search to the American Association of Publishers, who are suing Google for making card-catalogs of all the books in several major libraries available. The speech ranges from the university's mission, the place of libraries in society, the impact that Book Search will have on book sales, and there's an incredible piece on scholarship in the developing world and Google Book Search that gave me goosebumps. This is must-read stuff.

Just as powerful as the preservation aspect of Google Book Search is the fact our venture will result in a magnitude of discovery that seems almost incomprehensible. I could not have imagined that in my lifetime so much diffuse information literally would be at my fingertips.

It is an educator’s dream, knowing that the vast body of information held in the libraries of Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library will be universally searchable and, in the case of public domain works, accessible.

My parents were both teachers. My mother would take me and my two sisters to the public library in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and I remember it was like opening the doors to a different world with each trip we made. I was forever discovering entire new veins of titles, books that were simply enchanting to impressionable young girls.

Later on, as an undergraduate in college, I all but lived in the library. If I wasn’t holed up and reading in a carrel, I was simply roaming the stacks and uncovering new subjects and ideas.

I cannot tell you how exhilarating – and how humbling – it is to know that this digital enterprise, with our university’s books, will provide that same joy of discovery for people everywhere, from Iowa to Indonesia.

Link (Thanks, Kevin!)

Correction to an earlier post: Rudy Rucker has moved his signing at San Francsico's Booksmith from Feb 21 to Mar 7. Link (Thanks, Emily!)

A man who tripped over his shoelace and broke three Qing vases arrayed near a staircase in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England has been asked not to come back to the museum "in the near future."

This seems petty to me. Nick Flynn, the tripper, is a regular at the museum, and he had what truly sounds like a freak accident; falling down a flight of stairs and accidentally shattering three priceless vases that had been insecurely displayed there is the kind of thing I can see myself doing. Maybe he was a jerk about it, but it sounds from this like he was truly sorry.

"I have had a letter from a Duncan Robinson," Flynn said. "He is the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and he has written to me asking me not to visit the museum again in the near future."

Link (Thanks, John!)

Nate Marsh entered a charity "belt-sander race" with a customized Hello Kitty belt-sander -- color coordinated, cute, and truly decorated. The other racers were likewise fantastic.

After the platform was completed we mounted it on the sander itself, now decked out custom stickers and an agressive racing strip, through a small screw on the top, giving a very clean and airy looking. The only real modification was some guide wheels to keep 'er from hitting the sidewalls (the tracks are 12" wide). The name was actually the last thing we came up with, it seems so obvious now, we like to think it was fate...

Link (Thanks, Nate!)

A player in the virtual world Second Life -- which has an in-game economy for goods and services that can be converted to real-world cash -- has started a site to review the in-game prostitutes there. In-game prostitutes buy or make customized genitals, bodies, wardrobes, etc, and then conduct chat-based cybersex with johns while guiding their tricked-out characters through virtual sex acts.

Sophi contacted me through IM, asking if I still hired escorts for exorbitant amounts of money. Well: I do. People who don't understand that, don't see this site is going to make me rich. I replied to her IM, we had a chat, and a few days later we settled on a L$3700 deal.

She was a tough negotiater. However, I did manage to include a picture in the deal (hurry up Sophi, everybody’s waiting now). She also said no transcripts, after she had already agreed, so I’ll only put a few lines here.

NSFW Link (Thanks, Greg!)

Nintendo has released a commemorative set of Legend of Zelda pixelblocks to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary. Link (Thanks, Phil!)

Today on the Worth 1000 photoshopping contest: put food into unexpected places. Link

Neil Gaiman, creator of Sandman and author of the wonderful novel Anansi Boys has two poems in the most recent volume of the online magazine Spiderwords. I love this one, "The Day the Saucers Came":

The Day the Saucers Came

That day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,
Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth stood and stared as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed to find what waited inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you didn't notice it because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,
Was the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies pushed up through soft earth
or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,
Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,
But you did not notice this because

Link (via Making Light)

An international team of scientists have discovered what they are calling a "lost World" in the Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The researchers, led by Conservation International, found twenty new frog species, four new butterfly species, and many other marvelous animals and plants living in an isolated jungle. It's absolutely thrilling that there are still pockets of this planet teeming with unknown life.

From the Conservation International press release:

“It’s as close to the Garden of Eden as you’re going to find on Earth,” marveled Bruce Beehler, vice president of CI’s Melanesia Center for Biodiversity Conservation and a co-leader of the expedition. “The first bird we saw at our camp was a new species. Large mammals that have been hunted to near extinction elsewhere were here in abundance. We were able to simply pick up two Long-Beaked Echidnas, a primitive egg-laying mammal that is little known.”

The discoveries solved one major ornithological mystery – the location of the homeland of Berlepsch’s Six-Wired Bird of Paradise (seen here). First described in the late 19th century through specimens collected by indigenous hunters from an unknown location on New Guinea, the species had been the focus of several subsequent expeditions that failed to find it.

On the second day of the recent month-long expedition, amazed scientists watched as a male Berlepsch’s bird of paradise performed a mating dance for an attending female in the field camp. This was the first time a live male of the species had been observed by Western scientists, and proved that the Foja Mountains was the species’ true home.

Link to Conservation International press release, Link to New York Times article (Thanks, John Parres!)

Following up on Mark's post about the computer-generated water (via Drawn!), here's another stunning CG water link (also via Drawn!), this time with sharks! Link

On Saturday, the NY Times reported that a subsidiary of Halliburton (the same company that reported that 2005 was its best year ever, and has been caught overcharging taxpayers for its no-bid contract work in Iraq) was awarded a $385 million contract to build "temporary immigration detention centers" in the US for Homeland Security Department. Call me paranoid, but seeing "Halliburton," "Homeland Security," and "detention centers" in the same article doesn't make me feel safe at all.

KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space, company executives said. KBR, which announced the contract last month, had a similar contract with immigration agencies from 2000 to last year.

...

Halliburton executives, who announced the contract last week, said they were pleased.

I'll bet they were. Link (thanks, RU Sirius!)

Even if the Tibet Almond Stick doesn't do what it is supposed to do ("Wipe out furniture scratches quick-as-a-wink), I want it anyway, because the can is a work of art. I would buy it even if it contained toxic waste mixed with glass shards.

As a remodeling contractor, I benefit greatly from a well-designed tool. One tool I especially like is the Tibet Almond Stick. I always have one in my toolbox. It is a remarkable quick fix for minor scratches in wood finishes. One swipe and the scratches disappear (or are greatly diminished!) Great for touching up wood floors, furniture, wood countertops, trim, etc. I have no idea how it works. -- Rock Heindel

Link

Reader comment: Bob says:

Saw your boingboing post on Tibet Almond Sticks--yeah, great for blending in wood finish scratches, but there's an even cooler "off label" musical use that a folk singer/guitar player turned me on to 30 years ago (before Gore-Tex coated guitar strings).

The light oil and fine grit impregnated into the wrapped cloth "stick" are perfect for rejuvenating old guitar strings. Just run the stick up and down the strings. Snap them against the fret board a few times and then wipe off each string to remove the residue. It'll make an incredible howling sound as you pinch each string with a clean cloth and go up and down its length. This gets the build up of dirt, grit, sweat, and "finger cheese" out from between the strings' windings. What's left behind is a light, slick coating of oil that inhibits rust and tarnish on the steel strings. Makes a set of old acoustic guitar sound new and brilliant again.

I think the formulation for the Almond Sticks has changed a little over the years (thanks, EPA), but it still works.

Sorry, won't make much difference on nylon uke strings!

Jack "King" Kirby, the greatest comic book artist and writer of all time, died twelve years ago today. I had no idea someone had a weblog about him until I read about it today on Irregular Orbit. Link

Spotted on WFMU's Beware of The Blog today, this incredible gallery of "Teddy Girl" portraits from the UK shot in 1955. Wikipedia explains the subculture here, and Coop, who pointed us to the gallery, elaborates:

The rockers in postwar Britain were called "Teddy Boys" because they adapted Edwardian-era styling cues (drainpipe trousers, long coats, etc.) to American rockabilly fashion. It's a scene that survived the fifties, kept going through the sixties, seventies, and is still around today.

In this case, "Teddy Girls" are women in the scene who opted for the male elements of the style, like short pompadour haircuts and trousers.

I've never seen these photos before, but it's interesting for the butch "drag king" elements, which seems pretty daring for the era.

Also, the photos are by genius gonzo director Ken Russell!

Image: "17 year old Josie Buchan was a fashion student with Russell’s future wife, Shirley, at the college Russell also attended. Josie introduced Ken to her Teddy Girl friends. Here she shows off a thin black velvet tie and D.A haircut. It would have been incredibly rare to find a woman sporting this type of men’s hairstyle back then."

Link

Here's a video of very realistic animated water. It was created by Ron Fedkiw, an assistant professor at Stanford Computer science. His web site has a bunch of other stunning animation. My favorites are the "Melting and burning Lagrangian based solids into Eulerian based fluids" videos.
Link (via Drawn!)

How could drive by the DineAville Motel & Cafe, in Vernal, UT, and not check in for the night? (Besides the fact that it's no longer there, of course.)
Link (via PCL Linkdump)

Reader comment: Devin says: "The pink dinosaur is still in Vernal. It was moved to the other end of town. I was born and raised in Vernal. It is so surprising to see the pink dinosaur on Boing Boing. I don’t remember which MTV Road Rules (I think it was 2 season) one of their challenges was painting that dinosaur. The motel was shut down in the late and eighties, but the pool was great to skate. I will get some pics of her in her new home."

Not that the legendary anchorman's appearance in Iraq should surprise anyone. Wherever news is, so is Ron Burgundy. Link (Thanks, Jenny, and Coop!)

Mike Outmesguine says,

Boing Boing readers may have missed this on Digg, but I thought they'd get a kick out of it: Link.

In a press pic of Bush touring sooper sekrit NSA headquarters, a way cool, wargames-looking big screen display is in the background with all sorts of cryptic worldwide threat intel: Link.

But that's actually a volunteer-run computer security portal that anyone can display through a web browser: Link to SANS.org
(Ed. note: SANS, btw, does not stand for "Sekrit-Ass-NSA-Stuff.").

Click here to launch your own NSA Global Threat Display. I'm so leet, I have it running on LCD #4 right now!

Noah at Defensetech blog says,

No matter how many times soldiers and marines say they're not interested, there's always someone trying to wrap them up in heavier, hotter, more uncomfortable armor. Reader AS points to the latest culprit: MTek Weapon Systems, which is pushing Stormtrooper-esque "facial armor" for our troops. The mask weighs 1.3 pounds, is compatible with ballistic eyewear, and will stop a bullet from a .44 magnum. So far, there seems to be one marine corporal using the thing in Iraq. We'll see if more emerge.

Link

Oh, some will say this post has arrived too early. After all, Valentine's Day is a whole week away. Well, delayers of gratification -- true love may wait, but goatse does not. Link to illustration by Kipling West (Thanks, Kirsten of Roq La Rue Gallery and David Pescovitz!)

Bonus, work-safe round: Hulk goatse sticker for kids (thanks, Gwen), Duploatse (Hint: duplo is lego for toddlers; thanks Aaron)

Snip from a humorous translation of Gonzales' humorless answers at the NSA Surveillance Hearings today:

GONZALES: It's an early warning system designed for the 21st century. It is the modern equivalent to a scout team, sent ahead to do reconnaissance, or a series of radar outposts designed to detect enemy movements. And as with all wartime operations, speed, agility and secrecy are essential to its success.

TRANSLATION: Remember the robot probe in The Empire Strikes Back? It’s like that.

GONZALES: While the president approved this program to respond to the new threats against us, he also imposed several important safeguards to protect the privacy and the civil liberties of all Americans. . . . As the president has said, if you're talking with Al Qaida, we want to know what you're saying.

TRANSLATION: If you’ve got nothing to hide, then there should be no problem with us listening to you. If you’ve got something to hide, then . . . well . . . we should listen to you.

Link

United Nuclear, sellers of dangerously strong neodymium magnets, also sells chunks of aerogel, a form of silicon dioxide with 1/1000th the density of sand (which is also made of silicon dioxide)

Aerogel (also called 'frozen smoke' because of its hazy blue appearance), is a truly remarkable material. It is the lightest and lowest-density solid known to exist, and holds an unbelievable 15 entries in the Guinness Book of World Records, including best insulator and lowest density solid.

Aerogel is composed of 99.8% air and is chemically similar to ordinary glass. Being the world's lightest known solid, it weighs only three times that of air.

Link (Thanks, Mike!)

Reader comment: Eric says:

United Nuclear is a really cool site. I recently bought some powerful neodymium magnets, and they were a lot of fun. But not from United Nuclear. What they sold for $75, someone else was selling for under $17, and most of their other prices, at least on magnets, are similarly inflated. Nobody else lists the larger super magnets, but the other sites I saw have a custom order sheet.

After a little comparison shopping, I went to magnet4less.com to get a 1" thick by 2" diameter N40 magnet, among other things. I do not have a united nuclear magnet to compare, but I was happy with what I got at a fifth the price. I have never purchased anything from united nuclear, so other than their prices and blinking web pages, I have no complaints.

United nuclear is a great clearing house of fun (dangerous) toys, but the price is not right. Shop around first. A quick search did not, in fact, reveal any other vendors of aerogel. And in the nasa articles it sounded somewhat expensive, like $1000 per liter. I expect someone else will have it for sale at less than half the price soon though.

Just a warning note, if you want to make a bracelet, get the magnets that are NOT magnetized through the thickness. I made that mistake, and while still fun, the little magnets I got did not like the bracelet shape. At magnet4less you have to custom order cylinders magnetized through the diameter, while other sites have caught on to the bracelet fad.

United nuclear also list grade N45 as the strongest grade, while other sites have N50 grade magnets. And the other sites do not require the signed disclaimer, which sounds like marketing hype. Even my smaller magnet could hurt someone if not respected, but a signed disclaimer? Anyway, enough debunking.

Chalk a few more up on the list of tech-world public figures who now exist as avatars in Second Life: several Suicide Girls are now there. Unlike Lawrence Lessig, Cory Doctorow, and others before them (Wired News story link), the girls will not be wearing an overabundance of clothing. Link, and another, and another, and another. ( Disclaimer: Suicide Girls is a sponsor of Boing Boing, but they didn't tip us off here -- a fan/user did).

Yesterday I wrote about an alleged burglar who became stuck in an oven vent. Here's another case of someone attempting to enter an establishment through an alternative ingress and suffering the consequences. Edwin Geller, age 40, of Toldeo, Ohio, tried to get into a restaurant after closing time and became lodged in the grill vent. He was discovered by a waitress when she looked up and saw a pair of feet dangling out.

"I was dumbfounded. I had to look twice," the waitress recalled after firefighters spent two hours freeing Edwin Geller from the nearly 16-inch by 16-inch vent. City police said Geller, 40, a convicted burglar who resides in North Toledo, was caught in the act - literally.

Even though the grill was turned off Tuesday afternoon, it was hot inside the insulated vent. "He was saying, ‘Give me water,’" Ms. Addis said.

Geller was in serious condition last night in the intensive care unit of St. Anne Mercy Hospital with skin burns and other injuries. He declined an interview with The Blade.

Link (thanks, Joey!)

Boing Boing reader I'm Skeered says,

I don't have a link exactly, but instead this email that I received today from the career services dept. at Columbia University. It's pretty scary. The Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) office is requiring Monster.com (which provides online resume/job search services for our career office at Columbia) to keep all copies of the resumes that we submit to Monster.com. From the letter attached below, it appears that this applies not only to Monster.com but to ALL online job listing companies. It doesn't provide any explanation for why our resumes (and hence our personal job/life history) is being recorded.

Here's a copy of the email:

From: careereducation@columbia.edu
Subject: IMPORTANT INTERVIEWTRAK CHANGE
Date: February 6, 2006 3:48:31 PM EST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Dear Students,

We are writing to inform you of an important change to InterviewTRAK. Due to new federal legislation requiring MonsterTRAK, and all online job listing companies, to record a "snapshot" of a candidate's resume once it has been submitted, you can no longer update, replace or delete your resume once it has been submitted it to an InterviewTRAK event.

If you have updated or replaced your resume prior to February 6, 2006, the employer received the correct submission and you do not need to act.

However, after Monday, February 6, 2006, please be very careful when submitting resumes to InterviewTRAK events, because once you have submitted a resume to an event, you will no longer be able to update, replace, delete or remove a resume and therefore will not be able to alter or delete the resume submitted for that event. If you have any questions or need technical assistance, please email student.monstertrak@monster.com.

If you would like more information on this new ruling by The Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), please visit MonsterTRAK's OFCCP site at [Link]

Thank you for your cooperation.

Looks like this explains the record-keeping: Link. Has to do with a ruling issued in October, 2005 by the Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The ruling went into effect today.

Reader comment: Geoff says,

Here's a presentation developed by the DOL on "The New Internet Applicant Recordkeeping Rule". Link

Reader comment: Not a BFD, says Sean Fitzpatrick:

This is why applicant data is tracked for contractors with the government. Not a big deal, really:

The OFCCP is tasked with the responsibility of making sure that federal contractors demonstrate fair hiring practices with respect to race, gender and ethnicity. To help ascertain and measure "fairness," the OFCCP has defined a set of strict data collection and reporting guidelines. The definition of an “Internet Applicant was developed to help companies limit the amount of data that they need to collect and report on. Only those candidates who meet the strict definition of an "Internet Applicant" are required to be included in an Adverse Impact Analysis which is submitted to the government in the event of an audit.

explanatory PDF Link

Update: Monster.com's response is here.

Jack Stone, Britain's fattest man, died of a heart attack at age 60. From The Sun Online:

The ex-security guard became a minor celebrity after a string of TV appearances — in which he sported a “wig” made out of black gaffer tape.


He would eat six fried eggs, bacon and a whole loaf of bread for breakfast and scoffed seven cream cakes in a sitting.

Link

In the current issue of Wired, my Institute for the Future colleague Alex Pang and I have a short article about the "End of Cyberpsace." The notion is that the Internet is becoming less of a place we "go to" and more of a layer atop our entire everyday reality. As a result, the term "cyberspace," coined by William Gibson in 1984, just doesn't seem relevant anymore. So Alex and I asked a slew of really smart people to suggest a new word to replace it. Wired printed six of the responses. Here are a couple of them:

William Gibson Science Fiction Writer
If I had that word, it would be the title of my next book. I think cyberspace is past its sell-by, but the prob­lem is that everything has become an aspect of, well, cyberspace.

Katy Börner Director, InfoVis Lab, Indiana University
A global brain, dominated by implants that merge biological creativity with digital resources and speed.

Link

Unfortunately, lots of people, including Cory, gave us great suggestions that didn't make it into the final article. I'm delighted that Alex, who is researching this idea in great depth, has posted their comments on his new blog, The End of Cyberspace. Here a couple:

Cory Doctorow, author, co-editor of Boing Boing
Chattergoods: Cyberspace is the "place of the mind." The world of intelligent, networked, self-optimizing, plentiful objects is a world where everything around us is continually negotiating its place and role: advertising service-queues, determining available RF spectrum to occupy, negotiating to share load, storage, and functions. Chattergoods are goods that converse with one another, all the time, the network chatter of the physical environment.

Ross Mayfield, CEO, Socialtext
On: When kids use the Net, they are either On, using it as a conduit for social interaction, or Off, a way of not being present. We need to retain Off as a right.

Link

UPDATE: If you have suggestions, please post them in the comments on the End Of Cyberspace blog instead of emailing them to me. Thanks!

satuGO is a design for a digital camera crammed into a bouncing ball. The Danish designers are looking for investment to turn it into a product. Pretty fun idea!
Link (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

Last summer, a team researchers dispatched an autonomous undersea robot to explore a Greek merchant ship that sank in the eastern Aegean Sea in the fourth century BC. The scientists from MIT, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Greek Ministry of Culture and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, are just now releasing images from the photometric survey. From the MIT News Office:

The AUV scanned the scattered cargo and created a topographical sonar map while collecting thousands of high-resolution digital images, without ever physically touching the shipwreck. In all, 7,650 images were collected on four dives. WHOI archaeologists and engineers are assembling those images into mosaics that depict the minute features of the shipwreck with unmatched clarity and detail...

Much of the true value in cargo ships such as the Chios wreck is the information they provide about the networks that existed among the ancient Greeks and their trading partners. The wreck is "like a buried UPS truck. It provides a wealth of information that helps us figure out networks based on the contents of the truck," said (MIT professor David) Mindell.

Link

GP2X News sez, "Lik Sang have posted news of the 2nd Edition of the GP2X released and a massive overview of all the best releases so far with screenshots and information about the Linux Based Console thats a haven for homebrew fans." Link (Thanks, GP2X News!)