"This geyser works better in a liter bottle than an aluminum can because of the bottle's nozzle geometry," says BoingBoing reader Conrad Kilroy.

Whatever, but do not try this near the security screening line in an American airport.

Link to "mentos + diet coke/pepsi explosion" video.

Reader comment: Amanda Eisen says,

This reminded me of something my cousin taught me a few years ago.

He told me to take a mint lifesaver or two and tie a string around it/them. Take your 2 liter bottle of Pepsi, open it and drill a hole in the cap. Run the string with the lifesavers on it through the cap and keeping them close to the top and the string taut, screw the cap back on.

This is where you decide whether one or two lifesavers is better, it all depends on if they fit or not. Anyway, then you tack the string (keeping it tight) to the wall through a lit cigarette. (I know, I know, fire hazard. I don't even smoke) When the cigarette burns down, the string will fall away, the lifesavers drop, and the whole bottle of soda explodes, preferably (in his mind) all over some expensive electrical equipment, but it makes a mess no matter what.

Same idea as the geyser really, but it's geared towards actual destruction. I don't think it's a good idea, and I never disliked someone enough to actually try it, just really letting you know that the whole mint + cola = explosion thing isn't new.

Reader comment: Evan Donn says,

This link has a a pretty thorough explanation of the mentos & diet coke geyser experiment with additional videos; based on his explanation I don't think Amanda's version would work. The mints don't do anything to increase the pressure from the CO2 - they just cause it to release at the bottom of the bottle, pushing the soda out the top. If the cap were still on the bottle it's likely nothing would happen.

Reader comment: Laurence Yeung says,

I noticed that there was a link to a website explaining the mentos + diet coke effect, and unfortunately, it misses the mark:

Mentos and mint lifesavers have a compound in them called gum arabic, which chemically makes it easier for bubbles to form, by reducing the surface tension. The little pits on the surface of the candy only help magnify this driving force for massive soda degassing, and they alone are not enough to turn a bottle of diet coke into a geyser.

If anyone watches Numb3ers, they actually showed it in one episode!

Reader comment: Steve Glista sez:

i don't know if diet soda and mentos is strong enough to actually explode a 2-liter bottle and destroy electronics as described in the earlier comment, but drano and aluminum foil DEFINITELY are.

As an added bonus, the drano that splashes out from the explosion will kill plants and bleach or burn holes in fabric, plants, concrete, etc.

This link is to a description of the effect and the chemical reaction on everything2.com.

When the first Tower collapsed, something told me to just hold my camera over my head and shoot. I'm still surprised the pictures came out at all, because I hadn't set the exposure or focused the lens.

After the disaster, for two months I worked with a Red Cross program making hot meals at a local restaurant for the Ground Zero rescue workers. During that time, many people who saw my 3D slides were moved by the immersive quality and wanted to own them, which inspired me to print an edition of antique stereoscope-format cards. When I wasn't working in the kitchen, I was at my computer scanning and retouching the photographs that make up these 12 views.

Should I make a profit from the sale of these pictures, I plan to donate a portion of it to The Bowery Mission, a non-profit organization providing food and shelter to homeless Americans in downtown New York City. If you receive this set as a gift, please consider making a donation to a hunger-related charity.

Previously:
Lenticular art gallery show opens in Brooklyn

Never dripping wet or sweaty, always soft and smell sweet like berries.

So pretty, sometimes you want to suck them yourself.

Open toe, candy-painted, showing off whenever you are in public care.

Dangling your feet in and out of your pretty shoes.

Hoping someone with a foot fetish will finally notice you.

Reader comment: Jonathan Cundiff sez,

The story on the Toe Lover reminded me of this thug. Now thats one hard, toe lickin' fool.

Dan Hoyt, the raw food subway wanker (no nut-milk joke I can make here could possibly be better than the article's headline), has been profiled by New York magazine. Hoyt continues to demonstrate a remarkable lack of insight into precisely what it is he's done wrong, even suggesting that if the lady he flashed had met him under different circumstances she "would want to go out with me." Includes fascinating glimpses into the brain of a man who believes in breatharianism and likes to flop his willy about.

Since 1994, when he was arrested for a lewd display on the 8th Street N/R platform, his thrill-seeking hadn’t gotten him into trouble with the law again—until recently. Hoyt says he doesn’t make a habit of touching himself on the subway, but he occasionally reveals his penis in other settings. “There have been situations in a bar or nightclub where you’re fooling around with somebody and yeah, you’re exposed. It’s nothing really accessible. Just sort of hidden, but risky. If someone looked closely, they could see what’s going on.”

Some people are offended. “Everybody has their limitations,” Hoyt says. “For some people, it’s very, very wrong. Everybody has things to hide—things they don’t tell their best friend. I’ve seen Websites with scat and stuff and I think, What? Who would possibly be excited about that? But there are people who probably look at me and say, ‘How could that possibly be exciting in any way?’ ” As for his R-train exploits, Hoyt says, “I’ve met women who enjoy it. After this incident happened, I had a woman tell me, ‘You know, that sounds exciting to me.’ She wouldn’t mind being on the other end.”

Link. What an asshole. On a more positive note,  Thao Nguyen -- the woman who snapped an incriminating phonecam photo of Hoyt's wank in progress -- inspired a group of fans to start Hollabacknyc.com, a blog where women “holla back” at harassers by taking their pictures with phonecams, then posting them online.

Previously:
Man arrested for being alleged subway wanker caught on Flickr

During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the NSA's secret domestic wiretapping program. The Administration has cited the Authorization to Use Military Force and the commander in chief powers as authorizing the NSA to intercept international communications into and out of the U.S. of persons linked to al Qaeda or related terrorist organizations.

After citing his concerns that there was no limiting principle to the Administration's claim of authority in the War on Terror, Rep. Schiff asked the Attorney General whether the Administration believes it has the authority to wiretap purely domestic calls between two Americans without seeking a warrant. "I cannot rule that out," responded the Attorney General.

"This is very disturbing testimony," Rep. Schiff commented later, "and represents a wholly unprecedented assertion of executive power. No one in Congress would deny the need to tap certain calls under court order -- but if the Administration believes it can tap purely domestic phone calls between Americans without court approval, there is no limit to executive power. This is contrary to settled law and the most basic constitutional principles of the separation of powers."

In your post about the 50's kitsch restaurant "XXX", Joe Berkemeier mentions the Duane Pervis All-American (hamburger with peanut butter) as one of the most popular items. Back in my hometown (and that of fellow blogger Jimwich), these special dishes have been a popular item at another wonderful establishment that's been around since 1947. Only at the Wheel-Inn in Sedalia, MO it's the famous "Guber Burger". Although the Guber Burger can be ordered with the works, most people order theirs with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. It's also served with a side of golden brown onion rings. Just don't forget the vanilla Coke to go with it. You can belly up to the U-shaped counter or sit in your car and have it delivered to you by car-hops. The Wheel-Inn is one of a few landmark 50's kitsch restaurants in the town where old and young alike have hung out for burgers, fries, shakes, and just cruising around in their cars.

Along with your xxx links I thought I'd send you a link to XXXX ( pronounced Fourex ) Brewery which is the most popular beer by a large margin in Brisbane, Australia. The Brewery has been going since 1878 and still stands on it's original site. Being so popular in Brisbane many pubs also sport XXXX logos all over them. The distinctive and jaunty "Mr. Fourex" has become a popular icon of Brisbane making an appearance on the signage of many if not most pubs. The Brewery originally produced XXX Sparkling Ale from 1878 and the extra X was added around 1924. People from outside Queensland like to cast aspersions on Queenslanders by claiming that the beer is called XXXX because we couldn't spell Beer.

Link.

And Dave Hardin ("Previous chemist and descendant of a long line of Alabama moonshiners") says,

Just wanted to correct a readers comment. The XXX on moonshine jugs was not because "they hadn't learnt their letters". It was to indicate how many times the product had been distilled. With distilled alcohol, the more times product is sent through a distillation apparatus (or "still), the higher the alcohol content. Three "X"s indicated a triple-distilled product, also signifying a very high alchol content (likely above 120-150 proof).

Reader comment: Dan Novy says,

While Dave is technically correct about each "x" representing the number of times through the distillation process, it wasn't the moonshiners that came up with the system. It was English tax collectors. The "x" simply meant that the tax had been paid. Alcohol was taxed according to potency, so a barrel of triple distilled whiskey got taxed three times, and it was the tax collector that actually put the marks on the barrel.

Reader comment: isoldgold from Seattle says,

Hold the phone! it's XXXXX Beer (That's five X's, kids). To expand the "suggestive/misunderstood X's" theme, you should know about this local monsoon season brew, XXXXX Stout. It's pretty much the best damn stout I've ever consumed. Brewed only for Winter distribution, we here in jet city actually have something to look forward to when the rain starts falling. Best served as-cold-as-possible, in a chilled mason jar. You can track down 5X Stout- and Pike Brewery's other tasty beers- through their distributor Merchant Du Vin.

Reader comment: Shaun says,

hamburgeramerica.com is the official site of the documentary film "Hamburger America" directed by a friend of mine, George Motz. The film features "some of the best burgers in America, and the people behind them" and it includes a segment on the "Guber Burger" in Sedalia, MO. The trailer is here. I thought folks might enjoy this film. I certainly did.

Reader comment: Dave Hulbert says,

Forget your XXX, XXXX and 5X. In the UK we have 6X beer! Made in Devizes (near Swindon) by a company called Wadworth (Link).

(Click on thumbnails for enlargement) This workshop consists of lecture and hand-on laboratory components, each lasting 90 minutes. We'll guide you through an introduction to hardware hacking, explore the basic electronics fundamentals and common test equipment, and then dive into the step-by-step processes of successful circuit modifications and hardware hacking. Whether you're a beginner hobbyist with no electronics experience or a self-proclaimed "gadget geek," you're sure to learn something. And, you'll most definitely have fun in the process. Following completion of the workshop, each student will leave with a custom electronic game of "Simon" that they built on their own (using components and a circuit board provided in kit form).

We are already familiar with the dominant street-map view of our city. (Invisible Dynamics) will reveal other ways of seeing our environment, such as the view of the sewer infrastructure; the flow of water; the commercial activity of boats, trucks and planes; or the ecological activities of the marshes and wetlands surrounding the bay.

Cabspotting is designed as a living framework to use the activity of commercial cabs as a starting point to explore the economic, social, political and cultural issues that are revealed by the cab traces. Where do cabs go the most? Where do they never turn up? Cab Projects are vehicles for artists, writers, or researchers to explore these issues in the form of a small experiment, investigation or observation. These projects will be included on an ever-growing Cabspotting site to form a continually expanding view of the anthropological record created by this system.

Modemac says:

The transcript of the entire court proceedings of Rachel Bevilacqua (Reverend Magdalen)'s custody hearing is now available online. This was the hearing in which she was taken to task for her attendance at the SubGenius annual gathering, X-Day. A summary of the case is available on my Web site.

The transcript previously made available contained the text of Magdalen's deposition on February 3, 2006. The entire transcript of the proceedings is now available, and can be downloaded in .PDF format here.

This is the transcript of all the proceedings of that day, including the testimony of the opposing party filing for custody. The final ruling of Judge Punch is included in its entirety, and can be read from pages 110 and 113.

As for the allegations of the judge calling Bevilacqua a "pervert," here are two excerpts from page 111:

"...it's pretty obvious she [Bevilacqua] does not believe what she's telling us about this, but in the event she does and I'm wrong there, I think she's severely mentally ill if she believes what she's saying is true because it's obviously so not true from anybody who's looking at it from any normal perspective."

"...but when she posts those pictures on the Web and the kids at school or somewhere else it leaks out that your mother's, excuse me, ma'am, but a pervert and you can see her on the Web naked doing her perverted acts, that is extremely damaging to the child."

Make of this what you will.

On the Church of the SubGenius, from page 53:

"The fact that, Your Honor, that it's not relevant to this case, that this child has not been exposed to the Church of the Sub-Genius, the child is not affected."

"Well, the child doesn't need to be exposed to every bizarre thing his parent does to be affected by it."

"Your Honor, there's no proof that the child has been exposed at all."

"Did you hear what I just said. Now sit down. I've heard enough of your objection. I won't hear any more argument on this particular objection, do you understand?"

Page 62-63:

"And you also testified on direct that meetings of the Sub-Genius are not a joke, correct?"

"Yes."

"Is there information on the Sub-Genius website regarding what goes on at these meetings?"

"It is but it's hidden under layers and layers of BS."

"Do you have a concern about these meetings?"

"Yes, I do."

"What is that concern?"

"They have orgies and they have children present."

(Magdalen's lawyer) "Objection."

(Judge) "I'll sustain the objection."

Also of interest are some statements showing how Internet-savvy the opposition is in this case. As you can see on page 56:

"...and you testified before, XXXX uses the Internet, does he do that at your house?"

"Very occasionally."

"Is there a filter you have on his internet use at his house?"

"Yeah, it's called Dad."

"So you're always there when he uses the internet?"

"Yes, I am."

"Hundred percent of the time?"

"Yes, I am."

* Definition of Pink and Glorp (SubGenius jargon from this page) -- PINK: Short for "Pink Boy." Hypernormal sheep who bleat through life, never doubting that the system they live in is The Way It Was Meant To Be. Normalcy dupe, living in terror of making his or her own decision. Nothing to do with skin color. GLORP : Mega-Pinks. Pink Leaders. Totally pro-Conspiracy.

More Boing Boing coverage here:
Update on SubGenius child custody case
New RU Sirius show interviews Church of SubGenius' Ivan Stang
Woman denied custody of son for participating in SubGenius holiday
Rev. Ivan Stang (founder of the Church of the SubGenius) on artist Stanislav Szukalski and his theories on Yeti-Human inbreeding.

Guy lost daughter in a car accident. It's a car seat that's a little bubble, so in the impact the kid/baby rotates - it's a better car seat for kids.

Of all the various items of merchandise that I've done, all the T-shirts and stickers and whatnot, the one thing that I always thought would be the coolest item, the ultimate, would be to design an actual Hot Wheels car. Years ago, we started trying to do this, working every angle. A few times we came very close, but every time it seemed that one problem of another would derail the project, despite the enthusiasm of all the designers and creative folks at Mattel. I had pretty much given up on the whole idea, despite the protests of my friends at Hot Wheels, who wanted to make it happen as much as I did.

But it finally has happened, thanks in part to another subject I am obsessed with, the strange and wonderful country of Japan.

Shot by Alasdair Watson. Link to full-size, via Warren Ellis.

Allan Kaprow coined the term Happening in the late 1950s, and led the movement into the bright lights of popular culture that characterized the 1960s. Happenings are notoriously difficult to describe, in part because each was a unique event shaped by the actions of the audience that participated on any given performance. Simply put, Happenings, such as Household from 1964, were held in physical environments – loft spaces, abandoned factories, buses, parks, etc. – and brought people, objects, and events in surprising juxtaposition to one another. Kaprow views art as a vehicle for expanding our awareness of life by prompting unexpected, provocative interactions. For Kaprow, art is a continual work-in-progress, with an unfolding narrative that is realized through the active participation of the audience.

Kaprow developed techniques to prompt a creative response from the audience, encouraging audience members to make their own connections between ideas and events. These narrative strategies relied on a non-linear sequencing of events, and the use of indeterminacy to shape the course of the Happening. The Happening was a constellation of events that could be distributed across once arbitrary temporal and spatial boundaries. The decentralization of authorship, location, and narrative – here united by the intent of the artist and the imagination of the participating audience members – foreshadows non-linear forms in digital media which makes use of interactive and networked technology to expand the boundaries of space and time.

Rich Gombert says,

I am a regular reader of Boingboing. I am a contributing member of the Smithsonian. After reading the article about the Smithsonian's Showtime deal, I wrote to the Smithsonian to complain.

The Smithsonian's press office responded to Rich, and the full text of that reply follows.

EFF senior staff attorney Fred Von Lohmann read that reply, and tears the Smithsonian a new one -- his counter-arguments follow after the jump, along with point-by-point shredding from Los Angeles entertainment attorney Joshua Wattles. All three believe the deal is bad news for the American public, and I do too. Let's start with the email Rich sent to the Smithsonian membership office:

Dear Sirs: I am very disturbed over an article that appeared in the New York Times. Have you, in fact, made such a deal that takes away my rights to the material that I (as a contibuting member and a U.S. Tax payer) have paid for? If you persist in such practice I will no longer be able to support this fine instituion. One that I'm proud to say I have been a supporting member of for more than 30 years.

Please find below the Smithsonian’s response to the reports on the new Smithsonian On Demand service. I hope you fill this information will answer all your questions and concerns. We appreciate you sharing your thoughts with our office.

tribute the movie
tribute-band.com
tribute city
way too many abbas
misfats
minikiss
dread zeppelin
a whole lotta elvi
this is a trbiute
Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Previously: A gathering of Elvii (or Elvum, or Elvi, or Elvises)

This kind of thing isn't generally that destructive in the United States. The preacher claims to cure your cancer, you go see your doctor the next day, take a few tests, and you can verify the claim. If the miracle is a fake, nothing is lost.

But in Maseru, people have more faith, and the word of an American preacher may be as good as the word of a doctor. Especially when the preacher says you are healed, and the doctor's solution is to prescribe you medicine for the rest of your life.

So if Mr. P___ goes to see Mr. Angley, and hears that he is healed, maybe he will believe. Maybe he will believe, and, in an act of faith, stop taking his medicine. Maybe he will get sick three weeks later, and get tested again, discovering that he still has HIV. Except during his three week hiatus from the medicine, the HIV has developed resistance. And now he has HIV, and thanks to Mr. Angley, the meds no longer work.

Reader comment: Les Jenkins says,

Seems this charlatan has been at this for quite some time now. One example I came across was an online recreation of a Penthouse article titled "The God Biz" By James A. Haught from December 1980 (Link, alternate link) that talks about about Mr. Angley and his miraculous healing powers. There's probably quite a bit more out there, but after the first three or four articles I came across I couldn't stomach looking at any more. Damned shame he's taking his nonsense to other countries now.

Reader Comment: Steve A.

If you've never seen Ernest Angley in action, you're missing out. Of course the only downside is there are some sad souls out there who buy into his crap. I haven't caught him lately, but when I lived in Chicago you could see Angley's show on the UHF channels. Very entertaining. In fact, I believe Robin Williams used to use him as the basis for his televangelist schtick.

Reader Comment: Gordon Morrison:

I went to high school in Ohio near the home of Ernest Angley ministries. He bought a cathedral that belonged to previously disgraced (financial scandal) televangelist Rex Humbard. Link. It went from being called Rex's erection to being called Ernest's erection so I guess he got the naming rights too...

My favorite (descriptive if not lengthy) German word is Froschmausekrieg. It means "war between the frogs and the mice" and the file in this photo was so named by Helen Dukas (Einstein's secretary and literary executor) to describe the long and bitter dispute between the School of Math and the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study. A good word to know when facing such a dispute.

Reader comment: Michael Shaughnessy of Washington and Jefferson College says,

The German word should be Froschmäusekrieg with an umlaut over the 'a' (alt 132) It is actually a poem attributed to Homer (Batrachomyomachia) and is a good satire about the pointlessness of war or feuding. But for more fun -- and real -- German words, see my visual lexicon for German: Link.

Reader comment: kurt von finck says,

Another great German word is "lustigmacabre." "Lustig" means funny, the rest you can figure out. Think "Hitler in a tutu." Only the Germans ...

Reader comment: Roger Braun says,

I don't want to spoil the fun, but don't go around telling Germans how "lustigmacabre" something is. I am a native german speaker and have never heard the word, and neither has Google (It's still a nice word, it's just not german). Rather give a link to Mark Twain essay about the awful german language (Link) which is also mostly correct ;-) Or try to figure out what "Donaudampfschiffahrtskapitänskajütentürschlüsselbart" means...

Under questioning, Mr. Laflamme and Mr. Rheault conceded their role in spreading a video that Mr. Raza, then 15, had made of himself and left on a shelf in the school TV studio. Mr. Laflamme said he discovered the tape in April of 2003, when he took school equipment to film a varsity football game. He showed the tape to Mr. Rheault, who made a copy of it.

"I thought it'd be an interesting prank . . . I wanted Ghyslain to know what I knew of him, what I had seen," Mr. Laflamme said. "All I did was take the cassette, digitize it on the studio computer to pull a joke on Ghyslain. After that, I had nothing to do with it," Mr. Rheault said he later told the school principal after the controversy erupted.

He said that when a school counsellor confronted him about Mr. Raza's misfortunes, he replied, "It's no fun what happened here, but that's the problem with the Internet. Things travel fast."

Discovery Communications will now have video content on Google Earth(...) [beginning with] information and video content, in a two-to-four-minute segment, showcasing 10 American National Parks, including Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and Dinosaur National Park.

* A spooky eyed drop of blood
* A Frog for frogs—of course
* A Giant Lice for lice.
* Cow for cattle disease
* Black Locust for locusts
* A white satin lump of hail
* A black cube of darkness
* An icky boil on a piece of flesh!
* A snarling lion's head for wild beasts
* and last of all a very sad head - for death of the first born.

The International Space Station (ISS) was in position to view the umbral (ground) shadow cast by the Moon as it moved between the Sun and the Earth during the solar eclipse on March 29, 2006. This astronaut image captures the umbral shadow across southern Turkey, northern Cyprus, and the Mediterranean Sea. People living in these regions observed a total solar eclipse, in which the Moon completely covers the Sun’s disk. The astronaut photograph was taken at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time. The terminator of the eclipse—the line between the light and dark parts of the Sun’s disk— is visible as it passes across central Turkey. This total solar eclipse is the fourth to have occurred since 1999. The portion of the ISS visible at image top is the Space Station Remote Manipulator System.

UAVs have long been used by American military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere -- but now, law enforcement agencies back home are exploring uses here in the US. In a recent House hearing, police agencies and private entities argued for more widespread use, and the FAA has launched a new office for drone-related regulations.

Just this week, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began using a drone called SkySeer for rescue operations and tracking "persons of interest" during foot pursuits. 

NPR "Day to Day" producer Rob Sachs and I traveled to an undisclosable location east of LA for a private demo of SkySeer with Commander Charles "Sid" Heal, head of the LASD's technology exploration project. Representatives of Chang Industries, the small defense contracting firm that developed SkySeer, were also on hand.

When the craft reached about 250 feet above ground, we couldn't hear it, and could barely see it. On board the SkySeer's four-pound body is a GPS tracking system and tiny cameras that shoot digital video, then send it wirelessly back to the ground. Heal says the plan is to send that footage back to a networked command and control center, where deputies will monitor and steer the craft accordingly.  Video may also be introduced as evidence in criminal trials.

At about $30K per unit, the drones cost the LASD much less than helicopters, which cost $2-3 million (and sometimes as much as $2800 an hour to operate). The big upside: UAVs can safely get much closer to hazardous situations than an aircraft with a human inside.

While the drone's purpose may be serious, it looks a lot like a radio-controlled hobby aircraft. Sam De La Torre and Victor Torres, two of the drone's designers, told me they both grew up as big RC buffs.

"When I was a kid, my mom used to always give me a hard time about how much I flew model airplanes," Sam said, "'It's not like anyone's ever gonna pay you to fly those things!', she'd tell me." Well, not anymore.

As law enforcement agencies throughout the US consider more widespread use (firefighting, pipeline monitoring, border patrol ops), concerns over civilian privacy and air security are likely to increase. Imagine fleets of UAVs in your neighborhood, tracking where you go and what you do, perhaps sharing that data with other government agencies -- not a happy thought.

Commander Heal argues that's not the LASD's plan. He says his agency doesn't intend to use the drones for general surveillance, and initial use will be for search and rescue. "We're not flying it anywhere we're not already allowed to fly a helicopter," said Heal, "This just allows us to get closer to dangerous situations more safely." 

Either way, expect debate to grow. Link to "Xeni Tech" archived audio on NPR "Day to Day," and here's a Flickr set with snapshots from the demo (some shot by me, some shot by Commander Heal).

See also: "Drone aircraft may prowl U.S. skies," by Declan McCullagh at CNET News.com, Link.

Benjamen Walker, host and producer of the excellent NPR program The Theory of Everything, has a special 10 minute podcast about Lem and his work.

This week on TOE me and my friend Bill Marx mourn the death of the Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. Lem should have gotten the nobel prize for literature years ago.. both Bill and I are tempted to go down to Stockholm and straighten folks out.

Last week, we brought you a story about Josh Ellis, a Net journalist who was passing the virtual hat to do a story on Los Alamos/Trinity Test Site (which is only open to the public two times a year). Pay Josh's way and he offered to write a piece, take a butt-load of pics, and maybe shoot some vid. He got his target amount of platinum pieces and off he went.

The result is "Dark Miracle: Trinity, the Manhattan Project, and the Birth of the Atomic Age." We definitely got our money's worth. This is a really nice piece of writing, with some fascinating factoids about the bomb and the Cold War, and some lurid local color, namely in the form of Ed Grothus, a nuclear bomb engineer (retired and repentant) who now runs The Black Hole, a surplus store/nuclear junk shop (in a decommissioned Piggly-Wiggly). You've got to see the video of Ed giving Josh a little tour of the place. It's a riot (in a Dr. Strangelove sorta way).

I'd say this little experiment in Net-funded journalism was a roaring success. Where to now, Josh? I've got some extra whuffie in my account with your name on it.

While cars.com gives this an official "zero chance of production", I think its a lot more realistic vision of the future than it may at first appear...

IFTF's Technology Horizons program is focusing its research this year on the theme of "lightweight infrastructure. These new infrastructure designs will emphasize smaller, smarter, more independent components that can be organized in ways that are more efficient, more flexible, and more secure than the capital-intensive networks of the 20th century.

While at first, the PAD concept may appear as the culmination of the ever-bigger trend in SUVs in America, we can also see it as a lightweight alternative to the traditional home or apartment.

NASA's "Great Moonbuggy Race" is held every year at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama -- and this year's edition takes place tomorrow and Saturday, April 7th and 8th. The event is an opportunity for high school and college students to design, build and race a moonbuggy on a simulated lunar course. Vehicles must be human-powered by one female student and one male student. NASA was planning to cancel the program, but an eleventh-hour grant from Northrop Grumman kept it alive.

Link (thanks, Alan Ladwig!)

...More important than the cash prizes, contestants and administrators say, is the opportunity to sidestep the traditional ways NASA has done business and bring some fresh faces to its ranks.

"With a regular contract, a small group of students like us wouldn't have a chance," Mr. Jones said. "This way, anyone with a good idea can contribute..."

The competitions offer economic benefits to NASA as well. The contestants, not the space agency, pay for the development. The winner of a big technology prize usually spends three times the purse value, said Carl E. Walz, a former astronaut who works in NASA's exploration systems mission directorate.

"Typically in R. & D., you pay as you go," Mr. Walz said, referring to NASA's outlays for research and development. "You pay for failures and you pay for successes. Here, you don't pay until someone wins."

NASA officials say that some of their contractors are worried that the contests could undermine their work for the space agency. NASA already has companies working on gloves for its space suits; why, then, does it need an Astronaut Glove Challenge? Exactly how good ideas from the competitions will be integrated into the space program isn't entirely clear. "We're still writing the book on this," Mr. Walz said.

Technology is, in its essence, new ways of thinking. The most powerful type of technology, sometimes called enabling technology, is a thought incarnate which enables new knowledge to find and develop news ways to know. This kind of recursive bootstrapping is how science evolves. As in every type of knowledge, it accrues layers of self-reference to its former state.

New informational organizations are layered upon the old without displacement, just as in biological evolution. Our brains are good examples. We retain reptilian reflexes deep in our minds (fight or flight) while the more complex structuring of knowledge (how to do statistics) is layered over those primitive networks. In the same way, older methods of knowing (older scientific methods) are not jettisoned; they are simply subsumed by new levels of order and complexity. But the new tools of observation and measurement, and the new technologies of knowing, will alter the character of science, even while it retains the old methods.

I'm willing to bet the scientific method 400 years from now will differ from today's understanding of science more than today's science method differs from the proto-science used 400 years ago. A sensible forecast of technological innovations in the next 400 years is beyond our imaginations (or at least mine), but we can fruitfully envision technological changes that might occur in the next 50 years.

We generally take for granted one of the world’s most important inventions--spectacles. Imagine what life would be like not being able to see images clearly or sharply. According to a January 11, 1999 feature article in Newsweek Magazine , reading glasses are one of the most important inventions of the past 2000 years. They developed because of the work of artisans, like glassmakers, jewelers and clockmakers, along with some of the most brilliant scientific minds over the centuries. According to Dr. J. William Rosenthal, "Philosophers, monks, mathematicians, physicists, microscopists, astronomers, and chemists all played vital roles in developing this instrument."

No one really knows about the early history of image magnification. In ancient times, someone noticed that convex-shaped glass magnified images. Sometime between the year 1000 and 1250 crude technology began to develop regarding reading stones (simple magnifiers). English Franciscan Friar Roger Bacon (1220 -1292), in his 1268 ‘Opus Majus’, noted that letters could be seen better and larger when viewed through less than half a sphere of glass. Bacon's experiments confirmed the principle of the convex (converging) lens, described by Alhazen (965-1038) Arabian mathematician, optician and astronomer at Cairo, and even earlier by the Greeks. Bacon recognized that this could assist weak eyes or the vision of aged persons.

Early recorded evidence demonstrates that glasses first appeared in Pisa, Italy about the year 1286. Technically, they were formed from two primitive convex shaped glass/crystal stones. Each was surrounded by a frame and given a handle. These were then connected together through the ends of their handles by a rivet.

In addition, the new solution protects users from detection, persecution, and retribution by shielding their personal identities and related information that the Chinese government is currently able to monitor. (...) The site that currently hosts the software download is www.xifuchun.com, however please note that this URL will be changed on a regular basis to avoid blocking by the Chinese government. Anonymizer relies on early adopters to share the regularly changing URLs with their friends and family members so the number of people able to safely access the Internet continues to grow.

The Oregon woman who owned the kitten said she turned down Ripley's Believe it or Not! and sold the remains to John Adolfi of Granby because she liked his religious reasons for wanting them.

"We didn't want Cy becoming a joke or part of a personal collection," Traci Allen said. "But John was so heartfelt, you could tell he was genuine and sincere..."

Other exhibits will include giant plants and eggs, deformed animal remains and archaeological finds, Adolfi said.

The fossils of the approximately 9-ft. long creature, which are, described in two Nature articles released today, were dug out of rock formations on Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian Arctic, by paleontologists from the University of Chicago and several other institutions. Its nickame, for reasons that will become clear, is "fishapod"; it's more formally called Tiktaalik ("large fish in stream," in the local Inuit language). Fishapod dates from about 383 million years ago. It had the scales, teeth and gills of a fish, but also a big, curved rib cage that suggests the creature had lungs as well. The ribs interlock, moreover, unlike a fish's, implying they were able to bear fishapod's weight—an unnecessary trait in a fish. It had a neck—most unfishlike. And, most surprising of all, its pectoral fins included bones that look like nothing less than a primitive wrist and fingers.

Reader comment: Michael Reeve says,

The podcast in Nature's coverage, would that be a tetrapodcast? I'm sorry.

Reader comment: Eli Laztanguren says,

Xeni wrote "(Tiktaalik roseae) was highly trained in martial arts and once vanquished ten Intelligent Design proponents with a single wu-shu thwack from his mighty tail!" The fact is that nobody knows about Tiktaalik roseae having a tail or not. They just found the front part of the fossil. They might need now another six years in the artic ice to recover, if lucky, some rear part of it. Anyway, it actually vanquished ten Intelligent Design proponents with a single wu-shu thwack from his mighty... JAW.

"The holes were so perfect, so nice," said study co-author David Frayer, an anthropology professor at the University of Kansas. "I showed the pictures to my dentist and he thought they were amazing holes."

How it was done is painful just to think about. Researchers figured that a small bow was used to drive the flint drill tips into patients' teeth. Flint drill heads were found on site. So study lead author Roberto Macchiarelli, an anthropology professor at the University of Poitiers, France, and colleagues simulated the technique and drilled through human (but no longer attached) teeth in less than a minute.

"Definitely it had to be painful for the patient," Macchiarelli said.

Matt Fraction shares a sneak-preview of his forthcoming graphic novel, The Five Fists of Science, starring Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla in a race to save the world from Thomas Edison and J.P Morgan. "Best part? It's true. Almost," says Matt.

Link to a preview PDF. Front cover (GIF Link), Back cover (GIF Link).

So gorgeous. The real thing is coming out in May, at finer bookstores and comix shoppes, and on Amazon.com where you can pre-order now: Link (I just did).

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change says that if all the cars in the US were 60 mpg hybrids, "we would save more oil than we now import from the Middle East." And if we started using "plug-in hybrids," which could deliver 100 mpg or even more if you used them in cities, "there would be incalculable savings from the reduction in pollution and the ending of the nation’s dependence on foreign oil," as well as improved national security. That last benefit alone is enough to make it worthwhile for the government to give incentives to the auto companies to work on the problem, says former CIA director James Woolsey.

Even so, automakers would be reluctant to make plug-in hybrids, because the price of oil is still relatively low and people don't want to give up their gas guzzling SUVs.

That’s why many advocates say there must be a massive government commitment—something akin to the Manhattan Project, which produced the first nuclear bombs—to overcome the technological and economic obstacles.

Forget about a manned mission to Mars. Let's challenge NASA to make a vehicle for earthlings. Link

Reader comment: David says:

The same effect can be sustained for longer by attaching a chicken wire cage to a chain, filling it with wire wool and dipping it in paraffin. This is known by the much less macho name of "sparkle poi", and typically throws sparks about 30ft in every direction.

This little [3" pocket globe from 1792] is so exquisite it makes me want to smash 1000 Treos in protest. Not that I over sentimentalize the 'good old days' but for all the technological advances, there are profound losses. GPS and Google Earth are astonishing magic, but great maps are a thing of the past.

I wish Jalopy Junktown were an 800-page book, but I guess I'll have to wait. Link

I see these comics being sold for outrageous prices at little-old-lady antique shops and comic book shows, and these comics are SO NOT WORTH IT. I wouldn't pay more than a dollar each for these, and that's in MINT, signed by Sandy Frank, with a dollar bill paper-clipped to page 16.

The new dinosaur, formally dubbed Hagryphus giganteus, which means "giant four-footed, bird-like god of the western desert” in reference to the animal's outward resemblance to a large land bird, its giant stature, and its discovery in the Utah desert. Hagryphus is a member of the oviraptorosaurs, a group of bird-like feathered dinosaurs with toothless beaks, powerful arms and formidable claws...

One bony claw of Hagryphus preserves the impression of the keratinous fingernail-like that would have covered the claw in life.

Cory's post on the Smithsonian sellout to Showtime got me thinking. The right of refusal is pretty offensive, but even more offensive is that the contract isn't public.

Although the Smithsonian Institution claims they are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, just to make sure they aren't subjected in the future, they claim to abide by the "spirit and intent" of FOIA. So, it seemed appropriate to file a FOIA request to see if we can get that contract out in the open where we can all see exactly how big the give-away is.

And while we're on the subject, Josh Wattles says,

There is a discussion of the Smithsonian deal with Showtime on Prof. Patry's Copyright blog that augments BoingBoing's prior post on the subject -- and includes a comment from Fred Von Lohmann of the EFF. This deal is very bad and needs to be stopped.

# Objective

I have no objective. What's the point when cold death is the final destination for us all? Can you explain that to me? I know I'm supposed to put something here, though, so here goes: Your objective is to hire me into a challenging position in a computer-applications-based field within which you feel I can "make a difference" and "contribute" in a team environment. Imbecile.

# Skills

Skills are valueless and only serve temporarily to bolster the trembling egos of the sheeple of this wretched world. I eschew all so-called personal development, instead dying under the premise that, when I'm a biodegrading mess of worm feed hopelessly buried beneath a fathom of dark earth, being able to type 70 words a minute really won't do me a modicum of what you so ignorantly refer to as "good."

Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Access; UNIX; Lotus 1, 2, 3.

Many BoingBoing readers wrote in to say they're shocked -- shocked! -- at the release of Apple's new "Boot Camp" software allowing Win XP to run on new Intel-based Macs. One reader, a former Starbucks barista, poked fun at the idea of booting Windows anywhere you don't have to: "We have this shorthand term we use when a customer wants a nonfat decaf latte -- we call the drink a 'why bother.' This is kinda like one of those."

The Wall Street Journal posted a roundup of blogger reactions, which varied from "appalled" to "awesome."
Snip:

C.K. Sample III, a writer for the Unofficial Apple Weblog, said PC users will soon join the ranks of the converted: "If Apple plays its cards right and doesn't screw things up, people will see that booting into OS X runs more smoothly and is nicer than booting into Windows, and we may see more switchers than ever before."

Link. (Thanks, Carl Bialik!) Image: a snapshot of the Mac-to-Win transformation, from "Bootcamp on Macbook Pro" flickr set by speedeye. (Thanks, cesar bojorquez).

Link to full-size screengrab. (Thanks, Jake Appelbaum)

On a recent evening, Gladwell sat in a dim neighborhood restaurant and tavern in the West Village, where he lives, explaining his interest in psychological science. "Psychology is concerned with the things all of us are concerned with, so it was kind of natural," he said. "It's one of the few disciplines that's looking in a kind of rigorous way at how human beings respond to things like change..."

"I have two parallel things I'm interested in," Gladwell said. "One is, I'm interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is I'm interested in collecting interesting research. What I'm looking for is cases where they overlap."

The government here in Singapore is banning all [political] podcasting and videocasting during the upcoming elections. They are also requiring bloggers who want to speak up during the election to register themselves with the local broadcasting authority. Furthermore, once they are registered, they are required to take down their posts if the government deems it unsuitable.

I supplied information, a photograph and background data on the Tom Slick Yeti cast for their exhibition, and pointed them to others who owned the rights on expedition photos from the Himalayas. I look forward to seeing my mostly invisible contributions in the future, when I can visit their entryway "museum."

I have been taken aback but mildly surprised by how seriously Disney is detailing this attraction, to make it so authentic. Good for them.

While Disney — the parent company of ABC News — isn't officially endorsing the existence of the Yeti, the fabled beast has an honored spot that goes back centuries as a protector of the Himalayas against unwelcome intruders, and that fits Animal Kingdom's spirit as a sanctuary, said Joe Rohde, Walt Disney Imagineering executive designer.

"The Yeti's legend is very real, and very important in understanding the history and culture of the people," said Rohde, who has led several expeditions to Nepal — spending weeks at the foot of Everest — to build an ancient Himalayan village in the Orlando park.

Anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said on Wednesday. Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected".

I had no idea there was another Triple XXX in the U.S. The only one I ever knew of has been in the same location in West Lafayette, Indiana since 1929 and is a favorite of Purdue University students. One of the most popular items in the "Duane Purvis All-American" -- a hamburger with peanut butter on the bun. Sounds gross, tastes great.

Reader comment: Wim Bonner says, "I read the history on the Triple X resturaunts some time in the past, and just wanted to point out that the two places you've mentioned today seem to be distantly related. Here's a quote:

Sometime between 1900 and 1908, the Galveston Brewing Company began to produce and sell a line of soft-drink syrups under the brand name "XXX." In 1918, with the advent of Prohibition, the company changed its name to Southern Beverage Company and converted its brewing equipment to producing only soft drinks, primarily ginger ale and root beer. By 1923, Southern Beverage Company's licensed distributors included about 150 Triple XXX bottlers and approximately 100 Triple XXX "thirst stations" throughout the Southeast, the Southwest, and the Northwest as far as British Columbia.

Reader comment: Monty Taylor says,

I read the bit on the XXX kitsch restaurant, and since I'm Seattle immediately decided I had to go for lunch. For what it's worth, they have a XXX burger that is easily as large a dinner plate. If you lift the bun (which isn't easy, it's pretty heavy) you see they've actually placed four patties inside. To add insult to injury, they will not serve you a fork and knife with the burger if you ask for one. And if you ask, they'll ridicule you. I'll be going back. Thanks for the heads up.

Reader comment: Tim McNeil says,

I liked your story about the Triple XXX restaurant in West Lafayette, Indiana. I grew up in that area and have been to that restaurant many times. I first remember going there with my father when I was maybe four years old. Later in school I became friends with Greg, the son of the man who owned the Triple XXX. Greg now runs the restaurant.

The term "Triple XXX" is a reference to that quaint and (as far as I know uniquely American) endeavor of trafficking in illegal alcoholic beverages which is known as Moonshining. The fable goes that the illiterate Moonshiners would mark their jugs of 'shine with three X's to denote the contents " ''cause they hadn't learnt their letters".

Greg is one of the nicest people I have ever met. Of course, Greg's restaurant has nothing to do with p0rn or Moonshining. It just has an interesting name, frosty cold mugs of root beer and some really great burgers.

Reader comment: Regarding the XXX in Indiana, Chris says,

When we were back in college my friends and I used to drive 45 minutes each way to go to this place. They had great chili and floured hamburgers. For desert they had "The Obie" (named after a former Purdue football athlete) which has to be the pinnacle of deserts -- a milkshake topped with a sundae. The best part of the Obie was the fact that they made the milkshake the same flavor as the sundae topping you picked. Those were some great nights.

The director of Chinese Independent PEN Centre's Writers in Prison Committee, Yu Zhang, has lodged a formal complaint against Yahoo for its alleged part in the conviction of Chinese journalist and poet Shi Tao. Together with Hong Kong legislator Albert Ho and Chinese lawyer Li Jianqiang, Mr Yu met briefly with the privacy commissioner for personal data, and filed a formal complaint against Yahoo Holdings Hong Kong.

Among the materials presented to the commissioner was a copy of the Changsha court verdict, which convicted Shi for revealing state secrets abroad last year. The charges relate to emails sent to news organisations based outside China containing a Chinese Communist Party memo concerning the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it's true
We say sew but likewise few?
And the maker of the verse,
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard
Cord is different from word.
Cow is cow but low is low
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose, dose,and lose

With the support of the National Science Foundation, The Chymistry of Isaac Newton is producing a scholarly online edition of Newton's alchemical manuscripts integrated with new research on Newton's chymistry. To date, about five hundred, or a quarter of a projected two thousand pages have been transcribed and encoded in TEI/XML. Of these, about two hundred fifty have been edited and are available online, including Newton's Most Complete Laboratory Notebook.

Netflix also believes its patents cover perhaps its most popular feature -- the option of renting a DVD for an unlimited time without incurring late fees.

Most people agree that keeping adult-themed internet material away from kids is a good idea. But the efforts on the part of some technology companies to shield users from material deemed "obscene" have been less than perfect, even leading to charges of censorship. We explore the issues faced by the editors of the popular blog BoingBoing.net, who have been grappling with the issue in a very direct way.

XXX Root Beer is a landmark in Issaquah, providing root beer served in frosty mugs and a feeling of having been transported back to the 50's. We meet the family that owns it.

John just told me by email that the proprietors are so hardcore, they will not allow root beer to leave the kitchen unless it's served in a frosty mug. Boy, that place sounds awesome.  

Link to "The Works" for April 4, 2006, and here's an audio stream link (.rm) that will work after about 9PM PT.

Reader comment: Dignan says,

Modest Mouse, from Issaquah, WA, talk about this diner in a song. It all makes sense now. "All Nite Diner," by Modest Mouse: "I was at an all night diner The sign said, 'Triple X.' But they were talking about root beer." Link.

A frozen patch floating on the surface of the small lake would have been difficult to distinguish from the unfrozen water surrounding it. The unfrozen water was comprised of the plumes resulting from salty springs situated along the lake's western shore in Tabgha—an area where many archeological findings related to Jesus have been documented.

"As natural scientists, we simply explain that unique freezing processes probably happened in that region only a handful of times during the last 12,000 years," Nof said. "We leave to others the question of whether or not our research explains the biblical account."

Ants that return from foraging journeys can use landmarks to find their way home, but in addition they have an internal backup system that allows them to create straight shortcuts back to the nest even when the outbound part of the forage run was very winding. This backup system is called the 'path integrator' and constantly reassesses the ant's position using an internal compass and measure of distance travelled. Knaden and his colleagues hypothesised that because the path integrator is a function of the ant's brain, it is prone to accumulate mistakes with time. That is, unless it is regularly reset to the original error-free template; which is exactly what the researchers have found...

"We think that it must be the specific behaviour of entering the nest and releasing the food crumb that is necessary to reset the path integrator", says Knaden.

Here's an update on the journalists jailed during mass arrests of people protesting the outcome of the elections in Belarus. Among those currently serving sentences are a Canadian freelance reporter, Frederick Lavoie, as well as Russian and Georgian journalists. Belarussian officials have refused the Canadian government's demands that Lavoie be released. They state that he is in the country on a visa that does not allow for him to work as a journalist. Of course, Belarussian officials don't often hand out accreditation to allow independent media to come in anyways, so most journalists come in on a tourist visa.

[Its] 72-inch primary mirror is larger than any optical telescope in the U.S. east of the Mississippi river. Under the direction of Harvard University physicist Paul Horowitz and his team, The Planetary Society's new telescope will conduct a year round, all-sky survey, scanning the entire swath of our Milky Way galaxy visible in the northern hemisphere.

"This new search apparatus performs one trillion measurements per second and expands by 100,000-fold the sky coverage of our previous optical search," said Horowitz. (...)

Alien civilizations are thought by many to be at least as likely to use visible light signals for communicating as they are to use radio transmissions. Visible light can form tight beams, be incredibly intense, and its high frequencies allow it to carry enormous amounts of information. Using only Earth 2006 technology, a bright tightly focused light beam, such as a laser, can be ten thousand times as bright as its parent star for a brief instant. Such a beam could be easily observed from enormous distances.

A new web-based show encourages young women to tune in and associate DIY less with bread making and more with breadboard wiring.

Created by Alison Lewis, a web designer and instructor at Parsons School of Design, Switch is a free online show connects young women with technology by guiding them through fashion and design projects.

Lewis said she hopes "to inspire people with design and to get young girls thinking about how electronics are approachable and not so scary."

Jasmina Tesanovic
An Underworld Journey
Serbia: March 31, 2006

Heading southeast, to inner Serbia, close to the Bulgarian border. An area famous for women who are mysteries, said my friend, the film director Zivojin Pavlovic, whose mother was born there.

A euphemism really. In that magical region, men are rare. It's said that girl births far outnumber those of boys. Men marry into female families and are called "the brides."

A local wedding is a long caravan, exposed furniture paraded on wheels, like dollhouse rooms, rolling one after another in display all around the city, the village, the hills.

Mother's names are always officially recorded while the father often is simply called the shepherd, the clerk... Presumably he is never sure the he is the father at all ... Struggling for patriarchy , men here as almost everywhere in the world have all the legal power, and they take their revenge on their female husbands by beating them and often killing them. The region has a high rate of male domestic violence.

We are a caravan of women for peace Thirty of us have a performance in the market place: we want to celebrate our dead feminist friend, who wrote the first history of women's movements in Serbia, describing the past centuries of struggle. We intend to dance and sing, and eat enormous amounts of garlic, and dine on the local dish of stinging nettles, and drink the prohibited local black wine which is tainted with methyl alcohol.

[image: "Grandma Lena," Serbia, by Aleksandra Radonić]

YAMAMOTO’S EAR CLEANING SHOP
(Yamamoto mimikaki-ten / 山本耳かき店)

Story & Art: Yarô ABE / 阿部夜郎
First Published In: Big Comic Original #2004-07 (Shôgakukan)
Genre: Drama
Download: Torrent
In this manga short story written and drawn by Yarô Abe the reader is introduced to Toru Koeda, a seventh grader who is going through the trying times of puberty and finds release in a bamboo ear cleaner. Although Abe’s art might at first seem simplistic, it enhannces the characters’ personalities and allows the readers to easily identify with them during the short read.

Sarah T-068's features include:

• 100% genuine telepathic meat gloves for communicating with loved-ones. A must-have for any meat cyborg!
• photosynthetic light-capture organs and external chloroplast circulatory system
• bionic legs for kicking CEO's, politicians, priests, soldiers and other agents of oppression and exploitation.
• whipped cream and olive array for generating Anti-Yahweh telepathic shielding
• ninja meat mask for stealth operations
• generous line-in/line-out options

Evil food pirates in China have developed a way to make fake eggs out of gelatine, benzoic acid, alum, and other ingredients of varying toxicity. The eggs are sold at a very low price to unsuspecting consumers and can be cooked just like the real thing. The good news: no cholesterol. The bad news: eating too many can lead to dementia. Link to a blog entry on the topic. Here's a research study from 2005 with some helpful tips on how to roll your own dementia-inducing pirate eggs: "The World's Most Unbelievable Invention," by Alexander Tse-Yan Lee.

And if you believe all of this, please visit this eBay auction I'm hosting for a live unicorn.

(Thanks, Nic)

Dear Editor:

The Harvard medical study showing that prayer has no effect on recovery from heart surgery is shocking. It is not shocking that prayer has no medical effects--what's shocking is that scientists at Harvard Medical School are wasting their time studying the medical effects of prayer.

Science is a method of gaining knowledge by systematically studying things that actually exist and have real effects. The notion that someone's health can be affected by the prayers or wishes of strangers is based on nothing but imagination and faith. Such blind belief represents the rejection of reason and science, and is not worthy of serious, rational consideration. What's next? A study of the medical effects of blowing out birthday candles?

Every minute these doctors spend conducting this sort of faith-based study is one minute less spent on reality-based research--research that actually has hope of leading to real medical cures.

Dr. Yaron Brook
Ayn Rand Institute Executive Director
Irvine, CA

One exhibition was doing ear candling for $30. The people selling this said that the suction created by the candle "cleared your mind and sinuses." I questioned them enough to establish that they meant this literally and believed the ear was an opening from the brain and sinuses. The woman running the booth stated, "It cleans the whole head, brains and all - they're all connected you know." The candling was performed on a table at the front of the booth, so the curious sight of a person lying there with a burning candle sticking out of his ear drew many spectators. During the procedure, a gray mixture of soot and wax drippings collected on a pie plate under the candle. It did not look like melted candle wax, but was quite foul in appearance. Customers were told that these were the "impurities" of which they had been cleansed, and many went around proudly showing them off, comparing their debris to that of others, and making knowing comments. The vendor also peddled "psychic readings."

More earwax removal coverage on Boing Boing: Ototek Loop, scope that lets you gaze into your own ear canal, how (not) to clean your ear with a bobby pin, video of earwax picking, joy of earwax picking in Japan.

Is your life empty and unfulfilling? Looking for a way to tamp down those ever-present feelings of existential despair? You might try emptying out your toolbox, and spending the afternoon cleaning and rearranging the contents. If you can follow that up with a Sunday afternoon spent fiddling with the workings of an old car, followed by shoving around heavy things in a friend's garage, why you're getting darn close to nirvana, my friend. That's exactly how I spent my weekend, and lemme tell you, it was a profoundly satisfying, dare I say, even a spiritual experience.

The fatal shots are fired as the prime minister meets the Mexican and American presidents at a landmark summit in Mexico -- the same place the real-life Mr. Harper wraps up a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox today.

The video-game killing appears in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, the latest game inspired by thriller author Tom Clancy for the Xbox 360 system. The game, hailed by some reviewers as the best of its kind to date, has sold almost 50,000 units across Canada since its March 9 release and is already the most popular game for the Xbox 360.

The real-life Prime Minister's Office had no comment on the game.

Reader comment: joh3n says,

Ghost Recon Advanced Warrior [I think you mean "Warfighter" --XJ] takes place in 2013, so saying Harper is the one killed is a bit of a stretch.

Reader comment: Axel Caballero says,

It's interesting to note that Mexican Justice Department minister is seeking to take out of the market the game, because it "gives a bad image in the war against crime". The game takes place in Mexico's capital city, and we're currently on elections. Here is a link to the note (in spanish).

With each flush of your commode, clean water that would otherwise go straight down the toilet is first routed up through a chrome gooseneck spigot to dispense pure water for hand washing. The Toilet Lid Sink installs easily without tools, is attractive for any bathroom and is a great space saver.

For example, a programmable cola bottle with buttons for lemon, lime, vanilla, and cherry flavors as well as a caffeine button allows for thirty-two potential choices of soda. A programmable paint container with twenty pigment additive buttons allows the consumer to choose from one million colors.

FCC boobs uphold Janet Jackson fine
By Bennett Haselton

I usually don't send out pure opinion pieces, but let it be said: There is not one person anywhere who can give you a good reason why it's OK to show a man's chest on TV, but not a woman's chest. You can ask over 100 people why -- trust me, I have -- and not get a real answer. It's just a silly superstition that some people came up with, a bunch of others went along with it, and now we're stuck with it. Have you ever heard a real reason?

The two were arrested in Chukotka province for failing to register with the authorities, Andrei Orlov, spokesman for the Federal Security Service's (FSB) northeastern border guard division, said on NTV television. All visitors are required to register with police within three days of their arrival in Russia, even if they have visas.

"I would like it to seem sort of alien and yet familiar," said Josephine Zarkovich, the UC Berkeley art student who co-curated the exhibit with David Huff, a student at CCA's Oakland campus.

"I've always been really fond of mythology," Zarkovich said.

Huff, who specializes in photographs of roadside attractions, said they were able to attract some big names to the exhibit, including Big Foot, whose works depict — you guessed it — Bigfoot, and Eames Demetrios, whose Kymaerica installations imagine a different kind of North America.

The works "tap into the fears and desires of American society," Huff said.

What's more, if the US signs the evil WIPO "Broadcast Treaty," it means that Showtime will get a new, 50-year copyright over the public domain material they air as part of this deal, so doc-makers won't even be able to piece together works from the crumbs that Showtime chooses to air.

"I find this deal terrifying," [Ken] Burns said in a telephone interview from San Francisco, where he is filming interviews for a documentary on the history of the national parks. "It feels like the Smithsonian has essentially optioned America's attic to one company, and to have access to that attic, we would have to be signed off with, and perhaps co-opted by, that entity."

On March 9, Showtime and the Smithsonian announced the creation of Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture to develop television programming. Under the agreement, the joint venture has the right of first refusal to commercial documentaries that rely heavily on Smithsonian collections or staff. Those works would first have to be offered to Smithsonian on Demand, the cable channel that is expected to be the venture's first programming service.

Overall Winner
Julie & Julia
by Julie Powell in Non-Fiction Julia Powell, a 30-year-old secretary living in a bohemian apartment in Queens, spent 365 days cooking all 524 recipes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. With Julie's charm, humor, and occasional delirium, this book makes everything from shopping for the perfect piece of liver to extracting marrow from the bone a poetic experience.

Fiction Winner
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
by Cherie Priest

A modern-day ghost story in the Southern gothic tradition, Four and Twenty Blackbirds begins the tale of Eden, an orphan constantly watched by three ghostly figures. To save what's left of her family, Eden must uncover the sinister secrets of her own lineage.

Comics Winner
Totally Boned
by Zach Miller

"Joe and Monkey" is a webcomic about two regular guys (well, in Monkey's case, a regular monkey) who have lots of hilarious adventures. Along the way they come up against an evil robot and a variety of terrifying waterfowl.

Link (Thanks, Stephen!)

Having made Sri Lanka his home for the past 50 years, he now finds himself embroiled in a clock fight.

He has written to newspapers here saying it is foolish to return to a time zone half an hour out of step with GMT.

Update: Dave Langford sez, " The news isn't that TIM is still online but that, although it's been officially in limbo since the end of 2005, a bunch of new material went up on 1 and 2 April."

The Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit and Bomb Detection Unit were called in to downtown Ravenna on Friday morning after seventeen suspicious packages -- boxes wrapped in gold wrapping paper with question marks spray painted on them -- had alarmed residents.

Boxes were found at the Immaculate Conception Church on West Main Street, the Portage County Courthouse, Deluxe Pastries, the corner of Cherry Way and Main Street, Reed Memorial Library, Ravenna High School and a residence at Sanford and Main streets.

Five girls -- age 16 and 17 -- claimed responsibility for making and placing the packages. The girls said they found an Internet site that included step-by-step instructions for creating replicas of blocks featured in the game.

Update: Ryan sends us this link to a more complete article with pix, and notes that this site inspired the girls to action (also Alexis and Matthew note the same link)

In February, BoingBoing featured CBS reporter Mike Kirsch's investigation on police complaint forms (Police Station Intimidation), in which officers intimidated people seeking the forms. This is a follow up: now, the police union in Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale) Florida has put out a "BOLO" -- be on the lookout -- against Mike, warning police officers to be on the watch for him. The BOLO included private info like his car, tag number, and license... apparently for the purpose of harrassment for doing the original report.

Previously on BoingBoing:
MPAA: Win-only, DRMmed downloads at twice DVD price

In the new procedure, doctors extract muscle and bladder cells from a small piece of the patient's own bladder. The cells are grown in a Petri dish, then layered onto a three-dimensional mold shaped like a bladder.

In a few weeks, the cells produce a new bladder, which is implanted into the patient. Within a few more weeks, the new bladder has grown to normal size and has started functioning.

Atala is working to grow 20 different tissues and organs, including blood vessels and hearts, in the laboratory, according to the university.

"We're not using any type of stem cell population or cloning techniques, but mainly the patient's own cells that we're using to create these organs and put them back into the patient," Atala told CNN.

Because the bladders are grown from a patient's own cells, there is no risk of rejection, as in a traditional transplant.

Jeff says: "A U.K.archaeologist theorizes that human musicality evolved as a social cohesion mechanism."

One of the fur-clad men started it, a rhythmic sound with rising and falling pitch, and others picked it up, indicating their willingness to cooperate both in the moment and in the future, when the group would have to hunt or fend off predators. The music promoted "a sense of we-ness, of being together in the same situation facing the same problems."

Overall, children in the study logged more than 22 hours of total screen time per week, including more than 10 hours of TV. They reported making about one request each week for toys and more than one request every two weeks for food or drinks. Children who watched more TV and had more overall screen time requested advertised toys and food or drinks more often than those with less TV and screen time. For every extra hour per day that children watched television at the beginning of the study, they made on average one extra request for an advertised food or drink every six to 13 weeks at the end of the study, seven to 20 weeks later. Likewise, every extra hour of total screen time resulted in approximately one additional request for advertised food or drink every 13 to 24 weeks and one extra request for an advertised toy every 12 to 18 weeks.

Vegetarian populations tend to be slimmer than meat-eaters, and they experience lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other life-threatening conditions linked to overweight and obesity. The new review, compiling data from 87 previous studies, shows the weight-loss effect does not depend on exercise or calorie-counting, and it occurs at a rate of approximately 1 pound per week...

"There is evidence that a vegan diet causes an increased calorie burn after meals, meaning plant-based foods are being used more efficiently as fuel for the body, as opposed to being stored as fat," says (researcher Dr. Neal) Barnard. Insulin sensitivity is increased by a vegan diet, allowing nutrients to more rapidly enter the cells of the body to be converted to heat rather than to fat.

I get a call the other night. They've found four more bodies in western Baghdad. Three of them are in a car. They're bound, hands and feet. They're blindfolded. They've been shot in the head. Their bodies bear wounds from beatings, electrical burns, and someone has used a drill on their flesh. The fourth is the same, the only difference being that his body was tossed onto a sidewalk. That's just one phone call. I get a few more. Every night, it seems, dozens of bodies turn up, often killed in the same fashion, both Shi'ite and Sunni.

We spoke with a journalist recently for a piece we're doing. He works for an Iraqi television station. For the last nine days he's been sleeping at the office. He's been threatened with death because of his work, and he doesn't want to bring the danger home to his parents and six sisters. He told the Ministry of the Interior about the threat, they told him to get a gun.

"Death is the simplest thing now in Iraq. A bullet in the head is nothing, especially against journalists. So crying and sadness are the norm," he said to us. Later, he added, "I have been in love for the last 4 years but my conditions don't allow me to marry, not because of money but because of how things are going on. There is no stability and you never know when a civil war will breakout."

People here are more terrified than I have ever seen them.

Update: The subject of exactly how dates are formatted around the world is a subject of some dispute. Thank you to the many BB readers who wrote in from afar to debate this. YMMV.

I think the opposite would be true. I would be happy to have a fantastic live entertainer perform for me instead of listening to recorded music. That bored man sitting next to the King should be fined and jailed.
Link (via Ukulelia)

Consumers will snarf the overpriced, PC-only downloads like cake, the convoluted thinking goes, for "convenience factor." What's so convenient about being charged twice the current retail price for movies you're less free to enjoy as you please on the devices you own?  Link to story, and see also this MPAA press release issued late last week about why more restrictive DRM is good for you. (Thanks, Roland Dobbins)

In related news, Torrentspy's response to an MPAA lawsuit argues that if linking to copyrighted content is unlawful, the studios should go sue Google for infringement, too:

Attorneys for Torrentspy likened the service to that of Google when it comes to finding BitTorrent files. Their response cited several cases, including the Supreme Court's infamous decision in MGM v Grokster.

The defense noted how users of either Google or Torrentspy who look for torrent files must also access a "torrent tracker," which manages the distribution of files. "There is no allegation that defendants' website manages file distribution like a tracker," the response said.

Reader comment: Michael Winter says,

When talking about the "convenience factor" you left out the convenience of only spending an hour or six downloading the video instead of taking 5 minutes to run into the Wal Mart, Target, Best Buy, etc. most of us drive past every day.

With that kind of great pricing structure and convenience, I may go back to watching movies in the theatre instead.

Reader comment: Gary Neill says,

It appears to me that they are doubling the price (despite the lack of overhead) in order to try and kill the market by saying that making movies available for download doesn't work as a business model when we all decide not to pay their exhorbitant fees. Crippling the downloads with DRM will just seal the deal. (Or maybe I should've opened my argument with DRM and noted that crippling the downloads by doubling the price seals the deal.)

It's ridiculous to think that I would pay twice the price for content when for half the price, I can get the content AND a really cool (in some cases) cover to go with it and be relatively assured that it will last me forever (due to my obsession with keeping the media in my collection in pristine condition.) It's a ploy, i say.

Reader comment: Eric Eberhardt says,

Also laughable is the "Watch the Movies on your TV" section of the site, which attempts to walk "Joe User" through the daunting process of running an S-Video cable between his computer and TV. I'm kind of inclined to agree with the earlier comment that they want this site to fail based on how long and unecessarily complicated the FAQ is!

Not to mention the CinemaNow site won't even let you access the downloads in anything but IE6. Yeah, they are squeezing that A-Hole shut tight!

Reader comment: Mike Shea says,

It's probably overkill to mention this, considering the other fifty ways this service sucks, but Movielink's website requires Internet Explorer because it: "supports certain technologies we utilize for downloading movies." Gods I hate the word Utilize.

When Mark stops writing about earwax. Above, Modest/Immodest by Peter Vattanatham and Fiel Valdez. This sculpture is part of the Unicorn Art Show at Nucleus gallery in Alhambra, CA (near Los Angeles), now through April 10. Link.

"My family has 'exessive earwax problems' and I often used whatever was available to get out the gunk (sometimes with the added painful sensation of poking your eardrum).

"Now I use this product called the Ototek Loop. You can jam it in your ear and swirl it around to your hearts content and you won't risk eardrum injury.

"Ahhhh sweeet relief!"

[This illustration is curious, isn't it? The earwax globule is white, and the person's head is earwax colored.] Link

The article doesn't say whether or not the glasses improved the fly's vision (or whether or not the fly had vision problems to begin with), but they do look rather snazzy.
Link (thanks, Max!)

The dish is no longer allowed on their flights, and the sale of the delicacy from Stockholm's international airport has been stopped.

That has made producers of the surstromming choke on their fermented fish, calling the airlines' decision "culturally illiterate".

It is a myth, they say, that the tinned fish can explode.

They admit, however, that a punctured tin would emit a foul smell, and that the content might spill quite forcefully, like a punctured can of beer.

In the current edition of the Suicide Girls online magazine, my friend and longtime co-conspirator Susannah Breslin asks me some questions about BoingBoing, blogs, and Oki Dogs.

Link (work-safe, but other parts of the SG website are not).

What I would like to do is gather as many original (cryptozoology) sketches, as possible, no matter what the level of artistic ability, to have framed and displayed in the space available. If you have or can quickly draw an original image - please do not worry about your skill level - of a cryptid you saw, and if you would like to donate it to this effort, please send it along in the next week or so (by April 15th).

What are needed are the raw, drawn originals only - no computer generated illos, no email images sent, no photocopies. And while Bigfoot is a common theme, I am including all cryptids, of course.

The author, Justine Larbalestier, is part of a renaissance in kids' fantasy and science fiction: genre fiction that takes the best elements of the literature's history and fuses it with contemporary settings and themes, a sort of Douglas Coupland meets JRR Tolkien that appeals to adults just as easily as kids. (her husband, Scott Westerfeld is also prominent in this)

"Magic or Madness" tells the story of Reason Cansino, a 15-year-old Australian girl whose crazy mother raised her nomadically in the bush, moving from settlement to settlement every few weeks. Reason is a math prodigy, and her mother has given her a thorough but eclectic education that is cut short by her mother's suicide attempt, which lands Reason in the clutches of her grandmother in Sydney. All Reason's life, her mother has warned her of her terrible, hateful grandmother, a woman who believes she is a witch, who sacrifices the family pet in the basement, who will take her and abuse her as she abused Reason's mother.

But Reason's grandmother doesn't appear to be the evil woman her mother warned her of, and Reason has to decide whom to trust.

"Magic or Madness" wonderfully mixes a genuinely creepy system of hereditary magic with Australian bush lore, sweet and canny details about New York's East Village, daily life in Australia, fashion and mathematics, sneaking lectures into dialog and description so subtly you never know they're there, only that you're getting the charge of soaking up new knowledge about how the world works.

The second volume, "Magic Lessons" is just out, and from the sample chapter at the end of "Magic and Madness," it's clear that the trilogy gets even better from here on in. Link

April 13-17: Brisbane -- Guest of Honour, ConJure, the Australian national science fiction convention

April 18: Melbourne -- Speaking at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 7PM, AU$15/13 conc (at Federation Square, Flinders Street)

April 19: Sydney -- Speaking at Greater Union Bondi Junction, 7PM, Free (Level 6, 500 Oxford Street, Westfield Bondi Junction)

"My prices are lowers then most of other vendors have and I will deliver them in real time," reads a typically fractured Zo0mer post.

At the same forum, another user, "tabbot," offers "any U.S. bank accounts" for sale. "Balance from 3K and above: $40," he writes. "Regular brokerage accounts from 3K and above: $70."

Tabbot also offers full access to hacked accounts from credit unions. One, with a $31,000 balance, is being sold for $400. "I can try search specific info such as signature, ssn, dob, email access," tabbot writes. "Account with an extra info will be more expensive."

Previously on BoingBoing:
- Citibank under fraud attack, customers locked out
- PIN/ATM fiasco "worst ever," involves more banks
- Citibank security breach: undisclosed internally
- Consumers with Forced Debit Card Reissues Step Forward

Finding that sex may not be "a cut-and-dried matter of chromosomes," the court ruled that federal protections against sex discrimination may also protect transgender people who are discriminated against based on their gender identity. In rejecting the government's argument that discrimination against transgender people is not sex discrimination, the court noted "the factual complexities that underlie human sexual identity. These complexities stem from real variations in how the different components of biological sexuality -- chromosomal, gonadal, hormonal, and neurological -- interact with each other, and in turn, with social, psychological, and legal conceptions of gender."

These are allegedly real photos of the pre-election posters for Yulia Tymoshenko - nicknamed "the Orange Princess" - one of the leaders of the Orange revolution in Ukraine. Her party came in second in the recent general election with ~22.4% of votes. The posters look funny - the first of is from the movie "Night Watch" while the second reminds of the TV series "Dark Angel". But I would prefer such posters any time I had to choose between these and some boring political advertising.

Reader comment: Allen Knutson says,

They may not be as hawt as Tymoshenko's, but you should credit Howard Dean's Soylent Dean posters ("My God! His campaign! It's made out of PEOPLE!") as prior art.

Many websites sported temporary redesigns over the weekend for April Fools, but the makeover at nytimes.com is no prank. Link

Shown here, a scope that lets you gaze into your own ear canal.
Link

Link to larger size. By illustrator Graham Roumieu, whose print work you can find all over the place. Generously shared as an exclusive of sorts for BoingBoing. Incidentally, Graham is, like, >< that tight with Bigfoot.

Previously:
- Me Write Book, it Bigfoot Memoir
- New cartoon from Graham Roumieu
- Latest in Roumieu's "Bigfoot" series
- Graham Roumieu: "Mystery Salmon"
- Graham Roumieu's SARS Art Project item

"A total 85 of these 905 cases were so-called high users of mobile phones, that is they began early to use mobile and/or wireless telephones and used them a lot," the study said. "The study also shows that the rise in risk is noticeable for tumors on the side of the head where the phone was said to be used."

Kjell Mild, who led the study, said the figures meant that heavy users of mobile phones, for instance of who make mobile phone calls for 2,000 hours or more in their life, had a 240 percent increased risk for a malignant tumor on the side of the head the phone is used.

"The way to get the risk down is to use hands-free," he told Reuters.

Link to Reuters item, via CNET.

Here's the website for the institute, and here's an English PDF summary of the study from the Institute's website: "Pooled analysis of two case–control studies on use of cellular and cordless telephones and the risk for malignant brain tumours diagnosed in 1997–2003." Here's a related PDF from the institute, in Swedish. (Thanks, resonantorder)

Reader Comment: Mike B says,

This most recent Swedish study by Hardell, which claims to have found a connection between cell phones and cancer incidence, is in direct conflict with a very large Danish study that didn't find any connection at all: Link.

Andy Mussell of the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper tells BoingBoing,

Here in Wisconsin, a Fond du Lac County judge has shut down an entire website because of two anonymous 'sexually explicit' postings about the Winnebago County Clerk of Courts.

Fond du Lac County Judge Robert Wirtz on Thursday ordered local Web site owner Dennis Payne to cease operations of the bulletin board site, fullofbologna.com, based on the allegations of a libel lawsuit filed by Winnebago County Clerk of Courts Diane Fremgen.

As part of the temporary injunction, Wirtz also prohibited Payne and other defendants listed from operating any similar Web sites until the order is lifted. Failure to abide by the order would be considered contempt and could be punishable with jail time and fines, according to the order.

Sandy Baron, executive director of the New York-based Media Law Resource Center, said injunctions against speech are "beyond rare," and in terms of libel cases, "it's almost unheard of."

Baron Friday said the rarity of such an injunction goes back to the earliest days of constitutional thinking, and suggested that the First Amendment is in the constitution based on its framers' own rebellion against speech restraints. "The Constitution simply doesn't allow courts to prohibit people from speaking," she said.

My friend Kelly McEvers is in Dagestan (southern Russia) as part of a journalism fellowship she was rightly awarded. She is being severely leaned upon by the Dagestani authorities, who are going so far as threatening her with supporting terrorism. Kelly is an amazing person, and it seems that right now she's doing exactly what she's meant to do: Asking the tough questions and searching for truth.

Kelly is cofounder of the online narrative journalism e-zine SixBillion.org, and a contributor to NPR and Slate.

Update, April 2: Mike from 2600 sez, "Since it's no longer April 1, our homepage is back to usual, but if you want to see the makeover, you can still go here."