The great jazz instrumentalist and widow of John Coltrane died on Friday. She was best known for her work on three instruments: harp, Wurlitzer organ, and piano. Link to Wikipedia bio, and here is her website. News coverage: One, two (Thanks, Dirk). Here's an interview in The Wire from 2002: Link.

I can't find any good video footage or sound samples online, but this experimental short on Google Video by an Icelandic filmmaker uses one of her most beautiful compositions, "Journey In Satchidananda": Link. "Blue Nile" is my all-time favorite, favorite track of hers, from this album, a very brief sound clip on this NPR feature page: Link. Amazon has some short clips from that same record here: Link.

Reader comments: Dubpulse blogged,

What many a New Age musician fails to do, she did. These are truly cosmic jazz orchestrations, perhaps overshadowed by her husband's work (...) Tonight I'll imagine they're both in some star-jewelled interstellar realm improvising with thousand-eyed, multi-limbed deities of light. John's saxophone riffing on the curvature of space, and Alice twinkling harp melodies with shards of time.

David Alexander Mcdonald writes,

Yet more sad news. One of my most treasured vinyls is the double LP REFLECTIONS ON CREATION AND SPACE, and I'm equally as attached to my CD copy of PTAH, THE EL-DAOUD. It's sublime music, deeply spiritual jazz with a cosmic current to it. It's rather sad that her music hasn't been accorded the sort of reissue and remastering treatment that her husband's work has received.

Dirk says,

Get yourself a copy of World Galaxy for heavenly string arrangements even better than "Blue Nile." :-)

A Pentagon official has called for a corporate boycott of law firms that represent Guantanamo detainees. He thinks that if you've been accused of conspiring to undermine democracy that you should be denied your democratic right to counsel, to prove how great democracy is. It's demo-crazy.

Charles "Cully" Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said in a radio interview last week that companies might want to consider taking their business to firms that do not represent suspected terrorists...

Stimson listed the names of more than a dozen major firms he suggested should be boycotted.

"And I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms," Stimson said...

Stimson also described Guantanamo as "certainly, probably the most transparent and open location in the world" because of visits from more than 2,000 journalists since it opened five years ago. However, journalists are not allowed to talk to detainees on those visits, their photos are censored and their access to the base has at times been shut off entirely.

He discounted international outrage over the detention center as "small little protests around the world" that were "drummed up by Amnesty International" and inflated in importance by liberal news media outlets.

Link (Thanks, Thomas!)

The excellent Security Now podcast just aired an interview with Peter Guttman, the security researcher who wrote the celebrated "A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection" (this is the paper whose "executive executive summary" read simply, "The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history").

Guttman has really dug into the crazy extremes that Vista -- the next version of Windows -- goes to in order to restrict how you use high-definition video. The operating system has been essentially rendered useless by a set of deliberately introduced malfunctions. For example, the if your computer detects erroneous data in its registers, or voltage fluctuations (both of which are typical of PCs whose parts have been manufactured by dozens of companies), it will restart major subsystems, hanging up while it flushes all your data -- just in case those errors were part of a hack-attack on the system.

Vista is a disaster. Microsoft is so desperate to get the entertainment industry locked into its platform that they'll destroy themselves to get there. This is an operating system that, when idle, will have to check itself every 30 microseconds to make sure nothing is still happening, and no hackers are attacking it. It acts like an unmedicated paranoid. If Vista catches on, hundreds of millions of computers will be burning heptillions of cycles and tons of coal just making sure that no one is putting a voltmeter on the traces on its motherboard.

And those are its good points.

And what it means is that so many aspects of our PCs, which have been fully documented, been public domain, been anyone could develop a display card, for example, that’s no longer the case. If you’re going to have any foot in this next-generation game, you have to sign up and apparently pay hefty license fees just to participate. And if you don’t get certificates, which are subject to spontaneous revocation, if you then subsequently misbehave, or in fact I read one of the AACS organization documents said that you could be revoked if you failed to pay your annual dues.

Link

See also:
Great information-security weekly podcast
Windows Vista: Suicide notes, nerdcore rap MP3

Back in 1969, some pranksters at NASA inserted scanned images of three Playboy centerfolds (on fireproof plastic paper!) into the little checklists the Apollo 12 astronauts took into space.

[Apollo 12 crew member Pete] Conrad got Miss September 1967 Angela Dorian ("Seen any interesting hills and valleys?") and Miss October 1967 Reagan Wilson ("Preferred tether partner"). [Al] Bean got Miss December 1969 Cynthia Myers ("Don't forget — Describe the protuberances") and Miss January 1969 Leslie Bianchini ("Survey — her activity").

Conrad told us in 1994: "I had no idea they were with us. It wasn't until we actually got out on the lunar surface and were well into our first moon walk that I found them." Bean recalled: "It was about two and a half hours into the extravehicular activity. I flipped the page over and there she was. I hopped over to where Pete was and showed him mine, and he showed me his."

Link to Playboy.com blog entry, and there's more background here at NASA.gov: Link. (via newsonthemarch)

Video Link (12 minutes). The metadata reads, "Microsoft sent this tape to retailers to explain the benefits of Windows 386. Boring until the 7 minute mark when the production is taken over by crack-smoking monkeys." (Thanks, FishNChimps)

A 40-year-old substitute teacher faces up to 40 years in prison after being convicted of exposing children to pornography on a computer at the Connecticut middle school where she taught.

I suppose it's remotely possible the charges are valid. But the story doesn't add up. It seems far more plausible from the accounts I'm reading that this woman, who had no prior criminal record and a clean teaching history, was using an insecure edition of Internet Explorer and was hit with an adware infestation she didn't know how to deal with.

Some reports indicate the teachers at this school were prohibited by policy from turning off school computers, which would answer the "why didn't she just shut down the PC?" questions. Amero testified that she told four other teachers and the school's assistant principal about the popup problem, and nobody responded with help. The school's internet filter license had expired, and the detective in the investigation was quoted in one local paper's account as saying "there was no search made for adware, which can generate pop-up advertisements". So if that's true, and the arguments of the defense are valid -- wow, 40 years in jail for using a lame browser? Insane. That's more time than some convicted murderers get.

And beyond the question of what constitutes justice for Ms. Amero, how might this ruling affect other teachers using computers with children? Will some teachers limit their use of technology in the classroom, fearing greater liability risks if porn they didn't ask for shows up on an unsecured, school-owned PC?

Snip:

Julie Amero, 40, of Windham, was convicted Friday on four counts of risk of injury to a minor in connection to pornography the students saw on her computer screen. Prosecutors said sexually graphic computer images she accessed were seen by several of her Kelly Middle School students in October 2004.

During the trial, Amero said any inappropriate images on her computer screen were from adware, which can generate pop-up ads and not from sites specifically keyed. Prosecutor David Smith contended Amero physically clicked onto the graphic Web sites, which included meetlovers.com and femalesexual.com.

Link to AP item. Amero is scheduled to be sentenced on March 2.

More coverage: Norwich Bulletin, Link; Slashdot, Link; broadbandreports.com, Link; sunbeltblog, Link. (thanks, Walter Hooper)

Ben Edelman's blog has a good entry on how adware infestations work -- in particular, the kind that generate sexually explicit content: Link.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Internet Explorer was unsafe for 284 days in 2006

Reader comment: Jonathan says,

I'm not sure if you noticed this: the Norwich Bulletin article had a VERY troubling quote on it -- the prosecution used an expert witness that said a highlighted link was proof that the accused had clicked on the URLs.

That is simply not true. The expert witness is either lying or a fucking idiot. Visited links are highlighted if a browser had ever loaded a URL-- I've yet to find a browser that highlights visited links on a "source | destination" basis -- every one i've ever encountered highlights links on "destination" alone.

I made a quick demo over here to illustrate my point: Link.

Technocrat says,

I'm the Technology Coordinator for a school district in Illinois, and would like to point out that if the school's internet filters are expired, they no longer are in compliance with the Child Internet Protection Act. This makes them ineligible for federal funding for telecommunications/computer monies (including 20-90% discounts on specific network/servers/internet connections under the E-Rate program, not to mention being held liable as an organization for anything exposed to minors.) Since we're currently in the e-Rate window for 2007-2008, an admission that they don't have proper internet filters very well could make them ineligible for e-Rate, which translates to a very sizable amount for any school. If they apply for e-Rate anyway (and part of the process is guaranteeing that you comply with CIPA), they can be kicked out of the program!

In any case, the school is required to have filters by law and in order to be eligible for e-Rate, so if they let the filters expire, they're going to have quite the mess on their hands.

Brett Osborne says,

I'm a certified information security professional. From the Norwich Bulletin article, I also see obvious problems with both "experts" for defense and the detective.

Of course I haven't seen the transcript. But there appears to be significant factual problems.

I've found the defense lawyer's information on FindLaw.com.

During the time frame of the alleged offence, one only needs to go to any antivirus company list, bugtrack, microsoft technet security, or any of about 25 other sites that I use to show the state of windows (patches, SP, etc.) and malware in the wild. This is simple (very) forensic reconstruction.

I doubt that Amero should have been charged let alone convicted. The fact that there was no up to date anti-virus/anti-spyware alone tells me that it was not a question of if it was an infection/intrusion.

And the apparent fact that the licences were allowed to expire would be significant enough to remove any culpability from Amero. If anyone were to be culpable, I would believe that the school administration should be at fault (this is a moral and ethical judgement, not a legal one). Isn't it the protection of the children their responsibility?

Lorne Ipsum blogs,

[Friday, January 12th 2007 was] the 100th anniversary of the birth of a giant of space exploration -- Sergey Korolyov (sometimes also transliterated as Sergei Korolev).

For much of the 20th century, Korolyov was the prime driving factor behind the Soviet space program. He led the efforts to launch Sputnik, put Yuri Gagarin into orbit, and hold up the USSR's end of the race to the moon. Yet during Korolyov's life, even his existence was a Soviet state secret -- he was only ever publicly referred to as the "Chief Designer." After his death, he finally received some recognition for his accomplishments, yet many parts of Korolyov's life and work were more rumor than fact until after the collapse of the USSR.

Link to geekcounterpoint blog post and podcast. See also this BBC News article: Link, and Agence-France Presse item here: Link. Image: Sergei Korolyov at the Kapustin Yar firing range in 1953.

See also a piece by BB pal Gareth Branwyn about Sergei Korolev for Discovery's (long dead) "Dead Inventors" column: Link

Image (via Wikipedia): "Some of the claimed 'famous trademarks' in Stoller's Rentamark.com site when it was online." Anonymous internet chronicler says,

Remember Leo Stoller? He's the "intellectual property entrepreneur" who threatened to sue anyone who allegedly infringed his "famous trademarks," especially the word "stealth."

He hasn't had the best time of it since the last BoingBoing article, so here's a recap of his illustrious career:

Charged and fined in illegal fund solicitations for 9/11 victims (charities he listed said they never got any money).

Lost a trademark case where he claimed software maker Centra 2000™ infringed his "Sentra" trademark. Stoller filed corporate bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid paying after losing.

Got a smackdown from Columbia Pictures after threatening to sue them over the title of their film Stealth.

Sued Hall-of-Famer George Brett for selling a Stealth™ brand baseball bat. The judge found for Brett's company and cancelled Stoller's trademark registration in that category.

In 2006, the US Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board sanctioned Stoller for filing 1,100 extension requests in 5 months for trademarks he was opposing. He can't file any more for two years. The real legal beatdown came at the hands of Pure Fishing, Inc., maker of Spiderwire® Stealth™ and other Stealth™ brand fishing gear. Stoller went after them and they fought back. Hard.

Link to video (it's a scene from "The Killers," 1964). I'm still looking for the other YouTube clip where Werner Herzog punches out George Bush. (Thanks, Jason Wishnow)

Dadara tells BoingBoing,

Just recently (between Christmas and New Year) I designed a big (8 x 8 x 3 metres) pink tank for my Love, Peace and Terror Project, and built it on a rooftop in the centre of Amsterdam and will blow it up with explosives beginning of February.

For fun today I googled "pink tank" and stumbled on your april 19, 2006 blog entry about pink tanks. This one is not a real tank and I guess the other ones won't get blown up, but still I feel part of a pink tank movement now :-)

Link to the Love/Peace/Terror project website, which states:

In the sixties naked hippies with flowers braided into their long hair might have been successful in protesting against war, but nowadays probably the language of war itself might be better for delivering a message of peace .

Previously on BoingBoing:

Cute pink tank cozy

Pink tank

Reader comments: Hugh Bradley says,

In 2005 the Irish artist Abigail O'Brien made a 19 feet long inflatable pink tank as part of her Fortitude project. The tank was painted with a motif of raspberries! A timer had the sculpture inflating and deflating every two minutes. There are movies of this installation which was at the J Mooney Foundation in Chicago. She has also made cross stitch sewing patterns of pink tanks with broken barrels. Link.

Rich says,

The Prague pink tank blogged earlier on BoingBoing is now in the vojenske technicke museum, a day's bike ride (well, a day if you are me and my daughter :-) from Prague. It is an awesome place. Here is a website featuring the pink tank. It is a dominant feature as you enter the facility: Link.

Here is a picture I took of it: Link. The pink tank is cool and symbolic, but the Dr. Seuss colors in this one are great: Link. This dazzle painting of a gun emplacement is cool: Link. But this is one of the funniest things there, a fake tank: Link. They set up a bunch of these as decoys, to fool people doing aeriel surveilence into thinking they had more tanks than they did.

Swords to plowshares is one thing, but artillery to nesting box is another: Link. And all my photos from the museum: Link.

This past Monday, January 8 2007, was Stephen William Hawking's 65th birthday. Gareth Branwyn writes:

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he told them that one of the things he plans on doing this year is taking a ride on the Vomit Comet (the zero-G airplane), and then, in 2009, to go into space via Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. Sir Richard Branson is picking up the tab for his ride.

Link to the full text of Gareth's post on streetech.com (Photo: Rob Bodman). See also this space-related post there: Did Viking Missions Overlook Life on Mars, or Worse? Link.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced this week that the minute hand of the symbolic "Doomsday Clock" will move closer to midnight on January 17, 2007. This shift is the first such change to the Clock since February 2002:

The major new step reflects growing concerns about a "Second Nuclear Age" marked by grave threats, including: nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, the continuing "launch-ready" status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia, escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks.

The January 17 announcement will take place simultaneously in two locations: at 9:30 a.m. ET at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., and at 2:30 p.m. GMT in London at The Royal Society. Speakers will include Stephen Hawking, BAS director Kennette Benedict, Royan Society president Sir Martin Rees, Case Western physics and astronomy professor Lawrence M. Krauss, and International Crisis Group co-chair Ambassador Thomas Pickering.

Here's Wikipedia's article on the Doomsday Clock. Looks like the BAS plans to launch a new website on the 17th along with this event.

Line Noise, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's all-too-irregular podcast, is back this week with a great interview with staff activist Derek Slater, who's been staffing the EFF booth at the Consumer Electronics Show. Derek takes us through the state of the electronics universe with regard to the march of devices that enable -- and restrict -- fair use. It's generally good news for the audio world, but the video world basically stinks -- a few analog hole devices are allowing you to do more with your devices, but mostly, there's nothin'. The lesson, I think, is to not buy any high-def video discs or players until you can be sure that you'll be able to do what you want with them. Link

Complex says,

Hip Hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash and the legendary Furious Five are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame making them the first rap group to be honored. The early innovators of Hip Hop will be acknowledged on March 12 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in NYC. Flash is credited for the creating the process of blending two break-beats together and thereby creating one of the fundamental formulas for Hip Hop music.

Link to Rodrigo's blog entry, and Link to a 1984 video (screengrab above) for "White Lines," directed by Spike Lee and starring a very young Lawrence Fishburne. Dang dang diggity dang de dang. Here's a video for the Grandmaster's other best-known song, "The Message." Link. (thanks, Rodrigo Peñalba)

vjdanny says,

Youtube could be banned in India due to a supposedly offensive video of Mahatma Gandhi doing a Pole dance and other ungandhi like antics. The video features a comedy skit by a Hawaii-based Non-Resident Indian, Gautham Prasad, who has now apologized to the people offended by the video. The Indian Government has been regularly banning sites which it feels are not in the best interests of the country. Popular sites like Yahoogroups and Blogger had been temporarily banned at one time in India for the same reason. Youtube too could share the same fate, albeit temporarily.

Link to blog entry, Link to video.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Brazil orders YouTube shut down over celebrity sex video

Brazil ISP blocks YouTube after court decision on sex vid

Indian gov blocks Blogspot, Typepad ...

Update on India censoring blogs

India blog ban NOT over, says author of still-banned blog

Update on India bans blogs: bloggers want answers

Indian gov finally lifts ban -- UPDATE: not so.

Reader comment: Tore Sinding Bekkedal says,

It might be worth noting that the Norwegian government TV channel, NRK, reported on this, but instead of the pole dancing video, showed the clip "Gandhi II" from the cult classic movie "UHF" by Weird Al Yankovic. Maybe they just did a search on YouTube for Gandhi?

Congress has reintroduced the PERFORM Act, a broadcast flag for radio -- if it passes, you can kiss the idea of recording digital radio or Internet radio goodbye. EFF has a web-page to help you write to your Congresscritter and tell her/him what you think of this:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has re-introduced the PERFORM Act, a backdoor assault on your right to record off the radio. Satellite and digital radio stations as well as Internet webcasters would have to adopt digital rights management (DRM) restrictions or lose the statutory license for broadcasting music. Letters from constituents like you helped beat this dangerous proposal last year -- take action now to block it again.

This bill aims to hobble TiVo-like devices for satellite and digital radio. Such devices would be able to include "reasonable recording" features, but that excludes choosing and playing back selections based on song title, artist, or genre. Want to freely move recordings around your home network or copy them to the portable player of your choice? You'll be out of luck if PERFORM passes.

This bill would also mess with Internet radio. Today, Live365, Shoutcast, streaming radio stations included in iTunes, and myriad other smaller webcasters rely on MP3 streaming. PERFORM would in effect force them to use DRM-laden, proprietary formats, so you can say goodbye to software tools like Streamripper that let you record programming to listen to it later.

Link

Today on the Worth 1000 photoshopping contest: remixed statues -- I really like this rockin' Statue of Liberty. Link

On the Modern Mechanix blog, "Thirteen New Aids Designed for the Busy Housewife" From the December, 1930 issue of Popular Science:

SAVE THE PIE JUICE. When baking fruit pies there is always a chance that the juice will bubble over and burn in the oven. This is avoided by means of a grooved ring that goes under the edge of the pie tin and fastens snugly, thus making a deep dish that holds the juice.

Link

Raincoaster sez, "This blogger made a scale model of the Battle of Helm's Deep (from The Two Towers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) in candy! The site has an awesome collection of photos and brief, but hilarious commentary."

Alas! The evil host is through the walls! And up the carefully crafted stairs of Starbust candies. Is there no end to their cruelty? The answer is most definitely NO, as you can see from the piles of dead men and elves. They are covered in the sweetest candy blood we could find (red Nerds and more licorice rope).

Link (Thanks, Raincoaster!)

knightPhlight sez, "With the advent of the Wii, another generation of Zelda fans are born. My daughter's 4th birthday is tomorrow and she asked for a Link cake. With two classes of pre-K munchkins coming over, there was only one solution: cupcake pixel art. The icing on the cake(s) would be a happy birthday wish from everyone in the bOINGbOING-isphere..." Link (Thanks, knightPhlight!)

Mike sez, "Thought you might be interested/amused by this post I put up recently about similarities between the way the RIAA is acting and a group of 17th century French button makers. History repeats itself."

"Shortly after the matter of cloth weaving has been disposed of, the button makers guild raises a cry of outrage; the tailors are beginning to make buttons out of cloth, an unheard-of thing. The government, indignant that an innovation should threaten a settled industry, imposes a fine on the cloth-button makers. But the wardens of the button guild are not yet satisfied. They demand the right to search people's homes and wardrobes and fine and even arrest them on the streets if they are seen wearing these subversive goods."

Requiring permission to innovate? Feeling entitled to search others' property? Getting the power to act like law enforcement in order to fine or arrest those who are taking part in activities that challenge your business model? Don't these all sound quite familiar? Centuries from now (hopefully much, much sooner), the actions of the RIAA, MPAA and others that match those of the weavers and button-makers of 17th century France will seem just as ridiculous.

Link (Thanks, Mike!)

Update: Stephen sez, "here's a neat page on how to make the kind of cloth buttons that created such a scare to the button industry."

The Picodore 64 is a homebrew Commodore 64 clone built into a tiny laptop case -- the brains are scavenged from an all-in-one C64-in-a-joystick system, and then hacked into the case along with a keyboard and battery-based power-supply. Link (via OhGizmo)

Ita says "Karl Szmolinsky, a 67 year old, East German pensioner that have breds rabbits the size of dogs for 47 years was asked by North Korea's ambassador whether he might be willing to sell some rabbits to set up a breeding farm in North Korea. Each of his German Grey Rabbits can feed 8 people and will possible reduce if not stop solve the food shortage crisis in North Korea." Link

The US Senate just passed a bill to strip Congresspeople who have been convicted of serious ethics offenses of their federal pensions:

"The only thing crazier than giving a member of Congress convicted of a crime a federal pension is the fact that we still need a bill to prevent a convict from receiving their pension," Salazar said at the time. "A member of Congress who abuses their position of authority for their personal profit deserves a prison sentence, not a government pension..."

. Ex-congressmen such as Randall "Duke" Cunningham -- collecting an estimated $64,000 a year although he pleaded guilty to charges of accepting bribes -- and James Traficant -- convicted of taking bribes, among other charges, and collecting an estimated $40,000 a year -- will get to keep their pensions.

Link

An army of racoons, bred by Hermann Göring, are ravaging the German countryside:

The story begins in 1934, when a breeder asked the Reich Forestry Office, then led by future top Hitler aide Hermann Göring, for permission to release the masked-faced mammals to "enrich the local fauna" outside Kassel, a small city north of Frankfurt...

Seventy years on, the furry critters are now as populous in some areas of Germany as in the major urban centers of North America -- a whopping one per hectare (2.5 acres), Hohmann said...

As Allied bombs rained over Berlin at the end of World War II, one struck a fur breeding farm, giving the raccoons there the opportunity to escape into the wild. They never looked back. And in the 1960s, NATO soldiers freed the raccoons they used as mascots after leaving their base in France, setting off a baby boom.

Link (via Making Light)

Paul sez, "Homeland Security has gotten to FedEx. I tried to ship some make-believe products from Greenwood Space Travel Supply (the "front" for Seattle's branch of 826 Valencia), including 'Rocket Fuel' and 'Certainty.' FedEx, however, wouldn't let me, saying that they were 'too suspicious' and looked like 'bomb-making materials.' Despite the fact that they were mostly just empty containers with funny words on them. Hilarious, but sad."

Me [going into post-9/11, TSA-style super-dumbfounded mode]: So what you're saying is you can't ship any sort of containers, even if they're empty? You know that we originally ordered these empty cans and jars from a company, and *they* shipped them to *us*. FedEx guy: They must have used a different vendor ["vendor"? I can't remember, some word like that, like a "service"].

Which I imagine he said because he couldn't bring himself to say, "It's the *words* that are *on* the containers that are dangerous"—even after I had opened them all and demonstrated the utter harmlessness/emptiness of the containers themselves.

Link (Thanks, Paul!)

Jeff Diehl says: "In 1999, RAW was a columnist at GettingIt.com, and wrote a total of 7 pieces. They are not well known, but are insightful and fun nonetheless.

I have no commitment to materialism as a philosophy that explains everything, since no correlation of words can ever do that, and a philosophy is never more than a correlation of words. But restricting myself to the “materialistic”/scientific method of asking questions that have definite experiential answers, I observe no difference in operation between “cults” and “religions.” Catholic nuns and priests vowing celibacy seem no more or less weird than Heaven’s Gate members who also make that choice. Mormon extraterrestrial cosmology seems as goofy as Scientology, etc. Religions and cults all use the same techniques of brain damage, or “mind control,” i.e. they all instill BS — Belief Systems. (From "In Doubt We Trust: Cults, religions, and BS in general")

Link

Earlier this week I posted a trailer for an upcoming documentary about beltelnut girls in Taiwan. The producer sent me a link to his Flickr gallery of his photos of betelnet girls. Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• A westerner tries betel nut Link
• Taiwan betelnut girl movies Link
• Taiwanese betel nut vendor girls told to put clothes back on Link
• History of betel chewing Link
• Recent studies have linked betel chewing to oral cancer Link
• Interesting Indian delicacy: paan Link
• Annamarie Ho's Betelnut Girls art installation Link
• Betelnut Beauty "action" figures Link
• Photos of real and fake betelnut girls Link

Z.VEX makes a wide range of effects boxes for musicians. I love their bright and colorful enclosures. The boxes not only look neat, they do neat stuff. Check out the Theraminesque Wah Probe video. Link (Thanks, Robyn!)

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Amazing gallery of birth-control-pill packaging Link
• Unfortunately suggestive food packaging Link
• Dime-store packaging gallery Link

The Daily Mail has an article about "farmyard freaks" -- livestock that has been genetically engineered to make them totally docile.

Factory farming techniques, most commonly used with pigs and chicken, often involve keeping animals confined in cramped conditions.

For pigs, who are highly intelligent, these conditions can lead to stress and aggression.

However, GM scientists are actively investigating ways to remove the stress and aggression gene from animals, effectively turning them into complacent zombies.

The professor said it might become technically possible to produce "animal vegetables" - beasts which are "highly prolific and oblivious to their physical and mental status".

Link (Thanks, Denis Drye!)

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Pig carcass disaster cleanup photos Link
• Diving pig electrocuted Link
• David Beckham's alleged lover masturbates a pig on UK TV show Link
• Delicious beverage made of pig whipworm eggs is also good for you! Link

Reader comment:

Ludlow Spinks Esq says:

Couple of points about the "Zombie pigs genetically altered to not mind being food"

a) I don't know if you're familiar with the British press, but the Daily Mail is one of the most unpleasantly right-wing, sensationalist and panic-mongering of our papers, so I would not trust anything I read in it.

b) I'm surprised you didn't mention Douglas Adams's Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, which features an animal which not only doesn't mind being eaten but actively wants to be, and tells the diners in the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe as much, advising them on which of its cuts are likely to be tastiest.

Please don't take this as criticism however - words cannot describe how much I enjoy the Boingboing blog.

Justin says:

Saw the interesting story you posted about genetically altered pigs. Oddly enough, my friends and I did a comedic short film for a friends pig roast not too long ago, which includes an interesting infomercial for "GAP" pigs. Have a laugh if you a moment. Link

Check out this astounding, scared mummy excavated from an Amazon burial chamber:

Hands over her eyes and her face gripped with terror, the woman's fear of death is all too obvious.

The remarkable mummy was found in a hidden burial vault in the Amazon.

It is at least 600 years old and has survived thanks to the embalming skills of her tribe, the Chachapoyas or cloud warriors.

Link (Thanks Graffitirun)

Marc Laidlaw says:

Last week's stop motion thread reminded me of something I haven't seen on YouTube or anywhere else yet. Gulf-Western gas stations did a series of stop motion commercials in the early 70s, of people driving around without cars--they were just sitting on the ground, and animated to appear to be driving around towns. My best friend and I attempted to make our own versions of these with a handheld camera and no tripod.

I've been googling Gulf/ads/stop-motion/animation but not having much luck.

Can anyone help? Leave your message for Marc here: Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Excellent amateur stop motion video Link
• 1952 stop-motion short film for the National Film Board of Canada Link
• Early 70s Levi stop-motion commercial Link
• French university students have some fun with inexpensive stop motion. Link
• Stop-motion captures of body language on public transit Link
• Vintage Eastern European stop-motion animation clips Link

Modern Mechanix blog has just reprinted a 50-page National Geographic article called "The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney" from August, 1963. They've got high-rez scans and the full, transcribed text -- in