Pomodoro pasta wants your kids to know that "Mars is the closest planet to the sun, but it's not the hottest -- Venus is!" Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Bad science fact on a Happy Meal bag

In this underground video, "head characters" from Disneyland re-create Captain Eo, a 3D movie starring Michael Jackson, but with Eeyore in the starring role -- it's Captain Eeyore! Link (via The Disney Blog)

Reminder: I'm launching my new short story collection Overclocked this Thursday, Feb 1 at Toronto's Bakka Books (697 Queen Street West, Toronto, ONT M6J 1E6, ph 416 963 9993.). If you want a custom-inscribed copy mailed to you place your orders before Thursday! Link

The anti-DRM activists at Defective by Design staged an anti-Vista demonstration today in NYC, joined be BadVista.org activists, distributing free software to passers-by:

DefectiveByDesign members turned out today in New York City (despite the bitter cold!) to spread the message that Vista's DRM is a danger to computer users. We were joined by folks from the BadVista.org campaign who distributed free software to the guests lining up to attend the launch event.

Link

See also:
Tagging DRM stuff on Amazon with DefectiveByDesign
Why Apple is to blame for iTunes DRM
Anti-DRM demonstrators in hazmat suits storm Bill Gates keynote
200 ways to fight DRM this Tuesday
Newsweek on the anti-DRM movement
Friday: call RIAA execs and tell them "No DRM!"
Protest DRM in NYC this Saturday!

Alex Ionesco, a security researcher in Montreal, has released technical details of a hack he's developed for Windows Vista. The hack lets him subvert Windows' anti-copying technology and get force a full-resolution, unencrypted high-def video stream. He has not released source code, however, because he claims to be nervous of violating US law -- I think that this is misplaced. Canada hasn't passed Bill C-60 yet (and with any luck, it never will), so he should be all right in Canada. However, the lesson of Jon Lech Johansen is instructive -- as a teenager in Norway, he released the code for DeCSS, which breaks DVD DRM, and gave up the next five years of his life to court battles against the MPAA in Norway, even though Norway didn't have a DRM law. He prevailed, but he never got those years back.

As described, Ionesco's hack is quite ingenious, and it subverts the system in a way that bypasses its fail-safes. Ionesco leads technically sophisticated Free Software projects, and is a credible source of such a break.

Vista launched this week, and it's already broken. As with previous multi-year DRM development efforts, this one disintegrated like wet kleenex on contact with the general public. Now that Vista, HDCP, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are all broken, it seems like the millions of dollars and thousands of work-hours sunk into these systems was mis-spent. The only benefit that these anti-copying systems confer to the companies that developed them is the right to sue competitors -- and that benefit could have been had by shellacking a one-atom-thick layer of token DRM onto their systems, just enough to be able to invoke the DMCA. Everything else was just gold-plating, wasted money.

The great thing about the code I’ve written is that it does NOT use test signing mode and it does NOT load an unsigned driver into the system. Therefore, to any A/V application running, the system seems totally safe — when in fact, it’s not. Now, because I’m still booting with a special flag, it’s possible for Microsoft to patch the PMP and have it report that this flag is set, thereby disabling premium content. However, because I already have kernel-mode code running at this point, I can disable this flag in memory, and PMP will never know that it was enabled. Again, Microsoft could fight this by caching the value, or obfuscating it somewhere inside PMP’s kernel-mode code, but as long as it’s in kernel-mode, and I’ve got code in kernel-mode, I can patch it.

To continue this game, Microsoft could then use Patchguard on the obfuscated value…but that would only mean that I can simply disable Patchguard using the numerous methods that Skywing documented in his latest paper.

Link (via /.)

See also:
Report: HD-DVD copy protection defeated
Felten and Halderman on high-def DRM crack
HD-DVD/Blu-Ray cracker muslix64 interviewed

The Starbucks in London are filthier than their US counterparts, because Americans are conditioned to tidy up for themselves, even when they're paying $5 for a cup of coffee. The conclusion comes from Bryant Simon, who is writing a book about his experiences visiting every Starbucks he can find:

India, Russia, Brazil and Egypt are to be targeted this year. There are 530 branches in the UK and, with profits soaring, the company has said it aims to add 50 per year, about half of them in the south east of England. Anyone can now calculate their 'Starbucks density' using a locator on the company website: a person in Regent Street in London is within five miles of 166 branches.

It is proof the formula works even in a nation of tea drinkers, but Simon feels one element was lost in the move across the Atlantic: 'Starbucks is dirtier in Britain. Americans have been taught to do part of the labour, and they clean up after themselves. In the US, part of Starbucks' appeal is its cleanness.'

Link (via Starbucks Gossip)

Russell sez, "This month, Disney filed sweeping trademark applications with the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand. They cover works that Disney has adapted - Snow White, Peter Pan, Pinocchio etc - but *did not create*. If the 'word marks' were to be granted they would give Disney exclusive use of those works in this territory."

Disney's application to IPONZ for a trade mark on Alice in Wonderland. The specification of goods and services for which trade mark protection is sought is very lengthy: from furniture to food, clothing to CDs.

You may be astonished at the breadth of the application being lodged by a company that has done no more, in this case, than produce adaptations of classic works of children's literature. Ditto for Snow White, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and a list of characters from those works.

This is not trivial. It would be understandable for Disney to try and protect its interpretations of existing characters, but its application for so-called "word marks" implies something much more than that: it implies exclusive rights to use all those characters. There have been at least 14 English-language films based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (which itself drew on classical sources), and many more in other languages. If Disney was to obtain such trade marks (which cover "motion picture films"), would it then become impossible to make - or at least market - another one without Disney's permission? Would it be a copyright lockout via the back door?

Link (Thanks, Russell!)

Update: Tony sez, "a "wordmark" does not protect the word itself, but the word written in a specific way (font, color, small/capital letters, etc.)."

Update 2: Mark sez, "a wordmark does indeed protect the word in the abstract, in any script or color. A fancy logo that is only protected in its distinctive form is usually referred to as a 'combined mark' (combining word and figurative elements). Whether Disney will prevail in getting a wordmark "Alice in Wonderland" for 'motion pictures' is another question - as the post points out, the application has not been granted yet. Arguably, Alice in Wonderland is descriptive for films - it describes the type of story told, not the source (producer) of the film."

This Little Piggy And Me is a Cincinnati, Ohio home for wayward guinea pigs. Karen and Steve Oehlerts have rescued hundreds of the animals and shipped them to new homes around the country. Right now, about 30 live at their house, including eight that are full-time family members. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

"They're hilarious. They are so comical. They talk to you. They've got so many different vocalizations," (Karen Oehlers) said. "They're like the stuffed animal you had as a child, except come to life."

Those who are approved to adopt a guinea pig have to sign a contract stating that they won't feed it to another animal or eat it themselves.

"Nobody's gonna eat my pigs," Oehlerts said.

Link (Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)

Previously on BB:
• Attack of the Giant Guinea Pig! Link
• The Sims' designer Will Wright's diseased guinea pigs Link

The website dedicated to the great illustrator Jim Flora has undergone a significant overhaul to commemorate the publication of The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora, which is even better than than the previous book of his work, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora. (Shown here: cover of Computer Design magazine, 1970)

Link (Many more Flora links here)

In 1987, a TV pirate sporting a Max Headroom mask broke into the broadcast of a Dr. Who episode on WTTW Chicago. I wish this kind of thing happened more often!
Link to YouTube video, Link to background in this 1987 issue of Tolmes News Service (Thanks, Coop!)

Update: Sean Ness points to a Damn Interesting post that details the Max Headroom TV pirate's earlier exploit that same day when he interrupted a WGN-TV News broadcast. Link

Update: BB reader Sean Russel points to the vintage 1987 CBS news report on the pranks. Link

On Sunday, Yippie co-founder Paul Krassner wrote an article for the LA Times about his contribution to a documentary about the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention riots, called Chicago 10.

Paul sent me the the unedited version of an article, which was trimmed down by the LA Times, purely because of space limitations. Here it is in its entirety.

The Parts Left Out of Chicago 10

by Paul Krassner

In 1967, Abbie Hoffman, his wife Anita and I took a work-vacation in Florida, renting a little house on stilts in Ramrod Key. We had planned to see The Professionals. “That’s my favorite movie,” Abbie said. “Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin develop this tight bond while they’re both fighting in the Mexican revolution, then they drift apart.” But it was playing too far away, and a hurricane was brewing, so instead we saw the Dino Di Laurentiis version of The Bible. Driving home in the rain and wind, we debated the implications of Abraham being prepared to slay his son because God told him to. I dismissed this as blind obedience. Abbie praised it as revolutionary trust.

Industrial designer Jan Dijkstra made this wire kitchen as his graduation project from the Design Academy Eindhoven.
Link (via MAKE: Blog)

Mike says: "A real-time map plotting radio distress signals from the National Association of Radio-Distress Signaling and Info-communications." When you load the map, click an icon to find out what the problem is.

A mother and daughter, who recently died in mysterious circumstances in Lagos, have been suspected to have died of the deadly bird flu disease, thus, giving rise to speculations of a possible human-to-human infection of the disease in the country. The two were said to have died within two weeks after they allegedly ate a chicken the mother bought for the family during the Christmas and New Year celebrations at a popular chicken market along Ikorodu Road, Lagos.

Link

Ice fell from the sky in Tampa, Florida, crushing the roof of a man's Ford Mustang. A neighbor says he heard a "whistling noise" before the ice hit the car. Link has a video of the results. Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Ice ball blows hole through roof Previously on Boing Boing:
• 200-lb ice chunk falls on Oakland
• More weird ice falls on California

In Los Angeles, a British Airways pilot found a body inside the wheel well of a jet bound for London. It's thought that he was a South African who attempted to hitch a free ride on the jet.

Wheel well stowaways usually die from cold, lack of oxygen, or getting crushed in the landing gear, but once in a while one of them survives.

In 2000, a man survived a flight from Papeete, French Polynesia, to Los Angeles. His core body temperature when he was found at LAX was 79 degrees, well below what is normally fatal. A Cuban man made it alive to Montreal in the wheel well of a plane in 2002. And in 1999, an 18-year-old Senegalese man survived a five-hour flight to France, but died after he stowed away on another flight later that year.

More typical are cases like Sunday's discovery of the body at LAX. Authorities are uncertain, however, of the survival rate of wheel-well stowaways, because bodies that fall out of flying aircraft may not be recovered. Stowaways unable to secure themselves can fall more than 1,000 feet when landing gear doors open. Experts believe that many of those who fall out are already dead or unconscious.

Link

After almost nearly being eradicated in the 1950s, bloodsucking bedbugs are on the rise.

New York City apartment dwellers lodged 4,638 bedbug complaints in fiscal 2006, up from none three years earlier. Complaints ballooned 67% in the first half of this year from their pace a year earlier.

"There's a new plague," said Dini Miller, an entomologist at Virginia Tech University.

Bedbugs were virtually eradicated from the U.S. in the 1940s and 1950s, Miller said. The cause of their resurgence is not officially known, though theories include increased international travel in which the bugs hitch a ride on clothing or in luggage and decreased use of pesticides such as DDT.

Bedbugs are reddish-brown blood-sucking insects about a quarter of an inch long with a flat, oval shape. Drawn by body heat, they attack at night and inject an anesthetic that makes them virtually undetectable during their mealtime.

Link

Update:

Utah Rescuers Plaugued by Bedbugs, a National Problem (Thanks, Dustin!)

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Bedbugs on the rise

Carmela Bousada, the 67-year-old woman who gave birth to twins in December, lied to the Los Angeles fertility clinic about her age. She said she was 55, the cut-off for woman who are allowed to receive fertility treatment.

Bousada, a Spaniard, sold her home in Spain to raise 30,000 pounds ($60,000) to pay for the treatment in the United States. She chose donor eggs from a "pretty, brown-haired 18-year-old" and sperm from a blond, blue-eyed Italian American.

"I picked them from photos in a catalog. It was a bit like studying an estate agent's brochure and choosing a house," the paper quoted her as saying.

First she went through hormone therapy, which allowed her to have periods for the first time in 18 years. She became pregnant on the first attempt.

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Wristwatch fertility monitor
• Rod Stewart's DIY fertility clinic

Amid sez, "We've posted a complete copy of the 1943 booklet THE ROPES AT DISNEY, which was given to new employees at the Disney Studio. The booklet covers mundane and fascinating aspects of the studio like the male-only Penthouse club, 'off-the-lot passes,' personal phone calls and studio visitors. Lots of great illustrations as well."

Nothing like a jolly little illo of a demon stabbing you with a pitchfork to illustrate the "Discharge" section.

If you find it necessary to leave the lot for any reason during working hours, be sure to get a rain-check in the form of an "OFF THE LOT" pass. Then don't forget to punch out through the Time Office. If you are leaving on Company business, your pass may be signed by your Department Head or Unit Manager. In all other cases your pass must be signed by Hal Adelquest.

Remember, you will be paid for time spent off the lot ONLY if this period is covered by an "OFF THE LOT" pass.

Link (Thanks, Amid!)

Update: Humuhumu sez, "I think perhaps, though, that it might be worth pointing out that this brochure was produced during the years that the Disney Studios were essentially under occupation by the U.S. Government, as they aided in the war effort. Aninmation history fans already know how much the on-site military operation changed those years at Disney, but the wider general Boing Boing audience may not know that. It's what makes this brochure particularly fascinating (and partially explains some of the more draconian aspects)."

MAKE: and Craft: magazines just announced the call for makers to participate in the Bay Area Maker Faire 2007 this coming May. Last year, 20,000 people came together to celebrate DIY culture in all its manifestations, from homebrew robotics and fashion hackers to model rocketry and fire art. (Maker Faire 2006 photos at top left and bottom Scott Beale. Photo at top right by James Duncan Davidson.)


From the call for makers:

Organized by the staff of Make and Craft magazines, Maker Faire is a newfangled fair that brings together science, art, craft and engineering in a fun, energized, and exciting public forum. The aim is to inspire people of all ages to roll up their sleeves and become makers. This family-friendly event showcases the amazing work of all kinds of makers--anyone who is embracing DIY and wants to share their accomplishments with an appreciative audience. Last year, we had 20,000 people at Maker Faire.

Maker Faire Bay Area will take place May 19-20, 2007 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. We are also adding Maker Faire Austin for October 20-21, 2007 at the Travis County Fairgrounds. This call is primarily for Maker Faire Bay Area but you can indicate if you are interested in participating in Maker Faire Austin.

We encourage you to join the fun and propose a maker exhibit, performance or workshop. You can submit a proposal through the web using the link described below or you can come show us your work at a Maker Faire "audition" on Saturday, February 24 at TechShop in Menlo Park, CA.

We invite proposals for Maker workbench exhibits, workshops, presentations and performances for the Maker Faire. We are interested in proposals from individuals as well as from groups such as hobbyist clubs and schools.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Maker Faire photos Link
• Mr. Jalopy's experience at Maker Faire Link
• Graffiti Research Lab's video of Maker Faire Link

As handheld radiation detectors become more common in the name of "homeland security" at places like airports, border crossings, and large events like sports games, radiation therapy patients are setting off alarms in public places. Depending on the kind of therapy, a patient may be "hot" for up to three months. For example, six people were questioned at the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center last year after the medical radioisotopes in their bodies triggered false alarms, something "that happens all the time," according to New York's deputy comissioner for counterrrorism. From Reuters:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission first recommended in 2003 that doctors warn patients they may set off alarms after being injected or implanted with radioisotopes. That came after police stopped a bus that set off a radiation detector in a New York City tunnel. They found one of the passengers had recently undergone thyroid treatment with radioiodine.

In August, the British Medical Journal described the case of a very embarrassed 46-year-old Briton who set off the sensors at Orlando airport in Florida six weeks after having radioiodine treatment for a thyroid condition.

He was detained, strip-searched and sniffed by police dogs before eventually being released, the journal said in its "Lesson of the Week" section...

There were nearly 20 million nuclear medical procedures performed in the United States in 2005, up 15 percent from four years earlier, so the number of people who could potentially be mistaken for terrorists is enormous.

"We hope that people who have radiation detectors are aware of the problem ... and that they treat people with respect," (said Henry Royal, past president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine).

Link

Mozart, an iguana at the Aquatopia in Antwerp, Beligum, had his penis amputated. Apparently, he was suffering from a week-long erection that interfered with his mobility. From Metro News:

Remedies from cold water to introducing female iguanas into his enclosure all failed and it was decided that an operation was the only solution to the problem...

A spokesman at the zoo, speaking with the casual, blasé manner of someone who hasn't just had their penis cut off, said: 'Male iguanas - including Mozart - have two penises, so this is unlikely to be a big problem for him.'

Link (Thanks, Jennifer Lum!)

Previously on BB:
• Delightful gallery of reptile freaks Link
• Girl hypnotizes and dresses up lizards Link
• Crawly critter wallpaper Link

This week on NPR "Day to Day," a five-part series of reports I brought back from Central America: "Guatemala: Unearthing the Future."

One European visitor in the 1800s called this country "Land of the Eternal Spring," and its volcanoes, ancient ruins, and rich Mayan culture make the place feel mythic even today. But suffering also defines Guatemala, and scars from a decades-long civil war have yet to heal. The war that claimed more than 200,000 lives ended ten years ago, but its lingering effects have left some 80% of the population in poverty. In this series, you'll hear stories from people who are trying to fight that, applying innovative, home-grown technologies to solve old problems.

The first of these reports focuses on a group called the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG), a nonprofit comprised of technologists, anthropologists, and archaeologists who unearth mass graves from political massacres. They work to identify the dead and return the remains to their families for dignified reburial. The process begins with the hard work of the exhumation itself, but they also use DNA forensics and software they develop themselves, so they can identify a greater portion of the remains, and preserve evidence that could be used in criminal trials. FAFG staff routinely deal with death threats from those who do not support their work.

- - - - - - - - - -

Link to "A Database for the Dead," with streaming audio (Real/Win).

MP3 Link for today's segment.

Link to narrated slideshow.

Also today, NPR is launching a "Xeni Tech" podcast where these reports (and everything else I file for the network) will be available in DRM-free MP3: Link.

- - - - - - - - - -

Images (2007/Xeni Jardin): Above, FAFG anthropologist Raquel Doradea logs information about another incident -- this information will be entered into their database, along with testimony from survivors. Below, her colleague Patricia Ixcoy works on remains from a 1982 massacre that killed 26 K'iche Maya people in Kanakil, a rural pueblo in the department (think:state) of El Quiché. The bones look charred because the victims were first shot, then set on fire.

See also some recent posts on a "reporter's notebook" blog from the Guatemala trip:

Accused mass murderer Montt to run for congress

E. Howard Hunt and the CIA

American aid worker killed in traffic accident

Political refugees in US face deportation